On the Metamorphosis of Love: An Analysis of Plato's Influence on Byzantine Christianity on Love

In the modern world, we are [un]blessed to live in the age of information. An age over-run by having access to anything you desire just a click away. People thus pursue anything that seems a matter of happiness and beauty, which is plenty of times, formed on corrupted truths. These corrupted truths led to an exchange of friendship and love for materialism and surface sciences. Yet, even in the modern world, there is hope for people to discover the truth. Truth, however, ought to be an objective representation of beauty and love, which many ancients, Christians and Pagans alike, were able to decipher. A good example of men who decipher, or rather know the objective beauty, are both Jesus and Socrates, men who value love as the key that will lead society towards the highest good, and ultimately toward the transformation of soul and body.

What is love?

In Greek, there are many forms of love such as eros, agape, and others. Agape is the highest form of love. The Greco-Christian understanding of Divine love has its roots in classical Greek thought. Agape is born from the everyday use of love words among the Greeks, such as the interaction of friendship (philia) and sexual love (eros). Yet, each of the forms serves to guide one to a higher good. Each of the lower forms, only serve to guide society towards the objective idea of the beautiful. This motivates us to even state that we dare to hope there is a higher-end than the one we can contemplate in our finite selves. The higher-end for Socrates is wisdom, one which we can never achieve since we are ultimately finite beings in a finite society. However, we can indeed contemplate it because the contemplation of wisdom is to philosophize. The higher-end for the Christian is the one of uniting ourselves with God, the best philosophy, in this case, is Theology. A similar issue occurs as in the one that Socrates encounters with pursuing wisdom. Full unity with God does not occur in this life; however, the contemplation of God’s acts guided by His graces do occur. It is by such contemplations of God that faith develops making us Christians. This God is the true Father of all that is Good and Beautiful.

The Call Towards Change

In similar and almost equal regards, both Socrates and Jesus teach about the need for transformation within oneself and society. Jesus calls it to be born again (cf. John 3:5), a transformation of body and soul in which man must negate the world to follow the beautiful salvation. A similar truth exists among the Socratic doctrine. Socrates believes that we must leave the cave to pursue Philosophy. However, the corruption of this world leads us astray from philosophy into the false shadows of the world by living in the city; while living in the city we can also be free from the cave because we can choose freedom from it (cf. Plato, Symposium, 216a, b 5-7;1-6). To remain slaves to the city, or to the world will lead us astray from the beautiful, for we would become masters of opinion, not Masters of Philosophy (cf. Plato, Phaedrus, 262b 6-9). It is, then, that beauty attracts us to become better men, even if this does not always make us better citizens. The beautiful moves body and soul towards the good, a good which must be higher than the subjective foundation of any society.

The objective beauty is rather something we can call meta-beautiful, it exceeds the containment of this world. The ultimate happiness is achieved only after we depart that that roots us away from the infinite, which is the finite world. It is then that for as long as man is still moved toward a higher good, this adequates that men have not achieved this (higher) good. Men do not desire to eat a pizza after they have a slice in their mouth; their mouth only desires the taste before having it. The same is true about the ultimate truth. Men are driven toward the image of love in this world, and this is nothing but a simple contemplation of what love can be in the next life (cf. Plato, Phaedrus, 255e 1). Ultimately, the truly beautiful is the eternal relationship with the highest end. The Christian desire is to be like angels in Heaven, united in God and with all the wine necessary to maintain a never-ending symposium (a reference to Plato’s Symposium). The symposium for the common Greek was the drinking of good wine to converse matters of the state, yet for the Christian, this differs. The Symposium that awaits the Christian man is the everlasting banquet and conversation with God. A conversation that exceeds all that the finite can contain and comprehend.

The Metamorphosis of Man

This metamorphosis, by which the human soul and body must be transformed, to be able to achieve the highest good was called theosis by the Greek Fathers. (It is also known as Divinization by the Latin Christians.) St Athanasius teaches that “God became man so that men can become gods.”, but not in a state of men holding a possible outcome to be elevated to achieving ontological characteristics. Rather the grace of God will transform us, and men might be able to return to a full and eternal union with God. The reminders of truth will allow men who use these prompts perfectly to become perfected men (Plato, Phaedrus 249c 8-9). The reminder of God exists in all of creation since the voice of God is imprinted at the very heart of every creature that inhabits the world. Thus, because this truth lives among the memory of mankind, we are drawn back towards The Good and The Beautiful. But just the way love has a ladder, (that is to say there are different forms of love), so does this transformation that Greek Christians called Theosis.

The Symposium of Plato (one of his writings) is a conversation that works like a ladder of ascending love. It starts at the bottom with the more material speeches based on opinions of common citizens and slowly ascends to the most philosophical speeches of the philosophers. It ultimately is an ascension towards the contemplation of what is good and wise. Such transformation is, however, only possible when a man can experience the forms of love. The same occurs in the ladder of the metamorphosis of the human soul and body in the Christian perspective. Just as beginner speakers give a very shallow definition of love through eros, so does the transformation begin with the first step on the ladder. The first stage is the katharsis, which is defined as the one of purification. It is the stage on which we repent from our sins. The following stage is theoria, where we experience the divine light of God. Either through a divine vision or the feeling of Christ possessing you. The third and ultimate stage is Theosis. While the whole process is referred to as Theosis, so is the final stage, where sainthood is achieved by becoming unified eternally with God. (cf. Lossky, The Mystical Theology of the Eastern Church, pg. 126, 133, 196). Therefore, Theosis is a process by which a man is transformed; a metamorphosis achieved by love towards the source of “Love Himself”.

Modern Society and Love

The modern world, nonetheless, has become an obstacle towards higher virtue. Not only have we turned to believe that everything can be measured, but we have become corrupted beyond belief. Currently, idols are not made of gold and silver, but they are based on fiat money. Therefore, rather than seeking to love each other, we have fallen to adore the city of men. The City of men is the fallen state of humanity, in which fallen from Eden, we dwell among sins that separate us from the source of our own life, God. We fail to pursue the highest virtues among each other, and we pursue the friendship of the youth (just sexual intercourse). This is seeing the modern world when we have turned the hookup culture into our daily relationship culture. Just look around, and rather than spreading love among one another, we swipe right on Tinder. Philosophy has become a subject that has been confined to the walls of universities, and religion is not far behind. Instead of being able to tell people that they are wrong, we have to admit that we cannot hurt their feelings. We have been retained in the cave, and even when we try to break free, it becomes harder. Society cannot stand disagreement, the mere belief that they can improve can be seen as an attack on who they are. It is almost as not being allowed to tell people that they do not have to shoot themselves on the foot because if we would dare do that, we might offend them. Love has been replaced by the mere subjective feelings of a small individual. As a result, there is no biggest danger to society than the idea of the modern.