Chapter 10 - Love in the Thought of John Scotus Eriugena

Summary

Eriugena’s concept of love seems to be twofold. On the one hand, he adopts the Platonic concept of love (ἔρως). It is well known that the Platonic eros stands ‘between’ the lover and the loved. Of course, its function is anagogic but, therefore, eros, as a mediator, cannot be conceived of as God himself. On the other hand, Eriugena states that the Absolute loves itself. To be sure, God’s self-referential love is not egoistic but caritative, soteriological and eschatological. It is the outcome, in short, of divine providence (ἀγάπη). Eriugena follows Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite, his most important intellectual precursor, and combines both concepts of love. But how, we must ask, can he combine both concepts? How can these two different concepts become one? Or is their difference only an apparent one? We shall answer these crucial questions by considering the two most important concepts of Eriugena’s metaphysics: the transcendence and immanence of the Absolute, or God. Thinkers tend to put these terms in diametrical opposition, but this view, besides leading to confusion, is fundamentally mistaken.