{"id":6495,"date":"2022-10-28T10:21:28","date_gmt":"2022-10-28T17:21:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thomasjayoord.com\/index.php\/blog\/archives\/"},"modified":"2022-10-28T10:29:07","modified_gmt":"2022-10-28T17:29:07","slug":"a-theology-of-love-50-years-later","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thomasjayoord.com\/index.php\/blog\/archives\/a-theology-of-love-50-years-later","title":{"rendered":"A Theology of Love – 50 Years Later"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Fifty years ago, a little-known theologian named Mildred Bangs Wynkoop published a provocative book.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That book, A Theology of Love: The Dynamic of Wesleyanism<\/em>, still sparks conversation and controversy today. It presents a powerful argument for love as Christian theology\u2019s priority.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Love as Central<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The first third of\u00a0A Theology of Love<\/em>\u00a0offers the heart of Wynkoop\u2019s argument. She draws from the Bible and John Wesley\u2019s theology to argue that we best understand Christian theology when love is front and center.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

\u201c<\/em>When each doctrine of the Christian faith \u00a0is identified and defined by [John Wesley],\u201d writes Wynkoop, \u201cthe basic meaning invariably comes out \u2018love.\u2019\u201d This means that \u201cif one is committed to a Wesleyan theology, he must realize that his commitment is to a theology of love.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wynkoop argues that Jesus Christ provides the fullest revelation of who God is. Christological revelation suggests that love is God\u2019s reigning (but not only) attribute. Jesus called God \u201cAbba,\u201d and he declared the greatest two commandments to be love for God and others as oneself. \u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Past and present theologians have not agreed with Wynkoop.\u00a0 They question whether love can play the central role in theology.\u00a0They worry that love \u2013 without qualification \u2013 is too sentimental and mushy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wynkoop counters this charge. \u201cLove is not a soft, permissive cover-up of human personality,\u201d she says. \u201cLove\u2026 is the disciplining of human reactions.\u201d \u00a0I have addressed Wynkoop’s view of love in various books and this blog essay.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Furthermore, says Wynkoop, \u201cChristian love creates an atmosphere in which all the creative conflicts may not only exist but be matured and fully utilized without tearing apart the fabric of Christian unity.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Upcoming Conference Celebrates A Theology of Love<\/em><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

On November 12, a group of Wynkoop scholars is coming together to celebrate the 50th anniversary of A Theology of Love<\/em>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This fully-online conference features Tim Gaines, Stan Ingersol, Diane Leclerc, Michael Lodahl, Jenny Matheny, L Michaels, Thomas Jay Oord, Keegan Osinksi, and Johan Tredeaux. Four hour-long sessions that comprise the conference will be recorded and made available as downloads for 3 months to those who register.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For more information and to register, see this link.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Fifty years ago, a little-known theologian named Mildred Bangs Wynkoop published a provocative book. That book, A Theology of Love: The Dynamic of Wesleyanism, still sparks conversation and controversy today. It presents a powerful argument for love as Christian theology\u2019s priority. Love as Central The first third of\u00a0A Theology of Love\u00a0offers the heart of Wynkoop\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,7],"tags":[350,7168],"yst_prominent_words":[1244,1259,1380,1457,1808,1904,2520,2613,3401,5329,5388,6239],"class_list":["post-6495","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-love_and_altruism","category-john_wesley_holiness_and_the_church_of_the_nazarene","tag-mildred-wynkoop","tag-mildred-bangs-wynkoop"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thomasjayoord.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6495","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thomasjayoord.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thomasjayoord.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thomasjayoord.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thomasjayoord.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6495"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thomasjayoord.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6495\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thomasjayoord.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6495"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thomasjayoord.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6495"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thomasjayoord.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6495"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thomasjayoord.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=6495"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}