What Is Love?
An accidental, passionate, delightful and otherwise inexplicable attraction for a specific other?
Continuous good deeds benefitting the welfare of one another, that is, both?
The phenomenal experience of an exclusive relationship, much to the envy of others?
All of it? Something else all together? What is love in Christianity, or Unificationism in particular? Why does it all have to be so, uh, perplexing?
Doesn’t love make the world go ’round? Yes, as such love is a rather complicated matter involving tender feelings, multitudes of choices, and sometimes even a deity. Love can also be full of drama.
Can such love then last? Nope, not on autopilot. There are things one must do. I did. Start by believing that true love is within reach, though.
Hi, Tom Froehlich here. I am a graduate of the Unification Theological Seminary (Class of ’83) and am infatuated with musing about the phenomenon of lasting erotic love in human affairs.
It isn’t love’s fault when interpersonal relationships break down, though. It’s just that humans – us, you and me – all of us are a bit flawed. Who and what are we? Do humans have what it takes to make real love last?
Many folks find hope in believing that love better originates and emanates from God. I am not convinced. Is there not more to it? Having examined I, me, and myself as well as my beliefs of youth now for decades, I still ponder. Flawed or not, I think that humans are capable of nobility, that is, of true love in their own right.
So, that is what I must be musing about, in a polemical mood: what is desire, what is fascination, what is caring love, what is erotic love, what is godly love, and who and what are we humans in this regard. What to keep, and what to let go in terms of mythology, folklore, proverbial or real truths.
Why are you prompted to sign up to peruse most all? A lot of these musings are personal and I do not wish to embarrass myself in front of just anyone.
Not sure? Skip the chaff and just read the following…
All ‘bubble chat’ conversations on this site are obviously fictitious, that is, imaginary. No offense intended.
No offense taken.
Just wonder, what were you told by mom or dad about amorous love?
What will you tell your child about amorous love?
How do you know it’s love and not just courtesy, fascination, or lust?
You all, to be in love with God is the greatest achievement for any human.
What is that love, Augustine? Are love, eros, and sex not the same?
Hey, I wrote once that love is an art form that needs to and can be learned.
Yeah, and long before that, I said that we cannot tell ourselves whom to fall in love with.
As an accident, falling in love seems to be a rather involuntary event, but then it’s multitudes of choices that foster erotic love to last, so as to be called true love one day. Accident and choice – what a fateful combination.
That’s our experience, it worked for us. Did we get lucky?
That’s our experience as well, it worked for us. Love might, but luck does not last.
Should a man and a woman not get married out of courtesy, hoping that love would show up one day?
Your love never showed up.
This process of the good life is not, I am convinced, a life for the faint-hearted. It involves the stretching and growing of becoming more and more of one’s potentialities. It involves the courage to be. It means launching oneself fully into the stream of life.
We got together with a higher purpose in mind – like that of living for the sake of others – especially during love-making. That is, we did so as for God to delight in the unending experience of ultimate pleasures. Love, life, and lineage come from it.
In my seminal work The Varieties of Religious Experience, I concluded that religion is overall beneficial to humankind, although acknowledge that it does not establish its truth.
Alas…
Oh, did we ever consider any and all of that?
Belief, says the pragmatist, is that upon which a man is prepared to act. True beliefs are those that prove useful to the believer.
And while many good folks wish to believe in a deity or divinity, I am fascinated enough by the virtues of romance and lasting love.
Counseling Services
By the way, I am available – on a limited basis – for counseling services regarding all things Unification as well as love and life. If you do not fit in – like me, I can be there in case you are looking for someone to talk with. Please contact me at your convenience.