Faith Matters Terryl Givens: The God Who Waits
Mar 29, 2026
Terryl Givens, scholar and author on Mormon theology and literature, reflects on W.H. Vanstone’s The Stature of Waiting. He explores divine vulnerability, the shift from acting to being acted upon in Jesus’s passion, and how waiting dignifies dependency. Short, thoughtful conversations consider love’s cost, reconciliation, and inhabiting seasons of helplessness.
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The Cost Of Love Over The Cost Of Sin
- Vanstone and Terryl Givens argue that theology should center the cost of love, not only the cost of sin, because genuine love requires vulnerability and exposure.
- Givens notes John’s relational framing of love: if love is genuine for us, it must be genuine for God as well, making God vulnerable by loving.
Passion Reframed As Being Handed Over
- Terryl Givens highlights a grammatical shift in the Passion narratives where Christ moves from actor to one who is handed over, reframing the Passion as revelation rather than mere tragedy.
- Vanstone emphasizes the Greek distinction between prodidomi (betray) and paradidomi (hand over), focusing attention on what Christ is being handed over to rather than the traitor's culpability.
London Soiree Recasts Christ As Model Of Agency And Vulnerability
- Givens recounts meeting a proto-Christian publisher in London and explaining Christianity through Vanstone's lens of agency and vulnerability.
- He framed Christ as modeling how to act for others' thriving while accepting being acted upon, inaugurated by Judas' handing over.
