Love

A special programme on the theme of love.

How is love defined? Is it a thought? An emotion? A feeling?

Our world is awash with explanations of how and why we love yet we still remain reluctant to define it.

Are humans expected to love unconditionally, in the way that people of faith believe that God does? How can they when they are not divine?

Do faith institutions provide their followers with a path to love or has history shown they don't live up to that ideal?

And in a world where so much hate abounds, what purpose is love serving?

So many questions. To answer some of them we brought together three people from different faiths: Dr Naomi Green is a Muslim, Dr Elaine Storkey is a Christian and Dr Sarah Shaw is a Buddhist

Later in the programme we hear from Colin Doherty who is in charge of medical training at Trinity College Dublin about why he's introducing Love to his curriculum. He wants his students to show more than just compassion and empathy to their patients and thinks that love will make them better doctors.

And we finish by speaking with journalist Sally Hayden about her new book, "This is also a love story," highlighting acts of love in war zones across the world.