1

SØREN KIERKEGAARD’ S ETHICS OF LOVE IN THE LIGHT OF

BENEDICT XVI’ S DEUS CARITAS EST: A PASTORAL MODEL FOR BEC
PROGRAMS IN THE DIOCESE OF MALOLOS

A. BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

With the prevalent effects of post-modernism, the present image of society is
being upheld by its effects. People clearly embody the character of giving much more
attention to the love of self which is reflected in the world of social media and the fast
development of the world of technology. Each individual gains a greater impression
over the public aspect of life by positing the power to create and be of standard in
every ways of living the life; truths hence depend on the existing individual himself.
The individual self hence is portrayed as superior above any other standards and
norms that supersedes the society.
In this situation, the individual tends to fall on the danger of solipsism
whereby there happens an extinction of oneself from another individual which as
Christians is but a problematic reality. As Christians who follow the ways of Jesus
Christ, it is an indispensable reality that life finds its fulfillment in the possibility of
love with one another as is rooted from the love of God himself. Hence as a one
Church, we find our roots in God’s new command through His Son Jesus Christ, “that
you love one another; even as I have loved you, that you may also love one another.
By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one
another.”1
The identity of Christianity is embedded on the aforementioned commandment
which enriches the eternal character of love which is by itself the generator of every
Christian relationship. It is also love that extends the horizon of Christian duty to love
even to the non-believers. That is why, the present image which the society portrays in
the effect of post modernism is truly a challenge to that of the Christian goal of
bringing together humanity under the banner of love.

1
John 13: 34-5
 2

However, to this mission of the Church of bringing together humanity under

the immensity of love, faces a great challenge to truly define and build a love that is
rooted from God. As the world today describes the word love as the most abused term,
is but a great challenge to the Church who is first and foremost the dispenser and
instrument of love of God here on earth.
The researcher of this work has encountered a philosopher in the name of
Søren Kierkegaard, a Protestant Christian who have delved into the discussion of the
individual person and his ultimate relation to God as an originator of the possibility of
the authentic relationship among other relationship. A relationship that is directed on
the community of individuals that is bounded by love which subsumes the possibility
of loving to that of God’s commandment that is shown on his ethics of love.
In the imperative of the Church’s task of being involved in the social activity,
it is but an insurmountable work that the Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI has contributed
is the Deus Caritas Est which has indeed strongly affirmed the Christian of “God is
love.” The said work truly reveals the enormity of the reality of love which surpasses
the human boundaries. It is a great foundation and building blocks for this study as the
pope definitely compares the great gift of eros, romantic love with the love of God
that reveals Jesus Christ.
This work has become possible in line with the concerns of the Second Synod
of the Diocese of Malolos, which aims to strengthen the community of faithful
through the pastoral programs specifically the erections and nourishing of Basic
Ecclesial Communities in the entire Diocese, as stated, “ the Diocese shall promote
BEC as a new way of “being Church. It is the total development of the faithful in the
basic cells of the Church through the combination of faith formation and practice,
leading to witnessing, in the context of the New Evangelization.”2
With all these, the research has come to pursue of establishing a definite
pastoral model which is embedded on the Christian Revelation and reality of authentic
love.

2
Diocese of Malolos, Acts and Declarations of the Second Synod of the Diocese of Malolos.
(Guiguinto, Philippines, April 8-13, 2013), Article I, Declaration 132.
 3

B. STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

With the abovementioned situation, the researcher would like to give solution
to the problem which he is now undertaking in this opus. The main problem of this
study is:

- How will the Ethics of Love of Søren Kierkegaard in the light of

Benedict XVI’s Deus Caritas Est lead towards a pastoral model for
BEC programs in the Diocese of Malolos?

In giving solution to the main problem of this work, one must first answer the
following sub-problems:

A. What is the Ethics of Love of Søren Kierkegaard?

B. What is Deus Caritas Est of Benedict XVI?
C. What is the nature and identity of the Pastoral Model of the BEC
Programs in the Diocese of Malolos?

C. SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

In this endeavor, the researcher would like to yield on the two sides of
importance: the theoretical and the practical.

In the theoretical aspect of this study, it will be most significant on the

contribution of the studies on Søren Kierkegaard and Bendedict XVI. This humble
opus wishes to establish and identify the nature, differences and the binding character
of the two works of the said philosopher and theologian.

By doing so, the researcher thinks that this endeavor can provide a more
mature understanding of Kierkegaard not just in relation of the Individual to God but
also of the Individual to others. Being regarded as acosmic by some scholars, the
researchers find it to point out on the importance not just of the world itself but also of
the community wherein the individual is into. More so, by elucidating his ethics of
love, love can be seen not as mere feelings and sentiments but do possess such
 4

philosophical underpinnings that will enable thinkers to take love not just in a secular
way.

Further, it is great opportunity to present Benedict XVI’s Deus Caritas Est as a

great presentation on the Christian Revelation: God is love. By encountering his work,
it is again a refreshing activity to delve into the richness of the Gospel both for
Christian and non-Christians, by elucidating on the nature and root of authentic love
which characterizes our being true and faithful Disciples of Christ. Through the
presentation on the Church’s mission of God being with the people, the discussion of
Benedict on how love is to be “organized” in the society is an opportunity to bound
and be infused with the genuine meaning and essence of love.

In the practical side of this endeavor, it wishes to first be of aid with the
researcher as he is into face of postmodern era. With this work, the researcher has
come to see what is really to be a self with the aid of Kierkegaard’s notion on the
authentic self that is directed towards the relation to others is but a great supplement
on the theological discussion of Benedict XVI discussion on love, which for both
thinkers is the greatest source of the possibility of authentic communion with others
and with God

More so, the researcher finds it helpful in the seminary formation as it seeks
to present a framework regarding the undertakings of a community. By doing so, each
formandi at the beginning of his formation is given awareness on the importance of
the authenticity of the self which will serve as an avenue for the formandi himself to
be an agent in a concerned-form community that is rooted on love towards other, not
solely by preference but by impartiality. With this, it will in the long run be an aid for
the Catholic Church, as it will have priests who are rooted in their self and in God and
seek to serve a community for all. To the present society and generation as again
reaction to the postmodern implications, this study wishes to give value and elevation
to the self, not as a god that reigns, gains superiority, builds own canons, but rather as
an individual self that in its truest sense, rooted with his own essence, of respecting
and loving his neighbor.
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And last for the very purpose of this work, is to serve the interest of the
Second Synod of the Diocese of Malolos which directs the Local Ordinary to establish
and nurture the Basic Ecclesial Communities (BEC) in the entire diocese. This study
aims to resource a concrete paradigm for building communities in the local ordinary
embedded on the greatest commandment of Love by the Lord Jesus Christ. This aims
to help picture out a community that is rooted from the shanties to the upper group of
the society. This study wishes to break the barriers that corrode the communion of the
faithful as true Christian disciples.

D. THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK

The underlying reason for the pursuance of this opus is primarily is a

constructive reaction of the declarations and implementations of the Second Synod of
the Diocese of Malolos. As a seminarian and a priest to be it is an utmost important to
delve into a concrete and pastoral action in establishing BEC in the parishes.

Hence, this study wishes to give a theoretical and pastoral study in order to
produce new date that will strengthen the analysis with the right and proper
correspondence with regards to the vision of the Second Synod of Malolos. Through
the help of Kierkegaard’s elaboration on the Ethics of Love which will be the
philosophical foundation of building communities will then be supplanted and
enriched by the theological elucidations of Benedict XVI’s Deus Caritas Est.

By this framework, this work wishes to produce pastoral model and concrete
action plans that will help to build BEC in the diocese of Malolos, not just for the
benefit of responding to the synod but primarily for the eternal duty of each Christian
to follow God’s command of love.

