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Η θέσις της αγάπης προς τον Θεόν εν τη μυστική ζωή, The love of God in mystical life

• Σταθόπουλος, Δημήτρης Λ.

Divine eros is the religious person's most basic form of exprerience. This love of God constitutes the essence of mystical life because the knowledge of God gained through it guides man safely to his final deification. Hope, faith, dedication, zeal, etc., walk hand in hand with love, «but the greatest of these is love.» (I Cor. 13:13). The source of divine love is God Himself. Divine eros is considered to be God's very own gift to man. This love which proceeds from God, returns again to God, its source, through man. The Hymns of the poet and ardent lover of God, St. Symeon, the New Theologian, are texts which interpret in a wondrous manner this love of the Divine. In regards to the love of God as it appears in the non-Christian religions, the author refers to Thomas Ohm, who speaks extensively upon the subject in his 544-page work, Die Liebe zu Gott. (See n. 1.) Divine love is of a different nature than all the other types of love, first because only it is «above nature,» and secondly because «those who have loved Him alone instead of all other things... shall be with God.» In the present article, God's love towards man and man's love towards his fellow man are also briefly examined. Finally, the author touches upon the blessed state of the man who finds himself within divine love and the wretchedness to be found outside thereof. Divine eros, the mystic says, «is a stream which droppeth honey, a drink of gladness continually, turning about in the mouth of my intellect from whence cometh all health and purity.» (Hymn. 10).

• Philosophy, Ethics and Religion

• Θεολογία