Love

3,000 years of ideas about the nature of love in Western culture are brought together in this concise history. By blending the works of many scholars and examining the significant lives, works, and movements associated with love, Love: A Brief History Through Western Christianity traces the evolution and impact of this timeless topic. Takes the reader on a lightning but enlightening journey through 3,000 years of the idea of love Examines the influential movements, people, and work that have helped shape our notion of love in Western culture, written by a key figure in religious history Tackles the historical and religious concept in Western society, and our efforts to apply ideas of love to social concerns Explores diverse periods and examples – from the theological and philosophical texts of figures such as Augustine, Luther, and Feuerbach to intellectual movements like Romanticism and tragic historic figures such as Abelard and Heloise Contributes valuable insights into one of history's most inexhaustible and timeless topics, spanning biblical views of love including monasticism and pietism, romantic notions of love, through to today's liberal religion and concept of love as self-fulfillment.

Preface ix 1 The Language of Love 1 2 Biblical Views of Love 19 3 A World Without Love? The Greco-Roman World and Early Christianity 36 4 Caritas: The Augustinian Synthesis of Biblical Agape and Hellenistic Eros 51 5 Love and the Individual: Abelard and Bernard 66 6 Mystics and Troubadours 84 7 Faith Formed by Love: Scholasticism 103 8 Faith Active in Love: Reformation 118 9 Love as Service: Pietism and the Diaconal Movements 133 10 Love in the Modern World 146 Conclusion: Concluding Unscientific Postscript 168 Bibliography 172 Index 191