The Four Loves

From Tolkien Gateway
The Four Loves
The Four Loves.jpg
AuthorC.S. Lewis
PublisherIreland: Harvest Books
Released1960
FormatHardcover, paperback
Pages160 (1st edition)
ISBN0156329301

The Four Loves is a book by C.S. Lewis which explores the nature of love from a Christian perspective through thought-experiments and examples from literature. In a passage in the chapter on friendship ("Philia - Friendship"), Lewis invokes his friends J.R.R. Tolkien ("Ronald") and Charles Williams ("Charles") as examples:

"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. Now that Charles is dead, I shall never again see Ronald's reaction to a specifically Caroline joke. Far from having more of Ronald, having him 'to myself' now that Charles is away, I have less of Ronald. ... We possess each friend not less but more as the number of those with whom we share him increases."
― C.S. Lewis

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