World Religions – Christian Love

World Religions – Christian Love

            According to many people in the world, ‘Agape’ has a different meaning. The most fundamental meaning of the word was propounded by Martin Luther King as evidenced by the Martin Luther King papers. This concept always stood in the middle of his affirmation that nonviolence and love were fundamental for remedying racism in America as well as his belief in a God who was knowable in nature (Markham & Lohr, 2009). In essence, he defined Agape as the greatest love of all. This was during his references to the different types of love including romantic love, eros, the reciprocal fondness among friends and philia. This paper provides a comprehensive examination of Martin Luther King’s definition of Agape, its essentiality in Christian living, Kings’ hate for racism, and the struggle for racism based on Agape.

To Martin Luther King, the accessibility to Agape affirmed the essentiality of Christian religion. His comprehensive definition of Agape encompassed unmotivated, purely spontaneous, creative and groundless love, which comes from God and operates in human hearts. This is the love that postulated the brotherly love existing between Christians (Markham & Lohr, 2009). To him Agape defined the kind of love that is indifferent where human merit is concerned. Essentially, he affirmed that the only adequate and basic symbol of God’s divine love rests on Agape. In reality, he utilized Agape in defining the best way that non-violence relations in racism could be arrived at.

In accordance to his stipulations, Agape was beyond human attitudes because under Agape, people love others not because they like them or because their attitudes are appealing, but because God loves all these people with the unconditional Agape love (Markham & Lohr, 2009). The Christian way of life should be filled with love for all humankind. This is because for people to be converted to Christianity God had to show them Agape love while forgiving them the sins that they had committed before they became Christians. In the same way, Christians should not love other people because of their good deeds, but because God loves them the way they are. The Christian way of life should be guided by Agape love, which is unconditional even on the onset of racism.

During the times of Martin Luther King, racism was at its peak, with the African Americans facing excessive discrimination from the White Americans. Martin Luther King hated racism because it negated the stipulations of Agape love. He felt that all human beings, as a result of Agape love should be treated the same with love because God never discriminated anyone where Agape love was concerned (Markham & Lohr, 2009). His hate for the evils of racism encouraged him to conduct considerable research on the ways in which Agape love could be applied in countering the problems caused by racism. He asserted that the application of Agape love in everyday’s life could culminate in loving people who committed evil deeds while hating the evil deeds they committed.

Inherently, he emphasized on non-violence as a way of countering the problems of racism. This means that people could be allowed to hate the deed of racism, while at the same time showing love to those who committed racism (Markham & Lohr, 2009). This would act as a form of surprise to the racist who would later reflect on the good deeds of the people they discriminated against, hence changing their negative racist beliefs. In this case, Martin Luther King believed that loving people should not be judged on their appealing attitudes or likeability but considered on the unconditional Agape love that God provides to them. This will work towards the changing of people’s perception of racism, therefore extracting that evil from the world.

Agape love is one of the concepts that Martin Luther King concentrated in the papers he wrote during his graduate years. He defined this type of love as the unconditional love provided by God which does not rely on the attitudes of people but relies on the fact that God loves them unconditionally. Martin Luther King believed that Agape love should define the Christian way of love because it reflects on God’s love for humankind (Markham & Lohr, 2009). Racism is one practice that Martin Luther King hated based on its degradation of the stipulations of Agape love. He however, believed that the application of Agape love even on the onset of racism would aid in countering the problems caused by racism. In conclusion, Agape love is the type of unconditional love that all human beings should practice towards each other for peaceful living.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

References

Markham, I., S. & Lohr, C. (2009). A world Religions Reader. Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell