Towards a Theology of Relationship: Emil Brunner's Truth as Encounter in Light of Relationship Science, MichaelBerra, Eugene, Pickwick Publications, 2022 (ISBN 9781666737653), xvii + 248 pp., Pb $36

Michael Berra's work draws from the scholarship of Emil Brunner, a Swiss Reformed theologian, in developing the understanding of what it means to be in relationship with Jesus Christ and consequently one another in today's world, given the importance of the oft-used phrase 'having a personal relationship with Jesus Christ' in Christian circles.The book's central thesis argues that 'the human's interaction with the divine actually is very personal and is very much an actual relationship.Furthermore the analogy and language of relationship is the most adequate mode to speak about the Christian faith and consequently should be the leitmotif in theology' (p.5).Berra thereby proposes a particular way of understanding and doing theology-in a more relational way, and not just the more traditional forms of organized religion, using the work of Emil Brunner as a framework and the concept of relationship as theological leitmotif.The book itself is divided into four parts.Part One introduces the work of Emil Brunner and establishes his work as a relational theologian, using the concept of 'truth as encounter' as a theological leitmotif.Part Two explores this further by delving into the 'personal correspondence' of the God-human relationship, leading to a discussion of five characteristics of the said relationship: freedom, asymmetry, reciprocity, self-disclosure and responsiveness.Part Three develops Part Two further, given the difficulties of using relationship terminology and one's context today, while also using relationship science: Berra describes how 'commitment and trust summarize well the dynamic and goal of God-human relationships and correspond with Brunner's structure of call and answer.Intimacy matches precisely what Brunner terms personal correspondence or an I-You relationship' (p.166).Berra also argues that the God-human relationship is asymmetric due to the power differential at work and that 'the two central terms of intimacy, self-disclosure and responsiveness, take on the uttermost meaning in God's commitment to humanity and are biblically summarized by the term love, agape, as the very heart of God's