I.  On Starting Love, Power, and Justice

On reading Tillich’s description of love, one can only come back to a definition that emphasizes a reunion of the estranged, which is not really the estranged at all but that to which we ultimately belong.  In making his case, Tillich turns to Aristotle and his definition of eros which for the Greek philosopher was seeking that a thing may obtain its highest form.    Before he gets to Aristotle though, he puts an objective truth on the table….love is ontological and has to do with being itself more than any of the emotions and sentiment we may attach to the word.  These things may be present, but even if they are not, love cannot be dismissed from our nature or the nature of our world….it simply is. Read more