Limited Sovereignty?

Reformed theology has always stressed the utter sovereignty of God. He has planned all things, and works all things.

But in certain forms of Reformed theology, this is subtly undermined and turns into its opposite.

I’m thinking of Reformed theology (a hyper-Calvinist tendency) that so stresses God’s sovereignty that it effectively cancels out created will, freedom, and action. Zero-sum games are rife in this sort of Reformed theology: If God does X, creatures don’t.

Zero-sum games assume that God and creation are on the same plane, exercising the same sort of power and causality, only that God’s power is so ever much greater.

That assumption brings God down from His throne, and treats Him as a very powerful finite being. 

God’s sovereignty is properly protected only if it encompasses and includes human will, freedom, and action, only if it underwrites and enables all creaturely powers.

God is truly sovereign only if He gives creatures the power to cause. He is the giver of all things only if He gives the capacity to give back.

Monergism doesn’t cancel divine-human reciprocity; it underwrites reciprocity.