| The Four Loves | |
|---|---|
| Author(s) | C. S. Lewis |
| Country | Ireland |
| Language | English |
| Genre(s) | Philosophy |
| Publisher | Harvest Books |
| Publication date | 1960 |
| Media type | Print (Hardback & Paperback) |
| ISBN | 0156329301 |
| OCLC Number | 30879763 |
The Four Loves is a book by C. S. Lewis which explores the nature of love from a Christian perspective through thought experiments.
The content of the examination is prefaced by Lewis' admission that he initially mistook St. John's words "God is Love" as a simple beginning point to address the topic. But further meditation revealed two different kinds of love: "need-love" (such as the love of a child for its mother) as distinguished from "gift-love" (epitomized by God's love for humanity). Lewis happened upon the insight that the natures of even these basic categorizations of love are more complicated than they seem at first.
As a result of this, he formulates the foundation of his topic by exploring the nature of pleasure, and then divides love into four categories ("the highest does not stand without the lowest"), based in part on the four Greek words for love: affection, friendship, eros, and charity. Lewis states that just as Lucifer—a former archangel—perverted himself by pride and fell into depravity, so too can love—commonly held to be the arch-emotion—become corrupt by presuming itself to be what it is not.
A fictional treatment of these loves is the main theme of Lewis's novel Till We Have Faces.
Contents |
Affection (storge, στοργή) is fondness through familiarity, especially between family members or people who have otherwise found themselves together by chance. It is described as the most natural, emotive, and widely diffused of loves: natural in that it is present without coercion; emotive because it is the result of fondness due to familiarity; and most widely diffused because it pays the least attention to those characteristics deemed "valuable" or worthy of love and, as a result, is able to transcend most discriminating factors. Ironically, its strength is also what makes it vulnerable. Affection has the appearance of being "built-in" or "ready made", says Lewis, and as a result people come to expect, even to demand, its presence—irrespective of their behavior and its natural consequences.
Phileo is the love between friends. Friendship is the strong bond existing between people who share common interest or activity. Lewis explains that true friendships, like the friendship between David and Jonathan in the Bible is almost a lost art. Friendship is a love just like the love between two lovers.
Eros (ἔρως) is love in the sense of 'being in love' or loving me. This is distinct from sexuality, which Lewis calls Venus, although he does spend time discussing sexual activity and its spiritual significance in both a pagan and a Christian sense. He identifies eros as indifferent. It is Venus that desires the sexual aspect of a relationship, while Eros longs for the emotional connection with the other person.
Charity (agapē, ἀγάπη) is the love that brings forth caring regardless of circumstance. Lewis recognizes this as the greatest of loves, and sees it as a specifically Christian virtue. The chapter on the subject focuses on the need of subordinating the natural loves to the love of God, who is full of charitable love.
David Powlison on "Need Love"
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