Richard Rice Discusses “Re-imagining God: Peril or Promise?”
Richard Rice presented “Re-Imagining God—Peril or Promise?” at the Loma Linda University Church on the Sabbath afternoon of February 17. It was the 2018 Clinton Emmerson Annual Address and this was the centerpiece of the ceremonies for the 43rd Annual Presentation by the Charles Elliot Weniger Society for Excellence.
On Sabbath, March 3, he presented it again to the Roy Branson Legacy Sabbath School (RBLSS) in Loma Linda, California.
Rice was one of four people the Weniger Society honored this year. The other three were former LLUH president Lyn Behrens Basaraba, biblical archaeologist and theologian Douglas R. Clark, and educational administrator and General Conference Vice President Ella Smith Simmons. This was an excellent cohort of awardees!
Rice’s presentation articulated anew and afresh his controversial “Openness of God” theology which has reinvigorated serious discussions throughout the entire Christian world. Its suggestion is that God knows the past and present completely plus all of the future’s possibilities and probabilities; however, because they do not yet exist, God does not know all of the future’s actualities.
Richard Rice is one of LLUH’s true treasures. Born in Loma Linda, he was raised in Ohio, Arizona, and Southern California, and educated at Loma Linda University (B.A.), Andrews University (M.Div.) and the University of Chicago Divinity School (M.A., PhD), he has been a professor at LLUH from the early 1970s.
In addition to many scholarly and church articles, his published books include God’s Foreknowledge and Man’s Free Will, The Reign of God: An Introduction to Christian Theology from a Seventh-day Adventist Perspective, The Openness of God: A Biblical Challenge to the Traditional Understanding of God, Believing, Behaving, Belonging: Finding New Love for the Church, and Suffering and the Search for Meaning: Contemporary Responses to the Problem of Pain. He is working on a thorough history of the development of “The Openness of God” theology.
WATCH Richard Rice on “Re-Imagining God: Promise or Peril?”
Dr. David Larson is Professor of Religion at Loma Linda University.
Image Credit: Video Still
We invite you to join our community through conversation by commenting below. We ask that you engage in courteous and respectful discourse. You can view our full commenting policy by clicking here.
