Dr Bernard Brady Definition Of Love
Dr. Bernard Brady describes how humans should express true love in Be Good and Do Good when he writes, “But what ought our love ‘look’ like? Within the broader context of the Bible and tradition, we can say a Christian ought to love, within the human condition, as God loves or more appropriately, how we experience God” (Brady, p. 102). Love can be an abstract topic, especially in term of God’s love; however, Brady emphasizes love using five basic characteristics making the abstract more concrete. Thus, Brady lists the following as being attributes of God’s love that humans can duplicate: “[Love] is affective (with emotions), affirming, responsive, unifying, and steadfast” (Brady, p. 102). Although it would be ideal for these characteristics
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For instance, St. Thomas Aquinas explains the complex nature of love for our enemies. First he notes, “We were to love our enemies as such: this is perverse, and contrary to charity, since it implies love of that which is evil in another” (Brady, p. 8). This kind of love for our enemies does not reflect any of the characteristics because this is not the correct way to love our enemies; we should not love everything about them because of their flaws. Next, Aquinas explains that we could love our enemies in a similar way to the love of our neighbors saying, “We should not exclude our enemies from the love given to our neighbor in general” (Brady, p. 8). Since loving our neighbors requires some of the characteristics of God’s love, some are required here, as well. This love would not always be affective because we often do not feel close enough to our enemies to be moved by our emotions or feel affectionate toward them. Nonetheless, this love can be responsive to an extent because even an enemy is “a unique and beautiful individual with basic human needs and desires,” as stated in Be Good and Do Good (Brady, p. 103). Thus, responding to those needs is crucial to expressing love. This love is also affirming, because just as our neighbors are people created in God’s likeness, so are our enemies, so this characteristic is demanded, also. Lastly, this love should be both unifying and steadfast as is love of our neighbors, but this is especially difficult when a barrier exists between enemies. Human love is not perfect as God’s, so this is a characteristic that would require some effort. The last notion of love for our enemies that Aquinas describes is as follows, “Love of one’s enemies may be considered as specially directed to them, namely, that we should have a special movement of love towards our enemies…We should be ready to love our enemies individually” (Brady,
For instance, St. Thomas Aquinas explains the complex nature of love for our enemies. First he notes, “We were to love our enemies as such: this is perverse, and contrary to charity, since it implies love of that which is evil in another” (Brady, p. 8). This kind of love for our enemies does not reflect any of the characteristics because this is not the correct way to love our enemies; we should not love everything about them because of their flaws. Next, Aquinas explains that we could love our enemies in a similar way to the love of our neighbors saying, “We should not exclude our enemies from the love given to our neighbor in general” (Brady, p. 8). Since loving our neighbors requires some of the characteristics of God’s love, some are required here, as well. This love would not always be affective because we often do not feel close enough to our enemies to be moved by our emotions or feel affectionate toward them. Nonetheless, this love can be responsive to an extent because even an enemy is “a unique and beautiful individual with basic human needs and desires,” as stated in Be Good and Do Good (Brady, p. 103). Thus, responding to those needs is crucial to expressing love. This love is also affirming, because just as our neighbors are people created in God’s likeness, so are our enemies, so this characteristic is demanded, also. Lastly, this love should be both unifying and steadfast as is love of our neighbors, but this is especially difficult when a barrier exists between enemies. Human love is not perfect as God’s, so this is a characteristic that would require some effort. The last notion of love for our enemies that Aquinas describes is as follows, “Love of one’s enemies may be considered as specially directed to them, namely, that we should have a special movement of love towards our enemies…We should be ready to love our enemies individually” (Brady,