"Youth Without Youth"

Can love and the quest for knowledge work in harmony? This question suggests a deeper question: can the spiritual work in harmony with the material? These were the main themes of Francis Ford Coppola's beautiful 2007 film version of Mircea Eliade's novella,"Youth Without Youth." Did Eliade resolve this conflict? He seems to have painfully chosen love over all in this story, yet he had to sacrifice knowledge. Or perhaps he arrived at a final knowledge that love is the most important knowledge. Still, he only implicitly, almost reluctantly chooses love.

That is the right choice, it seems to us, but it need not have been such a painful conflict. The Theovolutionary Church (EC) resolves this age old philosophical and theological difficulty with the knowledge that love does not conflict with the evolution of the material to the spiritual, which is really the supermaterial, indeed, love is the sacred means by which the material evolves to the supermaterial. The involutionary God of Jesus Christ is the God we evolve to in the cosmos.

However, there is a sacred and profane love, defined in evolutionary terms. That which evolves toward God, toward higher consciousness, toward Absolute Knowledge, is sacred love, that which does not is profane love. The Traditional Conservative perspective of EC does not dictate these values, the virtues and social philosophy move men, educate men, in this upward path. With this perspective the hero of “Youth For Youth” might have resolved his conflict over how to use his knowledge during World War Two. Here is where there could be a real dramatic conflict. But that is another story.