Divine Love Research Articles

Trinitizing the Universe: Teilhard’s Theogenesis and the Dynamism of Love

Abstract The God-world relationship bears an ambiguous relationship between God’s immanent life and God’s life in history. The development of the doctrine of the Trinity in the early Church gave rise to a distinction between theologia and oikonomia. Bonaventure’s theology sought to express an economic trinitarianism without compromising the integrity of God’s life, thus maintaining divine immutability and divine impassibility. Twentieth century trinitarian theologies challenge the notion of divine immutability in light of modern science and radical suffering. This paper develops on the heels of twentieth century theology by focusing in particular on the philosophical shifts rendered by modern science and technology. In particular, the insights of Pierre Teilhard de Chardin are explored with regard to Trinity and evolution, precisely because Teilhard intuited that evolution and the new physics evoke a radically new understanding of God. Building on Teilhard’s insights, I suggest that divine creative love is expressed in a fourth mystery which Teilhard called ‟pleromization.” Pleromization is the outflow of divine creative union or, literally, God filling the universe with divine life. Teilhard recapitulates this idea in the evolution of Christ so that theologia and oikonomia are one movement of divine love. My principal thesis is that the Trinity is integrally related to the world; the fullness of divine love includes the personalization of created reality, symbolized by the Christ. To explore this thesis I draw upon the cyborg as the symbol of hybridization and permeable boundaries and interpret Trinitarian life in evolution as cyborg Christogensis. Using the Law of Three, I indicate why a new understanding of Trinitarian life involves complexification and thus a new understanding of Trinity in which the fullness of divine life includes created reality.

موضوعات الأدب الصوفي في نصوص الطريقة الشيخية

A new type of literature has accompagnied the emergence of Sufism since the second century of egira wich is soufi literature. This literature has some crossroads with arabic literature in some genres. But not in the subjects treated. This article consists on revealing the soufism subjects(divine love, divine winery, the mohammadian truth, the praise of Shoyoukh (masters) in some of the production of the Boushikhi soufi order wich was founded by Saint Abdelkader bin Mohamed well known as Sidi Sheikh who died in 1025 of Hegire. His order stretched from east Moroccan region (Figuig)to the south east of Algeria (Ain Salah) because the texts of the Boushikhi order are considered as a behavioral education to social class by its attending to religious ceremonies and popular meetings and weddings in form of songs that shakes emotions of popular class. And as a result of this barely no family was without a singer of this particular songs. Keywords – Soufi literature, divine love, Mohammadian truth, Boushikhi order, Shoyoukh praise