E. HYPOTHESES

The Pastoral Model for the BEC programs in the diocese of Malolos is rooted
from the “ecclesial exercise of the commandment of love of Neighbor.” 3 It ensures the

3
Benedict XVI. Deus Caritas Est. Introduction.
 6

proper correspondence on the roots of the establishment of the BEC’s. The

understanding of love generally subjects the differences that bars the authentic
relationship of each individual from one another. The discrimination on social classes
affects the possibility of communion of the faithful.

In the diocese of Malolos, where all classes of individual in the society are
active in the ministry of the Church, it is thus the duty of the Church to bring them as
one towards God and each individual directed towards authentic relationship of love
with one another.

As Kierkegaard elucidates the ethics of love rooted from one’s duty to love is
greatly illumined and better understood in the light of Benedict XVI’s work on Deus
Caritas Est, that explicitly presents the correct notion of love which treats all the
forms as a tool in being directed to the one true source, Jesus Christ.

In this way, the study is both theoretical and practical, that it seeks to deepened
the understanding of the purpose and nature of BEC and hence make the people
accept it wholeheartedly as it is understood and must be taken in the position of being
true Christian Disciples of Christ.

F. SCOPE AND LIMITATIONS

This study will utilize some of the works by Soren Kierkegaard namely, The
Present Age as the backdrop of his reaction on the problem caused by the loss of
identity; Works of Love that will serve as a ground for establishing his notion of the
responsibility with the other, hence, will help in establishing a detailed and identified
concept of community in his thoughts. More so, the writer will be at times be using
his other primary works that will link to answer the main problem of this opus in the
integration of the individual self and the ethics of love towards a community. The
researcher will also rely on writers who authored on Kierkegaard.
 7

In pursuance of the opus, the author will also set Benedict XVI’s Deus Caritas
Est as the solid foundation of the theological interpretation of this endeavor. Through
the help of his other speech and address on communion and community, the
researcher will also use them for the better foundation of the theological underpinning
of this opus.

Also, the researcher will use the declarations and provisions of the Second
Synod of Malolos as a backdrop the entire study in aid of the effective implementation
of Pastoral Programs particularly BEC‘s in the local ordinary.

This study will be limited in terms of the English text as the researcher is not
able to greatly understand the original text of Søren Kierkegaard which was originally
written in Danish and of Benedict XVI which was originally written in Latin and
Italian.

G. DEFINITIONS OF TERMS

1. Neighbor- The concept of neighbor really means a duplicating of one’s own

self.4It is a very distinct term that for Kierkegaard holds importance in performing
one’s duty to love. It corresponds to the other self. It holds the respect of the
individual in the sense that it is the neighbor that possesses such uniqueness and
individuality just like any other individual.

4
Soren Kierkegaard, Works of Love, trans. Edna Hong and Howard Hong (New York: Harper &
Row Publishers Inc., 1964), 37.
 8

2. Duty to love- is the one that serves as one of the factors in the achievement of a
community according to Kierkegaard that is completely a response to the Public.
“If it were not a duty to love, then there would be no concept of neighbor at all.
But only when one loves his neighbor, only then is the selfishness or preferential
love rooted out and the equality of the eternal preserved.” 5 It is the royal command
that comes from the realization of one self in the religious stage. It is that reveals
the nature of the Authentic Self.
3. Preferential Love- in this kind of love the middle term between the individual and
the other is the preference rather than the love itself. This kind of love is a selfish
love that fosters love by means of partiality.
4. Christian Love- it is that “…which discovers and knows that one’s neighbor exists
and that- it is one and the same thing-everyone is one’s neighbor…” 6 Is the love
that is never selfish and is rooted in God that also stand as the principle one of the
principles of the Community of Neighbor.

5
Ibid., 39.
6
Ibid., 58.
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5. Basic Ecclesial Community (BEC) - known as the Basic Christian Communities or

Small Christian Communities have been a product of the commitment of the Church to
reach out to the needy, especially those on the grassroots level.7
6. Postmodern Era- it is a time in the field of philosophy where there is a concrete devoid
of structuralism. With this there has now a loss of objectivity regarding the given
situation. In this study, postmodern era is used to picture out the rampant relativism that
plays in the society.

II. REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURES

Evans, Stephen C. Kierkegaard’s Ethic of Love: Divine Commands and Moral

Obligations. USA: Oxford University Press, 2004.

In encountering the work of Evans, it is a must to be aware of the subtitle of his

work. It is in it that he greatly builds a theory regarding the relation of Divine commands
and moral obligations. It is from that vantage point that he presents his work. The kind of
moral obligation that individuals undertake is commanded by a divine theory that inheres
to the ethics of Kierkegaard. To this his divine theory stands important in fully
understanding Kierkegaard. He tries to reconcile Kierkegaard not only as a deep religious
thinker but a thinker who is also an ethical thinker.
Starting his discussion with the events of experiences of individuals of the moral
obligations, he then sees that there are three characteristics that identify it with other
obligations, than that of “being overriding and being objective…universality.” 8 Through
such, he claims that there is a link within the reality of this moral obligations and that
reality is God.
Using the Works of Love as the principal text of Kierkegaard, he shows that moral
obligations are but commands born out of love. Those commandments become not as
imposed rules that is punishable by any wrath but a commandment that seeks to be rooted
7
Diocese of Malolos, p. 83.

8
Stephen C. Evans, “Kierkegaard’s Ethic of Love: Divine Commands and Moral Obligations,” (USA: Oxford
University Press, 2004), 2.
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in love for the benefit of existence. Basing from the commandment to love presupposes
such claim of him.
The account is a version of a divine command theory of moral obligations that
claims… that moral obligations are grounded in the commands of a good and loving God.
Humans have good reasons to obey God’s commands, on this account, because God has
created them, graciously showering them with many goods, including the capacity for
lobe that mirrors God’s own love. God’s creation of humans is shaped by his intention
that human enjoy a relationship with himself. As his creatures we cannot help being
metaphysically related to him, but we have the capacity for a conscious, free relation that
is genuinely fulfilling. Since we have been created by God in this way, we can actualize
our true selves by coming to know God and relate properly.9
Hence from this point of linking love and command brings the command into a
lesser impact as it may appear to be an imperative that comes in a unpleasant way.
With Evans work, the researcher sees a greater opportunity in pursuing this opus in
discussing the moral side that constitutes Kierkegaard of not being devoid of ethical
works. Moral obligations are taken by Evans in way that God and love has been as its
suppose to-be foundation in order to take it not as a burden but a commandment that
nurtures human existence.
However, the work of Evans focuses only on the part of ethics that pertains to
moral obligations commanded out of love in general sense. Hence, the researcher wants
to go further to the work by particularly pointing out the direct implication of love and
God to which it comes from be detailed into religion, political and ethical. More so, the
work is only limited to that of the ethical picture and not so to the individual himself
whose bearing and importance are in Kierkegaard.

Krishek, Sharon. Kierkegaard on Faith and Love. United Kingdom: Cambridge

University Press, 2009.

A work of Krishek finely discusses a good rapport between faith and love in the
mind of Søren Kierkegaard. In her work, she gives a direction that both are not connected

