Eros Unveiled

This unique book challenges the traditional distinction between eros the love found in Greek thought and agape the love characteristic of Christianity. Focusing on a number of classic texts including Plato''s Symposium and Lysis Aristotle''s Ethics and Metaphysics and famous passages in Gregory of Nyssa Origen Dionysius the Areopagite Plotinus Augustine and Thomas Aquinas the author shows that Plato''s account of eros is not founded on self-interest. In this way she restores the place of erotic love as a Christian motif and unravels some longstanding confusions in philosophical discussions of love.