Love and truth
James Barrett muses on love, truth, faith and works
It has been said that truth without love is simply a sort of violence, whilst love without truth is merely sentimentality. Of the two conditions, I think the second is preferable, but I do think neither seems a proper ordering of things. As ever, much depends on terms and their definition. Pulling it apart, there are considerable difficulties with ‘love’. I love my wife. I love my children. I love cheese. I love music.
Clearly, ‘love’ can’t mean the same thing in all these contexts. I think the particular ‘love’ that needs to be coupled with truth is the one that has something to do with respect and seeking to understand, to form the human connection. The other half of the saying, of course, is ‘truth’.
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