Brilliance and Blindspots: New Light on C.S. Lewis’s The Four Loves

Abstract

This paper is a critical re‐evaluation of C.S. Lewis’s classic study of Christian love, The Four Loves (1960) that celebrated its 60th anniversary in 2020. After discussing important and neglected differences between the celebrated book and the largely forgotten radio talks which predate it, the paper asks and answers three important questions: Are there really four loves? What is the definition of love itself? What exactly is Charity? Lewis’s answers to these questions are more eclectic than is generally assumed. The paper offers an appreciative rereading of The Four Loves that seeks to correct or at least challenge a number of longstanding misunderstandings about Lewis’s taxonomy of love.

Love and the Winter: C.S. Lewis, Nigel Biggar, and Marc LiVecche on Enemy Love

“…As I have argued more carefully elsewhere (Lepojärvi 2015, 68-71;Lepojärvi 2022), Lewis nowhere gives a sufficiently clear definition of love itself, the common denominator of all loves, but an approximate essence of love can be extracted from The Four Loves and his many other writings on the subject. For the purpose of this paper, I find this definition useful: Love is the appreciative and responsive commitment to the other's wellbeing insofar as possible and permissible.…”