Accountability to God

Abstract

Abstract This book proposes, develops, and analyses two concepts of accountability, as a condition and a virtue. The book also engineers these concepts to make them particularly apt for thinking about (1) accountability to God and (2) other relationships of accountability that exist under God. The conceptual work is primarily undertaken in the first part of the book, where a theological and a general case is built for the book’s particular view of accountability. The second part engages in the constructive work of developing a theology of accountability in relation to the doctrines of the Trinity, participation in Christ, the Fall, the fear of God, reconciliation, baptism, repentance, faith, and conversion. Over the course of the book, there is interaction with a number of major theologians, such as the apostle Paul, Augustine, Thomas Aquinas, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, and Karl Barth, and also extensive engagement with contemporary work in analytic philosophy, systematic theology (including analytic theology), biblical studies, and psychology. By bringing a diverse range of scholarship into discussion, this book is not only the first book to focus specifically on what it means to be accountable to God, but its originality is also reflected in the new conversations it creates on a range of issues that are central to the task of theology.