Love and Happiness: Eros According to Dante, Shakespeare, Jane Austen, and the Rev. Al Green - Tapa blanda

"A compelling journey--brilliant, poetic and astonishingly truthful--into realms of love and honor where, like Beatrice in Dante's Inferno, this book's guiding hand could be the difference between delight and disaster." --Timothy B. Tyson, author of Blood Done Sign My Name (winner of the Grawemyer Award in religion) "Craig Werner and Rhonda Lee have crafted a brilliant study of love, using the seemingly incongruous figures of Dante, Shakespeare, Austen, and Rev. Al Green not only to guide us through central texts but also through our own lives. Kudos to the authors for writing in a style both scholastically substantive yet refreshingly readable! The third chapter offers rich insight into Jane Austen's surprisingly modern treatment of eros and philia in a society where love was a commodity. Jane Austen fans and foes should not miss Werner and Lee's introductory remarks on the manufactured version of "dear Aunt Jane" or their discerning discussions of Pride and Prejudice, Mansfield Park, and Emma. After reading Love & Happiness, my eyes have been so opened to the nuances of love that I think I will never read classic literary texts in the same way--nor will I perhaps be the same as a wife, daughter, or sister. --Emily Auerbach, author of Searching for Jane Austen and co-host of "University of the Air" "Craig Werner and Rhonda Lee have created a stunning success in Love & Happiness, walking the razor's edge between creativity and commentary with grace, honesty and dignity. Love & Happiness breaks down Big Love into three principal forms: eros, or sexual love; philia, or familial love and trust; and agape, a profound love for all. Using classic literary figures as well as recent soul music greats as inspirational yet conflicted points on their map, Werner and Lee bring these subtexts into a sharp, knowing focus. Shaped by the Christian tradition, moving from Shakespeare to the great Al Green, Love & Happiness is that rare thing--a fresh insight into our most studied, primary impulse, Love." --Stewart Francke, award-winning musician and author of Between the Ground and God "Love and Happiness offers a liberating and refreshing look at how eros, held hostage by entertainment media as overly lustful or by conservative politics as inherently shameful, can serve as a powerful creative force that can activate greater intimacy with community, and passion with spirituality. This book dusts off Ancient Greek tenets of love, long forgotten, and remixes them with rich examples from classic literature and soul music. Werner and Lee practice what they preach as their words embody the co-creative potential that lies at the core of every relationship. Love and Happiness offers us the key to unlocking mental, emotional and spiritual intimacy in ways that would earn the good Reverend Al Green's 'Amen'." --Roberto Rivera, President, The Good Life Alliance

Love and Happiness is a profound meditation on the meaning of eros, the creative and disturbing power usually thought of as romantic love. Four of the greatest artists of the Western world lead a pilgrimage through the erotic cosmos, exploring real-world dilemmas that they knew well and that still bedevil us. First we follow in Dante's footsteps from Inferno to Paradiso, then Shakespeare is our guide to Hell, Jane Austen to Purgatory, and Al Green to Paradise. Some of their stories are horrifying, showing the devastation that warped love can wreak. Some are inspiring, helping us imagine what a gift love can be in our own lives. Reading these stories together, Love and Happiness offers a vision of love that's complex, sobering, and ultimately deeply comforting.