What Is Love?

We speak of love in marriage, family, church, and friendship. We are commanded to love our neighbors and even our enemies. But when asked what love actually is, can we give a clear answer?

What Is Love? From Uncertainty to Understanding begins with John L. Wheeler’s decades-long struggle to define a word he heard described, preached, promised, and demanded. Conversations with others—and even a symposium organized to seek understanding—left the central question unresolved.

Feeling, belonging, sacrifice, affirmation, attraction, and commitment each offered something to consider, but none supplied the clarity he sought. This book grows out of that dissatisfaction and the conviction that a command carrying such moral weight deserves careful definition.

Written for readers who have found familiar explanations of love insufficient, it invites thoughtful examination of a concept that shapes nearly every relationship. Its purpose is to pursue understanding: if love can be commanded and governs how we live, what does it mean? That persistent question gives the book its direction.