Amor Dei in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries
Book Description
For centuries, spiritual seekers have grappled with profound questions about divine love: How can we truly know that God is love? What does it mean to experience God's love in our own lives? How much freedom do we actually possess in our capacity to love the divine?
David C. Bellusci explores these timeless inquiries through the lens of major thinkers from the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, revealing how their insights remain deeply relevant for contemporary spiritual understanding. The journey begins with Augustine's transformative spiritual evolution, tracing his path from Manichean and Neoplatonic influences through his eventual Christian conversion and his pivotal debates with Pelagius about divine grace and human will.
Moving through the Renaissance and into the early modern period, Bellusci examines how Italian humanist Gasparo Contarini developed the concept of "divine amplitude" to illuminate how God's goodness manifests through human experience. French spiritual writers Pierre de Bérulle, Guillaume Gibieuf, and Nicolas Malebranche further developed these themes, while figures like Cornelius Jansen and Scottish philosopher William Chalmers offered their own perspectives on the relationship between free will and divine love.
The book also explores fascinating exchanges between English thinkers John Norris, Mary Astell, and Damaris Masham, alongside Ralph Cudworth's vision of a God who "sweetly governs." Through examining three distinct forms of love—worldly, spiritual, and divine—this scholarly work demonstrates that human love and divine love are ultimately inseparable, offering readers a deeper understanding of their own spiritual journey.
Who Is This For?
📖 Reading Level: Short (< 200 pages) (~5 hours)
📄 Length: 167 pages
What You'll Discover
- ✓ Explore timeless philosophical wisdom
- ✓ Explore Religion
- ✓ Understand the nature of love
- ✓ Explore Liebe
- ✓ Explore Rezeption
- ✓ Explore History
- ✓ Explore God
- ✓ Explore Love
