God According to Liberal Theology<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"God According to Liberal Theology This continues my\/our discussion of my book Against Liberal Theology: Putting the Brakes on Progressive Christianity.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rogereolson\/2025\/02\/god-according-to-liberal-theology\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"God According to Liberal Theology\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"God According to Liberal Theology This continues my\/our discussion of my book Against Liberal Theology: Putting the Brakes on Progressive Christianity.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rogereolson\/2025\/02\/god-according-to-liberal-theology\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Roger E. Olson\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-02-19T17:11:44+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/21\/2025\/01\/51F8392F-26D9-4071-8B91-028B4269D3F3.jpeg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"210\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"210\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Roger E. Olson\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Roger E. Olson\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rogereolson\/2025\/02\/god-according-to-liberal-theology\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rogereolson\/2025\/02\/god-according-to-liberal-theology\/\",\"name\":\"God According to Liberal Theology\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rogereolson\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2025-02-19T17:11:44+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-02-19T17:11:44+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rogereolson\/#\/schema\/person\/84d70594b349147e27843d59d5db8cca\"},\"description\":\"God According to Liberal Theology This continues my\/our discussion of my book Against Liberal Theology: Putting the Brakes on Progressive Christianity.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rogereolson\/2025\/02\/god-according-to-liberal-theology\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rogereolson\/2025\/02\/god-according-to-liberal-theology\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rogereolson\/2025\/02\/god-according-to-liberal-theology\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rogereolson\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"God According to Liberal Theology\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rogereolson\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rogereolson\/\",\"name\":\"Roger E. Olson\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rogereolson\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rogereolson\/#\/schema\/person\/84d70594b349147e27843d59d5db8cca\",\"name\":\"Roger E. Olson\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rogereolson\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/6fe30530b483e239a4ca15ef464a5902?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/6fe30530b483e239a4ca15ef464a5902?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Roger E. Olson\"},\"description\":\"Roger E. Olson is Emeritus Professor of Christian Theology at Baylor University where he held the Foy Valentine Chair in Christian Ethics and taught Christian Theology from 1999 to 2021. He is the author of over twenty book including The Story of Christian Theology and The Journey of Modern Theology (both published by InterVarsity Press).\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rogereolson\/author\/rogereolson\/\"}]}<\/script>\n","yoast_head_json":{"title":"God According to Liberal Theology","description":"God According to Liberal Theology This continues my\/our discussion of my book Against Liberal Theology: Putting the Brakes on Progressive Christianity.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rogereolson\/2025\/02\/god-according-to-liberal-theology\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"God According to Liberal Theology","og_description":"God According to Liberal Theology This continues my\/our discussion of my book Against Liberal Theology: Putting the Brakes on Progressive Christianity.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rogereolson\/2025\/02\/god-according-to-liberal-theology\/","og_site_name":"Roger E. Olson","article_published_time":"2025-02-19T17:11:44+00:00","og_image":[{"width":210,"height":210,"url":"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/21\/2025\/01\/51F8392F-26D9-4071-8B91-028B4269D3F3.jpeg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Roger E. Olson","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Roger E. Olson","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rogereolson\/2025\/02\/god-according-to-liberal-theology\/","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rogereolson\/2025\/02\/god-according-to-liberal-theology\/","name":"God According to Liberal Theology","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rogereolson\/#website"},"datePublished":"2025-02-19T17:11:44+00:00","dateModified":"2025-02-19T17:11:44+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rogereolson\/#\/schema\/person\/84d70594b349147e27843d59d5db8cca"},"description":"God According to Liberal Theology This continues my\/our discussion of my book Against Liberal Theology: Putting the Brakes on Progressive Christianity.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rogereolson\/2025\/02\/god-according-to-liberal-theology\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rogereolson\/2025\/02\/god-according-to-liberal-theology\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rogereolson\/2025\/02\/god-according-to-liberal-theology\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rogereolson\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"God According to Liberal Theology"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rogereolson\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rogereolson\/","name":"Roger E. Olson","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rogereolson\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rogereolson\/#\/schema\/person\/84d70594b349147e27843d59d5db8cca","name":"Roger E. Olson","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rogereolson\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/6fe30530b483e239a4ca15ef464a5902?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/6fe30530b483e239a4ca15ef464a5902?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Roger E. Olson"},"description":"Roger E. Olson is Emeritus Professor of Christian Theology at Baylor University where he held the Foy Valentine Chair in Christian Ethics and taught Christian Theology from 1999 to 2021. He is the author of over twenty book including The Story of Christian Theology and The Journey of Modern Theology (both published by InterVarsity Press).","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rogereolson\/author\/rogereolson\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rogereolson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12011","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rogereolson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rogereolson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rogereolson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/58"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rogereolson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12011"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rogereolson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12011\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rogereolson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11870"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rogereolson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12011"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rogereolson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12011"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rogereolson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12011"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}

