ROY SCHAFER: A BEGINNING

The author provides a biographical overview of Schafer's life, culled from his published work and focused primarily on his professional development. This biography is used to demonstrate some of Schafer's central theoretical insights on narrativity and language, and reveals the consistency of his thinking over his long career. A brief discussion of his writing on King Lear provides a bridge between theoretical and biographical material.     

Reflecting on acts of kindness toward the self: Emotions,generosity, and the role of social norms

How do people respond, in terms of emotion and behavior, when prompted to recall an act of kindness from another person? As shown in two studies of undergraduates, responses differ based on whether the kindness is seen as normative – that is, whether it follows social norms related to the relational context and one's past behavior. On the whole, normative kindnesses were linked with more positive emotion and less negative emotion than non-normative kindnesses. Those asked to recall normative kindnesses also donated more money to charity than those who recalled non-normative kindnesses, an effect partly mediated by the greater positivity of the normative stories (Study 2). These results suggest that if the goal is to increase mood or generosity, recalling normative kindnesses is a safer strategy than recalling non-normative kindnesses. Yet, some results also supported an outgroup salience hypothesis, in which recalling non-normative kindnesses increased generous motives toward strangers and enemies.     

Living Sola Fide: Features of Religious Recognition

This article discusses the life of faith and forensic justification as related to some new issues in social theory, especially Axel Honneth's notions of love, respect, and esteem. The article is critical of virtue ethics and recommends an ethics of vocation as a path toward equal respect and individual social esteem. The article also discusses why Lutherans consider faith (or even faith alone) rather than love as a proper starting‐point of this path.     

The critique of Eros: Freud on narcissism and the prospects for romantic love

This paper examines the prospects for real/actual love as viewed from a classical psychoanalytic framework. It is argued that Freud’s prescient and controversial 1914 work On Narcissism: An Introduction holds great importance for an understanding of his views on love, which in many ways were never explicitly defined. After the concepts of narcissism and love are considered, the aim, process, consequences and specific choices of object love are analysed. Perhaps not surprisingly, both narcissism and the residue of infantile love objects permeate and continually influence subsequent object love in a powerful manner. These perseverations of the infantile, along with impediments arising from the beloved, society and the self, create a number of difficulties for a would-be lover. Despite these hindrances from both within and without, real/actual love is certainly possible within Freud’s framework, but it is hard won and appears to require the dispelling of illusions, emancipation through recognition of one’s determinism, acceptance, introspection and continual character development.     

Love is Better than Knowledge: Paul,Luther and a Theology of Being Human

It is said in several contemporary theologies that in acting on their proclivities, homosexuals act as a law unto themselves rather than subordinate their desires to God's law. In linking homosexuality with the notion of a selfish individualism, these theologies cast homosexuals as incapable of exercising community-building love. They sustain a reductive model of the human person that issues from an anxiety about the presence of the “secular” ideology of individualism in theology. I suggest that we rehabilitate a vision of love based on a re-reading of the Apostle Paul's understanding of love as God-given and life-giving in 1 Corinthians and Romans, and use it as the basis for a revitalized vision of being human. Guided by Martin Luther's hermeneutic and contemporary thought, this vision recognizes the interdependent relationship between self- and other-concern, and proposes that we prioritize love over reductive knowledge claims in our theologies.     

Public Theologies of Love in the Civitas Dei and Civitas Terrena: Sexuality and the Transformation of Sydney,Australia 1960–2010

This article discusses the emergence of a public LGBTQI culture in Sydney that both challenged hetero-normative philosophies and praxes of love and sexuality, and engaged with Christian urban theologies to give voice to alternative, queer-affirming forms of eros, agape, and philia. This case study is situated in the context of the problematic relationship between Christianity and the urban throughout history; the ideal Civitas Dei negated the real Civitas Terrena, faithful Jerusalem triumphed over decadent Sodom. Public theologies, initially formulated by Christians, were hijacked to expose tensions resulting from notions of “proper” and “improper” love being mapped onto urban spaces. Churches and other “official” structures represented planning in the service of institutional religion and heterosexual married love (a Civitas Dei), and the clean, modern city as eschatological ideal (the heavenly Jerusalem). The existence of ruins and “undesirable” places, temporary heterotopias where “unnatural” acts of love and sex took place, challenged this order (a Civitas Terrena or Sodom). We argue that public theologies, mainstream and fringe, play a vital creative role in the planning, regulation, and lived experience of the modern city of Sydney.     

Religious socialization and benevolence: a study among American Pentecostals

This study explores benevolent action among Pentecostals in the USA using a congregational questionnaire survey of worshippers among the Church of God (Cleveland, TN) (N = 1522). The influence of religiosity and the socialization of a perceived relationship of love with God (Godly Love) are explored, while controlling for background variables. The findings suggest that Pentecostal spirituality expressed in terms of charismatic experience is a predictor of benevolence, alongside the socialization factor of Christian media, and to a limited extent the factors of reference group, significant other and personal agency.     

Compassionate love: accomplishments and challenges in an emerging scientific/spiritual research field

Psychological qualities of central interest to religion and spirituality, including virtues such as love, are drawing increasing scientific attention. One recent large-scale research initiative funded by Fetzer Institute focused on compassionate love (CL), an other-centred form of love with recognisable analogues in all major faith traditions. We review findings and impacts from 55 peer-reviewed publications generated by 31 projects funded since 2001. We examine major findings, the role in each study of spirituality/religion, and whether the article cited previous CL literature or used CL terminology. Studies varied greatly in how they operationalised CL. Evidence supported numerous antecedents and consequences of CL. Trend analyses indicated that CL terms are increasingly cited in scientific literature. We suggest future directions for CL research, and identify challenges and opportunities likely to generalise to scientific research initiatives in other fields related to religious/spiritual qualities.     

Love and Eschatology

Abstract : This article reflects on the connection between Christian hope for salvation and Christian praxis today. Following a discussion of Christian approaches to hope, salvation, and reconciliation, the eschatological potential of love is explored in conversation with significant theologies of love in Western Christianity. It is argued that love, properly understood, offers the most adequate and dynamic horizon for approaching God's coming reign and for being transformed in the process.     

Syzygy: Love Made Strange

Abstract : This paper argues that there can be an intimate, non‐marital loving communion between two persons or, sometimes, two groups. The Christian tradition has its own concept, syzygy, for such love. An awareness of this forgotten tradition may be valuable in discussing some broader problems in the church, such as rivalry between different parties or homosexuality. The syzygic relationship of love and rivalry is characteristic of some well‐known biblical and mythological narratives.