Carnal love and marriage in the anthropology of Gregory Palamas and in the philosophy of George Gemistos Plethon

Introduction. The article is dedicated to comparing the views of Gregory Palamas, as a representative of the Orthodox patristic tradition, and George Gemistos Plethon, who engaged in polemics against Palamism, on carnal love and marriage. Methods. Methods employed in this article are source research, information analysis, and comparative research. Sources on the subject include Plethon’s “Book of Laws,” “On Virtues,” and “Address to the Emperor Manuel on Affairs in the Peloponnese,” Palamas’ Homilies; Maximus the Confessor’s “Questions and Doubtful Passages”; Ioannes Damaskenos’ “An Exact Exposition of the Orthodox Faith”; and “Mazaris’s Journey to Hades.” Analysis. Gregory Palamas fully embraced the perspectives on marriage and earthly love characteristic of Maximus the Confessor and strict Orthodox ascetics: love for bodily pleasures renders a person an enemy of God; carnal union, even within a lawful marriage, is not entirely free from sin, as it is associated with uncontrollable pleasure; sexual desire must be constantly suppressed in the pursuit of complete purity of thought; those who wish to serve God without hindrance are better off living in virginity and avoiding marriage; and monasticism is the civil way of life closest to divine nature. In contrast, Plethon regarded the aspiration to celibacy as a significant error: marriage and procreation are beautiful and divine, as through them a person fulfills their purpose of being a bond of the world, continually reproducing their lineage and eternally uniting within themselves the immortal and mortal parts of the universe; erotic pleasure is bestowed upon humanity from above precisely so that one cannot easily deviate from matrimony. The virtue of σωφροσύνη for Plethon does not equate to chastity in the Christian sense, which implies abstaining from all bodily pleasures, but rather signifies prudence in utilizing pleasures in a manner pleasing to God: bodily delights are necessary and permissible, but one must observe κοσμιότης – propriety and decency – in them. Although Gemistos, like Christians, condemned adultery, non-traditional sexual relations, and lack of restraint in pleasures, it was not because he deemed pleasures themselves displeasing to God; rather, it was because all these aspects do not align with the ultimate goal of carnal love and humanity’s duty towards the universe – procreation, through which humans emulate the Gods themselves. Results. Plethon diverged from Palamas not only in theological matters but also in his views on humanity and its purpose as a whole; Gemistos’ teachings on pleasures and his attitude towards carnal love stood in opposition to the ascetic rigorism of the Christian Church Fathers. Funding. The study was funded by the grant of the Russian Science Foundation No. 23-18-00251, “The Byzantine Renaissance: The Institutional Foundations and Theological and Metaphysical Origins of Religious and Political Discourse, Second Half of the 11th – 15th Centuries” (Federal Center of Theoretical and Applied Sociology of the Russian Academy of Sciences), https://rscf.ru/en/project/23-18-00251/