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of love. Already at this early point of his intellectual career, the young Solov’ëv wondered whether the first and the second forms of love intersect at a certain point and hence share common ground. This certainly is a question beyond tradition, for standard sociology regards the family (-tribe) as basic cell of all social formations: family ties are prototypical. Social relations profit from familial bonds that is prolonged into society. By contrast, "all forgiving love" is so to speak faceless in character; agape rather describes a general attitude face to face with humanity. It is a regulative idea in the Kantian sense, not a personal form of love directed at a specific person for specific individual reasons. Solov’ëv wondered how could this self-less love profit from eroticism′s power that is possessive and self-centred.[130] At this point of his intellectual career, in 1876, he did not yet find an answer on this seemingly paradoxical question. Love is, as he posited in general terms, a sense of ascendance, viz. participation in the Absolute. The absolute Divine is, as already the idea of bogochelovestvo implies, as much inherent in man and in nature as it is transcendentally located outside of him in immeasurable height. To encounter the Divine by loving ascendance effectuates love that descends, for the beloved Absolute lovingly gives away spiritual abundance to the lower being.

      Eighteen years after he had written La Sophia, Solov’ëv took up the Meaning of Love again and discussed it more comprehensively on about eighty pages. "In the main, the arguments in this writing balance on the borders between philosophy, science, and poetry, promising fresh interaction between these three discourses."[131] As is commonly known, this writing is a sort of polemic paper against Lev Tolstoj′s and Arthur Schopenhauer′s views on (physical) love as to merely guarantee reproduction and continuation of species[132]. The matured philosopher finally completed his early self-given task and was successful in systematically reconciling amor dei intellectuals with the eros that he radicalised significantly. In Plato, the eros prescinds from all physicalness whereas Solov’ëv, as we have seen already, targets at the physis′ deification by transfiguration and hence redemption. As he now argued, eros′ true task consists in personality′s "redemption[133]." The Solovё′vian eros does not designate either a purely natural or purely spiritual event, but, again, rather signifies a spiritual challenge to transfigure human nature. Solov’ëv suggests a paradoxical situation: spiritually, the corporeal unification of the masculine and the feminine should bring forth a metamorphosis, namely create androgynous spirituality.[134] Spiritually, also erotic love must above everything else ascend to the Divine and hence receive descendent love that never regards either race or sex.[135] Solov’ëv denies the Platonian variant of the eros,[136] for he – a consequent thinker – admits the possibility of nature′s spiritualisation. If nature′s dematerialisation is a principle call spiritualisation must be ubiquitously valid. True erotic love hence strengthens personality, for deification implies the loss of sex and acquisition of androgyny instead. Until his lifetime, as he regretted, love had unfortunately not yet flowered out. Love′s development was at the same low stage as the development of reason within the animals′ kingdom. Love still is the greatest cosmic enigma there is[137].

      Basically, love is based on tripartite "faith," namely faith in God′s existence, in my own exquisite being in God, and last but not least faith in the ′you′s′ uniqueness in God. Egoism′s abandonment necessitates unique recognition of everybody′s individual and exquisite being in God. Consequently, love needs ascendance to God by definition. Simultaneously, God′s gracious love descends to "the other," to the "passive," the "feminine," to Created nature[138]. Human (carnal) love receives outmost "beauty" (italics, KB) when experienced as the gracious descending of the Divine upon nature that in turn ascends out of love. This is said to be true with regard to personal and to social aspects[139].

      All social spheres work by the same principles as individual love: two wholly different yet equally dignified beings positively complement and by no means negatively delimit each other. In erotic love the ′other,′ the non-I, qualifies as everything. In social life, the collective corpus, the singular elements of which are reigned by solidarity, analogously denotes the ′other,′ and this non-I should become a complementing animated being. Active compositions between the personal I and the social corpus signify an "enlivened syzygialrelationship (zhivym sizicheskim otnosheniem)."[140] As may be concluded, man′s body, the social corpus, and the corpus of the world have ideal-real character; each represents a mystical corpus. Here finally is the central argument: the corpus, be it a natural or a social corpus does not bear independent existence, it does not exist until it is spiritualised. The social and the human corpus are identical in substance, for both belong into the sphere of nature, which seeks complementary union, seeks syzygy, complementary union with light and / or spirit.[141] Solov’ëv held that nature is to be redeemed and that "the transfiguration of Christ anticipated the transfiguration of all material being."[142] In physical life too, the surrender of the self affords to regain it in enriched form.[143] This is what is said about love in Matthew 16; 24, 25, Lucas 9; 23, 24, and Marcus 8; 34, 35. All texts are on this essential truth of regaining the self by sacrifice, excluding, of course, the carnal aspect of love. In Solov’ëv spiritualised carnal love is a form of syzygy (literally from the Greek syzigia, appearances in pairs) when segregation between creature and spirit is overcome.[144]

      Consequently, man′s body, the social corpus, and the corpus of the world have ideal-real character representing each a "mystical corpus."[145] There are three items determining love′s highest form: androgyny, spiritualised human corporeality, and Godmanhood. The erotic pathos of love always seeks after corporeality (sviataia telesnost′). Yet, dignified corporeality, beautiful and eternalised by Spirit corporeality does not sprout by itself, but needs spiritual deeds by the Godman. Solov’ëv commiserates with Plato to philosophically have been on a limb with "empty hands," for his understanding of eroticism failed acknowledge this point.

130

Cf. Solov’ëv, La Sophia, 68

131

Clowes, E., The Limits of Discourse: Solov′ev′s Language of Szyzygy and the Project of Thinking Total Unity, in: Slavic Review 55 (1996), 3, 554.

132

Cf. Kochetkova, Theory, 121f.

133

Cf. Solov’ëv, Smysl′ liubvi, in: op. cit.,16ff.

134

Cf. ibid., 24, and 41–43. Cf. also, Zhiznennaia drama: op. cit., 235.

135

Cf. ibid., 47, and 41–43.

136

Cf. idem, Zhiznennaia drama: op. cit., 327–332.

137

Cf. idem, Smysl′ liubvi, 23f.

138

Cf. ibid, 43–45, and cf. footnote 24 in this chapter

139

Cf. ibid, 59.

140

Cf. ibid, 57f.

141

Cf. Clowes, op. cit., 560.

142

Cf. de Courten, op. cit., 60.

143

Cf. Solov’ëv, Dukhovnye osnovy zhizni, 1882–1884, in: op. cit, t. 3, 376. "Truth" must manifest itself in all realities including the corporal. "(D)ivine principles" (bozhestven-nye nachala) must make part of nature, otherwise "free theosophy" is unthinkable.

144

Cf. ibid, 46f. See in this context esp. Stremooukhoff, op. cit., 274f. He suggests this idea was inspired by a number of sources: 1.) Reading of Gen. I, 27 by Church Fathers like St. Johannes Chrystosomos. 2.) Caballah-teaching on man as to be androgynous. 3.) Jakob Boehme and his theosophy on the restoration the Jungfrau (virgin) in God by human activity

145

Cf. Solov’ëv, Smysl′liubvi, in. op. cit., 29ff.