Love And Freedom

In Love and Freedom, Jorge Ferrer proposes a paradigm shift in how romantic relationships are conceptualized, a step forward in the evolution of modern relationships. In the same way that the transgender movement surmounted the gender binary, Ferrer defines how a parallel step can—and should—be taken with the relational style binary. This book offers the first systematic discussion of relationship modes beyond monogamy and polyamory, as well as introduces the notion of “relational freedom” as the capability to choose one’s relational style free from biological, psychological, and sociocultural conditionings. To achieve these goals, Ferrer first discusses a number of critical categories—specifically, monopride/polyphobia, and polypride/monophobia—that mediate the contemporary “mono–poly wars,” that is, the predicament of mutual competition among monogamists and polyamorists. The ideological nature of these “mono–poly wars” is demonstrated through a review of available empirical literature on the psychological health and relationship quality of monogamous and polyamorous individuals and couples. Then, after showing how monogamy and polyamory ultimately reinforce each other, Ferrer articulates three relational pathways to living in-between, through, and beyond the mono/poly binary: fluidity, hybridity, and transcendence. Moving beyond that binary opens a fuzzy, liminal, and multivocal relational space that Ferrer calls novogamy. In this groundbreaking book, readers will learn practical tools to not only transform jealousy, but also enhance their relational freedom while being aware of key issues of diversity and social justice. They will also learn novel criteria to evaluate the success of their intimate relationships, and be introduced to a transformed vision of romantic love beyond both monocentrism and emerging polynormativities.

Rather than see love as a natural form of affection, Love As Human Freedom sees love as a practice that changes over time through which new social realities are brought into being. Love brings about, and helps us to explain, immense social-historical shifts—from the rise of feminism and the emergence of bourgeois family life, to the struggles for abortion rights and birth control and the erosion of a gender-based division of labor. Drawing on Hegel, Paul A. Kottman argues that love generates and explains expanded possibilities for freely lived lives. Through keen interpretations of the best known philosophical and literary depictions of its topic—including Shakespeare, Plato, Nietzsche, Ovid, Flaubert, and Tolstoy—his book treats love as a fundamental way that we humans make sense of temporal change, especially the inevitability of death and the propagation of life.

The defining premise of the Relational Free Will Defense is the claim that authentic love requires free will. Many scholars, including Gregory Boyd and Vincent Brümmer, champion this claim. Best-selling books, such as Rob Bell’s Love Wins, echo that love “cannot be forced, manipulated, or coerced. It always leaves room for the other to decide.” The claim that love requires free will has even found expression in mainstream Hollywood films, including Frailty, Bruce Almighty, and The Adjustment Bureau. The analysis shows convincingly that the claim that authentic love requires free will, does not meet the criteria of consistency, compatibility with Scriptural sources, and the demands of concrete encounter with problems of moral evil.

"This book nailed me to the wall! It has given me the power to change the way I believe, the way I feel, and the way I behave toward others. I'm very grateful." Finally, you can read the book we've all been waiting for, the book that will change forever the way you see yourself and your relationships. At the root of all our anger, our feelings of separation from one another, and our problems in relationships is our belief that we have been victimized. In Real Love and Freedom for the Soul we learn about the "secret disease" of victimhood, which is a primary component of almost all conflict in the world. As you read Real Love and Freedom for the Soul, you'll learn: - the real reason you often feel angry and resentful toward other people - how you can eliminate the anger that is destroying your happiness and relationships - why businesses often fail - why so many of our children are angry and rebellious - the real cause of racial prejudice in the world - how you can achieve a level of freedom and peace you never before imagined possible

Moving from monasticism to constitutionalism, and from antinomianism to anarchism, this book reveals law's connection with love and freedom.

In Freedom, Love, and Action, Krishnamurti points to a state of total awareness beyond mental processes. With his characteristic engaging, candid approach, Krishnamurti discusses such topics as the importance of setting the mind free from its own conditioning; the possibility of finding enlightenment in everyday activities; the inseparability of freedom, love, and action; and why it is best to love without attachment.

Love of Freedom explores how black women in colonial and revolutionary New England sought not only legal emancipation from slavery but defined freedom more broadly to include spiritual, familial, and economic dimensions.

Because of his participation in a crime, David Lesesne Carmichael -- a young black man of great promise -- has been given the unusually harsh sentence of thirty years in jail.As the novel opens, he and his childhood sweetheart, Camille Royce Dumas, find themselves separated, faced with the Herculean task of sustaining their impassioned relationship through words and words alone. Their letters necessarily become their only means of communication; they embody the sublimated love they can never consummate.The voices of the dead-both strangers and family members -- echo through these letters, bringing up images that ring with racial memories. David's and Camille's written words are vehicles not only for the expression of their love, but also for the remembrance of the cruel realities of their history: there is the runaway slave who hangs himself from a tree rather than face the possibility of recapture; and the woman who goes down to the sea literally to smell the ships in the hope that she can envision her native Africa.This bizarre, seemingly impossible romanticism is a backdrop to our lovers' plight. It highlights their own deprivation, that the tragedy of David and Camille was inevitable and will go on repeating itself -- through other lovers and other live -- until the historic injustices suffered by African-Americans on this continent are ameliorated.While love, in any form, offers no solutions, it is a vital element in this intense novel that provides the reader with new insights into the meaning and complexity of the black experience.

Is it still possible to say something new about love? Although we all claim to know what love is, the great variety of meanings that the word has makes it difficult to say what it really is. In this book, the author offers an attractive and clear exposition of the essential elements of love. When we try to understand what love is, we do it in the hope that it will help us improve our relationships and our lives. To go through life without knowing what love is, is like driving in the city of Los Angeles without a map-one gets lost. The chapters of this book are like a "map of life," in the sense that they deal with such important issues as the nature of love, the nuptial meaning of the body, the meaning of loyalty to our commitments, the connection between love and excellence, the importance of forgiveness, and the relationship between love and freedom.