ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the author explores five particular accounts of Eros that could be grouped together under what might broadly be termed the religious narrative in order to see what each adds to our understanding of passionate love. The first account is in C. S. Lewis’s work, The Four Loves; the second in mythology, using two tales, Tristan and Iseult and Eros and Psyche, and last, the account given by two religious teachers, the Sufipoet, Rumi, and a Hindu Vedic scholar, Shastri. As a religious philosopher, Lewis is specifically interested in the journey to God. Lewis describes two kinds of “nearness” to God, one is likeness to God: the other is nearness of approach. Eros is a pagan god, and, for de Rougemont and Lewis, the multiplicity of the pagan religions has been supplanted by the monotheism of Christianity. The Ancient Greek myth of Eros and Psyche is essentially a religious story describes the journey of individuation.
