What is love? Both Dante and Plato (whom I’ve been reading a lot of this summer), have some interesting things to say about the nature of love. In one of Plato’s dialogues, he points out the seemingly obvious fact that love must have an object. Dante picks up on this as well, talking in Purgatorio about how all virtues and all vices stem from love. I found this interesting as I’ve always equated vices with a lack or opposite of love. However, Dante seems to be arguing that vices stem from either love of the wrong thing, or too much or not enough love of the right thing. If Plato and Dante are right, therefore, the way to the virtuous life must be to love the right objects in the right way. The love of the good, true and beautiful, loved in the right amounts, will lead to virtuous living. And these have their root in God, and God is love, so to love God is to love rightly, perhaps? I do not know...but love is not merely an emotion or idea to be pondered, but an action to be performed. For God not only Is love, but Loves.
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