31 pages • 1 hour read
C. S. LewisA modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Eros is the state of “being in love.” (91). Sexuality is only an ingredient of Eros, not the love itself.Lewis refers to the carnal element of Eros as “Venus” (92). Lewis takes care to make the distinction that sexuality can be present without Eros. Any two bodies can participate in the physical act of sex. They need not be in love, engage in Friendship or Affection, or even see or think of each other again. They need only their bodies. But this is not to say that Lewis views sexual activity in the absence of Eros as something degraded. In Christianity, sex is typically discussed as being the province of marriage, but Lewis’s discussion of Eros does not consider the morals of sexuality within or without the bounds of marriage or committed relationships. He examines sex in terms of its relationship to God and man, as with the other loves.
Lewis begins by describing the early stages of Eros, or falling in love: “Very often what comes first is simply a delighted preoccupation with the Beloved [...] A man in this state really hasn’t leisure to think of sex” (93). Desire in the early stages of Eros is not necessarily sexual and may not involve lust at all.
By C. S. Lewis
A Grief Observed
C. S. Lewis
Mere Christianity
C. S. Lewis
Out of the Silent Planet
C. S. Lewis
Perelandra
C. S. Lewis
Prince Caspian
C. S. Lewis
Surprised by Joy
C. S. Lewis
That Hideous Strength
C. S. Lewis
The Abolition of Man
C. S. Lewis
The Discarded Image
C. S. Lewis
The Great Divorce
C. S. Lewis
The Horse And His Boy
C. S. Lewis
The Last Battle
C. S. Lewis
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
C. S. Lewis
The Magician's Nephew
C. S. Lewis
The Pilgrim's Regress
C. S. Lewis
The Problem of Pain
C. S. Lewis
The Screwtape Letters
C. S. Lewis
The Silver Chair
C. S. Lewis
The Voyage of the Dawn Treader
C. S. Lewis
Till We Have Faces
C. S. Lewis