Love: Christian Romance, Marriage, Friendship

Love is often seen as overwhelming yet fleeting romantic passion between a woman and a man. Diogenes Allen leads us to understand our love for families, for friends, and for God with an equivalent fascination and intensity.

Christianity recognizes that every person carries an inalienable value simply by existing. Love recognizes this value in other people and allows loved ones to exist freely in their own way. Partners in romantic love, even though they are hopelessly dependent on one another, must struggle to support the other's independence. As we struggle to realize our own dependence on others, meanwhile recognizing their inherent worth without us, our loves--human and devine--find new depth and passion.

Diogenes Allen is Stuart Professor of Philosophy Emeritus at Princeton Theological Seminary, where he taught for thirty-six years. He is both a Presbyterian minister and an Episcopal priest, presently serving as a priest associate at All Saints', Princeton, New Jersey. He has written fourteen books including 'Temptation', 'The Traces of God', 'Philosophy for Understanding Theology', 'Three Outsiders: Pascal, Kierkegaard, Simone Weil', and 'Christian Belief in a Postmodern World'.