Contents of Love’s Gold Mine

From

Would You Lie to Save a Life?—Love Will Find a Way
( A Theology on the Ethics of Love )
by Michael G. Maness

Contents of Love’s Gold Mine

Author’s Preface

Contents of Love’s Gold Mine

Expanded Contents of Love’s Gold Mine

List of Charts

Introduction to Love’s Golden Treasures

1. Love’s Gauntlet—the USS Pueblo History

2. Love and Ethics Mulched by WWJD Mulches

3. Love and Evil Rain—Endure

4. Love’s Unchanging Parts and Other Definitions

5. Love Is Absolute

6. Love’s 1st Foundation—Simplicity

7. Love’s 2nd Foundation—"Duty" From God

8. Love’s 3rd Foundation—Morality Natural

9. Love’s 4th Foundation in Time

10. Love a Human Struggle with Time

11. Love, Lying, and Truth

12. Love Struggles to Find a Way

13. Love Masters the Teleological in Time

14. Love’s Uncharted Islands of Responsibility

15. Love Will Find a Way

Epilogue—The Gold Train through Time

Expanded Contents of Love’s Gold Mine

Author’s Preface

Contents of Love’s Gold Mine

Expanded Contents of Love’s Gold Mine

List of Charts

Introduction to Love’s Golden Treasures

A. Love—Makes the World Go Round

B. Love & Krakatoa—Love Will Find a Way

C. Love Over Truth a Hard Choice

D. Love’s Defining Elements in an Evil Crisis

E. To the Reader—Master Illustrator Gustave Doré

1. Love’s Gauntlet—the USS Pueblo History

A. Love Taken Hostage—USS Pueblo Noble Crew

1. Pirating and Hijacking on the High Seas

2. Life Threatened ... then, "I Love You, Rose"

3. Brutally Beaten ... then, "I will sign"

4. Bogus Confession—Incredible, even Hilarious

5. Years Later ... Pueblo Crew Finally Honored

6. Bucher and U.S. Military Code of Conduct

7. Pueblo Reunion and U.S. Shame in North Korea

B. Love Is Tops—Because Only Love Will Find a Way

1. Love on the Battlefield & Christ’s Competence the Criterion

2. No Greater Love than This—Death Love’s Greatest Work

3. Love ... Nothing Else Really Matters Much

2. Love and Ethics Mulched by WWJD Mulches

A. WWJD’s Holy Ground—Where Did It Originate?

B. WWJD Supplants the Great Commands—What Mind Is This?

C. WWJD Claims a Divine Competence—Who Is that Competent?

D. WWJD—Symptom of Sickness Plaguing Today’s Christianity

E. WWJD—How Much Would Could a Would—Chuck Chuck?

3. Love and Evil Rain—Endure

A. Love Makes the World Go Round & Love’s Gold Rush

B. Few Basic Definitions Used to Defend Love

C. How Does Love and Truth Complicate Bucher’s Dilemma?

CHART 1. Bucher’s Apparent Conflict between Love & Truth

D. What Is Love’s Problem in Bucher’s Dilemma?

1. The Farmer, the Fundamentalist, and Perfection

2. Love’s Presenting Problems #1 & #2:
Problem #1: Complexity or Conflicting Absolutes?
Problem #2: Responsibility Responsibility?

