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Love Between Embodiment and Spirituality: J ean‐ L uc M arion and J ohn P aul II on Erotic Love
Author(s) -
Tóth Beáta
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
modern theology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.144
H-Index - 19
eISSN - 1468-0025
pISSN - 0266-7177
DOI - 10.1111/moth.12003
Subject(s) - passion , philosophy , phenomenology (philosophy) , embodied cognition , psychoanalysis , philosophy of love , hierarchy , spirituality , phenomenon , theology , the imaginary , harmony (color) , epistemology , sociology , psychology , social psychology , art , law , medicine , alternative medicine , pathology , political science , visual arts
While theological discourse on love traditionally bifurcates between love as a body‐bound passion and its superior and disembodied spiritual counterpart, a growing number of accounts have recently challenged the traditional division arguing for the fundamental unity of the phenomenon of love. Could such a dichotomy be overcome if one reversed the conventional hierarchy between bodily erotic and intellectual agapeic love and made erotic love between man and woman the fundamental paradigm of all kinds of loves? Could the reversal recuperate the affective aspect that has traditionally been downplayed? An answer to these questions is explored through an imaginary dialogue between J ean‐ L uc M arion's phenomenology of one‐way erotic love and J ohn P aul II 's theology of embodied love.