The Transgression of the Integrity of God

""In this dark, when we all talk at once, some of us must learn to whistle.""

In this comprehensive collection of his work, Craig Keen's voice emerges as that of a theologian who has indeed learned to whistle. In a day when much of what passes for academic ""theology"" is careful to maintain a safe distance from any determinate act of faith or work of praise, Keen evinces a single-minded determination to think and to speak, to write and to live doxologically. And whether writing or lecturing, teaching or conversing, Keen understands theology to be nothing less than an invitation to work out one's faith with fear and trembling.

Throughout this volume Keen argues that the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus disrupt all metaphysical attempts to determine the reality of ""God,"" and suggests instead that theology is to be done liturgically and eucharistically--as the work of a people whose labor is carried out with open hands, free from all attempts to grasp and control. Keen discusses doctrinal issues--the Trinity, incarnation, creation--as well as a number of critical theological concerns--church and culture, justice, holiness, Christian education--in this light. The result is a profound set of reflections on the ways in which the word of the cross simultaneously transgresses our constructions of ""God"" and gives us to live transgressively in love.


""We've come to expect from Craig Keen that he will make things theological more difficult and complex than we thought they were. Then, after inviting us to accompany him in several unfamiliar paths, he makes us more trusting of the gospel without insisting that we eschew the complexity or arrive at a presumptuous conclusion. Masterful teacher that he is, he proffers only accompaniment, in all the richness of that term, knowing that each one will find the way only by being found by the Way. This is the method of these essays. What they also reveal is a writer whose humility and deference to God's grace is palpable holiness. Would that this holy way could spread among theologians.""
--M. Douglas Meeks
Cal Turner Chancellor Professor of Theology and Wesleyan Studies
Vanderbilt Divinity School

""Talk of self-involving knowledge and performative speech has become so widespread in recent years that I almost hesitate to use it. But in relation to Craig Keen's work, there is really no alternative. Keen's writing is animated by a deep personal desire for an authentically kenotic existence, and a longing for the coming of a community of women and men who understand that they cannot live until they die. There is pain and anguish in these essays but there is also well-founded hope. I cannot read them without being reminded very forcibly of the crisis theology of the young Karl Barth. This is a book to be read and savored-and read again.""
--Bruce McCormack
Charles Hodge Professor of Systematic Theology
Princeton Theological Seminary


Craig Keen is Professor of Systematic Theology at Azusa Pacific University, Azusa, California. He is the author of the forthcoming After Crucifixion (Cascade Books).