Brian Treanor is Professor of Philosophy and Charles S. Casassa Chair of Social Values at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles, USA. Among his previous books are Emplotting Virtue, Aspects of Alterity, as well as Carnal Hermeneutics and Interpreting Nature.

Introduction
Chapter One: We Perish, Each Alone
Chapter Two: Joy and the Myopia of Finitude
Chapter Three: From Mortality to Vitality: Carnal, Seraphic Bodies
Chapter Four: Hoping in the Dark
Chapter Five: Amor Mundi
Chapter Six: Melancholic Joy
Conclusion