This Present World

One can know something without being able to prove it to others. For what does one acquire by proving to others what one already knew aside from the fact that one already indeed knew what one did? And so it is with knowledge of God. Proving to others that God exists has nothing to do with knowing him. One could spend a whole lifetime attempting to prove God to others and yet never know him for oneself. Knowing God, which is a personal knowledge, a knowledge by acquaintance, means pressing deeper into the life he has ordained. This unusual book, Kierkegaardian in tone, is a continuation of previous works and an essential addition to DeLay's ongoing effort to revive Christian existentialism into a living philosophy through the "theological turn" of phenomenology.

Steven DeLay is a writer and philosopher living in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. An Old Member of Christ Church, Oxford, he is the author of numerous philosophical works and works of fiction, including Faint Not (2022), Everything (2022), and Elijah Newman Died Today (2023).