hai all...we are discussing what is love?...i think if we see what is the opposite of love, then it would add more value...so here we go...
what is the opposite of love...fear or hatred?...let us hear from an expert abroad...
one of the professors said opposite of love is not fear and it is hatred...so here is a comment to that from another specialist...
thanks for commenting in response to my fear seems the opposite of love to me....and your thought about hatred being a more accurate representation of the opposite to love. I hear that and can track with that on one level.
However, I wonder really what is beneath 'hatred' - I think of hatred as the "feeling" level of something deeper in the core.
Something that stems out of a broken emotional state that is a complex thing...maybe erupting out of what I call "fear" which is compiled of who knows what - but is only cast out fully by LOVE.
Kind of like Dark is really a "nothing" place and is only filled up by Light. So Caring and kindness and inclusion etc. are 'feelings' that we see as enactments of the core place of "love" that is like a gift.
I think of Faith/Hope/Love all as gifts that flow from within us. And the gifts or results of these are care, kindness, etc.
The 'opposite' would be hate, meanness, evil, cruelty, envy, greed, etc. that would step out of "FEAR"...i.e. the opposite of Love.
The core..... So that is why I take the "term" Love and set it apart....from the way I think the "world" uses it in everyday language.
I don't think it is a concept that can really be fully captured by a word. Kind of like I don't think God is a concept that can be fully captured by a word. We end up "making" God in our own image....because that's all we really know....but G-d....is way beyond anything we can really capture fully.
Well....I think that is the same for Love. And in some sense....maybe metaphorically....I think the two are inter-changeable. However - the mysterious thing that when we are most "fully" human - in our humanity - I think we are image bearers of the Dei...as in Imago Dei.
Anyway - I appreciate that Hatred in the way we "experience" it as a feeling....certainly gives a better picture of being "opposite" of the way we would think of experiencing "love" and yet.....also - I think Love can be harsh in its fullest presence. In its most Severe Mercy - but always Good.
This may wander further....i.e. Another metaphor for concepts like.... "Love" and/or "Good" contrasted to "Fear" / "Hatred" / "Evil"...is in Miroslav Volf’s “Exclusion and Embrace:
A Theological Exploration of Identity, Otherness and Reconciliation” where he presents the theme of the identification of the “other” as the root of conflict in the context of “exclusion” and “embrace” as a metaphorical representation of reconciliation and inclusiveness promoting relationship between people and groups.
Volf focuses on identity as a theme relating to human relationships and emphasizes that the future of the world may be tied to how we deal with identity and difference.
Exclusion occurs when we objectify people, removing them from ourselves as wholly “other”. Separating ourselves from others in rejection does violence to both the individual and social fabric with which we are connected.
Contrasted to this, the metaphor of embrace seeks to express the will to give ourselves to others and “welcome” them, to readjust our identities, and to make space for them; all of which is prior to any judgment about them, except that of identifying them in their humanity.
The will to embrace precedes any “truth” about others and any construction of their “justice.” This will is absolutely indiscriminate and strictly immutable; it transcends the moral mapping of the social world into “good” and “evil.”
Volf’s writing is deep and credible for many reasons. He is a professor at Yale University, and was born and raised in former Yugoslavia and lived in the midst of ethnic violence for many years, experiencing this kind of suffering first hand.
Well anyway - I enjoy the dialogue...thanks!
did you learn something new?...did you enjoy this?
ok , bye , see you in the next post...
rams
what is the opposite of love...fear or hatred?...let us hear from an expert abroad...
one of the professors said opposite of love is not fear and it is hatred...so here is a comment to that from another specialist...
thanks for commenting in response to my fear seems the opposite of love to me....and your thought about hatred being a more accurate representation of the opposite to love. I hear that and can track with that on one level.
However, I wonder really what is beneath 'hatred' - I think of hatred as the "feeling" level of something deeper in the core.
Something that stems out of a broken emotional state that is a complex thing...maybe erupting out of what I call "fear" which is compiled of who knows what - but is only cast out fully by LOVE.
Kind of like Dark is really a "nothing" place and is only filled up by Light. So Caring and kindness and inclusion etc. are 'feelings' that we see as enactments of the core place of "love" that is like a gift.
I think of Faith/Hope/Love all as gifts that flow from within us. And the gifts or results of these are care, kindness, etc.
The 'opposite' would be hate, meanness, evil, cruelty, envy, greed, etc. that would step out of "FEAR"...i.e. the opposite of Love.
The core..... So that is why I take the "term" Love and set it apart....from the way I think the "world" uses it in everyday language.
I don't think it is a concept that can really be fully captured by a word. Kind of like I don't think God is a concept that can be fully captured by a word. We end up "making" God in our own image....because that's all we really know....but G-d....is way beyond anything we can really capture fully.
Well....I think that is the same for Love. And in some sense....maybe metaphorically....I think the two are inter-changeable. However - the mysterious thing that when we are most "fully" human - in our humanity - I think we are image bearers of the Dei...as in Imago Dei.
Anyway - I appreciate that Hatred in the way we "experience" it as a feeling....certainly gives a better picture of being "opposite" of the way we would think of experiencing "love" and yet.....also - I think Love can be harsh in its fullest presence. In its most Severe Mercy - but always Good.
This may wander further....i.e. Another metaphor for concepts like.... "Love" and/or "Good" contrasted to "Fear" / "Hatred" / "Evil"...is in Miroslav Volf’s “Exclusion and Embrace:
A Theological Exploration of Identity, Otherness and Reconciliation” where he presents the theme of the identification of the “other” as the root of conflict in the context of “exclusion” and “embrace” as a metaphorical representation of reconciliation and inclusiveness promoting relationship between people and groups.
Volf focuses on identity as a theme relating to human relationships and emphasizes that the future of the world may be tied to how we deal with identity and difference.
Exclusion occurs when we objectify people, removing them from ourselves as wholly “other”. Separating ourselves from others in rejection does violence to both the individual and social fabric with which we are connected.
Contrasted to this, the metaphor of embrace seeks to express the will to give ourselves to others and “welcome” them, to readjust our identities, and to make space for them; all of which is prior to any judgment about them, except that of identifying them in their humanity.
The will to embrace precedes any “truth” about others and any construction of their “justice.” This will is absolutely indiscriminate and strictly immutable; it transcends the moral mapping of the social world into “good” and “evil.”
Volf’s writing is deep and credible for many reasons. He is a professor at Yale University, and was born and raised in former Yugoslavia and lived in the midst of ethnic violence for many years, experiencing this kind of suffering first hand.
Well anyway - I enjoy the dialogue...thanks!
did you learn something new?...did you enjoy this?
ok , bye , see you in the next post...
rams
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