ABSTRACT
A central feature of Christian ethics is the command to be a loving person. In the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke, Jesus identifies the greatest commandments of the Old Testament as the commands to love God with the whole self and to love one’s neighbor as the self. Jesus proceeds to expand the scope of persons viewed as ‘neighbors’ whom Christians ought to love. Using the Parable of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:25–37), he implies that every human being counts as ‘one’s neighbor’ for the sake of this command. Therefore, on any plausible interpretation of Christianity, becoming a loving person is a central moral concern.
While many people speak of ‘Christian Love’ or the ‘Christian Model of Love’, there is not just one interpretation or model, but several. This chapter suggests an unusual way of distinguishing between Christians in order to discuss how their theories of love stem from differing philosophical commitments. Rather than categorizing Christians by self-identified labels, denominations attended, or doctrines endorsed, one illuminating way to distinguish between Christians is to identify the secular philosophy exerting the greatest influence upon their worldview and thereby shaping the theoretical framework in which their Christianity is interpreted. The three secular philosophies that have had the greatest influence upon Christians are Platonism, Aristotelianism, and Kantianism. Each of these views will be examined in their full paradigmatic state, although individual Christians will be influenced by these philosophies to varying degrees.
Like most people in our philosophically heterogeneous Western culture, Christians are often influenced by varying philosophical ideas in ways that they may not even realize. In particular, the ideas of thinkers like Plato, Aristotle, and Immanuel Kant have become synthesized—sometimes intentionally—with Christianity in deeply interwoven ways. These philosophical principles influence the interpretation and application of religious principles and practices, including the Christian love commands. Yet, this fact in itself is not a direct threat to Christian orthodoxy. When theologians integrate secular philosophy with religion, at least some seek to avoid overriding religious principles with secular ones. Instead, such theologians seek to supplement religious truths with compatible secular truths to synthesize a fuller, more complete account of the world, since even theologians viewing Christian revelation as uniquely authoritative rarely hold religious sources of truth to be the only sources of truth. This chapter outlines and compares the distinctive traits of these three philosophical approaches to Christianity and their competing interpretations of Christian love.
