A Metaphysics of Love

The book is the third and final part of a philosophy of Christian life. The first part applied a phenomenological approach to the literature of the devout life tradition, focussing on the feeling of being drawn to devotion to God; the second part examined what happens when this feeling is interpreted as a call or vocation. At its heart, this is the call to love that is made explicit in the Christian love-commandment but is shown to be implied every time human beings address each other in speech. A metaphysics of love explores the conditions for the possibility of such a call to love. Taking into account contemporary critiques of metaphysics, Dante's vision of 'the love that moves the sun and other stars' challenges us to account for the mutual entwining of human and cosmic love and of being/God and beings/creatures in love. Conditions for the possibility of love are shown to include language, time, and social forms that mediate between immediate individual existence and society as a whole. Faced with the history of human malevolence, love also supposes the possibility of a new beginning, which Christianity sees in the Incarnation, manifest as forgiveness. Where existential phenomenology sees death as definitive of human existence, Christianity finds life's true measure in love. Thus understood, love reveals the truth of being

Epistemology · Metaphysics · Medieval Philosophy and Theology · Philosophy · Renaissance and Early Modern Studies · Theology and Philosophy of Evil · Theology, practical

• Beauty Is the Gravitas Amoris

  Open Access•Sean Eapen Luke•Religions•2024

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