Bod Dehaan asked: "I have Barbour's 1997 book and have read it
sporadically. One thing I am not
convinced of, and would like your opinion on. Does the God that Barbour
posits exist outside of the universe, i.e., the God of historic
Christianity?
Or is God immanent in the universe? I sense that he shies away from the
historic Christian God. What is your reading of him?"
Bob -- I have been struggling to understand Griffin's book the past
couple of months, and so I've not asked that question of Barbour's
writings. Griffin asserts "panentheism," which to me is so much like
pantheism that I have a struggle to understand the difference; in any
event Griffin's concept has God as a "persuasive force" rather than a
"coercive force" as the universe unfolds over time. As such, God and the
universe are coexisting; the universe is sort of "God's soul."
I think Barbour has a more orthodox view than that, but I'm not sure.
That question has to be, for me, one to study further.
Burgy (John Burgeson)
www.burgy.50megs.com
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