From the book
The Sophic Hydrolith, Water Stone of the Wise
Anonymous and companion authors · Diotimos Editions · 2026
Browse this book’s lexicon →Orientation
At a Glance
- The wordLove is both a bond of union and active conduct towards God and one’s neighbour.
- In the Sophic HydrolithPart IV: the spiritual comparison · unit 20 invokes the bond of love when the believer understands the Father and Son in one God through divine wisdom.
- In this edition“Unfeigned” translates vngeferbte Lieb, carrying the contrast with pretended affection rather than importing literal colourlessness.
- A place to readLove binds the believer’s understanding of the divine unity.
Meaning
Love is both a bond of union and active conduct towards God and one’s neighbour. The main treatise calls it unfeigned, a divine gift, fulfilment of the law and the bond of perfection. Those descriptions give it a theological and practical sense, not merely an inward affection. In the First Response of 1661, love also qualifies a fierce fire that consumes earthly material and exposes a hidden treasure.
The triangular sign in △ der Liebe is preserved as an actual character in the historical wording. The aligned English interprets the phrase as a fire of love. It should not be replaced in the original-form lookup by an invented German noun or treated as proof of an unprovided code.
Use in the book
Part IV: the spiritual comparison · unit 20 invokes the bond of love when the believer understands the Father and Son in one God through divine wisdom. The language of reuniting follows an explicitly analogical division in human understanding; love is not a material glue joining formerly separate gods.
Part IV: the spiritual comparison · unit 41 places love beside the Word and saving faith as the three parts through which frail human beings receive Christ’s saving benefit. Christ’s obedience and redemption are already complete. The need belongs to human reception, and love itself is called God’s gift. The analogy therefore does not make charity a payment that finishes an incomplete redemption.
Part IV: the spiritual comparison · unit 46 gives the order more fully: hearing the Word gives rise to living faith, and faith is active through love. Towards God this includes obedience, prayer, praise and thanksgiving; towards the neighbour it appears in beneficial works. Hatred of the visible brother contradicts a claim to love the unseen God. Patience, kindness and unwearied good-doing define the disposition. Good works follow the faith formed through hearing; they are not set out as its independently meritorious cause.
The First Response’s love-fire belongs to another scene. After the earthquake it consumes earthly materials and lays the treasure bare, yet the travellers still cannot see it. Exposure and vision are thus not identical. This particular narrative use should remain distinct from the main treatise’s extended account of neighbour-love.
Places to read
- Part IV: the spiritual comparison · unit 20Love binds the believer’s understanding of the divine unity.
- Part IV: the spiritual comparison · unit 41Love is a gift involved in receiving Christ’s completed saving work.
- Part IV: the spiritual comparison · unit 46Faith arising through hearing becomes active in love and good works.
- First Response · unit 12The separate 1661 response’s love-fire exposes a treasure that remains unseen.
Translation
“Unfeigned” translates vngeferbte Lieb, carrying the contrast with pretended affection rather than importing literal colourlessness. The English preserves the progression from hearing to faith active through love. In the response it expands the sign-bearing phrase as “a fire of love,” while the German displays △. Keeping both records allows readers to see an actual translation decision without mistaking its explanatory English noun for a separately printed German word.
Attested forms
Bandt der Liebe; vngeferbte Lieb; Nächsten; erfüllung des Gesetzes; gröste tugend; band der vollkommenheit; langmüthig; freundlich; häfftiges Fewer; △ der Liebe