/lit/ - Literature

>>12612280
I hope you know I was joking Anon. Have a good day ^_^

There are three kinds of love: personal, social, theological.

Personal love is really love of oneself and the exaltation of one's personal values, dreams, and desires. Romantic love exemplifies it, and the love of the romantic other is really to love oneself. Dear friendship is also this kind of love. Love of parents belongs here. A love of country, a patriotism, can be a personal love when one romantically thinks of one's country of birth as a "motherland" or a "fatherland", or even as a kind of lover.

Next I want to talk about theological love. This is what Christian's call "caritas" - charity. It is love of God the Creator. If personal love is subjective then theological love is objective. Personal live delays dreams but theological love exalts the actual, and above all the foundation of all being/actuality: God. In personal-romantic love you do not fall in love with a real person but with an ideal/idol. In theological love, charity, you love things for what they are. You start by loving God and then this abundant love flows from the infinity of God and onto his creatures, especially man.

Finally, social love. This is the most wretched and worthless. This is what the New Testament calls respect or fear of persons, and it is always warning against it. This is the love of politeness and being mindful of other people's feelings. This love is what today is called "being nice" or "being a good person". This is love of Humanity - Humanism. This is not self-interested like personal love or other-interested like theological love: it is a bumbling in-between. If ancient Europe worshipped personal love and old Europe worshipped theological love, then modern Europe worships social love. When Nietzsche condemns the "Last Man" he is condemning the man of social love whose only desire is to be comfortable near his fellow man and whose only fear is of offending others.