Our True Beloved: Studies in Christianity and History Inspired by the Four Loves

C. S. Lewis's masterpiece The Four Loves, published in 1960, provided the world with a Christian exploration of four dimensions of human love: extolling the divine blessings and warning of the idolatrous distortions in familial belonging (storge), friendship as a common quest (philia), romantic desire for personal union (eros), and concluding with the perfection of divine, unconditional love (agape). Whiting uses the four loves as a framework to interpret the Christian love of God in historical movements across Catholic, Orthodox, Protestant, and Pentecostal/Charismatic churches. He illuminates the often reactionary and competing tensions swinging between emphases on loving God in liturgical ritual and worship (storge), the active moral life (philia), personal spiritual experience (eros), and approaches of faith to suffering (agape). Synthesizing a panoramic view of Christian history with philosophy, literature, and biblical reflection, Whiting shows how the love of God is diminished when the loves become fractured. He advocates for an integrated, holistic love of God that both avoids excesses and challenges the modern narrative of secular progress.