Friday, December 3, 2010

Human Love

Every Human love, at its height, has a tendency to claim for itself a divine authority. Its voice tends to sound as it were the will of God Himself. It tells us not to count the cost, it demands of us a total commitment, it also attempts to over-ride all other claims and insinuate that any action which is sincerely done "for loves sake" is thereby lawful and even meritorious. That erotic love and love of one's country may thus attempt to "become gods" is generally recognised. But family affection may do the same. So, in a different way, may friendship. . . .
Now it must be noticed that the natural loves make this blasphemous claim not when they are in the worst, but when they are in their best, natural condition; when they are what our grandfathers called "pure" or "noble." This is especially obvious in the erotic sphere. A faithful and genuinely self-sacrificial passion will speak to us with what seems the voice of God. Merely animal or frivolous lust will not.
~C.S. Lewis; The Four Loves, Introduction p. 16-18
Concluding thoughts on p. 19

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