Collective Flourishing: A Response to Anantanand Rambachan

Collective Flourishing:A Response to Anantanand Rambachan Kate Newman and John J. Thatamanil marriage, religious diversity, commitment, lifelong friendship, interreligious togetherness, interreligious friendship, lokamitra While I (Kate) sat, across the continent from my Canadian home in an Episcopal church on my wedding day, with my chosen one beside me, I was engaged in a ritual that invited us to comprehend love in its divine depth. I was becoming married, engaging in sacrament, participating in divine love, hunting transformation. In order to help us appreciate the meaning of this ritual, we had called on our Hindu brother and invited him to give the wedding sermon in our [End Page 439] church, St. Mark's-in-the-Bowery, the oldest site of continuous worship in Manhattan. Anantanand Rambachan, a Hindu theologian speaking in a Christian ceremony,1 stood amid vapors of frankincense in the ninety-onedegree heat of downtown Manhattan (Lenape, Manahatta: island of many hills) and spoke of the possibility of our "collective flourishing." His was not only a call to my beloved and me; it was also a call to our collective identity as religious communities. Rambachan was speaking to several collectives. On that day, it would mean, first, the newly emergent collectivity of the married couple. Second, it would extend to the assembly of the gathered congregation. Now, on this page, the collectivity addressed here includes readers who define their identity through interest in inter-religious engagement. In this context especially, what if we were to hear Rambachan's words anew as pertaining not only to marriage but also to relationships between people across religious traditions? We find ourselves hearing his words as directed not only to one couple but, instead, to all those who seek to live in interreligious friendship. The inclusion of a Hindu theologian who offers his tradition's wisdom to a Christian couple enfleshes a possibility that we cannot help but hear in Rambachan's words. In a world wherein religious communities are inextricably wedded to each other, what if we dared to hear Rambachan's call to husband and wife as extending also to the mutual care, love, support, and friendship that religious communities are called to grant to each other? Together, communities of interreligious friends can support each other's flourishing. We can be living organisms that help one another to grow or develop in healthy and vigorous ways. Just as Rambachan has done for us by offering a sermon, we can offer one another divinely inspired words and so open the door to the new interreligious community of communities that we are becoming together. But, is this a stretch too far? Surely, Rambachan is right to ask partners in a marriage to nourish each other, but can religious traditions nourish each other? Should they? Does the very notion that a Christian has something to give to Hindus or, as in this case, a Hindu to Christians, imply a deficiency in the one who receives? We who hear Rambachan's words say [End Page 440] no, no more so than in a marriage. No thought of deficiency is implied in the notion that a wife has much to give a husband and vice versa—so, too, with our traditions and the work of interreligious giving and receiving. Our traditions are constituted by their particularities even when we share symbols in common. Although we share the same symbol—in our wedding sermon, the symbol of fire came into play—the uses and meanings of the symbol are distinctive. This is one reason for our confidence that we have much with which to nourish each other. Christians, by and large, do not walk around fires. Hindus do. Nonetheless, fire is a precious symbol in Christian traditions also. Rambachan taught us that Hindus celebrate God's presence in and as the fire. He evoked fire from the Hindu marriage tradition where it is likened to Sacred Love. This prompts me to recollect the symbol of fire within Christian tradition and hope to consider how fire marks our relationship with the sacred and calls to mind encounter with the light of divine presence. In the New Testament, fire consumes, baptizes, and transforms; tongues of flame danced on...

