The passion of faith and the work of love: Barrett, Augustine, and Kierkegaard
Is the core of Christianity about loving the neighbour or justification by grace? Kierkegaard and Augustine answer this question with a resounding yes, refusing to give in to one side or the other. This article uses Lee C. Barrett's newest book on the intersections of these two giants of Christ...
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| Format: | Electronic/Print Review |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
University of Toronto Press
2015
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| In: |
Toronto journal of theology
Year: 2015, Volume: 31, Issue: 1, Pages: 66-74 |
| Review of: | Eros and self-emptying (Grand Rapids, Mich. [u.a.] : William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2013) (Russell, Helene Tallon)
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| Further subjects: | B
Book review
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| Online Access: |
Volltext (doi) |
| Summary: | Is the core of Christianity about loving the neighbour or justification by grace? Kierkegaard and Augustine answer this question with a resounding yes, refusing to give in to one side or the other. This article uses Lee C. Barrett's newest book on the intersections of these two giants of Christianity, Eros and Self-Emptying, to examine this issue. Using a shared metaphor of a road for the reality of faith, and a common understanding of divine love as self-emptying, Barrett reveals insightful ways in which these cardinal thinkers refuse to reduce Christian salvation to grace alone or to love alone. For Augustine, the unquenchable passion and love for God leads to becoming conformed to God's likeness in self-emptying love for the other. And Kierkegaard's theology of love as the human response to God's grace suggests that the works of love toward the neighbour is the follow-through to faith. Salvation for both Augustine and Kierkegaard is a journey of the fruits of grace ripening in fulfilling the command to love the neighbour. Both insist that being a Christian is simultaneously a gift and a task. Further, this integration is not forcing together two opposing positions. Instead each thinker's formulation entwines the work of love and the grace of faith in the practice of Christian living. |
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| Item Description: | Thema: Augustine and Kierkegaard |
| ISSN: | 0826-9831 |
| Contains: | In: Toronto journal of theology
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.3138/tjt.3102 |