re: #408 Stuart Leviton

Your post makes me wonder - and I am only speculating aloud - whether the general culture of middle-eastern thought has been misunderstood in Western eyes. I specifically mean all three great Abrahamic religions - Christianity, Islam and Judaism. The idea you have made me wonder about is the Christian concept of agape (love). I am curious to try to understand how Christians understand that concept, a concept which to me seems to be a legitimate translation of the word love (ohev) in the Hebrew bible. One of the offshoots of the idea you have given me is that I now wonder whether the West understands Islam. Again, this is completely speculative. I expect I’ll be 101% wrong.

No doubt the western world does misunderstand or not fully understand much of middle eastern thought (and everything outside of the western canon).

As for agape, that has a very specific meaning in western philosophy and in Catholic theology. I do not know how it is understood in Hebrew, but I can talk about the other two.