The Ways and Power of Love
Types, Factors, and Techniques of Moral Transformation
By Pitirim A. Sorokin
Templeton Foundation Press
Copyright © 1982 Peter P. and Sergei P. Sorokin
All rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-890151-86-7
Contents
Preface,
Introduction by Stephen G. Post,
PART ONE LOVE: ITS ASPECTS, DIMENSIONS, PRODUCTION, TRANSFORMATION, AND POWER,
1. The Manifoldness of Love and Its Main Aspects,
2. The Five-Dimensional Universe of Psychosocial Love,
3. Tentative Considerations on Production, Accumulation, and Distribution of Love Energy,
4. Power of Creative Love,
PART TWO STRUCTURE OF CREATIVE PERSONALITY,
5. Mental Structure and Energies of Man,
6. The Supraconscious in Man’s Mental Structure, Creativity, and Cognition,
7. Forms and Ways of Personality Integration and Creativity,
PART THREE THE WAYS OF ALTRUISTIC GROWTH,
8. Supreme Love and the Supraconscious,
9. Three Types of Altruists and Three Courses of Altruistic Growth,
10. Ideological and Behavioral Altruistic Self-Identification,
11. Factors in the Early Integration of the Fortunate Altruists,
12. Inner Conflicts and Precipitating Factors of the Late Altruists,
13. Types of Altruistic Rearrangement of Group Affiliations and Environment,
14. Trials and Pains of Reintegration of Behavior,
15. Types of Control of Biological Drives,
PART FOUR TECHNIQUES OF ALTRUISTIC TRANSFORMATION OF PERSONS AND GROUPS,
16. The Ego-Centered and the Ego-Transcending Forms of Love and Techniques,
17. The Techniques of Altruistic Transformation (continued),
18. The Techniques of Altruistic Transformation (concluded),
19. The Unified Techniques of Patanjali’s and Other Yogas,
20. The Monastic System of Techniques,
21. Monastic “Psychoanalysis,” Counseling, and Therapy,
22. Techniques of Contemporary Free Brotherhoods,
PART FIVE TRAGEDY AND TRANSCENDENCE OF TRIBAL ALTRUISM,
23. From Tribal Egoism to Universal Altruism,
Notes,
Index of Names,
Index of Subjects,
CHAPTER 1
The Manifoldness of Love and Its Main Aspects
Love is like an iceberg: only a small part of it is visible, and even this visible part is little known. Still less known is love’s transempirical part, its religious and ontological forms. For the reasons subsequently given, love appears to be a universe inexhaustible qualitatively and quantitatively. Of its many forms of being, the following can be differentiated: religious, ethical, ontological, physical, biological, psychological, and social.
A. The Religious Aspect of Love
On the religious plane love is identified with God, the highest value in the Christian and other great religions. “Love is God,” and “God is love and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God and God in him,” says the New Testament. So also say the Bhagavadgita, the Dhammapada, and the Scriptures of practically all the great religions: Taoism and Confucianism, Hinduism and Buddhism, Jainism and Judaism, Mohammedanism, and the rest. Since God is believed to be the absolute value, love participates in God’s absolute value. Since God is an Infinite Manifoldness love is also qualitative and quantitative infinity. As such it cannot be defined by any words or concepts; at best these can be only symbolic indicators of the infinite cosmos of love. Paul Tillich well expresses this infinity of love when he says: “I have given no definition of love. This is impossible, because there is no higher principle by which it could be defined. It is
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