Dean, William D.  Love Before the Fall.  Philadelphia, PA:  Westminster Press, 1976. 

Abstract

In five engaging an informal imaginary lecture-dialogues on love, William Dean defines and explores a new concept of love, which he calls aesthetic love - an experience of togetherness different from the agape of Jesus or the eros of Plato. This "love before the fall" is inherently valuable and satisfying simply to experience - a profound and encompassing love that conquers solitude...and that depends on God. "Before the fall" does not refer to a prehistoric time, but to a quality of life now - the time that is apart from the struggle against life's failure and when an appreciation of the moment is appropriate. In such space between efforts, aesthetic love can provide motivation and meaning for the constructive action induced by eros and agape. It overcomes the solitude that afflicts contemporary man, by providing the "something more" that unites people in a noncausal and immediate way. Precedents for aesthetic love are found in Western mysticism, in Martin Buber, in Paul Tillich, in hints provided by Whitehead, Hartshorne, and Dewey, and in the ancient but theologically neglected idea of koinonia. Aesthetic love points a new direction for theology - and for human solidarity.