In his commentary on the Song of Songs, Jenson makes the startling claim that “the Bible’s God is sheer contingency.” He elaborates: “He is the one who chooses what he chooses because he chooses it; he is the one who is what he is because he is it; and for whom the coincidence of fact and reason is not necessity but freedom. In consequence, his relation to Israel and the church can only be truly described with such alarming concepts as election or predestination – or love.”
Which makes one wonder: How did Calvinism, with its overt affirmations of predestination, ever get mixed up with determinism and necessity?
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