3. Love’s Presenting Problem #3: Deontology or Teleology vs. Deontology with Teleology?

E. Love Complicated by Evil Forces

F. Evil Rain & Mayberry RFD—Only Love Can Find a Way

4. Love’s Unchanging Parts and Other Definitions

A. Guns of Navarone Metaphor for Love’s Responsibility

B. Love’s Common Elements on the Battlefield

1. Common Beginning: Seeking First God’s Kingdom

CHART 2. Love’s Three—Dimensional Focus on Eternity

2. Common End: God’s Greatness

3. Common Responsibility: Our Perseverance

4. Common Mystery: The Spiritual Realm

5. The Four Elements in Perspective

C. Love’s Great Responsibility Shuffle

CHART 3. The Great Shuffle of Responsibility

D. Love and the Feelings of Others

E. Major Terms that Help Define Love

1. Getting Around in Hostile Territory—with Love

2. Four Ethical Systems—Language 101

CHART 4. Ethical Systems Contrasted

CHART 5. Augustine, Kant, Maness Ethical Maxims

3. Deontology & Teleology—Language 201

a. Short Course on Deontology & Teleology

b. Origin & Use of Deontology

c. Origin, Use, and Harboring Wayward Teleology

CHART 6. Teleological Arguments for God

d. Teleology & Blackaby’s Experiencing God Phenomenon

e. Basic Definitions of Deontology & Teleology

CHART 7. Teleology a Decisive Issue for Love and Ethics

CHART 8. Summary Definitions of Deontology & Teleology

F. Jesus Christ’s Competence the Criterion

5. Love Is Absolute

A. True Love versus Truth on the Battlefield

B. Nature of Absolutes—Boundless & Timeless

1. Absolutes Defined

2. Is the Golden Rule an Absolute?

3. Nature of Dynamic Absolutism in Love

4. Absolutes Positively Stated—even Expressions of Love

5. Adam & Eve Died—Yet, even so, Love Found a Way

C. Love, Free Will, and Providence—a Primer

D. Niebuhr’s Ethical Prophecy and Other Obstacles

CHART 9. Thirteen Major Limiting Factors in Love and Ethics

6. Love’s 1st Foundation—Simplicity

Intro to Four Foundation Stones

A. 1st Hermeneutical Principle—Love Is Simple

B. Other Hermeneutical Principles: How Complex Ethics Become

1. Smith’s Five Hermeneutical Principles

2. Immer’s Hermeneutical Principles

3. Terry’s Hermeneutical Principles

4. Two Simplistic Hermeneutical Presuppositions

1st—Priority of the Basic Meaning of the New Testament

2nd—Revelation Consistent in Progressive Understanding of Truth

C. Biblical Statements: 1st Prioritization of Ethical Principles

D. Legislating a Vow to God—Not Our Founding Fathers’ Intent

E. Good Samaritan—a Model of Love

F. Love Found a Way to Bridge the Testaments

1. Love’s Relevance for All of the O.T. in the N.T. Ethic

2. Love’s "Degree" of Obligation of Parts of O.T. in N.T.

CHART 10. Determination of the Law’s Applicability of Love

CHART 11. Explanation of Love’s Application of CHART 10

3. Love’s "Results" of Each O.T. Injunction

4. Summing Up Love’s Growth from the O.T. to the N.T.

7. Love’s 2nd Foundation—"Duty" From God

A. Love’s Ethical Foundation—"Duty" From & Returned to God

1. Who God Is Originated First from God

2. Consistent Nature of God’s Righteousness and Character

3. Origin & Unity of Truth

B. Character—the Sum of Virtues—Christ the Criterion

CHART 12. Peterson & Seligman’s Strengths & 24 Virtues

C. Responsibility and Freedom—Love’s Strength

D. Jesus’ Character—Kingdom Ethics by Stassen & Gushee

1. "Seek First" = Follow Jesus, Participate in Deliverance

2. Character Ethics Versus Idealism—What Is the Difference?

3. Jesus Deontological & Teleological—Out of Closet at Last

4. Stassen & Gushee—Push Us to Edge of Absolute Rightness

5. Character Ethics Is One Way of Reasoning

6. Stassen & Gushee—Love Dynamic Participative Deliverance

8. Love’s 3rd Foundation—Morality Natural

A. How Attitude Affects Love and Ethics

B. Love Entertains Ideals and Virtues—2nd Prioritization

1. Bennett’s Ten Virtues

CHART 13. William Bennett’s Ten Virtues

2. What Makes a Virtue Valuable?

3. The Ten Virtues & "Trust" in Four Categories

CHART 14. Four Categories of Virtues Express Love

4. Ten Virtues & Trust Add a Unique Human Pressure

C. Great Arbitrators of Trust—Wisdom & Utopian Vision

D. Love the Highest Action, Trust the Highest State of Affairs

9. Love’s 4th Foundation in Time

A. Love’s Teleological and Eschatological Concerns

B. Love’s Concurrence Between Teleology & Eschatology

C. Love Is an End with No End—Its Own Golden Treasure

D. Love—Our Window on Eternity

E. Love—Eternal, Spanning the Entire Concourse of Time

10. Love a Human Struggle with Time

A. Love Struggles in the Small Window of Time

B. A Hypothetical Murder and the Crisis Accelerator

C. Good Samaritan Made No Distinction

CHART 15. Two Poles of Ethical Problems Around Wickedness

D. Love’s Infinity of Variables on Concourse of Time

CHART 16. Unique Arenas of Individuals

11. Love, Lying, and Truth

A. Dilemma of Lying and Line of Accountable Extrapolation

B. Love vs. Lying—Love the Unifying Principle

