God as Love
The Concept and Spiritual Aspects of Agape in Modern Russian Religious Thought
- Theology
- Publisher: Eerdmans
- Published: 2014
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Publisher's Description
A groundbreaking, comprehensive study of twenty-five major Russian religious thinkers Nineteenth- and twentieth-century Russian religious intellectuals devoted a great deal of attention to the concept of agape, or Divine Love, arguing that the Christian church is a reflection of the triune, self-sacrificing God and his love for all of creation. On account of their deliberations, these intellectuals played a key role in mediating between the Orthodox Church and modern society. Their quest for dialogue between the 'mystery of the sacred' and the 'ordinary of everyday life' remains relevant for Western societies today. In God as Love Johannes Oravecz presents a comprehensive summation of twenty-five prominent Russian religious thinkers and their thought on the concept of agape, showing in detail how they broke new ground in their various affirmations of the truth that God is love. No other book in any language treats this topic with such breadth and depth.
Endorsements (5)
“This is an encyclopedic work of immense scholarship, unprecedented in the study of Russian religious thought. Not only does Johannes Oravecz give us valuable analyses of works on Divine love by the major figures of Russian philosophy (Solovyov, Florensky, Bulgakov), but he also ventures into the byways and introduces us to the ideas of lesser known writers such as Malevanskii, Tareev, and Svetlov. This book is obviously rooted in Oravecz's personal experience: it is a book about God's love written by someone who loves God.”
“In this much-needed study of the historical development of Russian theology in the modern period, Johannes Oravecz brings to the attention of English readers some hidden gems of Russian theology. . . . He intersperses his discussion with excerpts from the theological writings under review, many of them rendered into English for the first time. Oravecz's God as Love offers a wealth of bibliographical information and is sure to become a standard reference work both for specialists in Russian theology and for scholars interested in learning from other voices of the Christian tradition.”
“An outstanding introduction into the Russian Orthodox religious thought of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Oravecz demonstrates with precision and competence the rich complexity of the Russian theological and philosophical realm.”
“Truly encyclopedic in scope, this study of modern Russian religious thought has one central focus — the theme of love as it was approached and analyzed by a host of nineteenth- and twentieth-century authors, whose impassioned writings on the subject of love and particularly God as Love range from the pastoral to the heights of speculative philosophical and theological thinking.”
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