The Four Loves is the C.S. Lewis book that examines affection, friendship, erotic love, and charity.
Published in 1960, the book developed ideas Lewis had first presented in a BBC radio talk. He uses four traditional Greek terms to distinguish different forms of love: storge for natural affection, philia for friendship, eros for romantic or sexual love, and agape, which he connects with divine or self-giving love. In the book, Lewis commonly uses the term “charity” for this final category.
Lewis does not simply rank the four loves as independent emotional experiences. He argues that natural loves can become distorted when treated as ultimate, while divine love can transform and order them. His discussion combines Christian theology, literary examples, and observations about family and friendship.
The title is sometimes confused with Mere Christianity, another book developed from radio broadcasts, but the two works address different subjects. The Four Loves focuses specifically on the varieties and risks of human love.