I just finished John W. Cooper’s masterful work Panentheism: The Other God of the Philosophers yesterday. It’s often charged that ‘classical theism’, the Augustinian tradition of theological reflection held broadly across Catholic, Lutheran, and Reformed traditions, is ‘the God of the philosophers’ that was forged via the synthesis of Greek Philosophy and the Gospel. Usually this charge is leveled by those putting forward an alternative, more biblical, or whatever view, often coming from a panentheistic framework, or largely influenced by it. Cooper’s main task in this judicious, fair-minded, and quite comprehensive work is to trace the philosophical lineage of panentheism beginning with Neoplatonism through thinkers like Eriugena, Bohme, Cusa, Schelling, Hegel, and so forth on down into contemporary thinkers such as Hartshorne, Moltmann and Clayton.
Well, feeling a bit feisty and inspired, I took to twitter and began tweeting a series of one-line defenses of ‘classical theism.’ Some are snarky, others not so much. It’s Twitter so they lack the precision, and probably the charity of Cooper’s work. Twitter theology is always a risk. Still they were kinda fun and some friends joined in, so I figured I’d share them here.
Classical Theism: the God who doesn’t have to wait for others so he can be himself.
— Derek Rishmawy (@DZRishmawy) September 25, 2014
@DZRishmawy Classical Theism: the God whose nature and character doesn’t depend on “the kind of God I would believe in” — John Starke (@john_starke) September 25, 2014
Classical Theism: Because God doesn’t need to save himself.
— Derek Rishmawy (@DZRishmawy) September 25, 2014
Classical Theism: the God who doesn’t need creation or history to work out his personal issues.
— Derek Rishmawy (@DZRishmawy) September 25, 2014
@DZRishmawy the God who can dialogue without falling to pieces
— Jon Wymer (@RuralVitality) September 25, 2014
Classical Theism: Because Augustine > Hegel.
— Derek Rishmawy (@DZRishmawy) September 25, 2014
Classical Theism: Because theology should take its cues from Irenaeus more than the guys he was arguing against.
— Derek Rishmawy (@DZRishmawy) September 25, 2014
Classical Theism: Because the Trinity is the eternal foundation of our faith, not its dialectical outcome.
— Derek Rishmawy (@DZRishmawy) September 25, 2014
Classical Theism: Because God *is* the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
— Derek Rishmawy (@DZRishmawy) September 25, 2014
Classical Theism: Because the angels’ cry ‘Holy, Holy, Holy’ is doxology rooted in ontology.
— Derek Rishmawy (@DZRishmawy) September 25, 2014
@DZRishmawy Classical Theism: Because friends don’t let friends read world history as God’s Bildungsroman.
— Fred Sanders (@FredFredSanders) September 25, 2014
Classical Theism: the God who isn’t hoping it all turns out.
— Derek Rishmawy (@DZRishmawy) September 25, 2014
Classical Theism: the God with only one physical body–that of the Incarnate Son.
— Derek Rishmawy (@DZRishmawy) September 25, 2014
OR, Classical Theism: the God for whom the Incarnation isn’t a redundancy.
— Derek Rishmawy (@DZRishmawy) September 25, 2014
Classical Theism: because we shouldn’t confuse physics with metaphysics when doing theology.
— Derek Rishmawy (@DZRishmawy) September 25, 2014
@DZRishmawy Classical Theism: The God who can speak and act, but cannot suffer.
— Fred Sanders (@FredFredSanders) September 25, 2014
Classical Theism: Because the Psalmist didn’t mean quicksand when he said “God is my rock.”
— Derek Rishmawy (@DZRishmawy) September 25, 2014
@DZRishmawy@FredFredSanders OK I can’t resist: Classical theism: because it’s good news that God is not a story.
— Scott R. Swain (@scottrswain) September 25, 2014
Finally, he’s not actually on Twitter to participate, but it’s not a party without Kevin.
#ClassicalTheism: Because “history is not God’s finishing school.” –@KevinVanhoozer
— Derek Rishmawy (@DZRishmawy) September 25, 2014
And we’ll sign off on that note. Feel free to add your own in the comments below.
Soli Deo Gloria
Reformedish 