Last week my friend The Hedonese posted a piece on open theism and its implications for prayer. (Coincidentally, I also got a comment from an old friend from college, Phillip, on my humour-piece on "If God knew that Adam & Eve were going to sin, why didn't He stop them?")

I thought Hedonese gave a reasonably fair presentation of the open view. But given the complex exegetical, philosophical and theological arguments involved, it's awkward for him to assert that, "open theism has more than its fair share of difficulties that put the vitality of Christian life at grave risk". If the 'vitality' of church and Christians is our priority, then debating about whether the future exists to be known exhaustively should be one of the last things on the agenda (if at all on it). Let's not delude ourselves in thinking that a conclusion on this issue is a huge step in 'revitalising' the Christian life.

Nevertheless, open theism has been one of the most remarkable theological adventures for me. It's produced many theological and exegetical perspectives and if nothing else I'm grateful for the amount of thinking provoked. I'm looking at new things now but the openness 'experience' will always be with me (and I did write extensively on the topic some years back. Here is an introduction I wrote to open theim plus some FAQs'.).

And check out this quote from Clark Pinnock. I think he sums up very well who God is according to the open view :

"God is so transcendant that he creates room for others to exist and maintains a relationship with them...God is so powerful as to be able to stoop down and humble Himself...God is so stable and secure as to be able to risk suffering and change" 

(The Openness of God, "Systematic Theology", Pinnock, p.105)