Letters from a Skeptic

Rating:
Summary: Hello Unbelievers!
Review: What a great evangelical tool. Although I do not completely agree with Greg Boyd's 'Open View' of God, it is none the less within the realm of acceptability in Evangelical Christianity. Greg Boyd teaches at Bethel College and would be thrown out if he was a heretic. I have give this book to countless people who were struggling with whether to make a change in their lives, this book helped many answer questions they had about God, and take positive steps towards a relationship with him. While this book does not answer every question out there, it is a great place to start someone who has little interest or is just starting to get interested in a new step on the journey of faith.

Christians who read this and point to Boyd's use of an 'Open View' of God, are looking at only one part of this amazing book. Is there any doubt Greg's letters were used by God to reach his father?

I gave this book to my own father and it has prompted many discussions as to whether or not God is real, why someone should bother to even wonder about such questions, etc. etc. God used this book for much good in my Dad's life.

I recommend this book for anyone who has questions about God, and faith, and the search for the meaning of life. You will not find it all in this book, but it is a good place to start. Another great work to read in addition to this book, is Mere Christianity by CS Lewis.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent Book
Review: I found this book very helpful in not only my own spiritual walk but also in explaining certain Christian concepts to others. Dr. Boyd is an extremely bright, intelligent man and the honesty with which he addresses certain issues is refreshing. There has been some complaint as to the fact that certain issues like different beliefs on the doctrine of Hell are seemingly brushed aside, I don't this is the case. Boyd's main objective is to get his father to surrender his life to Christ not to make every issue clear. Such issues as Hell usually make a lot more sense when you have been in the Christian faith a while. Once you have expierienced God's love and forgiveness and come to realize that whatever God is going to do he will do out of his justice and mercy. This belief takes time to develop and can only come from the Holy Spirit. He is not trying to minimize these questions or imply that there is something God can't do. He is merely pointing out that the reasons may not always be clear. I could go on, but I am running out of time. One final note- there are certain parts of the book where Boyd talks about things such as the moral law, many times it may be helpful for the nonbeliever to investigate other sources about these topics in order to fully understand them....END

Rating:
Summary: Useful Dialogue / Interesting Apologetics
Review: Greg Boyd and his now deceased father co-author this interesting work on defending the Christian faith. This book tackles many of the important issues facing someone struggling with whether to believe in God, believe in Christ, and many other things. Mixed in with these issues is Greg's theological stance that God can change his mind. Greg's view, or an 'open view' of God, is widely debated and much criticized. Some from the Calvinist point of view will call him a herectic, cultist, and other productive terms that really help facilitate healthy dialogue.

This book is bigger than open view vs. calvinist theology - God is bigger than MUCH BIGGER - than this debate. Take this book for what it is - a dialogue between someone who does not believe in God and someone who passionately believes in God - and go from there. Most non-believers would have zero idea what the difference was between a calvinist and an open view theologian anyway, and quite frankly, an unbelieving world could care less.

While I don't necessarily see eye to eye with Greg and some parts of his theology, this is a great evangelistic tool. All I know is that my wisest thought is dumber than God's dumbest thought, so I will just add my humble opinion to these reviews. This is a good book, regardless of your theological stance. God can use anything to change hearts and save souls, and he has used this book.

Rating:
Summary: Liberal, Processist Philosophic Apologetics; Errant Bible?
Review: This book would have rated 5 stars if it included only Chapters 2,3,8-10,12,18,23,26-29. It is especially 5* in dealing with the Gospel, Salvation, Sanctification and Christ's death & resurrection. When it sticks to the basics of the Gospel, few recent introductory apologetic books are its equal. The fact that the skeptic was led to Christ by the sheer power of the Gospel is cause for rejoicing.

But 4 stars are deducted because of the troublesome chapters 1,4-7,11,13-17,19-22,24-25. That's almost 60% of the book! The problems stem from the author's first book, Trinity & Process, with its distinctively Liberal Processistic Philosophy approach to understanding Jesus and the Bible. These neo-liberal, non-evangelical presuppositions (interpretive filters) permeate the author's worldview and cast many doubts about crucial matters like an Inerrant Bible without mistakes, the Nature and Attributes of God, how to interpret key Bible passages, the afterlife, the nature of the Future and God's knowledge of it, and how evil plays itself out in a Good God's world. The author gets these critical areas almost 100% wrong,heterodox,aberrant.

This book, therefore, cannot be recommended as an apologetic resource. It simply compromises Bible truth too flagrantly, often very subtly, and so thoroughly that one never knows from chapter to chapter, page to page, topic to topic, where the author will speculate next with 'my own view is...' or 'I feel strongly that...' or 'my God is like...' or 'I don't think...

Don't take this reviewer's word for it. Here are some quotes:

'When I first became a Christian..I had gotten myself in some sort of..cult..(later) my Christianity became more mature and less 'cultic' and narrow-minded."

(Reply) 'I often wondered how you could continue to believe this Christianity business in spite of the rather liberal institutions (B.A.Philosophy-U.Minn;M.Div-Yale;Ph.D-Princeton)
you've attended.'

'until we make (decisions)they don't exist. In my view at least, there simply isn't anything to know until we make it there to know. So God can't foreknow the..decisions of people until..they create their decisions. This isn't the traditional Christian position(which)I think is philosophically untenable.'

(Reply) 'It seems like your view of God is much more 'human' than what I've always thought God was supposed to be..I wonder if your view is just your own creation.' (Good point!)

'these beings(are)'angels'..but I don't want you to get the idea of winged,white harp players..There's nothing in the Bible about such silly notions.' (What about Revelation 4:8,5:8??)

'Is my God all-powerful? I want to answer yes and no..with the creation of free creatures, I maintain, God necessarily surrendered a degree of His power..It is utterly impossible for God to be always in control and yet allow free beings to exercise some control.Thus to the extend God 'lends' power away, He no longer utilizes it..in my view God is in essence all-powerful, though He now chooses not to be.' (Huh??)

When you read an apologetics book by D.James Kennedy, Josh McDowell, Chuck Smith, Bill Bright, Chuck Swindoll, Hank Hanegraaff, Chuck Colson, Norm Geisler, there is zero concern about whether fundamental doctrines of Christianity will be upended, however subtly or flagrantly. No Holy Ghost alarm bells go off.

But with Boyd's book, red flags and klaxons go off almost every other chapter (except Ch.26-29 which are actually quite good).
The book claims to defend the faith. But which 'faith'?

Like week-old brownies laced with harmful substances, so is this book with enough Gospel to be nourishing, but too much foreign matter (novel ingredients, egg-shells, bacteria) to be passed over for fresher, healthier, safer 'soul food'.

Rating:
Summary: OK but contains several problems
Review: First, let me state several things: 1) I have an M.Div. from Bethel Seminary, the same school where Dr. Boyd teaches; 2) I picked up this book with great anticipation, as I have heard many positive reviews; 3) I too am very involved with apologetics, which is Dr. Boyd's specialty. With this being said, I have to state upfront that this is not a book that I will freely give to my skeptic friends or recommend to my students. Without sounding like a fundamentalist--which I am not--I disagree with some major points that I'm not convinced are peripheral issues.

Having read about Dr. Boyd's Open View of God (which, to me, appears to be an adverse reaction against Calvinism, going so far as to say that God is ignorant of the future), I was wondering if this issue was going to be dealt with here in one of Boyd's first books. Unfortunately it was, as the doctrine is summarized on page 30. I guess I will have to read his new book that deals exclusively with his explanation of the view, but I must say that Dr. Boyd is not very convincing about it in Letters. Even Boyd's dad is amazed with the position, saying in his next letter, "I admit your view sounds better than the standard one...but I wonder if your view is just your own creation." Wow! This skeptic (at the time) recognized something amiss, showing a great perception that he had throughout the book. (I have to say, the dad was as sharp as they come, and my hat goes off to him for working through these issues over the several-year period.) I realize that Bethel has declared the issue to be within the bounds of orthodoxy, but how can a doctrine pertaining to the nature of God be considering anything but essential?

