I’ve been studying CSLewis lately, specifically his book MereChristianity. I think he brings up a very interesting perspective on some ideas that have gotten warped in our society. Right now I’m thinking about the way he ties loving, liking and charity together.
After thinking about it and finding some examples in my life, I realize that you can love somebody without liking them. This brings up the question of what love is. I believe that it is not a feeling, but an act of the will. Charity should not be limited to giving to the poor, it should be a life attitude, the living out of our love. Liking, being fond of someone, is an entirely separate issue.
Sometimes liking comes naturally, sometimes disliking. In loving in the christian sence, I think we often learn to like. In setting our will to be charitable towards someone whom we naturally dislike, they become easier and easier to love, and even perhaps like.
The oposite seems to me also true. Natural dislike, if let fester, becomes contempt and hate. Even apathy, a passive rather than active vice, builds upon itself. Ignoring somebody as you walk by them on the side walk the first time is hard, and easy to feel remorsefull about. Ignoring them for the 50th time is much easier.
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Man has some intrinsic ability to notice his own depravity. Why?
