God and Eros: The Ethos of the Nuptial Mystery

What can God and eros have to do with each other? Against Nietzsches claim that Christianity poisoned eros God and Eros rereads the mystery of human love as an ecstatic sharing in the mystery of the triune God who is Love. Body sex and affectivity far from being locked in a lower order called nature instead belong to a sacramental order that is permeated by the call to love. In presentations designed to appeal to a general audience the faculty of the John Paul II Institute for Marriage and Family Melbourne approach this mystery through the lens of St. John Paul IIs theology of the body with the goal to both introduce and more clearly illumine its major features. In particular emphasis is placed on how a theology of the body is not just about sex. Rather it is above all about how each and every person--no matter what her state of life--is stamped by the watermark of being-from and being-for. Working within this broader perspective God and Eros offers the reader a lively engaging and at times challenging tour of the full ethos of the nuptial mystery. Did Nietzsche have it right? Has Christianity poisoned eros? Melbournes JP II Institute demonstrates the opposite: the Christian faith treats eros as the great wing-giver motivating every human project and it honors the body as the sacramental marker of this restlessness for the mystery of Love. In a world preoccupied with sex this book takes us to the true profundity of the human person. --Hans Boersma J. I. Packer Professor of Theology Regent College Vancouver BC This comprehensive profound and stimulating account of the relationship between God and human love in all its fullness is an exceptional book for exceptional times. Inspired by the theological vision of St. John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI the authors have crafted their beautifully written account in dialogue with our secular age and in answer to the contemporary crisis in the Church with regard to sexual ethics. God and Eros heralds the beginning of a new era in theology and pastoral practice. --D. Vincent Twomey Professor Emeritus of Moral Theology Divine Word Missionaries Ireland Dr. Colin Patterson is Lecturer in Moral Theology and Psychology John Paul II Institute for Marriage and Family Melbourne. Dr. Conor Sweeney is Lecturer in Sacramental Theology and Postmodern Philosophy John Paul II Institute for Marriage and Family Melbourne. He is the author of Sacramental Presence after Heidegger: Onto-Theology Sacraments and the Mothers Smile (Cascade forthcoming).