Quotation
Last reviewed:
“Love, and do what you will.”
Augustine of Hippo · Christian Platonism · Medieval · c. 406–407
What does it mean?
The usual reading takes the command as the claim that a will formed by real love, caritas, does not need a second, external checklist, because the love itself excludes the cruelty people fear the sentence permits. It is not a licence. A rival reading, antinomian in spirit, hears exactly that licence: feel love, then do anything, including harm redescribed as care. The line sits in a homily on John, where he has just said that actions are distinguished by their root, and that love may rebuke while hatred may flatter.
Did Augustine of Hippo really say this?
The library’s label is Paraphrase or translation. Standard English of the Latin dilige, et quod vis fac, in the seventh homily on the First Epistle of John. This is not Chadwick, who translated the Confessions. The Latin is secure. The English is a translation, and the surrounding sentences restrict what love can will.
Where it comes from
Homilies on the First Epistle of John 7.8
Approximate date: c. 406–407.
How to use it
A manager in a care home in Derby tells a junior that a harsh roster change was done out of love for the residents, and reaches for this sentence as cover. Augustine's test is the root, not the label. If the change is contempt wearing a kind word, the homily has already called that hatred, however warm it feels; The sentence does not shorten the inquiry; It moves the inquiry onto the love that is claimed.
A mindset reading
Quoted alone, the line is one of the most abusable in the tradition, which is a reason to keep the homily attached. Love here is not a feeling of fondness that blesses the next impulse. It is a settled willing of the other's good under God, and he thinks that willing can look severe and that a soft manner can be hatred; The rival reading is popular because it is shorter.
Understand the philosophy
The homilies on the First Epistle of John are sermons, not the Confessions, and the key term is caritas, charity or ordered love, as against cupiditas. Once that root is present, he says, the will's actions carry its mark, so the command is safe only inside that claim about the root. The Latin is short on purpose. The paragraphs around it are the argument; This English is a translation of the short command.
- love
- ethics
- virtue
FAQ
What does it mean?
The usual reading takes the command as the claim that a will formed by real love, caritas, does not need a second, external checklist, because the love itself excludes the cruelty people fear the sentence permits. It is not a licence. A rival reading, antinomian in spirit, hears exactly that licence: feel love, then do anything, including harm redescribed as care. The line sits in a homily on John, where he has just said that actions are distinguished by their root, and that love may rebuke while hatred may flatter.
Did Augustine of Hippo really say this?
Paraphrase or translation. Standard English of the Latin dilige, et quod vis fac, in the seventh homily on the First Epistle of John. This is not Chadwick, who translated the Confessions. The Latin is secure. The English is a translation, and the surrounding sentences restrict what love can will.
Which work is it in?
Homilies on the First Epistle of John 7.8 Approximate date: c. 406–407.