Praise for Conscious Love

"Whether he is talking about the heart or the duty embedded in one's deepest self, the complexities of male and female love, social justice, or love of family and kin, Richard Smoley has served up a literary banquet of the myriad ways love is made manifest in life, and in so doing he deepens our own capacity to love and be loved. Anyone seeking to follow the eternal thread of love down through the centuries needs to read this book."

—Michael A. Toms

cofounder, New Dimensions Media; author, A Time for Choices; and coauthor, True Work

"A wise, provocative, and deeply informed take on humanity's messiest emotion. Drawing from science, literature, and the esoteric Christian lore he articulates so well, Richard Smoley encourages us to put away childish things in order to clear the ground for a love both realistic and transcendent. Conscious Love is the sort of spiritual writing we need: grounded and unsentimental but evocative and spiky enough to wake us up."

—Erik Davis

author, The Visionary State: A Journey Through California's Spiritual Landscape

"Richard Smoley proves once again that he is one of the liveliest, most intrepid, and most gifted explorers of the spiritual landscape writing today. Like any book worthy of the topic, Conscious Love is by turns exciting, surprising, and sometimes even shocking. But Smoley's warmth, humor, and ever-present intelligence are such that he is a joy to read even when one is disagreeing with him."

—Ptolemy Tompkins

author, Paradise Fever; senior editor, Guideposts and Angels on Earth magazines

"In Conscious Love, Richard Smoley does a masterful job of distinguishing between the real deal when it comes to love and everything else. The result is as enjoyable as it is enlightening. I highly recommend this book to anyone who is ready to take the big step to spiritual adulthood."

—Gary Renard

author, The Disappearance of the Universe and Your Immortal Reality

"Heady, eclectic and bold, Smoley's latest book is a thoughtful treatise on humanity's vaulted and elusive bond: love, that which 'unites self and other.' Kin in structure to C.S. Lewis's The Four Loves, Smoley (Inner Christianity: A Guide to the Esoteric Traditions) looks at romance, marriage, families and friends, but goes deeper with chapters to explore social justice and forgiveness. Much emphasis is placed on the transactional 'exchange' basis of most love relationships. In Smoley's seemingly cold eye, this is not necessarily a shortcoming, but more a direct biological and social assessment of the way things are. Each love type has redemption because 'each type of love contains a sort of gamut that runs from our basest impulses to our highest.' Agape, or conscious love, 'enables one to relax the sense of self and other' and move toward a 'sense of the cosmic Christ.' Befitting his education at Harvard and Oxford universities and his post as Quest Books editor, Smoley's reach of sources and metaphors is exceptionally broad, strong and scholarly. Fresh and utterly devoid of syrup, the book renders a sublime image that distills love's evanescence, pain, beauty and joy. Contemplative readers, who need not be Christian, will find much new food for thought here." Publishers Weekly (Copyright Reed Business Information, Inc.)

Conscious Love

"No subject in human life shows up one's limitations quite as much as love. Its universality exposes the limits of one's vision, even of one's soul. The monk grasps love from his perspective, the romantic from another; even whores and libertines have their insights. But the very fervor with which they clutch at their own little corners of this immeasurable continent suggests that they may not be able to raise their eyes and see the whole vista."

—From the Introduction

Though love is a perennial topic for writers of all kinds, much of what is written about love is simplistic and unsatisfying. In Conscious Love, Richard Smoley—an expert on the esoteric traditions of mystical Christianity—incorporates insights and wisdom about love from noted thinkers in literature, art, philosophy, sociology, cultural criticism, and even neurology. This remarkable book offers a blueprint for infusing conscious love into human relationships.

As Smoley explains, among the world's religious traditions Christianity has a distinctive focus on love at the very center of all its teachings—love of God and love of neighbor. Although love has existed as long as the human race itself, it was Christ who posited this mysterious force as being the center of experience. Yet what that love means and requires is not altogether clear—even to Christians. Richard Smoley reveals that a true understanding of love requires exploration of the deepest teachings of Christian mystery and the unconditional love at the heart of the universe. In Conscious Love he reflects on how that kind of love can transcend the bargains and negotiations that are characteristic of what he calls transactional love.

Though love is a perennial topic for writers of all kinds, much of what is written aboutlove is simplistic and unsatisfying. In Conscious Love, Richard Smoley—an expert on the esoteric traditions of mystical Christianity—incorporates insights and wisdom about love from noted thinkers in literature, art, philosophy, sociology, cultural criticism, and even neurology. This remarkable book offers a blueprint for infusing conscious love into human relationships.

Richard Smoley is the author of Inner Christianity: A Guide to the Esoteric Tradition; Forbidden Faith: A Secret History of Gnosticism; The Essential Nostradamus; and (with Jay Kinney) Hidden Wisdom: A Guide to the Western Inner Traditions. Smoley is the former editor of Gnosis magazine and the current editor of Quest Books.

Acknowledgments.

Introduction.

1. Kierkegaard's Error.

2. Beyond the Equation.

3. Conjugial Love.

4. The Selfish Serpent.

5. Making Brothers.

6. The Cosmic Human.

7. The Special Function.

8. Transcending the Heart.

Notes.

Bibliography.

About the Author.

Index.