Miles brings Plotinus' thought alive for the twenty-first century by relating it to present day concerns.

Margaret R. Miles is Dean and d Academic Vice-President of the Graduate Theological Union, Berkeley, and is President of the American Academy of Religion. She was formerly Bussey Professor of historical Theology at Harvard University. Her previous books include Image as Insight: Visual Understanding in Western Christianity and Secular Culture, Carnal Knowing: female Nakedness and Religious Meaning in the Christian West, Seeing an Believing: Religion and values in the Movies, and, most recently, Reading for Life: Beauty, Pluralism, and Responsibility (1998).