9
Evans, 299.
 11

in the explanatory way but rather both have a common way and pillars that will not make
it possible to love thoroughly without faith.
Krishek in her work makes use of Works of Love and Fear and Trembling in such
a way of giving the value of love in the most concrete way. One of the finest ways of
discussions is that she was able to take the dimensions of love particularly on the notions
of love Kierkegaard has between Christian love and preferential love; where the former
has the notion of the neighbor love while the latter speaks of the selfish love. However,
the brilliance of Krishek speaks of the importance of the preferential love, that includes
the romantic love in the life of the individual who in the bigger context is the one
responsible for loving the other and yet faces the reality that the other can also be in the
context of being his preference because of friendship or any other relationship thus faces
the question on the meeting of the two points, as Krishek would see it as seem to be
contradicting, for preferential love connotes self-love and selfishness which for
Kierkegaard is a point to depart with and instead be of focus on the neighbor love that
speaks of self-denial.
The researcher of this opus particularly deals with the part of Krishek’s work
regarding the part four that is on the neighborly love versus romantic love. In this part he
has accounted for Jaime Ferreira’s resolution regarding the two, as neighborly love
speaks of equality and romantic love to preferentiality.
According to Ferreira, Kierkegaard’s assertion against preferential love should be
interpreted as attesting to his concern with equality and not as a manifestation of his
rejection of preferential love. Indeed, Ferreira has a solid textual ground for declaring that
‘Kierkegaard is offering neither an attack on all self-love nor a denial of the legitimate
role of preference and inclination in erotic love and friendship’.10

Hence, Krishek notes that the Works of Love is a work which primarily focuses on
neighbor love however it is also a must to consider the romantic love which in the first
place does not absolutely connotes a full negative application on the entire context of
loving for it is a part and parcel that constitute love that the individual himself is facing.

10
Sharon Krishek, Kierkegaard on Faith and Love (United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press, 2007), 120-1.
 12

The researcher finds the work of Krishek to supplement his work as he seeks to
divulge on the ethics of love of Søren Kierkegaard. The work of Krishek is an aid in
clearing the way towards the importance of love both in Christian and Preferential way.
The work of Krishek is a total help in exploring the dimensions of love and not
purely taking it in a one-side manner as the researcher seeks to establish the nature and
character of a community of neighbor in the thoughts of Kierkegaard. Her ability in
bridging the illustrative gap between faith and love than that of romantic love is a direct
help in pursuing the chapter three of this opus. However the work of her as the researcher
sees as her pleas for love particularly of romantic love to be of centrality in treatment of
Kierkegaard same as of Faith is yet to be seen thoroughly.
Hence in this work of the researcher, he desires to establish a complete contrast of
the two and determine the degrees of love which Kierkegaard is important. Because as he
sees in Krishek’s appeal of having romantic love to be of same height with faith is
something that which as far as he is aware of is facing the danger of ambiguity and
injustice to Christian love. Indeed romantic love is never to be taken at the least side yet
as the researcher sees it, it only takes part and at the least point can never to be pointed to
of same centrality as faith do in Kierkegaard. Hence, the researcher aims to show it in
discussing the ethics of love on Kierkegaard.

Obinyan Valentine E. “Nature of Human Existence in Kierkegaard’s Ethical

Philosophy: A Step Towards Self-valuation and Transformation in Our
Contemporary World.” International Journal of Philosophy 2 (2014): 1-
14.

Obinyan presents his discussion on Kierkegaard’s ethical philosophy by rightfully

laying the foundation of his entire philosophy on man. It is good that it was started to set
the rapport on the basic understanding which constitutes and holds the very act of
existence of each individual. Being an individual, man was pointed out as a substance
that possesses a rational essence that grounds for one’s very existence.
It is also a good point in clearing out the importance of Hegel’s influence on
Kierkegaard. It is because of Hegel’s system of objectifying the human person. That is
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why on the run down of discussion it was cleared regarding the said issue that man being
responsible of what he does is not a mere being of abstract objectivity for it defies and
corrupts the individuality of the individual human person.
In his further discussion, he states the contemporary world as that which pictures
out every influence of each trend being seen and lived out by each human person.
Primarily because of the questions and queries that aim from one’s “ethical, ecological,
technological, religious, political, socio-cultural, and economical” 11 needs arises from
existence of an individual, that is why he vividly sees and experiences “the weakness in
human authenticity in nearly every facet of human society and endeavors as everyone is
almost a blind copy of this or that person.”12
All of such, he directs to one’s way of living for “our actions are not borne deep
and critical reflection.”13 By the importance of man, in Kierkegaard’s philosophy, “The
Individual”, speaking of every existing human person is heeded and faced on the reality
that existence is not of sole following to others “used to way of living”, in short,
conformism. As the Obinyan would admit, upon realizing Kierkegaard’s philosophy, it
has triggered in him “the need to critically analyze the ambiguity of an unreflective
attitude and disinterestedness in self-transformation and valuation” 14 prevailing in his
time. In the long run, the courage to face and embrace such consciousness is a disclosure
fully of oneself; of what is it really to be an individual.
Another point that should be considered in that of existing human person or the
individual is the starting point with its possessed uniqueness and distinctness among any
other existence with respect to its nature. With regards to its objective nature, because it
is noticeable with respect to the flow of discussion that the individual is caught in the
dilemma of the finiteness of his existence on this world, hence is captured by one’s own
subjectivity to long for something that can cover up or more so answer the said problem

