The Case for Freewill Theism: A Philosophical Assessment

David Basinger

Feb 2010 · InterVarsity Press

About this ebook

Can God intervene in this world? If so, to what extent can he intervene? If God intervenes, can we initiate such intervention by prayer? And if God can intervene, why is evil so persistent? Taking up such practical and profound questions, David Basinger (a coauthor of the much-discussed book The Openness of God) offers a probing philosophical examination of freewill theism. This controversial view, put forward most prominently by Clark Pinnock, Richard Rice, John Sanders, William Hasker and Basinger, argues that the God of Christianity desires "responsive relationship" with his creatures. Freewill theism, or the "open view" of God, rejects process theology, but calls for a reassessment of such classical doctrines as God's immutability, impassibility and foreknowledge. In The Case for Freewill Theism Basinger continues the debate by focusing attention especially on divine omniscience, theodicy and petitionary prayer from the freewill perspective. His careful, precise and compelling argument contributes to a growing and important discussion among orthodox Christian philosophers and theologians.

About the author

David Basinger is professor of philosophy and ethics at Roberts Wesleyan College in Rochester, New York. He is the author of Divine Power in Process Theism (SUNY) and joint author of the books Reason and Religious Belief: An Introduction to the Philosophy of Religion (Oxford) and Religious Diversity: A Philosophical Assessment (Ashgate).