No prob – I didn’t have any trouble finding it. 
I should also add that Alvin Plantinga is a hopeful universalist. I would even go so far as to say that he might just actually be a universalist. I heard him say that God desires all to be saved and that he is inclined to believe that God will get what He wants. He went from teaching at Calvin college to teaching and holding the John A. O’ Brian chair of philosophy at the University of Notre Dame - a Catholic University.
Is the title of this thread equal to ‘Erotic Love FOR God’?
If not, what is the difference between ‘in’ and ‘for’?
If we ARE talking about erotic love FOR God, I gotta say, I’m flummoxed.
I have always believed in the via positiva, the way of the affirmation of images, the ability of objects to arouse our senses; but any ‘arousal’ in another sense - i.e., sexual desire - or sensuous desire toward our Father in heaven - is too weird for me.
Yes we are embodied, we in fact ARE bodies, and all glory to God for that miracle; far be it from me to shun the good gifts from above, which are to be enjoyed ordinately and with our senses; but no more would I desire the man next door, erotically, than I would the Father.
I think we are mixing categories of thought here, a confusion brought about by the conflation of ‘erotic love’ and sensual stimulation.
I’d like some clarification about what we are really talking about. Please.
Dave,
God is neither male or female. Here’s what I’m talking about:
Wonder
Beauty
Gratitude
Agape
Eros
Mystery
Phileo
Ecstasy
Affection
Intimacy
Passion
Joy
Peace
That’s what I feel when I’m in God’s presence. It comes in different degrees and intensity at different times. It’s like falling in love for the first time.
When I kissed God I became invisible in an ecstatic death. How do we make love to God? The heart has Divine instincts. It just needs to be turned loose in the sky. - St Teresa Of Avila
Cole and Dave - I’d like to clarify something here -
Hi Cole - I think you certainly are using ‘eros’ in a nuanced sense here. It’s not about actually getting sexual stimulated by God – as in a pagan rites. It is about God as the answer to the true desire of the human heart (but not the false desires and confusing ones), and it is about the desire of our hearts being met by the longing of God for us to be in his compassionate embrace - as the Father and Son in the Prodigal Son embrace.
Hi Dave - lots of Christian’s have used terms of Romantic/Erotic Theology - Dante, Charles Williams, shed loads of Mystics (like John of the Cross in the Dark Night of the Soul poem) - and it has often seemed boggling to other Christians.
I think one thing they were doing was celebrating the ‘positive way’ of engaging with God’s creation - which I am well aware that you do But also before this embrace of God was perceived in nature they often went through their dark journey of negative way to realise God’s transcendence of all human concepts about God.
The Greek word Eros does not mean the physical urge of sex as such. Their word for this was ‘epithyma’. It’s a completely impersonal. Epithyma can lead to procreation of children - but can do so in rape of women by soldiers as much as in procreation within marriage. By way of contrast Eros, in the Platonic and Christian Platonic tradition, is the desire that makes us long for another as this specific individual, or to long for something else that we want to draw very close to - like a vocation, or a love of nature, art etc. Eros can be a force present in epithyma - but inasmuch as it is present it will moralise and make gentle epithyma. But the longing of Eros and the delight of Eros is not strictly sexual. Eros can also exist in friendship, for example – our friends are people who in some way delight us and to whom we feel drawn close. The sort of love we can have for enemies has to be – at least while they are enemies– of another type . We don’t desire to unite with our enemies in their enmity towards us.
I know that Anders Nyrgen argues that Eros and Agape cannot be friends. Eros is the love that ascends from us to God. Agape is the love that descends from God etc… And never the twain shall meet. But he was from the Calvinist tradition and many other Christian ‘theorists of love’ (I’ve read Father D’Arcy, De Rougmemont, and Alan Soble on this ) think he makes far too drastic a distinction – based ultimately in total depravity thinking. THE love that ascends is met with by the love that descends and is transformed by it.
I think we can reclaim the word ‘erotic’ for theology –as Platigna seems to have done – if we bear some of this background in mind.
Thanks Dick.
Re: Nygren - I’ve read him a few times, and would just like to point out that the case is not settled just by the carping of some critics. His work stands, and dismissing him (as some critics do) because he came from a certain tradition does nothing to diminish the power and truth of his research or his amazing mind.
Besides, the book is a feast, intellectually.
I haven’t seen Nyrgen carped at Dave. I’ve seen his work represented very fairly by Alan Soble and Fr. D’Arcy for example. All of these works are intellectual feasts - Nyrgen’s Eros and Agape, Lewis’ Allegory of Love and The Four Loves, De Rougemonts Love in the Western World. No I’ve never seen this carping. I reckon his work is influenced by a Reformed emphasis on God’s sovereignty and man’s powerlessness whereas other traditions of Christianity emphasis synergy of Divine and Human wills. I guess I’m also thinking behind what Cole is saying here - that’s all and understanding where he has come from and is coming from
Hi Cole, I just wanted to let you know I’m following this thread and trying to wrap my head around the idea of “erotic love in God.” Very interesting topic even if I don’t have anything to contribute.
Dick,
Of course I’m not talking about physical sex! 
Have you ever experienced what I’m talking about Dick?
Yes - ‘taste and see for God is good’
In Your presence is fullness of joy - Psalms 16:11
Say a prayer. Something like:
God, may the fire of Your love burn away all lust in my soul. Remind me on a daily basis that I am loved by You. May Your grace reveal to me the beauty of holiness. May it become so beautiful that I am drawn to Christ in a Holy Union. May Your glory satisfy my heart and strip away the fleeting pleasures of lust.
Dick - all I’m saying is, Nygren’s work is not to be dismissed by reading a critical review; and the critics come from their own traditions, after all. I would not like to think that anyone would not pick up and devour Nygren’s book based on the fact that a couple of critics have been mentioned.
As well, I don’t see why citing other ‘feasts’ is apropos. Certainly, Lewis’ The Four Loves is not on a par with Nygren’s work (imo), though Lewis’ is a good piece of writing, from which I have benefited.
As to ‘carping’ - one man’s carping is another man’s judicious criticism.
Anyway, just because I am not clear what you all are getting at is no reason for me to be a pita.
That’s a great book, Cole. (The Sacred Romance) I read it years ago and I don’t entirely remember it, but I do remember it being soooo delicious. 
Maybe I will, Cole. I will certainly keep it in mind.