Friday, December 18, 2009

African and Trinitarian connections to an agape-shaped epistemology


The spy who doubles as an architect loaned me a book ("The Human Condition: Christian Perspectives Through African Eyes" by Joe M. Kapolyo) which connects some dots on the epistemology of love posts of late.......and I love it when the dots connect all the way to Africa, and to the Social Trinity (two other hot topics of late):

Note, in this same chapter (pp 76-77) Kapolyo (photo at left)helpfully aids us in unlearning a lot of what we'd been taught (especially post 1960, with publication of CS Lewis' "The Four Loves") about the key Greek terms for love and their semantic domain.


Between stewardship and love--those two relational attributes of what it means to be made in the image of God--love, it seems to me, the more significant as we seek to represent God here on earth...This is true of God, who experiences true love within the Godhead, the Trinity: the Father, Son and Holy Spirit enjoy true love...human beings made in God's image must seek to demonstrate the same love evident within the Trinity.. African experience of family life and love is very rich. The establishment of a blood connection, however remote, often turns initial suspicion and even hostility into love and ambrace.. ..Such all-encompassing love will break the bounds of clannishness, tribalism, racism, superiority complexes and so on. It will reach out to every human being, thus making us all more and more what God intended us to be -"The Human Condition: Christian Perspectives Through African Eyes" by Joe M. Kapolyo, pp 79-80


Related.. re: Africa, love, temple tantrums, and God...how can you not watch 4:10ff here:

1 comment:

  1. Hey, thanks for following my blog! Feel free to join the conversation any time. Part of my heart is in Africa too. I'm the co-founder of a little missions group called Save Africa and we've got big plans.

    I hope you have a great Christmas. Happy blogging!

    ReplyDelete

Hey, thanks for engaging the conversation!