Description: Revision of author's thesis (D. Phil.)--University of Oxford, 2017.
Brief description: James M. Matarazzo, Jr is a Minister at the First Congregational Church of Guilford, Connecticut. Previously, he was Lecturer in Theology at Ripon College Cuddesdon, Oxford, and a member of the Faculty of Theology and Religion at the University of Oxford.
Review Quotes: "In The Judgment of Love, James Matarazzo has produced a meticulous analysis of Christian theologies of death, hell, damnation, and the nature of divine judgment. His choice of sources offers a striking example of the value of truly ecumenical exploration in theology, through which the absolute priority of unconditional love yields practical consequences for framing difficult contemporary pastoral dilemmas."
--George Newlands, author of Spirit of Liberality
"Through his brilliant notion that the divine judgment is a judgment of love, and therefore in itself salvific, James Matarazzo sheds new light on many contested topics in the Christian tradition. What is on offer here is a critical and constructive interpretation that does not shy away from using the specificity of Christian eschatology for addressing our contemporary concerns."
--Ola Sigurdson, University of Gothenburg, Sweden
"This fascinating and beautifully written book approaches the prospect of divine judgment not in terms of condemnation, but in terms of liberation . . . It brings about both an absolute recognition of all aspects of human love and a freeing of the human will to attend truthfully to divine and human otherness. Truth, ultimately, is revealed through God's judgment of love."
--Werner G. Jeanrond, University of Oslo
"In this wide-ranging, ambitious, and well-crafted study, Matarazzo addresses the thorny issue of the Christian doctrine of the last things. By carefully analyzing a whole range of thinkers and sources he offers a positive solution that challenges many of the efforts of the past, but which remains profoundly optimistic. God's judgment is a judgment of love which means that something that has often been instilled with terror is transformed into a state where everything is revealed in its fulness and where hope conquers all as we live in faith, hope, and love."
--Mark D. Chapman, University of Oxford