A Systematic Theology of Love!

I’m thrilled to announce the publication of my newest writing. This is the first book ever written with the title, A Systematic Theology of Love.

I say this after scouring libraries and databases looking for books with this title. I found none. Perhaps a book with this title was written long ago or went unpublished. But to my knowledge, this is the first book called A Systematic Theology of Love.

Why?

One might think those who believe God is supremely loving and who also value conceptual consistency would have written many books with this title. The bald claim, “God is love,” is found in Christian scriptures, after all, and both Hebrew-language and Greek-language portions of scripture champion divine love.

Theists in Islam, Judaism, and other religious traditions also champion love and say God loves creation. And yet, to my knowledge, no one in those traditions has written a book called A Systematic Theology of Love.

In the first chapter of this book, I address this “Why?” question. I also define love and explain the open and relational theology undergirding this work.

Unusual Theology

This is the first of a three-volume systematic theology. As the subtitle indicates, I address in this book the doctrine of God proper, including the usual issues theologians ponder. But the responses I give to those issues differ from traditional fare. In some cases, those differences are radical!

The majority of this book addresses the details of what it might mean to believe in a loving, universal Spirit whom most of us call “God.” I address issues like God’s nature, what it means to be a spirit, divine knowledge, God’s relation to time, divine incorporeality, what it means to say God loves, whether God is personal, divine becoming, God’s relationality, and so much more.

An entire chapter is devoted to explaining why theists should stop saying God is omnipotent. But another chapter is devoted to a replacement view of divine power: amipotence. These chapters are my most developed writings on God’s power.

God and Creation

In the second part of this book, I address God as creator. I reject the creation from nothing theory and offer an alternative that I think better fits scripture, reason, science, and experience. That alternative says God is “the Ever Creator.”

I also wade through a host of issues pertaining to providence. Those issues include miracles, creaturely free will, the problem of good, emergence, agency among smaller entities, divine-creaturely collaboration, material-mental monism, and God’s will. In one chapter, I explore the problem of evil and solve it.

Formats

This book is now available in hardcover, paperback, ebook, and audiobook. The audiobook is so long I divided it, calling the second audiobook, “The Ever Creator and Amipotent Providence.” That second audiobook covers chapters 11-15.

As usual, I’m working with a host of online book distributors. In addition to Amazon, look for the book at your favorite outlet.

I’m excited to offer this new book, A Systematic Theology of Love! And I look forward to hearing responses from readers. For the Amazon link to the book, click here.