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Rating: 
Summary: More answers needed.
Review: And there's the rub,if God doesn't control everything,what is the point in praying?
If God DOES control everthing what is the point in praying? BTW I favour the latter
Rating: 
Summary: A Whole New World
Review: Boyd opened up a whole new world to me. God At War was given to me from a friend who attended a School of Ministry that was based on a revival movement, so I approached it carefully (if not skeptically). However, once I got in to the book, it had a profound impact on me. I have been trained in the NorthEast, mainly being taught by Reformed professors. God At War brought me face to face with the "openness of God" movement and almost single-handedly convinced me to rethink my theology. God at War is easy to follow, yet full of footnotes for further study. Boyd wrestles with creation theory, monotheism, God's sovereignty and other issues with strong Biblical content. His views on the New Testament are equally as compelling. I thought I was just going to be reading another book on spiritual warfare, instead, I read a new way of doing theology.
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Summary: Takes scripture out of context
Review: I started reading Boyd's thesis that angelic and demonic powers deserve to be called "gods" and that our limiting our understanding of deity to Yahweh alone was the result of Greek philosophy, not Biblical study. Abolishing the basic concept of monotheism is a tall order. To bolster his case, Boyd says that Paul said there were "many gods and many lords." But in this passage, Paul states there are many "so-called" gods, and that we Christians know there is really only one! (The words "so-called" were in the KJV, NKJV, and ESV.) Boyd deliberately misquoted scripture to prove a bizarre point. I can't guess at what Boyd's motives are, but this guy's weird and dangerous. It pains me to say this as a BGC member, but the Baptist General Conference has put its reputation in jeopardy by keeping this individual on staff at Bethel College and giving him a platform. Boyd's upped the ante too far, and if he insists on ruining his own career, there's not much else the BGC can do.
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Summary: Interesting and informative - as well as thought provoking
Review: It is interesting to see the variations in response to a book like this - some informed, some practically rabid in their defense of God and His sovereignty(like He needs us to defend Him, right?) The bottom line is that if the book is read in its entirety, it is NOT a challenge to God, His sovereignty, or his omnipotence. What it DOES challenge is the view that the Church has put forth of HOW He knows all things (reality and possibility) and ends up with a God who is MUCH more sovereign than the all-controlling God, and is much more grounded in love, and His allowance of free will. You can almost see God saying, "Yes, I gave Satan and Humans free will. They can choose to do what they want - but Ill be ready no matter WHAT they choose." That, to me, is a God who is truly sovereign - and this book paints God as such. It also kills the classic "Problem of Evil" - thank you Gregory Boyd, and God for influencing him to write this!
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Summary: EVIL IS NOT GOD'S WILL!
Review: This book will resonate with those who follow their gut instinks and know deep down that evil is not God's goodness by another name. Stare directly in the face of starving children, or the poor in todays urban slums, or a woman who was just brutaly raped and all of the cliches just evaporate. This book will be most helpfull to those who have experanced evil first hand and then had to undergo the abuse of such Christian cliches. (ei "His was are not our ways," "All things work together for the good," "God must have had a reason for all this") If you don't want to read the whole book at least read the intro and the first chapter. Boyd hits it dead on when he writes about the concrete reality of evil and why absract responses don't cut it. Precisely! If you are looking for a trite answer don't look here. If you are looking for a response that atempts to meet evil head on and overcome it you've found the Biblical position. Boyd incurages Christian to war agaist evil rather than resing themselves to it. From now on my entire life is going to be about offering people a love (Christ's love) that is as real as the nightmare they're experiancing!
Rating: 
Summary: God at War Ultimately Wins
Review: This is a hard book to review. The major thesis is excellent and bears repeating: God in Christ is at war with the powers and principalities of this world. The decisive battle was fought and won by God in the ministry, death, and resurrection of Christ. The church now continues the battle until the return of Christ, when the victory will be fully won. Here, Boyd's "warfare" view accords with atonement positions of Gustaf Aulen, William Stringfellow, and to a lesser extent, Walter Wink. The major strength of Boyd's position is that, as he says repeatedly, evil is not a philosophical problem to be solved, but a reality to be fought. On a practical level, we do not look for God's "higher purposes" in the evil events that occur in the world. Instead, we are to resist them in acts of both spiritual and social activism. This viewpoint, unlike many of the more popular Christian world-views out today, EXPECTS evil to befall the Christian (1 Pet. 4:12). The Christian is in the middle of a war with Satan and his angels. Bad things can and do happen to good people in warfare. God does not promise complete protection in this life but only that He will be victorious in the end and that nothing can separate us from His love (Rom. 8:35-39). The book fails on two levels. First, Boyd uses many "minority" views to buttress his arguments. The Gap Theory of Genesis 1:1 is used not only to explain the apparent age of the earth, but to wedge Canaanite and other pagan creation myths into the Genesis account. Boyd also argues for the annihilation theory of hell and damnation. Finally, Boyd is a militant Arminian who argues that God not only cannot change the will of His creatures but that He also cannot know the future with definite knowledge. These minority, and sometimes radical views, can make the more orthodox of his readers uncomfortable and may cast doubt onto his larger thesis on evil. Second, Boyd's book is basically a theodicy (reconciliation between a Good God and creation filled with evil). It fails on that level because Boyd sometimes appears to cast the argument between God's omniscience (which Boyd says is limited to the present and the past) and "unexpected" evil events. Normally a theodicy must reconcile God's omnipotence, not His omniscience, against a creation filled with evil. "If God is all powerful why does he allow evil to exist?" It appears Boyd must ultimately redefine God's omnipotence in the same way as he has redefined God's omniscience. But Boyd does not confront that argument in this book. "For example, how is this view of things compatible with a belief in God's omnipotence? Why would God create a world in which his will is not necessarily carried out? Why would God create beings who have the power to hurt so many others? How are we to conceptualize God being influenced by our prayers? Can God guarantee ultimate victory over his rebellious foes and our spiritual cosmic nemeses? If so, why does he not simply destroy those rebel forces now? Why does he tarry while the innocent suffer?" (Page 166). All these questions Boyd recognizes and even asks, but then defers the answers to a future and yet unpublished work. This is frustrating for the discerning reader and weakens the force of the book. Still I recommend the book strongly. The power of the major thesis overcomes the book's weaknesses. Also, when the (hopefully) forthcoming "Satan and the Problem of Evil" is published, many of these weaknesses will be resolved or at least sufficiently addressed.
Rating: 
Summary: Caution
Review: What Gregory Boyd needs is a little awe and wonder. There is a necessary tension (in the literary sense) between free will and predestination, and those who think they can explain it always fall in a ditch. Mortal man cannot explain the infinite God. I think C.S. Lewis had the best idea with his 'authorized images', ways that God gives us to think about subjects that are beyond us. In that sense Boyd's warfare image is quite valuable, but where he gets off thinking he can correct Augustine I can't imagine. Don't read this book unless you are very grounded in your faith, because Boyd presents a nightmare theology. Boyd doesn't realize that, of course, because he hasn't thought through the implications of his explanation of evil. Another more technical complaint is that Boyd does not deal with the concept of God being at war with humans, nor does he adequately realize that humans themselves are evil. It's not always 'the devil made me do it' and it occurs to me that humans may be more evil than the fallen angels, though less powerful.
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