Yearning is an elementary part of existence, a desire for things that are constantly becoming unattainable. As long as human beings have lives that are finite and bound by space and time, there will always be an insatiable yearning for more, and for things that are completely different. The topic of yearning is an interreligious and cross-cultural phenomenon, although it is experienced, intellectually grasped, suffered and shaped in different ways in different cultures. Philosophers and theologians such as Emmanuel Lévinas and Nicholas of Cusa, and mystics such as Mechthild of Magdeburg and Meister Eckhart, explored paths of thought and experience in connection with yearning and encountered it in the midst of life. Poets such as Gottfried Benn and Hilde Domin, and songwriters such as Leonard Cohen and Bob Dylan, have also addressed the topic of yearning, often in connection with expectations and disappointments in love. Gerhard Marcel Martin is concerned with achieving a precise explanation of the concepts and phenomena involved, one that also involves (depth) psychology. ?Yearning= is not a general term for a wide variety of desires or a search for happiness and meaning. Yearning is a persistent and irreversible movement away from a balanced centre and provides a surprising anthropological connection with philosophical and theological ways of understanding transcendence. Throughout history, it is always fascinating to see the ways in which radical yearning has been and can be lived out, and the ways in which lives can be fully expressed in the interaction between yearning and love. The author provides examples of such materials from a wide variety of sources, which all share common resonances in a sometimes startling way. The result is a kaleidoscopically variegated ?review= that nonetheless sustains a clearly marked search process involving rigorous pattern recognition.
