The Four Loves by C.S. Lewis
|
List Price: Our Price: $7.22 You Save: $5.78 (44%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $2.72 (click here) Category: Book See more book details and other editions |
|---|
Book Reviews of The Four Loves
Book Review: a prism and a map...
Summary: 4 Stars
C.S. Lewis' The Four Loves was not a book that I expected to reshape my thinking. I first picked it up while following the reading guide at the end of Lindskoog's Mere Christian. I thought it would be a fun read during valentine's season. One often is most vulnerable to the trap when one is not alert...And so, once more, C.S. Lewis has changed my thought on a broad portion of life. He's done it to me before--the Narnian Books, Mere Christianity, An Experiment In Criticism--have all been books that have greatly shaped me. Now I can add the Four Loves to the list.
One does not often sit down and ponder the different kinds of love. One may have generalized "loved ones" such as family and friends, we may "love" certain activities or places, we may even say we are "in love" ... but do we stop to consider our words?
Lewis spends time surveying the lay of love's different lands. Building on blocks of seemingly deepening emotion, he moves from looking at affection to friendship to erotic love (Eros) to the love of God (Agape). Each is looked at in detail, their meaning and impact on life is explored.
The most helpful thing about this book is that Lewis allows the reader to think about how they deal with their own loves in life. Does one stress a certain kind of love in an unhealthy way? Do we ignore the possibilities of one love because another kind holds too much sway in our lives?
I believe Lewis makes the case that God's love should be primary in the lives of humans. The other loves, though they can be wonderful in their place, can be used unnaturally and ineffectively to try and fill in for Agape if it is not felt. A healthy life will involve all four loves. Yet they must be rooted and grounded in Agape.
My own favorite passage in this book is in the friendship section. Dispelling the myth that an intense friendship between two people is always the best, Lewis notes that after his friend Charles (Williams) died, his friendship with J.R.R. Tolkien was something less than it was when Charles was still around--he could no longer appreciate Tolkien through the eyes of Williams. The passage is personal, poignant, and true to my own experience.
The Four Loves is a remarkable book. I give it my full recommendation.
Book Review: Loves are beautiful, but 'the greatest of these is charity'
Summary: 4 Stars
An illuminating view on affection, the so-called 'the most humble', friendship, 'the least natural and the most independent', eros, 'the most natural' and charity, 'the noblest' of all loves, treated in terms of the so-called 'need love', 'gift love' and 'appreciative love'. The beauty and potential danger of distortion and abuse of each love is also covered excellently. C.S. Lewis is both a psychologist and a philosopher, a brilliant one. His treatment on this subject of love is important for every one to know; some that I personally learn and thought to be beautiful, are:
- That we ought to love with decency and common sense;
- The reward of the accomplishment of a gift-love is its abdication, when it is no longer needed.
- When love becomes a god, it turns into a demon;
- The calculating love is no love at all which leads to the beauty and mark of eros, where calculations are irrelevant, and when it is in us, we "had rather share unhappiness with the Beloved than be happy on any other terms", and finally...
- The excellence of charity, confirmed in the Scriptures, something Jonathan Edwards calls 'the sum of all virtues', where Lewis exhorted to love God who will never pass away, "Do not let your happiness depend on something you may lose. If love is to be a blessing, not a misery, it must be for the only Beloved who will never pass away."
- The gracious call to risk and forego for the greatest good. Speaking of Christ, Lewis says, "... His teaching was never meant to confirm my congenital preference for safe investments and limited liabilities... And who could conceivably begin to love God on such a prudential ground -- because the security is better? ...Christ did not teach and suffer that we might become ... more careful of our own happiness... We shall draw nearer to God, not by trying to avoid the sufferings inherent to all loves, but by accepting them and offering them to Him; throwing away all defensive armour. If our hearts need to be broken and if He chooses this as the way in which they should break, so be it."
Get this book, friends, and learn that "loves" are beautiful, when handled properly, but 'the greatest of these is charity'.
Book Review: Friendship, affection, charity, and romance
Summary: 4 Stars
A refreshing look at the four different kinds of love, as told by someone who had experience with each, yet whose scholarship and insight excel most others who try to discuss them. I give the book an 8 instead of a 10 because of Lewis's views about friendship - he took very little, if any, interest in the personal parts of his friends' lives, so his views are jaded and different from most of society in this respect. Still, the book (like most of what Lewis wrote) is enjoyable, helpful, and worth buying.Book Review: Used For Love Books
Summary: 4 Stars
I've read a portion of this book as I already have it in my library. 'Very thought provoking and burrows down into a work that is sometime so freely tossed around. I ordered these copies for a friend from four different vendors. 'Not sure if this review applies to any or all of them. I did learn from this experience that I need to look more carefully at comments regarding the condition of used books, as one of them was pretty bad with a lot of highlights and stains on the edge.Book Review: Good to read with friends
Summary: 4 Stars
I first encountered this book in a college Theology class - I'll be honest I didn't read as much as I was assigned. But I didn't forget it. Now I'm reading it with two of my friends and we're really excited about it. Lewis does a great job of outlining the different ways we 'love' things and each other. I highly recommend this to anyone who has ever found themselves trying to figure out someone else's actions or feelings. It helps to put things into a better perspective.