Loving one's enemies in the light of Christian thought and Mozi's concept of universal love

• Main Author: Chu, James Bryner
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Animo Repository 2004
• Online Access: https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/etd_bachelors/1783
• Institution: De La Salle University

Examining one of the hard-to-put-into-practice teachings of Jesus, this thesis deals with the Christian concept and practice of loving one's enemies. This paper approaches loving one's enemies from two similar concepts of love, which developed in different historical and cultural traditions. These are the Christian concept of love and the Mohist concept of Universal Love. Since there are two views involved in this research, this thesis will operate from a comparative analysis approach and more specifically from an imparative comparative analysis approach. Following this approach the two views on love would be examined based on their own merits and then we will try to learn their thought in an attempt to reconcile the two views in their practice. The idea is to learn the other tradition and to embrace it as equally unique and significant while at the same time holding fast to one's own tradition. In such an endeavour, there is no colonization of ideas involved as one idea does not take precedence over the other. This research is an attempt at exhibiting the compatibility of both Christian Love with Universal Love in the area of loving one's enemies. It is an attempt of answering the question whether one can love one's enemies from a tradition other than that of the Christian tradition. At the onset one may think that the Chinese mind and the Christian mind could most definitely not be compatible because of their fundamental differences in history and culture, but on closer examination one realizes that through the imparative comparative analysis approach there is to be found a link between the two in relation to loving one's enemies. Through the course of this study, the researcher expounds on both Christian Love and Universal Love independently at first and then analyses them based on the data that has been presented. Focusing on the practice of love in both traditions, the thesis-writer sees that there is no logical contradiction between the two concepts when put into practice. In the end the researcher, a Christian and also one who is fond of Mohist philosophy, realizes that he is one who can be called a Christian Mohist who practices loving one's enemies.