Month: May 2021

We end our reflections on Affective Theology by embracing the hope of glory offered through God’s love. Glory, a word that intrigues and invites Bible readers, has a dimension still out of reach. It represents the far horizon of the end times. Paul, for instance, spoke of the “hope of glory” in both Romans and …

We continue in our reflections on Affective Theology by turning to God’s expansive love. God’s triune self-giving was his ground for both creation and salvation—and why the seventeenth century Puritan Richard Sibbes spoke of God’s “spreading goodness.” God’s expansive aims are evident throughout the Bible. At our creation humans were told, “Be fruitful and multiply …

This reflection on Affective Theology considers the Church. Christ’s love, through his Spirit, unites the many members of the Church into one body. In Ephesians 5:25-27 Paul used human marriages as his key analogy: “Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having …

In this, my fourth reflection on Affective Theology, we turn to the Bible. To call it a “love letter” may seem odd, given its broad content. Yet it fits God’s ambition. God is a lover, determined to share his heart with the world by two means—with his Spirit at work in each. First, by written …