The Disciplined Heart

by Caroline J. Simon

Overview

Often what passes for love is a product of self-deception and wishful thinking. Genuine love, according to philosopher Caroline J. Simon, must be based on knowledge of reality, and Christianity affirms that reality includes not just who people are but the unfolding story of who God intends them to be.

Taking the use of narrative seriously, The Disciplined Heart draws on works of literature to display a Christian understanding of love in its various forms: love of self, love of neighbor, friendship, romantic love, and marital love. Using instances of love and its counterfeits in novels and short stories by such authors as Flannery O'Connor, Leo Tolstoy, George Eliot, and F. Scott Fitzgerald, Simon constructs an account of love's joys and obligations that both charms and instructs. Learned, astute, and elegantly written, The Disciplined Heart is a groundbreaking work at the intersection of theology, philosophy, and literary analysis.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780802842060
Publisher:	Eerdmans, William B. Publishing Company
Publication date:	03/25/1997
Pages:	224
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.51(d)

About the Author

Caroline J. Simon is provost and executive vice president at Whitworth University, Spokane, Washington.

Table of Contents

Introduction

1. Love and Love's Counterfeits
2. Love and Self-Knowledge
3. Knowing and Loving One's Neighbor
4. Knowing and Loving One's Friends
5. Romantic Love and Marital Love
6. Friendship between the Sexes

Epilogue: Toward the Communion of Saints
Selected Bibliography
Index

Editorial Reviews

— Publishers Weekly
"A penetrating and illuminating glimpse into the vagaries of human love."

— Booklist
"Caroline J. Simon's book is not only a lucid philosophical examination of love but also an important contribution to contemporary philosophical and theological discussion of narrative. It is accessibly written and will appeal to a broad general audience; but it will also be of interest to specialists concerned particularly with the influence of Anders Nygren in Protestant theology and with discussion of both love and narrative in such philosophers as Martha Nussbaum and Iris Murdoch. Readers will appreciate Simon's perceptive discussion of fictional works by Flannery O'Connor, Leo Tolstoy, William Kennedy, F. Scott Fitzgerald, George Eliot, Wallace Stegner, and Isak Dinesen, as well as her discussion of correspondence between Leslie Marmon Silko and James Wright. The book is a delight, both for Simon's insights and for her pointers to others who have participated and are participating in a lively conversation about love and friendship. "

Miroslav Volf
"This is a wise book, written in an engaging dialogue with some of our best novelists, philosophers, and theologians. Simon's profound reflections about the light that love sheds by the fire it carries deserve a wide audience."

William Hasker
"Caroline Simon has given us a wonderful book. She anatomizes our various loves in a way that is challenging, richly insightful, and at times disturbing. The Disciplined Heart invites comparison with C. S. Lewis's The Four Loves, and in some ways surpasses it."

From the Publisher

An accessible and provocative discussion.

Journal of Religion

To a world obsessed with sexuality, Simon offers a wise and provocative book on love.

Religious Studies Review

Simon's book offers a penetrating and illuminating glimpse into the vagaries of human love and the wonders of God's grace.

Publishers Weekly

A perceptive philosophical discussion on human love in all its multifacetedness. Treating friendship between members of the same as well as the opposite sex, romantic and marital love, and community, the author writes deftly in the Christian tradition, using philosophy, fictional narrative, and theology to shed light on a pivotal human truth.

Touchstone

In this book, Simon, a professor of philosophy at Hope College, examines works by Flannery O'Connor, Tolstoy, Isak Dinesen and Wallace Stegner in hopes of unraveling the mystery of human love. Through her reading of various literary works, Simon poses several questions that touch upon many Christians' lives: Are there types of affection that Christians should avoid? Should a Christian aspire to be everyone's friend? How can we be sure that we are becoming what God intends us to be, and doing what he intends us to do? Studying fictional lives for clues to our own, Simon suggests, can teach us how to discipline our hearts in the mysteries of love and grace. In the end, Simon argues that we live in darkness, growing toward God in fits and starts, not knowing with any certainty that we walk a holy way. But the living itself teaches us how to love. By grace we fulfill our destinies and by grace come insights, however fleeting, into the destinies of those we love. Simon's book offers a penetrating and illuminating glimpse into the vagaries of human love and the wonders of God's grace. (Mar.)

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly