Love at the Center

Unitarian Universalist Theologies

Sofía Betancourt

• Publisher: Skinner House Books
• Year: 2024
• eBook ISBN: 9781558969391
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Religion

"Given everything our world faces today, having faith in love is no small thing." —Rev. Dr. Sofía Betancourt

Unitarian Universalists as a progressive religious community hold a humbling expectation to periodically re-evaluate the freely chosen covenant that holds us together. While this work impacts the bylaws that define our governance structures, it also gives life to the values we express in common cause. We do this work to live into the Unitarian Universalism of the future.

In response to the Article II Study Commission and the final adopted language of Article II outlining our shared values, it is clear that the value most describe as central to their faith, to their living, and to the mission of their congregations is love itself. We are a people guided by, and centered in, our engagement with all that love requires.

Our pressing task now is to ask ourselves and each other how this understanding calls us forward, individually and collectively. We may agree that love is central, but what does that mean to us and what does it require of us? It is in that spirit that we asked more than two dozen leaders in our movement the question of what it means to put love at the center of our faith.

In these pages, you'll find personal testimony to love's power, reminders of the centrality of love throughout the long histories of Universalism and Unitarianism, and theologies of love drawn from many different expressions of Unitarian Universalism—from the natural world to the justice rally, to a loved one's deathbed, to the quiet moment before a worship service begins. May Love at the Center serve as an invitation to deepen your own understanding and practices of love.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• Preface, Rev. Sofía Betancourt
• Chapter 1: The Theology of Love Was Never a Monologue, Rev. Nancy McDonald Ladd
• Chapter 2: Something Wild, Something New, Something Beautiful, Rev. Juniper Meadows
• Chapter 3: We Call These Things Love, Rev. Adam Robersmith
• Chapter 4: Reflections of a Japanese-Descent UU on Cultural Contexts of “Love,” Rev. Shige Sakurai
• Chapter 5: Beloved Community Is Love at the Center, Rev. Susan Frederick-Gray
• Chapter 6: Hospice and Hors D’oeuvres, Rev. Nathan Detering
• Chapter 7: Digging Graves, Rev. Sam Teitel
• Chapter 8: Leaning into Interconnectedness, Rev. Sierra-Marie Gerfao
• Chapter 9: The Prophet of Love Near You, Rev. Natalie Fenimore
• Chapter 10: Behind the Shade, Glen Thomas Rideout
• Chapter 11: Love Makes a Family, Liz James
• Chapter 12: The Transformative Power of Love, Rev. Manish Mishra-Marzetti
• Chapter 13: There Is a Love Holding Us, Rev. Sheri Prud’homme
• Chapter 14: Unitarian Universalism—One Holy Love for All, Connie Goodbread
• Chapter 15: Love Is Abolition Is Earth Justice, Rev. Karen Van Fossan
• Chapter 16: Love and Risk, Robert C. Spirko
• Chapter 17: When Love Is Criminalized, Rev. Elizabeth Nguyen
• Chapter 18: From Longing to Fully Living, Rev. Mykal O. Slack
• Chapter 19: Love and Power at the Center, Rev. Mary Katherine Morn
• Chapter 20: Love, a Work in Process, Rev. Bill Sinkford
• Chapter 21: On Love, Rev. Marco Belletini
• Chapter 22: Love Is the Heart of This Church, Dan McKanan
• Chapter 23: Liberating Love, Rev. Fredric Muir
• Chapter 24: Finding Love in the Streets, Rev. Jason Lydon
• Chapter 25: Death and Glory, Love and Evil, Rev. Ashley Horan
• Chapter 26: Love Is a Circle in Time, Rev. Rebecca Ann Parker
• Chapter 27: Love: Our Spiritual Need and Calling, Rev. Jade C. Angelica
• Chapter 28: Love Is God, Rev. Abhi Janamanchi
• Chapter 29: Beloved, Rev. Victoria Safford
• For Further Reading
• About the Contributors