Thomas Jay Oord, The Uncontrolling Love of God: An Open and Relational Account of Providence
A theodicy grounded in God’s steadfast love
Summary
For all who are interested in really examining their position on providence, and especially their theodicy, the exercise of following this book’s arguments to their final destination will be beneficial. The book is clearly written and easy to understand. The author has obviously thought and prayed about all of this long and hard, and it is clear that the ideas have been tested many times against very able opposition. This surely accounts for the refreshing clarity of the presentation. There is no obfuscation or failure to directly confront hard issues. This is extremely important in a subject area that is typically full of fog, inconsistency, hedging, avoidance and handwaving when the crunch comes.
Thomas Jay Oord rejects neither mystery nor miracles. He does insist on seeking answers at points where many seem more or less content with mystery or paradox. In general, he challenges us to be very reluctant in playing the mystery card. To the believing scientist, and many others, this approach is comfortable and familiar. One may choose not to go as far as Oord goes, but many will appreciate that he is willing to go as far as he does. On the other hand, many followers of Christian theology will not be at all comfortable with where Oord ends up on his journey. Long-held positions and much tradition would suffer for many conservatives and post-conservatives to fully embrace Oord’s essential kenosis model and its utter dependence on God’s perfect love to locate the full source of God’s ultimate ability to bring matters to their full flowering in his creation, and his Kingdom.
In short, he pushes us to consider the possibility that God uses love, perfect love, alone to accomplish his ends. God’s love combined with our loving response to that love, in the power of the Holy Spirit, comprise the toolkit for the fulfillment of ongoing creation and new-creation – no coercion (total control) necessary or even possible. In the postscript, Oord offers a one-sentence summary of his key concept which he calls “essential kenosis”. “The distinguishing feature of essential kenosis is its claim that God cannot deny his own nature of self-giving love.” The book explores how this guiding conviction plays out for relational/open theologies when considering creation, good and evil, miracles and other central issues for twenty-first century post-conservative Christian thought. Oord calls this an adventure model of providence. Anyone up for a theological adventure will not be disappointed, but will almost certainly be challenged.