Amor, caritas, dilectio — one spiritual love
It should also be known that divine Scripture seems to have avoided the word amor and to have used caritas and dilectio more often. Yet it has not altogether shut out the name amor. For where it did not see occasion of falling, there it also inserted the name amor. And it makes no difference in the Scriptures whether amor or caritas or dilectio is said, so long as the same force of affection is designated. Paul too: Who will separate us from the charity of Christ? and again: You shall love the Lord your God. This love, therefore, of which the Song treats is not carnal but spiritual; not cupidity, but charity.
Latin
Sciendum quoque est quod divina Scriptura refugisse videatur amoris vocabulum et caritatis ac dilectionis frequentius usam. Non tamen omnimodis nomen amoris exclusit. Ubi enim occasionem lapsus non videbat, ibi etiam nomen amoris inseruit. Et nihil interest in Scripturis utrum amor an caritas an dilectio dicatur, dum eadem vis affectus designetur. Paulus quoque: Quis nos separabit a caritate Christi? et rursum: Diliges Dominum Deum tuum. Amor ergo iste de quo in Cantico agitur non carnalis, sed spiritalis est; non cupiditas, sed caritas.
About this text
Origen’s Commentary on the Song of Songs, Prologus (Rufinus’s Latin). Complete on this page: §§1–20.
English follows Baehrens, Origenes Werke VIII (GCS 33, 1925), Rufinus’s Latin of the Commentary Prologus. Lawson ACW 26 was not used as wording. This page is Prologus §§1–20 (closeout).
Witnesses
- Copy-text Baehrens, Origenes Werke VIII = GCS 33 (1925) (Latin · Commentary Prologus §§1–20)
English is newly prepared for study from the stated edition. Open Latin on each section (or the Latin source witness link) for the source text. This is not a complete critical edition.