Lewis exhibits throughout his writings an uncanny sense of human nature and a style capable of brilliant aphorism: "Men are not angered by mere misfortune but by misfortune conceived as injury"; "Gratitude looks toward the past and love to the present; fear, avarice, lust, and ambition look ahead", to cite just two examples. Where else inThe Screwtape Letters do you find universal statements about human nature? Do these statements accurately reflect not just a Christian ethos but the workings of human psychology more generally?
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Love is an important theme in The Screwtape Letters. Describing the human idea of love and marriage, Screwtape tells Wormwood: "They regard the intention of loyalty to a partnership for mutual help, for the preservation of chastity, and for the transmission of life as something lower than a storm of emotion". Screwtape is also confounded by God's love for man, which he grants as real but irrational. What is Lewis saying, in the book as a whole, about human and divine love?
(from HarperCollins Reading Guide)
PRESENTATION MATERIAL
ReplyDeleteI will edit/repost after I have a more concrete idea of my presentation! So far I would like to focus on letters 19 and 22 and the idea of the "impenetrable mystery"/the "secret" (aka heaven and God's love which Wormwood and the demons cannot understand).
Whenever I think of modern conceptions of love, they identify closely with what Screwtape seems to believe. Marriage, instead of being a unity, is perceived as an intention to be unified. God has no real reason to love his creation, but he does anyway. I believe, however, that C.S. Lewis disagreed with these views. Even though Screwtape seemingly tells his true opinions in the letters, it is important to remember that his beliefs may not be valid.
ReplyDeleteBy putting these beliefs in the mouth of a demon, Lewis shows that he probably does not identify with them very much. Demons are very much regarded as beings that cannot love, or choose not to love. In this way, I think Lewis wanted to make it clear that these methods of belief about love were incorrect. Instead of thinking of marriage as an intention to “do one’s best”, it should be considered to be a sacred bond that will not be broken. We should realize that, despite our sin, God does indeed love us and has good reason to do so.
Lewis has made it very clear that he has no problem with throwing pre-conceived notions of Christianity out the door, and he does this with his attitudes towards love. It is important to remember that our perceptions of both human and divine love do not need to match those of the world.
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ReplyDeletePresentation Material
ReplyDelete1. I will provide an overview of topics from ch. 17-24
2. Highlight the concept of "ownership" within chapter 21 of The Screwtape Letter's and how it is reflected in Surprised by Joy.
3. "Like most of the other things which humans are exited about, such as health and sickness, age and youth, or ware and peace, it is, from the point of view of the spiritual life, mainly raw material." (Pg. 103)
- I will also discuss how the above quote is a key idea brought out over and over again by Screwtape.
"He admitted that he felt a real anxiety to know the secret; the Enemy replied 'I wish with all my heart that you did.' It was, I imagine, at this stage in the interview with Our Father's disgust as such an unprovoked lack of confidence caused him to remove himself and infinite distance from the Presence with a suddenness which has given rise to the ridiculous Enemy story that he was forcible thrown out of Heaven...Members of his faction have frequently admitted that if ever we came to understand what He means by love, the war would be over and we should re-enter Heaven." (163)
ReplyDeleteIn chapter 19, Screwtape strongly emphasizes the fact that God is unable to love. However, his denial of God's ability to love is so vehemenent that it appears that even he doubts this belief that the devils are supposed to uphold. Furthermore, Screwtape states that the difference between God's faction and the devil's faction is that the devil does not understand "what He means by love." Still, in this letter, the text demonstrates that God's love is unconditional and even extends to the devil because "the Enemy replied, 'I wish with all my heart that you did'" know the secret about love. The use of "heart" demonstrates that God even has affection for the devil, and if the devil did understand the "secret," then he would not be banished like he is. It seems like God's love is unconditional, but it is the devil who turned away from God and did not understand love and so he could not love God back.
Screwtape implies that love must be beneficial for who does the loving, and that the lover must get a benefit from the lovee. Screwtape also applies this to humans in that affection for one another extends outside physical lusting, but they still recieve pleasure or satisfactionf rom one another. Screwtape can understand this sort of love a bit more than divine love which is benevolent and unconditional.
"We know that He cannot really love: nobody can; it doesn't make sense." It is true that the love of God does not make sense, so great is it. Yet when pressed to explain His real motive, God seems only to express a deep heartfelt desire for Satan and his followers to understand or at least embrace the love that he had for all.
