Agape and Bhakti with Bataille and Mark at Loyola and St. Francis: The Mysticism of Reconciliation: 9 (Postmodern Ethics)

David L. Goicoechea presents his fourth volume in a series on agape. The book focuses on the complementarity of agape (Christian love) and bhakti (Hindu love). First he shows how the Jesuit Spirituality at Loyola in Chicago and the Franciscan Spirituality at St. Francis in Joliet Illinois helped him to appreciate mystical love. Secondly he shows how agape with all nine of its characteristics is central to the Gospel of Mark. Then especially with the help of the work of Dr. Raj Singh he shows how bhakti developed throughout the history of India. Finally Goicoechea shows how Georges Bataille especially with the help of St. John of the Cross looks deeply into the Inner Experience of the Mystical Ways. A work of exquisite poetic exploration of a subject we all wish to master Davids unique method of meditating on love parallels his personal story with Marks Gospel with Batailles writings and even the Bhagavad Gita. --Sally Jardine former professor of English Kansas State University In this his fourth book David Goicoechea again tells the truth as he sees it and lives it. This book is a record of the intensity that marks his unique syncretistic Christianity. This book distills the Gospels adds to this strains of Hinduism and a Bataillean-Kierkegaardean-Nietzschean quest for grace and joy all of which results in a very potent cocktail. --R. Dalvi Chair and Associate Professor Department of Philosophy Brock University David L. Goicoechea is a professor emeritus at Brock University. He has published widely in the areas of philosophy of love existentialism philosophy of religion postmodernism and the history of philosophy.