Professor McKelway points out that when we apply theology to human concerns, especially to the momentous issue of liberation, we customarily refer to the human face of God, to God's solidarity with and for us. But what about God's sovereignty, transcendence, and otherness? What about the way God is "free" from within?

The point of this timely book is that the freedom of God is indispensable for any theology that attempts to address the human condition. For example, when the church undertakes the cause of Christ on behalf of the oppressed, it is essential that the God to whom the poor turn for help not be a mere projection of human ideals and judgments, but the God who is God, and who is therefore able to deliver people from bondage. At the same time, however, human liberation should not be sought in the closed and hopeless circle of personal autonomy, but only in obedience to God's liberating activity.

Throughout this captivating book, Professor McKelway engages in dialogue with modern theologians and movements in his endeavor to reestablish God's absolute freedom as essential for our conception of human liberation and our actions in support of it.