CHARITY agape (3)

charity

1.benevolence for the poor.
2.impartial love: the impartial love of other people, especially as a Christian virtue.
3.The theological virtue defined as love directed first toward God but also toward oneself and one's neighbors as  objects of God's love.
4.Modern philosophical discussions of charity have compared it to other terms and concepts of love, notably to  erōs, which is understood as desire or yearning.

Etymology: Middle English charite, from Anglo-French charité, from Late Latin caritat-, caritas Christian love,  from Latin, dearness, from carus dear; akin to Old Irish carae friend, Sanskrit kAma love

in Christian thought,
the highest form of love,
signifying the reciprocal love between God and man
that is made manifest in unselfish love of one's fellowmen.

St. Paul's classical description of charity is found in the New Testament (I Cor. 13).
In Christian theology and ethics,
charity (a translation of the Greek word agapē, also meaning “love”) is most
eloquently shown in the life, teachings, and death of Jesus Christ.

St.  Augustine summarized much of Christian thought about charity when he wrote:
 “Charity is a virtue which, when our affections are perfectly ordered, unites us to God, for by it we love him.”

Using this definition and others from the Christian tradition, the medieval! theologians, especially
St. Thomas Aquinas, placed charity in the context of the other Christian virtues and
specified its role as “the foundation or root” of them all.

 

agape (plural agapae)

1.(Christianity) the asexual love of God or Christ for mankind, or the asexual love of Christians for others.
2. christianity Christian love: selfless love felt by Christians for their fellow human beings

3.asexual, spiritual love. nonsexual love: love that is wholly selfless and spiritual
4.a love feast, especially one held in the early Christian Church in connection with the Eucharist.
5.christianity Christian communal meal: a communal meal held by a Christian community, especially in early  Christian times, in commemoration of the Last Supper.

[Mid-17th century. < Greek agapē "brotherly love"]
1607, from Gk. agapan "greet with affection, love" (used by early Christians for their "love feast" held in  connection with the Lord's Supper), from agapan "to love," of unknown origin. In modern use, often in simpler  sense of "Christian love"
(1856, frequently opposed to eros as "carnal or sensual love").

 Greek philosophers at the time of Plato and other ancient authors have used forms of the word to denote love of  a spouse or family, or affection for a particular activity, in contrast to philia (friendship)— an affection that could denote either brotherhood or generally non-sexual affection, and  in contrast to eros(sensual love) —  an affection of a sexual nature, usually between two unequal partners.

The term agape is rarely used in ancient manuscripts,
but was used by the early Christians to refer to the self- sacrificing love of God for humanity, which they were committed to reciprocating and practicing towards God and  among one another.

Many have thought that this word represents divine, unconditional, self-sacrificing, active, volitional, and  thoughtful love.
denoting brotherly love, love of one's spouse or children, and the love of God for all people.

* love에는 감각적 사랑과 정신적 사랑이 있다. 여기서 말하는 charity agape 는 감각적 사랑이 아니고 정신적 사랑이다. charity agape는 부모 자식간의 사랑을 생각하면 이해가 간다. 그와 똑 같다. the reciprocal love between God and man that is made manifest in unselfish love of one's fellowmen.

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Jesus said,
"'Love (agapao) the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' This is the  first and greatest commandment.
And the second is like it: 'Love (agapao) your neighbor as yourself.' All the Law
and the Prophets hang on these two commandments." (Matthew 22:37-41)

You have heard that it was said, 'Love (agapao) your neighbor and hate your enemy.' But I tell you: Love  (agapao) your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven.

* 여기서 명령어 love는 charity 의 뜻임

Paul describes it

in the Letter to the Corinthians (chapter 13 (KJV)):

Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal.

And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing.

And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing.

 

 Tne definition of charity

Charity suffereth long, and is kind; 

 

How not to do for charity

charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up,

Doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own,

is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil;

Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth;

 

How to do for charity

Beareth all things, believeth all things, (faith)

hopeth all things, endureth all things. (hope)

 

 

Charity never faileth:

 

but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail;

whether there be tongues, they shall cease;

whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away.

For we know in part, and we prophesy in part.

 

 But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away.

When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things.

 

For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face:

now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.

 

And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three;

but the greatest of these is charity.

Note that the King James Version uses both the words charity and love to translate the idea of caritas / ἀγάπη: sometimes it uses one, sometimes the other, for the same concept. Most other English translations, both before and since, do not; instead throughout they use the same more direct English word love, so that the unity of the teaching should not be in doubt. Love can have other meanings in English, but as used in the Bible it almost always refers to the virtue of caritas.

 

- hanngill -

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Love

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/charity

 

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