A Theology of Love

What are the necessary and sufficient conditions for a theology of love? Must there first be love or first be God? If God and love are one, then a theology may also be a  "loveology," and a loveology a theology.
      In a theology of love, it may not be a matter of our theology determining our beliefs about love, but of our beliefs about love determining our theology. Love may be the starting point, the wellspring of our theology. Thus, a theology of love may also not be a matter of love being transformed by theology; it may be a matter of theology being transformed by love. 
      We must therefore love one another before we can truly have a theology of love. This is not to say that the term "God" can't have any real meaning for us if we don't have a theology; it's rather to say that the term "God" can't have any real meaning for us if we don't have love (not only for God, but also for one another, and for all creation).
      We can't know God if we can't know love. This isn't to say that love comes before God; it's rather to say that God is love (ὁ Θεὸς ἀγάπη ἐστίν, 1 John 4:8). God not only is love, but also has love for us (1 John 4:16) and for the world. Love comes from God, and the love that God has bestowed on us we can give to others.
      If we can't know God without knowing love, then love may bring us a kind of knowledge and understanding that can't be attained through purely cognitive or non-emotional means. Our knowledge and understanding of God, of others, and of the world may depend on our loving them in one way or another, and therefore also on our being actively engaged with and committed to them in one way or another. We can't understand others by assuming that we can be purely objective observers standing apart from them. We must allow ourselves to be vulnerable to and potentially changed by others, by responding to them with love.¹
      A theology of love may be opposed to a love of theology, if the theological aspects of love are given greater regard or considered more important than the actual acts of love we share with others. A theology of love may not depend on the kinds of purely abstract or theoretical commitments that may be involved in a love of theology.
      A theology of love may, however, be biblical, exegetical, hermeneutical, and philosophical, as well as moral and practical (pastoral, evangelical, social, and political).
      The statement "God is love" may be seen as simplistic or problematic if it's assumed to be a claim that love is all that God is or that God is nothing other than love. Love may be expressed by, or may be found behind, every act of God, but we may have to clarify the meaning of the statement "God is love" by saying that God is not only love, but also Creator, Redeemer, and Sustainer. God may have other attributes besides love, such as mercy, justice, wisdom, and understanding. 
      If God loves us, then God may also suffer with, and for us, when we fail to obey his will or fail to follow his purpose for us. A loving God may also be a vulnerable and suffering God. If our suffering were of no consequence to God, then he would not feel anguish or compassion for us, and he would not show mercy toward us. God saves us from sin and suffering by freely giving his grace to us, and by restoring us to wholeness in our relationships with himself, with others, and with the world.
      The Lithuanian-French philosopher Emmanuel Levinas described philosophy as "the wisdom of love," rather than "the love of wisdom" (the traditional rendering of the Greek term philosophia). Philosophy serves love by calling us into a relation of responsibility and non-indifference to others.² In this relation of responsibility and non-indifference to others, the differences between ourselves and others are not erased.³ Rather, each of us is unique in our own responsible selfhood. The "here I am" by which we bear witness, in the name of God, to our responsibility to others is made before all theology.⁴ It signifies that we are at the service of, and ready to assist, others, and that our own being is for others. Thus, it also signifies a philosophy of love, at the service of love.
      1 John 4 tells us that to love is to know God, and that whoever loves knows God. But human love is imperfect, while divine love is perfect. So we must truly love one another in order for our love to be perfected, and for it to resemble the kind of love God shows us. If we can truly live in love, then we can also truly live in God (1 John 4: 7-16).
      Saying that God is love is not the same as saying that love is God. The latter assertion implies that God is a mode of love's being, rather than that love is a mode of God's being. If God is a mode of love's being, or if God's being is incidental to love, then there's no real need for a theology; there's only need for a "loveology." To say that God is love is to acknowledge God as a divine person who can show love toward us. But to say that love is God is to erase God's personhood. Saying that God is love therefore does not mean that love is God or that love and God are the same thing.
      A theology of love is a theology about, or centered on, love, as personified or revealed by God. It takes love as an essential attribute of God, without which God would not be what we believe, hope, or know him to be. Without love, there would be no such being or person as God, and without God, there would be no such feeling or emotion as love. God and love are inseparable. To know God is to know love, and to know love is to know God (1 John 4:7-8).
      Knowing God is, of course, not the same as fully understanding God. We may know God's love for us, but we can never fully understand his infinite wisdom, mercy, compassion, justice, truth, etc., because such infinite attributes are beyond human understanding. By knowing that God loves us, however, we may also know that he wants us to love him, and that he wants us to show others the same kind of love he shows us.
       What kind of love is it that God has for us? God's love is a constant, unwavering, and unconditional love. Thus, he freely offers us his grace, whether we deserve it or not. According to 1 John 4:10-11, if God so loves us that he sent his only Son into the world to expiate our sins, then we also ought to love one another.
      If we truly love God, then we will keep his commandments (John 14:15). Since God has commanded us to love one another (John 15:12), we must show our love for one another in order to show our love for God. If we say we love God but don't show our love for one another, then we're not keeping his commandment, and we're not acting according to his Word, as revealed to us by God, in the person of his Son.


FOOTNOTES

¹Norman Wirzba and Bruce Ellis Benson, "Introduction," in Transforming Philosophy and Religion, edited by Wirzba and Benson (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2008), pp. 2-3.
²Emmanuel Levinas, Otherwise than Being: Or Beyond Essence, translated by Alphonso Lingis (Pittsburgh: Duquesne University Press, 1998), p. 162.
³Ibid., p. 138.
⁴Ibid., p. 149.