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Ways & Power Of Love: Techniques Of Moral Transformation
The Ways and Power of Love was originally published in 1954 when Pitirim Sorokin was in the twilight of his career and leading the Harvard Research Center in Creative Altruism. His elaborate scientific analysis of love with regard to its higher and lower forms, its causes and effects, its human and cosmic significance, and its core features constitutes the first study on this topic in world literature to date. Sorokin was the one absolutely essential twentieth-century pioneer in the study of love at the interface of science and religion. Bringing The Ways and Power of Love back into print allows a new generation of readers to appreciate Sorokin's genius and to move forward with his endeavor at a time when civilization itself continues to be threatened by a marked inability to live up to the ideal of love for all humankind. It is certainly right to hope, with Sorokin, that progress in knowledge about love can move humanity forward to a better future. Turning the sciences toward the study of love is no easy task, but it can and must be done.
584 pages, Paperback
First published March 1, 2002
About the author
Pitirim A. Sorokin
128 books46 followersThe first edition of his 1942 book Man and Society in Calamity lists him as "Doctor of Sociology; Chairman of Department of Sociology, Harvard University; Former President of international Institute of Sociology".
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
November 24, 2017
Sorokin is a true scholar of Love, as much as he is a theologician. His book is one of the deepest disections of Love in all its different ways and in analyzing its transformational power. He did incredible research in history, warfare and most specially church figures (“Saints”) to frame his theory. A good read if you enjoy a mix of philosophy and history...
June 19, 2022
It really is a pity that not too many people are familiar with the works of Sorokin. He is, in my view, the person who, along with Toynbee, best undersood the logic of historical change.
In The Ways and Power of Love, he studied the nature of Love in general, but more particularly that of Agape, the type of Love that seems divinely origined (in contrast to Eros, its prosaic form), and its heroes: the saints, mystics, prophets and altruists of all latitudes and epochs.
Like Tom, I especially enjoyed the first sections, most notably the proposed five dimensions to analyse Love (intensity, extension, duration, purity and adequacy) which unify the seemingly opposed Eros and Love in a single subject of study. Thanks to that approach, the actions taken by a rapist, Mao Zedong, an uneducated mother or an idealist NGO aid worker can be interpreted as lower versions of the actions taken by Jesus of Nazareth, Gautama or Al-Hallaj. The former experience a kind of love that is high in, at best, 2 of the aforementioned dimensions, while the latter experienced a kind of love that is high in all 5 of them.
As the reading advanced, it became less enjoyable. Sorokin had a very arid style and loved adding as much data as possible to support his claims, something that can become boring at some point. In addition, he seemed to make some conceptual mistakes (although that can be forgiven because, as he acknowledged, that was the first attempt to study Love in a scientific way). For example, he presents self-inflicted torture and the repression of bodily needs as a valid means to reach enlightenment. People who perform that type of inhuman rituals cannot be regarded as good representatives of the highest forms of Love, since they deeply hate some aspects of reality. This and other misconceptions were probably rooted in his limited dualistic approach.
In The Ways and Power of Love, he studied the nature of Love in general, but more particularly that of Agape, the type of Love that seems divinely origined (in contrast to Eros, its prosaic form), and its heroes: the saints, mystics, prophets and altruists of all latitudes and epochs.
Like Tom, I especially enjoyed the first sections, most notably the proposed five dimensions to analyse Love (intensity, extension, duration, purity and adequacy) which unify the seemingly opposed Eros and Love in a single subject of study. Thanks to that approach, the actions taken by a rapist, Mao Zedong, an uneducated mother or an idealist NGO aid worker can be interpreted as lower versions of the actions taken by Jesus of Nazareth, Gautama or Al-Hallaj. The former experience a kind of love that is high in, at best, 2 of the aforementioned dimensions, while the latter experienced a kind of love that is high in all 5 of them.
As the reading advanced, it became less enjoyable. Sorokin had a very arid style and loved adding as much data as possible to support his claims, something that can become boring at some point. In addition, he seemed to make some conceptual mistakes (although that can be forgiven because, as he acknowledged, that was the first attempt to study Love in a scientific way). For example, he presents self-inflicted torture and the repression of bodily needs as a valid means to reach enlightenment. People who perform that type of inhuman rituals cannot be regarded as good representatives of the highest forms of Love, since they deeply hate some aspects of reality. This and other misconceptions were probably rooted in his limited dualistic approach.
January 23, 2008
First half is something most will want to read. Second half is less so. Sorokin's life was pretty amazing. I'm beginning research in 'love' and 'freedom' (in divine and human being), so it was of interest to me. A classic.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews