Two Kinds of Love: Martin Luther's Religious World

Published in Finland in 1983, Two Kinds of Love is the second of Tuomo Mannermaa's provocative books offering a distinctly different interpretation of Martin Luther's theology. The other, Christ Present in Faith, was published by Fortress Press in 2005.

In Two Kinds of Love, Mannermaa unfolds Luther's understanding of love as the key to the reformer's theology of grace. Human love orients toward that "which is lovable to it"-- toward that which is already "good and beautiful"-- and, as such, comes into being only through "the prestige and glory of the loved one." In contrast, God's love, which "does not find but creates the lovable in its object," is a pure gift of grace, which makes possible our love for God and for one another.

Mannermaa spearheaded the Finnish Luther Research project for more than twenty years, and more than any other is responsible for the unique perspective on Luther contributed to Luther scholarship by the Finnish School. Two Kinds of Love concludes with an afterword, reviewing Finnish Luther Research since 1977.

Tuomo Mannermaawas Emeritus Emeritus Professor of Ecumenical Theology at the University of Helsinki.

Kirsi I. Stjerna is First Lutheran, Los Angeles/Southwest California Synod Professor of Lutheran History and Theology, Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary of California Lutheran University, Berkeley, a Core Doctoral Faculty member at Graduate Theological Union, Berkeley, and a Docent in Helsinki University, Finland. She has authored several books, including Women and the Reformation and Luther, The Bible and the Jewish People (with Brooks Schramm), and Lutheran Theology: A Grammar of Faith. She is one of three general editors of the six-volume The Annotated Luther (Fortress Press).