The Slack and Defeated Winner in George Herbert's "Love" (III)

The Slack and Defeated Winner in George Herbert's "Love" (III) Chauncey Wood The phrase "grow slack" occurs in the first verse of "Love" (III): Love bade me welcome: yet my soul drew back, Guiltie of dust and sinne.But quick-ey'd Love, observing me grow slack From my first entrance in,Drew nearer to me, sweetly questioning, If I lack'd any thing. A guest, I answer'd, worthy to be here: Love said, You shall be he.I the unkinde, ungratefull? Ah my deare, I cannot look on thee.Love took my hand, and smiling did reply, Who made the eyes but I? Truth Lord, but I have marr'd them: let my shame Go where it doth deserve.And know you not, sayes Love, who bore the blame? My deare, then I will serve.You must sit down, sayes Love, and taste my meat: So I did sit, and eat.1 Up until the middle of the last century an editor like Canon F.E. Hutchinson would offer as a commentary on "Love" (III) a simple comparison with a very similar passage in Southwell's Saint Peter's Complaint, without any argument pro or con with regard to the possibility that it was Herbert's source. However, about forty years ago this approach through literary history began to give way to an approach through literary interpretation; specifically by an analysis of the imagery of the poem as physical – indeed as sexual. A review of some of the commentaries is instructive. [End Page 5] John R. Mulder, in a nine-page 1973 letter to Seventeenth-Century News, addresses both design and methodology in Herbert's Temple, and includes a glance at "Love" (III). He writes: In "Love" (III), the pull of contending wills, that of God and Man, becomes a stasis. The Poet as impotent lover, grown "slack / From my first entrance in," still insists on merit and serving so that, finally, God's Power forces him to partake of God's Love: "You must sit down."2 Just a few years later, in 1978, Greg Crossan, without reference to Mulder's piece, finds an extended "sexual metaphor [in] the opening stanza." Growing slack is seen as impotence, and the speaker "finally agrees to 'serve': serve the Church, serve the communion, yes, but also serve in a sexual capacity."3 Unfortunately, this statement misreads the action of the poem, in which the speaker does not agree to serve but rather insists that he serve rather than be served by his host. Chana Bloch, writing in 1985, gives us an extended study of "Love" (III) in terms of its biblical antecedents. Towards the end of her remarks she notes in a general way that there is a "suggestion" in the beginning and the end of the poem "of a sexual encounter between an inhibited or impotent man and a gently loving, patient woman."4 She justifies this reading by seeing the Song of Songs in the Bible as a "precedent" for what Herbert does. We should note, however, that in the Song of Songs overtly sexual language is construed as spiritual, while in Herbert a spiritual encounter has been construed by some as sexual. In 1991 Michael Schoenfeldt published a lengthy and detailed analysis of the sexual imagery that could be found in in the poem, along with a defense of doing so: Herbert's portrait of his encounter with divine love is invested with a physical referentiality which makes a purely spiritual or allegorical reading of the poem difficult to sustain. Herbert's concern for his own social power in relation to God – a concern we have traced throughout our study – is manifested in the poem's preoccupation with the physical manifestations of sexual potency. In the context of a sexual tryst, to "grow slack / From my first entrance in" indicates a loss of erection, [End Page 6] just after penetration. Moreover, to "grow slack" is inherently oxymoronic, a phallic version of the proud humility highlighted in the last chapter. Similarly, Love's "sweetly questioning" if the speaker "lack'd any thing" plays upon the common Renaissance euphemism of "'thing" for "penis." If the speaker has grown...

