The Idea of Love in the Orthodox Christian Theology

(not to be continued)

Abstract

Christian love is the highest content of the inner life of the members of the Holy Church. It is the source of ultimate human happiness and satisfaction on earth. The question of the essence of love has been answered in literature and science in a variety of ways. Just as people's ideologies and heart tastes and interests differ, so do the definitions of love vary. Novelists vary in countless ways their descriptions of the states of love in the sense of sexual infatuation and sexual orgasm. Platonist philosophers call love the ideal mutual attraction of a boy and a girl and their communication on the basis of congruent environment of religious and scientific order. Psychologists like Ben see the tenderness of the heart as the main sign of love. Christian moralists consider the mood of love as the highest tension of all human forces for realisation of moral unity of lover and beloved with giving each other spiritual and material values (Professor V. Myshtsyn).