By Aaron Schwartz The paper analyzes Christian concept of love on the basis of Paul Ramseys work Basic Christian Ethics. At the beginning the general information and comparison of Christian love to other concepts of love are given. Then it is traced how love is interpreted by Paul Ramsey and its entity is revealed. And finally, an attempt to extrapolate the concept of Christian love to the modern society is made and its vague perspectives conclude the paper. Introduction Human society was always characterized by a wide variety of views, particularly on such concepts as ethics, love, death, etc. These concepts remain actual nowadays and they are even more difficult to define and to make them universal for different societies. Traditionally western societies were characterized by the domination of Christian views which could be treated as universal to a certain extent. Naturally, they did not remain rigorous, they gradually evaluated but basic principles remained practically unchangeable though there were different interpretations and views on one and the same problem or concept. One of such conceptual things is the notion of love and Christian views on love. In the 20th century, a lot of arguments were hold on the concept of Christian love, different specialists suggested different interpretations, even those who were not big specialists in Christianity. At this respect, particularly interesting for further study seems to be the work of Paul Ramsey, namely his Basic Christian Ethics, in which he discusses Christian love in details and thoroughly analyze it in the context of the Christian religion. Naturally, Christian concept differs significantly from views of other religions or philosophical schools but it still pretends to become universal due to the fact that Christianity is widely spread through out the world and is the basis for western culture and philosophy that nowadays dominates in the world and in the future this trend may be even stronger than it has ever been before. This article will basically focus on Paul Ramsey interpretation of love in the Christian religion, its aspects and entity. Christian love compared to other human loves From the very beginning it is necessary to underline that different human societies, different cultures even different individuals have different views and understanding of the concept of love. It is particularly important to realize what Christian love really means because it is one of the basic concepts of Christianity at large. At this respect, Paul Ramseys Basic Christian Ethics is very helpful for it reveals the entity of Christian love in relatively modern interpretation of a person who is a representative of the 20th century that is to a certain extent revolutionary period in human history and in relation of people to love. However, even within Christianity there is no consensus, no universal agreement about Christian love. For instance, there were Christian ethicists, basically protestants that created a so-called Agapeism and they supported the idea of authentic Christian love. On the other hand, they had some opponents, and Paul Ramsey was one of them, who disagreed with the concept of authentic Christian love. Actually, they conceived of authentically Christian love or agape as fundamentally other directed and free of egocentric self-love. (Niebuhr 1992:163). At the same time, according to Paul Ramsey, Christian love is basically self-giving and it is oriented entirely toward help to other people and that all people should live peacefully and love each other. Naturally, such attitude to love presuppose a persons readiness to sacrifice himself or herself for interests of other people or for the interests of the whole community a person lives in. it means that unlike some other individualistic concepts of love, Christian love, according to Paul Ramsey, is societal and oriented on neighbors and their well-being. However, critics indicate that the readiness for self-sacrifice is not love itself but it is simply demonstration of love in probably its extreme point. Thus, it is obvious that among different views on love there may exist different concepts of love and all of them have their own particular traits. At the same time, Christian love may also be understood differently, and it is extremely important to analyze these views in order to find the general concept. Probably, Paul Ramseys study could help to understand one of the possible interpretations of concepts of love but it demands a more detailed analysis of his views that would be done in the next chapter of the paper. Christian love as it is seen by Paul Ramsey As it has already been said Paul Ramsey supports the idea that Christian love is not self-oriented love but on the contrary Christian love in its large sense means a persons readiness to scarify for the sake of other people as it has once done Jesus who died for all human beings and their well-being and salvage. So, he considers that Christian ethics denies that self-love is more preferable or even admissible for good Christians. On the contrary he considers self-love as idolatry. It means that in his interpretation Christian love presuppose love that is oriented on other people or as Jesus said people should love their neighbors. Actually, this idea originates form the Mosaic laws and it was further developed in the New Testament. So, it may be said that such views on love are traditional and have deep historical roots in the Christian religion. Actually, such interpretation and attitude toward love was quite revolutionary because basically there were a bit individualistic views and philosophy that dominated in other religions and cultures. Moreover, it was traditional to support quite negative attitude to representatives of other communities for instance. In order to understand this attitude it is necessary to analyze the period when the Christian concept of love was developed and formulated. In the ancient world as well as later until the present moment it was a norm when hate was a basis of upbringing, namely hate to enemies of a certain clan, or even nation. So, Christian love aimed at the victory of love over the enemies hatred through the love of Jesus Christ alone. (Hershberger 1985:35). On the individual level the situation was practically the same. Individual interests were practically always and everywhere higher and more significant then interests of other people. Naturally, Christian appeal to love neighbors was if not extraordinary than a bit unusual because it suggested to an individual to scarify his or her interests and care about other people even those whom the individual did not know. To a certain extent, Christian concept of love was even revolutionary because it made people treat people around them differently. It was quite innovative idea, and very humanistic one by the way, because it suggested a new philosophy and ideology. According to Christian views and Christian love people could live peacefully in harmony with their neighbors and with their own selves. It also suggested a new view on the role of individual in the community. Despite it decreased individual interests but, on the other hand, Christianity increased the role of an individual. It sounds a bit paradoxically but still it is true because the concept of Christian love presuppose that all people through mutual love will help each other and care about interests of each other rather than about individual interests. Furthermore, according to Paul Ramsey, Christian conception of love is characterized by a very critical interpretation and attitude to self while collective interests, i.e. the interests of the society and all of its members are highly valued as the most precious things. He estimates that Christian ethics encourages neighbor-oriented love that means that every Christian should care about others in first turn and only then about themselves. Paul Ramsey in Basic Christian Ethics supports such a position and states on the ground of criticism of self-love and egocentrism. As an alternative to self-love he suggested the concept of disinterested love. By the way, this concept is supported by many other specialists in Christian ethics, such as Hershberger. According to them, the Christian understanding of self as socially constituted and corporately united stands against all atomistic and anarchic estimates of selfhood. As a result self-love in the Christian tradition is not honored, on the contrary, Christian understanding should incline Christians to think and act with global and neighborly interests that moderate individual ones. Consequently, it is possible to say that Christian concept of love differs significantly from what is now traditionally understood by love. Quite interesting seems to be Paul Ramsey view on the relation of love and justice. For instance, he states that the Bible knows nothing, or little, of any conflict between justice and love. (Ramsey 1950:5). But at the same time he estimates that love transforms justice and the social and legal system is moved from below by pressures, and justice is usually found among the jar of opposing forces and between contending factions. (Ramsey 1961:47). Also it has to be said that Paul Ramsey is a proponent of permeability of justice to charity and he concedes a kind of priority for justice in normal, sinful society. Buy essays Term paper Buy admission essay Aaron is a professional freelance writer at custom essays writing service: custom-essay.net
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