vol 3: Development
11 Love
page
Site map
Directory
Search this site
Home
1: About
2: Synopsis
3: Development
Next:
Previous: Love: toc
This site is part of the natural religion project The natural religion project A new theology A commentary on the Summa The theology company
Introduction
Love makes the world go round. Money also makes the world go round. We understand this by mapping both love and money onto energy as modelled by the transfinite network.
Love is a most general name for the moving and binding forces in the universe. A fundamental expression in theology is 'god is love'. Love is a phenomenon, and therefore a proper input to science. We can study its outward manifestations, as we watch people pairing up, having children, building houses, enjoying themselves, fighting, separating.
We can also look at love from inside, through personal experience. We feel these things as well as see them. The bliss and bitterness that we see are given meaning by the bliss and bitterness that we feel, and vice versa. With atoms, bacteria or elephants we can only see what they are doing. Their feelings are beyond us, though we may feel that individuals that behave more like us feel more like us.
Love is intimately related to the process of reproducing ourselves, all the way from becoming attracted to one another to the care and nurture of a family. Love is the foundation of economy, literally the wise management of a household. [Greek oikonomia, the management of a household or family]
Christianity expands the love found within families to the whole world, and to the highest levels of mystical and theological experience. The family model of love lies behind the evolution of God, the source of us all, from loving father to subsistent love. The story of redemption has as its foundation, the fact that God loved the world so much that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not be lost but may have eternal life. [John 3:16].
Killing one's own children to appease another is no longer acceptable. Do people really have to die so that others can have life? Is war necessary? Are these negative manifestations of love a necessary part of our lives? This part of the site is devoted to the study of these questions in the light of the hypothesis that the universe is divine and the transfinite network model of human experience.
(revised 14 November 2002)
Further reading
Books
| Berndt, Ronald M, Love Songs of Arnhem Land, 1989 Amazon back |
| Boulton, David, The Lockheed Papers, Jonathan Cape 1978 Jacket: 'The Lockheed Papers is the first full account of how the biggest private defence contractor in the western world set out to boost its military and civil airplane sales by building what one American Congressional investigator called "the biggest bribery network in the history of bribery".' Amazon back |
| Buchan, James, Frozen Desire: the meaning of money, Farar, Strauss and Giroux 1998 Jacket: 'In Buchan's view, money is civilization's greatest invention. ... As Buchan explains, money is "frozen desire" - and because money can fulfill any mortal purpose, for many people the pursuit of money becomes the point of life. In a learned and elegant survey, Buchan illuminates the many different views of money across the centuries. ... Whether or not money is humanity's greatest invention, its meanings reveal a great deal about human nature; in showing us what we think of money JB shows is who we are.' Amazon back |
| Howard , Michael, War and the Liberal Conscience: the George MacAulay Trevelyan Lectures in the University of Cambridge, Temple Smith 1986 Jacket: 'For centuries liberal minded men have been horrified by the pain and waste of war. ... Throughout the whole story runs the continuing contrast between those who hoped to find a single cause for the disease, leading to a lasting cure, and those who understood that, in Professor Howard's words, 'this was a task that needs to be tackled afresh every day of our lives'.' Amazon back |
| John, and Alexander Jones (editor), in The Jerusalem Bible, Darton Longman and Todd 1966 Introduction to Saint John: '[This] gospel has a complex literary form: it is akin to the earliest Christian preaching, and yet at the same time it gives the final results of a quest ... for a deeper and more rewarding apprehension of the mystery of Jesus. Each of the evangelists has his own approach to Christ's person and mission. For St John, he is the Word made flesh, come to give life to men, 1:14,and this, the mystery of the Incarnation, dominates the whole of John's thought. p 140. Amazon back |
| Klein, Richard G, The Human Career : Human Biological and Cultural Origins , University of Chicago Press 1999 Review: 'The Human Career describes one of the most spectacular changes to have occurred in our understanding of human evolution. The once-popular fresco showing a single file of marching hominids becoming ever more vertical, tall and hairless now appears to be a fiction. ... For most of the past four million years several species of hominids coexisted, sometimes in limited geographical areas. The eventual peopling of the planet with a single homogeneous species of hominid is shown to be exceptional on the geological timescale. ... If you could have only one book that deals with human evolution, this is definitely the one to choose. ' Jean-Jacques Hublins, Nature. 403:364 27 January 2000. Amazon back |
