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The Four Loves (Paperback) (Paperback)
by C.S. Lewis
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love, relationship |
| Market price: ¥ 148.00
MSL price:
¥ 138.00
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MSL rating:
 Good for Gifts |
MSL Pointer Review:
"The Four Loves" spans diverse life stages, offering golden wisdom not only to mature singles and married couples, but even to teenagers sorting out keys to friendship and romance.
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Author: C.S. Lewis
Publisher: Harvest Books
Pub. in: September, 1971
ISBN: 0156329301
Pages: 156
Measurements: 8 x 5.3 x 0.4 inches
Origin of product: USA
Order code: BA00291
Other information: ISBN-13: 978-0156329309
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- MSL Picks -
Trust is fragile and does not come without an open heart. C.S. Lewis' book on the four loves: affection (between a parent and a child), friendship, romantic love, and charity or love towards God is truly a remarkable piece of work. Professor Lewis writes with an easiness rare amongst writers, speaks deliberately and with wisdom in his words. He speaks of trust and of hearts, of humanity and humility. Truly, this is a moving book (or was for me) as well as a book which takes the seriousness of love rather lightly and playfully, for good reason. The seriousness and playfulness of love are but opposite sides of the same coin. Read this book with an open, honest, yet vulnerable heart. One needs to take risks in the matters of the heart. And you shall experience the best of dark and bright.
Target readers:
General readers
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C. S. Lewis (1898-1963) was one of the intellectual giants of the twentieth century and arguably the most influential Christian writer of his day. He was a Fellow and Tutor in English literature at Oxford University until 1954 when he was unanimously elected to the Chair of Medieval and Renaissance English at Cambridge University, a position he held until his retirement. His major contributions in literary criticism, children's literature, fantasy literature, and popular theology brought him international renown and acclaim. He wrote more than thirty books, allowing him to reach a vast audience, and his works continue to attract thousands of new readers every year. His most distinguished and popular accomplishments include The Chronicles of Narnia, Out of the Silent Planet, The Four Loves, The Screwtape Letters, and Mere Christianity.
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"The Four Loves" is one of C. S. Lewis' lesser-known, but most important writings. In a brief 156-pages, Lewis captures the essences of "AFEC": Affection, Friendship, Eros, and Charity.
From the Koine Greek of the Bible, affection is "storge," friendship is "phileo," romantic and/or sexual love is "eros," and charity or love for God is "agape" (self-giving, unselfish, other-centered, grace love).
Lewis' remarkable achievement is his integrative, balanced, and holistic approach to love. Many theologian-philosophers tend to emphasize one ("agape"), demonize another ("eros"), minimize a third ("phileo"), and misunderstand a fourth ("storge").
Lewis not only correctly interprets all four loves while giving each their validity and importance in their respective spheres; he does so in his renowned pithy, provocative, philosophical, and practical style.
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| Let us make no mistakes. Our Gift-loves are really God-Like, and among our Gift-loves those are most God-Like which are most boundless and unwearied in giving. All the things the poets say about them are true. Their joy, their energy, their patience, their readiness to forgive, their desire for the good of the beloved - all this is a real and all but adorable image of the Divine life. |
| God, who needs nothing, loves into existence wholly superfluous creatures in order that He may love and perfect them. He creates the universe already foreseeing - or should we say "seeing"? there are no tenses in God - the buzzing cloud of flies about the cross, the flayed back pressed against the uneven stake, the nails driven through the mesial nerves, the repeated incipient suffocation as the body droops, the repeated torture of the back and arms as it is time after time, for breath's sake, hitched up. If I may dare the biological image, God is a "host" who deliberately creates His own parasites; cause us to be that we may exploit and "take advantage of" Him. Herein is love. This is the diagram of Love Himself, the inventor of all loves. |
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Veront Satchell (MSL quote), Jamaica
<2007-01-24 00:00>
A very deep and thoughtful work, from which there is much to be learnt. It is not the type of work that can be read in haste or in one sitting. The discussion on the four loves are much too intense to be glossed over. It is well suited not only for the deeply religious but also for anyone desirous of a greater understanding of the many and important attributes of this one simple word Love.
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Corum Seth Smith (MSL quote), Hendersonville, NC USA
<2007-01-24 00:00>
C.S. Lewis wrote this book late in his life after he had experienced love with a colleague in writing. He gives sound advice that I believe applies to a broader base than his usual Christian readership. The four loves are: Affection, Eros, Friendship, and Charity. Each type of love has a chapter dedicated to a fuller explanation.
