Love In C. S. Lewis Four Types Of Love

Love has been described in many ways throughout Christian theology and given different definitions by many theologists, but C.S. Lewis made his own claim as to what he believes love really is. Lewis believed that love was not as simple as many theologians have put it. He believed that love was split into four different types, and that to understand love is to know these four types. Storge, Phileo, Eros, and Agape are the four types of loves Lewis speaks about. To be able to break down the subtle love between characters in his fictional novels, we must first have a firm grasp as to what Lewis really means when he uses the word love or shows love in a variety of situations. These loves are all illustrated in a plethora of ways throughout his
He says this can be done by steering them towards living for each other and cut everything else out of their lives. On the same note, this can also lead to exposing their weakness in gift-love by getting them to think that their unselfishness is giving the other a gift. Eventually, this becomes indecisiveness and will turn into irritation and grudges because they won’t accept each other's help or make their own decision. Self-sacrifice in a relationship is really another form of possessive need-love (or affection). Screwtape recognizes that romantic love in its purest form “produces a mutual complaisance in which each is really pleased to give in to the wishes of the other” (Screwtape Letters, pg. 121). The senior tempter knows that God seeks in relationships of eros “charity which, if attained, would result” similarly in giving to each other and giving in to each other (Screwtape, Letters, pg. 121). Eros love is not enough, charity is needed because eventually the romantic love will slowly fade away but it will be replaced by a stronger and deeper love, agape. Agape will replace Eros if the two of them in the relationship practice God’s intentions of gift-love (Screwtape Letters, pg. 71). This idea is also clearly stated in The Four Loves when Lewis writes that eros cannot last
His ideas are strengthened by showing sides of how Eros is more of a fork in the road, where you can either have it in your life and it can lead to a joyous and Christ-centered relationship where they can build their faith with each other or it can do the opposite and lead towards despair. When reading The Four Loves, it is presumed in many ways that the feelings from Eros or Agape are true and that the good always stays good. Along the same lines, Lewis discusses in The Four Loves God’s pattern of taking away some of our human loves in preference to His Gift-love, but then giving the human loves back again. For example, he writes, “For when God rules in a human heart, though He may sometimes have to remove certain of its native authorities altogether, He often continues others in their offices and, by subjecting their authority to His, gives it for the first time a firm basis” (166). In order to pervert the human impulse for genuine charity love, Screwtape advises Wormwood, “When they [humans] mean to ask Him for charity, let them, instead, start trying to manufacture charitable feelings for themselves and not notice that this is what they are doing” (21). Since The Screwtape Letters was written 19 years before The Four Loves, there are some ideas taken exactly from one book to the other. For instance, when Screwtape mentions the fiancee’s family members, he