As we reach the end of our The Four Loves Read-along, we have so far investigated Affection, Friendship and Romantic Love (the natural loves) but none of these loves are sufficient in and of themselves without another Love to support the feelings and keep them sweet. Lewis now investigates Charity, or Agape (ἀγάπη).
Yes, it’s finally my belated post for Week 4 of The Four Loves Read-along, focussing on Eros! Please read on ….!
Huh? …..
Lewis seems to be saying that we are between angels and animals, Venus is the carnal within Eros but she’s kinda funny so laugh at her or she will extract revenge, Eros is Eros but he cannot be Eros by himself, the husband is the head only if he gives most, rough play in sex can be harmless and wholesome (did I read this correctly … however notice the “can be“), while a person is not usually worshiped, Love is and then the expectations are God-like which cannot be fulfilled and then everyone is resentful and implacable and it all falls apart …. LOL!
And the above summary contain the conclusions come to after a very superficial read of a difficult chapter where, in fact, we have to do WORK to follow Lewis. So here goes …
Let’s begin afresh (please!) with Eros or Romantic L❤️ve …
Again from my The Four Loves Read-along week 2 post I’ve had thoughts brewing. On Marian’s blog, I posted a question that I’ve been musing about and I thought I’d re-post here in case anyone has any enlightening comments on it:
“Were you surprised when Lewis spoke about developing Affection for people one normally would have nothing to do with but circumstances brought them together? I find that nowadays most people choose only people they would want to hang out with. Where have the relationships gone which form in spite of themselves? Has our world changed drastically from Lewis’ world?”
I do think generally that in spite of our outward modern multi-cultural tolerances, that people actually have practically less tolerance towards the differences of people. What do you think?
I’m a few days late with this post as life is becoming rather hectic but I will try to keep up as we move along. Rest assured though; all the posts will go up eventually!
Before I continue with The Four Loves week two posting, I wanted to put down some more thoughts from week one. After reading the second chapter on Like and Loves for the Sub-Human, I said I was having difficulty finding the distinction between what Lewis called Patriotism (love of home and family) and Ethics, which he implies might replace it (I think it has in our century). Well, I was listening to a training video on workplace harassment and I believe Lewis’ point finally dawned on me. The video sounded as if it were addressing early teens, which in itself was shocking given that it was targeting fully matured adults, but I was also struck by how much we are relying on other people to tell us what to do and how to behave. People used to have an intrinsic value system, and while we’re not perfect, we would never have had to lay out instructions on common, obvious, sensible behaviour like we do today. Was the former (intrinsic value system) based on Lewis’ Patriotism: a strong sense of ties to a family, a community and a place and therefore the better you behaved the more not only the community would benefit, but everyone else also? And thus, has it degraded into a more fragmented society where people without those ties (or less of them), live only for themselves and therefore Ethics has had to step up in an almost haphazard way to try to govern people who are less able to govern themselves? I wonder …..
In any case, on to week two where Lewis examines the Greek word, στοργή (storge, with a hard “g”) which roughly translated means affection, “especially of parents for offspring”, but Lewis expands the term. Let’s see what he has to say ….
And here we go with our The Four Loves read-along! Here is the first post. I hope my notes help clarify the start of the book and please feel free to add any comments below. I don’t know about the rest of you, but I found the beginning quite dense and Lewis sometimes a wee bit difficult to follow. I think it will get easier, however, as he begins to examine each type of love.
I’m going to attach some questions to each chapter. You can use these to answer them as a post on your blog, or simply mull them over to understand the reading better. I do hope they help!
What are your ideas about love? Is love an overwhelming romantic feeling? Can it be a decision or a duty? Can you fall out of love? Have you wished for a better understanding of the love of God? Can friends love each other? What about families and our love for them? In English, we use the same word for all these feelings … love …. but the Greeks have different words for these feelings of love and each has its different distinctions. Do you want to learn more? Then please join me in my read-along of C.S. Lewis’ The Four Loves for the month of June!
“I dreamed of a boy who was born in the land of Puritania and his name was John.”
In The Pilgrim’s Regress, John is a boy who lives in Puritania and is given a rather legalistic view of the Landlord of his country by the overseer or Steward. When he sees a shimmering Island in a vision through a crack in a wall, he experiences such an intense longing that he leaves Puritania, setting out on a journey to discover its location. With this incredible longing (Sehensucht) throbbing inside him, he tries to assuage it by a number of worldly means. The basic gist of the story is that John starts out, running from something he doesn’t truly understand and running to something he doesn’t truly understand. Through his numerous adventures, many with his friend Vertue, he discovers that he has run right back to where he had begun, Puritania, but thanks to the enlightenment he has received on his travels from Mr. Halfway & son, the Clevers, Mr. Mammon, the Giant, Reason, Mother Kirk, Three Pale Men, Mr. Savage, Mr. Broad, Wisdom, Contemplation, the Hermit, and Silkisteinsauga, he finds the answers to his questions and is able to pass over the brook and into the light.
One of the many strengths of this book lies in the fact that John didn’t simply learn from the “good” people he met along his journey. Each of his encounters taught him something about life and his beliefs, which helped him to grow into the person he became at the end of the story.
This was one of the hardest reviews I have written so far. You begin with what appears to be a simple allegory of C.S. Lewis’ own journey to faith, yet the reader is soon made aware that embedded in this simple story is a plethora of incredibly complex material and ideas. Lewis incorporated numerous ideologies such as Romanticism, Neo-Romanticism, Communism, Freudianism, Facism, etc. along with imagery, metaphors, and a host of allusions and quotes that is mind-boggling. The fact that he wrote this book while on vacation at his friend Arthur Greeves’ house in a mere two weeks, and was able to incorporate the wide-ranging scope of material that he did, is astounding!
In talking about his book years later, Lewis appeared almost embarrassed by it: “On re-reading this book ten years after I wrote it, I find its chief faults to be those two which I myself least easily forgive in the books of other men: needless obscurity, and an uncharitable temper.” He blames his youthful idealism on failing to give the reader the guidance to understand his personal journey. I, for one, can forgive him this minor fault. To mine The Pilgrim’s Regress of its treasures is a difficult task, but one that is well worth the effort.
Another project/challenge for 2014 is The C.S. Lewis Project. This project was proposed by the wonderful moderators on my Goodreads book group, The Dead Writers Society .
C.S. Lewis is one of my favourite authors. I began by reading some books from his Narnia Chronicles when I was young and later, as an adult, I read many of his theological books. Not only is Lewis brilliant, but he is adept at communicating complex ideas and concepts in a way that is easily accessible to your average layperson …….. like me! While he has definite opinions, which he supports using common sense and reason, he also is very gracious towards the people and groups with whom he disagrees. The depth and variety of his subjects mean that each read through his books exposes layer upon layer of valuable insights that have just as much relevance today as when he wrote them.
The schedule for The C.S. Lewis Project 2014 will look like this:
Dec 29 – Jan 11: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe
Jan 12 – 25: Prince Caspian: The Return to Narnia
Jan 26 – Feb 8: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader
Feb 9 – 22: The Silver Chair
Feb 23 – Mar 8: The Horse and His Boy
Mar 9 – 22: The Magician’s Nephew
Mar 23 – Apr 5: The Last Battle
April: Mere Christianity
May: The Screwtape Letters
June: The Great Divorce
July: Surprised by Joy
August: A Grief Observed
September: Out of the Silent Planet
October: Perelandra
November: That Hideous Strength
December: God in the Dock: Essays on Theology and Ethics
Are you interested in participating? Then come on over to The Dead Writers Society and join us! We’d be glad to have you!
This was an easy one for me. C.S. Lewis. I’ve read most of his books, I’ve watched documentaries about him and his life, I’ve read snippets of his biographies and letters, and I’ve taken a university course based on some of his works. So perhaps he is my favourite author because I know, by far, more about him than any other author.
Lewis was the grandson of a Anglican priest but he abandoned his Christian faith as a teenager. He hated school and when he was sixteen, his father finally agreed to hire a private tutor. This tutor, whom Lewis called, The Great Knock, was “a hard, satirical atheist who taught me how to think.” He was a great influence on Lewis’ journey into atheism but, surprisingly Lewis credits his tutor for teaching him how to reason, which therefore allowed him to be argued into Christianity. Lewis called himself “the most dejected and reluctant convert in all of England.”
I dislike Christian books that attempt to manipulate the reader into a belief in God. I perhaps have even more of an aversion to secular books which attack Christianity without an understanding of it. What I love about Lewis is both his rational, direct opinions, yet his warmth and generosity towards the people with whom he disagrees. With him, I never feel like I’m having some idea or precept forced down my throat. He merely presents his beliefs in a very logical, matter-of-fact, reasonable way, but they are presented as his beliefs and the reader is only asked to consider them, almost as if you are joining him in conversation.
One of my favourite quotes of Lewis:
“Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron’s cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.”
I have a great amount of respect for C.S. Lewis. A year doesn’t go by without a read of at least one of his books.