Customer Reviews
not worth reading - By: Maria Savva, 27 Aug 2008 
In my opinion this book is boring, rambling, dated & not worth reading. I'm not quite sure how it was ever published, but I suppose if you are a famous writer, like C.S. Lewis was at the time, you can get away with anything!
Amazing - By: Steven R. McEvoy, 02 Apr 2008 
I have now read this book three times - twice for school courses & 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 & how they each interact. Lewis examines: Affection, Friendship, Eros, & Charity. In each of the first three categories he shows both good & bad examples of that form of love, orin other words, the love & the perversion of that love.
Lewis states: "Let us make no mistakes. Our Gift-loves are really God-Like, & among our Gift-loves those are most God-Like which are most boundless & unweariedin 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 & all but adorable image of the Divine life." p.9 This is the ultimatein love; this is when our love comes closest to God's Love.
Lewis gives us a great studyin love, what love is, what it means to truly love & some of the pitfalls of love gone askew. This book will help you live & love better.
Amazing - By: Steven R. McEvoy, 02 Apr 2008 I have now read this book three times - twice for school courses & 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 & how they each interact. Lewis examines: Affection, Friendship, Eros, & Charity. In each of the first three categories he shows both good & bad examples of that form of love, orin other words, the love & the perversion of that love.
Lewis states: "Let us make no mistakes. Our Gift-loves are really God-Like, & among our Gift-loves those are most God-Like which are most boundless & unweariedin 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 & all but adorable image of the Divine life." p.9 This is the ultimatein love; this is when our love comes closest to God's Love.
Lewis gives us a great studyin love, what love is, what it means to truly love & some of the pitfalls of love gone askew. This book will help you live & love better.
Every kind of love and how to sanctify them - By: Pieter, 24 Jun 2007 
In the introduction, Lewis discusses the differences between Gift-love & Need-love. He explains that although our Need-loves may be demanding & greedy, they are good & necessary because there is little danger that they can be made into gods. They are not near enough to God, by likeness, to be twisted like that. The highest does not exist without the lowest & a plant has roots below as well as sunlight above.
Chapter 2: Likings And Loves For The Sub-Human, is a discussion of Pleasures of Need versus Pleasures of Appreciation. The types of love explored here include patriotism & love of nature. The next chapter: Affection, deals with the humblest love as Lewis calls it. He refers to literary works like The Wind In The Willows, Tristram Shandy, Emma & others to demonstrate the good & the bad manifestations of this kind of love.
Friendship is exploredin Chapter 4, again with reference to literature, including inter alia Ralph Waldo Emerson. This section includes an interesting discussion of the word "spiritual" - which is nowadays often used as substitute for "religious". Lewis reminds us that there is spiritual evil as well as spiritual good. The next chapter deals with Eros & he points out its aspects of glory & its playfullness, with reference to books like Anna Karenina & 1984, & certain passages from scripture.
The final chapter is titled Charity & includes an interesting view of a passage from the Confessions by St Augustine. Lewis notes that the Gift-loves are natural images of God whilst the Need-loves are correlatives (not opposites) of the love that God is. When God is admitted to the human heart, He transforms our Gift-love & our Need-love. Conversion is necessary for our natural loves to enter the heavenly life.
The main lesson of the book is the importance of Charity. Without it, all three of the aforementioned types of love may become distorted & even dangerous. Although this little book provides great insight, I have not found it to be as accessible as his masterpiece Mere Christianity or his comforting book titled The Problem Of Pain.
Sometimes his arguments are hard to follow & his views & examples of certain types of love are coloured by the English culture of the periodin which he lived, thus not always universally applicable. The book would also have been a better reference source if an index had been included. Besides these minor comlaints, The Four Loves is still a great read that provides valuable insight into the human condition.
Three kinds of love and a fourth to sanctify them - By: Pieter, 24 Jun 2007 Lewis discusses the differences between Gift-love & Need-lovein the introduction, explaining that although our Need-loves may be demanding & greedy, they are good & necessary because there is little danger that they can be made into idols. They are not near enough to God, by likeness, to be twisted like that. The highest does not exist without the lowest & a plant has roots below as well as sunlight above.
Chapter 2: Likings And Loves For The Sub-Human, is a discussion of Pleasures of Need versus Pleasures of Appreciation. The types of love explored here include patriotism & love of nature. The next chapter: Affection, deals with the humblest love as Lewis calls it. He refers to literary works like The Wind In The Willows, Tristram Shandy, Emma & others to demonstrate the good & the bad manifestations of this kind of love.
Friendship is exploredin Chapter 4, again with reference to literature, including inter alia Ralph Waldo Emerson. This section includes an interesting discussion of the word "spiritual" - which is nowadays often used as substitute for "religious". Lewis reminds us that there is spiritual good as well as spiritual evil. The next chapter deals with Eros & he points out its aspects of glory & its playfulness, with reference to books like Anna Karenina & 1984, & certain passages from scripture.
The final chapter is titled Charity & includes an interesting view of a passage from the Confessions by St Augustine. Lewis notes that the Gift-loves are natural images of God whilst the Need-loves are correlatives (not opposites) of the love that God is. When God is admitted to the human heart, He transforms our Gift-love & our Need-love. Conversion is necessary for our natural loves to enter the heavenly life.
The main lesson of the book is the importance of Charity. Without it, all three of the aforementioned types of love may become distorted & even dangerous. That alone is worth the price, but I have not found The Four Loves to be as accessible as his masterpiece Mere Christianity or his comforting book titled The Problem Of Pain.
Sometimes his arguments are hard to follow & his views & examples of certain types of love are coloured by the English culture of the periodin which he lived, thus not always universally applicable. The book would also have been a better reference source if an index had been provided. Besides these minor comlaints, The Four Loves is still a great read that provides valuable insight into the human condition.
