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He was inspired by a biblical quote: 1 John 4:16, “God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him” (King James Version). From this, Lewis reasoned that if “God is love,” then human loves rightly reflect that divine love.
Summary. Analysis. Eros refers to the state of being in love. This is more than a discussion of just human sexuality, however; that’s just one ingredient of “being in love.” There’s a carnal sexual element that Lewis will refer to as “Venus.” Sexuality can operate without Eros or as part of it.
Freedom and love go together. Love is not a reaction. If I love you because you love me, that is mere trade, a thing to be bought in the market; it is not love. To love is not to ask anything in return, not even to feel that you are giving something- and it is only such love that can know freedom.
The book offers insights and reflections on love, but it is more focused on philosophical and theological exploration rather than providing practical relationship advice. C.S. Lewis explores the nature of love in its four distinct forms: affection, friendship, romantic love, and unconditional love.
The Four Loves Summary. When Lewis first set out to write about love, his thesis was “God is love” (as St. John writes in the Bible). Therefore, he divided natural human loves into two types— Gift-love (which is God-like, because God is self-giving) and Need-love (which is unlike God, because God lacks nothing).
Chapter 1 Summary: "Likings and Love for the Sub-Human". Lewis asks whether it is appropriate to say that we “love” something such as a strawberry, given the context in which he views love. He begins his investigation with a discussion of pleasure, of which he says there are two sorts.
Listed below are most of the book’s explicit references (including quotations) and many of the implicit ones (allusions ranging from the very obvious to the fairly mys-terious), each followed by the fullest possible identification of the sources in question and a varying amount of further details.
