How soon do earthly lovers come to an end of their discoveries of each other's beauty; how soon do they see all that is to be seen! Are they united as near as 'tis possible, and have communion as intimate as possible? how soon do they come to the most endearing expressions of love that 'tis possible to give, so that no new ways can be invented, given or received. And how happy is that love, in which there is an eternal progress in all these things; wherein new beauties are continually discovered, and more and more loveliness, and in which we shall forever increase in beauty ourselves; where we shall be made capable of finding out and giving, and shall receive, more and more endearing expressions of love forever: our union will become more close, and communion more intimate.More and more. Is this a alternative view of love to the solipsistic "unconditional" love so often sought? Love as asymptotic process?
Thursday, October 29, 2009
Jonathan Edwards on love:
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4 comments:
Hey, dude. Been a while.
Not seeing the context, but knowing a little of about Edwards, it appears he is referencing Heaven. If those who go to Heaven experience it eternally, and God is Love (1 John 4), and we can never fully realize God, "more...more" would seem appropriate.
I think you're definitely right. It's funny this blog post sorta turned into a fully fledged article. I am shopping it around at the moment, and I'll let you know if it gets published! ("American Literature" considering it at the moment.)
It's a bit odd, connects Edwards to contemporary second-order systems theory. (which has quite a bit in common with pre-modern theology--pretty fascinating topic really. to me at least!)
Cool! I can't say I am up on my "contemporary second-order systems theory", but that may be due to a lack of a phd in english. But I am a fast learner! I'd like to read it.
It is funny that you use the term "pre-modern theology", the study of the immutable God shouldn't (shouldn't being operative) have a temporal demarcation. But we men tend to screw things up pretty well.
When can we grab a beer at Valhalla and catch up?
Well said. And our screwing things up seems to lie precisely in our "fall into time" does it not? Capital "F" fall perhaps!
A medieval theologian of particular interest to these systems theory dudes is Nicholas of Cusa. He's a trip if you haven't already read him.
I'm not living in Houston these days (I'm in Austin) but I do go there quite a bit to make use of the Rice library. So I'll let you know when I'm in town!
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