Любовь в «Средние века»: sic et non

摘要

The given article presents a philosophical analysis of medieval love through the prism of Abelard’s antagonism, «sic et non». The medieval contradiction of the spheres of the ancestral and the individual in human life, love — eros and love — agape is considered. In the context of the question of love, the sources of cultural romanticism are examined, in particular, the cult of the eternal feminine and the cult of the Virgin Mary. The phenomena of courtly love, erotic love — passion, and marital infidelity are reviewed. The history of the Middle Ages shall long impress upon human consciousness the signposts of medieval thought, intruding into the dark corners of the subliminal present. In the Middle Ages, through the adoption of the famous «sic et non» of Abelard, this concept of love attains the status of a small yet pivotal representative part of the entire epoch. Another bright symbol of the Middle Ages is the very story of the love of Peter Abelard and Heloise. The love of Heloise and Abelard is first of all a story of an achieved choice. Let it sound paradoxical, but the choice is made by a sinful woman, Heloise. Peter Abelard is brought to the ascetic monastic life through an occurrence, a physical trauma after which he becomes unsuited to married life. Would Abelard have become a monk if he had not got that trauma? On the other hand, Heloise enters the monastery consciously choosing that way of life for her. Undoubtedly, it is worth noting, that she takes the nuns’ veil because of her love for Abelard, and not because of her love for God. Of the two thresholds of medieval love: the high and the low, only Peter Abelard stood upon the high threshold of love for God, while their passion-filled love, as Heloise herself, remained on the lower threshold of human love, and all such lower’s love is destined to a tragic end. The given article also examines the conflict between the personal and ancestral, which seemingly denies the existence of love as a phenomenon, while simultaneously affirming it. The traditional treatment of the religious Christian doctrine of sexual love is that it is something carnal and sinful. It can be made noble only through love of God, becoming love that is both spiritual and personal. Regarding Eros as exclusively sexual passion, connecting it to the carnal nature, therefore, does not accept any kind of expression of love between man and woman. This view regards marriage merely as a formal covenant for the proliferation of humankind. Sexual love, demeaned by religious doctrine and by the fear of sin in a God-fearing Christian, begins a human revolution, leading to the demise of morality on several rungs of the social ladder. Therefore, the appearance of love for sale and moral dissoluteness become endemic during the «dark ages». Sublimation of passion and sexual desire (which is often expressed through excessive piety), brought many to a rejection of self and built up projections of idealized images, which were merely illusion. Courtly love became an expression of such brightly colored illusions of the Middle Ages. Courtly love alongside the phenomenon of chivalry, occupies a vital place in the culture of the Middle Ages. The art of courtship, the winning of the lady’s heart, which becomes the meaning of life for the young knight, was so cunningly invented, that it not only brought pleasure, but also served as the unparalleled method of perfection of the knight himself. Nonetheless, courtly love as had been in the case with passionate love was doomed to unhappiness, insofar as its momentary pleasures clouded the vision of true love. The Christian flame of love — agape thus becomes true love. This love is merciful, directed to those who need it. It contains a deep religious and philosophical meaning; uncovering it a person may reach unity with God through a neighbour.This love is not an alternative, but rather a synthesis of Abelard’s «sic et non». It isa synthesis the key idea of which is a personal love that may be aimed at either ahuman or divine person.