Unveiling a God that sacrifices power for love

November 20, 2007

The traditional idea that God is not only everlasting but also unchanging has been challenged in a book by the University of New England's Professor Peter Forrest.

Peter Forrest (pictured here), who holds the Chair in Philosophy at UNE, spells out his argument that, while initially all-powerful and all-knowing, God's development means that it increasingly relinquishes power over that which it created.

The book, Developmental Theism: From Pure Will to Unbounded Love, is published by Oxford University Press.

For Professor Forrest, the Primordial God that existed before creation could not love anyone, nor could it be loved by anyone. However, with a series of acts, including the creation of autonomous agents and the Holy Trinity, God developed from pure will to an entity capable of loving and being loved. It is in this vein that Forrest develops his "kenotic theism" – i.e., with the creation of a natural order God's power of divine intervention became limited.

These explorations into speculative philosophy also provide the reader with real responses to the age-old philosophical question regarding the problem of evil: How can evil exist in a world with an all-powerful, all-knowing and loving God?

Forrest also argues that materialism, traditionally regarded as a hurdle for theist philosophies to overcome, need not exclude the idea of a deity; indeed, he claims the two are mutually supportive.

The book is a result of Professor Forrest's visit to Oxford University in 2004 to deliver the Wilde Lectures in Natural and Comparative Religion, which are presented by leading experts in the field from around the world.

Posted by Jim Scanlan at November 20, 2007 04:27 PM