Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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40 of 43 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Clear sighted and big hearted, 7 Nov 2000
A younger C S Lewis, before his own experience of love and marriage, could not have written 'The 4 Loves'. First published in 1960 this book marries Lewis' highly developed rational faculties and his passion for the revelance of theory to experienced reality. Humbly he digs at the roots of love: what's the difference between loving surfing, Monet's "haystacks", your brother, your best friend, your partner, or God? Lewis identifies archhuman patterns and causality in each of these areas and draws a distinction between loves as gift, love as need and love as appreciation. His most valuable contribution lies beyond his classification of the hearts mechanics. Firstly, he clearly reveals some of the complexity of love; For instance he asserts, and explores too briefly, that love as gift can be love as need when we need to give. Secondly, the dynamic boundaries of the classification are traced: why deep friendship between man and woman can become "being in love", for instance. This slim volume wipes rather than scratches the surface of these movements and changes. Thirdly, the unmasking of loves pretenders preoccupies Lewis. Their resemblance commands our attention but their shortfallings are our undoing, why love without context, as a god devours its disciples. All this territory is surveyed in Lewis' familiar and convincing style of popular philosophy. Yet here he is more human and at least as clear sighted as in his other work. Although never mentioned explicitly the experience of his marriage to Joy Davidman waltzes and weeps between each line trailing the authority of love and grief understood and at rest. This book is so rich and contemporary; only on occasion, in its choice of subject matter, does it sound like a forty year old work. My only criticism is its length. A mere 140 pages. This subject would not have been covered in three times this acreage. Its a sip, a taster, and I'm left wanting more. Less of an exhaustion; more of a door ajar with a world yet unwritten on the other side. Whether or not you're a Christian, or an apologist The 4 Loves has much to offer. It's an ideal antidote to the rash of romanticism, pragmatism and pessimism that seems to be our current cultural climate for this most vital subject. Lewis touches all these areas, and yet rises above to claim higher, overarching truth as to our being.
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24 of 26 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Love, actually., 16 May 2005
I initially bought this book out curiosity and a desire to read something outside my academic work. However, now as I read the book, what I am getting is a real deep insight into 'the four loves', something that as human we all want, acquire and at certain points in our lives just need. In dividing love into four main areas; Charity, Affection, Eros and Friendship, Lewis shows how all these are interrelated, their beauties, dangers when handled wrongly and in the Christian context ordained/created by Love Himself.
What this book discusses is nothing new, yet the tremendous insight into which CS Lewis gives is invaluable (especially as a young person in a world where, it can be argued that love has lost meaning and reduced to mere physical lust.) Thus in reading this book, what the reader is really getting is something that s/he knows to be truth but never contemplated.
Beautifully written and often comical with his examples (usually literary), CS Lewis, in this book does really offer inspiration and fresh perspectives on love which is truly worthy of the attention of any reader, regardless of age, gender or religious beliefs.
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4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Amazing, 2 April 2008
I have now read this book three times - twice for school courses and once for personal reading. With each reading I find that a deeper understanding of the subject is obtained. This book is a great examination of the human heart, the different types of loves and how they each interact. Lewis examines: Affection, Friendship, Eros, and Charity. In each of the first three categories he shows both good and bad examples of that form of love, or in other words, the love and the perversion of that love.
Lewis states: "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." p.9 This is the ultimate in love; this is when our love comes closest to God's Love.
Lewis gives us a great study in love, what love is, what it means to truly love and some of the pitfalls of love gone askew. This book will help you live and love better.
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