05 — The Religion of Love

Amphilochios’s central teaching — the “religion of love”: God is love, and the whole of the Christian life is the reception and return of that love; joy and hope set against fear. His recorded counsels and his method of gentle, encouraging spiritual direction.

Tradition: Greek Orthodox (20th-c. elder; Ecumenical Patriarchate)

This section treats the content and the manner of his teaching. The first file sets out the substance — the Johannine “religion of love,” the universal love of every person as the image of God, the primacy of joy and hope over fear and severity. The second treats his method as a director of souls: the gentleness, the encouragement, the refusal to crush, and the specific counsels his community preserved.

Files

File Description
the-gospel-of-love-and-joy.md His central teaching — the “religion of love,” God as love, joy and hope against fear; its Johannine and patristic roots
counsels-and-sayings.md His recorded counsels and sayings; his method of gentle, encouraging direction; the provenance of the sayings

See Also