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Agape: An Ethical Analysis
By Gene Outka
New Haven, Yale University Press, 1972. 321 pp. $11.00.

One reads some valuable and superbly crafted books with mounting enthusiasm for the explications and insights contained therein. That was my experience with Agape: An Ethical Analysis.

Gene Outka's examination of the concept of agape as it has been discussed primarily in the theological literature since 1930 is not intended as a constructive theory of agape. But it is constructive in analyzing what theologians and ethicists of diverse perspectives (Anders Nygren, Søren Kierkegaard--the exception to the post-1930 criterion, Reinhold Niebuhr, Karl Barth, Denis de Rougemont, M. C. D'Arcy, Paul Tillich, John Burnaby, Donald Evans, Dietrich von Hildebrand, Bernard Häring, et al.) have said about agape and where they have agreed and differed. It fulfills the author's intention "to bring badly-needed clarity to a theological literature which is confused as well as rich" (p. 2). Furthermore, in drawing upon the resources of recent analytic Anglo-American moral philosophy, the author is able both to clarify points of consensus and disagreement within the agape literature and also to raise substantive issues about specific definitional categories. His discussion of the relationship between agape, as regard for the neighbor and/or neighbors "which is independent and unalterable and which applies to each neighbor qua human existent," and self-love is one example of how theological ethicists differ in their estimates and of how moral philosophers can contribute to the discussion by sorting out and proffering various meanings of self-love.

The organization of the book is shaped by Outka's focus on the ethical. He begins with an analysis of the proposed content of

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agape as a normative ethical principle. He then discusses the relation of agape to self-love and to justice. Next he analyzes how agape is seen to apply to decision-making and to the character of the self. He moves on to treat the metaethical question, "But, why be loving or agapeistic?" That leads to an examination of the religious context of agape, the grounds for supporting, justifying, and/or defending agape as a normative ethical principle. Before concluding with a brief assessment of the topic, Outka examines Karl Barth's discussion of agape as a significant "case."

The richness of Outka's discussion reflects the richness of his sources. And as with many a feast, the abundance provided has positive and negative consequences. In Agape the positive gain is clearly the sorting out of issues, the presentation of agape as an ethical norm set within its theological context, and suggestions of alternative ways of understanding and thinking about this central Christian commitment and conviction. The discussion about how agape as an active concern for the neighbor, independent of the particularities of that neighbor's characteristics and actions, relates to the issues of unique response to unique selves and of special responsibility for the self's special obligations (family, church, nation, etc.) is an example of how the agape discussion is advanced by this study.

The problems of this book are functions of its strengths. In surveying and organizing the wider range of literature on agape and in bringing to bear critical reflection from philosophical and theological sources, the author is inevitably raising questions that demand extensive exploration. But be is only able within the limits available to him to suggest approaches to such issues. Thus, within each chapter of the analytical sections, there are the isolation of substantive matters and the beginnings of discussion about them. As a result, the analytic task is punctuated by substantive questions that invite consideration on their own merit but that also tempt one away from the central thrust of the text.

In one sense Outka's Agape serves two functions. It succeeds in its central purpose of bringing order into selected material about agape. It also provides an agenda for the future exploration into agape's meaning for ethics and its standing theologically and philosophically. Within the boundaries established by the author's task and sources, other questions go unasked. Is agape the recipient of undue attention as the primary norm for Christian ethical reflection and activity? Are there not other norms that are justifiable biblically and theologically that are just as legitimate and perhaps more appropriate? How one deals with such questions is significant in estimating whether Agape reflects the summarizing end of an era in Christian ethical reflection or is the sign of a renaissance

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of a previous pattern. Outka's book may even help one to make up his mind about that.

Jack L. Stotts
McCormick Theological Seminary
Chicago, Illinois