{"id":12011,"date":"2025-02-19T12:11:44","date_gmt":"2025-02-19T17:11:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rogereolson\/?p=12011"},"modified":"2025-02-19T12:11:44","modified_gmt":"2025-02-19T17:11:44","slug":"god-according-to-liberal-theology","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rogereolson\/2025\/02\/god-according-to-liberal-theology\/","title":{"rendered":"God According to Liberal Theology"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

God According to Liberal Theology<\/p>\n

$\"\"$ <\/a><\/p>\n

This continues my\/our discussion of my book Against Liberal Theology: Putting the Brakes on Progressive Christianity. Here I take up Chapter 4: God According to Liberal Theology.<\/p>\n

If you have read the chapter you may comment. If not, only ask a question.<\/p>\n

The thesis of the chapter is: \u201cThe majority of liberal Christian thinkers do not believe in supernatural divine interventions in nature or history. However, the revisions go deeper. Most modern liberal Christian thinkers oppose the idea of a transcendent, sovereign, personal deity like the one classical, orthodox Christianity teaches and worships.\u201d (75) I substantiate the thesis with many quotations by leading American liberal theologians.<\/p>\n

The key to understanding liberal theology\u2019s god is its emphasis on divine immanence\u2014the \u201cwithin-ness\u201d of God in all things. God\u2019s transcendence is neglected by liberal theologians. \u201cPanentheism\u201d is a concept of God that dominates in liberal theology. It means that God and the world (cosmos, universe) are eternally interdependent. The world exists within God and God exists within the world.<\/p>\n

The problem with panentheism is that it undermines grace. If God and the world exists interdependently, then creation and redemption are not of grace but of necessity\u2014for God\u2019s own sake. And, in fact, creation is only God\u2019s struggle to bring about unity and harmony within the world. Most liberal theologians do not espouse creation out of nothing.<\/p>\n

Throughout the chapter I say that the problems with liberal theology\u2019s doctrine of God are not so much what liberal theologians affirm as what they deny. They deny God\u2019s \u201cprior actuality\u201d\u2014that God precedes the universe ontologically.<\/p>\n

Underlying liberal theology\u2019s doctrine of God and the world is liberal theology\u2019s embrace of \u201ctheistic naturalism,\u201d the idea that the world operates according to iron-clad natural laws with no \u201croom\u201d for exceptions such as miracles. Except that liberal theologians acknowledge the reality of \u201cspirit\u201d not exhausted by \u201cnature.\u201d They are not materialists. But does this work? The reason they hold to naturalism is its embrace by modern science. But doesn\u2019t most of modern science affirm materialism or at least deny the reality of spirit, that is \u201cspirit\u201d that can transform by means other than scientifically describable ones?<\/p>\n

Can Christianity be authentic without miracles such as the resurrection? I think not. Can Christianity be authentic without a personal God who transcends nature and is more than a spiritual depth dimension of nature? I think not.<\/p>\n

A note about \u201cpanentheism:\u201d Recently some non-liberal theologians have been embracing the term without embracing its original meaning. That confuses things. I prefer to stick to the original meaning of the word according to German theologian Krause who, in the early 19th century, defined it as Hegel\u2019s idea of God as \u201cAbsolute Spirit\u201d who depends on a world for self-actualizes ion.<\/p>\n

*Note: If you choose to comment, state whether you read the chapter. If you did not read it, feel free to ask a question. In either case, keep it relatively brief (no more than 100 words), on topic, addressed to me, civil and respectful (not hostile or argumentative), and devoid of pictures or links.*<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"