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humanism that spread simultaneously into Judaism, Christianity, and Islam can be found when the lost texts of Aristotle were discovered, translated, and appropriated by scholars from these three religions who worked at the same tables in Islamic libraries in Spain and Sicily during the ninth and tenth centuries. Richard Rubinstein in his timely book titled Aristotle ’s Children (2003) tells the story well.’ This gave rise to forms of Aristotelian religious humanism in the works of Thomas Aquinas in Christianity, Maimonides in Judaism, and Averroés in Islam. On the American scene, one sees another form of Christian humanism in the synthesis of philosophical pragmatism, with all its influence from Darwin, and expressions of liberal Christianity and the social gospel movement. * Religious humanisms have not always flourished and are subject to attacks from both fundamentalists and scientific secularists. They need constant updating and vigorous intellectual development. But at their best, they make it possible for societies to maintain strong religious communities as well as integrating symbolic umbrellas that protect the productive interaction of the scientific disciplines with the wider cultural and religious life. An Example: The Agape, Caritas, and Eros Debate Few words in the English language have such a range of everyday meanings and of serious philosophical and theological consideration as the word love. For this reason, it is an excellent candidate for scientific investigation that has potential benefits for religious practice and everyday life. Although some theologians have sought to create a sharp division between Page |33 "Christian love" and all other forms of love, the tradition of religious humanism proposes that science clarifies the workings of love in human societies and religion extends the scope of love beyond its most immediate domain of kinship. There are three major tensions in theological discussions of Christian love. They center around the two Greek words agape and eros and the Latin word caritas. A famous book titled Agape and Eros (1953) written by the Swedish theologian Anders Nygren traced the debate through Christian history. ” Nygren believed that the truly normative and authentic understanding of Christian love is found in the word agape, the Greek word used for Christian love in the New Testament. It refers to a kind of self-giving, even self-sacrificial, love that is only possible by the grace of God. '© Nygren was particularly interested in arguing that Christian love did not build on what the Greek philosophers called eros. He claimed eros refers to the natural desires of humans to have and unite with the goods of life. This includes the goods of health, wealth, affiliation, and pleasure but it also includes the higher goods of beauty and truth. Nygren’s point, however, was that Christian Jove does not build on or incorporate eros — the natural aspirational strivings of humans. He believed he found this view of Christian love in the New Testament (especially the writing of the apostle Paul) and Martin Luther, the giant of the Protestant Reformation. Nygren was particularly interested in dismantling the classical medieval Roman Catholic view of Christian love that was often summarized with the English word charity or the Latin word caritas. Why HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_021279