Love, Marriage and Family in Eastern Orthodox Perspective

When we speak of love in modern language a certain conceptual content is expressed. Though we use one word there are various significations (and so-called ‘formulas of essence’) that leak into it. Thus, any time we speak of love a certain degree of equivocation is assumed by default. Hence, the meaning of love ( that is, its nature, modes, and so on) can vary and is determined by the broader semantic context (whether sexual, romantic, or devotional; love ‘for this or for that’ – music or people or ideas, and so forth). Classical Greek, however, was clearly more capable of setting up a subtle discourse on the subject with a lesser degree of equivocation. The various terms to express love as designed by the ancients, were much more diverse and nuanced. Agape, eros, storge, and philia are some examples that can be mentioned in the brief scope of this preface. The notion of love played a major role in antique culture. We can find various subtle accounts of love in the writings of antique philosophers and rhetoricians. Many treatises of Plato, Aristotle, and other sophists deal with the subject and elucidate its significance for the ancient city-state. A few things need to be mentioned in this context.
Firstly, when we discourse about it, we need to know what love is. Secondly, when we theologize about it, we need to find out how it affects our Christian ethos. Thus, what is love? Is it something that comes about at the moment of our unqualified ‘comingto- be’? Are we lovers and loved ones from birth so to say? It may be useful to see what the ancients had to say on the subject. Here, the first thing that comes to mind is Plato’s dialogues in which the subject of love is given the chief priority. What does he have to say?