ABSTRACT
Of course, as the whole world is aware, Christianity is the religion of love—at least in theory if not always in practice. Its two great commandments are both commandments to love. The primary commandment is that man should love God with his whole heart, soul, mind, and strength. The second and derivative commandment is that one should love his neighbor, elsewhere defined by Jesus as any human being with whom one has to do in any direct way, as one loves himself. And at numerous other places in the New Testament love is described as the highest and most comprehensive of all Christian virtues. Indeed, in his first epistle, John affirms that God himself is love.