From “Sloppy Wet Kiss” to Illusion of Glory: The Rhetorical Tensions and Transformations of “How He Loves”

This essay unpacks the evolving form and rhetorical resonance of the popular contemporary Christian worship song “How He Loves,” which troubles norms of mainstream sacred music on several levels. I argue that its violations of lyrical norms give the song rhetorical resonance for young people seeking an “authentic”/romantic experience of God in worship, while its musical form works, with varying success, to rhetorically transform the troubles of earthly existence into windows on divine love. Through Sellnow and Sellnow’s critical lens, I examine three different artists’ lyrical/musical renderings of the song to compare how (well) they bring that illusion to life. I then analyze the video of the third version, showing how the Illusion of Life critical framework could be expanded to examine visual intensity/release in relation to music and lyrics. My analysis highlights the tensions between authenticity and artfulness in contemporary worship music and demonstrates the value of a fine-grained, close-reading approach.

Creatures of Possibility: The Theological Basis of Human Freedom by Ingolf U. Dalferth

Reviewed by: Creatures of Possibility: The Theological Basis of Human Freedom by Ingolf U. Dalferth Adam Morton Creatures of Possibility: The Theological Basis of Human Freedom. By Ingolf U. Dalferth. Translated by Jo Bennett. Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2016. 216 pp. Despite the subtitle, this slim book is not a direct treatment of the theme of human freedom. It is instead a series of studies developing what Dalferth takes to be the surprising basis of such freedom: humanity's fundamental passivity coram Deo. Far from conceiving this passivity negatively, as if it were simply identifiable with deficiency, it stands as "the center of creativity from which all humans live" (6). Humans are thus conceived as beings of possibility, becoming passively what is strictly impossible under their own power. Proceeding from this thematic center, Dalferth engages a series of philosophical and theological positions. Chapter one gives a very brief philosophical introduction to the topic. This discussion is deepened in chapter two as Kant and Luther, especially the latter's 1536 Disputatio de homine, are employed to distinguish between philosophical and theological accounts. Here Luther's definition of the human as justified by faith is given central place in Dalferth's project: humans "become what they are through what happens to them. And they understand what happens to them as what God does to them and for them" (42). Subsequent chapters can be read as stand-alone essays, though they have significant thematic links. Chapter three engages further with Luther, ranging over many of his works to examine the theme of passivity in relation to the concept of gift, and touching on the difference between the old and new creatures, the nature of the will, and ontology. While distinguishing carefully between creation, justification, and sanctification, Dalferth sets them in a common [End Page 244] creation-theological framework: "Being and being Christian are thus understood … as divine acts of creation ex nihilo" (53–54). The fourth chapter takes up the concept of gift again, this time beginning with the phenomenological analyses of Derrida, that nothing is gift, and Marion, that all is gift. Against these, Dalferth shifts from a phenomenological to a hermeneutical analysis, focusing on the necessity of the gift as "for me," and so on the gift as passively determining its recipient. This allows him to take up the character of Christian faith as the interruption of the unknown and unlooked-for gift that, echoing thesis 28 of the Heidelberg Disputation, "creates its own mode of reception" (114) in excess of any humanly perceived need. Chapters five through seven follow a similar structure, each setting out from a philosophical problem toward a theological discussion. Thus, in chapter five, Derrida on sacrifice is a springboard toward provocative analyses of Abraham and Isaac, and of the crucifixion of Jesus, as divine love. Chapter six engages Hans Blumenberg on the question of the incarnation, from there returning to the relation between philosophy and theology. Chapter seven takes up a variety of voices, principally Nietzsche, to discuss human creativity and finally the image of God. The book has some limitations. A reader unfamiliar with the framing philosophical conversations may struggle to make use of certain chapters, and the author's style often requires inferring connections well beyond his explicit citations. Furthermore, there remains risk that theology is determined negatively by that philosophical framing, as when the crucifixion is described in terms calibrated to evade Derrida's critique of sacrifice. Moreover, the author tends to articulate the passivity of faith in abstract terms, neglecting to draw a more concrete connection to those divine words by which faith is bestowed, and so which constitute that passivity. Even so, this volume offers creative and insightful reformulations of Lutheran theology in close relation to its central theme. Scholars interested in theological anthropology or in the relation between philosophy and theology have much to gain from this book. [End Page 245] Adam Morton Holy Trinity Lutheran Church Lancaster, Pennsylvania Copyright © 2018 Johns Hopkins University Press and Lutheran Quarterly, Inc.

God and Interpersonal Knowledge

Recent epistemology offers an account of what it is to know other persons. Such an approach holds promise for illuminating several issues in philosophy of religion, and for advancing a distinctive approach to religious epistemology. This paper develops an account of interpersonal knowledge and clarifies its relation to propositional and qualitative knowledge (section 1). Section 2 considers the possibility of our knowledge of God and God’s knowledge of us, and compares the present account of interpersonal knowledge with important work by Eleonore Stump on “Franciscan” knowledge. Section 3 examines how interpersonal knowledge may figure in liturgical practice, in diffusing the problem of divine hiddenness, and in motivating a novel understanding of divine love. Finally, section 4 explores the possibility of epistemic injustice arising from dismissal or neglect of our religious testimony to one another, or of divine testimony to humanity, focusing specifically on the import of interpersonal knowledge.

