The Future of Openness? A Review of Creation Made Free

In 2007, I was exploring Greg Boyd's newly launched ministry website when I stumbled upon an upcoming conference he was scheduled to attend on the site's calendar page. The event was called the "Open Theology and Science" seminar and it was to take place in mere weeks just outside Boston (where I live) at Eastern Nazarene College. I was ecstatic! I immediately scoured the ENC website for more information. To my delight, the school's website housed a complete description of the event including a schedule of the public debates and lectures that were to be held, along with a complete list of the conference participants. The list read like an Open theology hall of fame! The dream team of the Open View would all be there: Pinnock, Polkinghorne, Sanders, Hasker, Basinger, Rice, Boyd… I could hardly believe my eyes.

I counted down the days like a kid waiting for Christmas and attended every second of every publicly held event with what Joshua Tom calls "nerdy glee." I met and spoke with many of the Openness scholars I'd admired for years at the point, and continue to admire to this day. For a theology geek like me, it was tantamount to meeting rock stars. My wife and friends teased me mercilessly about my giddiness.

While I primarily attended the conference for the theology, I couldn't help but marvel at the presentations given on Open theology's potential to propel forward a deeper, more meaningful dialog with the sciences. That Openness made sense of the Bible was enough for me to affirm the view, but its capacity to bridge the unnecessary cultural divide between biblical Christian faith and serious scientific research only magnified its value for me.

However, I was a bit confused by the presence of Process theists at the conference, and wondered if I had been mistaken in my conviction that Openness was quite distinct from Process. Having vigorously defended Openness from the accusation by classical theists that it is 'Process in disguise', I felt slightly betrayed. Were Open View proponents compromising their distinctiveness? At several points throughout the public events I was assured this was not the case by the Open theists with whom I spoke, but a lingering twinge of suspicion remained.

It was a great privilege to meet the conference organizers Karl Giberson and Thomas Jay Oord, and to witness the miracle of an evangelical denominational college that did not feel threatened by either dialog with science nor theological frameworks often maligned amidst groups like the ETS. I gained a great deal of respect for the Nazarenes as a results and retain it to this day.

Both the 2007 and 2008 Open Theology and Science seminars are what gave birth to this book and have sparked this important dialogue between the theological and scientific communities.

I encourage you to check out my review of this seminal work in this field at my independently-hosted blog (BeingTC.com): bit.ly/cmf-review