ReplyDeleteIn the 22nd letter, Screwtape continues to doubt in love at all, saying "(The Family) guard as jealously the Enemy Himself the secret of what really lies behind this pretense of disinterested love." It seems only plausible that if Satan cannot believe in the love of God that he cannot conceive of it in humans. His description of the house as reeking "with a deadly odor", seems all too obvious to us what such an aroma would imply. Much as he refuses to believe it, the pure love of family and of God is so strong as to repel the nastiest of tempters and spread to all visitors a remnant of the love.
Although Screwtape attempts to prove that love does not, cannot exist, through his descriptions of it I find myself more convinced than ever. What heights of love that God possesses we on earth are allowed to experience by smaller portion in our family and friends, but only is such love possible through the knowledge of Christ.
In the Screwtape letters 17 through 24, Screwtape admits that the Enemy loves the humans, but then not really, as he believes. To his account it is impossible to love completely and honestly. He, therefore, sees God’s love as a trick, a game that would attract humans into God’s camp, and away from Evil’s camp. But this is of course the way Evil himself sees love. Screwtape sees love exactly as a bait to entice humans because this is how he can see it from the Evil’s point of view. Throughout his letters, everything can be turned into bait, and everything can be seen as a game to trap the humans. He fails to understand the motives of love that God unconditionally gives to humans, but is confident that one day research is going to reveal what God is up to!
ReplyDeleteWhat is also interesting though to note in those letters, is the way each one closes. Lewis is a bit contradictory to have the Screwtape letters close with “your affectionate uncle.” How can Screwtape feel affection for Wormwood, since he doesn’t believe in real love? Did Lewis use the word affectionate on purpose or by mistake? I think it would be interesting to know what Lewis was thinking.
Presentation material
ReplyDeleteThis presentation will discuss Screwtape’s discussion of love and being.
It will focus on Screwtape’s apparent ‘heresy’ in chapter 19;
“ If, as I have clearly shown, all selves are by their very nature in competition, and therefore the Enemy’s idea of Love is a contradiction in terms, what becomes of my reiterated warning that He really loves the human vermin and really desires their freedom and continued existence.”
I will also discuss how this idea has links to the final chapters of surprised by Joy.
Althea Francis
In Chapter 19, Screwtape speaks at length on the nature of love and being in love. He finds it difficult to believe that “The Enemy” would actually ever love humans for the sake of loving them, and insists that there must be an ulterior motive. Screwtape claims that “He cannot really love” and furthermore that “nobody can”. This statement, although firm and confident in deliverance, nonetheless reveals some hesitancy, especially since Screwtape is extremeley curious to discover how this “love” of the Enemy works. He settles by saying that the Enemy functions on secrecy, and that his love is not as unconditional or pure as he claims.
ReplyDeleteScrewtape concludes by saying that being in love is not necessarily a good or bad thing. It is an ambivalent state of being whose only merit is the chance at tipping the “patient” either to the Enemy’s side, or to the side of Screwtape and Wormwood. He claims that human life is simply “raw material” to bring them to one side or the other. This reminds me a little of Zoroastrian belief, which claims that humans have free will to choose good or evil, and this life is a test in that choosing.
Letters 17-24 seem to mostly focus on the concept of love. In Letter 19, Wormwood writes to Screwtape about how he does not understand God's love for mankind. He then goes on to tell Screwtape that it is best to keep the Patient guessing at whether love is "good" or "bad." Wormwood also describes different ideas of what love is often thought to be. For example, he explains to Screwtape that if "he [the patient] is an emotional, gullible man, feed him on minor poets and fifth-rate novelists of the old school until you have made him believe that "Love" is both irresistible and somehow intrinsically meritorious."
ReplyDeleteIt appears that C.S. Lewis is saying that the concept (or concepts) of love that is/are so prevalent in society are not at all, or don't even come close, to what Love truly is. And, indeed I would have to agree with C.S. Lewis that mankind's idea of love is a corrupted version of what God says Love is. Love at times is diminished to a mere feeling, or even an entirely erotic concept. However, in the Bible we see that God's love is unconditional and that love is even described as being more of an action. This can be clearly seen in how Christ loved because his greatest demonstration of love was when he laid down his life.
"The sense of ownership in general is always to be encouraged." (letter 21)
ReplyDeleteI had never thought of ownership this way, especially the words "my" and "mine". It was illuminating to me how Screwtape explains that we produce this sense of ownership not only by pride but by confusion.
I don't think I have ever considered why I call something mine. But upon further examination, it seems likely it is either because I am pleased with the thing, especially if I had some part in creating it.
