Dr. Sung’s Fall 2017 Paluch Lecture engaged the proposals of three prominent Christian thinkers of the past century: the monograph of Lutheran Bishop Anders Nygren, Agape and Eros; the first encyclical of Pope Benedict XVI, “Deus caritas est”; and an address given by the philosopher Dallas Willard, “Getting Love Right.” These treatments were analyzed by examining the Scriptural warrants for their divergent accounts and respective claims about the concepts of erōs and agapē.
By distilling the New Testament teaching in locus classicus texts that either employ or imply these ideas, conclusions were proposed regarding their character and place in the context of sanctification in lived Christian experience.
