Total Presence: The Language of Jesus and the Language of Today

by Thomas J.J. Altizer

Total Presence is a miniature theology of history, whose revealing chapter titles—The Parabolic Jesus, The Anonymity of God, The Kingdom of God, History and Eschatology, Praxis and Apocalypse, and The Solitude of the End (which concludes with a section on absolute solitude)— attempts to at least partially comprehend the Bible, the Classical world, modernity, and Buddhism. It is limited to the high points of these worlds. Altizer is often asked if one is to read only one book of his which one should it be and he is now tempted to answer, Total Presence. He feels this may well be his best book, “surely my best presentation of Jesus and the Kingdom of God, and it also embraces a larger arena than any of my other books . . . .” This small book contains a full systematic theology, covering all of the points that are fundamental in his theology.

108 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1980

About the author

Thomas Jonathan Jackson Altizer was a radical theologian who is known for incorporating Friedrich Nietzsche's conception of the "death of God" and G. W. F. Hegel's dialectical philosophy into his systematic theology.