The mystery of the love of God, of the God who is Love (1 John 4:8,16), and of the interrelation between divine and human love, was a central theme in the theology of two enormous luminaries of the early Christian age, Augustine in the West and Maximus the Confessor in the East. This essay compares them with a view especially to their convergences, beginning with their common hermeneutical claim that the entire content of Scripture is tributary to Christ's double love commandment (Mt 22:37-40), and their common belief that creation itself is the outreach of the inner-Trinitarian love, freely extended to the creature in the gift of existence, and supremely exhibited in the cross of Jesus Christ. Both Augustine and Maximus, moreover, respectively meditated on the affectionate and even "ecstatic" nature of the Creator's gracious love for the creature, reciprocated by the different forms of human love, supremely agapê--though unlike Augustine in his Confessions, Maximus offers no autobiographical reflection on experiencing this love firsthand. That said, there are important parallels and contrasts in how the two authors project the conversion of human desire in the mystery of deification. The essay gives detailed attention to how both writers analyse unhealthy and healthy self-love, as well as their views on the important role of self-knowledge in the maturing of godly love. It then turns to the complicated dynamics of the "ordering" of love, the love of neighbour (in the context of the love of God), and the difficulties of equal love of all and the love of enemies. The essay concludes by exploring the compatibility of Augustine and Maximus on love as the supreme "theological virtue" (1 Cor 13:13) in its interconnection with faith and hope. I reflect at last on their views of love within the nature/grace dialectic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]