transcendental castration

How many people have given up on love in our culture? There is such a longing for meaningful, loving connections within all of us, and so many wrong attempts at satisfying that deeply spiritual drive. The world is good at providing false avenues (cheap flings, porn, fantasy, prostitution, material things, power, wealth, etc.), which seem for a time like valid measures of happiness/pleasure, but the reality always turns out to be painful, lonely, isolating.

Jean-Luc Marion suggests that those who have become cynical, destitute and hopeless of ever finding the love of another have, "in proportion, lost their humanity." According to Marion, this transcendental castration renders individuals basically an "artificial intelligence, a mechanical calculator or a demon, in short, very likely lower than an animal." (pp. 20-21, The Erotic Phenomenon)

Pretty harsh description of what happens with an absence of loving relationships in our lives. Certainly we all know of someone or have heard stories of those who appear to have slipped into this loveless, hopeless worldview, and have committed atrocious crimes against others, or just slipped into a miserable, hidden, droning existence. I would argue though that because of a loving Creator God who is near everyone, it is impossible for someone to be completely destitute of love. It is possible for individuals to become so enmeshed in the despair of seeking eros in the wrong places and never finding what they seek there, that they buy into Satan's lies and believe that they will never find that which they seek. It is possible for individuals to so reject the love of their Creator that they become hardened and refuse to recognize that love or are so conditioned by their circumstances that they have a very difficult time ever coming to a place of discovery.

Sin plays a huge role in keeping us from discovering that pervasive love that surrounds all of us, our sin as well as the sin of others. But the church's message is this - it is not hopeless! God has overcome the deception of Satan and the sin of the world. He has provided an amazing picture of what true love looks like, and has left no one out! We all are loved, no matter what. We have free choice, but we are loved unconditionally. Jesus is God's gift of love to humanity. We no longer need to fear the results of transcendental castration. This erotic message is worth sharing to a society hungry for love.