Saving Desire: The Seduction of Christian Theology

by F. LeRon Shults (Editor), Jan-Olav Henriksen

Christian theology has traditionally held desire at arm's length, regarding it warily, as something dark, dangerous, and intimately related to sin -- something to be resisted and repressed, closeted and controlled. But in this volume LeRon Shults and Jan-Olav Henriksen entreat Christians to acknowledge not only that desire is an important element of human physical and spiritual life (and therefore a subject that theology should never shy away from engaging) but also that desire can be a powerful force for great good. Shults, Henriksen, and six other boundary-crossing theologians celebrate together the positivity, the sociality, and the physicality of saving desire -- humankind's innate yearning for the goodness and beauty of God.

Genres: Theology

204 pages, Paperback

First published July 6, 2011

Reviews

[Jenny Webb · Rating 4 out of 5]

Useful set of essays considering the question of how the concept of desire can be seen in redemptive terms—as something positive that ultimately moves one towards God—in contrast to how desire is traditionally constructed within christianity (i.e., as sin, as motivation for the fall, etc.). Personally, I found Rita Nakashima Brock's essay, "Paradise and Desire: Deconstructing the Eros of Suffering", to be quite good.