"The Nature of Love: A Theology" by Thomas Oord

From the onset, this book is all right. The author talks heavily about the theology of love--big surprise, right? Anyway, at the first and last chapter, a plethora of Bible verses are quoted. However, in the middle chunk of the book, the Scripture quotes dies down as theologians are quoted more. Oord goes into the philosophies and lingual sciences as he makes his points. To the average reader, things seem fine. However, to the aged Christian, some little warning flags come up. A sentence here and there is disturbing, but--again--the average reader will either not pick up on it or just gloss over it. At one point. Oord says traditions and habits help make on a virtuous Christian. This is tiptoeing awfully close to works. At another point, Oord says that God only loves those who keep His commandments and takes a verse out of line. God loves everybody and never stops. For those that don't keep His commandments, He'll deal with them appropriately, but, at the end of the day, God loves everybody. When God removes His hand of protection or allows some calamity to strike a people, it is for the sole purpose of having the people return to Him. Even if people are just being tested, the purpose is still for the people to turn back to Him. God loves the sinners but hates the sins. When people end up in hell, it's not because God doesn't love them. God loves people so much to give them free will and woo rather than coerce them into His love. When people are in hell, it's their own choice and their own fault.