The other reason I can think of labeling something mine, is so that other's cannot use the thing without my permission. This gives me freedom to be selfish whenever I feel like it. Instead of having things that I can share with everyone, I have a lot of things that I call my own and keep hidden, and in the absence of myself using them, they are largely unused.
So this selfishness then can also cause people to label something their own, believing that by owning it they can hoard it and keep it to themselves.
Josef JOhn
The letters this week focused extremely close on the concept of love in relation to humans, God and Satin. Screwtape speaks of many interesting points that put human love and God’s love in question. He brings up the fact that it is not possible for God to have real love for everyone. There are two things I noticed with this: 1) Being someone that is very confused in religion, I have always felt a little confused on the idea that one man can love every human being equally while at such a high level. It has always seemed pretty confounding to me that this could be possible. It just doesn’t seem realistic. But, then again, miracles don’t always seem that realistic, but they happen all the time 2) While describing how unrealistic this is, Screwtape also seems to have a few doubts in his beliefs, which is interesting. He is so intent on saying that God’s love isn’t real, but at the same time, he himself doesn’t seem entirely convinced of his whole argument.
ReplyDeleteAnother concept I found interesting throughout these chapters was that of human to human love. Screwtape mentions that humans don’t really portray real love. I would have to agree with this. I feel that the power of love is often overlooked. People say over and over again that they are in love with someone, but they don’t do anything to prove this love. They either don’t say it, or they don’t act on it, or they do things that really show not loving someone. It just doesn’t make sense to me.
Love is such a fine lined idea. It can mean so many things and can be used in so many ways, it’s hard to really sit and define it. Although Screwtape may hate the idea of God, he has a few good points on how love is overused and not always real.
One quote in chapter 19 that really grabbed my attention and caused me to think about it for much time was this: “..He really loves the human vermin and really desires their freedom and continued existence..”(p. 99). This right there reminded me how God truly does loves us, not because we in any way, shape, or form deserve it but simply because He is love. It is His nature and once we accept his love and allow it to change us. It begins to mold us into looking more and more like Him. Then the other part of this quote that inspired me was He desires that we would be free. Free from all the things that hold us back from enjoying Him and the live He gives. Many people think God and his word are simply trying to spoil your fun and hinder you from having a great time, when in fact its been set in place to protect us from harm, hurt, and some pain that can be adverted. He came to show us that He is the way, the truth, and the LIFE. He came that we could live lives more abundantly, a life of victory over bondages/addictions and a life that could enjoy God forever.
ReplyDelete“In the meantime, get it quite clear in your own mind that this state of falling in love is not, in itself, necessarily favorable either to us or to the other side. It is simply an occasion which we and the Enemy are both trying to exploit.” (p. 164)
ReplyDeleteA lot of this week’s reading is focused on love and sexuality. It is interesting that Lewis portrays ‘love’ as something that Screwtape and all of Hell do not understand. Screwtape is so sure that ‘love’ is something God made up to cover up an ulterior motive, and there are apparently researchers in Hell trying to collect data and understand what this secret motive might be. And in order to confuse humans, the spirits in Hell attempt to blur the lines between love and sexuality, and try to push the patient into unchastity. The spirits use what they can to tempt the patient, such as males taste in females and women’s fashion. From there, they try to lead patients into marriages that are sure to end badly, because they are based in sexual desire. This is the only way in which Hell can exploit “falling in love,” because ‘love’ itself was God-created. The spirits do not know God, and cannot fathom the Trinity, and so they chalk it up to contradiction and nonsense. So of course, they would not be able to understand God’s love for people and His reason for creating humans. But while the spirits do not full understand God, they know human weakness all too well, and if humans are not alert and aware of the spirits’ attacks, it is so easy to fall and fail.
Tentative presentation outline: For my presentation I will focus on Chapters 18-20.
