The Asymptote of Love : From Mundane to Religious to God's Love

In The Asymptote of Love , James Kellenberger develops a theory of religious love that resists essentialist definitions of the term and brings into conversation historical debates on love in Western philosophy and Christian theology. He argues that if love can be likened to a mathematical asymptote, which is a straight line that infinitely approaches a curve but never quite reaches it, then the asymptote of love reaches toward the infinite endpoint of love at its uttermost, namely, God's love. Drawing upon a broad range of thinkers who have put forth classic debates on love—such as St. Augustine of Hippo, Anders Nygren, and St. Thomas Aquinas, as well as some lesser known figures in the debate, such as Leo Tolstoy and Albert Schweitzer—Kellenberger explains the profound connection between human agape and God's infinite love in its capacity to offer both directive guidance and to exist beyond human conception. Contents Acknowledgments Introduction Chapter One The Varieties of Love I. Introduction II. Love in Its Multiplicity III. Types of Love IV. Love as a Multifarious Concept Chapter Two Love’s Relationships I. Introduction II. Variants of Love’s Relationships III. Is Love an Emotional Process? IV. Does Love Bestow or Recognize Value? V. Is Love Rational? VI. Love and Denial of Self Chapter Three Love of Others I. Introduction II. The Undue Demands of Love of Neighbor III. “Hate his own father and mother” IV. Can One Love God Through Loving Others? And Can One Love Others Without Loving God? Chapter Four Knowledge of God and Love of God I. Introduction II. Why It Seems that One Can Know God and Not Love God Knowing What God Is Knowing that God Is III. To Know God Is to Love God IV. Knowledge of God through Experience of God John Henry Newman and “Real Assent” Chapter Five The Command to Love I. Introduction II. The Interior and Exterior Dimensions of Love III. Is There a Duty to Love? Immanuel Kant John Stuart Mill St. Bernard of Clairvaux IV. The Scandal of the Command to Love V. Love Is from the Heart Chapter Six Love of God I. Introduction II. Can Love Be a Response to Duty? III. The Elusiveness of Religious Love IV. Exterior and Interior Ways of Loving God V. For the Sake of God VI. Love of Neighbor and God: Works and Expressions Chapter Seven God’s Love I. Introduction II. Two Religious Sensibilities III. Two Theological Treatments of God’s Love Dionysius and the Tradition of Ineffability St. Thomas Aquinas IV. Experience and Images of God’s Love St. Bernard of Clairvaux Experiences and Biblical Images of God’s Love Julian of Norwich V. Buddhist and Hindu Traditions Chapter Eight The Circle of Love I. Introduction II. A Perceived Problem with Love of Strangers Who Are Distant Human Love as a Template for Religious Love Love’s Expressions in Different Relationships III. The Circle of Love Expanded The Dominion Model The Stewardship Model The Goodness of Creation Model IV. Love of God Chapter Nine The Depth of Love I. Introduction II. Depth of Religious Love III. Hyperinteriority Leo Tolstoy St. Augustine Chapter Ten The Asymptote of Love I. Introduction II. God’s Love: The Endpoint of the Asymptote of Love as the Ideal of Love III. Love and Compassion IV. The Appropriateness of Love V. Love as Deserved VI. A Retrospective Look at Themes and Concerns Treated in this Book, and a Paradox Bibliography Index