agape love
Definition
Agape (Greek: ἀγάπη) in George Warnock’s theology is not moral virtue, not compassion, not erotic love, but participation in God’s own being. Agape is real pneumatic participation in the Trinity — sharing in God’s love itself. It is not something we do (action) but something we receive and in which we are taken up.
In George Warnock’s The Vision and the Appointment (b9), agape is the ultimate end of all spiritual experience, all gifts, all epistemology, indeed all theodicy. Not achievement but gift. Not effort but breathing in God’s own love. This distinguishes Warnock’s reading of 1Cor. 13 from moralism — agape is mystical reality, not ethical mandate.
George Warnock (b9)
Warnock emphasizes agape as the ultimate end of God’s work in us:
“The more excellent way is not an alternative to spiritual gifts — it is the highway on which the gifts are meant to travel. Love is the atmosphere in which all God’s gifts bloom and reach their appointed destination.”
(The Vision and the Appointment, Pneumatology, Chapter 5)
Agape-love is no human-made virtue but a heavenly reality into which we are taken up. It is the sign of true pneumatic participation.