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The article discusses historical, theological and legal foundations, liturgical practice and church documents regarding remarriage in the Orthodox Church. Topics include acknowledgement of marriage as the oldest institution of divine law in the "The Sacrament of Marriage and Its Obstacles" of the Orthodox Council of Crete; and the publication of a social document by the Ecumenical Patriarchate in 2020 describing marriage as a sacrament of love.

This article explores the relationship between knowledge and love through an encounter with the mode of drama. The allegorical martyrdom drama Sapientia written by Hrotsvit of Gandersheim in the tenth century, which suggests that the theological virtues inform a particular vision of knowledge, is brought into conversation with Stanley Cavell’s reading of Shakespeare’s King Lear. Where Sapientia elaborates a theological vision of knowledge as a work of love, Lear dramatizes the tragic consequences that can arise when love is viciously distorted. After examining Cavell’s account of the relationship of knowledge and love, as well as his claim that modern epistemology is often beset by a form of mother-denial, the article concludes with suggestions for how the theological dance of knowledge and love might be conceived in a Mennonite context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Gregory Nazianzus and Gregory of Nyssa between them composed three orations On love for the destitute poor which highlight the pre-eminence for Christians of practical charity, situate lepers as its most deserving recipients, and argue that to minister to the poor is to minster to Christ himself. This paper focuses on their use of categories from Plato's Gorgias to analyse social inequity in terms of the pursuit of excess associated with the appetites and its remedy in restoring measure and balance associated with logos, appropriated by the Gregories to the Christian Logos such that the pursuit or tolerance of excess, or of its concomitants deficiency and imbalance, is shown to be incompatible with Christian faith. While the Gregories' core argument is the same, their approaches differ, Gregory of Nyssa's being more explicitly ascetic. After outlining the late antique notion of the πτωχοί and the salient aspects of Plato's Gorgias, I turn to the three orations, focusing on how they appeal to excess, measure, and balance in diagnosing soul sickness and prescribing its remedy. I conclude by discussing their anticipation of Pope Francis' call to "go forth to the peripheries", considering who the figure of the leper symbolises for us today and, implicitly, for the Gregories, and how this discussion can illuminate the apparent contrast between Nazianzen's and Nyssen's views of institutional care for lepers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An essay is presented which discusses the distinctions between traditional understandings of justice and law, and examines Jewish and Christian approaches to both concepts. The challenge of reconciling Christian injunctions to love with the need for justice is explored, and the idea of universality in regard to justice and law is commented on. Platonic concepts of justice and their similarities and differences from Judeo-Christian ideas are also examined, and the topic of justice in the biblical book of Exodus is touched on.

The article exhorts members of the Catholic Church in Germany remain with the church. Topics include the need for contributing to changes through voluntary work, and professional commitment to social and church issues; the importance of spreading the message of radical love, teamwork, mercy and righteousness, and resurrection; and the honest desire for liturgical celebrations.

Feelings are an essential part of human life, of our universe of relationships. Unfortunately, religious life has not traditionally been an appropriate space in which to express them, and the same is true of the Teresian Carmel. The Carmel of Lisieux where St. Thérèse of the Child Jesus lived, in line with this general tendency and guided by the particular norms that governed the life of the French Carmelites at the end of the 19th century, favored a strict discipline in the control of feelings which led to a a conventual environment very poor in human qualities and weak in religiosity. Teresa of Lisieux was nonetheless able to experience positive feelings--rooted in love--of joy, happiness, affection and good humor, in the midst of suffering. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

"[E]very [Mosaic Law] scribe who has been trained for the kingdom of heaven is like the master of a household who brings out of his treasure what is new and what is old". [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Star of Redemption is proposed as a criticism of Hegel's thought and its logic of the Aufhebung, but Rosenzweig does not deny the truth of Hegel's system, only the idea that it is absolute. From this point of view, Rosenzweig takes up "another" Hegel: that of his early writings--from which he draws Hegel's conception of love--and that of The Phenomenology of Spirit--in which he searches for a system that is linked to experience. Based on these particular aspects of Hegel's philosophy, and moving beyond them, Rosenzweig builds a relational philosophy, whose elements are not sublated, but coexist with each other. We will analyze the fracture of Totality in the triad God-Mad-World to study their effective relationship through love, and the necessary link between Judaism and Christianity as a way of aniticipating Redemption. Having this link in mind, and against Hegel's conception, Rosenzweig maintains that both religions share a common content, and that their relation is symbolized by the word "and". [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article offers information on Catholic social teaching, love, and thomistic secondary moral precepts. Topics discussed include social life from a Christian perspective; rightly-ordered love of self and transformational union with God; and emphasizes on creation of human persons to exist in three fundamental and closely intertwined relationships by Pope Francis.

