A Hypothetical Definition Of Love
Sunday, July 24, 2011 at 9:02AM | by Otter One day in the autumn of 2006 when teaching 1 Corinthians and its magnificent obsession with agape love, I asked my students to define love as Paul sees it there.
That was a particularly eager and lively class. We played with it for a long time, Christians and pagans and confused young people trying to agree on words that capture Paul's vision. There were special problems with that: it's not entirely clear whether one can do that non-theologically. But I liked the definition we eventually came up with:
Love is the energy required for creating and sustaining relationships.
The more I've chewed on that over the years, the more I think it's a definition that deserves some thought, particularly with respect to St. John's assertion that "God is love."