| Lewis, Clive S , The Allegory of Love: A Study in Medieval Tradition, Oxford UP 1979 Jacket: 'The Romance of the Rose, its ancestors and its descendants are here studied not as an obstacle to be surmounted on our way to Chaucer, but as a true expression of the ages which produced them. The allegorical form is found to be at once an imagninative bridge from mythical to reflective consciousness and a principal origin of Romanticism; ... ' 'Humanity does not pass through phases as a train passes through stations: being alive, it has the privilege of always mocing yet never leaving anything behind. What ever we may have been, in some sort we still are. Neither the form nor the sentiment of this old poetry has passed away without leaving indelible traces on our minds. Amazon back |
| Lifton, Robert Jay, Death in Life: The Survivors of Hiroshima, University of North Carolina Press 1991 Jacket: 'Quotations from interviews are interwoven with an objective but compassionate narrative which reveals insights into the survivors' struggles and problems, the meaning of the atomic bombing for them seventeen years later, fear of physical after-effects in themselves and their children, continuing immersion in death imagery, guilt at their own survival, and various attitudes toweards religion, the Americans and toward Hiroshima's special symbolic role as an A-bombed city.' Amazon back |
| Norwich, Julian of, and (Translated into Modern English and with an Introduction by Clifton Wolters), Revelations of Divine Love, Penguin Books 1966 Jacket: '... an account of the sixteen 'shewings' (or visions) which appeared to Mother Julian (1342-1416), a recluse who lived at Norwich ... together with her meditations on these mystical experiences. ... In the pages of her mystical treatise the voice of the Middle Ages sounds with a clarity it is difficult to parallel among the writers of the period.' Amazon back |
| Pearsall, Ronald, The Worm in the Bud: The World of Victorian Sexuality, Penguin Books 1971 Jacket: 'In this fascinating study Ronald Pearsall exposes, with surprisingly thorough documentation, the plain facts of sex-life (approved and illicit) among the aristocracy, the middle class and the poor in the last century. His curious record of glaring conflict notably helps to explain many features of the Victorian make-up. Amazon back |
| Ranke-Heinemann, Uta, and (translated by Peter Heinegg), Eunuchs for the Kingdom of Heaven: The Catholic Church and Sexuality, Penguin Books 1991 Jacket: 'This survey of the Church's attitude to sexuality is nothing if not fair ... A formidable book, being a relentless polemic backed by enormous erudition. The only ecclesiastical response to it that seems to me possible is a bull declaring that women have no souls.' Anthony Burgess in the Observer Amazon back |
| Sampson, Anthony, Mandela: The Authorised Biography, Vintage 2000 Jacket: 'Anthony Sampson, who has known Mandela since 1951, was given unprecendented access to his subject, including extensive conversations with him, and inspection of all his letters through 27 years in prison, his original unpublished jail autobiography and the opfficial prison records. He has unearthed for the first time British and American diplomatic and intelligence reports on his political influences; he has been able to interview hundreds of friends, colleagues and family - including Mandel's three wives - to provide candid insights into his domestic life. He thus provides a quite new picture of Mandela's private and public life, and the tragic tension between them.' Amazon back |
Papers
| Campbell, Anthony, "Integrity: the long walk I", Eureka Street, 8, 10, December 1998, page 34-37. 'AC on faith, God and love'. back |
| Campbell, Anthony, "Integrity: the long walk II", Eureka Street, 9, 1, January/February 1999, page 47-48. 'AC continues his series on an unconditionally loving God'. back |
| Campbell, Anthony, "Integrity: the long walk III", Eureka Street, 9, 2, March 1999, page 35-37. 'AC continues his series on an unconditionally loving God. This month: Fear of God - God of love'. back |
| Campbell, Anthony, "Integrity: the long walk IV", Eureka Street, 9, 3, April 1999, page 45-47. 'AC continues his series on an unconditionally loving God. This month: unconditional love - the vision'. back |
| Campbell, Anthony, "Integrity: the long walk, V", Eureka Street, 9, 4, May 1999, page 18-20. 'AC continues his series on an unconditionally loving God. This month: unconditional love: the challenge'. back |
Links
| Australia Matchmaker Looking for a soul-mate, an after-work pen-pal or a weekend workout partner? Matchmaker.com is the leading online community enabling secure connections between people with similar interests or needs. back |
| Karen Gold, Ce Swanson (editors) The Care Giver's Compendium Online Indiana County Guidance Center. Providing a Wide Range of Mental Health and Mental Retardation Services to the Community back |
| Kirk Israel The Blender of Love Digest "The Blender of Love's main purpose is to act as a sounding board for the romantic feeling of the web." back |
| Vicki Barnes et al The Labour of Love We pride ourselves on our uniquely supportive community here at The Labor of Love. We think you'll agree that our message boards and journals are the best on the web. Whether you are trying to conceive, struggling with infertility, pregnant, or already a mom or dad, you'll find a home here. back |
Click on an "Amazon" link in the booklist at the foot of the page to buy the book, see more details or search for similar items
Related sites:
Concordat Watch
Revealing Vatican attempts to propagate its religion by international treaty
Copyright: You may copy this material freely provided only that you quote fairly and provide a link (or reference) to your source.