My favorite section is the one he wrote on Friendship. I think he is honest about limitations we place on who becomes our friends. Many believe any two people can become good friends, when in reality, this is just not so. Friends are people who share some vision or passion in life. That vision or passion is the cement of the common bond. Lewis had deep friendships with interesting people, such as Tolkien. He even elaborates on his own experiences with such companions.
Charity is the true form of love. Charity is the deepest form of giving our feeling, freedom, and even our very selves, to each other and finally, to God, whom Lewis calls "Love Himself." There is wisdom in his admonition that love is not easy or cheap. Work, loss, and sacrifice often accompany the application of true love, which is charity.
Unlike other works, such as "Miracles" or "Mere Christianity" where logic sets the primary pace, "The Four Loves" is a book where Lewis brings much of his experience to light. This is not, however, to say that Lewis does not apply logic to experience. Rather, Lewis uses logic to makes sense of experiences in his past to try and uncover truths about love.
In writing about love, Lewis articulates some significant moral, social, and psychological truths. Most importantly, he shows that love itself is not God. Love exalted to divinity becomes a "demon," as he quotes one of his contemporaries. Love is only a part of the greatness of our complex lives, not the full of it. "The Four Loves" is another insightful masterpiece by C.S. Lewis.
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C. N. Gallimore (MSL quote), Annapolis, MD
<2007-01-24 00:00>
There have been many good things and helpful reviews already written about this book so there's no reason for me to go on about how wonderful and insightful it is. My comments are more directly related to those who have a wish (or are assigned) to read Aristotle's work "The Nichomachean Ethics". I read the Ethics for a philosophy discussion class my freshman year and was intrigued by mush of what Aristotle had to say about love and human behavior. While it is a very insightful work, the Ethics is extremely difficult to read, and takes much time and pastience.
About a month after completing the Ethics, I happened to pick up Lewis's "The Four Loves" in my college's bookstore, and I couldn't put it down. What surprised me most upon reading it, however, was that much of Lewis's understanding of the human loves came directly from Aristotle. I went back and reread the Ethics and found (not surprisingly since Lewis was a classics scholar) that for his understanding of friendly and passionate love (for Aristotle philos and eros), Lewis's arguments followed Aristotle's very closely, and were much more clear and easy to understand. On top of this, his additions of affectionate love and agape or godly love (a Greek thought to be sure, but not in Aristotle's time), expanded upon the notions of love and offered a fuller treatment than Aristotle.
I say all this not to disuade anyone from reading Aristotle or thinking that Lewis was an Aristotle knock-off, on the contrary, both these these works should be read, and in opinion my opinion they complement each other very well and aid the reader in more fully understanding both works: understanding Aristotle because Lewis presents many of his same arguments only more clearly, and understanding Lewis by seeing the evolution and expansion of his thought from the Greek concepts.
And even if you don't feel like tackling Aristotle, "The Four Loves" is a work worth reading in and of itself (just don't think that you can get away with substituting this work for the Ethics, since the Ethics goes far beyond a discussion of love).
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R. A. Davis (MSL quote), Gaithersburg, MD United States
<2007-01-24 00:00>
As other reviewers have stated, C.S. Lewis takes a look at the four Greek words for love (storge, affection; philia, friendship; eros, romantic love; agape, charity). In addition, he defines some terms such as "Gift-Love", "Need-Love", "Appriciation-Love" and uses these in describing various attributes and potentialities of the Four Loves.
Lewis winds these terms and some other ideas throughout his writing and builds upon his ideas in his definitions of the various loves. I felt like I needed to totally comprehend each section before moving on, and while his ideas are not enormously complicated, they do require time and a hungry frame of mind to get the most out of the reading. It definitely would have helped me to take notes.
Lewis also used a lot of literary illustrations with the reasoning of the literature being more of a common ground with the reader than his personal experience; unfortunately, the literary cannon seems to have changed a bit - I don't know too many other people who have read Ovid or Tristram Shandy and can remember them well enough for these illustrations to make a whole lot of sense. The ideas being illustrated are still communicated well enough without the illustration, but several times I had to read the same passage more than once to get it to click. His other books I have read (Great Divorce, Mere Christianity, Screwtape) were easier, but this one is definitely rewarding.
My favorite section was Charity (agape) at the end of the book, which provided a beautiful description of God's Love and how it should basically light all the other loves on fire. Lewis sees Christianity as a light by which he understands, and he advances some enjoyably comforting, convicting, and profound ideas in this book.
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