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The doctrine exalting the value of love, especially in its general, nonsexual sense.

An iconoclastic view: " 'Love Feast,' first of Aphrodite's holy whores (Horae), was canonized as a Christian saint when icons of the Horae were re-lableled 'virgin martyrs': Sts. Agape, Chione, and Irene. Agape originally personified the rite of sexual communion, as practiced in Aphrodite's temples and adopted by some early Christian sects as a Tantric type of 'spiritual marriage'. By the 7th century C.E. (Common Era) the agape ceremony was declared heretical, but it continued secretly throughout the Middle Ages."

—Barbara G. Walker, The Woman's Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets
Harper San Francisco; 1983; page 12.
This entry is located in the following units: agape- (page 1) -ism, -ismus (page 2)