A Brief Book Summary from Books At a Glance
by Steve West
Table of Contents
1 Introduction
2 Likings and Loves for the Sub-Human
3 Affection
4 Friendship
5 Eros
6 Charity
Summary
Chapter 1: Introduction
At first it seemed easy to write a book on love if one followed St. John’s theme that “God is love,” but the subject has proved more complex than originally imagined. The first distinction made was between Gift-love and Need-love, with the former being the kind of love that gives to another, while the latter is the kind of love that a child exhibits when they run to their parent to have their needs met. Divine love is Gift-love, and although it is deplorable if we confuse love with our craving to be loved, in the relationship in which we as creatures stand to God we are continually in a state of Need-love. It is in recognizing this difference between ourselves and God that we can draw close to God. We cannot get closer to him in an ontological sense, but we can draw closer and closer to him in terms of approaching him in our imitation of Christ. As creatures we are needy, and it is in God that our needs are satisfied.
God is love, but we must never slip into the error of thinking that love is God. As M. Denis de Rougemont has said, “love ceases to be a demon only when he ceases to be a god.” We can also say that love, “begins to be a demon the moment he begins to be a god.” Every kind of human love, if it is exalted beyond its place, can be put in the place of God. Once there, it can command with a voice of divine authority, so that people will do anything they think love demands (no matter the consequences or the moral law). This can happen with friendship, with erotic love, with the love of a parent who spoils their children, and every other case. The only time our loves can assert this claim to be divine is when the claim has an appearance of plausibility. If we allow our natural loves to become gods, they morph into devils, and they will destroy both themselves and us. We must not side with the debunkers who try to lower love to animal instinct, but we must also resist joining with those who divinize it. Human love can image Divine love; it cannot do more but neither should we aim for less. . . .
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