36. Love, by John Cowburn, S.J. ISBN 0-87462-659-5. ©2003. Paperbound. Index. 292 pp. $32
“I have sympathy for people who have tried to understand suffering, love or life, who have failed and who have then turned defeat into victory by saying: ‘We are not meant to understand this. It is holy and it would be a desecration to analyze it, to distil its essence, to classify its forms and put them on a chart. To grasp it intellectually would be to crush it; to pin it down would be to kill it. The highest wisdom is to see where thought cannot go, to respect mystery and live in wonder.’ I believe, however, that bright mysteries like love do not forbid thought but invite it.
I also believe that if we attain some understanding of them we will not lose interest in them, as a person loses all interest in a crossword puzzle as soon as he or she has solved it, and that while understanding means the end of bewilderment, it does not put an end to wonder.”
— From the author’s introduction
Marquette University Press
