Catching the Fire of Love: On the Vital Role of Emotional Connection

James H. Olthuis,"Catching the Fire of Love: On the Vital Role of Emotional Connection," Journal of Psychology and Christianity 43, no.1 (Spring 2024): pp. 50-57.

Available through: Christian Association for Psychological Studies (CAPS) membership, or at your academic library

Excerpt:

Love is at work in us and with us as we seek to catch and be caught by the fire of God’s love. Caught by the fire of God’s love, we can undergo a transformation that clears a space of healing and forgiveness so that we are no longer hampered, burdened, or victimized by the traumas we have suffered. We are enabled to develop healthy, mutually satisfying relationships with others, encouraged to join in socio-economic projects for the good of society at large—reforming structures of injustice, opposing all forms of violence, caretaking the planet, and becoming agents of change and renewal—co-partners with God in the ministry of healing, for it is to that mission that we were created and recreated in Jesus Christ. (56)

Dancing in the Wild Spaces of Love: A Theopoetics of Gift and Call

Dancing in the Wild Spaces of Love: A Theopoetics of Gift and Call. Currents in Reformational Thought series. James H. Olthuis. Eugene: Wipf and Stock, 2022.

Available at: Wipf and Stock Publishers

Publisher's Description:

In the twenty-first century, amid globalized violence, rising demagogues, and the climate emergency, contemporary philosophers and theologians have begun to debate a fundamental question: Is our reality the result of the overflowing, ever-present creativity of Love, or the symptom of a traumatic rupture at the heart of all things? Drawing on decades of research in postmodern philosophy and experience as a psychotherapist, James H. Olthuis wades into this discussion to propose a radical ontology of Love without metaphysics. In dialogue with philosophers like John D. Caputo, Slavoj Žižek, Luce Irigaray, and others, Olthuis explores issues from divine sovereignty and the problem of evil to trauma and social ethics. Experience in therapeutic work informs these investigations, rooting them in journeys with individuals on the path to healing. Olthuis makes the bold claim that while trauma, pain, and suffering are significant parts of our human lives, nevertheless Love is with us to the very end. Creation is a gift that comes with a call to make something of it ourselves, a risky task we must take on with the promise that Love will win. We are all dancing in the wild spaces of Love: ex amore, cum amore, ad amorem.

Radical Orthodoxy and the Reformed Tradition: Creation, Covenant, and Participation

Radical Orthodoxy and the Reformed Tradition: Creation, Covenant, and Participation. James K.A. Smith and James H. Olthuis, editors. 2005

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In this collection, scholars explore the points of convergence and disagreement between the Reformed tradition and the anglo-Catholic movement known as Radical Orthodoxy on such topics as the eucharist, history of philosophy, and cultural criticism. Includes essays by ICS faculty as well as by John Milbank and Graham Ward.

Religion With/out Religion: The Prayers and Tears of John D. Caputo

Religion With/out Religion: The Prayers and Tears of John D. Caputo. James Olthuis. 2002

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Written in response to Caputo's The Prayers and Tears of Jacques Derrida, this volume examines the frictive relationship between Derridiean deconstruction and religion.

The Beautiful Risk: A New Psychology of Loving and Being Loved

The Beautiful Risk: A New Psychology of Loving and Being Loved James Olthuis. 2001

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The Beautiful Risk encourages us to trade cure for care, expertise for partnership, and mastery for love. With perspective-shifting insights and examples, Dr. James Olthuis helps us--both counselors and those who come for counsel--to move beyond control and technique and join in a risky but glorious dance of relationship, love, and healing.

Towards An Ethics Of Community: Negotiations of Difference in a Pluralist Society

Towards An Ethics Of Community: Negotiations of Difference in a Pluralist Society. James Olthuis, editor. 2000

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This book introduces readers to some of the most challenging and divisive dilemmas we face in this increasingly pluralistic postmodern world - issues such as family and domestic violence, Aboriginal rights, homosexuality and public policy and female genital mutilation.

Knowing Other-wise: Philosophy at the Threshold of Spirituality

Knowing Other-wise: Philosophy at the Threshold of Spirituality. James Olthuis, editor. 1997

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Written by ICS faculty and doctoral students, this book explores current scholarship to come to a spiritual and ethically sensitive knowing. It points to an other way of knowing, a knowing of the heart with the eye of love.

I Pledge You My Troth: A Christian View of Marriage, Family and Friendship

I Pledge You My Troth: A Christian View of Marriage, Family and Friendship. James Olthuis. 1989

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This 2nd revised edition of Olthuis's best seller offers sound guidelines for commitment in friendship and marriage. It remains a popular present for high school graduation and for people contemplating marriage.

Keeping Our Troth: Staying in Love through the Five Stages of Marriage

Keeping Our Troth: Staying in Love through the Five Stages of Marriage. James Olthuis. 1986

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A satisfying marriage is not an automatic gift but requires dedicated work toward deeper joy and fulfilment. Olthuis identifies five stages in the development of a marriage over the years, and offers helpful suggestions for keeping it healthy and satisfying as people and circumstances change.