Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

Home
Evangelical
The Greater Erotic

The Greater Erotic

Last updated on: January 8, 2017 at 1:57 pm by John Mark N. Reynolds

The Greater Erotic 2017-01-08T13:57:06-04:00 John Mark N. Reynolds

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Reason is a harsh corrective to fantasies and dreams. Some dreams cannot be. No matter how much we might hope that death is an exit from all our problems, reason and human experience suggests death is no escape. Instead, dying gives way to life. Life (as the Phaedo demonstrates) never ends.

We must live by reason to be human, but not reason alone. I follow the directions of my GPS (GPS saves!), but I don’t drive for my GPS. Instead, I drive to reach my goal and the goal is happiness.

Happiness comes when beauty appears and fills my heart with longing. This longing for beauty heads me toward the beloved and if I pursue what is beautiful to the end then I will find goodness. Complete goodness, the very Good, is part of the nature of God.

God is utterly beautiful.

So how can beauty deceive us, because isn’t it obvious beauty does deceive us? Aren’t there things that seem beautiful, but are frauds? When I first put on glasses, after a childhood of near sightedness, I saw that white wall in my bedroom was not so white. My bad vision had tricked me. The wall needed to be painted. When I think I see beauty, I must hesitate. Beauty never cheats me, but sometimes rouge covers up a rogue!

If that were not hard enough, we also see beauty and misunderstand how best to love beauty. We pretend every beautiful body should be ours and so turn people into objects. We assume every feeling of love is a prelude to intimacy with us . . . as if we could possess the beauty of the stars. We love the stars and then claim they must be ours.

This is foolish.

So beauty, and the love that beauty stirs, is not enough. We must know what to do with the feelings. The love is never bad, real beauty is always good, but my response can be stupid. Love is love, but the way I love might be wrong. This is why people have thought so hard about love and how to respond to beauty and why God gave us more guidance here than in most areas.

How can I love the beloved?

The Confessor said it best:

The beautiful is identical with the good, for all things seek the beautiful and the good at every opportunity, and there is no being which does not participate in them. They extend to all that is, being what is truly admirable, sought for, desired, pleasing, chosen and loved. Observe how the divine force of love — the erotic power pre-existing in the good — has given birth to the same blessed force within us, through which we long for the beautiful and the good in accordance with the words, ‘I became a lover of her beauty’ (Wisdom 8:2), and ‘Love her and she will sustain you; fortify her and she will exalt you’ (Proverbs 4:6, 8).

———————

Philokalia, Volume 2, page 280

Κεφάλαια διάφορα Θεολογικά τε και Οικονομικά και περί Αρετής και Κακίας, ΕΚΑΤΟΝΤΑΣ ΠΕΜΠΤΗ

πγ΄. Ταὐτόν ἐστιν τῷ ἀγαθῷ τό καλόν, ὅτι τοῦ καλοῦ καί ἀγαθοῦ κατά πᾶσαν αἰτίαν πάντα ἐφίεται, καί οὐκ ἔστι τῶν ὄντων, ὅ μή μετέχει τοῦ καλοῦ καί ἀγαθοῦ. Πᾶσι γάρ ἐστι τό καλόν καί ἀγαθόν, ὡς ὄντως ἀγαστόν, ἐφετόν καί ἐραστόν καί ἀρεστόν καί αἱρετόν καί ἀγαπητόν. Σημείωσαι δέ πῶς ὁ θεῖος ἔρως ἐν τῷ ἀγαθῷ προϋπάρχων, ἔτεκε τόν ἐν ἡμῖν ἀγαθόν ἔρωτα, δι᾿ οὗ τοῦ καλοῦ καί ἀγαθοῦ ἐφιέμεθα, κατά τόν εἰπόντα, Ἐραστής ἐγενόμην τοῦ κάλλους αὐτῆς. Καί, Ἐράσθητι αὐτῆς, καί τηρήσει σε· περιχαράκωσον αὐτήν, καί ὑψώσει σε.

Spiritual Reflections

Previous Post

January 7, 2017

Don't Let Her Down Mr. Trump

Next Post

January 9, 2017 These are not the mermaids we expected. . .

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Apologetics Art Culture Education On Books On Education Philosophy Politics Pop Culture Spiritual Reflections Uncategorized

Select a Month October 2026 September 2026 August 2026 July 2026 July 2025 June 2025 September 2024 July 2024 June 2024 December 2023 June 2023 September 2022 May 2022 April 2022 March 2022 February 2022 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012

Follow Us!

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

What city's walls fell after the Israelites marched around them?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Jericho Bethel Ai Jerusalem

Books by This Author John Mark Reynolds

See All Titles »

Related posts from Eidos

Classical Education and the Art of Dying Well

Golden, Golden, Golden: My Mother's Last Lesson

The Old Words Are Helpful

When the Center Holds: A Tribute to My...

TRENDING AT PATHEOS Evangelical

The REST of Your Life: A Creative Wrestles...

This week I had a conversation with a good friend from church....

How the author of the world's best hymn...

I've been working with John Newton for a while now. This makes...

Psalm 130 | Lectio Divina

Long before this Lectio Divina, Psalm 130 - the song - started...

What About the Trees? Another Living Parable

After I finished writing the last article about falling leaves as a...

Why Classical Education Is a Conversation, Not a...

Come and Read: Joy in Classical Education When I was a little...

What Happened at Cornell?

Cornell University has received a great deal of negative publicity and intense...

view all Evangelical blogs

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Copyright 2008-2026, Patheos. All rights reserved.

Subscription Support Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In

Follow Patheos