I Want You to Be: On the God of Love

I Want You to Be: On the God of Love by Emmanuel Falque is a searching and courageous work of philosophical theology that dares to ask what it truly means for God to love human beings — not as abstract doctrine, but as an embodied, demanding, transformative encounter that reshapes what we understand about both the divine and the human.

About the Book

Emmanuel Falque is one of the leading voices in contemporary French phenomenology and Catholic philosophy. In I Want You to Be: On the God of Love, he takes as his starting point the profound tension in Christian theology between God’s transcendence and God’s love — the paradox that the infinite would desire relationship with the finite. Drawing on the phenomenological tradition of Husserl, Heidegger, and Merleau-Ponty, as well as the theological resources of Augustine, Thomas Aquinas, and Hans Urs von Balthasar, Falque develops an account of divine love that is irreducibly incarnational.

At the heart of the book is Falque’s insistence that the God of Christianity is not primarily a God of power or judgment but a God of desire — one whose love for creation is not metaphorical but constitutive of what God is. This has radical implications for how we understand prayer, suffering, embodiment, and human relationships. Falque argues that taking seriously the Incarnation — God becoming flesh — means that philosophy and theology must grapple with the full weight of human bodily existence, including vulnerability, mortality, and erotic love.

The book is both intellectually rigorous and surprisingly personal, with Falque drawing on his own experience as a philosopher, a theologian, and a person of faith. His writing navigates the boundary between philosophy and theology with unusual fluency, making arguments that will challenge and reward readers from both disciplines. Translated into English by the theologian Brian Lapsa and philosopher Cory Juhl, the text retains the clarity and force of Falque’s original French.

What Makes It a Meridian Award Winner

The Meridian Award for Philosophy recognizes works that advance genuine philosophical inquiry while remaining accessible to educated non-specialists. I Want You to Be achieves this in exemplary fashion. Falque’s willingness to bring phenomenology into direct conversation with theological questions — rather than treating them as separate domains — represents exactly the kind of boundary-crossing intellectual courage the award honors. His central claim, that love rather than omnipotence is the most philosophically significant divine attribute, is argued with rigor and defended with humility. This is philosophy as it should be: transformative, personal, and alive to the full range of human experience.

Who Should Read This

I Want You to Be is essential reading for philosophers working in phenomenology, Continental philosophy, or philosophy of religion. Theologians — particularly those interested in the relationship between systematic theology and philosophical method — will find Falque a stimulating interlocutor. Educated general readers with an interest in the deep questions of religion, love, and what it means to be human will also find much to engage with, though some familiarity with phenomenological concepts will enhance the experience. Anyone who has wrestled with what it means to say “God is love” in a rigorous rather than merely sentimental sense will find this book indispensable.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is I Want You to Be: On the God of Love worth reading?

For readers with philosophical or theological interests, emphatically yes. Falque is one of the most original thinkers working at the intersection of phenomenology and Christian theology, and this book represents some of his most mature and accessible thinking. It is a book that opens up new ways of thinking about love, embodiment, and the divine — the kind of work that rewards careful reading with genuine insight.

What genre is I Want You to Be: On the God of Love?

I Want You to Be: On the God of Love is academic philosophy, specifically Continental philosophy and philosophical theology. It won the 2016 Meridian Award for Philosophy in recognition of Falque’s significant contribution to the phenomenological tradition and to contemporary theological reflection on divine love.