God is love but love is not God : studies on C.S. Lewis's theology of love

Lepojärvi, Jason

1 online resource (81, 25-42, 208-224, 67-80, 1-31 leaves)

Includes abstract

Includes the text of four stand-alone articles. "The four essays are reprinted here in either the format of their original publication (essays 1–3) or in the format in which they were accepted for publication (essay 4)."-- leaf 81

Thesis (doctoral)--University of Helsinki, 2015

Bibliography: leaves 73-80

Introduction -- Objectives and methodology -- Results and reflection -- Remaining scruples -- Articles. Essay 1. "C. S. Lewis and the Nygren debate" from The chronicle of the Oxford University C.S. Lewis Society, v. 7 (2010) pp. 25–42 -- Essay 2. "Does eros seek happiness? : a critical study of C.S. Lewis’s reply to Anders Nygren," from Neue Zeitschrift für Systematische Theologie und Religionsphilosophie, v. 53 (2011) pp. 208–224 -- Essay 3. "A friend’s death : C.S. Lewis’s disagreement with St. Augustine," from Sehnsucht: the C. S. Lewis journal, v. 5/6 (2012) pp. 67–80 -- Essay 4. "Praeparatio evangelica--or daemonica? : C.S. Lewis and Anders Nygren on Sehnsucht," from The Harvard theological review, accepted for publication (2015) pp. 1–31

C.S. Lewis (1898-1963) was one of the most influential Christian thinkers of the twentieth century with continuing relevance into the twenty-first. This compilation dissertation, consisting of an introductory overview together with four stand-alone but connected essays, extends critical understanding of Lewis's contribution to the theology of love. In three of the four essays, Lewis's theology of love is compared to and contrasted with that of Anders Nygren (1890-1978); and in one, that of Augustine of Hippo. Using systematic textual analysis, the essays evaluate Lewis's key concepts, argumentation, and presuppositions. Lewis was initially shaken up by Nygren's work, and it took him decades to formulate his own model, above all in Surprised by Joy (1955) and The Four Loves (1960). It is shown that Lewis constructed not only his theology of love, but also his theology of spiritual desire as a form of love, in conscious opposition to Nygren. Lewis's theology of love challenges the denigration of eros and its separation from agape. Despite their incommensurate love-taxonomies, Lewis's need-love/gift-love and Nygren's eros/agape have often been treated as parallels. This longstanding assumption is shown to be in need of greater nuance. In Lewis's theological vision, contra Nygren, spiritual longing, far from obfuscating the Gospel, is a God-given desire that prepares the way for it. Lewis is not free from the occasional hyperbole or blind spot. For instance, his argument that romantic love is not eudaimonistic is shown to be somewhat convoluted, and his famous disagreement with Augustine is possibly based on a misunderstanding. A perennial feature in Lewis's understanding of love, reflected in all four essays, is the ambiguity of love. Love is not something pejorative, but neither is it an infallible moral compass. God is love, but love is not God

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