Rating: 
Summary: Beautiful.
Review: In one of Lewis' Narnia books, he describes a quiet, restful place called The Wood Between the Worlds, where "You can almost hear the trees growing." Reading Lewis at his best, you can almost hear the spirit growing, taking up water through its roots in God. I can't say how much I've learned from this beautiful little treasure. Reading it for the first time twenty or more years ago, each chapter struck me as a revelation, and has been a part of the "spiritual furniture of my mind" ever since. (Though living up to it is more difficult.) It gives me food for thought on "like" and "love," how to treat animals, the beauties and dangers of friendship and romance, how they differ, the inherent riskiness of love, the disquises by which hatred can enter the soul, and what it means to love God and for God to love me. I do not agree with Gross above that this book is a more "persuasive apologetic" for Christianity than his other books, but I do think that non-Christians are likely to enjoy it. M. Scott Peck's books, Road Less Travelled and People of the Lie, (the first written as a Buddhist, the second as a Christian) can even be read as "case studies" of some of the points Lewis makes here. Four Loves proves that the most eloquent and deepest truths can be expressed in the simplest language. It (they?) would be a wonderful gift for a newlywed, a young person graduating from high school or college, or anyone else to whom you wish to express your love. author, Jesus and the Religions of Man
Rating:
Summary: Everything I knew, but could not explain!!
Review: Read the book for yourself! It has everything about love in it. For me, it was a step in the healing process. The world confused me about my sexuality and the types of love. This book cleared the questions and has equipped me with the knowledge to press on as a child of God.
Rating: 
Summary: Lewis Contributes to Love Scholarship
Review: The author is one of the most important theologians of the 20th century, although his scholarly discipline was literature. He examines four main types of love, with special concentration on two types of love he calls "Gift-love" and "Need-love." Early in the book, Lewis identifies the humblest and most widely diffused of the loves, that is, the loves and likings at the sub-human level. Following an examination of sub-human love, he addresses a love that he calls "affection." Affection comes from the Greek love word storge. The third chapter is devoted to friendship love, from the Greek work philia. This friendship love is the least of the natural loves, "the least instinctive organic, biological, gregarious, and necessary" (58). Friendship should be distinguished from community love, because communities require cooperation. Friendship love by contrast is free from instinct, free from duty, and free from the need to be needed. Following an examination of friendship, Lewis addresses eros. By eros Lewis refers to "the love in which lovers are in," i.e., romantic love. In the book's final chapter Lewis addresses charity. Charity is 'Gift-love' and the primal 'Gift-love' comes from the divine energy. While Lewis claims that "to love at all is to be vulnerable" (121), he also claims that God is self-sufficient. "In God there is no hunger that needs to be filled, only plenteousness that desires to give. The doctrine that God was under no necessity to create is not a piece of dry scholastic speculation. It is essential" (126). Also, "God, who needs nothing, loves into existence, holy, superfluous creatures in order that He may love and perfect them" (127). After God loves into existence holy, superfluous creatures, God implants in those creatures both the Gift-loves and the Need-loves. Gift-love comes by grace and we call it charity. God also gives a supernatural Need-love of God and a supernatural Need-love of other creatures. It is through these two gifts that creatures have a longing for God and a love for others.
Rating:
Summary: Buy the cassettes, then read the book
Review: The cassette recordings of C.S. Lewis discussing the four loves are superb. Lewis had a rich baritone reading voice, and his homely discussion of the storge, philea, eros, and agape is filled with good sense and profound insights. I can easily recommend purchasing the tapes, and his book THE FOUR LOVES compliments the tapes nicely.
Rating:
Summary: There's just no one like Lewis.
Review: The Four Loves is, first and foremost, an amazing work in and of itself. But actually hearing it in Lewis' own voice is another experience entirely, and brings it to a higher level. And I find it a remarkably professional sounding recording considering it's age. Every fan of Lewis' work should have a copy of this in their library -- there's no excuse.
Rating: 
Summary: Delightfully Illuminating and Pleasantly Poignant
Review: The inherent bias in my review is that I rate Lewis in context with his other writings. He represents the ultimate pop-theologian who speaks with cutting erudition. Lewis possessed an uncanny power to speak to all Christian denominations through his powerful prose style and unpretentious approach to the ideas of God and the Christian religion. His works make it hard to believe that he was not a trained theologian. With all that said, I dare say he has not written a book that was not great. Perspective with Mere Christianity (among others) dictates that this book receive 4 stars (A "4-star" rating for him supersedes "5-star" for many others.). Let me not be misunderstood, his ideas are powerful and his approach is classic Lewis, but the profundity found in Mere Christianity is not present at the same intensity. That is most probably given the fact that most Christians (as I) who read this book probably have given at least some thought to the four loves before this book. The problem may therefore be my own desensitization.
The chapter on Eros perhaps engages the reader best as the word draws the interest while Lewis forces the reader to gaze upon the issue in a new light. The chapter (along with "Affection" and "Charity") gives the reader a new understanding of familiar themes of love while gifting a new respect and awe of the unique characteristics of the different manifestations of love. The gestalt of the book ultimately drives the reader to a new respect for the Creator of love as well as an appreciation for the complexity found in the four faces of unity that love expresses.
May we only continue to strive to reach for love--both as "need-love" and "gift-love". Then we fully can (with God's grace) appreciate the depths of humanity and the spiritual end of mankind.
Rating:
Summary: Good Companion to Aristotle
Review: 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).
Rating:
Summary: Good Companion to Aristotle
Review: 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).
Rating:
Summary: Characteristic Insight
Review: There is really some dynamite material in here. C.S. Lewis explains in typical style and clarity all that is right and wrong with love. Dealing with affection (that warm, fuzzy, it-sure-bugs-me-how-you-twiddle-your-thumbs-but-it's-endearing-in-a-funny-sort-of-a-way type of love you experience after knowing people for a while), friendship, Eros (romantic love, not to be confused with Venus (sexual passion), which is only an element of Eros), and charity, the highest of the loves, Lewis explains the glory of each, and the temptations that arise because of the glory. Much of the book is just hilarious, since he points out little faults common to us all, and he makes it easy to laugh at ourselves. But he also offers much practical advice, good for understanding and enriching our relationships. Main thesis of the book: If you make love God, love becomes a demon. Love is a great gift from God, but because love is so lovely, it's a great temptation to serve it as the whole end and purpose of life. But if this occurs, love becomes a demon, and turns against you. Keep God at the forefront of your mind and your relationships, and love can be kept rich and sweet in its proper perspective.
Rating:
Summary: Amazing for all ages
Review: This book truly grips the truth of love and helps people put relationship love and God's love into perspective. I am a teenager who was taken away by Lewis' great work. Any age male or female will be absorbed and grow in wisdom. The book has helped me make decisions that will benefit my future for the better and I am extremely happy to have the chance to read such a great work from an author as talanted as CS Lewis.
|
