The Four Loves (‘Agape’ or ‘God’s Love’) by C.S. Lewis Doodle

This is an illustration of C.S Lewis’ talk about the fourth of the Four Loves – ‘Agape’ or ‘God's love for man and the Christian's love for the believers’. Notes below...

Originally 'The Four Loves' series was recorded by Lewis in London in 1958, prepared as 10 talks to air on the ‘Protestant Hour’ on American radio in 1959. I believe 'Agape' was split into two talks. The second part begins at 10:57 if you need smaller, bite-sized segments.

You can find my transcript of this talk here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1GT9vwknq3Tvup6xeoedczAGIHF4Rx4OI/view?usp=sharing

You can purchase Lewis' original radio broadcasts here: https://www.amazon.com/The-Four-Loves/dp/B0007OB5QM

(0:35) Modern audiences live in a naturalistic, humanity-centric age, and do not even have the benefit of a religious education (like the Victorians) to remind them of the supremacy of Divine love. So Lewis had to change his approach to the subject of love for a modern audience and put secondary things first, and start by showing the natural loves are not enough all by themselves. Lewis explains his approach here:

“The natural loves prove that they are unworthy to take the place of God by the fact that they cannot even remain themselves and do what they promise to do without God's help. Why prove that some petty princeling is not the lawful Emperor when without the Emperor's support he cannot even keep his subordinate throne and make peace in his little province for half a year?” (C.S. Lewis, Book version)

(5:13) See Psalm 69.20,33 and Psalm 51.17 "Reproach hath broken my heart; and I am full of heaviness: and I looked for some to take pity, but there was none; and for comforters, but I found none. They gave me also gall for my meat; and in my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink."

(7:49) "Consider again, "I loved Jacob and I hated Esau" (Malachi 1. 2-3). How is the thing called God's "hatred" of Esau displayed in the actual story? Not at all as we might expect...And, from all we are told, Esau's earthly life was, in every ordinary sense, a good deal more blessed than Jacob's. It is Jacob who has all the disappointments, humiliations, terrors, and bereavements. But he has something which Esau has not. He is a patriarch. He hands on the Hebraic tradition, transmits the vocation and the blessing, becomes an ancestor of Our Lord. The "loving" of Jacob seems to mean the acceptance of Jacob for a high (and painful) vocation; the "hating" of Esau, his rejection. He is "turned down," fails to "make the grade," is found useless for the purpose. So, in the last resort, we must turn down or disqualify our nearest and dearest when they come between us and our obedience to God. Heaven knows, it will seem to them sufficiently like hatred. We must not act on the pity we feel; we must be blind to tears and deaf to pleadings.”

(13:42) "Nature never taught me that there exists a God of glory and of infinite majesty. I had to learn that in other ways. But nature gave the word GLORY a meaning for me. I still do not know where else I could have found one. I do not see how the "fear" of God could have ever meant to me anything but the lowest prudential efforts to be safe, if I had never seen certain ominous ravines and unapproachable crags. And if nature [i.e., Storge, Philia and Eros] had never awakened certain longings in me, huge areas of what I can now mean by the "love" of God [Agape] would never, so far as I can see, have existed."

(16:03) “And as merciful as he feeleth God in his heart to himself-ward, so merciful is he to other; and as greatly as he feeleth his own misery, so great compassion hath he on other. His neighbour is no less care to him than himself: he feeleth his neighbour’s grief no less than his own” (William Tyndale, English Bible Translator and Christian Martyr).

(20:31) "When God planted a garden He set a man over it and set the man under Himself. When He planted the garden of our nature and caused the flowering, fruiting loves to grow there, He set our will to "dress" them . Compared with them it [our will to dress them] is dry and cold [like garden tools]. And unless His grace comes down, like the rain and the sunshine, we shall use this tool to little purpose. But its laborious and largely negative services are indispensable."

(23:14) There is another way also - spiritual help (2e) : "If you love me feed/guard my lambs/sheep" (John 21.16-17).

(23:45) God can awake in man, towards Himself, a supernatural Appreciative love [#1]. This is of all gifts the most to be desired. Here, not in our natural loves, nor even in ethics, lies the true centre of all human and angelic life. With this all things are possible."

(24:05) “Myths and symbols”. See the last page of the book version of ‘The Four Loves’ for C.S. Lewis’ examples.

(24:50) Song: 'Born Again' from 'The Witness' Musical by Jimmy and Carol Owens. https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLDA3A01C151ECF610

(The lyrics to this song are in the captions on video).

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