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Can there be a greater folly than writing a book about love? But how can we avoid that most basic of all desires and commands? Yet we are very poor lovers, as our history demonstrates. If God is love, though, can we find help in considering the love of Jesus Christ, and the love of Jesus thought of in terms of what T. F. Torrance called "the vicarious humanity of Christ"? This would mean that we realize our inability and the Son of God's ability to love on our behalf and in our place. Such a love mirrors the love of the Son for the Father in the Spirit, a love that reflects his eternal triune love. Therefore, could we have new perspectives on our relationships, the love of ourselves, of God, and the neighbor? How essential is love to being human, and what kind of love? What does it mean to "love your enemies"? What is the relationship between justice and love? And what are the fruits of love, the evidence of genuine love? Christian D. Kettler explores these issues in the context of the living reality of the vicarious humanity of Christ.
About the author
Christian D. Kettler is Professor of Theology and Philosophy, Director of the Master of Arts in Christian Ministry program at Friends University in Wichita, Kansas, an ordained minister in the Presbyterian Church (USA), and Theologian in Residence at the Church of the Savior in Wichita. He is the author of The God Who Believes: Faith, Doubt, and the Vicarious Humanity of Christ (Cascade, 2005), Reading Ray S. Anderson: Theology as Ministry, Ministry as Theology (Pickwick, 2010), and coeditor (with Todd H. Speidell) of Incarnational Ministry: The Presence of Christ in Church, Society, and Family: Essays in Honor of Ray S. Anderson (Wipf and Stock, 2009).
