Drew5_1
Image

The love command, love of God and love of neighborit does not get more basic than that. It is the heart of Jesus message and, by Jesus reading, of the Hebrew Scriptures too: On these, Jesus tells the Pharisees, hang all the law and the prophets (Mt 22:40). In Christianity, especially Western Christianity, the unity of love of God and love of neighbor is axiomatic. It was surprising, nonetheless, that 138 Muslim leaders writing Pope Benedict XVI and other Christian leaders last October made the love command a central element of their letter This article appears in January 7 2008.

Drew Christiansen, S.J., served as the editor in chief of America from 2005 to 2012. He was a Distinguished Professor of Ethics and Human Development at Georgetown University and a senior fellow with the Berkley Center for Religion, Peace and World Affairs. He was co-editor with Carole Sargent of A World Free from Nuclear Weapons: The Vatican Conference on Disarmament (Georgetown, 2020).