The God Who Lives: Investigating the Emergence of Life and the Doctrine of God

Christian theology has affirmed throughout its history that God is a living God. But what does it mean that God lives? Why does it matter? Does God live like us? If God does not live like us what is the difference between our living and Gods living? These are the questions Adam Pryor addresses in The God Who Lives. The book considers life as a conceptual problem examining how new studies about the emergence of life have critical implications for interpreting the religious symbol God is living. In particular Pryor suggests how absence and desire what is termed abstential desire are critical principles of life for scientific and philosophical thinking today. He goes on to develop a constructive theological proposal in which the theological meaning of the symbol God is living is interpreted in terms of the insights garnered from the principle of abstential desire concluding that God can be understood as akin to the role played by absence in living things. Life is an absent but effective whole in relation to the material parts of which it is comprised. God as living is a similarly effective absence in relation to the world. I am happy to very strongly recommend Adam Pryors new book The God Who Lives. This highly unusual theological work is remarkable and unique in every possible way. At the heart of this exciting book is the question of how the evolution or emergence of life relates to the philosophically complex question of who God is whether God is and if so where God actually exists. . . . Where this leads us is to a God who is living even a living absence but a God who is far from inert or inactive in this world and in our lives. --J. Wentzel van Huyssteen James I. McCord Professor of Theology and Science Princeton Theological Seminary In The God Who Lives Adam Pryor offers striking new insights into the traditional metaphor of the living God. From his deep engagement with anthropologist Terrance Deacons research on the biological emergence of life and his immersion in the philosophical literature on emergence Adam explores the concept of God as an effective absence in relation to the world. The God Who Lives is crucial reading for scholars and laypeople alike interested in the dynamic interaction between theology and science. --Robert Russell Ian G. Barbour Professor of Theology and Science Graduate Theological Union Adam Pryor is Assistant Professor of Religion at Bethany College in Lindsborg Kansas.