Abstract
Stratis’ book explores how the Christian assertion that ‘God is love’ might be used to understand and speak of the divine essence. On his account, God is what God does in such a way that what God does is the primary ‘pathway’ to understanding who God is in God’s self – a self that is not hidden behind God’s actions but rather (at least in some sense) simply is these actions. As a result, Stratis argues that God’s being love suggests not only that God loves but also that God’s being is a ‘being-towards-fellowship,’ and in such a way that creatures may speak meaningfully of the divine nature.
The book itself is divided into two main parts. The first explores Friedrich Schleiermacher’s conception of God as one who exists both eternally and mutually with the world. According to Stratis, Schleiermacher does not intend to say that God is in anyway determined by this relationship; rather, he sees God as both ‘equal in scope’ and yet ‘different in kind to/from the world’ – a position that Schleiermacher himself believes is justifiable on the grounds of Christian experience (p. 87). The second part of the book turns to Karl Barth’s Church Dogmatics and explores how Barth understands God to be a singular, perfected person who fully possesses one’s self as a triunity of differentiated modes of being. According to Stratis, Barth takes the phrase ‘God is love’ to mean that God simply is a perfected, harmonious, self-possessing triunity of modes who acts towards humanity in such a way that – as this God – God freely shares the divine life with them in and through Jesus Christ.
With the final chapter, Stratis pulls together his insights from Schleiermacher and Barth and summarises his main point. God simply is God’s loving acts towards humanity; and while these acts give us real insight to God’s very self, we need also to avoid seeing them as in any way necessary to God’s identity. For God is conditioned by nothing but God’s self. And yet, according to Stratis, the good news is that God’s self is in-fact a ‘being-towards-fellowship.’ For God simply is God’s love for us; and because of this, we can speak meaningfully – and perhaps even confidently – about who this God is.