In Face of Reality: The Constructive Theology of Gordon D. Kaufman

by Thomas A. James

This study of the work of the late Harvard theologian Gordon Kaufman interprets his career from his first published book , Relativism, Knowledge, and Faith (1960) through his last, Jesus and Creativity (2006). James characterizes Kaufman's mature position as a sophisticated reconstruction of divine activity, one which makes use of recent scientific theory and its naturalistic assumptions but which remains rooted in classical theological tradition. After developing a critical analysis of the limitations and possibilities of Kaufman's "radical naturalism," James offers a constructive reinterpretation of the meaning of human flourishing, which, he argues, opens the prospect of a more consistently naturalistic as well as theocentric theology. 

202 pages, Paperback

First published April 1, 2011