Love is a multifaceted thing. Sometimes this complex nature can be masked in English by the use of the umbrella term “love” (or even by the exclusion of concepts that really fall under that umbrella — e.g., “friendship”). In this first episode in our (planned) three-episode series on love, we discuss agape (i.e., self-sacrificing or sacrificial love) and caritas (i.e., charity), their interrelationship, and some of their connections to other facets of love (e.g., storge [i.e., familial love]).

Love is a matter of who is doing the thing, whom is receiving the thing, and what the nature and scope of the thing is. The love — more accurately, the scope and nature of the love — you owe to your wife (agape, eros) is not the same as the love you owe to your siblings (agape, philia) or to your nation (pietas). Love is a matter of wisdom, one that has fallen into neglect in Christian discourse.

All that is called love is not.

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Show Notes

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Parental Warnings

None.