Editing Love (section)

=== Philia – friend bond ===
[[Philia]] (Greek: [[wikt:φιλία#Ancient Greek|φιλία]]) is the love between friends as close as [[sibling]]s in strength and duration. The friendship is the strong bond existing between people who share common values, interests or activities.<ref>Hooper, p.&nbsp;654</ref> Lewis immediately differentiates friendship love from the other loves. He describes friendship as "the least biological, organic, instinctive, gregarious and necessary...the least ''natural'' of loves".<ref>Lewis, p.&nbsp;70</ref> Our species does not need friendship in order to reproduce, but to the classical and medieval worlds, it is a higher-level love because it is freely chosen.

Lewis explains that true friendships, like the friendship between David and Jonathan in the Bible, are almost a lost art. He expresses a strong distaste for the way modern [[society]] ignores friendship. He notes that he cannot remember any poem that celebrated true friendship like that between [[David and Jonathan]], [[Pylades#Orestes and Pylades|Orestes and Pylades]], [[Roland]] and [[Oliver (paladin)|Oliver]], [[Amis et Amiles|Amis and Amiles]]. Lewis goes on to say, "to the Ancients, Friendship seemed the happiest and most fully human of all loves; the crown of life and the school of virtue. The modern world, in comparison, ignores it".

Growing out of [[companionship]], friendship for Lewis was a deeply appreciative love, though one which he felt few people in modern society could value at its worth, because so few actually experienced true friendship.<ref>Lewis, pp.&nbsp;77, 84–85, 70</ref>

Nevertheless, Lewis was not blind to what he considered the dangers of friendships, such as its potential for [[clique|cliquiness]], anti-authoritarianism and pride.<ref>Hooper, p.&nbsp;372</ref>