Description

Love and spirituality have always been in tension. The fast-evolving modern world has left us no comprehensive cultural traditions to guide us; only what T. S. Eliot calls "a heap of broken images."

Consider the curious irony of a celibate priest conducting a marriage ceremony between man and wife. Where did such a custom come from? What does it say about sexuality and love?

Can it be that the Puritans were in fact champions for Romance?

This work examines some of our fragmented culture's traditions on erotic love and spirituality, laying bare hidden suppositions and buried or forgotten ideals. Perhaps, mining our cultural past, we can rediscover the keys to the sublime, the exalted, the blessed nature of love.

Drawing on poetry, literature, theology, the Bible, philosophy, and music lyrics, the author creates two categories: Transcendental Platonic Eros (love), and Romantic, personal love, and leads a search for traditions that we may wish to recover, adopt anew, or simply reclaim as we say "yes, that's the way I always thought it should be!"

Includes notes, index and bibliography.