Agape

Just reading Fred Kofman’s book Conscious Business – How to Build Value through Values.  In it he describes the work of Christian thinker William Barclay, who writes about the form of love, agape.

Here is what he says:

In business love is seen to be too personal a matter, yet love forms the foundation of all human interactions.  Without love, there is no teamwork, no leadership, no real commitment to customer service.  I am not referring to romantic love – I am talking about a different kind of love, agape.  Agape was, in ancient Greece, seen as the noblest form of love, a commitment to another’s well-being.

He goes on to quote William Barclay:

“Agape has to do with the mind: it is not simply an emotion which rises unbidden in our hearts; it is a principle by which we deliberately live.  Agape is not a feeling.  Feelings arrive passively; we cultivate agape.  We are not responsible for our feelings – we can’t help how we feel – but we are responsible for our agape because agape is an act of will.  Feelings are triggered by external events, such as people’s actions or the weather, or internal processes such as digestion or thought.  Agape comes from the soul.  Liking is a feeling.  Agape is a commitment, independent of our likes and dislikes.  We fall in (erotic) love, but we rise in agape.”

Cool, huh?