Contemporary analyses of Anselm's objective description of Christ's atonement have often resulted in a trend of interpretation that tends to ignore the relevance of this model to a development and understanding of a western doctrine of Christian sanctification. Through the examination of some overlooked insights offered in Cur Deus homo and their integration with other spiritual writings in Anselm's corpus, the present article attempts to redirect current scholarship towards a more holistic engagement with Anselm's doctrine of atonement, out of which an original doctrine of Christian perfection can be outlined. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Starting from the narration of the story of three great "impossible" loves we analyze the norms that ruled the relationships between men and women in the respective social contexts where the couples developed their stories. We also reflect on the factors that influenced the forced dissolution of the relationships, as well as the direction the women wanted to take and the one they actually could take in regards to their lives after they were deprived of the relationship with their partners. The work is developed by marking the trajectory that happens from the meeting between two individuals and the emergence of love, to the truncation of the possibility for the lovers of going a common path in their lives. We turn to biographic and bibliographic documents to elucidate the remains of the communication preserved by the members of these couples after the separation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Joy is an affective state that, unlike fear and grief, has a certain continuity with the anticipated affective dispositions of heavenly life: for those who long for the heavenly "life of felicity," joy responds to the same object of love and contemplation, i.e., God, whether they are on earth or in heaven. But the mortal, finite believer encounters certain obstacles to full vision and to sustained contemplation in this earthly life. This fact reveals fundamental difficulties in tracing the continuity Augustine posits in De ciuitate dei 14.9 across earthly and heavenly emotions, especially given the differences he also posits between earthly (temporal) and heavenly (eternal) states. This article examines how Augustine describes the affective (and, in particular, experiential) qualities of believers' earthly and heavenly joy and jubilation with particular attention to the (dis)continuities between their temporal and eternal expressions in both speech and song. I argue that, by transcending the temporally-spoken word, the non-verbal cry or song comes closest to matching the expression of heavenly joy as it responds to the God who surpasses utterance, and whose embrace fulfills understanding and elicits inexhaustible love and praise. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article offers information on nun Beatrice of Nazareth's seven modes of love. Topics discussed include desire that comes forth from love with great energy; exist in purity and freedom, and tendency to be loved and nurtured; and likeness to love in the total adornment of the virtues and in the full purity of the highest nobility of love.

Erasmus wrote his Paraphrases on the New Testament (1517–1524) at the climactic point of his literary career, just after his new edition of the New Testament, the humanistic edition of the Adagia and his edition of the works of St Jerome. This lecture asks why Erasmus gave so much time to paraphrase at such a key moment, what he hoped his paraphrase would give to early sixteenth-century Christians, and how his paraphrase clarifies, dramatizes and adds to the Biblical text. It analyses quotations from the paraphrases on Romans and the Gospel of Mark, relating to his historicization of the text, his criticism of the contemporary church, and his presentation of issues of law, grace and faith, the appropriate attitude to civic authority and Christian love. It compares Erasmus' approach to teaching from the New Testament to his hero Rudolph Agricola's Oration on Christ's Nativity (1484) and to Philipp Melanchthon's approach in the first version of his Loci communes (1521). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fifty years that went by since the promulgation of Humanae vitae underline its prophetic import and relevance. The rejection of the encyclical was associated –as already denounced by Paul VI (HV, 17)– with the loss of truth concerning human love and life, the negation of human person, and the domination of the powerful over the weak. This article reflects on some aspects that render this encyclical prophetic and offers several indispensable keys for its reading, namely, an adequate anthropological vision and a correct interpretation of the Magisterium’s competence in the Church with regard to issues concerning natural morality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article –placed within the consideration of the truth of human love– particularly concentrates on the truth of conjugal love from the perspective of procreation, which is an exceedingly relevant matter then and now. For this reason, this article, following Humanae vitae’s exposition, seeks to give a response that transcends the circumstances in which the encyclical was written. This objective justifies the article’s structure: it examines the ethical question of the moral truth of procreation (II); the development of natural methods (III); truth, moral law, and conscience (IV); and conscience and prudence (V). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In a recent article in this journal, Heidi Giannini (2017) has argued that the Christian doctrines of love and of hope require Christians to endorse universal, unconditional forgiveness, understood in terms of the renunciation of "negative reactive attitudes." She also addresses criticisms of this interpretation. It is argued that Giannini has failed to provide a Christian justification for universal, unconditional forgiveness. Part of the problem is that she espouses a definition of forgiveness and an understanding of the nature of forgiveness that, as a result of neglecting the teaching of the New Testament, exhibits a number of incoherencies and theological weaknesses. Her account is also vulnerable to philosophical and moral criticisms of a serious nature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

