In Chapter 7 of this excellent short work, Lady Alice talks about the eight Basic Religious Attitudes. These are:
- Obedience
- Dependence
- Confidence
- Fear
- Contrition
- Hope
- Gratitude
- Love

Building on the other responses yet also the “highest and most sublime” is the response of love. Here Lady Alice is specifically talking about the response to God, but discusses the nature of love in general as a foundation.
“Love is a value-response to the beloved, and has two essential features with D. von Hildebrand calls intentio unionis (desire to be united with the beloved) and intentio benevolentiae (desire to do good to the loved one). In love, man gives himself more completely than in any other value-response; for he gives his heart, and this donation of self is the greatest gift a person can give to another” (p85, emphasis original).
On this blog we have covered many of the different forms of love: family, friends, lovers. However, love of God is special. It is an adoring love and it also flows from an ought. We ought to love God because of His goodness. Additionally, this is the highest value-response.

Finally, love as a response to God is very personal. Biblical religions make it clear that God is the Absolute, the creator above the man creature, but also make a claim that “divine love bridges this abyss, and offers man a type of communion with him and a closeness with him.”
“For love is always love of someone, and essentially calls for an I and a Thou” (p87).
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Hildebrand, Alice von. Introduction to a Philosophy of Religion. Chicago: Franciscan Herald, 1971. Print.
Image: Prayer on Flikr by Chris Yarzab
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