Corpus Mysticum: Transubstantiation and the Poetics of Ecstasy

Corpus MysticumTransubstantiation and the Poetics of Ecstasy Adam Glover (bio) In one of the eucharistic poems that lie at the heart of his 1986 collection Libro de la pasión (Book of the Passion), the Chilean poet José Miguel Ibáñez Langlois (b. 1936) recounts the events surrounding the Last Supper and the Institution of Holy Communion. Toward the middle of the poem, as the narrative slowly approaches the decisive moment of consecration, the focus turns to Christ: take and eat this is my bodythis is my blood of the eternal covenant that will be poured out on the crossrenew this sacrifice in my memory he says and taking himself in his own handhe distributes his communionand after the body victim is consumed it disappears into his twelve lovesand the voice of the high and eternal priest after the sacrifice oh Goddisappears into the love of God for a few minutesit is the deep prayer that follows communiontwelve inner Christs gaze with astonishment upon outward Christ . . . 1 [End Page 98] This passage is rich and complex, and I will return to it in more detail later in the essay. For the moment, I simply want to notice that Langlois’s suggestion that as the disciples consume Christ’s sacramental body they are transformed first into “twelve loves” (line 10) and then into “twelve Christs” (line 14) reflects an insight about the Eucharist that goes back at least to Augustine’s Confessions. There Augustine argues that unlike ordinary food, which is converted into the substance of the one who consumes it, the Eucharist has the effect of converting the communicant into Christ himself.2 This idea would prove enormously influential for subsequent Christian thinkers.3 In his commentary on the Gospel of John, for instance, Aquinas draws out its implications by suggesting that if the Eucharist is indeed capable of transforming those who consume it into Christ, it is therefore also capable of “inebriating man with divinity” (divinitate inebrians) and “making him divine” (hominem divinum facere).4 In a later commentary on the Psalms, Aquinas picks up the motif of “divine inebriation” and carries the point further still. Identifying the “inebriating chalice” (calix inebrians) of Psalms 23:5 (Vulgate 22:5) with the blood of Christ, he contends that just as one who is drunk is not “in control of his faculties” (non est in se), so likewise those who receive the Eucharist are so “full of divine love” that they are “made to be in ecstasy” (in extasim factus).5 It is at precisely this intersection of Eucharist, ecstasy, and deification that Langlois situates not only the poem cited in the opening paragraph, but also his broader account of the Eucharist in Book of the Passion. It is also here that the Chilean poet articulates an account of the relationship between poetry and Eucharist for which I will have to justify the phrase a poetics of sacramental ecstasy. Although largely unknown outside the Spanish-speaking world, Langlois is easily contemporary Chile’s most eminent religious poet, as well as a distinguished theologian and literary critic, an active Roman Catholic priest, and a former member of the International Theological Commission (1986–1990).6 A theologically conservative “anti-modernist” and a fierce critic of liberation theology, Langlois is often classified [End Page 99] as an “orthodox,” even a “dogmatic,” poet, and much of his verse reflects a commitment not only to an unapologetically traditionalist brand of Roman Catholicism,7 but also to a conception of poetry and poetics as potential sources of spiritual and theological insight.8 Despite his own theological predilections, however, Langlois’s verse also reveals the unmistakable influence of his staunchly atheistic and emphatically non-traditionalist compatriot Nicanor Parra (1914–2018), whose so-called “anti-poetry” sought, among other things, to dislodge the “vatic” or “prophetic” conception of poetry associated with the Chilean “creationist” poet Vicente Huidobro (1893–1948) and, preeminently, with Pablo Neruda (1904–1973).9 Both aspects of Langlois’s intellectual heritage are on full display in Book of the Passion, where the poet mixes a theologically orthodox reimagining of the central events of Christ’s passion...

Restless Hearts: George Fox and Augustine of Hippo

John Punshon once proposed that someone should undertake a comparison of early Quaker George Fox with ancient North African bishop Augustine of Hippo. Despite considerable differences between the two, a close look at turning points in their religious autobiographies shows common themes, particularly a Johannine sense of interiority and divine love. These turning points operated differently in their lives: for George Fox, it enabled him to embrace others whose unrighteousness had repulsed him, while, for Augustine, it enabled him to relax his terrified grip on those whom he loved.

The Infant Jesus as Divine Love: a Dressed Sculpture from Évora’s Museum.

The «Infant Jesus as Divine Love» is a noteworthy example of the exuberance reached by dressed sculptures of the Holy Child in Portugal [1]. The provenance of this 18th century sculpture is unknown1. It may have belonged to a religious institution, before being integrated in the Public Library collection. Finally, in 1915, it was incorporated in Évora’s National Museum. It is a lead sculpture, painted with very realistic flesh tones, in consonance with an elegant shape proper of a classical and erudite workmanship. In this unusual representation the Infant is holding a silver bow, arrows and a quiver, personifying Divine Love. In the left hand he holds a flower bouquet made of silk and paper.

Lust, Desire, Hope. Dante and the Problem of Love (Inf. V; Purg. XVII–XVIII; Purg. XXVI)

AbstractThe article reconstructs the ‘strategy’ used by Dante in the Commedia for solving the problem of love: moving from lust (Inf. V), to the possibility of controlling natural desire through free choice (Purg. XVII-XVIII), to the role of hope in the pursuit of divine love, abandoning cupiditas and embracing caritas (Purg. XXVI). This trajectory is identified through lexical, rhyme-related, and thematic connections. It begins and ends with the first and the last sinners Dante encounters during his journey: Francesca and Arnaut Daniel - both condemned for their lust. The article also explores the reflections of Dante on the previous romance literature dealing with love, providing in particular a more convincing explanation of the presence of Arnaut Daniel - whose courtly love poetry was grounded on the theme of hope - at the end of Purgatory, the supernatural realm of Hope. Moreover, the investigation is set in the context of Dante’s philosophical and theological background - confirming with new elements the coexistence of his Augustinian imagery with the Thomist moral structure of the Commedia.

