Or maybe Latin. ;) I was doing homework tonight, and the material started talking about a theologian's understanding of love using "agape, philia and eros." I realized that I have no proper understanding of what those terms (particularly agape) REALLY mean, just that stupid JW mantra "love based on principle." So now I'm trying to sort this out. In Basic Christian Ethics by Paul Ramsey he describes it this way:
How exactly do you love yourself? Answer this question and you will know how a Christian should love his neighbor. You naturally love yourself for your own sake. You wish your own good, and you do so even when you may have a certain distaste for the kind of person you are. Liking yourself or thinking yourself very nice, or not, has fundamentally nothing to do with the matter....
[Agape] means such love for self inverted. Therefore, it has nothing to do with feelings, emotions, taste, preference, temperament, or any of the qualities in other people which arouse feelings of revulsion or attraction, negative or positive preferences...The commandment requires a Christian to aim at his neighbor's good just as unswervingly as man by nature wishes his own.
This leads me to believe that the understanding I grew up with (from the WTS) is narrow, confining and warped. But I still don't really understand the principle of agape love once you take it out of the realm of Organization teaching. Can anyone help me with this? It would really enhance my understanding of this segment of the class. Thanks. Odrade