What does it look like to cultivate a community in right relationship with God? In taking the focus off individual members and placing it on the community itself, we recognize that the whole of a university is greater than the sum of its parts, and that individual parts are repeatedly and continually shaped and defined by the whole. Being in right relationship with God begins with acknowledging our longings to be loved, to be known, and to belong in ways encouraging us to put ourselves intentionally and consistently in God's gaze of love. Coming before God empty-handed and agenda-less, rather than starting another discipleship program or Bible Study, helps us lean into God's love already at work—common grace. Gratitude flows from opening our eyes to the wonder of God's sustaining love active around us. As we gaze at God, who is gazing at us, we are transformed—saved from envy, pettiness, selfishness, and sense of entitlement. Transformation begins with grace, where the response is a gratitude that moves back to God and is expressed in love of neighbor—love of all created things, both seen and unseen, held together by Christ. This movement of God in our college communities is cultivated by a shared identity as a Christian community, by seeing and knowing each other, being seen and known, using chapel as a Holy Place, and turning our love outward. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The commandment to "love your neighbor as yourself" (Matthew 25:39) is central to Christian discipleship. How does the concrete way that we express love enhance or diminish our ability to love? This paper brings Karl Rahner's theology of neighbor love into dialogue with a description of altruism and compassion provided by social psychologist, C. Daniel Batson, and neuroscientists Tania Singer and Olga Klimecki. For Rahner, grace enables and sustains love. In addition, a mutually reciprocal relationship of unity exists between human love for God, neighbor, and self Furthermore, Rahner contends prayer as one way to cultivate compassion for another. The scientific research presented here examines aspects of the relationship between self and other known as empathy and compassion. The research of Batson, Singer, and Klimecki shed light on the role of self-love in compassion as well as the ways our capacity to empathize conditions our potential for altruism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay endeavors to demonstrate that celibacy «for the sake of the Kingdom» conveys important lessons for human flourishing. Celibacy is an anthropological witness to the possibility and conditions of faithful human love, the nobility as well as the limits of marriage, and the vocation of every Christian man to fatherhood in the order of grace. In the contemporary climate there is a great deal of anthropological confusion regarding the human person, including human love, marriage, and parenthood. As a result, these three lessons taught by apostolic celibacy are perhaps more urgently needed than ever before. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The relationship between the conjugal love and the procreation has been a very discussed matter among the years 1.965 and 1.983. The authors; Marcelino Zalba, Antonio Hortelano, José María De lahidalga, José Luis Larrabe, Francisco Javier Elizari, Eduardo López, Benjamín Forcano, Javier Gafo, Marciano Vidal, Francisco Gil, have tried to recover the position of the conjugal love. To a lot of people it could only be possible from is thought as purpose, which the new anthropological approaches demand. To others it could only be reached from the place of being or core of the marriage which the Church used to claim. The integration of all the characteristics of the marriage and of the two meanings of the conjugal act, as well as the criteria-objectives of morality, is better reached considering the conjugal love as a being or core of the marriage than purpose and much less as main purpose. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Paul’s response to the issue concerning idol food at Corinth begins with two important cautions concerning knowledge (1 Cor 8:1–2) and praise for love (8:1, 3) that frame his argument concerning idol food in 8:1–11:1. Paul wants love to serve as a guide for how the Corinthians put their knowledge into practice, and he also shows that “the knowers” have incomplete knowledge. “The knowers” understand Jewish polemic against idolatry (that idols are nothing), but they have overlooked another view (that idols are the work of demons). This essay contends that Paul’s initial caution concerning knowledge at the beginning of his address of this issue serves as the foundation for understanding his stance on food sacrificed to idols. Any food explicitly identified as sacrificed to idols must be rejected by believers both for the sake of love and because of the threat that demons pose to believers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tracing the language of love through 1 Corinthians, this article argues that Paul calls the Corinthians into an attentive communion with one another, in which mutual love will shape their practical wisdom. Paul’s goal is not the establishment of communal regulations, but rather the formation of moral agents through interpersonal bonds of love in Christ. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

