Caritas

Encyclopedia : C : CA : CAR : Caritas

This is an article about the theological term of Christianity. For the charitable organisation, see Caritas (charity). For the fictional scenes of Angel, see Caritas (Buffyverse).

Caritas (Latin) is a term in Christian theology (one of the three theological virtues), meaning loving kindness towards others; it is held to be the ultimate perfection of the human spirit, because it is said to both glorify and reflect the nature of God. In its most extreme form charity can be self-sacrificial. It was used in the Vulgate Bible as the translation of the Greek term agape, and was translated in the earliest English bibles as charity. Recent translations, however, prefer to use love for this concept, as the meaning of "charity" has changed in the last few centuries. (Please see the entry for Charity). Scholars, however, will continue to refer to caritas or charity when talking about medieval and early modern social relations, as the concept was very important to the people of that time.

Caritas continues to be used in the names of several Catholic charities.

From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Original article here. Support Wikipedia by contributing or donating.
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License See Wikipedia Copyrights for details.