The Analogy of Love

This book offers an overview of Christian theology organized around the twin themes of divine and human love. The book covers the traditional theological topics as well as basic questions of theological method. It seeks to integrate a focus on love throughout. While love is regularly canvassed as a dominant theme in Christian thought, it has rarely been the focus of Christian theological construction or a constraint on theological formulation. The book seeks to suggest, chapter by chapter, how a given topic relates to the broad theme of love.The book is written in a way designed to make it accessible to university students and educated laypersons. At the same time, it takes positions on controverted scholarly issues, and the methodological approach outlined at the beginning will be of interest to academic theologians.

Keywords: Christian theology, divine love, human love, complacency, belief, revelation, faith, God, trinitarian doctrine, holy spirit, suffering, divine power, religion, prayer, creation, ethics, morality, creative love, disordered love, sin and harm, Jesus, salvation, healing, growth, spirituality, predestination, community, hope