Barack Obama's election was greeted with optimism here in Brazil.John said to the crowds coming out to be baptized by him, "You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath? Produce fruit in keeping with repentance. And do not begin to say to yourselves, 'We have Abraham as our father.' For I tell you that out of these stones God can raise up children for Abraham. The axe is already at the root of the trees, and every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.""What should we do then?" the crowd asked.
John answered, "The man with two tunics should share with him who has none, and the one who has food should do the same."
Tax collectors also came to be baptized. "Teacher," they asked, "what should we do?"
"Don't collect any more than you are required to," he told them. Then some soldiers asked him, "And what should we do?"
He replied, "Don't extort money and don't accuse people falsely—be content with your pay." (Luke 3:7-14, NIV)
We called in the experts! Gilmar and Gilberto (left) examined the financial reports of the Vida Nova publishing house in a recent meeting, and concluded that the ministry/business is healthy. In fact, they evaluated our efficiency ratio (income per employee) and found that it is on par with many successful multi-national corporations!
There are about 2 million Muslims in Brazil—one percent of the population. Brazilians have much greater access to Muslims than Americans, because there are fewer political barriers to cross.
BOOK REVIEW AND EVALUATION FOR PUBLICATION:
Bruce A. Ware. Their God Is Too Small: Open Theism and the Undermining of Confidence in God.
Bruce A. Ware. God’s Lesser Glory: The Diminished God of Open Theism.
Bruce A Ware. God’s Greater Glory: The Exalted God of Scripture and the Christian Faith.
Bruce Ware’s three books on open theism (most commonly known in
As I considered these books for possible publication in
Second, Franklin Ferreira and Alan Myatt devote a considerable amount of ink to the issue in their Teologia Sistemática (see page 308-348). They comment: “O teísmo aberto tem chegado a alguns círculos teológicos no Brasil, notadamente entre os pentecostais...” (p. 310).
Third, according to the bibliography in Teologia Sistemática, there are already a number of books on the Brazilian market which directly address the subject of open theism:
Therefore, there seems to be a Brazilian context for the publication of good material in this area. It would make sense for EVN to have at least one title on open theism, not just to hop on the bandwagon, but to provide one more conservative theological perspective on the issue.
Of the three books reviewed, I would first recommend publication of Their God Is Too Small. At 142 pages, it is 40 percent smaller than the other two books (maybe less, considering the wider line spacing), yet still provides a good introduction to the issues surrounding the debate. It is written at a popular level, and is therefore accessible to the high school educated Brazilian reader. The table of contents is as follows:
If we incorporated the word “Introduction” in the title of the Portuguese edition, we could leave the door open for later publication of the expanded version, God’s Lesser Glory, which is definitely a seminary-level discussion of the debate.
The third book, God’s Greater Glory, is not so much a direct refutation of open theism but an exposition of the doctrine of divine providence. Nevertheless, its underlying (stated) purpose is to provide a sharp contrast to the limited God of open theism. This could be a companion volume to God’s Lesser Glory or, alternatively, could be published in place of it, after the introductory book.
Curt Kregness
São Paulo, 24 August 2008
