Love, Human And Divine

Love, Human And Divine

Love, Human And Divine

Love, Human And Divine

Paperback(New Edition)

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Overview

Although the two great commandments to love God and to love our neighbors as ourselves are central to Christianity, few theologians or spiritual writers have undertaken an extensive account of the meaning and forms of these loves. Most accounts, in fact, make love of God and love of self either impossible or immoral. Integrating these two commandments, Edward Vacek, SJ, develops an original account of love as the theological foundation for Christian ethics.

Vacek criticizes common understandings of agape, eros, and philia, examining the arguments of Aquinas, Nygren, Outka, Rahner, Scheler, and other theologians and philosophers. He defines love as an emotional, affirmative participation in the beloved's real and ideal goodness, and he extends this definition to the love between God and self. Vacek proposes that the heart of Christian moral life is loving cooperation with God in a mutually perfecting friendship.


Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780878406272
Publisher: Georgetown University Press
Publication date: 04/01/2004
Series: Moral Traditions and Moral Arguments Series
Edition description: New Edition
Pages: 376
Product dimensions: 6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.84(d)
Age Range: 18 Years

About the Author

Edward Collins Vacek, SJ, is professor of moral theology at the Weston School of Theology.

What People are Saying About This

Vacek has brought a breadth of experience and a depth of knowledge, theological and ethical, historical and contemporary, to this systematic new interpretation of Christian love. . . . scholarly, perceptive, clear and well-written.

Lisa Sowle Cahill

Vacek surmounts today's debates in Catholic ethics. He overcomes the gap in Catholic tradition between human morality (natural law) and Christian morality by grounding Christian ethics in a spirituality. Vacek argues that the perfection of love is neither self-denial nor self-fulfillment, but personal friendship. He applies a sensitive, nuanced, and probing intelligence to the human experience of love.

Richard A. McCormick

Nothing in Christian ethics is more important than love. Edward Vacek reviews in masterly but readable fashion the many dimensions of this absolutely central notion. This book, based on broad and critical research, should be a standard reference for years to come.

Charles E. Curran

Vacek has brought a breadth of experience and a depth of knowledge, theological and ethical, historical and contemporary, to this systematic new interpretation of Christian love. . . . scholarly, perceptive, clear and well-written.

David Hollenbach

Vacek breaks through the polemics that have too often dominated twentieth-century discussions to a view of Christian love that is simultaneously humanistic and God-centered. Deeply informed both by reflection on the experience of love and by the vast literature about it, this book makes a creative contribution to a Christian ethic that achieves its fulfillment in friendship with God. An important achievement.

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