ReplyDelete1. Sexual temptation v. complete abstinence or unmitigated monogamy (Letters 18) (Screwtape)
a. Function of sex according to Screwtape (Letters 18 and 20)
2. Marriage (Letters 18) (God)
a. Function of sex according to God (Letters 18-9)
3. Understanding love
a. Letter 19
“Since then, we have begun to see why our Oppressor was so secretive. His throne depends on the secret. Members of His faction have frequently admitted that if ever we came to understand what He means by love, the war would be over and we should re-enter Heaven. And there lies the great task. We know that He cannot really love; nobody can: it doesn’t make sense.” (19)
Sasha's Presentation:
ReplyDelete1. Why I chose Letter 22 - Strange transformation at ending
2. The Deadly Odor- How does Screwtape/Lewis describe it? What is it? (from the perspective of the demons and then from Christians)
3. Music and Silence - Why Screwtape would dislike these 2 things, tie to Surprised by Joy, very quick run through of music/silence in Bible (won't read through the verses but summarize)
4. Noise - Definition of Noise, what it is to the Patient
“The aim is to guide away from those members of the other with whom spiritually helpful, happy, and fertile marriages are most likely.” With this quote, Lewis is acknowledging that true love can exist in marriage, and that humans are meant to find someone that completes them. He is using “Screwtape Letters” to prove that the Devil does not want humans to be happy, and therefore, will attempt to get humans to marry partners that lead them in the wrong direction, or who they are not happy with. God has such a divine love for us that he recognizes the potential we have for human love in a partner. Lewis also discusses the importance of sex in a marriage. In the letters, Screwtape says “The truth is that wherever a man lies with a woman, there, whether they like it or not, a transcendental relation is set up between them which must be eternally enjoyed…” Lewis believes sexual relations between man and woman in marriage are a gift from God, something to be cherished. Screwtape and his followers, on the other hand, try and promote sex and sexual desire outside of marriage as a fun activity that is okay to engage in, when in fact it is considered a sin.
ReplyDeleteAfter reading chapters 17-24, I noticed that many of the letters had to do with love. There were many different types of love that were discussed such as God’s love for man, a man’s love for a woman, lustful “love” just to name a few. One of Screwtape’s desires is to blur all of these types of love into one, therefore making them all seem to be at the same level. This would lessen the impact on the patient when contemplating what true love, in other words God’s love, is. Realizing this is no easy task, he went about approaching it from many different angles. First he began with attempting to stumble the patient with lust. However, after that did not work he continued with the concept of love being purely an emotion, such as “being in love.” Because the patient had found a girl whom he liked and was thinking about marrying, this concept of “being in love” rather than loving unconditionally as Christ did seemed to be a very wise place to attack because it seems that today when two people are no longer “in love” they are ready to break it off and look for a new person to bring excitement and satisfaction into their life. Overall, exploring the concept of love and how the world view love vs how God views love was a very interesting topic which is worth exploring much deeper.
ReplyDelete(for some reason I thought I posted this yesterday, but I guess I screwed something up. Oh well)
ReplyDeleteI think that for Lewis the difference between divine love and human love is pretty much the difference between God and Humanity. God’s love is eternal and all encompassing. He loves everyone and everything despite their flaws. On the other hand human love is imperfect. Sometimes it is temporary and sometimes it turns into negative feelings. From Screwtapes’s perspective Lewis is able to emphasize the all encompassing nature of God’s love. The irrationality of God’s love is that he continues to love humanity despite their imperfect nature and the imperfect love they can offer to God in return. In Letter 19 of the Screwtape Letters, the “contradiction” of God’s love is emphasized. Screwtape explains to his nephew that the basis of the devil deciding to turn away from God is that he could not understand the love that God had for humans. The tempters feel that there must be a motive behind God’s proclaimed love for humanity because there’s no way he would do such a thing without wanting something in return. This confusion seems to form the divide between heaven and hell (in Lewis’ point of view I suppose) since supposedly if the demons were to understand this love then “the war would be over” and they would “re-enter heaven”. I think the Christian idea of salvation is fascinating in this light because it is supposed to be something gifted to you, something anyone can have without earning it. And the basis of that salvation is faith, the acceptance of and believing in God’s love and from that living according to his word and having a relationship with him.
I swore that I posted this when it was due, but it didn't seem to go through last week. Better late the never, I guess.
ReplyDeleteI found Letter 21 very interesting in this week's reading. Screwtape is furthering his instructions to Wormwood about how to distract his patient from these new Christians that he has met. Screwtape says, "You must therefore zealously guard in his mind the curious assumption. 'My time is my own'. Let him have the feeling that he starts each day as the lawful possessor of twenty-four hours." I found it interesting that Screwtape tells Wormwood to make sure his patient thinks his time is his own. Here, Lewis is suggesting that our time is never or own because we should be devoting all of our time to God. Our time can never be our own because we should use that time to glorify God. Screwtape goes on to say, "The humans are always putting up claims to ownership which sound equally funny in Heaven and in Hell and we must keep them doing so. Much of the modern resistance to chastity comes from men's belief that they 'own' their bodies..." Lewis suggests that humans actually don't have ownership because God or the Devil are both able to change the course of human lives. Lewis says that humans are not the owners of their bodies no matter how dependent they think they are.