Agape An Ethical Analysis [Paperback]

This study is the most comprehensive account to date of modern treatments of the love commandment. Gene Outka examines the literature onagapefrom NygrensAgape and Erosin 1930. Both Roman Catholic and Protestant writings are considered, including those of DArcy, Niebuhr, Ramsey, Tillich, and above all, Karl Barth. The first seven chapters focus on the principal treatments in the theological literature as they relate to major topics in ethical theory. The last chapter explores further the basic normative content ofagapeand discusses some of the most characteristic problems.
The book is in my judgment the best recent work in religious ethics. Outka brings together analytic moral philosophy and theological ethics, providing a masterly survey of views and issues arising in the past forty years. . . . I can think of few books of interest to scholars in both philosophy and theology, but Outkas is one. Unlike some scholars who are at home in continental theology, Outka is also at home in secular analytic philosophy; he brings them together in a mutually illuminating way.Donald Evans
Outka has mastered this vast literature on love, and has brought a critical and clarifying analysis to bear upon it. This is a most important book on a most important subject, and brings the whole discussion into a new phase.John Macquarrie
The first thing to be said about Outkas book quite simply is that it is excellent; in fact, it is probably the very best available book about contemporary Christian ethical theory.The Humanities Association Review