The Concept of Divine Love in the Context of the God-World Relationship

Description

The Concept of Divine Love in the Context of the God-World Relationship addresses the significant and far-reaching theological conflict over the nature of God’s love, which is deeply rooted in broader conflicts regarding divine ontology and the nature of the God-world relationship. After engaging the traditional historical theology of love and recent exemplars of competing and influential conceptions of divine love, John C. Peckham seeks an alternative to the impasse by an extensive inductive investigation of the entire biblical canon in accordance with a final-form canonical approach to systematic theology, offering an alternative model of divine love that draws on the richness of the biblical text as canon and holds considerable implications for the God-world relationship. Cover Table of Contents Acknowledgments Editor’s Preface Abbreviations 1 Introduction Outline of Study Theological Method: A Final-Form Canonical Approach Method of Investigation and Presentation Methodological Issues of the Canonical Investigation 2 A Brief Survey of Divine Love in Historical Theology Plato’s Conception of Love Aristotle’s Conception of Love Augustine’s Conception of Love Thomas Aquinas’s Conception of Love Martin Luther’s Conception of Love Anders Nygren’s Conception of Love Conclusion 3 Conflicting Models of Divine Love Introduction The Transcendent-Voluntarist Model The Immanent-Experientialist Model The Extent of the Conflict of Interpretations 4 A Canonical Survey of Divine Love in the Old Testament The Meaning of the בהא Word Group The Volitional Aspect of Divine Love The Evaluative Aspect of Divine Love The Emotional Aspect of Divine Love The Foreconditional Aspect of Divine Love The Relational and Multilateral Aspect of Divine Love 5 A Canonical Survey of Divine Love in the New Testament The Primary Semantics of Divine Love in the NT The Volitional Aspect of Divine Love The Evaluative Aspect of Divine Love The Emotional Aspect of Divine Love The Foreconditional Aspect of Divine Love The Relational and Multilateral Aspect of Divine Love 6 A Canonical and Systematic Model of Divine Love in Relation to the World Overview of the Canonical Model of Divine Love in Relation to the World The Canonical Model of Divine Love in Relation to the World Unpacked A Critical Comparison of the Foreconditional-Reciprocal, Transcendent-Voluntarist, and Immanent-Experientialist Models Potential Implications for a Canonical Theo-Ontology Conclusion 7 Summary and Conclusions Introduction and Methodology of the Study Survey of the Historical Theology of Love Conflicting Interpretations of Divine Love The Canonical Investigation of Divine Love in Relation to the World A Canonical and Systematic Model of Divine Love in Relation to the World Conclusions Suggestions for Further Study Bibliography Index