Rating: 
Summary: If you like C.S. Lewis . . .
Review: . . . like I do, I strongly suggest We All Fall Down, by Brian Caldwell. Like Lewis, Caldwell takes an intellectual aproach to the concept of Christianity. His novel is very much in the vein of The Screwtape Letters and The Great divorce. I highly recomend it for discriminating Christian readers.
Rating: 
Summary: Friendship, affection, charity, and romance
Review: 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.
Rating: 
Summary: interesting & unique
Review: An interesting and rewarding read, but difficult in sections. Overall the good points, and unique views were worth it. I thought the author had some well thought-out ideas but meandered on the supporting arguments. The main idea being the ancient Greeks had four words for love depending on the type of love. C.S.Lewis analyses these types of love; Affection, Friendship Eros, and Charity. I suspect most readers will be surprised when they read what is included in each classification. I would recommend an audio version of book. The supporting arguments are better suited to the ears, which are more adept and can selectively tune-in. I plan on reading other books by C.S. Lewis. Hopefully the main thoughts put forth in the next book will also outweigh a writing style that does not seem to agree with me.
Rating:
Summary: interesting & unique
Review: An interesting and rewarding read, but difficult in sections. Overall the good points, and unique views were worth it. I thought the author had some well thought-out ideas but meandered on the supporting arguments. The main idea being the ancient Greeks had four words for love depending on the type of love. C.S.Lewis analyses these types of love; Affection, Friendship Eros, and Charity. I suspect most readers will be surprised when they read what is included in each classification. I would recommend an audio version of book. The supporting arguments are better suited to the ears, which are more adept and can selectively tune-in. I plan on reading other books by C.S. Lewis. Hopefully the main thoughts put forth in the next book will also outweigh a writing style that does not seem to agree with me.
Rating:
Summary: the more you put into it...
Review: 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.
Rating:
Summary: Comes full-circle in a beautiful and penetrating way
Review: By splitting human love into four basic categories, C.S. Lewis creates a stunning and convincing commentary on our existence. Throughout the text, the question "Which love is closest to God's love?" is strung. Lewis does an amazing job at answering this question, and the book comes full-circle in the end and proves that "to love is to be vulnerable". The Four Loves digresses quite far from where C.S. Lewis normally writes. Discussions include detailed definitions and explications of the Greek gods and how they relate to our lives. Still, this book is 100% Lewis. An essential book for the "thinker types", and a must for any fan of C.S. Lewis.
Rating:
Summary: The Four Loves, by CS Lewis
Review: C.S. Lewis has made a priceless analysis of love. My experience of reading his book "The Four Loves" (friendship, affection, eros and charity) and comparing it with other books on the subject, is that Lewis uses a fresh (to me) approach. It is like looking through a beautiful diamond. I have observed the diamond several times before, through people like Gerald May, Donald Goergen etc, but have not looked through that particular face of the diamond's prism that Lewis shows.
I liked "friendship" where the love of a particular subject can bring two or more people together in a love. I thoroughly enjoyed "Eros". Lewis calls that "love" that is purely genital sex, and the love that leads up to this, "Venus". He says that Venus is part of Eros. "We must not be totally serious about Venus, and if we are serious about her we can do harm to our humanity". And "Venus is a mocking, mischievous spirit, far more elf than deity, and makes game of us. When all external circumstances are the fittest for her service she will leave one or both lovers totally indisposed for it. When every overt act is impossible and even glances cannot be exchanged - in trains, in shops and at interminable parties - she will assail them with all her force. An hour later, when time and place agree, she will have mysteriously disappeared, perhaps from only one of them. ......
"In Eros at times we seem to be flying; Venus gives us the sudden twitch that reminds us we are really captive balloons ..... on one side akin to the angels, and on the other to tom cats. .... St. Francis called his body 'brother ass'..... It is impossible for anyone in his right senses to either revere or hate a donkey. An ass is a useful, sturdy, lazy, obstinate, patient, loveable and infuriating beast; deserving now the stick and now a carrot; both pathetically and absurdly beautiful. So the body. .... The fact that we have bodies is the oldest joke there is".
Lewis goes on to emphasise that none of the "natural" loves can survive without agape love, that is the love that comes from God, which Lewis calls "Charity".
Rating:
Summary: a decent work about great ideas by a great writer
Review: C.S. Lewis is a great writer and one of the great accessible Christian minds but I think he got lost in his own theory in this one. This book has some great ideas and is very clarifying in the many senses of Christian love but Lewis gets very verbose and muddy in his heavy essay writing in the Four Loves. I think Lewis does better when he suggests or leads the reader to answers rather than writing and supporting his philosophy and theology in a straightforward manner. The Four Loves is still a worthwhile read but for a great Christain C.S. Lewis read try the Screwtape Letters first.
Rating:
Summary: a prism and a map...
Review: 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.
Rating:
Summary: We only think we understand love
Review: CS Lewis can take a difficult issue and boil it down to something remarkably simple--that's the beauty of his writing. Here Lewis tackles love--the most simple, the most complicated, the most pleasurable, and the most painful of all our emotions. He approaches his subject with uncanny insight, and divides this passion, what we call love, into four types: affection, friendship, eros (sensual love), and charity. Then, starting with affection, Lewis proceeds to tell us just what we thought we could never understand. I am not a flowery, luvvy-duvvy type of guy. I don't find it all that amusing to sit around and talk about emotions. But Lewis's writing is different--he takes the subject of love to a higher level, and examines what it is that makes us feel the way we do and, more importantly, how that can bring us closer to God. This book, like many of Lewis's works, is a case for Christianity. But even without that approach this book is invaluable, because Lewis can make you understand WHAT IT IS to love. In short, you can learn how to love better, and how to make your dealings with others much more meaningful. CS Lewis is different than most theologians (he would have hated to be called that). While many concentrate on doctrinal matters, Lewis explores everyday life. What he teaches are good, solid morals--the things that will make you a better everyday person. This book is highly recommended for a good look at what we call Love.
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