Divine Foreknowledge: Four Views [Paperback]

James K. Beilby (Editor), Paul R. Eddy (Editor), Gregory A. Boyd (Contributor), David Hunt (Contributor), William Lane Craig (Contributor), Paul Helm (Contributor)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 31, 2001

The question of the nature of God's foreknowledge and how that relates to human freedom has been pondered and debated by Christian theologians at least since the time of Augustine. And the issue will not go away. More recently, the terms of the debate have shifted, and the issue has taken on new urgency with the theological proposal known as the openness of God. This view maintains that God's knowledge, while perfect, is limited regarding the future inasmuch as the future is "open" and not settled. Divine Foreknowledge: Four Views provides a venue for well-known proponents of four distinct views of divine foreknowledge to present their cases: Gregory A. Boyd of Bethel College presents the open-theism view, David Hunt of Whittier College weighs in on the simple-foreknowledge view, William Lane Craig of Talbot School of Theology takes the middle-knowledge view, and Paul Helm of Regent College, Vancouver, presents the Augustinian-Calvinist view. All four respond to each of the other essayists, noting points of agreement and disagreement. Editors James K. Beilby and Paul R. Eddy introduce the contemporary debate and also offer a conclusion that helps you evaluate the relative strengths and weaknesses of each view. The result is a unique opportunity to grapple with the issues and arguments and frame your own understanding of this important debate.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The recent evangelical debate about divine foreknowledge has been compared to the inerrancy debate of the 1970s because of its heatedness; this collection attempts to offer several viewpoints on the basic controversies (i.e., what did God know, when did he know it and do human beings really have free will?). But in bringing together these four authors Gregory Boyd with the open view, David Hunt with the simple-foreknowledge view, William Lane Craig with the middle-foreknowledge view and Paul Helm defending the Augustinian-Calvinist view the collection illustrates another similarity with the inerrancy debate: a mind-numbing complexity of argument. The editors have sought "to make this book accessible to educated laypeople and college students who have had a first course in theology or philosophy." While Boyd's essay is very accessible, the others are filled with technical terms ("while it seems clear that intramundane causation is transitive") and a puzzling tendency to speak in algebraic variables ("If it is accidentally necessary before X is even born that X will do A, then X never has it in his power to do other than A..."). Needing over seven pages of glossary, this book is unlikely to find a wide audience, but it will still prove useful for those seminarians and clergy who wish to get several different perspectives on the debate.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

Product Details

• Paperback: 221 pages
• Publisher: IVP Academic (October 31, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0830826521
• ISBN-13: 978-0830826520
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 6 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #159,283 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

73 of 82 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Helpful Intro to Current Thinking on a Throny Problem, June 15, 2002

By 

Bob "bobsacamento" (United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Divine Foreknowledge: Four Views (Paperback)

First off, I think we owe a good deal of gratitude to Inter Varsity for their "Four Views" series of books. (Or maybe we owe it to Zondervan. I'm not sure whose came first.) The format of reasoned debate in print between representatives of current major views on a controversial topic is the best way I can think of for the interested layman to begin constructing his own views.

As for the book at hand, it presents a wide-ranging, though not exhaustive, spectrum of thought on how divine foreknowledge can be reconciled with human freedom. Gregory Boyd -- you've got to love him or hate him, it seems -- presents an "Open Theology" view, while Paul Helm takes the other extreme of pretty much traditional Calvinism. In the middle, David Hunt presents a simple foreknowledge view and William Lane Craig gives us the Molinist or "middle knowledge" perspective.

Boyd's explication of Open Theology is a clear and well-reasoned argument, starting from scripture. He answers most objections quite well, though I think he is on some shaky ground when he talks about specific prophecies such a how Jesus knew that Peter would deny him exactly three times. In any event, after reading his essay, I would think that most readers could conclude that Open Theology, thought perhaps incorrect, is not the evil heresy that it is often said to be. But, if you read many of the reviews on this page, you will see that quite a few people disagree with me here.

David Hunt gives a well-reasoned justification of the simple foreknowledge view that God simply knows what the future is going to be: He simply knows what it is that we will freely choose. After reading Hunt's essay, it seems to me that this view is the only real challenger to Boyd's open theism (or maybe vice versa).

William Lane Craig is due a great deal of credit for making Molinism accessible to the lay reader. Though I had to read his essay twice to understand it, it is the first essay I have ever read that made sense of Molinism for me at all. One weakness of Craig's argument is that he simply assumes the possibility of truth in what are known as "counterfactuals of freedom". A counterfactual of freedom would be something like "If it is Sunday, Sam will freely go to church." But he never answers the question of how Sam can go to church *freely* if his going to church is *determined* by the fact that it is Sunday. (Was that confusing? Take heart. If you understood anything I just typed, you are in a better position to understand Craig's essay than I was.) Craig's essay was also disappointing in its tone. He is by far the most belligerent of the four writers. He is informative, but he is not pleasant to read.

Paul Helm's essay from a Calvinist perspective was a bit of a disappointment. He spends alot of time arguing for why we need a compatiblist view of freedom, that is, a view in which God's foreordination and determination of our actions is completely consistent with our having the freedom to choose. But he never, as far as I can tell, bothers to answer the obvious question: Just how could this compatibilism even be possible? Whether this is a weakness in Calvinism or a weakness in Paul Helm's particular essay, I will leave to others to judge.

All in all, a good book to give a kick start to your thinking on this thorny problem. The writers, by and large, are excellent representatives of the most important views on this subject.

34 of 42 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Introduction to the Foreknowledge debate, May 3, 2003

By 

Kerry Colling "K" (New York ,United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Divine Foreknowledge: Four Views (Paperback)

Most of the reviews on this page miss the boat entirely. Rather than actually reviewing or recommending DF the reviewers are merely venting their anger because their particular view is challenged.

Pay them no mind. DF is an excellent book. Buy it and read all the views with as much of an open humble mind as you can. It's better than the alternative spoon feeding that is rampant in many circles of Evangelicalism today.

The glossary is a great idea more publishers should follow.

Keep em coming Eddy, Beilby, Gannsle ....etc.

15 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A Book Worth Looking Through, March 19, 2006

By 

J. WHITE (Austin, TX) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Divine Foreknowledge: Four Views (Paperback)

If you are looking for more of a philosophical look into the issue of God's foreknowledge at an acceptable reading level, then this is the book for you. I, however, was not. I found that Greg Boyd was the only author to present his view starting with the biblical witness and then move to the philosophical to supplement the biblical work. He was then chastised for his approach because he was not using an "objective" philosophical framework by which to defend the case of "open theism."

I found the articles by both David Hunt and William Lane Craig to be highly speculative and way too dependent upon philosophy to be helpful. BUT, I must say that the worst article was the presentation of the Augustinian view by Paul Helm. For someone who has written an entire book on the Providence of God, this article looked thrown together and showed a complete lack of passion.

If for no other reason, read the the "Open-Theist View" by Greg Boyd. Even if you don't agree with his position, it gives an excellent overview of the biblical data in favor of open-theism.

Fortunately, there is now a better book on the subject of foreknowledge and free will. It is called Perspectives on the Doctrine of God: Four Views (Perspectives)