James W Stark wrote:
> on 9/4/01 11:00 PM, george murphy at gmurphy@raex.com wrote:
> ..............................
> > Paul's statement about Christ's kenosis in Phil.2:5-11 clearly point to
> > some sort of self-limitation on the part of God. We are to start from there &
> > adapt our understanding of God's being & will to that rather than the other
> > way around.
> >
> > Shalom, George
> >
>
> Our evidence of God's self-limitation is not confined to scripture.
>
> Does not God's gift of freedom imply that God chose to limit God's freedom?
>
> This seems very true to me.
Belief in divine self-limitation should be based on God's revelation of
God's own character in Christ and in the history of Israel of which Christ is the
culmination. That belief can help us to understand how God is at work in the world
that is described by scientific laws: That's the thrust of my articles in the March
2001 PSCF and in the June 1998 Zygon.
But an attempt to determine God's character on the basis of our experience
of the world makes the same mistake as the view I criticized. We are all too prone
to argue selectively in order to end up with the kind of God we think God ought to
be.
I would be a bit wary about arguing that any kind of creaturely freedom
requires a limitation of divine freedom or vice versa. It doesn't have to be a
zero-sum game.
Shalom,
George
George L. Murphy
http://web.raex.com/~gmurphy/
"The Science-Theology Interface"
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