11
Valentine E. Obinyan, “Nature of Human Existence in Kierkegaard’s Ethical Philosophy: A Step Towards
Self-valuation and Transformation in Our Contemporary World,” International Journal of Philosophy 2 (2014):1.

12
Ibid.

13
Ibid.

14
Ibid.
 14

by the tendency to conform to what the public can instantly offer, thus facing another
problem of conformism and lack of authenticity which for Kierkegaard is highly stressed.
With this regard, it was said how important consciousness stands for it serves as
an avenue towards self-valuation and transformation.
A phenomenology of consciousness, then explores neither the metaphysical composition
nor the casual genesis of things, but the “constitution” of their meaning. This is the
method Husserl employed to clarify our experience of nature, the socio-cultural world,
logic, and mathematics but Heidegger argued that he had failed to raise the most
fundamental question of human nature, especially that of the “meaning of being” as such.
In turning phenomenology toward the question of what it means to be…15
The constitution of meaning that Husserl had argued is also challenged by
Heidegger to be faced in concrete. Therefore, in Kierkegaardian sense, the meaning is
construed in no other aspect of man’s existence but through his own and very experience.
Hence, Obinyan concludes that the sense of purpose in one’s existence is indeed
imperative in order to seek authenticity of the self and it is reflected always in such ways
an individual makes his choices, for choices stands the way towards the “will to be”.
One’s choices, given that man is endowed with freedom, are the one held responsible in
every individual kind of existence. Such dilemma in an existence is worst found in the
face of conformism where the choices is made not anymore of the free act of the
individual but more of the desire to be “like” others too. Self-transformation and
valuation hence stand before all these in order to escape to such inauthentic existence.
With the help of Obinyan’s observation of a need for self-transformation and
valuation, indeed, the researcher of this work finds it helpful on supplementing the ways
towards Kierkegaard’s authentic self. As with the researcher’s goal in actualizing the
significance of this entire work would help in his aim of providing a concrete solution to
the existential problems of the postmodernism, where the self has grabbed its power in
the sense that it becomes the standard of every existence and thus the thought of the
importance of considering the other, or the community so to speak suffers.

15
Obinyan, 7.
 15

Purkarthofer, Richard B. “P and Existence.” Graduate Faculty Philosophy

Journal 32 (2011): 297-308.

