The Love of God

Theology in Community #7

by Christopher W. Morgan (Editor), Robert A. Peterson (Editor), D.A. Carson (Contributor)

Our understanding of the love of God has been tragically distorted. The comfortable, sentimentalized version we commonly encounter today is far from the biblical depiction of God’s love. Featuring contributions from well-known evangelical scholars, this multi-disciplinary study presents the biblical view of the love of God from the perspectives of systematic theology, biblical theology, apologetics, pastoral theology, and ethics. The contributors―including D. A. Carson, Andreas J. Köstenberger, Raymond C. Ortlund Jr., Robert L. Plummer, and many others―address a variety of issues related to how God’s love is expressed in the Old and New Testaments, the Trinity, apologetics, Christian living, social justice, and more. This addition to the Theology in Community series will promote clear, sound thinking about what Scripture means when it declares that “God is love.” Part of the Theology in Community series.

Genres: Theology

256 pages, Paperback

Published September 30, 2016

Reviews

[Austin Kuhn · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars. A number of the essays are quite good and worth reading. The one regarding God’s love compared to Islam, how God’s love shapes our Christian walk, and a biblical theology of God’s character and social justice were quite good. A few were either fairly general (still good), or had some theological disagreements on (social Trinitarianism and eternal subordinationism). Overall, a solid collection of essays with some strong quotes and teaching points on the love of God.

[Cameron Barham]

“If divine grace is really received, if God’s love is genuinely known, then that reality will show up in the lives of God’s people.”, Robert L. Plummer, p. 83

[Colin Michaelis · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is fairly academic book and so quite an intense read. It took me some time to get through this, but it is a great book that I am glad I took the time to work through. It’s various authors provide a multi-faceted exploration of the theology of the Love of God. I found so much of it helpful and illuminating. It is not just a theoretical book as it explores the doctrine of the Love of God, the Old Testament view, God’s love shown through Jesus’ life. And then, very practically, it includes chapters on how then do we live in the light of God’s love and how and why we should do justice?

[Michael Vincent · Rating 5 out of 5]

Many good articles on a variety of topics related to the love of God. Carson on how we redefine God’s love was a good starting point. How His love relates to the Trinity, Old and New Testaments, salvation and justice were good discussions. Very biblical throughout and not too scholarly. I was certainly challenged to be more loving as God’s representative. We should be known by our love.

[Chris Frakes · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some chapters were really great. Other chapters were pretty meh. All in all glad I read it.