Relational theism
Flagged as a concern
A view that keeps much of historic theology but sets aside doctrines such as impassibility, immutability, or simplicity, so that God is changed by his relationship with creation.
Also called: Modified/relational theism, modified theism, relational theist
What it means
Relational theism, sometimes called modified classical theism, is a family of views that want to stress God's real relationship with his people. Those who hold it often believe God knows the future and is fully sovereign. But they reason that if God truly loves, grieves, and responds, he must be changed by his creatures. So they modify or set aside impassibility, sometimes immutability or simplicity, and describe God as affected and moved in his own being by what happens in the world.
Many who hold these views are sincere believers who want to take the Bible's emotional language seriously and to comfort people with a God who suffers alongside them. Some forms are mild; others move toward a God who is still becoming what he will be.
The site flags this view at the orthodoxy gate as a concern, not a fail. It is not open theism, and it is held by many who confess the creeds. But it departs from the confessional doctrine of God, and the attributes it sets aside are the ones that guard God's difference from his creatures.
What Scripture says
God says plainly that he does not change.
There is no variation or shifting shadow with the Father of lights.
God needs nothing from human hands, for he gives life and breath to all.
The everlasting God does not grow tired or weary; his understanding is beyond searching.
Our sin does not damage God and our righteousness does not enrich him.
What is wrong with it
Scripture teaches that God does not change and needs nothing from creation. The Bible's language of God's grief or relenting is real speech about God, but it must be read in light of the plain statements that he is not a man and does not change. Relational theism lets the figurative or relational passages overrule the plain ones, rather than reading them together.
How it undermines the truth
It undermines God's self-sufficiency and the steadiness of his love. If God is changed by creatures, then his inner life depends in some way on the world, and his love is one more feeling that rises and falls. It can also blur the work of Christ: the reason the Son took a human nature was to suffer for us in it, and that point is lost if the divine nature suffers too.
How it can harm a church
It often enters a church through well-meant pastoral counsel: "God is weeping with you." The comfort is real but thin, because a God who is overwhelmed by grief cannot carry us through it. Over time, it can make prayer feel like managing God's moods, and it softens members toward the larger revisions of open theism, which use the same arguments more consistently.
This page describes a teaching, not the faith of any person who holds it.
Where it comes up
Confessions: WCF 2.1; WCF 2.2; LBCF 1689 2.1
On this site: Doctrine of God
Related terms
Classical theismHistoric orthodoxy
The historic Christian teaching that God is infinite, eternal, unchanging, and perfect in himself, not dependent on or improved by his creation.
ImpassibilityHistoric orthodoxy
God is not subject to emotional change, suffering, or being overcome by creatures; his love and wrath are perfect and steady, not swings of feeling.
ImmutabilityHistoric orthodoxy
God does not change in his being, character, knowledge, or purposes.
Open theismSerious error
The teaching that God does not know the future free choices of people, because those choices do not yet exist to be known, so the future is partly open even to God.