About this title: C.S. Lewis's famous inspirational work on the nature of love. C.S. Lewis's famous work on the nature of love divides love into four categories: Affection, Friendship, Eros and Charity. The first three are loves which come naturally to the human race. Charity, however, the Gift-love of God, is divine in its source and expression, and without the sweetening grace of this supernatural love, the natural loves become distorted and even dangerous.
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Description: Good. Light shelf wear and minimal interior marks. Millions of satisfied customers and climbing. Thriftbooks is the name you can trust, guaranteed. Spend Less. Read More. read more
Description: Good. Light shelf wear and minimal interior marks. Millions of satisfied customers and climbing. Thriftbooks is the name you can trust, guaranteed. Spend Less. Read More. read more
Description: Acceptable. Book is in good reading condition. Cover has wear at edges and corners, and may have creases. Spine has wear at edges and creases. read more
Description: Good. Shows some signs of wear, and may have some markings on the inside. Shipped to over one million happy customers. Your purchase benefits world literacy! read more
Binding: Trade paperback
Publisher: Harvest Books
Date Published: 1971
ISBN-13:9780156329309ISBN:0156329301
Description: Good. No dust jacket as issued. Free upgrade to First Class mail. Good cover with a single crease. Pages are clean and unmaked. Former owner jotted name. Trade paperback (US). Glued binding. 156 p. Harvest Book. Audience: General/trade. read more
Description: Very Good. B002ECETRW Earlier HBJ Harvest trade paperback same content exactly-original text has never changed, Standard Used Condition, different cover, No writing or Highlighting, some spine creases, age tan though holding together well, sold for content. read more
"With clarity C.S. Lewis outlines the four loves as he understands them. As I read I recognized the roles these loves play, and have played, in my life and in the lives of those I know. People and possible motives for their actions became apparent to me. It is a book that captures reflections to share with the reader and allow them to create more of the same. Below is an excerpt that I wished to share.
"There is no safe investment. To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything, and your heart will certainly be wrung and possibly be broken. If you want to make sure of keeeping it intact, you must give your heart to no one, not even to an animal. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements; lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket - safe, dark, motionless, airless - it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeembale... We shall draw nearer to God, not be trying to avoid the sufferings inherent in 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.""
"I first noted that he seems to address five loves, because in addition to the four official loves, Affection, Friendship, Eros, and Charity, he spends quite a bit of time on likes/loves for sub-human objects (he considers love of animals to be affection). I found his views on Friendship to be the most insightful and interesting to read, followed by his views on Eros (the love between a lover and his/her Beloved). Because my view of God differ from that of Lewis, I could not agree with everything he had to say on Charity, but still found it worthwhile. As usual, Lewis's introduction was almost Chapter One, rather than an Introduction. I don't think I could have followed much of what he said without reading it. In it, he introduced two even more basic kinds of loves that he found intermingled in the four loves he considered. Overall I thought that this was a good book. Certainly not Lewis's best, but definitely good read for anyone interested in the concept of love."
"This is short book. Audio is about 2-3 hours and for me the big thing was to listen to Lewis actually talk about the four loves. And it doesn't sound like he is reading it. He has a great voice and perfect presentation. The four loves come from the four greek words for love; Storge (affection); Philia (freindship); Eros (sexual love) and Agape (selfless love/Christianity). The information is very good. One of Lewis' points is what love does the bible mean when it says love God and love your neighbor? Does the use of love in the bible have different meanings in different places of the bible? This really is one of Lewis' better books and the only official professional audio presentations of Lewis.
If you are a Lewis fan you have to get this audio and hear Lewis."
""The natural loves are not self-sufficient. Something else, at first vaguely described as 'decency and common sense,' but later revealed as goodness, and finally as the whole Christian life in one particular relation, must come to the help of the mere feeling if the feeling is to be kept sweet."
In "The Four Loves," C.S. Lewis brings his characteristic "conversationally philosophical" style to a subject as old as humanity itself: interpersonal relationships. As the book's title suggests, Lewis focuses on four kinds of relationships: Affection, Friendship, Eros, and Charity. It's tempting to order these relations from "best" to "worst," but Lewis is careful not to do so. He does elevate Charity a bit (because it's the most godly love), but he is also clear that the differences between the Loves are primarily differences of kind rather than of degree.
Perhaps most helpfully, the book provides something that the English language ordinarily lacks: A set of terms for capturing and expressing the different things we mean by "love." This comes up not only with the four Loves themselves, but also with the distinction between "Need-love" and "Appreciation" (which are components of the four Loves). Because of this, I think the book would be useful and interesting even for non-Christians or those who disagree with Lewis.
One word of warning: Lewis wrote in a different time, and he's not shy about distinguishing between men and women. Some might find this chauvinistic (or even downright misogynistic), but I think an honest reading shows that Lewis' thinking and language (1) reflect his own time, and (2) stem from his own experiences: He was not a woman, therefore he felt unqualified to write with any detail about women's relationships. On the whole, I think it's a reasonable and fair-minded approach."
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