Gregory A. Boyd

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Gregory A. Boyd, 2017

Gregory A. Boyd (* 2. June 1957 in the USA ) is an American Baptist theologian, pastor, author and speaker who for the open theism : (English open theism ), non-violence and against the Religious Right occurs.

Life

Boyd grew up in a Roman Catholic family. When he was two years old, his mother died. His father married a second time. The stepmother, who was often close to a nervous breakdown, got along poorly with her own children and the new man's children. As a teenager, Greg became an atheist and felt free from the fear of death and the fear of hell. He continued to search for the meaning of life in Eastern religions and also in drugs. In 1973 he got off drugs and became interested in philosophy. By reading Sören Kierkegaard's writings, he was reminded of devotion to Jesus Christ and he became a Christian in 1974.

Boyd studied philosophy and theology. In 1979 he received a Bachelor of Arts in philosophy from the University of Minnesota . In 1982 he was awarded with cum laude the master of theology, Faculty of Theology at Yale University in New Haven (Connecticut) and 1988 doctorate with summa cum laude of the Theological Seminary of Princeton University in Princeton .

From 1986 to 2002 Greg Boyd was professor of theology at Bethel University in Saint Paul, Minnesota , where he received awards for outstanding teaching, the Teaching Excellence Award , and leadership, the Campus Leadership Award .

In 1992, Boyd and others founded the Woodland Hills Congregation in the city of Saint Paul, Minnesota on behalf of the General Baptist Convention , where he has served as a senior pastor ever since. In 2000 he founded Christ Victor Ministries , an organization that later went on to be called ReKnew ; with it he reaches both skeptics and believers far beyond the churches.

Private

Boyd has been married to Shelley since 1980. They have three children and five grandchildren and live in Saint Paul, Minnesota.

Works and teaching

Boyd has written over 20 books. In German-speaking countries known is his book of 1994 Letters From a Skeptic: A Son wrestles with His Father's Questions about Christianity (German: Letters from a Skeptic and answers to key questions of faith , 1997), in which he published a real correspondence with his own father. Boyd answered all skeptical questions about the Christian faith. The work has been translated into many languages.

He also wrote apologetic works on the historicity of Jesus, theodicy , the problem of evil and much more. He also intervened in public debates. In 2006, for example, in the New York Times, he described the idea that the United States was a Christian nation as a myth, and he also appeared as a staunch opponent of the Christian right.

Boyd firmly believes that faith and reason are mutually dependent and should therefore be congruent. He advocates the concept of a God open to the future and thus opposes the predestinatist tendencies that are widespread among evangelicals in the USA. His arguments are:

  • in the Bible God is confronted with improbabilities
  • in the Bible you can see that God is disappointed
  • in the Bible, God tests people to "know" what is in their hearts
  • In the Bible, God expresses himself in the subjunctive and in possibilities when it comes to the future
  • In the Bible, God changes his mind 39 times explicitly and over 200 times implicitly
  • God's sovereignty, wisdom and relationship orientation come into their own
  • the problem of evil is easier to explain
  • resolves paradoxical situations
  • fits better with contemporary science
  • fits better with our experiences
  • is motivating for service in the kingdom of God.

Boyd also argues that, despite the violent stories and images in the Old Testament, the Bible is a deeply non-violent revelation because at the center Jesus Christ renounced all violence, suffered injustice and died on the cross. The biblical stories should be interpreted from the perspective of the cross. In 2017 he developed and presented this in his two-volume work Crucifixion of the Warrior God (German: Crucifixion of the warrior God ).

Fonts

  • Trinity and Process: A Critical Evaluation and Reconstruction of Hartshorne's Di-Polar Theism Towards a Trinitarian Metaphysics , 1992, ISBN 0-8204-1660-6
  • Oneness Pentecostals and the Trinity , 1992, ISBN 0-8010-1019-5
  • Cynic Sage or Son of God? , 1995, ISBN 0-8010-2118-9
  • Jesus Under Siege , 1995, ISBN 1-56476-533-4
  • Letters From a Skeptic: A Son Wrestles with His Father's Questions about Christianity , 1994 and 2008, ISBN 1-56476-244-0
    • Letters from a skeptic and answers to central questions of faith , Hänssler, Holzgerlingen 1997, ISBN 978-3-77512-746-2
  • God at War: The Bible and Spiritual Conflict , 1997, ISBN 0-8308-1885-5
  • God of the Possible: A Biblical Introduction to the Open View of God , 2000, ISBN 0-8010-6290-X
  • Satan & the Problem of Evil: Constructing a Trinitarian Warfare Theodicy , 2001, ISBN 0-8308-1550-3
  • Across the Spectrum: Understanding Issues in Evangelical Theology , with Paul Rhodes Eddy, 2002, ISBN 0-8010-2276-2
  • Is God to Blame ?: Moving Beyond Pat Answers to the Problem of Evil , 2003, ISBN 0-8308-2394-8
  • Seeing Is Believing: Experience Jesus Through Imaginative Prayer , 2004, ISBN 0-8010-6502-X
  • Repenting of Religion: Turning from Judgment to the Love of God , 2004, ISBN 0-8010-6506-2
  • Escaping The Matrix: Setting Your Mind Free To Experience Real Life In Christ , with Al Larson, 2005, ISBN 0-8010-6533-X
  • The Myth of a Christian Nation: How the Quest for Political Power Is Destroying the Church , 2006, ISBN 0-310-26730-7
  • The Jesus Legend: A Case for the Historical Reliability of the Synoptic Jesus Tradition , with Paul Rhodes Eddy, 2007, ISBN 0-8010-3114-1
  • Lord or Legend ?: Wrestling with the Jesus Dilemma , with Paul Rhodes Eddy, 2007, ISBN 0-8010-6505-4
  • The Myth of a Christian Religion: Losing Your Religion for the Beauty of a Revolution , 2009, ISBN 0-310-28383-3
  • Present Perfect: Finding God in the Now , 2010, ISBN 0-310-28384-1
  • Benefit of the Doubt: Breaking the Idol of Certainty , 2013, 0801014921
  • The Crucifixion of the Warrior God , Volumes 1 and 2, 2017, ISBN 1-506-42075-3

literature

  • Manuel Schmid: God is an adventurer. Open theism and the challenges of biblical speeches from God , Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2020, ISBN 978-3-525-55669-6 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Laurie Goodstein: Disowning Conservative Politics, Evangelical Pastor Rattles Flock , July 30, 2006, New York Times
  2. ↑ http://uebersehen.org/open-theism-deutsch/
  3. ↑ http://theologicalmisc.net/2017/08/crucifixion-warrior-god-gregory-boyd-review-part-1/ Matt Lynch: Crucifixion of the Warrior God, by Gregory A. Boyd - Review Part 1 , 30th August 2017, theo-musings of Westminster Theological Center faculty and friends
personal data
SURNAME Boyd, Gregory A.
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Boyd, Greg
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Baptist theologian, pastor, author and orator
DATE OF BIRTH June 2, 1957
PLACE OF BIRTH United States