Comparison of Hüsn ü Aşk and Nazires in terms of shape and content

Hüsn ü Aşk is a work that Galib has received with the claim of "creating a new way, creating a new style". Works by subject; Sufi love describes the troubles in the way of attaining divine love. Allegorical narration has been taken as a basis in the work that resulted in wahdat. Hüsn ü Aşk, which resembles mesneviler which is written before himself with these characteristics, is the place of poetry and art value before everything else. With these customs, Hüsn ü Aşk holds Galib's claim of a "new style". So much so that the nazires written in Hüsn ü Aşk proves it. In this work to be done, Hüsn ü Aşk and the texts written as nazire or written as nazire will be compared in terms of shape and content considering the date, poet, period of writing. Thus, how Hüsn ü Aşk, the ground poetry, affected the other texts in terms of subject and art value, and the poem and art value of Hüsn ü Aşk will be determined.

Carnal Manifestations of Divine Love in the Mystical Writings of Elsbeth of Oye, Mechthild of Magdeburg and Margery Kempe

This article considers literary representations of the body in female mysticism from a transdisciplinary and comparative perspective. It is one of the first studies to provide a comparative reading of three female authors of the Middle Ages: Mechthild of Magdeburg’s Das Fliesende Licht der Gottheit (c. 1250), Elsbeth of Oye’s Leben und Offenbarungen (c. 1340) and The Book of Margery Kempe (c. 1440). The literary depiction of bodily urges ranges from erotic encounters as a representation of mystical union, to longing, suffering and despair in order to be a living example of imitatio Christi. Through analysing relevant excerpts of the three mystical texts, which illustrate the yearning for physical pain (the vita of Elsbeth of Oye) and differing accentuations of sexuality (The Book of Margery Kempe, Das Fliesende Licht der Gottheit), the instrumentalisation of the female body for salvific purposes becomes clear. These carnal manifestations of divine love can be viewed as major motifs structuring the texts rather than giving unmediated and ‘documentary’ evidence of their authors’ experience.

Concept and Context: Mercy in Criminal and Civil Law, Human Rights Law, Religious Law, and Divine Law

Written during the ‘Year of Mercy’ (2016) proclaimed by Pope Francis, this study examines the role of mercy from the perspective of law codes. State law, human rights law, and religious law can all be vehicles of mercy—though seeming to require that the recipient meets any necessary ‘deserving’ criteria. This study argues that divine law reaches beyond notions of innocence or repentance, and directs mankind to follow the example of divine love, in being ‘unconditionally’ concerned with the welfare of the ‘other’, and posits that mercy, when tempered in the interests of social cohesion, or shown for the sake of earthly or heavenly reward, whilst endorsed in a variety of religious texts, falls short of the ideal which Aquinas refers to as ‘the supreme virtue in man’.

Subversion, Substance, & Soteriology: The Redeeming Womb in Julian of Norwich’s Revelations

