06 — The Theology of Love
The heart of the Johannine theology: the confession that “God is love” (1 John 4:8, 16), rooted in the eternal communion of the Holy Trinity and revealed in the sending of the Son; and the distinctive Orthodox honor by which John bears the title “the Theologian,” shared with only two others — Gregory of Nazianzus and Symeon the New Theologian. These files set out the theology of love and then the meaning and company of the title.
Tradition: Pan-Orthodox (Apostle and Evangelist)
If the Synoptics give the Church its narrative of the Kingdom, John gives it the inner name of God: love. “God is love, and the one who abides in love abides in God, and God in him” (1 John 4:16). This is not sentiment but the Trinitarian structure of the divine life, manifested in the Incarnation and poured out in the commandment to love. From the height of this theology the Church gave John the title ho Theologos — “the Theologian” — a name it has reserved, across all its history, for only three. This section examines the Johannine theology of love and its Trinitarian ground, and then the meaning of the title and the three who bear it.
Files in This Section
| File | Description |
|---|---|
| God Is Love | “God is love” (1 John 4:8, 16): love as the name and inner life of the Trinity, revealed in the sending of the Son (1 John 4:9–10; John 3:16); the new commandment (John 13:34); and love as the test of knowing God. |
| The Theologian Among the Three | Why the Church calls John ho Theologos; the meaning of theologia as the contemplation of God in Himself; and the three to whom Orthodoxy reserves the title — John, Gregory of Nazianzus, and Symeon the New Theologian. |
See Also
- The Logos and the Prologue — the theology that earned the title
- Love and Truth — the commandment of love in the Epistles
- The Holy Trinity — the Trinitarian ground of “God is love”
- St. Gregory the Theologian — the second Theologian
- St. Symeon the New Theologian — the third Theologian
References
- The First Epistle of John; the Gospel according to John (cited by chapter and verse).
- Gregory of Nazianzus. Theological Orations (Orations 27–31). Trans. NPNF Series II, Vol. 7.
- Symeon the New Theologian. Hymns of Divine Love. Trans. George A. Maloney. Denville: Dimension Books, 1976.
- Lossky, Vladimir. The Mystical Theology of the Eastern Church. London: James Clarke, 1957.