With in the Divine Principle there are three foundational points upon which this theory of ethics is established. The first is God’s true love; the second is the family four position foundation; and the third is the three object purpose. Let me explain each of these.
The first foundational point is God’s true love. As the subject of love, God created human beings as His substantial object partners of love so that, after they had perfected themselves, they could inherit God’s Heart and love, and practice love through their daily lives.
God’s love is the source of the values of truth, goodness, and beauty. Therefore, God’s love is the very foundation for the theory of education, the theory of ethics, and the theory of art, which are theories concerned with truth, goodness, and beauty, respectively. This is especially the case with the theory of ethics; thus, the true love of God is the basic foundation for the establishment of a theory of ethics.
The second foundational point is the family four position foundation. In order for God’s love to be realized perfectly, it is necessary to establish the family four position foundation (the four positions refer to God, father, mother, and children). In fact, God’s love is manifested through the family’s four position foundation divisionally, namely, as parents’ love, husband and wife’s love, and children’s love. Seen from the perspective of God’s position, man and woman as parents, man and woman as husband and wife, and children are His object partners. Parents are His first object partners; husband and wife are His second object partners; and children are His third object partners. Thus, the love of parents, the love of husband and wife, and the love of children are together called the three object partners’ loves. Hence, the Unification Theory of Ethics deals with the overall relationships of love centered on the family four position foundation.
The third foundational point is the three object purpose. When perfected man and woman become husband and wife and love each other, centering on God’s vertical love, children resembling God will be born. At that time, a family four position foundation, which consists of the four positions of God (center), father (husband), mother (wife), and children is established. Since grandparents stand in the position of God in a family, a family four position foundation can also be seen as consisting of father, mother, and children, all centering on grandparents.
In the family four position foundation centered on grandparents, the person in each position of the family four position foundation has, as just mentioned, three object partners. The grandparents have the father, the mother, and the children (grandchildren) as their object partners; the father has the grandparents, the mother (wife), and children as his object partners; the mother has the grandparents, the father (husband), and the children as her object partners; and the children have their grandparents, their father, and their mother as their object partners.
Thus, the person in each position of the family four position foundation faces three object partners. For human beings, the purpose for being created is fulfilled within the family by one’s loving these three object partners. Therefore, the purpose of creation (or the purpose for being created) can be understood as fulfillment of the three object purpose. When a person in one of the positions loves the persons in the other three positions (object partners), the three object purpose becomes realized.
The fulfillment of the three object purpose brings about the realization of God’s love toward the three object partners. God’s love is an absolute love, but when it manifests itself, it does so in a differentiated manner, according to the position and direction within the four position foundation. Divisional love refers to the three kinds of divine love expressed in the family, namely, parents’ love, conjugal love, and children’s love, namely, the three object partners’ love. (As already mentioned, God’s three object partners are the parents, His first object partners, husband and wife, His second object partners, and the children, His third object partners.)
Parents’ love is a downward love, from parents to children; conjugal love is a horizontal love between husband and wife; and children’s love is an upward love, from children to parents. In this way, divisional love is love with a directional nature. More precisely, love has twelve directions, because the person in each of the four positions has a different kind of love for each of the three object partners, respectively. Consequently, various kinds of love, with different nuances, come to appear. In order to realize these various kinds of love, various kinds of virtue are required, since with each kind of love there is a corresponding virtue.
To summarize, God’s ideal of creation is for human beings to realize God’s love through the family and to complete the family four position foundation. Therefore, the aim of the Unification Theory of Ethics is to fully explain the virtues of love, based on the family four position foundation.