August 10, 2006

MINNEAPOLIS – The lively interest today in the historical figure of Jesus is rarely matched by theological advances in understanding his person and significance for our own time and worldview. Gordon Kaufman takes up this challenge in a bold, speculative work entitled Jesus and Creativity.

Despite the fabled difficulties of traditional Christological terms, few theologians since Tillich and Teilhard have sought to re-envision the symbol of Christ within the contemporary scientific worldview.

Building on his notion of God as creativity itself, Kaufman here locates the meaning of Jesus' salvific story within an evolving and threatened universe. Outside the dualistic categories of the biblical worldview, he finds, the enormously creative and influential figure of the historic Christ can have a vital role in the emergence and development of the cosmos and human history. Within that role, he argues, Jesus, his relation to God, and his centrality to Christian faith become clearer and our own lives and actions take on ultimate cosmic significance.

"The most recent stage of Kaufman's thinking, as it is embodied in this book, has attained an admirable simplicity, power, and relevance to the needs of our day. He calls us to embody the creativity that came vividly to expression in Jesus and in the historical trajectory of his influence. Kaufman frees his Christian theology from every trace of mythological and supernaturalist thinking without diminishing its importance for today's world." – John B. Cobb Jr., Ingraham Professor of Theology Emeritus, Claremont Graduate University.

"In Jesus and Creativity, Gordon Kaufman continues his monumental effort to rethink Christian theology in naturalist and historicist terms. Repudiating outmoded versions of supernaturalism, Kaufman argues for reimagining the central symbols of the Christian tradition in light of contemporary scientific interpretations of reality. . . Kaufman boldly argues for a Christian theology open to other disciplines and religious traditions and one that faces the challenges of the moment without recourse to forms of special pleading that are not only intellectually unacceptable today but are dangerous to the future of humanity and to all who share our earth." – Sheila Greeve Davaney, Harvey H. Potthoff Professor of Christian Theology, Iliff School of Theology.

Gordon D. Kaufman is Edwin Mallinckrodt Jr. Professor of Theology Emeritus at Harvard Divinity School. His many important theological works include God-Mystery-Diversity (1996) and In the Beginning – Creativity (2004).

Jesus and Creativity, By Gordon D. Kaufman, Format: 5.5" x 8.5," jacketed hardcover, 144 pp, ISBN: 0-8006-3798-4, Price: $20.00, Publisher: Fortress Press, Rights: World.

To order Jesus and Creativity please call Fortress Press at 1-800-328-4648 or visit the Web site at http://www.fortresspress.com/.

Fortress Press