The work of Purkarthofer in general discusses the role of ερς (eros) in the course
of one’s existence. Since Kierkegaard uses love as mode in some of his writings, the
work of Purkarthofer is a good reference to see the kind of love with which Kierkegaard
is also of discussion particularly in his Works of Love. Having so, the eros in his work is
seen as an essential part of existence that is never to be treated in an inferior manner as it
is related between the kinds of love, the kjerlighed that posits the Christian love of
Kierkegaard and elskov that speaks of the Preferrential love of Kierkegaard..
Referring also to the appendix in one of Kierkegaard’s work, Concluding
Unscientofic Postcript, Constantin Constantius is pointed to be using love affair that
which for him has a use in the means of what is it to exist setting a contrast between the
love affair and existence which points to life as it has its own story of happy and sad
actions that in it constitutes love. “Matters of the heart here go to the heart of the matter-
as they often do in Kierkegaard’s writings more generally.”16
He also discusses the risk of inequality in terms of seeing the kinds of love that
Kierkegaard speaks of. He illustrates the danger in the picture of the love story that was
used by Climacus in the Philosophical Fragements, the story between a king who comes
to fall in love with a maiden. Illustrating such gives the danger of discrimination between
the possibilities of love of one who is in an elite stage of life over a lowly maid. Love
that binds the two now serves as a exemplar that which the gap between the two can be
filled and the possibility of meeting the illusion because of discrimination on ways of life
of the two lovers have come to be seen by the writer as how “infinitude relates to
17
finitude.”
The dichotomy now from the kjerlighed and elskov is not a big matter to linger on
with the article. It is indeed notable to see that both have its own distinction and nature
that which differ and if so permeates one to be of higher value but it does not necessitate

16
Richard B. Purkarthofer, “P and Existence,” Graduate Faculty Philosophy Journal 32 (2011): 298.

17
Ibid.
 16

the imperative of setting aside the eros. However it is to be taken with its intrinsic value
that which serves for the kjerlighed to be possible.
Hence, the researcher finds the work of Purkarthofer to be noteworthy with
regards to its discussion and giving justice to the eros over the other kind of love which
for Kierkegaard can be seen as of high regard. With his discussion on the very existence
which is given importance by Kierkegaard as it is where the basis of an individual’s
living finds its actuality. In doing so, his way of integrating it with Kierkegaard’s style of
using love stories is a big help in the pursuance of this research as to which love sets a
vital role. Particularly, it is a good work when he is able to see the significance of eros as
a kind of love that contributes to the necessity of one’s existence. Having said so, shows
that eros is inevitable and never risky. As the researcher pursues this opus, the discussion
of Purkarthofer is insufficient as it only deals with single kind of love which he wishes to
expounds and elucidate in inquiring on the ethics of love of Søren Kierkegaard.

Rowland, Tracey. Ratzinger’s Faith: The Theology of Pope Benedict XVI. USA: Oxford
University Press, 2008.

In Rowland work, specifically in the parts four and five he discusses primarily the
Christian revelation: “God is love” beyond moralism and the structure of communion.
First, he gave the definition of moralism that refers to, “the Kantian rationalist tendency
to reduce Christianity to the dimensions of an ethical framework or to equate faith with
obeying a law”.18 From this view Rowland used Benedict XVI’s Deus Caritas Est as a
framework in drawing out Christianity from this view. From the comparison of the
different kinds of love, in Benedict’s work, he saw it by “drawing together the roles of
eros and agape into symphonic harmony.”19
At this stance, he then continued to present the different effects of the rigidity of
moralism caused by different ideologies such as the Marxism and Jansenism. Through

18
Tracey Rowland, “Ratzinger’s Faith: The Theology of Pope Benedict XVI,” (USA: Oxford University Press,
2008), 66.

19
Ibid., 72.
 17

the course of love which Benedict himself is pointing out to his work, it possible to see
and embrace a love that is beyond moralism.
This foundational idea continues to be supported by presenting the structure of
communion that is rooted in emphasizing a church that is determined by
“Pneumatological as well as Christological elements.”20
The abovementioned preliminaries on the discussion on the theology of Ratzinger
are a big aid in supporting this opus as it includes the good historical and cultural aspect
of the development of his thought. Likewise with its impact on the society which
different community belongs is but a great help in digging to the very nature, essence,
and character of the community that rooted and founded first in the Divine.

Strawser, Michael. “The Ethics of Love in Spinoza and Kierkegaard in the

Teleological Suspension of the Theological.” Philosophy Today 51 (2007):
438-446.