C. Nature of Lying: Abraham, Jesus, Rahab & the Midwives

1. Abraham

2. Jesus

3. Rahab and Hebrew Midwives

4. Compare the Lies Bucher, Rahab, and the Midwives

D. Lying Less a Sin than Murder & Extravagance

E. Fusion of Love and Truth

F. Truth—Truth Eternal with Little Eternal Value

1. Truth—More than Correspondence with Reality

2. Truth—Meaning & Importance This Side of Heaven

3. Criteria for Determining Truth

4. Truth Eternal with Little Eternal Value

12. Love Struggles to Find a Way

A. Love Struggles Between Legality and License

CHART 17. Love’s Struggle between Legality & License

B. Love Struggling in the Four Ethical Systems

1. On NCA—Rakestraw’s Non—Conflicting Absolutism

2. On GA—Geisler’s Graded Absolutism

3. On P—Smith’s Principleism

4. DA—Dynamic Absolutism—an Ethic of Love

C. Bucher’s Extra Honor—in—Suffering a Spiritual Affair

D. Love’s Two—Stages for Encountering Conflict

CHART 18. Love’s Two Stages for Encountering Conflict

E. The Fire of Love—Eternal

13. Love Masters the Teleological in Time

A. Love and God’s Providence

CHART 19. Responsibility vs. Accountability

CHART 20. Three Lines of Responsibility

CHART 21. Three Potential Choices

CHART 22. Elements Obscuring an Absolutely "Right" Choice

CHART 23. Drawing Lines of Individual Responsibility

B. Love Finds a Way Between Teleology & Deontology

1. Teleological and Deontological Analysis of Love

CHART 24. Teleological / Deontological Analysis of Choices

2. Five Implication of CHART 24

a. 1st Implication—On the Nature of the Totals Found

b. 2nd Implication—Love Teleological & Deontological

c. 3rd Implication—Choosing Teleological OR Deontological

d. 4th Implication—Ease of Decision when "Right" Choice Elusive

e. 5th Implication—On What the CHART 24 Does Not Say

C. Love’s Threefold Responsibility to Teleological Concerns

CHART 25. Love’s Threefold Responsibility to Teleological Concerns

D. Love the Treasure of Our Imago Dei and Hope of Heaven

CHART 26. Imago Dei Trinity of Human Attributes

14. Love’s Uncharted Islands of Responsibility

A. Love in Psychology and Wisdom of Responsibility

B. Love’s Uncharted Waters of Responsibility

C. Free Will?—Martin Luther & Resurrection Freedom

CHART 27. Three Truths about Free Will & Foreknowledge

D. Love and Our Depravity

CHART 28. Two Choices on Depravity: Total or Partial

CHART 29. Fine Line Between God’s Enabling & Our Sin

CHART 30. John Newport’s Eight Biblical Reasons for Evil

E. Love and Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle

CHART 31. Three Questions on Complexity of Love over Physics

CHART 32. Michael Eck’s Book of Threes

F. Love Complicated by Hermeneutics & Language

G. Love in Mind Reading & Neuroscience

15. Love Will Find a Way

A. Love Finite and Infinite

B. Love’s Seven Fine Lines & Twenty—Three Variables

1. Love’s Seven Fine Lines

2. Love’s Twenty—Three Intractable Variables of Complexity

CHART 33. Love’s Twenty—Three Variables in Every Choice

C. Love and Truth Converge on the Concourse of Life

Epilogue—The Gold Train of Time

List of Charts

CHART 1. Bucher’s Apparent Conflict between Love & Truth

CHART 2. Love’s Three—Dimensional Focus on Eternity

CHART 3. The Great Shuffle of Responsibility

CHART 4. Ethical Systems Contrasted

CHART 5. Augustine, Kant, Maness Ethical Maxims

CHART 6. Teleological Arguments for God

CHART 7. Teleology a Decisive Issue for Love and Ethics

CHART 8. Summary Definitions of Deontology & Teleology

CHART 9. Thirteen Major Limiting Factors in Love and Ethics

CHART 10. Determination of the Law’s Applicability of Love

CHART 11. Explanation of Love’s Application of CHART 10

CHART 12. Peterson & Seligman’s Strengths & 24 Virtues

CHART 13. William Bennett’s Ten Virtues

CHART 14. Four Categories of Virtues Express Love

CHART 15. Two Poles of Ethical Problems Around Wickedness

CHART 16. Unique Arenas of Individuals

CHART 17. Love’s Struggle between Legality & License

CHART 18. Love’s Two Stages for Encountering Conflict

CHART 19. Responsibility vs. Accountability

CHART 20. Three Lines of Responsibility

CHART 21. Three Potential Choices

CHART 22. Elements Obscuring an Absolutely "Right" Choice

CHART 23. Drawing Lines of Individual Responsibility

CHART 24. Teleological / Deontological Analysis of Choices

CHART 25. Love’s Threefold Responsibility to Teleological Concerns

CHART 26. Imago Dei Trinity of Human Attributes

CHART 27. Three Truths about Free Will & Foreknowledge

CHART 28. Two Choices on Depravity: Total or Partial

CHART 29. Fine Line Between God’s Enabling & Our Sin

CHART 30. John Newport’s Eight Biblical Reasons for Evil

CHART 31. Three Questions on Complexity of Love over Physics

CHART 32. Michael Eck’s Book of Threes

CHART 33. Love’s Twenty—Three Variables in Every Choice

Contents from

Would You Lie to Save a Life?
Love Will Find a Way
( A Theology on the Ethics of Love )

By
Michael G. Maness