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Description
A candid, wise, and warmly personal book in which Lewis explores the possibilities and problems of the four basic kinds of human love- affection, friendship, erotic love, and the love of God. “Immensely worthwhile for its simplicity...a rare and memorable book” (Sydney J. Harris).
Important People
- Wordsworth (William): A major English Romantic poet, who is said to have helped launch the Romantic Age in English literature.
- Kipling (Rudyard): A British author, journalist, poet, and novelist. Wrote "The Jungle Book" and is known as a major "innovator in the art of the short story".
- Chesterton (G.K. - Gilbert Keith): A popular 20th century English writer who has been dubbed "the prince of paradox".
Memorable Quotes
-
“Man approaches God most nearly when he is in one sense least like God. For what can be more unlike than fullness and need, sovereignty and humility, righteousness and penitence, limitless power and a cry for help?”
C.S. Lewis (Ch. 1 - Introduction) -
“What is near Him by likeness is never, by that fact alone, going to be any nearer. But nearness of approach is, by definition, increasing nearness. And whereas the likeness is given to us - and can be received with or without thanks, can be used or abused - the approach, however initiated and supported by Grace, is something we must do.”
C.S. Lewis (Ch. 1 - Introduction) -
“We may give our human loves the unconditional allegiance which we owe only to God. Then they become gods: then they become demons. Then they will destroy us, and also destroy themselves. For natural loves that are allowed to become gods do not remain loves. They are still called so, but can become in fact complicated forms of hatred.”
C.S. Lewis (Ch. 1 - Introduction) -
“The highest does not stand without the lowest. A plant must have roots below as well as sunlight above and roots must be grubby. Much of the grubbiness is clean dirt if only you will leave it in the garden and not keep on sprinkling it over the library table.”
C.S. Lewis (Ch. 1 - Introduction) -
“Nature never taught me that there exists a God of glory and of infinite majesty. I had to learn that in other ways. But nature gave the word glory a meaning for me. I still do not know where else I could have found one. I do not see how the "fear" of God could have ever meant to me anything but the lowest prudential efforts to be safe, if I had never seen certain ominous ravines and unapproachable crags. And if nature had never awakened certain longings in me, huge areas of what I can now mean by the "love" of God would never, so far as I can see, have existed.”
C.S. Lewis (Ch. 2 - Likings and Loves for the Sub-human) -
“Nature cannot satisfy the desires she arouses nor answer theological questions nor sanctify us. Our real journey to God involves constantly turning our backs on her; passing from the dawn-lit fields into some poky little church, or (it might be) going to work in an East End parish. But the love of her has been a valuable and, for some people, an indispensable initiation.”
C.S. Lewis (Ch. 2 - Likings and Loves for the Sub-human) -
“Affection would not be affection if it was loudly and frequently expressed; to produce it in public is like getting your household furniture out for a move. It did very well in its place, but it looks shabby or tawdry or grotesque in the sunshine.”
C.S. Lewis (Ch. 3 - Affection) -
“The truly wide taste in humanity will similarly find something to appreciate in the cross-section of humanity whom one has to meet every day. In my experience it is Affection that creates this taste, teaching us first to notice, then to endure, then to smile at, then to enjoy, and finally to appreciate, the people who "happen to be there." Made for us? Thank God, no. They are themselves, odder than you could have believed and worth far more than we guessed.”
C.S. Lewis (Ch. 3 - Affection) -
“We hear a great deal about the rudeness of the rising generation. I am an oldster myself and might be expected to take the oldsters' side, but in fact I have been far more impressed by the bad manners of parents to children than by those of children to parents.”
C.S. Lewis (Ch. 3 - Affection) -
“My own profession - that of a university teacher - is in this way dangerous. If we are any good we must always be working towards the moment at which our pupils are fit to become our critics and rivals. We should be delighted when it arrives, as the fencing master is delighted when his pupil can pink and disarm him. And many are.”
C.S. Lewis (Ch. 3 - Affection) -
“"Natural," if you like, in a quite different sense; archnatural, unfallen. We have seen only one such Man. And He was not at all like the psychologist's picture of the integrated, balanced, adjusted, happily married, employed, popular citizen. You can't really be very well "adjusted" to your world if it says you "have a devil" and ends by nailing you up naked to a stake of wood.”
C.S. Lewis (Ch. 3 - Affection) -
“In each of my friends there is something that only some other friend can fully bring out. By myself I am not large enough to call the whole man into activity; I want other lights than my own to show all his facets.”
C.S. Lewis (Ch. 4 - Friendship) -
“But, for a Christian, there are, strictly speaking, no chances. A secret Master of the Ceremonies has been at work. Christ, who said to the disciples "Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you," can truly say to every group of Christian friends "You have not chosen one another but I have chosen you for one another." The Friendship is not a reward for our discrimination and good taste in finding one another out. It is the instrument by which God reveals to each the beauties of all the others.”
C.S. Lewis (Ch. 4 - Friendship)
First Sentence
Most of my generation were reproved as children for saying that we "loved" strawberries, and some people take a pride in the fact that English has the two verbs love and like while French has to get on with aimer for both.
Table of Contents
I. Introduction
II. Likings and Loves for the Sub-human
III. Affection
IV. Friendship
V. Eros
VI. Charity
Glossary
- fecundity: the ability to reproduce
- filial: pertaining to a relationship with a son or daughter
- vernal: relating to the spring; fresh or new like the spring
- theodicy: a specific branch of theology and philosophy that attempts to justify the behaviour of God
- acquiescence: the act of giving agreement or consent by silence or without objection
- prosaic: describes something as matter-of-fact or straightforward, dull or lacking in imagination and spirit.
- Gorgon: a Greek female mythological creature who is said to be terrifying; often described as three sisters with hair made of snakes, that could turn to stone, anyone who met their gaze
- egregious: distinguished
- milieu: environment or setting
- aping: imitation or mimicry
- hierophant: an ancient Greek priest who interpreted sacred mysteries
- etiolated: becoming white or blanched
Authors & Contributors
- C. S. Lewis (Author)
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