Complicating the command: Agape in scriptural context (Condensing the enigmatic canon of Christian love)

While some of Anders Nygren's critics supplant "agape" with "eros" or "phil ia", we may best correct the false simplicity of Nygren's account through a scriptural retrieval of "agape" itself. I suggest what this textual turn m ay impart by discussing "agape" in passages from Exodus, Leviticus, Hosea, Luke, and John. "Agape" in these texts reflects motivations as disparate as passionate desire, parental longing, committed dutifulness, and protective seclusion - depictions at odds with Nygren's atemporal portrayal of "agape " as unmotivated and spontaneous. We may be called at times to heed one of these scriptural strains more than another, but to say either that impassiv ity (Nygren) or any one of these motivations represents the apex of love is misleading. I suggest that we resist the urge to condense our intentionall y enigmatic canon.