Eros Unveiled: Plato and the God of Love by Catherine Osborne

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.

Reviews:

`Osborne's approach- the question, 'who loves whom, and for what'- represents an entirely fresh approach to ancient views on eros and its place in the Christian tradition…This is an unusual book in almost every respect…Osborne's style is engaging, what she has to say original, and her reading of anicent texts topples old hypotheses and provides new ones for consideration. They deserve to be considered.' Studies in Christian Ethics

`Osborne's book is a useful contribution to the cross-disciplinary study of concepts of love in both ancient and medieval thought, and may profitably be read by philosophers, theologians, and historians.' Ancient Philosophy