What is Love?

Catalog description

Love is a phenomenon that shapes human experience from birth to death, in the most profound and mysterious ways. The experience of ?love? is at turns comforting, scary, dangerous, courageous, uplifting, damaging, or soul-making. What do we know of this mysterious force? Is love primarily self-serving or can it truly seek the good? Beginning with a brief survey of scientific, quantitative, and humanities disciplines, the course then examines the ?Four Loves? identified by the ancient Greeks (and further defined by modern thinkers): storge (affection, as in a family), philia (friendship), eros (romantic/sexual love), and agape (charity or love that is self-sacrificial and giving ? the only human love that resembles God?s love for humans). Special attention is paid to friendship (philia) as a distinctive feature of university life on a campus like ours, with readings from Saint Aelred of Rivaulx and about Saint Brigid of Kildare as models of ideas surrounding ?soul friends.? The course also emphasizes love in all its forms as a nexus of social justice: that we are responsible for upholding and perpetuating the good in our relationships, for practicing agape, and for dismantling social inequalities that deprive human persons of the fullness of love.