The Other and the Interruption of Love

Assisted by Lyotard's postmodern critical philosophy of difference, I analyse Christianity as the master narrative of the idea of love. Then I present Jeanrond's A Theology of Love. In responding to the question of how a Christian theology of love can prevent itself from becoming a master narrative, I show how attention for difference is the key to unlock the closing features of narratives since difference 'interrupts' the Christian master narrative of love (first interruption of love - object genitive). At the same time I explore how 'love' interrupts not only the Christian temptation to fall back into master narratives, but also engenders a critical consciousness vis-à-vis such tendencies in other narratives (second interruption of love - subject genitive). Today, theologies of love, therefore, are called upon to retrieve a notion of love which neither includes nor excludes otherness, but is challenged by it, and even more so, lives by this interrupting challenge.