A student asked for help. He was writing a paper on
Christian love and why its superior to love based on mere physicality.
I struggled to find anything that would help. I knew of Jason Evert's Pure Love (something not available at the library). Christopher West has some titles but I struggled to find any non-Catholic titles since most patrons are not Catholic.
I gave him C.S. Lewis' Four Loves but that had me thinking: why aren't there more titles like this?
Thursday, December 1, 2011
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Lewis's "Four Loves" is an excellent start, and may prompt the querent to follow up by locating authors whom Lewis mentions: Augustine, the Bible, etc. Does Lewis discuss the Greek philosophers' ideas on love? Translations of their works are probably available in Project Gutenberg or other online sources if not in the library. Perhaps Catholic or Christian encyclopedias can offer some useful synopses and/or names for further research.
ReplyDeleteBrowsing the subject headings of a certain library, I note that under the subject heading of "God - Christianity - love", Max Lucado's "A Love Worth Giving : living in the overflow of God's Love". Lucado may not have quite the reputation or the intellectual versatility of Lewis, but the Amazon description of this book suggests that it might be relevant.
I wonder if other books on the history of the concept of love, like Diane Ackerman's "Natural History of Love", might be useful. I can't recall exactly what slant she takes on the subject, since it's been years since I've seen my copy.