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- 1. Storge Love “Familial Affection” This is the type of care that exists between family members, friends, or companions. Longer-lasting, it goes beyond an initial infatuation or attraction.
- Phileo Love “Friendship” Phileo most often describes a relationship between people, one of generous warmth for another. But in a broader sense, it can also apply to churches and even cities.
- Eros Love “Passion” This kind of affection is meant to describe a healthy, sensual love between husbands and wives. Romance and physical attraction play a part in it.
- Agape Love “Charity” Agape love is probably the most talked about of the four kinds of love. It is the highest, most complete form of affection. God’s love for us is the foundation of this love.
- What Are The 4 Types of Love?
- Eros
- Philia
- Storge
- Agape
- Modern Psychological Approaches to Modern Love
- Fatuous Love
- Romantic Love
- Companionate Love
- Consummate Love
The ancient Greeks had 4 types of love: eros, philia, storge, and agape. Some philosophical circles prefer to condense philia and storgeinto one category. As you will see, these can be considered quite separate definitions of love. I digress. For the purposes of this post, we’ll continue to separate love into the four aforementioned categories.
Eros, when translated, means sexual, or romantic love. The Greek word erotasmeans ‘intimate love’. You can see where we derive the modern-day term ‘erotic’. In modern society, this is the sexual or intimate passion you feel for a lover. The alluring pull of a well-dressed woman, or the irresistible air of a fashionable gent. Erosis raw attraction t...
Philiais a friendly, or brotherly, love. The love felt between close friends, mentors, teams, and close communities. The important difference between eros and philia is that philiais a dispassionate, virtuous love. Dispassionate in that there is not a romantic side to this relationship. Philiais a love built on respect, equality, familiarity, and u...
Storgeis familial love, the affectionate love you have for your family, whether that be your son, daughter, mother, father, or immediate/extended family. Storgeis considered to be the most natural, or common, manifestation of love that we know. Did you ever have to earnyour mother’s love? Did you ever ‘realize’ that you loved your brother? No. It w...
Agapeis the highest form of love, for it is unconditional love. This is commonly referred to as God’s love for man, and of man’s love for God. Agapeis an all-consuming love. Regardless of context, external conditions, extraneous factors, or feelings, agape is expressed without hesitation by those who feel it. Agapeis commonly known as the love we a...
Though contemporary society has drifted from our understanding and embodiment of the four kinds of love listed above, traditional psychology has not. In fact, contemporary psychological understandings of love relate directly to the definitions of eros, philia, storge, and agape. The modern psychological definitions of love are fatuous, romantic, co...
Fatuous love is a sexual attraction and commitment to the other, without significant emotional closeness. It is a purely sexual, physical love. Though we have divided our definitions of love, this is not to say that this love is ‘inferior’; it is merely a different manifestation of love. Fatuous love is necessary for the continuation of our species...
If the respect, attachment, and interest you feel deepens beyond fatuous love, we say you are experiencing romantic love. Romantic love is a love bred over time, with the accruement of respect. Romantic love is all-consuming sexual arousal (eros), paired with comfort, security, and respect for the other. This is where most modern relationshipsare; ...
The third psychological definition of love is companionate love. This translates over to philia (and storgeat some level) from the ancient understandings of love. This is the deep love and respect between friends and between peers. This is a love of intimacy and commitment, built through respect and well-intentioned action. It does not need to enta...
Finally, we see agape manifest itself in what psychologists call ‘consummate love’. ‘Consummate’ finds its etymological root in ‘consuming’. This echoes the ethos of agape, which is an all-consuming, unconditional love. Consummate love is a love that contains intimacy (closeness), passion, and deep commitment. It does not require standards to be me...
- Eros: Erotic, Passionate Love. We might as well get that one out of the way first. Eros is erotic or sexual or passionate love. It's often all about need and it's more about the person who's feeling sexually attractive than it is about the person who is the focus of that love or thing that is the focus of that love.
- Philia: Love of Friends and Equals. It can be the love between lovers when they've been together for a long time and are not so hot and bothered anymore.
- Storge: Love of Parents for Children. This kind of love is what mothers know best but isn't talked about too much when we talk about love. It is the love of parents for children.
- Agape: Love of Mankind. The love modeled on the love of the Christian God for men and the love of man for God. It's the love that is given whether or not it's returned.
- Eros. Eros is sexual or passionate love, and most akin to the modern construct of romantic love. In Greek myth, it is a form of madness brought about by one of Cupid’s arrows.
- Philia. The hallmark of philia, or friendship, is shared goodwill. Aristotle believed that a person can bear goodwill to another for one of three reasons: that he is useful; that he is pleasant; and above all, that he is good, that is, rational and virtuous.
- Storge. Storge ["store-jay"], or familial love, is a kind of philia pertaining to the love between parents and their children. It differs from most philia in that it tends, especially with younger children, to be unilateral or asymmetrical.
- Agape. Agape ["aga-pay"] is universal love, such as the love for strangers, nature, or God. Unlike storge, it does not depend on filiation or familiarity.
Sep 29, 2022 · The eight types of love are enduring, universal, self-love, obsessive, passionate, playful, deep friendship, and familial. Relationship experts explain each.
- Assistant Love & Life Editor
- 2 min
Dec 28, 2022 · Take the five love languages, for example. Everyone has their own way of giving and receiving love, especially with different people. Below are the eight types of love described in the Greek language and how to navigate each one.
Feb 13, 2020 · As we know, Scripture tells us that love is the highest attribute. So let’s look at the four types of love found in the Bible, and that Lewis helps to draw out in The Four Loves, published in 1960, and based on a radio series he did with the BBC a few years prior to the book’s release.
