I just read a friends book review about Eric Foley’s book The Whole Life Offering: Christianity as Philanthropy when the below quote jumped out at me… so much so that I couldn’t help but share it:

“The term “philanthropy” was not created to describe acts of kindness and charity from one human being to another. Instead, it was created in the 5th century B.C. to describe acts of kindness and charity from a god— Prometheus, actually—toward human beings. So the term was first used in Greek mythology, but before long, the church got a hold of it.

“Paul uses it in Titus 3:4, for example, to denote God’s deep love toward humanity in Christ. In other words, philanthropy is not primarily something we give, it is something we receive. It is only after we receive God’s “friendship-love”—that’s what “philanthropy” literally means—that we can mirror it into the world, which we do as an offering back to God.” –Eric Foley