Jonathan Edwards put it strikingly. God’s aim in creating the world, he said, was himself. But because this God’s very self is so different from that of any others, that means something utterly different from what it would mean with other gods. This God’s very self is found in giving, not taking. This God is like a fountain of goodness, and so, he said, “seeking himself” means seeking “himself diffused and expressed”—in other words, seeking to have himself, his life and his goodness shared.
