Christian Love

Bernard V. Komar

• Publisher: Georgetown University Press
• Year: 2003
• Print ISBN: 9781626162501, 9780878408948
• eBook ISBN: 9781589012967
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Christian Theology

Bernard Brady has given us a rare, delightful, and thought-provoking book—a volume that belongs on the desk or the bed-stand of anyone in search of the rich and varied dimensions of Christian love. Christians are taught that God is love and are commanded to love, their neighbors and their enemies. These truths are not controversial. What is controversial and, indeed, has been controversial throughout the history of Christianity is the meaning of this love. This book explores the tradition of Christian reflection on the meaning, and experience of love, loving, and being loved.

Many books have been written about Christian love, but no book has gathered together this kind of primary source material and covered such a wide range of perspectives, allowing the reader to engage directly with the thought and experience of some of the greatest Christian minds on the topic of love. Bernard Brady covers with remarkable clarity the breadth and depth of discussions on Christian love from the Bible to contemporary experience to create this-a survey of how Christians through the ages have understood love.

Beginning of course with the Bible, Brady examines the key writings and thinkers on the nature of Christian love: St. Augustine; mystics such as Bernard of Clairvaux, Hadewich, and Julian of Norwich; the great tradition and literature of courtly love, Thomas Aquinas, Martin Luther, Sören Kierkegaard, and others. In addition, Brady devotes chapters to several 20th century figures whose lives seemingly embodied Christian love: Mother Theresa, Martin Luther King, Jr., and Pope John Paul II. Finally, Christian Love addresses contemporary deliberations over the meaning of love with an analysis of the modern writings of Martin D'Arcy, Reinhold Niebuhr, Jules Toner, Gustavo Gutiérrez, Gene Outka, Margaret Farley, Edward Vacek, and Don Browning. In a synthesizing concluding chapter, Brady offers his own insightful and introspective understanding of the substance of Christian love, suggesting that it is an affective affirmation of another, that it is both responsive and unitive, and that it is steadfast and enduring.

As a beautiful contemplative companion to one's own spiritual understanding, or as a thoughtful and meaningful gift, Christian Love is in every sense a treasure to behold, read, and share with those you love.

CHAPTER ONE

Love in the Old Testament: God’s Love and Human Loves

‘Aheb and Hesed

Where you go, I will go; where you lodge, I will lodge; your people shall be my people, and your God my God. Where you die, I will die—there will I be buried.

—Ruth

In the Old Testament there are several words translated into English as “love.” The two primary words are ‘aheb and hesed. ‘Aheb is the more general of the two. This word has roots in the marriage relationship and thus has connotations of desiring and experiencing.¹ Usage of the term is, however, quite broad. While it is often used to express the romantic attraction between persons it is also used to describe general feelings of attachment between persons in families, friendships, and even political loyalties. ‘Aheb is used to describe love between persons, God’s love for people, people’s love for God, and love for non-personal things. It presupposes a concrete inner disposition based on experience and includes a “conscious action in behalf of the person who is loved or the thing that is preferred.”² ‘Aheb suggests direct practical assistance to others. It demands the concrete acts of love and personal responsibility necessary for the maintenance of relationships and the community.³

Hesed, on the other hand, is more limited in its meaning but more frequent in its use. According to biblical scholar Katherine Dobb Sakenfeld, hesed has several characteristics.⁴ First, hesed is always used in reference to people, never to things. Second, hesed is used within established relationships. Third, hesed in its most basic form refers to an action that “preserves or promotes life.” Hesed is expressed by acts of “intervention on behalf of someone suffering misfortune or distress.”⁵ There is no accurate English translation of hesed. Biblical translators have used love, loving kindness, mercy, steadfast love, devotion, faithfulness, and loyalty for this Hebrew word.⁶ Sakenfeld describes four features of an act of hesed. First, she writes, there exists a situation of distress. A person needs the help of another. Second, the situation is desperate. Third, the situation is such that there is only one who is able to help. Fourth, the help offered comes from the free decision of the other.⁷

In this first section on love in the Old Testament we have several testimonies to God’s hesed. In these passages we see both statements about God and God’s love as well as the implication that humans ought to do the same as God does. Hesed is the model and indeed the foundation of human love. Experiencing God’s hesed compels people to live hesed. Sakenfeld writes, “From an Old Testament point of view any human loyalty, kindness, love or mercy is rooted ultimately in the loyalty, kindness, love and mercy of God.”⁸ H. J. Zobel writes, “God’s kindness towards an individual places that individual in a new relationship with his neighbor… . Thus hesed shapes not only the relationship of Yahweh with human beings, but also that of human beings among themselves.”⁹

