“Schaab has written a very accessible treatment of the God-world relationship, one that aims to exploit recent work in systematic theology that foregrounds relationality. Laudably, her starting point is explicitly not theological, as she wants to demonstrate the pervasiveness of a relational model of ‘the world’ through insights drawn from philosophy and the natural and behavioral sciences.

“Closely structured throughout, the first half of the book presents trinitarian theology via a threefold model of relations of origins, emergence, and effect, answering this in the second half with a parallel model of an evolving cosmos. The strength of this work is its ongoing attention to the role of language in shaping our understanding, with a fine overview of the use of metaphor in theology midway through the text.

“This overall attenuation of the notion of ‘relation’ is an important aspect of the argument’s credibility. Yet, as is sometimes true of recent work in Trinitarian theology, the desire to right a variety of social wrongs—dysfunctional families, racism, heterosexism, poverty—is the goal of trinitarian theology, or at least its best rationale. This can imply a reified notion of the equality of relations that mark God’s trinity, even in a nuanced treatment.

“Given the range of this discussion, many topics in the early chapters—for example, quantum mechanics—must be presented in a ‘digest’ form. Sometimes these seem to move toward the argument of the book too neatly, a problem that does not occur in Schaab’s targeted and thoughtful selection of theological insights in the second half of the book. In the end, however, her presentation of this work is effective, as she marshals a range of material toward a rich and multilayered account of the incarnation and the process of grace. The book would serve well as a text in upper-level undergraduate courses on the doctrine of God or as a starting point for courses that engage questions of science and religion.”