Divine Love

Dr. Jeff Levin is a university professor of epidemiology and population health, professor of medical humanities, and director of the religion and population health program at Baylor University. He has written over one hundred and fifty scholarly publications on religion's instrumental functions for health and well-being, including the book God, Faith, and Health. Dr. Stephen G. Post is a professor of preventive medicine and director of the center for medical humanities, compassionate care, and bioethics at Stony Brook University, and president of the Institute for Research on Unlimited Love (www.unlimitedloveinstitute.com). He is the author or editor of over twenty books, including the bestselling Why Good Things Happen to Good People.

• Foreword / ixSeyyed Hossein Nasr Acknowledgments / xiii Introduction: Divine Love in the World’s Religious Traditions / 3 Jeff Levin 1: “If God Did Not Love Me, God Would Not Have Made Me!”: Exploring Divine Love in African Religion / 23John S. Mbiti 2: “In the Beginning, Love Entered That One”: Divine Love from a Perspective Informed by Vedic Hindu Thought / 56William K. Mahony 3: Divine Love in Classical Judaism / 80Jacob Neusner 4: Wisdom into Compassion: Buddhism in Practice / 108Ruben L. F. Habito 5: God as Infinite Love: A Roman Catholic Perspective / 131David Tracy 6: Divine and Human Love in Islam / 163William C. Chittick 7: The Humanity of Divine Love: The Divinity of Human Love / 201Vigen Guroian 8: I Love, Therefore I Am: A Relational and Charismatic Model of Love / 219Clark H. Pinnock Conclusion: Divine Love and Human Dignity / 237Stephen G. Post Contributors / 255 Index / 261

"Divine Love is an outstanding collection of wonderful essays. Here accomplished religious writers from many faith traditions share their knowledge and insight. Take and read."-Sidney Callahan, PhD, author of Created for Joy: A Christian View of Suffering"This powerful collection investigates the core of the world's great religious traditions. It is the idea of divine love-love from the divine, inspiring love for the divine, invoking a horizontal love between humans, and creating a connectedness throughout all creation. These essays not only beautifully define divine love in each of the world religions-a gift in itself-but show why it is the answer to the crises of modern life, an answer that secularism, fundamentalism, and the new therapeutic religions cannot themselves convey. This is an excellent book for both the classroom and the individual inquirer. It is an informative and inspiring read."-Don Browning, University of Chicago, and author of Reviving Christian Humanism"Jeff Levin and Stephen Post are the editors of this scholarly collection of eight essays by a group of respected religious scholars on the who, what, when, and where of divine love."-Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat, Spirituality and Practice