Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

Home
Contemplative
Politics and Religion
Can Love Be Saved? Some Thoughts on the World Today

Can Love Be Saved? Some Thoughts on the World Today

Last updated on: February 14, 2025 at 6:44 am by Carl "Skye" McColman

0 Comments

Can Love Be Saved? Some Thoughts on the World Today 2025-02-09T11:11:01-04:00 Carl "Skye" McColman

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Happy Valentine’s Day! I recently published a post on Patreon called Can Love Be Saved? which might be an interesting post to read today. Patreon is a membership website, so normally anything published there is behind a paywall. But this particular post I decided, after publishing it, that I wanted to make it available to everyone, so for it I removed the paywall. I would have re-posted it here, word for word, here, but the powers that be at Patheos don’t like it when their bloggers re-publish articles that have already published elsewhere on the Internet. Here’s a 500 word excerpt from the post. To read the entire post, click on the following link. It’s a meditation on the political climate that we find ourselves in, at this moment in history.

Here’s the link to the entire essay: www.patreon.com/posts/can-love-be-121730788

In 1960, C. S. Lewis published a book called The Four Loves, based on several different Greek words for love; in it he explores empathy, friendship, eros, and generous self-giving love (in the Greek, agápē) to explain how love is like light: we can refract light into all the colors of the rainbow, and in a similar way, love can be refracted into different dimensions of kindness, compassion and care. Agápē represents the love of God, the love that is God. But it seems to me that in our public intellectual life, we have lost sight of the many nuances of (and in) love, and perhaps this loss has made our society the poorer.

For you see, I’ve noticed a rather distressing trend in the almost 20 years that I have been a contemplative writer and retreat leader. Early on in my work, people always seemed to appreciate this idea that another name for God is “Love.” Indeed, I got into the habit of describing God as “Love-with-a-capital-L” or perhaps “Love-with-a-face.”

Generally speaking, people seemed to accept and even love this. For Christians, it was simply a restatement of the fourth chapter of the first letter of John, which bluntly states “God is love” — the only time in the entire Bible when God is specifically defined. The Bible never says “God is male” or “God is almighty” or “God is judgmental” (thank heaven), but it does say God is love. And the love that John links to God is agápē love: Theos agapé estin (Θεὸς ἀγάπη ἐστίν), “God is love.”

Even for people who do not identify as Christians, equating love with God often seems to make sense: for they might not have faith in God, but they generally did seem to put faith in love.

Ah, but what a difference a decade or so can make.

I don’t remember the first time I noticed somebody pushing back on me about my use of the word “Love.” It was before the pandemic, but not long before: so sometime after 2015. I was flummoxed. The person said something to the effect of, “But what is love?” A fair enough question, and I patiently explained that I wasn’t talking about superficial romance, or the confusion of affection and eroticism, but rather that I understood love in a spiritual sense to refer to infinite compassion, mercy and care. The person seemed to accept my answer but it was clear that he didn’t much care for the word love. I found this rather unsettling, but at the time I chalked it up to one individual’s quirkiness. After all, maybe he had never experienced real love, so no wonder he wasn’t comfortable with the word.

I wish I could say that was an isolated incident, but unfortunately it has happened several more times over years that followed. Thankfully, it’s still not the norm: it seems that most people who are interested in contemplative and mystical writing and retreats have a sense of love as a spiritually meaningful and positive concept — but the pushback against love has happened often enough that I have begun to worry: are we, as a culture, beginning to lose our faith not only in God but even in love?

To read the rest of this article, click here: www.patreon.com/posts/can-love-be-121730788

Enjoy reading this blog?
Click here to become a patron.

Politics and Religion

Previous Post

January 12, 2025

"This Loving, Uniting Embrace": the Holy Ordinary

Recent Comments

0 | Leave a Comment

"This piece insightfully explores how psychedelic therapy can support both anxiety relief and spiritual growth. ..."

McDowall Health

LSD, Anxiety, and Contemplation: Can Psychedelic ..."

"As I read your comment, I cannot help but suspect that you have misunderstood the ..."

Carl McColman

If You Worship an Angry God, ..."

"Monotheists believe only one Deity exists, and whether angry or jolly it's not for us, ..."

Kelikaku Coutin

If You Worship an Angry God, ..."

"Excellent article.People should remember, the Bible was written in an era when the theologians thought ..."

EarthGrowl

If You Worship an Angry God, ..."

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Activism Announcements Art Books Catholicism Celtic Christianity Christian mysticism Christianity Contemplation Current events Etc. Family humor interfaith dialogue Interfaith Wisdom Interspirituality Lay Cistercians Living the Faith Meditation movies Mysticism Mystics nature Poetry Reviews Scripture silence Spirituality Uncategorized Writing

Select a Month February 2025 January 2025 November 2024 September 2024 August 2024 July 2024 June 2024 May 2024 March 2024 January 2024 December 2023 November 2023 August 2023 June 2023 April 2023 March 2023 February 2023 January 2023 December 2022 November 2022 October 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 April 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 September 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 October 2013 September 2013 July 2013 May 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 March 2012 December 2011 September 2011 October 2010 August 2010 March 2010 September 2009 July 2008 January 2008 December 2007 September 2007 February 2007 January 2007 December 2004

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

What idols' worship did the Israelites imitate in the wilderness?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Babylonian gods Canaanite gods Egyptian gods Philistine gods

Support this
Column