Loving God As The Ultimate Good
Loving God As The Ultimate Good Recently, in reading Augustine's City of God , I was struck by his (Augustine's) teaching, that God is to be loved with no reference to anything else . In other words, God is to be loved for who He is without any appeal to anything else. Of course, the great church father affirms and insists on the fact that this knowledge and love of the true God is only possible through the mediation of His beloved Son (The Word) of God, Jesus Christ our Lord. When we love anything else in the universe--even properly and lawfully--we, in a sense love that thing/being/person/angel with reference to something else, even higher than the thing/being/person/angel. We can love a rock, knowing that it could be a jewel; we can love a jewel, knowing that it could be a gift; we could love a gift, because it blesses a receiver; we can love a receiver (human person), because we want their...