Gordon D. Kaufman
A few months ago I came across Professor Kaufman’s description of God as serendipitous creativity. I was immediately intrigued. It resonates with my experience that God is big—can encompass a whole range of descriptions while always remaining beyond description.
According to Wikipedia, “Gordon Dester Kaufman (22 June 1925 – 22 July 2011) was an American theologian and the Mallinckrodt Professor of Divinity at Harvard Divinity School, where he taught for over three decades beginning in 1963.[1] He also taught at Pomona College and Vanderbilt University, and lectured in India, Japan, South Africa, England, and Hong Kong. Kaufman was an ordained minister in the Mennonite Church for 50 years.”
You can learn more about him in the resources below; also at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gordon_D._Kaufman.
In His Own Words
“Creativity inspired by the radical Jesus should be healing, redemptive, reconciling in our suffering world.
The self-giving agape-love that Jesus advocated and exemplified during his life will inspire us, we can hope, to find ways that will create a more truly humane world for the future.
The creativity of Jesus continues…”
Publications
- A Religious Interpretation of Emergence: Creativity as God (Zygon, 2007-12, Vol.42 (4), p.915-928)
- On Thinking of God as Serendipitous Creativity (Journal of the American Academy of Religion, 2001-06-01, Vol.69 (2), p.409-425)
- Ecological Consciousness and the Symbol “God” (Buddhist-Christian studies, 2000-01-01, Vol.20 (1), p.3-22)
- Re-Conceiving God and Humanity in Light of Today’s Evolutionary-Ecological Consciousness (Zygon, 2001-06, Vol.36 (2), p.335-348)
- In the Beginning – Creativity (Heythrop Journal, 2008-07-01, Vol.49 (4), p.712)
- My Life and My Theological Reflection: Two Central Themes(American journal of theology & philosophy, 2001-01-01, Vol.22 (1), p.3-32)