Agape and Bhakti with Bataille and Mark at Loyola and St. Francis

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, David's unique method of meditating on love parallels his personal story with Mark's Gospel, with Bataille's 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.