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About Michael Clark, Ph.D.
Expertise
I'm a progressive Catholic--not a liberal, conservative nor a single-minded critic of Catholicism. I simply believe that adults in the 21C should use the mind God gave them and not just repeat ancient and medieval modes of thinking.

I can probably help with questions that intelligently and respectfully question those aspects of Catholicism that are not infallible. But if you're looking for someone to vigorously defend or perhaps refute Catholicism as a whole, that's not me. So please ask another expert.



Experience

I run an educational website earthpages.org and know what the web has to offer. I might suggest hyperlinks and/or book titles as I have a Ph.D. in Religious Studies and a considerable personal library.

Publications
Print Media:
My table from "Religions and Cults" at earthpages.org is reproduced with permission in L. Lindsey, S. Beach and B. Ravelli, Core Concepts in Sociology, 2nd ed., p. 157

World Wide Web:
My online article "Letter to God" coauthored with Buddhist monk, E. Raymond Rock, appears on several different spirituality-based websites, including http://tinyurl.com/db7a5o

I've interviewed, as a Christian, a self-proclaimed mystic: http://tinyurl.com/cawykr

My articles appeared at the former New View magazine nuvunow.ca and are published at earthpages.org.

Education/Credentials
Ph.D. in Religious Studies
M.A. in Comparative Religion
B.A. Hon. in Psychology/Sociology
For more info, please see my CV and letters of recommendation and my blog at michaelwclark.com.

 
   

You are here:  Experts > Religion/Spirituality > Christianity - Catholicism > Catholics > love

Catholics - love


Expert: Michael Clark, Ph.D. - 12/12/2006

Question
I've been asking, what did Christ mean by love?  We have love of God, love yourself, love your enemy?  Are these the same type of love?  How can you love God, without really knowing God?  Loving yourself also contains difficulties.  Can you help shed some light?  Thanks

Answer
Hi Marc... good questions. My view is that Christ was referring to unselfish love. And perhaps we can love God through a gift of faith, and if that's not fully realized we might love God through the observable effects of God... e.g. moments of grace and the discernment of connections which seem to point to a plan.

Loving your enemy IMHO doesn't mean loving his or her negative aspects. For me its loving the good core which I believe rests in each individual.

Loving oneself can be narcissistic, which isn't good. But nurturing and preserving oneself, IMHO, is commendable because we're created by God who loves us. So we care for and protect ourselves for both God and ourselves.

Jesus eventually died on the cross. But only when his time had come. Earlier in the Gospels the crowd tried to stone him and he slipped away unharmed. It wasn't his time. Likewise, we shouldn't live our lives consciously or unconsciously trying to get hurt, playing the martyr. That's not psychologically healthy.

Check out this article on the different types of love. Although it's written in the context of philosophy, I think it applies here:

http://www.iep.utm.edu/l/love.htm

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