This book was first published in 1992. It has been highly acclaimed by a number of its critics. If you are looking for a book on this great subject of love which is strongly biblical and spiritual then this is probably not the right book for you. It has a strongly psychological element which constantly intrudes. Hardly surprising when you realize that the main author is a Christian counselor by profession who also conducts seminars which are strongly constructed around this book and another of his writings called ‘The Wounded Heart’. He does root so many of his psychological insights firmly in the scriptures and this is helpful. At times, in reading this book, I could not help feeling that it might have been better to have waited another ten years before writing it, further experience would have tempered the many insights and challenging analysis that it contains. Perhaps it deals with love more as a subject than a life. However, it must be also said that the author does not profess to be anything other than a learner in the whole matter of loving all types of people. He refers to them as ‘the evil man, the fool and the simpleton,’ these are categories he has lifted from the book of Proverbs. One reviewer of the book encourages us to ‘try the recipe for love set our in these pages’. Those words do capture something of the nature of the book. You do get the idea that it is a recipe. There is much in the book concerning love and forgiveness. Some of the thoughts will disturb and offend those suffering from that common virus afflicting the church of the west which has turned love into sentimentality. The use of the word ‘bold’ in the title gives a clear hint that there is a strength to love about which Allender and Longman desire to alert their readers. Many times they challenge the non-confrontational kind of notion of love so prevalent nowadays and penetratingly show that it does not effect the repentance and transformation possible to the bold love of God. Dr Allender writes ‘Bold love is anything but passive. It is shrewd, cunning and courageous. In many cases it will even hurt those who are being loved. Ultimately, however, it will compel them to deal with the internal disease that is robbing them( and others) of true beauty. And in the end it offers both the promise of genuine reconciliation, and the ultimate joy of working in partnership with God to surprise and destroy evil in our world’.
