The images of Eros: love and communion with god in the writings of Michael Psellos and Symeon the New Theologian

The paper deals with the theme of love and communion with God in the writings of Michael Psellos and Symeon the New Theologian. In the first case, the material for analysis was the poetical interpretation by Michael Psellus on the Song of Songs. In the Christian tradition, the text is interpreted as a story about the mystical union of God and the soul. In the second case, the I Catechetical Discourse is analyzed, containing a detailed teaching about love as divine energy. It is concluded that Michael Psellos understands love for God and, accordingly, union with Him in a mystical marriage as a moral imitation of the human soul to God, who is genuine love and who is in the proper sense unknowable. Symeon the New Theologian, on the contrary, interprets love as something that belongs to God, but embraces both the divine and the created spheres, due to which it is possible not only to imitate an intelligent creature to the Creator, but to perceive His contemplation and ultimately union with Christ as the bodily embodiment of divine love. The difference in the ecclesiological views of the two thinkers is especially emphasized: if Michael Psellos understands the Church as a union of those who imitate Christ, then Symeon the New Theologian as a community of those who visibly see Christ and strive to unite with Him.