Another problem I had was how Boyd seemed to be so zealous in his fight to win his father to the Lord that he tried to water down several other issues. The attitude seemed to be, "Hey, there are many people who hold opposing views on this issue of (blank). Feel free to choose whatever strikes your fancy." Letters from a Skeptic thus became a book with no backbone. "Just accept the Gospel message," Dr. Boyd seemed to be begging, "and don't worry about the exact details." I have a problem with evangelists trying to get potential converts to repeat a prayer with no clue as to what they are doing. Tickling ears to win converts is not a commandment of God. It is certainly not the standard set forth in the New Testament. A good example of what I am talking about is the issue of hell dealt with in correspondence 25. How you believe on this issue doesn't matter, Dr. Boyd tells his dad, and he even suggests that the annihilationist position is true. While this has become a very controversial issue, I wonder why we, the mere creatures, have such a problem with allowing God the freedom to mete justics to His creation. Just because I don't like a doctrine (it doesn't suit my tastes?) doesn't make a doctrine false. If I only chose doctrines that I liked, I guess I'd have to throw most of them out, including the integral issue of the atonement. It appears to me that Dr. Boyd's presuppositions have gotten in the way of his properly interpreting the passages of scripture that, though hard for us to understand, are very clear. What then happens is that a God best fitting the image of what Dr. Boyd believes sounds good is therefore created. (I notice a lack of scriptural references, which I understand would not have been very convincing to his dad, but just where did Dr. Boyd come to his conclusions? We rarely know.) Obviously this can be a very dangerous technique.

I know I am sounding pretty harsh with this review, but I just wanted to state my disappointment in the book. For 90 percent of the book, I'm right there with Dr. Boyd, agreeing with his arguments and even anticipating what he is going to say. (About 80 percent of what he deals with are issues discussed in my own classes.) It's just too bad that parts of very important theology had to be watered down in order to get a point across to the dad. I truly wish this could have been a book receiving my recommendation.

Rating:
Summary: A Great Book That's Been Misunderstood
Review: Greg Boyd's "Letters from a Skeptic" is a masterful depiction of Christ crucified, what that means for fallen humanity, and how Christianity makes spriritual, practical, and philosophical sense even after posing difficult questions to it.

What some reviewers of this book have had a hard time with is Boyd's view of open theism. Critics have harshly judged Boyd for the way he presents God's knowledge in this book. However, I submit to you that Boyd is not attempting to lay out a rock solid case for a learned scholar to pick up, read and pick apart. He is laying down some of the basics of the faith for his father. If you want to pick apart open theism, try reading Boyd's outstanding "God of the Possible" (and good luck picking it apart, because he has an astounding amount of biblical and philosophical evidence to support his views)or his thoughtful essay in "Divine Foreknowledge: 4 Views."

Letters from a skeptic truly does go beyond pat answers to difficult questions raised by unbelievers. Greg answers these in love; a wonderful example of how we should all answer. Whether or not many want to admit it, Boyd's view of God's foreknowledge and his trinitarian theodicy (see "Satan and the Problem of Evil" by Boyd) goes much farther in answering some difficult theological questions than does Calvinism.
This book could be life changing for anyone who took the time to read it. Do not let other discourage you!

Rating:
Summary: Great Apologetics Literature
Review: A few years ago, I belonged to a Friday Night Bible study not far from where I used to live. We had a Christmas gift exchange and wrote ona piece of paper our name & what we wanted. I wrote "A Christian book." Oddly enough, this is what I got in return.

These days apologetic literature is all over the place. With the Muslim world vastly growing, books on apologetics are vastly popular. I enjoyed this book because it was an easy read & was very down to Earth. Sometimes apologetic books can be a bit too theological and will be too deep for the average reader. Even though Gregory Boyd works at a Christian college, he made this book understandable.

This book started out of letters from Greg's dad, who had lots of faith related questions. His dad, Edward Boyd, was a skeptic/agnostic. His questions were thorough & gut wrentchingly honest. His Son Greg answers his questions honestly and evry straightforward. In about 3 years time & over 30 letters between father & son, Edward Boyd finally got saved & became a Christian. It's neat to read all of the letters back & forth & watch the drama unfold.

Now, some of the other reviewers had some trouble with this book. Even though it's not specifically stated, I think it's because of their own theological and/or denominatonal background. It's as though they were saying, "I wouldn't go there defending Jesus." "My church wouldn't say that." "What aboyt this issue or that?" As a pastor myself, I can tell you that this is the reason more people in America don't get saved. We're centered too much on our own theological camps & on our differences. What so many negative reviewers didn't say was that Gregory Boyd did explain the tenants of salvation correctly. And in the end, his dad did get saved because of it.

