Open theism …

WHILE JAMES K. A. Smith is more irenic than many Reformed theologians are in treating open theism (July 12), he echoes many of the misguided arguments presented by Calvinists throughout the past decade. He fails to grasp the inner logic of open theism, which has nothing to do with individual autonomy or capitalist consumerism.

Believers in open theism are Arminians; it is no wonder that Reformed thinkers have trouble with its emphasis on libertarian free will. But Arminian belief in free will has nothing to do with modern liberal individualism or autonomy; it is rooted in the classical tradition of the Greek church fathers and sustained by confidence in God's goodness. Furthermore, open theists and classical Arminians emphasize (like Arminius and Wesley) that free will is a gift of grace; it is not part of the natural equipment of fallen persons.

The point of Arminian and open-theist belief in free will is not to embrace consumer-driven multiplication of choices. It is to protect the goodness of God in the face of the horrors of history which are human and not divine. Open theists and Arminians generally ask those Christians who reject libertarian freedom how and in what sense God is not the author of sin and evil.

Finally, it is wrong to pit "true freedom" against free will. Arminians and open theists embrace both. Free will is not the highest freedom; it is only a part of the path to it. Without free will, freedom is impersonal destiny; with free will it is personal relationship, which necessarily involves responsible choices.

Roger E. Olson

George W. Truett Theological Seminary, Baylor University, Waco, Tex.

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