Perceptions of selected La Sallian students on love and their implications to religious education

• Main Author: Antonio-del Castillo, Fides
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Animo Repository 2015
• Subjects: Religious education; College students; Religious educators; Love; Religious Education
• Online Access: https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/etd_doctoral/454
• Institution: De La Salle University

This study presented the shared personal meaning of love among the selected Lasallian youth using the Del Castillo Love Attitude Scale (DLAS) administered to 904 Lasallian students in Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao. Through statistical analysis, it was determined that love (according to the respondents) has four factors: Engaged, Committed, Rooted in God, and Integrated.The paper explored how the relevant insights from the encyclical Deus Caritas Est of Benedict XVI and John Paul IIs Theology of the Body were engaged with the results of study. The study discussed three interactions between the results of DLAS and the theological points on love as explicated by Benedict XVI and John Paul II. The first interaction was between the results of the study on love as engaged– and committed– and the theological point on love as a responsibility of the Church. The next discourse was the connection between result on love as Rooted in God and the theological point on God is Love– and, finally the interactions between factor love as Integrated– and the theological point on the difference and unity of eros and agape.Upon studying the results of the survey and its engagements with the theological writings of John Paul II and Benedict XVI, the researcher pointed out several implications to Religious Education and came up with a Pastoral Formation Program for the Lasallian tertiary youth. The program is intended to help the religious educators deepen the understanding of love among the Lasallian tertiary students especially the praxis of love towards the poor and the marginalized. Relevant conclusions and recommendations were specified in order to benefit religious educators.