AGAPE/ PHILOS/ EROS THE PROPER ORDER

I enjoyed your essay. Thank you.

I do have a critique, however. I mean it in the spirit of intellectual discussion and intend absolutely no insult to your personal religious beliefs. Although some of my criticism may sound harsh, I am committed to addressing the logic and validity of your ideas. I also consider myself a Christian: my overall intent here is to speak to the kind of faulty reasoning that many of our peers use to explain our beliefs, but which in the end only alienate our audience and weaken our position.

You interpret these three ancient Greek concepts through your own perception of a contemporary Christian-based filter. Unfortunately, the filter quickly gets clogged and very little accuracy gets through it.

On what do you base your assertion that "Many here at Glp have never experienced the Agape love that is from God..."? How can you know that to be true? Are you more privileged than others in your own awareness of God's love and the ways in which He expresses it?

Are Christians the only ones available to God's love? If so, then the millions (billions?) of humans who lived prior to Christ's time on earth never experienced God's love? If so, then Jews and Muslims and Buddhists and Hindus who live good, peaceful, righteous lives and OBEY God's commandments without ever calling them so -- these people never experience God's love?

How can we believe this? Christ who lived and died among tax-collectors, the poor, prostitutes and criminals said, "Love one another."

Also, your interpretation of "eros" as temporary and limited to the erotic is mistaken. On what sources do you claim to base this interpretation? Yes, eros includes physical passion, but it is not limited to physical passion - and according to Greek experts I have read, does not imply a "temporary" expression of love. All three concepts, philos, eros and agape, in fact, have synonymous connotations: all are "love," and represent the ubiqitous, timeless and permanent nature of godly love. Eros speaks to the passion we strive for at all times for ouor fellow man and for God. Conversely, it also represents the perfect passion God has for all humanity at all times. The physical passion we experience in the arms of our lovers is only one way eros manifests itself: the ecstasy we feel when a long- and hard-sought goal is reached, the rapture of immersion in God's nature, the agonizing bliss of childbirth, the visceral pleasure of embracing.

Finally, the triad of philos, eros and agape are, curiously, similar to the Catholics' paradoxical concept of the Holy Trinity... three in one... one in three "persons."

We need to emphasize the encompassing nature of Christ's love for humanity and eschew our instincts to claim ownership of the "one true religion." We ironically accuse others of elitism while practicing the worst kind ourselves. We "know" others have not experienced God's love...?! How solipsistic! If we are to proselytize buy truly living Christ's commandment to love our enemies and one another has he loved his disciples, then we must be disciplined in our attempts to explain our own positions. Unfounded claims and opinion expressed as Truth only weakens our position and further alienates those who might otherwise be willing to see and hear God's Word through us.

My previous reply was attributed to "Anonymous Coward." It was my first time posting on this website & I missed the field for "user name." I have been called a coward for making a mistake. Brilliant. Great way to encourage new members.

I am offended and discouraged that those who maintain the website have the gall to make such odious assumptions about anonymous submissions. How dare they? Besides the error I made, members may have very legitimate reasons for remaining anonymous.

And isn't it true that many submissions are made under avatar, "made up" user names? Isn't that the same thing as submitting anonymously?! What hypocrites!

If the intent of this default attribution was to make a joke, then the website administrators should re-think this. Otherwise, shame on them.

we know God's love always
if we are open to it
every child knows God loves them
it is only religion and pride
which blocks that knowing
and unfortunately
it is adults who ruin
the simple childlike faith
that begins so strong

the woman who started this forum
thought "anonymous coward" was a great default posting name
she had a strange sense of humor :)

Its pretty funny

yeah, know exactly what you mean blood.

There is a lot of intellectual definitions of love going on, I feel most of us including myself are more concerned about our own understanding of love in an intellectual way rather than live it and experience it.

Jeremiah was absolutely right when he said the heart of man is deceitful, it even hides from itself, in other words whatever we do, or say, most of the times there are motives behind them, a lot of them may be hidden, but feel that true love makes a person look inwardly first and root out any self deception which is in all of us.

I also feel that vary deception is the vary reason why we disagree on issues, and for all the rest of the problems facing mankind right now.

What do you all think ???

I would be nice if we could love unconditionally like a pet dog would do, but give humans a brain, then problems start to develop, not that there is anything wrong with the brain, but the heart keeps overruling it in a deceiving way.

If jeremiah, moses, king david, and others, recognised there own faults and limitations, then why should we be any better ???

Tony.