My goal is to explicate the ontological framework of the human self that is required for radical discipleship. I do this through two notions: Christian love (agape) and Christian humility. To that end I explore the other- and the self-regarding aspects of humility and love, posing a problem for love and humility rooted in our typical notions of self-interest and phronesis. I then propose a way of rethinking humility and love in the context of a sketch of solidarity and an alternative ontology of the self. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, I focus on the ways in which liturgical participation can be a manifestation of love rather than on the formative effects of liturgy. I introduce the discussion by distinguishing two quite different love commands that Jesus issued: we are to love our neighbors as ourselves, and the followers of Jesus are to love each other as he loved them. The former sort of love I call ‘neighbor love’, the latter, ‘Christ-like friendship love’. I distinguish two ways in which both kinds of love can be manifested: by exercising the love, or by giving symbolic expression to the love. I point to various dimensions of Christ-like friendship love that the New Testament singles out for attention, and show how these dimensions can be exercised in the liturgy. I then point to ways in which neighbor love can be manifested. I conclude with some brief reflections on liturgical participation as formative of love. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a way by which Saint Bernard's four degrees of love in "De diligendo Deo" can enlighten what Christians undergo in their lives and hearts. Topics covered include how the concept of Saint John Paul II could help Christians better understand the message of Saint Bernard about love of God and neighbor, the call to monastic life as an experience of love and the characteristics of the love between God and man.

The article presents the author's views on unconditional love which he deems as the greatest truth, highlighting the writings of novelist Graham Greene on unconditional love. He argues that unconditional love is the only type of love that is an end in itself as it does not have a hidden purpose. Graham's writings include "Monsignor Quixote," "The Heart of the Matter," and "The End of the Affair."

The article discusses Thomas Aquinas's philosophy of love and love for others. It states that Aquinas' thought on love is inconsistent, according to scholars Leslie Dewart and Anders Nygren, citing that his attempts to unite Greek philosophy with Christian faith are doomed to fail. It also says that Aquinas identification of God as the ultimate end in the treatise on beatitude tells that God is the good people desire and wish to obtain for one's self.

Review of Sandu Frunză, O antropologie mistică. Introducere în gîndirea Părintelui Stăniloae (A mystical anthropology. An introduction to Stăniloae's thought). București: Eikon, 2016. 176 pag. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses divine pietas in the herald of "Divine Love" by saint Gertrude of helfta, citing the originality and meaning of pietas in the Herald. It states that thirteenth century people did not speak about the "commercial title" of a book, and mentions that definitive title is presented as a "favored child." It notes that meaning of pietas in the Herald cannot be defines without taking the time to examine the immediate linguistic environment of uses of the words.

The relation between the moral concepts of action, virtue, and love which appear in the writing of Saint Thomas Aquinas offers a new perspective for the consideration of the traditional theory of virtues. Saint Thomas conceives the problem of election and its principle, the virtue, by overcoming Aristotle's perspective of desire and putting the origin of virtues in their affection and love. This article presents two main moments of the dynamics of action rooted in love: the revelation of person as the end of action and the determination of the concrete action's ends for the accomplishment of the communion with person. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Homosexuality, from an Orthodox perspective, falls in the category of sins that cry to Heaven for vengeance. The condemnation root of this sin has its basis into certain scriptural texts. However, the theological and the pastoral approach of homosexuality within the Orthodox Church is a taboo subject. On the one hand, the works and the studies which clarify how to relate to homosexuals within a parish are missing; on the other hand, the homosexuals' testimonies and the problems that they are face with, as members of the Orthodox Church, are also missing. The current study reviews certain more important Orthodox contributions on the theme of homosexuality, namely the challenges and the possible responses which it raises. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Early seventeenth-century English sermons often address their audiences directly as “beloved”. This form of address aims to create a Christian community of love; but, as classical rhetorical theory holds, the preacher’s ability to move his audience depends on his ability to be moved himself. At the same time, “beloved” is clearly a conventional term, one used by preachers such as Joseph Hall, John Donne, Richard Sibbes and John Preston, as well as mandated by the Book of Common Prayer. As this article argues, when the preacher uses the address “beloved” towards his congregation, he is speaking through the words and the passions of God. Through its analysis of “beloved” as a conventional form of sermonic address, this article develops a reading of love as an institutional feeling. Read this way, “beloved” comes into focus as a performative term, one that makes manifest the preacher’s doubled passions—his own, and God’s. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article offers the author's insights about the perspectives of theologian and reformer Martin Luther regarding love, faith, and preparation of sermon. Topics include the implication of Renaissance humanism on Lutheran preaching, Luther's book "The Freedom of a Christian," and reading and interpretation of the Bible by Luther.