Love's Mind: An Essay on Contemplative Life

Do we love with a love we know, or with a love we do not know? This question, posed to Dunne in a dream, prompts him to describe the journey one takes in contemplating and coming to know love. His insights lead him to a vision of the city of God, in which contemplation replaces violence.

The theologian as poet! Dunne draws together more humanists than theologians to create his analysis of contemplation. He more than fulfills his promise to explain the "three movements of contemplations": the restless movement of the heart, heart speaking to heart, and following the heart. (The heart is a metaphor for deepest being.) The book is intellectual without being arcane, religious but not saccharine. The author weaves threads of insight from an unexpected corps of writers: Tolkien, Proust, Wile, MacDonald, Eisely, and many others, who are joined by artists like Mozart, Marcel Marceau, and Georgia O'Keeffe. There are echoes of Aquinas, Newman, and Buber. Except for John of the Cross, monastic voices remain silent. The work "gathers to a greatness" and concludes with two song cycles, worded by Dunne. The bibliography lists a litany of soul searchers. As with contemplatives, this book is not parochial but is another map for those "walking the road of the union of love with God." Gary Young

Dunne, a theology professor and author of many creative books on spirituality from a Roman Catholic perspective that "cross over" to explore other religious traditions, believes that American life lacks the contemplative dimension--in words, music, and spiritual friendship--by which "unknowing love becomes knowing as it becomes heart-free." Dunne's reflections on art, literature, and music provide a new way of expressing the passage from restlessness and longing to love. It is a contemplative journey Dunne believes that everyone can take and that provides the answer to the violence and loneliness of our times. Not just for Roman Catholics, this book offers hope to the educated person who wants guidance. Highly recommended.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.