This essay examines how the soteriology in Julian of Norwich’s work, Revelations of Divine Love, proves doubly radical, for it disrupts the traditional metanarratives of the Middle Ages not only by calling for a universal salvation, but also by revealing how this salvation is rooted in the female body—a stance that prefigures the postmodern theological movement. The first part of this essay offers an overview of postmodern theology as a “new kind of consciousness,” and how Julian facilitates this new awareness through her use of (both physical and social) bodily images in her text. During the Middle Ages, the female body was viewed as a “category of social pollution,” and thus something to be feared, regulated, and controlled. However, through her image of the hazelnut, Julian identifies both the importance and necessity of the female body for the salvation of humanity, as she reveals Mary’s womb as the root of Christian salvation. The second part of this essay offers “case studies” of how Julian employs this “redeeming womb” narrative throughout the rest of her text. Drawing upon the Parable of the Lord & Servant, Julian demonstrates how, if Christ had not fallen into the depths of the Virgin’s womb, there would be no resurrection, and thus no universal salvation. By “falling” into Mary’s womb, Christ was thus able to return our “failed” sensual soul back to God in ultimate, essential union. Through her Revelations, Julian ultimately reverses the ideological coding of her time: the traditionally deemed “inferiority” and “impurity” of the female body is completely inverted, as she depicts the female body so important and valuable that Christian salvation is rooted in its substance. It is through this “reversal” that Julian can be seen as a prefiguring founder of the postmodern theological movement and, more specifically, the mother of postmodern feminist theology.

Martin Luther and Cajetan: divinity

ABSTRACTFrom the beginning of his career Martin Luther thought intensively about questions concerning the human being’s capacities for loving God and the neighbor. The relation between human nature and love was a vital issue throughout his whole theological work even though he explicitly connected it with the concept of ‘imago Dei’ only quite late. Luther discusses human nature mostly in its fallen state, where the image is almost totally lost, but presents also his view of human nature in its pure state. He avoids identifying the Divine love and the image of God. Nevertheless, love clearly belongs to the image. The article aims at investigating the reason for this view and the question of ontological difference between Christ as the essential image of God and the ‘ordinary’ human being as having the image of God. Luther’s understanding of the role of love in the relation between the human being and God will be compared with that of his Catholic contemporary, Cardinal Cajetan. The article intends,furthermore, to describe how Luther understands the restoration of the image of God through the outward means of the Gospel and Sacraments and the inner but given affects of faith and love.

The “Loving Parent” analogy

A crucial part of William Rowe’s evidential argument from evil implies that God, like a loving parent, would ensure that every suffering person would be aware of his comforting presence. Rowe’s use of the “loving parent” analogy however fails to survive scrutiny as it implies that God maximally loves all persons. It is the argument of this paper that no one could maximally love every person; and whatever variation there is in the divine love undercuts the claim that every suffering person would be aware of the divine presence.

Nuns, Polyphony, and a Liégeois Cantor: New Light on the Las Huelgas ‘Solmization Song’

This article discusses the famous ‘solfeggio song’ from the Las Huelgas Codex, a piece whose lyrics consist of solmization syllables followed by an incomplete poetic text traditionally qualified as obscure. The recent discovery of two new concordances for the piece provides a radical change of perspective concerning its origins and meaning. The song was composed in Rocamadour by a cantor named John of Liège. It was a musical gift dedicated to the convent of nuns of Notre-Dame la Daurade, in Cahors. Rather than a solfeggio exercise, the wording, metaphors, and allegories found in the text take a clearly defined stance in the contemporaneous debate concerning the performance of polyphonic music in the liturgy, the beauty of female singing, and the eroticization of divine love. Most interestingly, this stance embodies the voice of a supporter, rather than a detractor, of female singing.

Present in Love: Rethinking Barth on the Divine Perfections

AbstractWhile Karl Barth's identification of love and freedom (in that order) as the fundamental divine perfections was intended to eliminate any gap between God as revealed and God's eternal being, Barth's equation of divine freedom with decision fatally compromises this aim by reintroducing the spectre of a ‘hidden God’ behind the God revealed in Jesus. Moreover, it exacerbates a worryingly anthropomorphic model of divine action, already pronounced in older orthodox theologies, that is ill‐suited to upholding the causal integrity of the created order. Substituting presence for freedom as the foundational perfection paired with (and used to interpret) divine love maintains the benefits of Barth's relative prioritization of love while avoiding the problems that accompany the interpretation of divine freedom as decision. Specifically, it provides a model of divine action in which permission rather than decision emerges as the fundamental mode of willing whereby by God brings the world into being and sustains it in existence.

Whose Burden, Exactly, Are We Sharing?

Whose Burden, Exactly, Are We Sharing?