Thursday, June 03, 2004

Books Worth Reading

I've recently read, and re-read, a couple of books by Gregory Boyd: God at War and Satan and the Problem of Evil. While at times, it's easy to get bogged down in Boyd's philosophical discussions, the book is a refreshing--and fascinating--read.

Basically Boyd writes from an Arminian perspective, but does so with sensitivity to Calvinistic leanings. He argues against the Augustinian blue print world view in which God controls everything that occurs within our world. In such a model, then, our struggle is to determine the good that God is formulating through tragedy--even the most brutal expressions of it.

Against this Augustinian blue print model, Boyd proposes a Trinitarian warfar theodicy in which free will, at least in a finite sense, implies that beings, both human and angelic, have the capability to temporarily thwart the will of God. Boyd argues then, that the question of evil involves more than just humans and God, since our world is inhabited by a host of non-human beings, all of whom have free will. From this perspective, Boyd argues that expressions of evil are not necessarily the result of God bringing about some good. Contrarily, rebellious beings can bring about evil in our world simply because they have the freedom to do so. Not everything, then, according to Boyd, is in harmony with God's purposes. While God's sovereignty is established, it constantly is being challenged by opposed forces, i.e., Satan and his hosts. And, though God ultimately, and completely will triumph over evil (which is guaranteed by Jesus' victory on the cross and resurrection), we live in a virtual war zone in which defeated foes continually attempt to regain that which was lost.

The Christian life, then, is to be primarily viewed from a military perspective. God is at war; we are at war with him. It, therefore, is important for us to be faithful to our post. Boyd, I think, does a good job of fleshing out this perspective, making for a fascinating and provocative read. This is a perspective that the church needs to re-investigate, especially in our largely politically correct North American culture.

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