A theological discovery/exploration in regards to the question of evil, God's sovereignty, and the existence and nature of the spiritual powers and principalities and spiritual warfare.

The author is upfront regarding the frame of reference: whether or not all evil can be truly attributed to God's mysterious will as would be demanded by what he deems the "classical-philosophical" view of God as manifest in Augustine. He then proposes the spiritual warfare prism, as if God is constantly at odds with forces of evil and darkness and they are the ones truly responsible for the evil which takes place. He then explores both Old and New Testament passages suggesting a spiritual warfare framework and the various possibilities for spiritual forces and the like. He concludes with an explanation of how Christians could envision themselves as part of that spiritual conflict in light of some New Testament passages.

The author is quite aware of the controversial nature of much of what he has to say. He communicates well in a "discovery/journey" type context, and is willing to offer suggestions and possibilities regarding which he himself is not convinced are true. He does well at discomfiting the modern Western post-Enlightenment reader and Bible student by taking very seriously a lot of passages and ideas which are often de-emphasized or "mythologized" in some way, such as an angel being hindered by the prince of the kingdom of Persia in Daniel 10, or the psalmic odes regarding YHWH's defeat of primordial beings as reflecting actual warfare.

The author has written elsewhere regarding his open theism views; perhaps he is willing to entirely dispense with the "classical-philosophical" view of God a la Augustine, but he might well be rejecting more than he ought. The question of Hellenistic influence on good theology is quite the knotty one, and neither extreme is likely accurate in its assessments. The author also gives great weight to the consistency of narratives throughout cultures around the world; while this kind of apologetic is often used in terms of, say, the Flood, and it might well be good evidence for his claims, we do need to keep in mind the Pauline denunciation of idolatry in Romans 1:18-32 and the possibility that these stories do not represent a valid substratum of divine conflict with primordial forces of chaos.

The premise that the creation is actually much older than the Genesis 1 account and featured all sorts of primordial contests between YHWH and various beings and forces as seen in various psalms, consummated in the final defeat of the forces of chaos, allowing YHWH to "re-create" all things as good in Genesis 1, suggested by the author yet without affirmation, is at least intriguing, even if on the merits it probably cannot be fully sustained based only on what has been revealed in Scripture.

Nevertheless, while there are many questionable statements and certain arguable propositions, it's hard to resist the author's general conclusion. We have de-emphasized the spiritual warfare element of things and do not see evil as existing in any kind of systematic way. Demonology and such things are often seen as the arena of quacks and holy rollers; our faith has been very much "rationalized" thanks to the Enlightenment, and we're all quite convinced that those matters of superstition of the past have no basis in reality, but that's certainly not the picture presented in Scripture, and perhaps our theology, our faith, and our ability to understand the creation and God's purposes within it have suffered accordingly.

A work worth reading and with which to grapple and contend, if nothing else. ( )

I am awash in a sea of Calvinists! Although not entirely sold on Boyd's theology, this work resonates with me. Of course I am scared to align myself too closely to Boyd as I don't want to end up roasted on a spit in Geneva! ( )

Karen