HU Philosophical Theology

Friedrich Nietzsche, a well-known atheist philosopher, wrote a lot about religion in general and Christianity in particular. Some of his criticisms are well worth grappling with. One has to do with the following sentiment that some of you may be familiar with:              He’s so heavenly minded he’s of no earthly good Put as a warning it goes like this:             Do not be so heavenly minded that you are of no earthly good The worry is that some Christians tend to (a) dwell upon heaven so much that they neglect all sorts of issues and needs right in front of them, or (b) see all of the problems in this life as minuscule compared to the problem of eternal life that they ignore various matters of earthly or temporal justice (e.g. poverty) and only offer the gospel.  I think SK would think that the worry is a legitimate one, but that the solution ...

Perhaps we can see what SK is up to by considering what he says about commanded love and what I think it the best account of the nature of love in general.  Nature of Love: Pulling together insights from Scripture, Augustine, Aquinas, and SK, contemporary philosopher (and mathematician!) Alexander Pruss argues that the following is the most accurate account of the nature of love in general: Love involves appreciation, benevolence, and striving for union. Briefly, appreciation is grasping the value of the object of one's love. Benevolence is willing THE good for the object of one's love. Striving for union is seeking unity with the object of one's in various ways that are appropriate to the type of love.  I think the above is an acocunt of love that is both consistent with God's Word and helps illimunate it in various ways.  In erotic love and friendship what gets appreciated, the good that one wills for the beloved, and the union one seeks with the belov...

One of you asked why we do not hear sermons about proper self-love. It is a good question. I am not sure I have heard many sermons about neighbor love either. At least, I do not recall many, and I certainly do not recall any that come close to what SK is saying (by the way, if you do not agree with SK about whatever, bring it up; while I think this book is excellent, I do not think it is God’s Holy Word).  If the main points of  Works of Love  are fundamentally correct, then a good sermon on proper self-love should sound very similar to a good sermon on proper neighbor love. The command to love your neighbor as yourself is, according to SK, a command to love everyone in the same way. It is a command to love irrespective of differences in persons. It is a command to love in such a way that the real distinctions between us are not given any weight. The command to love does not depend on the one who is loved. It depends on the command. The command either makes us all eq...