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94 The Primacy of Love

Episode 94 Published 3 years, 10 months ago
Description
  1. Summary, In this episode, I discuss the central importance of love as the marker of well-being from a Catholic perspective -- our capacity to live out  the two great commandments.  We explore how love is the distinguishing characteristics of Christians, we detail the eight different kinds of love, and we discuss Catholic theologian Bernard Brady's five attributes or characteristics of love -- how love is affective, affirming, responsive, unitive and steadfast.  We discuss what is commonly missing from philosophical and theological approaches to love, and we briefly touch in the death of love and distortions of love.  
  2. Lead-in
     
    1. I want to speak to you from my heart today.  I want to share with you heart to heart about what it most important to me.  And maybe what is most important to you.  I want to talk with you today about love.  Real love.  Fundamental Love. Radical love.  The real thing.  Not the counterfeits of love that you and I have pursued in our lives in one way or another -- the fakes loves we've mistaken for real love, or the lesser loves that we've tried to inflate into more than they could possibly be.
  3.  
    1. I think love is not only the most essential experience in the whole world, it's also the most confusing for us.  Think about it.  What else has confused you more than love?  What has been more enduringly puzzling than love?  What has been more elusive for you?  What has been more enigmatic than love in your life?  What have you struggled with more than love?  

    1. Love -- the word is evocative.  The word is provocative, it stirs us up.  You parts react in so many different ways to the word love.  And so that's where we are going today.  Into the mystery of love.
  5.  
  6. Intro:
     
    1. Maybe you are feeling like you're just struggling to survive.  
      1. I want more for you than that.

    1. Maybe much of the time you feel like things are OK, maybe pretty good.
       
      1. I want more for you than that.
    2.  

    1. I want to share with you the very best of what I have with you on the central focus of well-being from a Catholic perspective.    

    1. Broad overview 
      1. Let's review a little.  In episode 88, we began a series on trauma with that piece Trauma: Defining and Understanding the Experience -- that one was a huge hit -- so many people interested in it, by far the most downloads of any episode.  
      2. In episode 89, called Your Trauma, Your Body: Protection vs. Connection -- we did a deep dive into the effects of trauma on the body, really understanding trauma from the perspective of Polyvagal theory by Steven Porges and Deb Dana.  
      3. From there, though, I really wanted to look at well-being -- how does secular psychology understand well-being -- 
        1. It's so important to understand what well-being is, what it looks like, how it feels.  So many people have never really experienced well being.  It's possible that you've never really experienced well-being.  
        2. So I started a subseries on well-being within the broader trauma series.  
      4. So shared with you the secular views of well being in Episodes 90 and 92 of this podcast
      5. We really dived into what the best of current psychological theorizing says about well-being
         
        1. Episode 90  Your Well-Being: The Secular Experts Speak
           
          1. DSM 5 -- which doesn't have a description of well being
        2.  
          1. PDM 2
        3.  
          1. Hedonic Well-being
        4.  
          1. Eudemonic Well-being
        5.  
          1. Freud's ideas of well-being
        6.  
          1. Contributions of Positive Psychology - pioneered by Martin Seligman
        7.  
          1. Polyvagal Theory -- Stephen Porges, Deb Dana
        8.  
          1. Internal Family Systems
        9.  
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