creation, generally, with his moral creatures, more directly, and with his own people, most
specifically. How may we best describe the way in which God relates to the world, to moral
beings, and to his people? Along with this question, a host of others faces us. What is the nature
of Gods rulership over the world he has made? Does he govern all with meticulous exactness or
does he set in motion patterns of operation which "self-govern," as it were, requiring only
irregular and occasional interruptions into their orderly workings? If his governance is
meticulous, can this nonetheless utilize patterns of operation (i.e., laws of nature) over which he
exercises watchful oversight, permitting what he will and causing what he will in the workings of
the natural order? What sort of moral natures has he given to the moral beings (angels and
humans) he has made? Are they free in the exercise of their moral wills? And what
understanding of this freedom best accounts for biblical teaching relating both to the exercise of
human moral choosing and to the culpability attached to those choices? And what understanding
of this freedom also best accounts for human experience as we know it? What do "real"
relations between God and humans require? Is a certain kind of freedom necessary for real
relations to occur? Must the God-human relationship be characterized by qualities normally
associated with human relationships? Or is the God-human relationship "real" yet significantly
unlike human relationships? If it is analogous but not identical to human relationships, where are
the lines of commonality and where are the differences? And the questions could go on and on.
notoriously difficult and complex. Here in this brief paper, I have two goals. First, much has
been written over the past several years about some of the common models of the divine-human
relation, such as those proposed in process theology, classic Arminianism, Molinism, and more
recently in open theism. One recent variation of the openness model, however, deserves some
comment, viz., Greg Boyds proposal of what he calls "neo-Molinism." Does this provide an
adequate model for understanding how God works with and relates to his moral creatures? Since
this is a relatively new and less known approach, I wish to offer some brief critique of it.
Following this, second, I wish to provide a sketch for a framework for thinking about God-
human relations in ways that acknowledge Gods meticulous sovereign governance over all the