PHILANTHROPY

PHILANTHROPY. Literally, “love for humanity,” philanthropy is a favorite expression of the Church Fathers (q.v.) for the economy (q.v.) of God’s salvation, in particular referring to the Incarnation of the Word, the death on the Cross, the Resurrection, and the gift of the Holy Spirit (q.v.). This, the philanthropy of Christ, is the love for humanity par excellence; and every Christian is called to imitate it. Thus, the insistence throughout the Byzantine era (q.v.) that the emperors, together with the wealthy and powerful, had a particular duty as leaders of the Christian community to exercise charity, i.e., to imitate the divine philanthropy revealed in Christ.