Sensus FideiIn the Context of Love

Jim Baldwin, Kevin Caffrey, Victoria Faccone, Meghan Kelly, Nicole LaSusa, Becca Przywara, & Sam Tobin

Sensus Fidei

The literal translation Sensus Fidei is “Sense of Faith”

Giallardetz asserts that in order to successfully apply their faith, Christians must

fully connect with the Church and the Community

Deus Caritas Est

• What is love?

• Love has several different meanings• People can love their job, country, friends, family, and God

• One love, however, stand out more than the others• The love between a man and a woman is the epitome

of love• When a man and woman love one-another,

“body and soul are inseparably joined and human beings glimpse an apparently irresistible promise of happiness”Benedict XVI

PONTIFF BENEDICT XVI TO THE BISHOPS, PRIESTS, DEACONS, MEN AND WOMEN, RELIGIOUS, AND ALL THE LAY FAITHFUL ON CHRISTIAN LOVE

Types of LoveThere are three different types of love that can be experienced between a man and a woman:

• Philia: the love of friendship• Eros: Intoxicating love (“divine

madness”)• Agape: Biblical/ Christian form of

love

Philia The Love of Friendship

• Meant to show the love that happens between friends• Jesus is meant to serve as an example for this kind of

love

• Used in Saint John's Gospel• Expresses the relationship between Jesus and His

Disciples

• Shared between people who like, appreciate, and remain loyal to one another• Family members, co-workers, friends• Most common form of love• “Brotherly love”

Eros“That love between man and woman which is neither planned nor willed, but somehow

imposes itself upon human beings.”

• The Greeks consider Eros to be an “intoxication”, where man becomes overwhelmed with carnal desire• Focus on sexual gratification rather

than emotional connection with lover

• Friedrich Nietzsche • Christianity poisoned Eros• Collapsed into vice.

Eros

Continued

• The Church is not opposed to Eros. Rather, it is opposed to the twisted and perverted ways Fertility Cults interpret Eros• “Sacred” Prostitution: Exploitation of

women whose role in the temple was to arouse “divine madness”

• The Old Testiment• Eros needs to be disciplined and

purified in order fulfill the human condition,

• our whole being yearns to be fully united with God.

• Redemption: become united with God through making good choices (being loyal and honest to the people you love)

Eros

Continued

• Man is a being made up of body and soul, which need to be intimately united in order to overcome Eros

• Eros should not just be thought of as sex• “Christian faith, on the

other hand, has always considered man a unity in duality, a reality in which spirit and matter co-penetrate, and in which each is brought to a new nobility.” Benedict XVI

Hey ok this slide isnt real its just some facts that are gonna be on agape and marriage/ creation/justice just so you can get 5 questions/start the worksheet and then I’ll resend you the final powerpoint (probably tomorrow, sorry) and if you wanna just add in the missing parts to the worksheet? Thank you sooo much for doing this!

agape, which, as we have seen, becomes the typical expression for the biblical notion of love. No longer is it self-seeking, a sinking in the intoxication of happiness; instead it seeks the good of the beloved:

Marriage based on exclusive and definitive love becomes the icon of the relationship between God and his people and vice versa. God's way of loving becomes the measure of human love

PHILIALove of God and love of neighbour have become one: in the least of the brethren we find Jesus himself, and in Jesus we find God.the First Letter of John shows that such love is explicitly demanded. The unbreakable bond between love of God and love of neighbour is emphasized. Saint John's words should be interpreted to mean that love of neighbour is a path that leads to the encounter with God, and that closing our eyes to our neighbour also blinds us to God