(June 19, 2018 at 12:39 am)emjay Wrote: Funnily enough I'm reading a very interesting book at the moment that covers this subject, comparing, contrasting, and logically analysing three concepts of love; Plato's eros, Christian agape, and Aristotle's philia.
Where in a nutshell eros is deemed man's route to God, and agape, God's route to man. Eros is acquisitive love based on seeking value... 'the good' (whatever that may be for a person). The logic goes... as I presently understand it... you cannot want what you already have except inasmuch as to keep it into the future, therefore you want the good and you want to keep it forever... ie you want eternal good... and therefore immortality. So where to Plato the Gods are both immortal and want for nothing, they cannot themselves love but only be the objects of man's love, hence man's route to God.
And where, in comparison, agape is God's route to man, conceptualised as a value-creating rather than value-seeking type of love.
So far in my reading, Plato's concept of eros makes a lot of sense to me. I mean I'm not seeking metaphysical immortality but I understand and agree with the psychological principles behind what he's saying... that you seek value and seek to maintain it... which is essentially seeking immortality if only in the moment. It's just that nonexistence poses no threat to that, in the sense that it is the absence of seeking full stop. In other words I understand seeking that sort of 'eternal good' in life, but ceasing to exist poses no threat to that.
Anyway, as it stands agape makes less sense to me, but I'm not even half way through the book yet. So it remains to be seen, how coherent that will be as a concept to me.
Rob maybe read this slowly a few more times...
Emjay you've hit the nail on the head.
Think of Agape' to start with as the 'respect' one has for very valued employee.. then image how that relationship changes over time and the employee becomes like a son, and respect and love develops over time sometimes even strong than a father son mother daughter relationship could ever, because these two being elect to serve and honor one another. one looking out for the other. sadly not every paternal relationship works out this way. now imagine a life time of serving the same man/family or rather look at how joseph (coat of many colors ) served pharaoh by interpreting his dreams and helped egypt through feast times and famine to the point egypt became the most wealthy buying out other countries riches for the grain joseph had them store up. then at the end of all that look at how Joseph was rewarded for his service. he was placed in charge of all of egypt. the only one who had say over joseph was pharaoh himself. but it was joseph who was sat on the throne and ruled the nation of egypt.
The respect given to joseph by pharaoh was a form of agape love. in how agape is manifest pharaoh could literally not give joseph any more and still be pharaoh. God offers the same thing based on our understanding and our talents and abilities. God's agape is to form a life tailor made for you and to suit your strengths and challenge your weaknesses to bring you up to a standard so that when you pass on you can continue to serve in the most satisfying and perfect way.
I believe all other forms of 'love' are secondary or substitutes for agape. because once you experience true agape you will know that is what we were orginally designed for. that agape is what is missing in all of our lives. Pure agape can only be sourced by God. in this life we get a vibe or strong feeling of love from God from time to time, but never get to feel the all encomassing submersion.. the closest is baptism in a day to day believer's life. (which don't get me wrong is extremely strong sense of love) it's just God has so much more to give.
