I think about love every day. As a Christian, l think love is the center of who God is and what God calls of me and others. As I see it, Jesus reveals love most fully. I also think love is pluriform. It’s not just helping the helpless, as important as that is. It’s not just […]

Philosophy always plays a role in Christian theology. This isn’t a bad thing; philosophy isn’t inherently evil. We’re all philosophers, in the general sense of thinking about things, and all theologies have philosophical assumptions. In fact, every statement about love – scholarly or not – incorporates philosophy, at least in the broad sense. Some philosophies […]

In my forthcoming book, Pluriform Love, I propose a new theological category: Essential Hesed. In this essay, I offer an excerpt from the book. Much precedes this and much comes after. But I offer this as a taste of what Essential Hesed says… God’s Steadfast Love Is God’s covenantal, loyal, and steadfast love for creation […]

I’m excited about my book, Pluriform Love, which is coming out in February! It’s an academic book. I think of it as a follow-up to my book, The Uncontrolling Love of God. Here’s an excerpt from the first chapter… The Primacy of Love It’s not hard to make a scriptural case for the primacy of […]

I’m writing a book I’m tentatively calling, “Pluriform Love.” Part of the task involves looking at major theologies of love in Christian history. I’m looking at Augustine’s thoughts and criticizing them harshly. Here’s an excerpt… Use or Enjoy A subsection of Augustine’s classic book, Teaching Christianity, is titled, “God Does Not Enjoy Us, But Makes […]

My number one goal is to live a life of love. That goal gives purpose to my life. It’s my primary intention. Because love is central, I seek a framework to make sense of love and the world. In my new book, I argue that Open and Relational Theology provides the best overall framework to […]

I drew often from personal experiences when writing my forthcoming book introducing Open and Relational Theology. In this essay, I talk about how I express receiving love and God does too. Thank You for that Sermon In my twenties, I served as an associate pastor in Walla Walla, Washington. (A town so good they named […]

I’m not surprised some people are blaming God. Maybe “crediting” God is more accurate. I’m reading social media posts saying the Coronavirus (Covid 19) is God’s will. Our current suffering is part of some predetermined divine plan. One post put it this way: “Sorry to break up the big panic, but the Coronavirus will not […]

An academic book of essays on love was recently published. My friend Kevin Vanhoozer wrote the first essay, and the second is my response. Kevin criticizes my theology of love in various ways, preferring instead John Webster’s theology. I address his criticisms in my full essay, but I thought I’d excerpt a portion here. For […]

I’ve been asking lately what fundamental ideas we need to establish a loving civilization. By “loving civilization” I mean what Christians often call “the kingdom of God.” I think it’s possible for civilization to become oriented around love. In a previous blog, I argued that the “kingdom of God” phrase has liabilities. I’m not the […]