Pluriform Love (ePub)

"A masterpiece from the preeminent theologian of love!"

Love is the center of Christian scripture and experience. And yet Christians often fail to give love center stage in biblical studies and theology.

Why is this?

Thomas Jay Oord offers ground-breaking answers to this crucial question. He addresses leading Christian thinkers of today and yesteryear and explores biblical forms of love, such as agape, philia, hesed, and ahavah. Love's meaning is uniform, Oord says, but its expressions are pluriform.

Oord tackles perplexing questions about the nature and meaning of love, divine and creaturely. His proposals are novel and provocative, and yet they align with scripture and everyday experience.

A follow-up to Oord's best-selling and award-winning The Uncontrolling Love of God, this book both expands and deepens the open and relational theological vision. Along the way, Oord offers radical though persuasive answers to questions about evil, creation and the Big Bang, divine violence, hell, worship, divine faithfulness, and more.

Pluriform Love revolutionizes Christian studies of love.

What they're saying…

"Thomas Jay Oord is the first to systematically clarify a variety of types of love and show that all are characteristic of God. This is an original contribution to theology. Though a complex task, Oord writes in an accessible and attractive way."

John B. Cobb, Jr., Author of Salvation: Jesus's Mission and Ours

"Christian theology in the years to come will need a facelift-a true restoration of the biblical witness to the centrality of God's love. If we wish to help make the faith truly relatable to our world today, Oord's clear, compassionate, and compelling voice is one we will be thankful for."

Peter Enns, Eastern University and Co-host of The Bible for Normal People Podcast

"Thomas Jay Oord adds to his proposals on open and relational theology, developing a theology of love which is both uniform in meaning and pluriform according to situation and recipients. The volume is indispensable for those researching the nature of love."

Paul Fiddes, University of Oxford

"The glowing multiform forcefield of love embraces every sentence of Pluriform Love. Free of sentimentality and pretense, refusing to pit eros and agape against each other, it unfolds a full-scale theology. This amorous vision will attract a wide readership."

Catherine Keller, Drew University, Author of Facing Apocalypse

"Thomas Jay Oord is a global leader exploring the primacy of love within Christian thought and practice. In this book, he makes the radical claim that traditional theology following Augustine simply cannot take love as seriously as it ought. Love must revolutionize the Christian tradition, and Oord explains how."

Brian D. McLaren, Author of Do I Stay Christian?

"This is a rigorous, provocative, creative, and very readable account of the meaning of love, especially divine love. It's a very important contribution to theological thought on this central topic."

Keith Ward, University of Oxford