Why does love sometimes lead to the heights of joy and the depths of despair? Taking you on a journey through Dante's literary masterpiece, Bruner and Ware lead you through the dark underworld of "Inferno," up the purifying mountain of "Purgatory," and into the indescribable bliss of "Paradise" to reveal God's plan for your romantic life. Paperback.

Average Customer Rating:

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(3 Reviews) 3

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Customer Reviews for The Purpose of Passion: Dante's Epic Vision for Romantic Love

Review 1 for The Purpose of Passion: Dante's Epic Vision for Romantic Love

Overall Rating:

4 out of 5

Amazing book about True Romantic Love

Date:February 14, 2011

Doreen renewing strength

Top 250 Contributor

Location:Tampa Fl

Age:55-65

Gender:female

Quality:

4 out of 5

Value:

4 out of 5

Receiving this book as party of Tyndale House's book review program was somewhat confusing since I never read Dante's Divine Comedy. However, beginning the book with intent of understanding, I began and saw the parallel between Dante's epic vision of romantic love and the love of our great God.
Kurt Bruner and Jim Ware took this classic and brought out the very fact that passion is more than just a fleeing feeling and has purpose beyond the moment. Passion, so very tainted in our view today, is far more important than the moment at hand and the "queezy" feeling we may have on the first date, engagement, wedding or Valentine"s Day event. Passion must be directed in the directon of our awesome, all-loving, compassionate, merciful God.
Without that focus and purpose we are totally unable to truly love and give our best to another without expectation of return. Dante soon found chasing his beloved Beatrice held only frustration until he came to the point of allowing himself to see just how far afield he was in his pursuit.
I encourage you to read this book...it is challenging, mind stretching and more importantly an excellent picture of the love of God for each individual and His desire and consistency in continuing to chase each of us.

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Review 2 for The Purpose of Passion: Dante's Epic Vision for Romantic Love

Overall Rating:

2 out of 5

Could have been better, but could have been worse

Date:February 12, 2011

Ben Umnus

Top 50 Contributor

Location:Wisconsin

Age:18-24

Gender:male

Quality:

3 out of 5

Value:

2 out of 5

Meets Expectations:

3 out of 5

I wasn't impressed by this. I don't mean to sound harsh and all by opening my review this way, but I was expecting something with a little more substance when first glancing over the cover. I'll admit I have not actually read all of Dante's Divine Comedy, though after reading this book I was inspired to read the rest of the Divine Comedy's series of stories, but I did watch the recent cartoon movie of Dante's Inferno in its entirety and this was a book that was decent about describing parts of the Divine Comedy for those who may have not read the entire collection if reading any of them at all. I say decent, because although I wasn't impressed with The Purpose of Passion I didn't hate it either as there were some good things for me and hopefully others to have read as well.

The Purpose of Passion is a look into The Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri in regard to how Dante viewed love and how we must also view love. I liked how Kurt and Jim analyzed Dante's legendary work based on scripture. I felt they did well with providing scriptural passages as examples of how we ought to be whether single or married. I also appreciate how they analyzed Dante's personal life, his characters, how to love someone, and morality itself. However, I don't like it when books refer to the current culture when discussing theology, considering the current culture isn't exactly the most Biblical anymore. For an example calling Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie a couple of equivalent to legendary romances like Guinevere and Lancelot is not my cup of tea, because it makes me feel like I'm reading an extended magazine article instead of a book. Another problem with this book was though their material certainly had some positives, I felt Kurt and Jim should have expanded on the subject of LOVE as well as Dante's writings much more thoroughly; they could have written at least another 100 pages in my opinion. Not to mention Purgatory isn't Biblical and considering Tyndale is a Protestant publishing company, I would have hoped the writers would have at least stated that Purgatory isn't Biblical but they never did from what I read and almost seemed to support it... Again this isn't a horrible book I just didn't love it as much as other books out there.

Disclaimer: Ben Umnus was given a free copy of this book by Tyndale House Publishing, but he was neither paid for his review nor was he commanded by Tyndale House Publishing to write a positive review. This review is the personal, written opinion of Ben Umnus. This disclaimer is in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 http://www.access.gpo.gov/nara/cfr/waisidx_03/16cfr255_03.html> : “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

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Review 3 for The Purpose of Passion: Dante's Epic Vision for Romantic Love

Overall Rating:

3 out of 5

romantic insight from Dante

Date:January 19, 2011

markbraye

Top 250 Contributor

Location:Temiskaming Shores, Ontario, Canada

Age:25-34

Gender:male

Quality:

3 out of 5

Value:

3 out of 5

Meets Expectations:

3 out of 5

love is in the air.

Saint Valentine's Day is fast approaching. card, flower, chocolate, and jewlery sales will rise for a few days in mid-February.

love has been pondered for thousands of years. recording artists sing songs about it. filmmakers make films about it. Danielle Steele and William Shakespeare have written about it.

every child, woman, and man have expressed love for someone or something somwhere.

The Purpose of Passion: Dante's Epic Vision of Romantic Love is a book from authors Kurt Bruner and Jim Ware.

the book is a journey through and study of Dante's The Divine Comedy.

Ware and Bruner take readers on a guided tour through The Divine Comedy and point out what the story has to say about love, passion, romance, and spirituality.

we all long for love and companionship. we were made for relationships and community.

The Purpose of Passion includes references to wonderful verses of Scripture as well. the Bible, afterall, is a love letter to humanity. the Bible also contains beautiful poetry and passages expressing love for God, from God, for others, and from others.

The Purpose of Passion is a wonderful read. it could be enjoyed alone or read with a loved one.

let me finish this post with Bruner's and Ware's closing words from their introduction, which is their goal for the book: "May Dante's Romantic Vision ignite within you, as it has in us, a greater fire of godly passion - no matter where you find yourself on love's journey." (Kurt Bruner and Jim Ware, The Purpose of Passion, xxi).

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