Two Kinds of Love: Martin Luther's Religious World

by Tuomo Mannermaa, Kirsi I. Stjerna

Overview

Published in Finland in 1983, Two Kinds of Love is the second of Tuomo Mannermaa's provocative books offering a distinctly different interpretation of Martin Luther's theology. The other, Christ Present in Faith, was published by Fortress Press in 2005.

In Two Kinds of Love, Mannermaa unfolds Luther's understanding of love as the key to the reformer's theology of grace. Human love orients toward that "which is lovable to it"— toward that which is already "good and beautiful"— and, as such, comes into being only through "the prestige and glory of the loved one." In contrast, God's love, which "does not find but creates the lovable in its object," is a pure gift of grace, which makes possible our love for God and for one another.

Mannermaa spearheaded the Finnish Luther Research project for more than twenty years, and more than any other is responsible for the unique perspective on Luther contributed to Luther scholarship by the Finnish School. Two Kinds of Love concludes with an afterword, reviewing Finnish Luther Research since 1977.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780800697075
Publisher:	1517 Media
Publication date:	06/02/2010
Pages:	144
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.40(h) x 0.50(d)

About the Author

Tuomo Mannermaawas Emeritus Emeritus Professor of Ecumenical Theology at the University of Helsinki.

Kirsi I. Stjerna is First Lutheran, Los Angeles/Southwest California Synod Professor of Lutheran History and Theology, Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary of California Lutheran University, Berkeley, a Core Doctoral Faculty member at Graduate Theological Union, Berkeley, and a Docent in Helsinki University, Finland. She has authored several books, including Women and the Reformation and Luther, The Bible and the Jewish People (with Brooks Schramm), and Lutheran Theology: A Grammar of Faith. She is one of three general editors of the six-volume The Annotated Luther (Fortress Press).

Table of Contents

Abbreviations vii

Editor's Introduction ix

1 Love for "What Is" and Love for "What Is Not" 1

2 Two Kinds of Love and Love as a Unifying Power 9

3 The Theology of Glory versus the Theology of the Cross 27

4 Two Kinds of Love and the Worth of Creation 45

5 Faith and God's Creative Love for "What Is Not" and for "Evil" 57

6 Christians as "Christs" to Their Neighbors 67

7 Love for God 77

Afterword: Finnish Luther Research since 1979 Juhani Forsberg 89

Luther's Works Cited 105

Notes 107

Index 124