Love: The Foundation by Rodney Weems
| Society is looking everywhere as it tries to figure out why we and our children are ever more anxious, depressed, or addicted to this, that, or another agent. Could the diagnosis be as simple as observing that we live in a society that seems to run break-neck in the opposite direction of grace and Redemptive kindness? |
A Better Way?
Love: The Foundation highlights 1 Corinthians as the Bible's Christological center relative to its theological center in Romans. The result emphasizes humility, grace, and God's ten, positive, thou-shalt commandments of love found in 1 Corinthians 13. It compares these to the more traditional thou-shall-not Commandments that, absent a focus on love as their foundation, can too quickly be turned to hate.
A Courageous Walk?
"What good is a religion that lacks faith in its ability to compete in the broader culture fairly? What good is faith if it is comfortable only in gated communities and isolated spaces, or a religion that is great at negative words for everyone else but short on recognizably excellent, positive examples of themselves loving and being in the larger world?"
Love or Wisdom?
"People can debate whether the Bible is a book that is primarily about wisdom or mostly about love. Actually, it is about both. For love, when rightly define, is its own kind of wisdom."
A Journey or a Destination?
"Believing only in the faith-hope version of the gospel is like being someone who hears Christ knock, knock, knocking at their front door. But when that person finally answers the call, opens the door, and steps through into hope . . . she stops. There she sits on the front porch, never realizing the real reason for Christ's knocking was the hope that she would go into the world with him on a journey of love."
People Are Saying
"How might we transform our deeply polarized society if those who count themselves as Christians . . . sought daily to become practitioners of ‘wise-love’ with everyone? Weems offers a path toward spiritual maturity that challenges complacent Christians across the theological and political spectrum. If taken seriously, it will lead to the healing we desperately need.”
—ELIZABETH W. CORRIE, Candler School of Theology, Emory University
"At a time in our national history when there is so much division, this delightful volume brings us back to first principles. The focus on the virtue at the heart of the greatest commandment is one that should ring true for all Christians. Through a serious reading of Paul’s writings on love, Weems introduces how this virtue might be lived out today. Such an introduction is a breath of fresh air.”
—DANIEL COSACCHI, Marywood University
“Rodney Weems offers a thoughtful and well-reasoned exploration of the importance of love, and how we are to live it out in a world around us, where this quality is too often lacking.” —JOHN GOODALE, Pastor of Caring Ministries, First Presbyterian Church, Colorado Springs
“Boldly calling for a ‘new Reformation,’ Love: The Foundation seeks to address the ugly divisions and refusals to listen that characterize our culture today. In directing our attention to the biblical teaching on love (‘wise-love,’ as the book calls it), Rodney urges us to rediscover the revolutionary ethic that is the foundation of Western civilization. . . . This book will challenge your thinking, warm your heart, and call you to biblical self-examination.”
—STAN KEY, The Francis Asbury Society
At a time in our national history when there is so much division, this delightful volume brings us back to first principles.
“Rodney Weems has invited us into a way of ‘heart living.’ His writing both reveals the integrity of his character and a humility that offers the reader a gateway to transformation. Rodney’s concept of opening the Scriptures through the lens of ‘wise love’ offers the reader an opportunity to see and live in a grace-filled way that ‘builds one another up and forward.’ A timely offering in our challenging times.”
—ANTHONY R. POMPA, Vice-Chair, Episcopal Preaching Foundation
