Jeff Levin, a university professor and director of the Program on Religion and Population Health at Baylor University, and Stephen Post, a university professor who is also president of the Institute for Research on Unlimited Love, are the editors of this scholarly collection of eight essays by a group of respected religious scholars on the who, what, when, and where of divine love. Four questions are central to this quest: What is divine love? How do we access and manifest divine love? Why is divine love so important? Whither divine love: how is it lost and how is it found? These questions are examined within the context of Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, and the sacred traditions of Africa.
In the introduction, Jeff Levin salutes the rich treasure trove of religious insights into the complexities of divine love. He laments what he sees as the perversions of religion in the rigidity and triumphalism of both dogmatic fundamentalism and creeping atheism along with the naval-gazing of New Age thought. Levin is convinced that divine love is critically important for humankind, that it is irreducible to a mere feeling located within the psyche of the lone individual, and that it demands collective action to relieve suffering and to promote the common good.
John Mbiti explores divine love in African religion with a lively essay on proverbs, prayers, and names of God. William K. Mahony probes the subject from a perspective informed by Vedic Hindu thought where the heart is the abode of divinity. Jacob Neusner explores divine love in Judaism where the relationship of Israel to God is identical to that of a wife to a husband. Reuben Habito writes about Buddhism and its emphasis on compassion. David Tracy offers a Roman Catholic perspective on God's infinite love. William Chittick covers Islamic understandings of divine and human love. Vigen Guroian ponders agape and eros. Clark Pinnock shares his perception of a relational and charismatic model of love. Editor Stephen Post concludes this anthology with some thoughts on human dignity, the adoptive love of God, and the need to take divine love more seriously.
