Jerry Walls Interview - Modern Reformation

Dr. Jerry Walls will be interviewed this Fall in the periodical Modern Reformation. I had the privilege of reading the interview in advance of its publication. An outstanding spokesman for classical Arminianism (a position I do not hold), Walls really tries to understand Calvinism and avoid its caricatures. I found his book Why I am not a Calvinist (co-authored with Dr. Joe Dongell, InterVarsity Press, 2004) to be an clear and fair presentation of Arminianism. Dr. Walls provides a strong argument for a libertarian view of human freedom as opposed to compatibilism (the view that God's decrees and human freedom, defined as the power to do what one wants, work harmoniously or "compatibly," neither doing violence to the other). Though ultimately I found the philosophical and exegetical arguments set forth by Walls and Dongell (respectively) to be unpersuasive, I recommend their book for anyone seeking to accurately understand the Wesleyan strand of Arminianism.

Dr. Tom Schreiner and Dr. Bruce A Ware are commendable proponents of the compatibilist position (often in response to Open Theism). Wayne Grudem's remarkably accessible Systematic Theology also contains a good section on the topic.