The Uncontrolling Love of God Quotes

“Essential kenosis agrees with Jacob Arminius when he says, “God is not freely good; that is, he is not good by the mode of liberty, but by that of natural necessity.” For “if God be freely good, he can be or can be made not good.” In fact, Arminius considered blasphemous the idea that God is freely good.”
― Thomas Jay Oord, The Uncontrolling Love of God: An Open and Relational Account of Providence

“Although no translation is perfect, the most helpful rendering of kenōsis may be “self-giving.”
― Thomas Jay Oord, The Uncontrolling Love of God: An Open and Relational Account of Providence

“If Jesus is the ultimate revelation of who God is and what humans are supposed to be in relationship to God,”
― Thomas Jay Oord, The Uncontrolling Love of God: An Open and Relational Account of Providence

“why doesn’t a loving and powerful God prevent genuine evil? The essential kenosis model of providence offers one principal answer, although it includes various dimensions. Let me state this answer simply: God cannot unilaterally prevent genuine evil.”
― Thomas Jay Oord, The Uncontrolling Love of God: An Open and Relational Account of Providence

“God must love. To put it as a double negative: God cannot not love. Kenotic love is an essential attribute of God’s eternal nature.22 God loves necessarily. The love creatures express is sporadic, occasional and contingent because creatures do not have eternally loving natures. But God’s eternal nature is love, which means God could no more stop loving than stop existing. God’s love is uncontrollable, not only in the sense that creatures cannot control divine love but also in the sense that God cannot stop loving.”
― Thomas Jay Oord, The Uncontrolling Love of God: An Open and Relational Account of Providence

“The God who could prevent any genuine evil unilaterally is responsible for allowing genuine evil. The one who could stop genuine evil by restraining the perpetrator of evil is morally responsible—or better, culpable—for permitting the painful consequences. We don’t consider morally exemplary those who fail to intervene to prevent horrific events and atrocities, if such prevention were possible.”
― Thomas Jay Oord, The Uncontrolling Love of God: An Open and Relational Account of Providence

“The model of God as essentially kenotic says God’s eternal nature is uncontrolling love. Because of love, God necessarily provides freedom/agency to creatures, and God works by empowering and inspiring creation toward well-being. God also necessarily upholds the regularities of the universe because those regularities derive from God’s eternal nature of love.”
― Thomas Jay Oord, The Uncontrolling Love of God: An Open and Relational Account of Providence

“Most of the time, creatures must choose to do good. They must respond well to divine inspiration. Unlike God, creatures do not have eternal and unchanging natures necessarily inclined toward love. But they can act in genuinely good ways when they respond well to God’s calls.”
― Thomas Jay Oord, The Uncontrolling Love of God: An Open and Relational Account of Providence

“A God worthy of our worship cannot be Someone who causes, supports or allows genuine evil. In fact, I believe it is impossible to worship wholeheartedly a God who loves halfheartedly. We might fear a God who helps sometimes but other times chooses not to, but we cannot admire this God unreservedly.”
― Thomas Jay Oord, The Uncontrolling Love of God: An Open and Relational Account of Providence

“the standards of morality and regularities of existence derive from God’s loving nature. God’s nature is eternal, without beginning or end. God did not create or choose the attributes of the divine nature. And God cannot change them because the divine nature is immutable.”
― Thomas Jay Oord, The Uncontrolling Love of God: An Open and Relational Account of Providence

“If dominant views in science and philosophy are correct in their affirmation of randomness and chance, theologians such as Augustine, Calvin and Sproul are wrong. God does not control all things; randomness is real.”
― Thomas Jay Oord, The Uncontrolling Love of God: An Open and Relational Account of Providence

“Can we believe that random events or events resulting from chance or luck do occur in the world—especially those with negative consequences—and also believe in divine providence? If God has a plan, how does randomness figure in?”
― Thomas Jay Oord, The Uncontrolling Love of God: An Open and Relational Account of Providence

“the almighty God wins our hearts through the weakness of the cross and the power of the resurrection,” says Sanders.”
― Thomas Jay Oord, The Uncontrolling Love of God: An Open and Relational Account of Providence

“When explaining providence, Wesley says, “Were human liberty taken away, men would be as incapable of virtue as stones. Therefore (with reverence be it spoken) the Almighty himself cannot do this thing. He cannot thus contradict himself or undo what he has done.”43 God must give and cannot take away free will.”
― Thomas Jay Oord, The Uncontrolling Love of God: An Open and Relational Account of Providence