Gordon D. Kaufman, an esteemed theologian, probes the nature of God and the human experience, exploring how our understanding of the divine evolves within the modern world. His writings are characterized by their rigorous intellectual depth, striving to integrate theology with philosophical and scientific reflection. Readers are drawn to his bold engagement with traditional theological questions and his persistent pursuit of a constructive theology relevant to contemporary thought. Kaufman's work offers a profound and challenging perspective on faith in the twenty-first century.
Kaufman reinterprets the symbol of Jesus through a contemporary scientific lens, addressing the challenges of traditional Christological terms. He proposes that God embodies creativity and situates the significance of Jesus' salvific narrative within the context of an evolving universe and environmental concerns. This fresh perspective aims to connect spiritual meaning with modern existential realities.
Gordon Kaufman's bold and highly regarded works over the last thirty years have pushed theologians to examine honestly, if painfully, their most cherished assumptions about God. Now, in this major contribution to the theology-and-science debate, he argues that our traditional thinking about and worship of God have prepared us badly for perhaps the most important problem we face today - the ecological crisis. Kaufman begins with a survey of the pluriform development and effects of the notion of God. He then demonstrates how these concepts of God have become out of sync with contemporary understandings of the world and humanity. He offers an alternative concept by distinguishing the different modalities of creativity as they figure in the creation of the universe, the cosmic evolutionary process (especially the emergence of life), and human symbolic creativity. Finally, he sketches their interconnections and demonstrates in what way they stand for the divine. This volume not only develops further than ever before Kaufman's idea of God as creativity but also shows what it would mean to think of God in this way, to live with faith in this God, and to cooperate with the divine in meeting our most pressing challenges.