Arminian Theology: Myths and Realities

Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society, Dec 2006 by Pinson, J Matthew

Arminian Theology: Myths and Realities. By Roger E. Olson. Downers Grove: InterVarsity, 2006, 250 pp., $25.00.

Rare indeed is the book that discusses traditional theological issues in a way that respects tradition yet brings fresh, constructive insight to the contemporary theological scene. Roger E. Olson's path-breaking Arminian Theology: Myths and Realities is such a book. One reason that Olson is able to bring such freshness to the Arminian-Calvinist debate is that Jacob Arminius, the progenitor of the theological system that bears his name, has been so neglected. In his revival of the theology of Arminius, Olson joins recent thinkers such as Leroy Forlines (The Quest for Truth) and Robert Picirilli (Grace, Faith, Free Will) in a return to the sources, in which Arminius is rescued from obscurity and Arminianism is rescued from some of its later historical development.

Everyone interested in evangelical theology needs to read this work. Readers from across the spectrum, Calvinists and Arminiens included, will greatly benefit from it. Reading this book will help Calvinists to move beyond the caricatures of Arminianism found in Calvinistic theological literature. Arminiens and other non-Calvinists will be introduced-most for the first time-to a more grace-oriented stream of Arminianism with which they were formerly unfamiliar.

In his exposition of what he calls "classical Arminianism," Olson argues that there are some issues on which Arminiens and Calvinists cannot compromise (as in "CaIminianism") and maintain the coherence of either of their systems. Yet Arminianism has much more in common with Reformed Christianity than most Calvinists realize. Indeed, Arminianism is more a development of Reformed theology than a departure from it.

Some of Olson's best passages are those in which he quotes contemporary Calvinists caricaturing Arminians and then shows how real Arminian theologians do not fit those caricatures. He is correct in criticizing, for example, the Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals for excluding Arminians, though many confessional Arminians wholeheartedly agree with the Alliance's approach, except for its Calvinism. If paedobaptists and adherents of believer's baptism can work together for the mutual progress of the kingdom, Olson asks, then why can't Calvinists and Arminians? This gets back to the irresponsible ways that many well-known Calvinists characterize their Arminian brothers and sisters-associating Arminianism with heresy and liberalism and suggesting that it is closer to Roman Catholic than to Protestant theology. Olson provides numerous examples of Arminians past and present who defy such categories.

Olson contends that it is a mistake to think that free will is the guiding principle for Arminianism, when in reality free will for most Arminian theologians results necessarily from the goodness (or, for Arminius, the justice) of God. That is, they do not want to make God the author of sin, which they see divine determinism (whether direct or compatibilist) as logically doing.

Olson also dispels the notion that Arminianism does not believe in the sovereignty of God. It is not judicious, he argues, for Calvinists to define divine sovereignty in their own deterministic terms, and then suggest that Arminians do not believe in divine sovereignty just because the latter do not define it deterministically. Most sovereigns in this world have maintained rule over their realms without controlling every detail of them, Olson argues. Why must God's sovereignty be interpreted as control of every detail of reality? More importantly for Olson, the Bible does not present God's sovereignty and providence in this deterministic manner. However, it will surprise many Calvinist readers when they see how serious a doctrine of divine sovereignty was held by these traditional Arminians.

Calvinists often describe Arminianism as a human-centered theology with an optimistic anthropology. However, as Olson shows, Arminius's doctrines of original sin, total depravity, human inability, the bondage of the will, and the absolute necessity of divine grace for salvation cannot be described as human-centered. That caricature is more the result of what Olson calls "vulgarized" American Arminianism that Jonathan Edwards encountered and Finney later popularized. Popular Calvinists also argue that Arminiens cannot "give God the glory" for their salvation but take the glory themselves because their act of faith is a work. Olson shows how classical Arminian theologians argue that faith is a gift. Furthermore, a beggar simply receiving a gift from a rich man does not detract from the rich man's glory nor give it to the beggar.

Another common myth is that predestination is a Calvinistic doctrine and that Arminians do not believe in it. Olson gives an excellent exposition of the Arminian account of election and reprobation conditioned on exhaustive divine foreknowledge of free human acts. He shows how Arminians have defended their viewpoint exegetically and how the classical Arminian approach is different from both Calvinism and open theism.