The Beloved Works Of C.S. Lewis

This volume includes four of C.S. Lewis' famous works. They are "Surprised By Joy", which is his autobiography, "Reflections on the Psalms", "The Four Loves" and "The Business of Heaven". I did not write a full review of these four works but have captured several quotes along the way. There is one section in particular from the chapter on Friendship in "The Four Loves" that I have specifically chosen to capture for further/future reflection. Lewis says:

"Friendship arises out of mere Companionship when two or more of the companions discover that they have in common some insight or interest or even taste which the others do not share and which, till that moment, each believed to be his own unique treasure (or burden). The typical expression of opening Friendship would be something like, 'What? You too? I thought I was the only one'...

It is when two such persons discover one another, when, whether with immense difficulties and semi-articulate fumblings or with what would seem to us amazing and elliptical speed, they share their vision - it is then that friendship is born. And instantly they stand together in an immense solitude...

This is why those pathetic people who simply 'want friends' can never make any. The very condition of having Friends is that we should want something else besides Friends. Where the truthful answer to the question 'Do you see the same truth?' would be 'I see nothing and I don't care about the truth; I only want a Friend', no Friendship can arise - though Affection of course may. There would be nothing for the Friendship to be about; and Friendship must be about something, even if it were only an enthusiasm for dominoes or white mice. Those who have nothing can share nothing; those who are going nowhere can have no fellow-travelers...

Religion devised for a social purpose, like Roman emperor-worship or modern attempts to 'sell' Christianity as a means of 'saving civilization,' do not come to much. The little knots of Friends who turn their backs on the 'world' are those who really transform it...

The common quest or vision which unites Friends does not absorb them in such a way that they remain ignorant or oblivious of one another. On the contrary it is the very medium in which their mutual love and knowledge exists. One knows nobody so well as one's 'fellow'. Every step of the common journey tests his mettle; and the tests are tests we fully understand because we are undergoing them ourselves. Hence, as he rings true time after time, our reliance, our respect and our admiration blossom into an Appreciative love of a singularly robust and well-informed kind. If, at the outset, we had attended more to him and less to the thing our Friendship is 'about', we should not have come to know him or love him so well. You will not find the warrior, the poet, the philosopher or the Christian by staring in his eyes as if he were your mistress; better fight beside him, read with him, argue with him, pray with him" (p.248-251).