The book of Ruth is an interesting starting point for the exploration of love in the Old Testament. The story is about faithful love. Alice Laffey writes, “The characters’ relationships with one another evidence a fidelity which is grounded in the firm conviction that Yahweh will be faithful to his covenant people.”¹⁰ These characters illustrate both ‘aheb and hesed. The central relationship in the book is between Ruth and her mother-in-law Naomi. We read that both women have lost their husbands, and they share the grief they have in common. Naomi’s grief is compounded, as she has lost both her sons as well. Naomi and her family had been living in the land of Moab for some time. Her sons married Moabite (foreign) women. After the death of her sons, Naomi decides to return to her native land of Judah. Her widowed daughters-in-law, Ruth and Orpah, want to stay with her, but Naomi bids them to remain. If they stay in their native land, she reasons, they might be able to marry again and start a family. Ruth refuses to let Naomi go it alone. She commits herself to stay with Naomi. At this point in the story Ruth utters her famous words of committed love. “Where you go, I will go; where you lodge, I will lodge; your people shall be my people, and your God, my God. Where you die, I will die—there will I be buried” (Ruth 1:16–17). Ruth’s fidelity to Naomi is hesed.

The two women face hard times when they return to Judah. With the death of their husbands, Naomi and Ruth are left in poverty. There is no social security, or welfare, or indeed job opportunities for women (outside perhaps being a slave). They manage to survive by taking grain from that which is left over from others’ fields. Biblical law requires that farmers must leave a part of their harvest for the poor to gather (see Lev. 19:9–10, 23:22; Deut. 24:19–22). Ruth labors for herself and for Naomi, taking food from the field owned by a man named Boaz, a distant relation. As Boaz enters the story, we see another form of love. Boaz allows Ruth to pick from the margins of his field. This is not necessarily because he loves her, but because he wishes to follow God’s law.

The object of Boaz’s love is God, or more directly, God’s law. For Boaz and his contemporaries, following the law was the primary way one could know and follow the invisible, transcendent God. The law described the people’s responsibility to the God who created them, saved them, and sustained them. It was what God required them to do. Deuteronomy states, “See, I have set before you today life and prosperity, death and adversity. If you obey the commandments of the Lord your God that I am commanding you today, by loving the Lord your God, walking in his ways, and observing his commandments, decrees and ordinances, then you shall live” (30:15–16). Perhaps Psalm 119 captures the love that directed Boaz’s life. The Psalmist proclaims, “Oh, how I love your law! It is my meditation all day long” (119:7) and “I find my delight in your commandments, because I love them. I revere your commandments which I love, and will meditate on your statutes” (119:47–48).

The law of the Old Testament requires more than merely allowing the poor to glean from your fields. It also commands love of neighbor. Deuteronomy 10:17–19, for example, states, “For the Lord your God is God of gods and Lord of Lords, the great God, mighty and awesome … who executes justice for the orphan and the widow and who loves strangers, providing them with food and clothing. You shall also love the stranger, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt.” The book of Leviticus likewise states, “You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against any of your people; but you shall love your neighbor as your self: I am the Lord” (Lev. 19:18). Leviticus also states, “When an alien resides with you in your land, you shall not oppress the alien. The alien who resides with you shall be to you as the citizen among you; you shall love the alien as yourself, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God” (Lev. 19:33–34).

The lives of Ruth, Naomi, and Boaz illustrate faithfulness expressed in direct actions. These actions, as well as the convictions backing them, reflect their confidence in God and give the reader a sense of what God’s love is like. Here is the story of Ruth.

Chapter 1: In the days when the judges ruled, there was a famine in the land, and a certain man of Bethlehem in Judah went to live in the country of Moab, he and his wife and two sons. The name of the man was Elimelech and the name of his wife Naomi, and the names of his two sons were Mahlon and Chilion; they were Ephrathites from Bethlehem in Judah. They went into the country of Moab and remained there. But Elimelech, the husband of Naomi, died, and she was left with her two sons. These took Moabite wives; the name of the one was Orpah and the name of the other Ruth. When they had lived there about ten years, both Mahlon and Chilion also died, so that the woman was left without her two sons and her husband.

Then she started to return with her daughters-in-law from the country of Moab, for she had heard in the country of Moab that the Lord had considered his people and given them food. So she set out from the place where she had been living, she and her two daughters-in-law, and they went on their way to go back to the land of Judah. But Naomi said to her two daughters-in-law, “Go back each of you to your mother’s house. May the Lord deal kindly with you, as you have dealt with the dead and with me. The Lord grant that you may find security, each of you in the house of your husband.” Then she kissed them, and they wept aloud. They said to her, “No, we will return with you to your people.” But Naomi said, “Turn back, my daughters, why will you go with me? Do I still have sons in my womb that they may become your husbands? Turn back, my daughters, go your way, for I am too old to have a husband. Even if I thought there was hope for me, even if I should have a husband tonight and bear sons, would you then wait until they were grown? Would you then refrain from marrying? No, my daughters, it has been far more bitter for me than for you, because the hand of the Lord has turned against me.” Then they wept aloud again. Orpah kissed her mother-in-law, but Ruth clung to her.

