God's Being Toward Fellowship

Résumé du livre

This thesis explores the meaning of the biblical phrase 'God is love' through an examination of two quintessentially modern Protestant theologies. After considering the complexities of theological predication and juxtaposing several classical and contemporary approaches to the matter, the distinct approaches of Friedrich Schleiermacher and Karl Barth are presented and ultimately commended for their tendency to treat divine love as a 'conclusion' to the doctrine of God, rather than as a conceptual starting point. In contrast to many contemporary approaches, the thesis concludes by suggesting that God's love is best conceived as his being toward fellowship, rather than as the eminent instance of loving fellowship understood according to human experiences of love (including that of being loved by God).