What is Open Theism?

Here I will try and give an honest but brief glimpse at open theism.  Also note that this is my understanding, so if I leave stuff out or get it wrong feel free to comment and correct me.

Open Theism
- God changes.
- God experiences the pain and pleasure of other beings.
- God exists in the 'now'.  That is, he is not timeless.  He does not exist infinitely in the past, present, and future for all eternity.  He only exists in the now and the past.
- Humans are complete free agents.

Largely this views seems to be a reaction to Greek philosophical understandings. The Christian synthesis of Greek philosophy taught that God was unchangeable, unaffected by other beings, outside of time, all knowing, and as a result humans are not complete free agents.  I guess that open theism came from some people who were looking at this and thinking 'what if God's not like this?'  Thus open theism explored the four points listed above and came up with the four most foundational aspects of God:

1) He is living
2) He is personal
3) He is good
4) He is loving

Thus God is a relational God.  This may seem like nothing, but this is the basic understanding of God that is read when reading scripture.  For example, at Mt Sinai Moses appealed to God and God changed his mind (Exodus 32 & 33).  This is opposed to the traditional understanding that God already knew what was going to happen and Moses was just appealing out of necessity of what had already be predetermined.  Thus God did not change his mind, he did not benefit from it, and remained unaffected.  The only people it did affect and benefit were the Israelites and Moses.
   So what we have is a relational understanding of God who exists within the constraints of time.  He exists in the present, ever calculating the future with extreme intelligence that is unlike anything we know of.  As a result humans are complete free agents.  Our actions affect the course of history and God.  Because of the relationality of God he is affected by the pain and pleasures of humans.  There becomes a sense of risk involved in the actions of God as humans are able to refuse to do what is asked.  For example; there was the risk that Jonah would not go to Nineveh.  But God is influencing the world as he is moving it towards the second coming of Christ.
  I guess one of the biggest things about it is that it cuts into God's sovereignty. He cannot do what ever he likes, whenever he like.  He does not have supreme power over all things throughout all time.  He is not outside of time where he is in the past, present, and future at the same time.  Instead he is a relational God who is here now with us.  He is affected by those he loves supremely, and this love he pours out into the world.  He does not know the future, but he lives in a more dynamic relationship with his creations.

I hope this has been helpful.  This is a view that I appreciate, however don't fully imbrace.  I think perhaps that what is said in Open Theism is stuff worth listening to.

For furthur reading:
http://www.opentheism.info
There is also this article written by Jonathan Erdman who did a Master's thesis on Open Theism.

Stay Gold

Philip