The Art of Faithful Love (Part 5)

Negotiating challenges and change in Christian marriage In the previous four articles, I argued that faithful love is best understood as a lifelong practice in which affection, friendship, desire and altruism are shaped by compatibility, commitment, companionship and character. I suggested that Christian marriage embodies this love as adaptive fidelity: a covenant in which two persons …

The Art of Faithful Love (Part 2)

What qualities enable love to flourish? In Part 1, I outlined C. S. Lewisโ€™s idea of four kinds of human love, drawing on the wisdom of classical antiquity. I suggested that each one becomes genuinely life-giving as it is received as a finite good, ethically formed by mutuality and respect, and transformed by divine love …

The Art of Faithful Love (Part 1)

What forms does human love take? C. S. Lewis andย The Four Loves Love. Itโ€™s almost certainly the most frequently invoked human emotion. Itโ€™s the subject of thousands of stories and songs. At the same time, itโ€™s among the least precisely differentiated concepts in ordinary discourse. The same term is used for spouses, children, friends, communities, …

Screwtape’s advice on Comer’s Practicing the Way

My dear Wormwood, I have received your anxious report regarding the latest fad among the Enemyโ€™s followers: this tiresome programme of so-called โ€œapprenticeship to the Enemy,โ€ promoted by that meddlesome priest, John Mark Comer. You are quite right to be concerned, though not, I think, for the reasons you suppose. At first glance, the scheme …

Connecting with others who follow Jesus

According to Wheaton College professor Wayne Martindale, C. S. Lewis, the creator of theย Narnia Chronicles,ย โ€œhad no natural fondness for church-going.ย He found the sermons often dull, and he disliked hymns and organ music, which he described as โ€œone long roar.โ€ He felt like โ€œthe most dejected and reluctant convert in all England.โ€[1] Yet Lewis discovered the …