BEN: On p. 123 you say that sin does not thwart the will of God. I think this is a mistake. Surely any time evil or sin happens it goes against the will of God…
Posts By SEA
A Roundup of Obituaries for Distinguished Wesleyan-Arminian Theologian Thomas Oden
Christianity Today’s obituary for Thomas Oden: “Died: Thomas Oden, Methodist Theologian Who Found Classical Christianity.” Mark Tooley’s Gospel Coalition obituary: “Thomas Oden (1931–2016), Theologian and Friend.” Michael Bird’s notice: “The Passing of Thomas Oden (1931-2016).” The…
Ben Witherington and Roger Olson, “Roger Olson’s Arminian Theology – Part 10”
BEN: How would you distinguish the Calvinist notion of God’s providence from the Arminian one? It is interesting to me that if one reads Wesley’s Journal, one finds the phrase ‘a singular providence of God’…
Ben Witherington and Roger Olson, “Roger Olson’s Arminian Theology – Part 9”
BEN: The issue of how to interpret the phrase ‘only begotten of the Father’ has bedeviled Christological debates forever it seems. Is this Scriptural notion the basis of Arminius and various his successors arguing that…
Ben Witherington and Roger Olson, “Roger Olson’s Arminian Theology – Part 8”
BEN: On p. 89 you talk about the idea of nominalistic voluntarism, which is to say the idea that God is free to do anything he chooses to do, without being constrained or limited by…
Ben Witherington and Roger Olson, “Roger Olson’s Arminian Theology – Part 7”
BEN: I take it as given that you have established both that there are some strong incompatibilities between Calvinism and Arminianism, but at the same time there are some strong agreements between the two theological…
Ben Witherington and Roger Olson, “Roger Olson’s Arminian Theology – Part 6”
BEN: At one point you say (p. 70) “Scripture alone cannot prove one side right and other side wrong”. I think I must disagree. Scripture is consistent on these issues precisely because it reflects the…
Ben Witherington and Roger Olson, “Roger Olson’s Arminian Theology – Part 5”
BEN: One of the major emphases in Stanglin and McCall’s fine book on Jacob Arminius is that Arminius did not agree with Beza et al. on the issue of monergism, which is to say that…
Ben Witherington and Roger Olson, “Roger Olson’s Arminian Theology – Part 4”
BEN: On p. 55, you talk about Wesley’s treatise on divine sovereignty compared to Calvin’s view. Would you say that while Wesley agrees with Calvin that God is sovereign, absolutely so, and could do what…
Ben Witherington and Roger Olson, “Roger Olson’s Arminian Theology – Part 3”
BEN: On p. 51 you quote the Westminister Confession about ‘the chief end of humans being to glorify God and enjoy him forever’. You go on to quote Arminius to that effect. But what that…
Rich Davis, “What’s Not Wrong with Jerry Walls’ Argument Against Calvinism”
In a guest post (here) on James Anderson’s blog Analogical Thoughts, Daniel Johnson, Associate Professor of Philosophy and co-editor of Calvinism and the Problem of Evil, claims that a invalid argument lies at the heart…
Ben Witherington and Roger Olson, “Roger Olson’s Arminian Theology – Part 2”
BEN: Roger you seem to spend a good deal of effort trying to say that Arminian theology could rightly be called a form of Reformed theology, though one distinct from high Calvinism at various points.…
Hank Hanegraaff, “How Could Pharaoh Be Morally Responsible if God Hardened His Heart?”
Please click on the link to view Hank Hanegraaff, “How Could Pharaoh Be Morally Responsible if God Hardened His Heart?”.
Joe Dongell and Jerry Walls Dismantle the Famous Churchill Analogy Used by Some Calvinists
Arminian scholars Joe Dongell and Jerry Walls respond to Calvinist scholar Bruce Ware’s use of an analogy involving Winston Churchill at a debate between Dongell and Walls (Arminian side) vs. Ware and Thomas Schreiner (Calvinist side)…
Randy L. Maddox, “Theology of John and Charles Wesley”
Please click on the link to view Randy L. Maddox, “Theology of John and Charles Wesley,” in T&T Clark Companion to Methodism, 20–35. Edited by Charles Yrigoyen, Jr. New York: T&T Clark, 2010.
Ben Witherington, “Roger Olson’s Arminian Theology– Part One”
Roger Olson’s fine book entitled Arminian Theology. Myths and Realities (IVP, 2006, 266 pages) is a must read for those who don’t really know much about the differences and similarities between Arminian theology and Calvinist…
Jonathan Sheehan, “Teaching Calvin in California”
Please click on the link to view this opinion piece that appeared in The New York Times on 9/12/16 by a professor of history and a co-director of the Berkeley Center for the Study of…
Rich Davis, “Clary’s 10 Concerns”
In my “The ‘C’ in Calvinism?” (reproduced here), I set out three difficulties for Calvinistic choice. In his “Calvinism and Choice,” historical theologian Ian Clary lists ten points at which my thinking is in need…
The Bible Project Video on Job
The Bible Project is a tremendous resource for understanding the Bible that, in the Project’s own words, utilizes short-form, fully animated videos to make the biblical story accessible to everyone, everywhere. We create videos, podcasts, and…
Roger Olson, “Does God Love Everyone? Review of New Book about Calvinism and Arminianism”
Yesterday I was asked by bright, eager, young Christian student of theology to identify “the one major difference between Calvinism and Arminianism.” Without hesitation I identified it the way evangelical Arminian philosopher Jerry Walls does…
