When I hear the words “systematic theology,” I can’t help but think of Wayne Grudem — an altogether unpleasant association.
Maybe a different systematic theology book comes to mind for you, but Iʼd bet it has the same driving force: Unlimited divine power. Omnipotence and sovereignty are the lynchpin of the top 30 systematic theologies, and thatʼs exactly why Thomas Oord’s new book, A Systematic Theology of Love, is sorely needed.
Despite the Christian agreement that God is loving, Oordʼs book is the first of its kind to make love its guiding principle. For the millions of us appalled by white evangelicalismʼs penchant for power, and the Christian nationalist support for a deeply hateful president, Oordʼs focus on love is a breath of fresh air and a dose of sanity.
Yes, God is love, Christian love should feel like love, and any theology that privileges something over love privileges something over God.
The first volume of a trilogy, A Systematic Theology of Love is crafted around Oordʼs trademark open and relational theology. Oord describes love as “acting intentionally, in relational response to God and others, to promote overall well-being,” and the Spiritʼs love specifically as self-giving, others-empowering and incapable of controlling.
From this flows Oordʼs conclusions about Godʼs nature, creation and providence.
He spends a chapter taking down omnipotence — a doctrine not found in Scripture — because it must be endlessly qualified and because it results in seismic harm. Oord then establishes a replacement theology: amipotence. Ami (love) and potens (power) puts first things first — uncontrolling love, not ability, as power.
It reminds me of the Jimi Hendrix quote: “When the power of love overcomes the love of power, the world will know peace.”
Oord explores the Spirit as a feeling and relational force that is all-knowing despite an unfixed future. He tackles the mystery card, which many a Christian has thrown down to short-circuit legitimate challenges to the faith (“Godʼs ways are higher than our ways!”). And he discusses theopoetics, meaning the constructive task of theology. I appreciate his honest grappling with the reality that, to some extent, we all make God.
Thomas Jay Oord
According to Oord, creatio ex nihilo, like omnipotence, is not biblical and leads to harm. On top of being bad science, the idea that God created the world from nothing only exacerbates the problem of evil, because a loving deity who could erect steel walls out of thin air to save schoolchildren from bullets would. Oord proposes a new creation theory: Ever Creator.
In this view, God always and only creates out of existing creation or alongside creation. Just as love is the foundation of amipotence, it is the backbone of Ever Creator (or creatio ex creatione sempiternalis en amore if youʼre fancy).
And it’s compatible with evolution and the possibility of a multiverse. This move away from God as magician in terms of creation naturally disrupts the notion of God as ruler in terms of providence. In Oordʼs theology, the divine, humanity and all living things work collaboratively, all possessing agency and impacting outcomes.
Systematic theologies are judged on their degree of internal consistency, and Oord maintains the thread of love throughout. His perspective is heavily informed by Scripture — but not through an inerrant lens — as well as philosophy, science, experience and a diversity of theologians. He does not shy away from criticizing theologians either, from Augustine and Calvin to Grudem and David Bentley Hart. Every chapter begins with “The Big Ideas,” a bulleted list of the content therein, which, along with the index, makes the book easy to navigate as a reference material.
A Systematic Theology of Love is a rich and highly researched tome that will benefit both academics and clergy, as well as lay readers who are hungry for deep theological insights. And yet reading it brought to mind the childlike propensity to keep asking, “Why?”
Like a child — whom Jesus said we must emulate — Oord refuses to accept the traditional but unsatisfying answers to the big questions. His systematic theology provides the most interior Russian nesting doll inside all the other dolls: Love. And when love is the foundation of everything, it radically and necessarily changes all our spiritual notions.
Halley Kim
Halley Kim writes about spiritual, political and social justice, and she is working on her first book. Her theology about omnipotence has been featured on the podcasts “The Heretic Happy Hour” and “Shit No One Talks About,” with upcoming episodes on several others. She lives with her husband, three school-aged children and a very spoiled dog in St. Louis, Mo. Connect with her on Instagram or Substack.
Related articles:
Expelled from his own denomination, Oord still holds out hope for change
Small denomination emerges to support exiled progressive ministers