An article by Strawser presents a discussion on Ethics where the question of God

is not the main source of discussion. Giving a stand on the thought about the
“abandonment of theology promotes a heightened ethical sensitivity.” 21 However, “given
Socrates’ daimonia, we all know the ‘abandonment’ is only apparent” 22 hence discussing
that God, however put aside on the discussion is never completely abhorred in the strict
sense more so never disregarded on the Ethics of Love which focuses the whole
discussion.
The argument of Strawser presents love as the good of ethics wherein it requires a
teleological suspension of the theological. Love as a word appears to be ambiguous, that
is why he used the foundation of Kierkegaard and Spinoza on love and God so as to show
solid ground of an ethics of love that does not necessarily pictures out God in the scene of
the ethics but only set aside.
20
Rowaland, 84.

21
Michael Strawser, “The Ethics of Love in Spinoza and Kierkegaard in the Teleological Suspension of the
Theological,” Philosophy Today 51 (2007): 438.

22
Ibid.
 18

Presenting the different concept of God by the two philosophers with Spinoza’s
Ethics and Kierkegaard’s Works of Love, The God of Spinoza is “… the one and only
substance, a divine immanence equivalent to nature, lacking a will and known through
reason”23 whereas for Kierkegaard, “...is transcendent God of will, absolutely beyond
reason”.24
The discussion on the ethics of love is mostly engaged with Spinoza’s “nobility”
and Kierkegaard’s “kjerlighed”25. However, the researcher of this opus had managed to
focus on Kierkegaard’s contribution as both have given an ample contribution with
Strawser’s study on the ethics of love.
Speaking so of the kjerlighed, it has been one of the focus of Kierkegaard’s works
of love that is related on one self’s duty towards the other. Love in that strict sense comes
out to be as a product of loving the other. It become heighted with Kierkegard in terms of
it as a duty that presupposed by the term “shall” that orders any self regardless of state
and disposition to be in responsibility of loving others also as of himself. Differentiating
kjerlighed as the kind of love which denies the self’s interest and personal gains towards
loving the other over elskov, a kind of love that is pointed to a kind of self-love to which
the other stands only as an instrument for the self who loves gains. “Kjerlighed active
rather than passive, and inclusive rather than exclusive. This love is not an unfree reaction
caused by external forces; it is a free action produced from within the inner self.”26
In expression “you shall love,” the “shall” is a sign if duty or obligation. Where this duty
comes from, where its foundation lies a mystery. Whether we consider it as a divine
commend or a law of reason, we do not come closer to unveiling its origin. In either case
we are dealing with an a priori source that is grasped through an intuitive seeing. Such is
the nature of both Kierkegaard’s and Spinoza’s visions. In Kierkegaard the duty to love is
understood as “a change of eternity”…27

23
Strawser, 439.

24
Ibid.

25
It is the original Danish term used by Soren Kierkegaard in his Works of Love as to give an emphasis on such
kind of love that isolates it from the ambiguity of the term in the secular sense.

26
Strawser, 442.

27
Ibid.
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Morse so, in Strawser’s discussion, he have presented Kierkegaard’s manner of

giving importance on the practical faces that works of love can have rather than on the
theoretical aspect. “There can be for Kierkegaard no theory of love, for, as has been
noted, its origins are essentially mysterious.”28
Hence in the latter, the opportunity of loving the neighbour in the case of it as a
duty is at the same time an indispensable opportunity that offers the self who loves, to
treat one’s own self in a true manner in respect to the other also who offers and achieves
love. Going back again on the suspension of the theological does not necessitate the total
irrelevance of God but however the focus was shifted “from a hermeneutics of onto-
theological difference to a hermeneutics of the same.”29
The researcher henceforth finds the work of Strawser as good foundation on
supporting the importance of the ethics of love in achieving a community that is on track
on exercising the uniqueness of each individual. However, it is noticeable that in the
article, the discussion on God has come to be put aside but not totally regarded. However,
in this research, the researcher would also want to elaborate the said matter in forming the
essential part of one’s authentic self and thus of the desired community which the
researcher would want to project through Kierkegaard’s authentic self and ethics of love.

28
Stawser, 442.

29
Ibid., 444.