The Gift of the Self

A preliminary cruciform theology using the metaphor of a gift as its thematic principle, this book is intended to articulate a foundation for a Christian theology centered around the concept of God's Way of self-gift. Using the Cross of Christ as a starting point for a doctrine of God, The Gift of the Self utilizes insights from biblical studies, the sciences, and Open and Relational Theology to construct a Christian framework that is compatible with the life and death of Jesus Christ as fully revelatory of God's Personhood. This book engages issues of systematic theology, metaphysics, and ethics in hopes to deconstruct and reconstruct a conceptualization of God's character and power that is most consistent with the Cross, as well as a vision for the vocation of the community of faith. Finally, a seven-day liturgy thematized around generosity and the book's primary topics is included so that the reader might become more spiritually formed around this fresh contextualization of the ancient Christian faith. As such, the underlying purpose of The Gift of the Self is to construct a plausible Christian worldview for a post-Christian context, rooted totally in the Way of Christ, as an alternative to some of the dominant forms of historic Christianity that do not take seriously the Cross's critique of unilateral power and communal exclusivity. The author intends that embracing this worldview oriented by self-gift can help transform the Church from a power-seeking organization to a peace-seeking community.