I heard about The Four Loves by C.S. Lewis from one of the Marion E. Wade Center podcasts and purchased the book and the audiobook. I had plenty of Sunday School classes that taught about the Greek words in the Bible that relate to God’s glorious love for people—Christian or not. But I never understood the various categories of love until listening to Lewis explain them in his persuasive introduction and essays titled “Likings and Loves for The Sub-Human, Affection, Friendship, Eros, and Charity.”
I loved learning how we employ the word “love” in various dialogues, such as loving strawberries, but in “affection,” he differentiates and explains love from the perspective of a parent, dog, and cat nursing and nuzzling their offspring. Through images, Lewis pulled me into the narrative, where I could imagine a mother loving a baby with ears sticking out or face squished into a mass of redness. But not all mothers or animals have a God-given maternal instinct, and their children are not quite so lucky. Lewis included this problematic state for newborns to my satisfaction by the end of the book. If you thrive on learning more about the gifts from God, you will appreciate this book.
If you enjoy The Great Divorce, Surprised by Joy: The Shape of My Early Life, The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe, and The Problem of Pain, I think you’ll relish The Four Loves.
