Re: 1Cor. 14:14 Tongues

From: Carl W. Conrad (cwconrad@artsci.wustl.edu)
Date: Tue Oct 10 1995 - 13:54:21 EDT


At 3:15 PM 10/9/95, BibAnsMan@aol.com wrote:
> The word used for this ecstatic religious experience is "eros." It was an
>ecstatic, erotic, sensual religion designed to affect the senses. The error
>of the Corinthians was to pervert the gift of God with these practices.

I'll comment only on this point. While ERWS is in fact the word for sexual
passion, it is not normally used for "ecstatic, erotic, sensual religion."
It is used by Plato for mystical ascent of the mind to the realm of ideas
in a grand metaphor involving fertilization of the mind by vision of truth,
beauty, and goodness." The classic work of Anders Nygren, _Eros and Agape_,
distorts to a considerable extent the real nature of ancient Greek
mysticism and ends up distorting some things about AGAPH as well but
setting the two into too sharp an antithesis.

Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics, Washington University
One Brookings Drive, St. Louis, MO, USA 63130
(314) 935-4018
cwconrad@artsci.wustl.edu OR cwc@oui.com
WWW: http://www.artsci.wustl.edu/~cwconrad/



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