The Uncontrolling Love of God - by Thomas Jay Oord (Paperback)

About the Book

Rarely does a new theological position emerge to account well for life in the world, including not only goodness and beauty but also tragedy and randomness. Drawing from Scripture, science, philosophy and various theological traditions, Thomas Jay Oord offers a novel theology of providence--essential kenosis--that emphasizes God's inherently noncoercive love in relation to creation.

Book Synopsis

IVP Readers' Choice Award

Rarely does a new theological position emerge to account well for life in the world, including not only goodness and beauty but also tragedy and randomness. Drawing from Scripture, science, philosophy and various theological traditions, Thomas Jay Oord offers a novel theology of providence--essential kenosis--that emphasizes God's inherently noncoercive love in relation to creation. The Uncontrolling Love of God provides a clear and powerful response to one of the perennial challenges to Christian faith.

Review Quotes

"A work of a mature thinker, this book secures Oord's legacy as the theologian of love. It is a comprehensive theological response to the age-old question of how genuine evil exists even assuming the omnipotent and omnibenevolent God of Christian faith, and is all the more compelling given its biblical, philosophical and scientifically informed tapestry--no mean feat! The faithful across all Christian traditions will be encouraged to live a life of love even as skeptics will be invited to think again and again."

--Amos Yong, professor of theology and mission, Fuller Theological Seminary

"Although it is worthy on its own terms, The Uncontrolling Love of God is perhaps best digested in dialogue with other voices. . . . Oord fills a critical gap in the literature of open and relational theology, and he offers a clear, biblically sound, cruciform answer to the problem of evil and God's providence, while avoiding the pitfalls of divine culpability that previous models of providence fall into."

--Benjamin L. Corey, The Christian Century, July 20, 2016

"Oord's work is a constructive attempt to provide answers to very complex questions in a way that seeks to satisfy human experience, findings from contemporary science, and doctrines of the Christian faith."

--Jacob R. Lett, Philosophy, Theology and the Sciences, Vol. 3, No. 1

"The book is beautifully and clearly written."

--Jonathan Clatworthy, Modern Believing, 57, 4

"Thomas Oord's The Uncontrolling Love of God is an ambitious book offering a new account of divine sovereignty, divine interaction with creation, a new response to the problem of evil, and other issues needed for a plausible model of God. This account is presented in accessible prose, suitable for any college educated reader."

--Eric J. Silverman, Philosophical Quarterly, Vol. 67, No. 266, January 1, 2017

"Written in his characteristically winsome style, Oord's account of The Uncontrolling Love of God is a highly accessible yet richly sophisticated affirmation of God's providential engagement with creation that takes seriously the insistence on randomness and novelty in recent science. Oord sprinkles throughout pastorally wise advice on how Christians might think about and engage the undeniable evil and ugliness in life by probing the implications of our fundamental commitment to the self-emptying love of God as manifest in Jesus Christ. Highly recommended!"

--Randy L. Maddox, Duke Divinity School

About the Author

Thomas Jay Oord (PhD, Claremont Graduate University) is professor of theology and philosophy at Northwest Nazarene University in Nampa, Idaho. He has written or edited more than a dozen books, including Defining Love: A Philosophical, Scientific, and Theological Engagement. He is an ordained minister in the Church of the Nazarene.