Alexander Irwin's original and important work retrieves and develops the often-neglected but extremely fruitful notion of eros in Paul Tillich's thought.

Irwin's recovery of Tillich's rich concept shows how eros is a crucial dimension in human existence and a driving force in all human creativity - in art, social ethics, politics, and religion.

Yet Tillich's theology and his personal life also contained a destructive aspect that begs the question of relational justice. Confronting the demonic in eros leads Irwin to augment Tillich's notion with recent feminist theologies of the erotic and yields a profound and promising avenue for contemporary religious thought.

Author - Alexander C. Irwin

"This is an outstanding contribution to theological conversation and warrants attention and critical discussion. Irwin's book releases Tillich scholarship onto new, rejuvenating terrain and advances contemporary theologians' understandings of the connection between erotic joy and the makings of justice."

Mark Kline Taylor, Princeton Theological Seminary


"Alec Irwin's examination of eros in Tillich's thought got me to open my 'Systematic Theology' for the first time in a decade! Looking at Tillich through the lens of feminist and womanist theology yields a fresh reading of a major theologian and a new agenda for Protestant theology."

Judith E. Plaskow, Manhattan College