Can God Change? A Theologian Changes His Mind

Yesterday, I came across this interview between Richard Hays and Peter Wehner in The New York Times.  Richard Hays is a theologian who published a book arguing against gay marriage and arguing even against gay and lesbian marriage.  That was back in 1996, and now, he has changed his mind; now he has published a new book, The Widening of God’s Mercy (what a great title and a great concept).

In the interview, Hays resists saying that God can change.  He's not saying that it's not possible, but he always circles back to the necessity of realizing that we can't possibly know.  Peter Wehner points out that if God can change, if the way we interpret scripture can change, that there's a great risk of only picking out passages that support whatever line of thought we're having at a particular time; Wehner asks Hays about his earlier beliefs and what Hays would say to his earlier self.  Hays says, "Yeah, but the shape of the whole biblical story gives us a pattern, a pattern of grace that is played out again and again, where we see God’s mercy broadening in ways that were unforeseen in earlier experience of the people of God."

Hays points out that there are plenty of scriptural ideas that we are willing to say are of their time and not relevant to ours, like Paul's ideas about slavery.  Why shouldn't sexual behaviors be seen similarly?

He also points out that there are practices described, like Jews and Gentiles eating together, that would have been incredibly shocking at the time, but now we don't even register them as an issue at all.

The interview circles back to whether or not God can change.  The idea of a God who changes is a dealbreaker for some Christians, but Hays is open to the idea, and can show places in the Bible text as evidence of God changing.  There's actually a whole theology that explores this, process theology, but Hays doesn't really mention it.

Hays is facing a reoccurrence of cancer which led him to write this book.  He also talks about the practice that he and his wife have, one they adopted with the first diagnosis, of reading a Psalm every night after dinner.

It's a long interview, but well worth a read.  I'm happy that a major newspaper gave the space to it.