Question: can you get past the denominational wars & just simply tell someone about Jesus? If you can, this book will be an asset to you as it was(and still is) to me. If you can't, you'[ll have lots of trouble with this book.

Rating:
Summary: This book is great for all the skeptics out there
Review: I highly recommend this book to those who are skeptical about Christianity, the existance of God and the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. This book is really for all the atheists and agnostics and even those who grew up as Christians but deep in their hearts don't really "believe". This is not a book for theologians or those who want to debate theology.

I read this book when I was trying to learn something about Christianity because I was going to marry a Christian and he wanted to be married in a church. I came from an agnostic background and even thought that some of the Bible stories, like David and Goliath, were Greek myths! I am also a biological scientist with a doctorate degree. My background is important as it shows that when I read this book I was a skeptic with little knowledge of Christianity (except what I gleaned from popular culture) and a critically thinking scientist.

I was very skeptical and even uncomfortable with Christianity and the Christian concepts of God and Christ. I had asked all the questions that this book addresses over the years of many different people without satisfactory answers. When I read Dr. Boyd's book the answers were more than satisfactory and from an agnostic point of view cleared up many misconceptions that I had had. In fact, this book started me down a path that ended a mere 8 weeks later in me accepting Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior. I owe my eternal soul to this book! I have given this book to several of my agnostic friends and relatives. It has made them look at Christianity in a new light and hopefully will help lead them to Christ as well.

I don't see this book as a theological treste but as a tool to reach skeptics, most which are not believers. Quite frankly, the subtleties of the open view theory never even occured to me as I read this book. All I know is that the Holy Spirit moved dramatically through this book to change my life and I believe this was Dr. Boyd's intent when he wrote it. Let's save the theological debates for the theologians and let this book's light shine to all the non-believers and skeptics out there.

Rating:
Summary: "Letters from a skeptic" to a Cultist
Review: Mr. Boyd explains in his book that God does not know the future because he has given man a free will and therefore mans free will creates the future. This is a future that could not be knowable to God for Mr. Boyd. He then explains that the Bible is true because God predicted the Crucifixion of Jesus with the minutest detail. This means that mans free will can create an unknowable future for God, yet God can still predict the future not only of an event but of the details and decisions of individual people (e.g. The dividing of Jesus' garments, casting lots for his cloak, piercing of his hands and feet etc. were accomplished by individuals, people making "free will" choices to do particular things to Jesus at the time of his crucifixion. These prophecies make the idea of "free-will-creating-an-unknowable-future" absurd.). With ideas like these Boyd continually contradicts himself in this book. He and his father, who claim to be such critical thinkers, do not catch these glaring contradictions!!
Boyd says in this book that God is all powerful, but willingly gave up some of that power to man's free will. In the final analysis of this book, Man's free will is "God" and "Man" can elevate his own character to the status of salvation. The only thing God is needed for is to give Christ to the world so that we have a brand new slate from which to work from. He does not take into consideration that we need to be "made" righteous, not just given a free "get out of jail card".
This is not a Christian work, but a work of someone who was raised and schooled by the liberal colleges. The open door theology of Mr. Boyd is anything but Christian. To give a "One Star" rating for this book is to overrate it!!!!

Rating:
Summary: Do NOT Recommend!
Review: Fortunately, a colleague gave me the book and I did not spend my own money on it. I know Dr. Greg Boyd somewhat personally and do not recommend any of his books for the mere fact of the misguided teachings he presents within them. Even his own father said, "I admit your view sounds better than the standard one...but I wonder if your view is just your own creation." He nailed it on the head! Boyd's view is his creation! It is not the view in the Bible. Boyd's view of God is extremely problematic. I would like to say I enjoyed this book but I did not. Rather than buy this book, purchase a book that explains the open view by an author who does not adhere to the open view (Norm Geisler, Wayne House, Bruce Ware, et al). Boyd subtly and at times, not-so-subtly, weaves his view within this book in the comments he makes to his father. I do NOT recommend this book to either Christians or non-Christians. From my own knowledge of Dr. Boyd, I believe he is determined to take over the world with his open view. It contains cultish characteristics and anyone reading this or any Boyd book, needs to do so with the utmost of caution!