Andrew Torrance is a Research Fellow in the School of Divinity, University of St Andrews, UK, and Project Leader for a major Templeton grant.

What is at the center of Kierkegaard’s diverse writings? Kierkegaard claimed that his whole authorship pertained to the issue of becoming a Christian, and Torrance (School of Divinity, Univ. of St. Andrews, UK) takes him at his word. He focuses on two of Kierkegaard’s questions: How does a human become a Christian? What is God’s relation to a human in the process of becoming a Christian? Conversion, in Torrance’s reading of Kierkegaard, is a process over time and cannot be reduced to a temporal instant, even if it begins at a specific time. According to Torrance, Kierkegaard holds that “as [a human] stands before the God who is love, she becomes transformed by this love, and thereby receives the freedom to love, which, up until that point, was an impossibility.” This may fit with a Lutheran theology of the bondage of the will, but some will seek a cooperative approach in which a human must freely and sympathetically cooperate with the divine love on offer for there to be conversion and transformation before God. The issue concerns how much human agency figures in conversion and transformation. Torrance develops his interpretation with considerable historical and thematic detail. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduates and above.

• Acknowledgements Abbreviations Introduction Chapter One: The Communication of the Christian Truth Chapter Two: The Possibility of Reconciliation Chapter Three: The Orientation of a Life Lived in Relationship with God Chapter Four: Christian Practice in Relationship with GodChapter Five: The Freedom to Become a Christian in Relationship with God Conclusion BibliographyIndex

Andrew Torrance is a Research Fellow in the School of Divinity, University of St Andrews, UK, and Project Leader for a major Templeton grant.

What is at the center of Kierkegaard’s diverse writings? Kierkegaard claimed that his whole authorship pertained to the issue of becoming a Christian, and Torrance (School of Divinity, Univ. of St. Andrews, UK) takes him at his word. He focuses on two of Kierkegaard’s questions: How does a human become a Christian? What is God’s relation to a human in the process of becoming a Christian? Conversion, in Torrance’s reading of Kierkegaard, is a process over time and cannot be reduced to a temporal instant, even if it begins at a specific time. According to Torrance, Kierkegaard holds that “as [a human] stands before the God who is love, she becomes transformed by this love, and thereby receives the freedom to love, which, up until that point, was an impossibility.” This may fit with a Lutheran theology of the bondage of the will, but some will seek a cooperative approach in which a human must freely and sympathetically cooperate with the divine love on offer for there to be conversion and transformation before God. The issue concerns how much human agency figures in conversion and transformation. Torrance develops his interpretation with considerable historical and thematic detail. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduates and above.

• Acknowledgements Abbreviations Introduction Chapter One: The Communication of the Christian Truth Chapter Two: The Possibility of Reconciliation Chapter Three: The Orientation of a Life Lived in Relationship with God Chapter Four: Christian Practice in Relationship with GodChapter Five: The Freedom to Become a Christian in Relationship with God Conclusion BibliographyIndex

Andrew Torrance is a Research Fellow in the School of Divinity, University of St Andrews, UK, and Project Leader for a major Templeton grant.

What is at the center of Kierkegaard’s diverse writings? Kierkegaard claimed that his whole authorship pertained to the issue of becoming a Christian, and Torrance (School of Divinity, Univ. of St. Andrews, UK) takes him at his word. He focuses on two of Kierkegaard’s questions: How does a human become a Christian? What is God’s relation to a human in the process of becoming a Christian? Conversion, in Torrance’s reading of Kierkegaard, is a process over time and cannot be reduced to a temporal instant, even if it begins at a specific time. According to Torrance, Kierkegaard holds that “as [a human] stands before the God who is love, she becomes transformed by this love, and thereby receives the freedom to love, which, up until that point, was an impossibility.” This may fit with a Lutheran theology of the bondage of the will, but some will seek a cooperative approach in which a human must freely and sympathetically cooperate with the divine love on offer for there to be conversion and transformation before God. The issue concerns how much human agency figures in conversion and transformation. Torrance develops his interpretation with considerable historical and thematic detail. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduates and above.

• Acknowledgements Abbreviations Introduction Chapter One: The Communication of the Christian Truth Chapter Two: The Possibility of Reconciliation Chapter Three: The Orientation of a Life Lived in Relationship with God Chapter Four: Christian Practice in Relationship with GodChapter Five: The Freedom to Become a Christian in Relationship with God Conclusion BibliographyIndex