C. S. Lewis writes The Four Loves as an accessible linguistic commentary upon the Greek words for "love" which appear in the Bible. His audience is primarily Christian, so Lewis writes necessarily confrontationally in order to dispel the assumption that the single English word can accurately describe the nuances of the text. Following the descriptions of the four Greek words for "love" and their meanings, he explains how these more accurately nuanced meanings apply to the reading of the text. These differences of meaning have practical consequences in the daily life of a Christian who is called upon to practice all four types of love.
The four loves are based upon the four Koine Greek words which have been translated to the single English word "love" in biblical texts. These are: storge, phileo, eros, and agape. Storge can be called affection, the process of feeling attraction or fondness. This is the most base of the four loves and can apply to the material as well as the immaterial. Among friends phileo is the term for love. It is the commitment and mutual fascination which any two people enjoy, not to be confused with the romantic love of eros which applies only to sexual, intimate relationships. Finally Lewis describes agape as a kind of divine love, supreme above all the others. It is supposed to encompass one's entire being in a devotion to something exterior and powerful, something to which one is wiling to submit all of their decisions.
In all of these descriptions, Lewis writes about the practical use of each variation of love. The base principle of each of these is selflessness, but some of the words speak to action more than feeling. By the end of the book Lewis has established an entire argument for the necessity of practicing daily love as a matter of principle. Additionally one can give or receive these types of love. In summation, Lewis' book dispels common misconceptions in order to better inform his readers about the scope and pervasiveness of the principles of love in the world which otherwise have been lost in the English translation of the Bible.
