Oda Wischmeyer, Professor emerita for New Testament Studies at the Friedrich-Alexander Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, sets out ‘to present anew the New Testament concept of love’, which ‘has its own, indispensable contribution to make’ to contemporary debates on the meaning of love (pp. 2–3). Originally published in 2015, her work is now available in an English translation by Wayne Coppins. Although for many theologians and ethicists, her subject may bring to mind Anders Nygren's classic twentieth-century work, Agape and Eros, she states elsewhere that her book is not in direct conversation with Nygren.Footnote 1
Following an introduction that sets out the basic premise of the work, chapter 1 argues that the earliest form of Christian teaching on love was the double commandment to love God and neighbour (e.g. Mark 12:28–34). While these commandments have their basis in the Torah, Wischmeyer asserts that their combination is distinctly Christian. The two commandments appear in separate places in the Hebrew Bible. In addition, Luke's version of the saying (Luke 10:25–37) clarifies that the ‘neighbour’ includes non-Israelites, something Wischmeyer also understands as an innovation of the New Testament.
Chapter 2 provides historical context for the New Testament. Wischmeyer is not tracing a developmental history of the New Testament concept, but comparing other texts to sharpen her understanding of the term in the New Testament. She argues that in the Septuagint, agape refers to all kinds of relationships, and she notes that the Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs also connects love for God with love of neighbour.
A wider survey of the term agape in the New Testament appears in chapter 3. Wischmeyer argues that love is central to Paul's thinking about Gentiles because he detaches love from the law and therefore ‘detaches his thinking in general from structure of law and commandments … The law as an ethical control mechanism … is replaced by the open principle of the good’ (p. 79). Thus, Paul presents agape as a new ethos for shaping behaviour in the ekklesia. Discussing love as being known by God (e.g. 1 Cor 8:3), Wischmeyer argues ‘Paul turns the early Jewish motif of love for God into the prevenient love of God for human beings, which is characterized as “being known”’ (p. 92).
Love (both as agape and philia) is central to the Johannine traditions, where it is conveyed as a ‘new’ commandment to love one another (John 13:34). Love of Jesus for the disciples and for God, and love of God for Jesus and the world, are essential to John, and both are related to the Father ‘giving’ the son (John 3:16) and to Jesus's willingness to die on the cross. Love defines God (1 John 4:8) and shapes the ethos of the disciples toward one another. Wischmeyer concludes, ‘Love is not used simply for the feeling of affection or empathy or for the desire for another person but for an interpersonal saving event that can require sacrifice of life’ (p. 129).
Chapter 4 takes up the ‘concept of love’ in the New Testament writings. While the previous chapter had displayed the variety of meanings of agape, here Wischmeyer is interpreting these, ‘tracing out how we can make the heterogeneous statements on love accessible for our understanding in the present’ (p. 132). She argues that, although agape had a range of meaning in the Septuagint, the meaning narrows in the New Testament. Sexual and erotic meanings are no longer present. Instead, love becomes a personal bond (often framed in familial language) that shapes the community's behaviour and ethics. She discusses two examples of love at length: Luke's version of the woman anointing Jesus (Luke 7:36–50), which Jesus interprets as an act of love, and the raising of Lazarus (John 11). These stories highlight the emotional and individual valences of love and, Wischmeyer argues, ‘prohibit a perspective that has been domesticated in a caritative or communitarian way’ (pp. 149–50).
In chapter 5 Wischmeyer connects the concept of love she has articulated with other notions in the New Testament or its social context. She explores love in contrast to themes like sexuality, fear, violence and death, and in parallel to mercy and friendship. These are not always ideas that New Testament writers explicitly connect to love, but in doing so Wischmeyer seeks to add clarity to her definition of the concept. Chapter 6 brings modern notions of love into the picture. Wischmeyer explores theorists from a range of scholarly disciplines who develop a concept of love. The contrast highlights the religious and communal aspects of New Testament love and the absence of beauty and sexuality in the New Testament concept.
Overall, Wischmeyer offers a deeply learned theological reflection on love in the New Testament. Her interpretations of biblical texts will be useful to anyone interested in agape, and her reflections upon modern theories of love bring a helpful variety to the conversation. Methodologically, the book sits firmly in the German historical-critical tradition but does so in conversation with her increasingly post-religious context.
My disagreements with Wischmeyer centre around the relationship of the New Testament to Judaism. Although it is true that the word agape means many things in the Septuagint, the writings that are closer in time to the New Testament period (e.g. 4 Maccabees, Sirach) bear stronger resemblance. And although Wischmeyer claims that the connection between love of God and neighbour is a New Testament innovation, she also notes the frequent connection of these two ideas in the Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs. Another scholar might look at the same material and find greater resemblance between the New Testament and its Jewish cultural surroundings. Furthermore, Wischmeyer reads agape as a concept that leaves the law behind. Many scholars would disagree, understanding much of the New Testament, and Paul in particular, as maintaining the law's importance. Love may indeed play a role in how Paul communicates his understanding of the law: by pointing to love as the centre of the law, Paul opens a way for Gentiles who exhibit love to fulfil the law.
