Love May Be Timeless, But the Way We Talk About It Isn’t
<div class="field field-name-field-image field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="schema:primaryImageOfPage og:image rdfs:seeAlso" resource="https://www.ancient-origins.net/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/Greek-philosophers-idea-of-love.jpg?itok=lESaRhC5"><img typeof="foaf:Image" src="https://www.ancient-origins.net/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/Greek-philosophers-idea-of-love.jpg?itok=lESaRhC5" width="610" height="366" alt="Cupid and Psyche (Amore e Psiche) - symbol of eternal love, by sculptor Giovanni Maria Benzoni. Source: Paolo Gallo/Adobe Stock" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="schema:description content:encoded"><p>
By <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/david-albertson-1505367" rel="nofollow">
David Albertson[/url]
/The Conversation</p>
<p>Every year as Valentine’s Day approaches, people remind themselves that not all expressions of love fit the stereotypes of modern romance. V-Day cynics might plan <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/life/2023/02/02/when-is-galentines-day-2023/11154837002/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">a “Galentines” night for female friends[/url] or toast their platonic “Palentines” instead.</p>
<p>In other words, the holiday shines a cold light on the limits of our romantic imaginations, which hew to a familiar script. Two people are supposed to meet, <a href="
https://theconversation.com/dont-underestimate-cupid-hes-not-the-chubby-cherub-you-associate-with-valentines-day-197735" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">the arrows of Cupid[/url] strike them unwittingly, and they have no choice but to fall in love. They face obstacles, they overcome them, and then they run into each other’s arms. Love is a delightful sport, and neither reason nor the gods have anything to do with it.</p>
<p>This model of romance flows from
Roman poetry,
medieval chivalry and Renaissance literature, especially Shakespeare. But as <a href="
https://dornsife.usc.edu/profile/david-albertson/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">a professor of religion[/url], I study an alternative vision of eros: medieval Christian mystics who viewed the body’s desires as immediately and inescapably linked to God, reason and sometimes even suffering.</p>
<p>Yet this way of thinking about love has even older roots.</p>
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