This book treats the presence of God and the presence of persons. The experience of the presence of God is a well-recognized religious experience in theistic traditions. The experience of the presence of persons, this book argues, is an analogous moral experience. As it is possible for individuals to come into the presence of God to have this phenomenal experience so it is possible for them to come into the presence of persons.

Kellenberger explores how coming into the presence of persons is structurally analogous with coming into the presence of God. Providing a highly focused analysis of the two seemingly distinct concepts, normally thought to fall under different subfields of philosophy, the chapters carefully draw paralells between them. Kellenberger then goes on show how, analogous to the death of God, a loss of the consciousness of the reality of God and his presence, is a death of persons, felt as a loss of the sense of the inherent worth ofpersons and their presence. This volume finishes with an examination of the concrete moral and religio-ethical implications of coming into the presence of persons, and in particular the implications of coming into the presence of all persons. 

James Kellenberger is Emeritus Professor of Philosophy at California State University, Northridge, USA. His previous books includeKierkegaard and Nietzsche,Dying to Self and Detachment, and, most recently,The Asymptote of Love and Religion, Pacifism, and Nonviolence.

1. Introduction.- 2. The Presence of Persons.- 3. The Moral Import of Persons.- 4. A Relationship to Persons.- 5. An Affective Response to Persons.- 6. A Recognition of the Inherent Worth of Persons.- 7. The Presence of God.- 8. The Religious Import of God.- 9. A Relationship to God.- 10. An Affective Response to God.- 11. The Recognition of God.- 12. The Presence of Persons and the Presence of God.- 13. The Death of God and the Death of Persons.- 14. Moral and Religio-Moral Implications.