What if the restlessness in your soul—the endless craving for more beauty, more fulfillment, more rest—is not a curse but a divine gift?
Eros is the primal desire in the human heart to satiate in beauty and be happy.
Today the Ascent has partnered with our sister company, Ascend: The Great Books Podcast, to bring you an excellent video from Dcn. Garlick exploring the love of eros—the primal desire to satiate in beauty and be happy.
The video is an explanation and commentary on one of our most popular articles, Rediscovering Holy Eros. Other articles on eros include Women as Icons of God’s Beauty and The Poor Erotics of Porn.
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Shownotes:
Far from the pornographic or puritan distortions that dominate modern thinking, this ancient concept runs like a golden thread through Homer, Hesiod, Plato’s Symposium, the Old and New Testaments, the Church Fathers, Dante, and even Pope Benedict XVI’s Deus Caritas Est. Deacon shows how eros is the very question of the human condition—an upward call that moves the soul from lesser beauties to greater ones until it finds rest in Beauty itself.
Drawing on his own spiritual labors, the host walks listeners through Plato’s ladder of love, the marital imagery of God’s covenant with Israel, the Song of Songs, Christ’s union with the Church, and the harmony between erotic ascent and the self-giving love of agape. Along the way he recovers a lost grammar of desire that is both natural and supernaturally elevated by grace—one that produces virtue, fecundity, and genuine theosis. The result is not abstract theory but a living path: a latticework upon which your own understanding of restlessness, happiness, and the call to become more Christlike can grow.
Whether you have wrestled with the restlessness of the heart, wondered how pagan wisdom and Christian revelation speak to one another, or simply want a deeper vision of love that orders the soul toward God, this conversation offers something rare: a beautiful, coherent tradition that answers the deepest questions of what it means to be human. Listen, and begin the ascent.
Chapters
00:00 Introduction to Eros and its significance in Christian spirituality
01:54 Eros in Homer, Hesiod, and the primordial cosmos
07:12 Plato's Symposium and the ladder of love
15:07 Eros in the Old Testament: Marriage and divine love
20:00 Eros in the New Testament: Christ and the Church
30:06 Eros and the ascent to divine beauty
40:11 Eros, virtue, and happiness in Christian thought
50:02 Eros and grace: the divine ascent and participation in God
01:00:10 The harmony of eros and agape in Christian life
01:10:08 Practical implications: loving God and neighbor through eros
01:20:01 Conclusion: recovering holy eros as the heart of human and divine love
If you want to watch the video as a podcast, check it out on Apple Podcast or Spotify.
Enjoy!
