Secular Agape: The Limits of Love in Botton and Rorty

Abstract

The desire for cohesive communities marked by love seems to be latent in the human condition. The revolution brought about by the Judeo-Christian proposal seems to initiate a process in which this desire is realised. The inseparability of love of God from love of neighbour (Luke 10:27) makes agape-love, an inescapable attribute of God, a visible and operative reality. However, outside of the Christian believing community, this dimension and vital force, which brings communities together and unifies them, seems to be diluted. As a result, thinkers such as Alain de Botton and Richard Rorty try to propose secular forms of agape or love, with the aim of achieving the same result as Christian communities. However, as this article will show, these are nothing more than ways of distorting the concept of agape, ultimately resulting in the falsification or mechanisation of communities.

Keywords

• Alain de Botton
• Richard Rorty
• Agapé restaurants
• Solidarity
• Charity