24 lines
1.5 KiB
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24 lines
1.5 KiB
TeX
\section{Erōs in Early Christianity}
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\lettrine[lraise=0.15]{E}{arly} Christians also wrote about God having Erōs to create the world.
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Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite --- the 5th\slash 6th century Syrian mystic --- explicitly uses Erōs for divine love, and argues that God's Erōs is the creative impulse --- God longing outward into creation, and creation longing back toward God, a circular movement of divine longing.
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Agapē is the usual word for ``love'' in the New Testament. Yet, Pseudo-Dionysius
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is quite bold about preferring Erōs to Agapē in certain contexts,
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precisely because Erōs captures the dynamic, reaching, impelling quality that Agapē can soften into mere benevolence.
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The early Church Father Origen (184--253 AD) also uses erotic language for the soul's relationship to God, particularly in his commentary on the \textit{Song of Songs} --- which is probably why the \textit{Song of Songs} became so central to the mystical tradition. He read it as cosmic Erōs between God and the soul.
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Even within Christianity, before later centuries got nervous about the word Erōs, the creative act itself was understood as divine Longing expressing itself outward into form.
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God's Erōs creates the world. The world's Erōs returns to God.
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We linger here not to privilege one tradition,
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but because this is an unexpected place to find Erōs.
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The word we have debased into mere appetite
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--- or car commercials --- was once the name the Church Fathers
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gave to the creative impulse of God.
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This is a surprising place to find Erōs. And the surprise is the point.
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