So she said, “See, your sister-in-law has gone back to her people and to her gods; return after your sister-in-law.” But Ruth said, “Do not press me to leave you or to turn back from following you! Where you go, I will go; where you lodge, I will lodge; your people shall be my people, and your God my God. Where you die, I will die—there will I be buried. May the Lord do thus and so to me, and more as well, if even death parts me from you!” When Naomi saw that she was determined to go with her, she said no more to her.

So the two of them went on until they came to Bethlehem. When they came to Bethlehem, the whole town was stirred because of them; and the women said, “Is this Naomi?” She said to them, “Call me no longer Naomi, call me Mara, for the Almighty has dealt bitterly with me. I went away full, but the Lord has brought me back empty; why call me Naomi when the Lord has dealt harshly with me, and the Almighty has brought calamity upon me?”

So Naomi returned together with Ruth the Moabite, her daughter-in-law, who came back with her from the country of Moab. They came to Bethlehem at the beginning of the barley harvest.

Chapter 2: Now Naomi had a kinsman on her husband’s side, a prominent rich man, of the family of Elimelech, whose name was Boaz. And Ruth the Moabite said to Naomi, “Let me go to the field and glean among the ears of grain, behind someone in whose sight I may find favor.” She said to her, “Go, my daughter.” So she went. She came and gleaned in the field behind the reapers. As it happened, she came to the part of the field belonging to Boaz, who was of the family of Elimelech. Just then Boaz came from Bethlehem. He said to the reapers, “The Lord be with you.” They answered, “The Lord bless you.” Then Boaz said to his servant who was in charge of the reapers, “To whom does this young woman belong?” The servant who was in charge of the reapers answered, “She is the Moabite who came back with Naomi from the country of Moab. She said, ‘Please, let me glean and gather among the sheaves behind the reapers.’ So she came, and she has been on her feet from early this morning until now, without resting even for a moment.”

Then Boaz said to Ruth, “Now listen, my daughter, do not go to glean in another field or leave this one, but keep close to my young women. Keep your eyes on the field that is being reaped, and follow behind them. I have ordered the young men not to bother you. If you get thirsty, go to the vessels and drink from what the young men have drawn.” Then she fell prostrate, with her face to the ground, and said to him, “Why have I found favor in your sight, that you should take notice of me, when I am a foreigner?” But Boaz answered her, “All that you have done for your mother-in-law since the death of your husband has been fully told me, and how you left your father and mother and your native land and came to a people that you did not know before. May the Lord reward you for your deeds, and may you have a full reward from the Lord, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come for refuge!” Then she said, “May I continue to find favor in your sight, my Lord, for you have comforted me and spoken kindly to your servant, even though I am not one of your servants.”

At mealtime Boaz said to her, “Come here, and eat some of this bread, and dip your morsel in the sour wine.” So she sat beside the reapers, and he heaped up for her some parched grain. She ate until she was satisfied, and she had some left over. When she got up to glean, Boaz instructed his young men, “Let her glean even among the standing sheaves, and do not reproach her. You must also pull out some handfuls for her from the bundles, and leave them for her to glean, and do not rebuke her.”

So she gleaned in the field until evening. Then she beat out what she had gleaned, and it was about an ephah of barley. She picked it up and came into the town, and her mother-in-law saw how much she had gleaned. Then she took out and gave her what was left over after she herself had been satisfied. Her mother-in-law said to her, “Where did you glean today? And where have you worked? Blessed be the man who took notice of you.” So she told her mother-in-law with whom she had worked, and said, “The name of the man with whom I worked today is Boaz.” Then Naomi said to her daughter-in-law, “Blessed be he by the Lord, whose kindness has not forsaken the living or the dead!” Naomi also said to her, “The man is a relative of ours, one of our nearest kin.” Then Ruth the Moabite said, “He even said to me, ‘Stay close by my servants, until they have finished all my harvest.’” Naomi said to Ruth, her daughter-in-law, “It is better, my daughter, that you go out with his young women, otherwise you might be bothered in another field.” So she stayed close to the young women of Boaz, gleaning until the end of the barley and wheat harvests; and she lived with her mother-...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Contents
• Preface
• Acknowledgments and Permissions
• Chapter One Love in the Old Testament: God’s Love and Human Loves
• Chapter Two Love in the New Testament: The Great Commandment
• Chapter Three Augustine: Love God and Love All Things in God
• Chapter Four Mystical Love: Union with God
• Chapter Five Troubadours and Troubled Romance
• Chapter Six Thomas Aquinas: Friendship with God
• Chapter Seven Martin Luther: The Christian Is Servant to All
• Chapter Eight Christian Love Is Sacrificial Love
• Chapter Nine Love Activists
• Chapter Ten Self-Regard, Other-Regard, and Mutuality
• Chapter Eleven Reflections on Christian Love
• Notes
• Index