This book argues that much “consolation” of persons anguished by others’ suffering is theologically problematic because it assumes that unrestricted power is what makes God “God.” Against that, it outlines an account of “what” and “who” the Triune God is framed in terms of God’s intrinsic “glory,” the attractive and self-expressive self-giving in love that is God’s life and sets limits to the range of things we can say God “does.” Correlatively, it offers an account of different senses in which God is “sovereign” and “powerful” in three ways God relates to all else: to create, to bless eschatologically, and to reconcile, as scripturally narrated.

The power of the Triune God’s intrinsic sovereignty is variously expressed in qualities of the power of God’s sovereignty in different strands of the economy. God’s way of relating in each strand of the economy is intrinsically powerfully self-regulated (“sovereign”) toward different goods for creatures. Hence, there is no one sense in which God is “powerful.” However, all of the strands express two qualities of the power of God’s intrinsic sovereignty: free provenience and self-binding to realize discrete goods for creatures in their kinds. Hence, in each strand God powerfully relates to realize certain goods for creatures in ways that are self-bound not to conflict with creatures in ways that violate their integrities as creatures in their kinds. As an example, this is exhibited in regard to the Triune God’s relating in creative blessing by analysis of implications of the taxis in which the “Persons” are engaged in creation.