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In this classic C.S. Lewis, the celebrated author of 'the Chronicles of Narnia,' reflects on love. He begins by observing that at birth we all start out with need-love, needing gift-love. Gift-love is the kind of love the creator shows to the created, in the process of creating and taking care of the created. It is the love a mother bestows on her newborn child. In contrast, need-love is the condition of poverty that every created being begins with at birth. I feel this quote sums up the point Mr. Lewis was making about need-love, 'Man approaches god most nearly when he is in one sense least like God. For what can be more unlike than fullness and need, sovereignty and humility, righteousness and penitence.'
Mr. Lewis continues with a brief synopsis of things that we can show love for; these include others, nature, country, and finally, the transcendent creator. Dissecting each, he illustrates that love of nature, patriotism, etc. are inadequate receptacles of our love.
Next, Mr. Lewis looks at the different kinds of love which include affection, philios, eros, and charity or agape. Affection includes the love of parents for their child, love of our pets, etc. Philios is the love between friends. Eros is the love between two lovers. Finally, charity is the love of the creator towards the created and the return of that love by the created toward both the creator and creation.
Of all the loves, Mr. Lewis holds charity or agape in the highest esteem. All other loves fall short of Agape, as Mr. Lewis states in this quote, 'The (other) loves prove that they are unworthy to take the place of god by the fact that they cannot even remain themselves and do what they promise to do without god's help.Read more ›
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C.S. Lewis has a lot of good insights on love. This book really makes you think about it. He rightly concludes the book by saying that he cannot go any further, to write more on love would be to focus too much on his own ideas and not Love Himself.
I liked the book as a whole, but there are a few disagreements I had with it. He splits up the book into several parts, 4 of which cover the 4 Greek words for love. This makes sense because you can't explain all of them at once, they are quite different. However, he seems to pin the first 3, Storge – affection, Philia – friendship, Eros – romance, against Agape – unconditional love. He calls them natural love, while calling Agape divine love. He rightly surmises that the 3 cannot be pure without the 4th, they must come together. I think he doesn't go far enough though.
I believe that all 4 are expressions of God's love and cannot be separated. God is Stroge, Philia, Eros, Agape, and more (since our human language tends to limit God. It isn't that some are natural and others divine, but rather they can all only be rightly expressed through us when they are not separated. That doesn't mean that all 4 need to be expressed in all situations, but rather that each one is an expression of Christ in us. They can no more be separated than Christ can be separated. Agape is certainly the "glue" that holds all 4 together, but it is not somehow better, it is simply how the other 3 are purely expressed. I would suggest that any other mode is not really love at all, it is just a counterfeit that looks like true affection, or true friendship, or true romance. Each of these is only true when it is unconditional.
It seems that Lewis probably would agree with this but he didn't make it completely obvious or clear.Read more ›
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"Love does not consist in gazing at each other; but in looking outward in the same direction" Antoine De Saint-Exupery.
CS Lewis opens up many doors to the subject of love. These four loves, come from a variety of many loves but Lewis concentrates on Affection-Friendship-Eros-Charity.
One love leads to another and another until one reaches the pinnacle of love, God himself. But I am getting ahead of myself as well as Lewis.
AFFECTION: Early in life we experience "affection" from our mother, father, siblings. Not all are fortunate to receiving this affection, thus the discussion of original sin would come to play a very important part in one's life situation. Let us say that affection was given and received. This is a need love on both parts, the child and the parents. We need this love to grow in our understanding of ourselves and those around us. Human loves can be glorious images of divine love.
FRIENDSHIP: Persons who see the same truth and care about the same truth. This friendship is more inward, not just doing something together. Without truth their would be nothing for the friendship to be about. Lewis quotes: "Those who have nothing can share nothing, those who are going nowhere can have no fellow travelers." Lewis gives us a different understanding of Christ choosing his disciples:. "You have not chosen one another but I have chosen you for one another."
EROS: Romantic love. If we didn't have Eros, the human race would become extinct. Have we been sabotaged by this very love that was meant to build and not destroy relationships? Eros can sometimes come in like an invader, something that one is not prepared to experience or explore.Read more ›
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