This is an abridged edition of Schreiner and Ware’s The Grace of God, the Bondage of the Will (Baker Books, 1995). That earlier work was in some sense a response to two books edited by Clark Pinnock, Grace Unlimited (Minneapolis: Bethany, 1975) and The Grace of God, the Will of Man: A Case for Arminianism (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1989). The earlier book, which is now out-of-print, came in two volumes with four parts: Biblical Analyses, Pastoral Reflections, Historical Perspectives, and Theological/Philosophical Issues. This abridgement has three parts: Biblical Analyses, Theological Issues, and Pastoral Reflections. All of the biblical analyses from the earlier edition are retained as are all of the pastoral reflections. What is missing are three philosophical essays and four historical perspectives.
Even in this abridgement, this is still the best collection of essays available on its subject. The topic is even more timely, given the growing popularity of open theism. Now we need, more than anything else, careful biblical analysis; so Schreiner and Ware have made the right choices in what to keep. These essays make the case for God’s “full omniscience, omnipotence, splendor, greatness, supremacy, rulership, and unqualified lordship” even as they stress that this does not rule out human responsibility. “The bondage of the will…does not mean that fallen humans possess no will or are incapable in any absolute sense to exercise that will. Rather, it means that whenever and wherever they do use their will, they are bound to use it for sinful purposes. They are, then, ‘bound’ to sin, though the choice of which sin is theirs to make.”
If you or someone you know is tempted to think that open theism is making a cogent biblical case, this book should go a long way toward showing that classical Christian theism is still the more biblical option.
