In the Beginning...Creativity by Gordon D. Kaufman

In the Beginning...Creativity by Gordon D. Kaufman

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


Kaufman posits God as the unfolding creative force behind creation and human creativity--a seemingly great idea. But I found his theology hugely disappointing, and only toward the end of the book, when he shares the evolution of his theological thinking, did I realize why. Despite devoting his life to theology, Kaufman has never had a personal experience of divinity (he writes off Christian mystical tradition with a single sentence), and instead sees "God" as a worthy symbol for steering human behavior. As such, we can shape that symbol to encourage a more just and loving relationship to one another and to the planet. So he replaces the "God" symbol with the fact of unfolding creativity.



What I find baffling about theologians like Kaufman is that they seem completely ignorant of the creative process--the human experience of engaging in a creative act, and how very relational this process can be. At the end of this book, I felt like Flannery O'Connor--if it's just a metaphor, to hell with it. Human beings can actively engage with a creative, loving, just source that is not simply a symbol but a lived reality. Once again, here's an example of a smart person dismissing the power of imagination. Just because humans have created "God" as an imaginative symbol does not mean that God does not exist. We co-create in relationship with this mystery.



View all my reviews