Gregory A. Boyd

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Gregory A. "Greg" Boyd is a post-evangelical pastor, liberal theologian, and author. He is Senior Pastor of the Woodland Hills Church in St. Paul, Minnesota.^[1]

Boyd graduated from Yale Divinity School and Princeton Theological Seminary, and was Professor of Theology at Bethel University for many years. There he became acquainted with the process theology of Charles Hartshorne, whom Boyd considered 'essentially correct' in philosophical/theologic understanding of the nature of God and the future. ('Trinity and Process', pg.1-3). His book 'Letters From a Skeptic' (1995) contains much Hartshornian philosophy that was later expanded in the book God of the Possible (2000) in which he described his post-evangelical view of God, or open theism, the view that the future is open and therefore known to God partly as a realm of possibilities. Proponents of the conservative or traditional view of God within the Baptist General Conference tried unsuccessfully to have the rules of the denomination changed to exclude Boyd and other Open Theists.^[2]

In a New York Times profile in July 2006, Boyd said he had lost 20% of his congregation because he refused to lend his support publicly to conservative political causes.^[3] In the same vein, he authored the book The Myth of a Christian Nation: How the Quest for Political Power Is Destroying the Church (2006).

Boyd was a former Oneness Pentecostal, and wrote the book Oneness Pentecostals and the Trinity (1992) critiquing the movement's doctrine of God. He charged Oneness denominations such as the United Pentecostal Church with legalism for their teachings on issues such as baptism and hair length.

[edit] Authored Books

Trinity and Process: A Critical Evaluation and Reconstruction of Hartshorne's Di-Polar Theism Towards a Trinitarian Metaphysics (1992) ISBN 0-8204-1660-6
Oneness Pentecostals and the Trinity (1992) ISBN 0-8010-1019-5
Cynic Sage or Son of God? (1995) ISBN 0-8010-2118-9
Jesus Under Siege (1995) ISBN 1-56476-533-4
Letters From a Skeptic: A Son Wrestles with His Father's Questions about Christianity (1995) ISBN 1-56476-244-0
God at War: The Bible and Spiritual Conflict (1997) ISBN 0-8308-1885-5
God of the Possible: A Biblical Introduction to the Open View of God (2000) ISBN 0-8010-6290-X
Satan & the Problem of Evil: Constructing a Trinitarian Warfare Theodicy (2001) ISBN 0-8308-1550-3
Across the Spectrum: Understanding Issues in Evangelical Theology (2002) ISBN 0-8010-2276-2
Is God to Blame?: Moving Beyond Pat Answers to the Problem of Evil (2003) ISBN 0-8308-2394-8
Seeing Is Believing: Experience Jesus Through Imaginative Prayer (2004) ISBN 0-8010-6502-X
Repenting of Religion: Turning from Judgment to the Love of God (2004) ISBN 0-8010-6506-2
Escaping The Matrix: Setting Your Mind Free To Experience Real Life In Christ (2005) ISBN 0-8010-6533-X
The Myth of a Christian Nation: How the Quest for Political Power Is Destroying the Church (2006) ISBN 0-310-26730-7
The Jesus Legend (with Paul Eddy) (July 2007)^[4]