God's Being Towards Fellowship: Schleiermacher, Barth, and the Meaning of 'God is Love'

Justin Stratis examines the meaning of the biblical phrase 'God is love' through the works of Friedrich Schleiermacher and Karl Barth, highlighting their distinct approaches to divine love as a conclusion to the doctrine of God rather than a conceptual starting point. He suggests that God's love is best conceived as his being toward fellowship rather than as the eminent instance of loving fellowship.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 208 pages
Publication date: 26 November 2020
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC

Justin Stratis delves into the profound meaning of the biblical phrase "God is love" by exploring the thought of two influential Protestant theologians: Friedrich Schleiermacher and Karl Barth. This book offers a comprehensive examination of Schleiermacher's untranslated lectures on Dialektik and their connection to his more widely recognized works, as well as a fresh appraisal of Barth's doctrine of God that both honors his groundbreaking contributions and situates him within the tradition of classical, Catholic trinitarianism. After carefully navigating the intricacies of theological predication and comparing various classical and contemporary perspectives on the implications of "love," Stratis presents and ultimately endorses the distinct approaches of Schleiermacher and Barth for their tendency to treat divine love as a "conclusion to the doctrine of God" rather than as a conceptual starting point. In contrast to many contemporary approaches, Stratis concludes with the suggestion that God's love is best understood as his being toward fellowship rather than as the preeminent example of loving fellowship as understood through human experiences of love.

Weight: 326g
Dimension: 156 x 234 x 15 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780567698186