Introduction

Abstract

This book is about God-relationships with and without God. For not all religions call Divine Reality ‘God’, but virtually all the main religions, I shall argue, allow relationships to Divine Reality. While this book is about God-relationships, its concerns are with two distinct areas within philosophical and religious thought. One is religious morality; the other is religious plurality. Both, it seems to me, can gain light from reflection on the nature of God-relationships. Accordingly the book falls into two parts. The first part, consisting of Chapters 1 and 2, treats God-relationships and religious morality, or the determination of praxis; and the second part, consisting of Chapters 3 and 4, treats the varieties of God- relationships and the issue of religious plurality. The first part addresses God-relationships within the theistic framework of the Western heritage, with a primary focus on the Christian tradition. However the discussion in the second part will be widened to include God-relationships, or relationships to Divine Reality, in non-Western and non-theistic religions.