This book, first published in 1979, contains Gordon Kaufman's initial attempt to articulate his conviction that theology is, and always has been, an activity of what he calls the "imaginative construction" of a comprehensive and coherent picture of humanity in the world under God. While Kaufman's 1993 work, In Face of Mystery, qualifies and deepens the programmatic proposals offered in An Essay on Theological Method, the earlier book nevertheless remains a sound and accessible statement on theological method by one of America's most distinguished theologians. The Third Edition includes an extensive new Preface by the author, and an appendix on "The Three Moments of Theological Construction."

"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 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 this bold, speculative work. Despite the fabled difficulties of traditional Christological terms, Kaufman seeks to re-envision the symbol of Jesus within the contemporary scientific worldview. Building on his notion of God as simply creativity, he here locates the meaning of Jesus' salvific story within an evolving universe and a threatened planet. Outside the dualistic categories of the biblical worldview, he finds, the enormously creative and influential figure of the historic Jesus 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 a new meaning. Gordon D. Kaufman is Professor of Theology Emeritus at Harvard Divinity School. His many important theological works include his Essay on Theological Method (1975, 3rd edition 1995), Theology for a Nuclear Age (1985), In Face of Mystery (1993), God-Mystery-Diversity (Fortress Press, 1996), and In the beginning . . .Creativity (Fortress Press, 2004).

- Important contemporary articulation of the concept of God by a leading theologian
- Helpful as a sketch of the development of and problems with the traditional idea of God

The possibility of a nuclear holocaust has brought humankind into a radically new, unprecedented, and unanticipated religious situation. Gordon D. Kaufman offers a cogent and original analysis of this predicament, outlining specific proposals for reconceiving the central concerns and symbols of Christian faith. He begins with an account of a visit to Peace Park in the rebuilt city of Hiroshima. Reflecting upon this experience, Kaufman foresees that further use of nuclear weapons will result not in rebuilding but in annihilation of the human enterprise.

In this challenging work, Gordon Kaufman asserts that the prime task of theology is the imaginative construction of the doctrine of God. Kaufman maintains that both the absoluteness of the divinity and our own necessity demand that we construct the doctrine of God critically and in a manner appropriate to our own time and place. In thorough examinations of God and theology, Christ and christology, and of the ultimate foundations of religious thought, he shows how this construction can be accomplished faithfully and in full realization of our own humanity.