The author, a Benedictine monk of Glenstal Abbey has in view both the gifts and the dangers of love. The book respects the classic Christian suspicion of eros and the Greek cultural suspicion that lies behind it. It acknowledges the destructive potential implicit in the intrinsic boundlessness of desire. It names our Charybdis, the whirlpool of addiction, as well as our Scylla, the rocklike self-protectiveness that religious people have so often preferred. There is no effort to skate past the difficult issues here