{"id":5084,"date":"2018-07-26T06:18:58","date_gmt":"2018-07-26T14:18:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/?p=5084"},"modified":"2018-07-26T06:18:58","modified_gmt":"2018-07-26T14:18:58","slug":"the-four-loves-eros","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/archives\/2018\/07\/26\/the-four-loves-eros","title":{"rendered":"The Four Loves: Eros"},"content":{"rendered":"
The Four Loves by C. S. Lewis<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Blog read\u00aders: Chi Alpha @ Stan\u00adford is engag\u00ading in our annu\u00adal sum\u00admer read\u00ading project. As we read through three books by C. S. Lewis, I\u2019ll post my thoughts here (which will large\u00adly con\u00adsist of excerpts I found insight\u00adful). They are all tagged sum\u00admer-read\u00ading-project-2018<\/a>. The sched\u00adule is online<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

I\u2019m at a con\u00adfer\u00adence right now with a pret\u00adty packed sched\u00adule, so I\u2019m dash\u00ading this email off quick\u00ader than nor\u00admal. Apolo\u00adgies for typos or inco\u00adher\u00adent thoughts. \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n

One thing I great\u00adly appre\u00adci\u00adat\u00aded in this chap\u00adter is Lewis\u2019s dis\u00adcus\u00adsion of how amus\u00ading human romance is. Not every\u00adone gets this.<\/p>\n

I remem\u00adber I was once at a con\u00adfer\u00adence host\u00ading a table dis\u00adcus\u00adsion with stu\u00addents about romance and rela\u00adtion\u00adships and sex. I was mak\u00ading the point that sex is an objec\u00adtive\u00adly absurd thing. I was, if I may say so, on top of my game that day and they were roar\u00ading with laugh\u00adter.<\/p>\n

One of the stu\u00addents at my table sud\u00adden\u00adly stopped laugh\u00ading and said, \u201cI have a ques\u00adtion. I just over\u00adheard the table host at the oth\u00ader table crit\u00adi\u00adcize us for laugh\u00ading at sex. He said that we don\u2019t under\u00adstand how seri\u00adous and sacred sex is. That laugh\u00ading at it like this shows that we\u2019re imma\u00adture and we\u2019re going to get our\u00adselves into trou\u00adble because we don\u2019t approach it with solem\u00adni\u00adty. What do you think about that?\u201d<\/p>\n

Every\u00adone stopped laugh\u00ading as though they had been slapped, for indeed they had been.<\/p>\n

I can\u00adnot remem\u00adber in detail how I went on to defend my thoughts that day (although I recall fur\u00adther and per\u00adhaps exces\u00adsive ridicule of my critic\u2019s per\u00adspec\u00adtive was deployed), but I am pleased to report that this chap\u00adter reveals that C.S. Lewis shared my per\u00adspec\u00adtive.<\/p>\n

For I can hard\u00adly help regard\u00ading it as one of God\u2019s jokes that a pas\u00adsion so soar\u00ading, so appar\u00adent\u00adly tran\u00adscen\u00addent, as Eros, should thus be linked in incon\u00adgru\u00adous sym\u00adbio\u00adsis with a bod\u00adi\u00adly appetite which, like any oth\u00ader appetite, tact\u00adless\u00adly reveals its con\u00adnec\u00adtions with such mun\u00addane fac\u00adtors as weath\u00ader, health, diet, cir\u00adcu\u00adla\u00adtion, and diges\u00adtion. In Eros at times we seem to be fly\u00ading; Venus gives us the sud\u00adden twitch that reminds us we are real\u00adly cap\u00adtive bal\u00adloons.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

And lat\u00ader:<\/p>\n

So the body. There\u2019s no liv\u00ading with it till we recog\u00adnise that one of its func\u00adtions in our lives is to play the part of buf\u00adfoon. Until some the\u00ado\u00adry has sophis\u00adti\u00adcat\u00aded them, every man, woman and child in the world knows this. The fact that we have bod\u00adies is the old\u00adest joke there is.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

And again:<\/p>\n

Noth\u00ading is falser than the idea that mock\u00adery is nec\u00ades\u00adsar\u00adi\u00adly hos\u00adtile. Until they have a baby to laugh at, lovers are always laugh\u00ading at each oth\u00ader.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

So here is my encour\u00adage\u00adment to you in your roman\u00adtic jour\u00adney: see the humor in it.<\/p>\n

But romance is not just amus\u00ading \u2014 it is also pro\u00adfound. If it was only amus\u00ading it would not be worth so much ener\u00adgy and atten\u00adtion. It would be at most a hob\u00adby. Romance is far more than that. Lewis explains one of the spir\u00adi\u00adtu\u00adal dynam\u00adics at work in roman\u00adtic love:<\/p>\n

The event of falling in love is of such a nature that we are right to reject as intol\u00ader\u00ada\u00adble the idea that it should be tran\u00adsi\u00adto\u00adry. In one high bound it has over\u00adleaped the mas\u00adsive wall of our self\u00adhood; it has made appetite itself altru\u00adis\u00adtic, tossed per\u00adson\u00adal hap\u00adpi\u00adness aside as a triv\u00adi\u00adal\u00adi\u00adty and plant\u00aded the inter\u00adests of anoth\u00ader in the cen\u00adtre of our being. Spon\u00adta\u00adneous\u00adly and with\u00adout effort we have ful\u00adfilled the law (towards one per\u00adson) by lov\u00ading our neigh\u00adbour as our\u00adselves. It is an image, a fore\u00adtaste, of what we must become to all if Love Him\u00adself rules in us with\u00adout a rival. It is even (well used) a prepa\u00adra\u00adtion for that\u2026. Can we be in this self\u00adless lib\u00ader\u00ada\u00adtion for a life\u00adtime? Hard\u00adly for a week. Between the best pos\u00adsi\u00adble lovers this high con\u00addi\u00adtion is inter\u00admit\u00adtent. The old self soon turns out to be not so dead as he pretended\u2014as after a reli\u00adgious con\u00adver\u00adsion. In either he may be momen\u00adtar\u00adi\u00adly knocked flat; he will soon be up again; if not on his feet, at least on his elbow, if not roar\u00ading, at least back to his surly grum\u00adbling or his men\u00addi\u00adcant whine.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

That\u2019s it for this week. Next week: agape!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Blog read\u00aders: Chi Alpha @ Stan\u00adford is engag\u00ading in our annu\u00adal sum\u00admer read\u00ading project. As we read through three books by C. S. Lewis, I\u2019ll post my thoughts here (which will large\u00adly con\u00adsist of excerpts I found insight\u00adful). They are all tagged sum\u00admer-read\u00ad\u00ading-project-2018. The sched\u00adule is online. I\u2019m at a con\u00adfer\u00adence right now with a \u2026 Con\u00adtin\u00adue read\u00ading \u201cThe Four Loves: Eros\u201d<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wp_typography_post_enhancements_disabled":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"C. S. Lewis thought romance was amusing, and I agree.","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[8],"tags":[230,164,229,232],"class_list":["post-5084","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-resources-reviews","tag-c-s-lewis","tag-relationships","tag-summer-reading-project-2018","tag-the-four-loves"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6Ded-1k0","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5084","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5084"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5084\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5087,"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5084\/revisions\/5087"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5084"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5084"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5084"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}