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Together Bound: God, History, and the Religious Community . By Kirkpatrick Frank G.. New York: Oxford University Press, 1994. xiii + 195 pages. $28.00.

This book is a contribution to the ongoing discussion of the meaning and truth of Christian claims that God acts in our world. Kirkpatrick's thesis is that we can think about such a God only if we are "together bound" to each other by a God who creates and redeems us. He says he assumes (a) that most of those who seriously call themselves Christian would say that they (or someone they trust) has had an experience of a reality they name "God" and (b) that "the biblical picture of God" conforms to that experience. He aims to explore "the apparently straightforward claims" of these people about this God who is bound together with them—and to do this by arguing that "there is a coherent set of concepts drawn from our experience of ourselves and others as personal agents that can give rational meaning to this experience of God" (vii-viii). He proceeds by first distinguishing monism (mystical identity of substance between God and the world [14,18]), dualism (the traditional Christian view of God as absolutely transcendent [14-15]), and pluralism (God is a personal agent who acts in a world of other agents). He then criticizes the first two options in chapters 2 through 4. Next, he explicates the pluralist position which has God as "The Supreme Historical Agent" in "literal" or " 'literal'" or "partially literal" relationship with other beings (15, 27, 80, 103). Kirkpatrick makes a case for God as agent not simply of everything but also of particular acts in history (80) and he does not hestitate to make sense of talk of God "interfering" with our world (90).