The sources of Callistus Angelikudes’ teaching on the three kinds of love and the enchantment by the beauty

The article presents an analysis of Callistus Angelikudes teaching on the three kinds of love, each corresponding to a distinct kind of movement or striving. The sources of this doctrine in ancient and Christian philosophy are examined. Special attention is given to the striving associated with the most perfect form of love – the enchantment by the Beauty of God (thelxis). The study demonstrates how Callistus Angelikudes develops the Areopagitic notion of ecstatic eros (ekstatikos eros), according to which God carries out His providential processions in the act of creation. He further elaborates on St. Maximus the Confessor’s teaching on the captivation by Beauty and the transformation of passions, aligning them with the ideas of the Palamite synthesis. Thus, the third kind of love (eros) in Kallistos Angelikoudes’ thought emerges as the return (epistrophe) of the intellect to God in an infinite movement of contemplation. Thelxis (enchantment) is presented as the striving that directs the intellect toward this return to the primordial source of Beauty, which possesses a unifying function (enopoietiken) for the intellect and fixes it upon God without the mediation of human will.