Divine Enjoyment A Theology of Passion and Exuberance [Hardcover]

This books theological and philosophical construction of a God of enjoyment poetically remaps divine love. Posing a critique to the Aristotelian unmoved mover whose intellective enjoyment is self-enclosed, this books affective tones depict a passionate God who intermingles with the cosmos to suffer and yearn out of love even improper love.

Divine Enjoyment leads the reader to a path of excess, first in the form of an intellective appetite that for Aquinas places God beyond the divine self, then more erotically in the silhouette of a lover whose love is like the delectable pain of mystics. Culminating with banqueting, fiesta, and carnival, the book deterritorializes Gods affect, conceiving of an expansively hospitable enjoyment stemming from many life forms

With a renewed welcome for pleasure, the book also upholds a disruptive ethic. Ultimately, an immoderate God of love whose passionate enjoyment stems from the sufferings as well as joys of the cosmos offers another paradigm of lovingly enjoying oneself in relationship with passionate becomings that belong to many others.

Elaine Padillas book offers a breath of fresh air into a theological discourse that often dwells on suffering and survival, ignoring our desire and attempts to achieve enjoyment. Her theology of enjoyment emphasizes reciprocal and communal relations between God and Gods creation. Padillas poetic, erotic, and aesthetic approach expands theological language about the sacred and offers an alternative metaphysics infused with passion and pleasure.Padillas constructive proposal of a theology of a passionate and exuberant God the God of eros, desire, compassion, suffering, love, and self-transformation will resonate deeply with contemporary readers of diverse religious persuasions. The book is a highly erudite and breathtakingly creative synthesis of classical theological works. It transforms and enriches our understanding of who God is in a way totally unexpected. It is no lsØ