Over the course of The Screwtape Letters, the state of the patient's soul fluctuates as he experiences a conversion, doubt, dangerous friendships, war, love, and finally, in death, oneness with God. What major strategies does Screwtape use to tempt the patient into the Devil's camp? Why do these temptations fail? In what ways can the patient be seen as an everyman?
or/and
In spite the patient's triumph over temptation, his glorious entrance to Heaven-"the degradation of it!-that this thing of earth and slime could stand upright and converse with spirits" (p.122)-Screwtape does not lose faith in his own cause. Why do you think Lewis chose to end the book in this ambiguous light? Why is Screwtape sustained by "the conviction that our Realism, our rejection (in the face of all temptations) of all silly nonsense and claptrap, must win in the end"? (p. 124). What warning is implied in the book's ending? In what ways does The Screwtape Lettersspeak to contemporary moral and spiritual issues both within and outside of the Christian Church?
(from HarperCollins)
In Letter 16, I found the beginning very interesting. Screwtape writes, "Yes, courtship is the time for sowing those seeds which will grow up ten years later into domestic hatred." Screwtape suggests that Wormwood should plant seeds at the patients budding relationship that he will later grow to despise. I never thought that such things would be planted in our heads on purpose; I just thought that these things that we later find annoying in relationships happen because we overlook something, but it is something that is planted in us by a demon. These annoying things are planted in early relationships so that later on down the line when the couple is most likely married these tweaks come up and start to really annoy us in our partner. It is interesting to note that these things are planned from the very beginning of a relationship. Wormwood and Screwtape plan these things even from courtship. Lewis suggests that some annoying things we find in relationships aren't really as big of a deal as we make them out to be. Even from the very beginning of the novel, we see that these demons do anything and everything they can to manipulate the lives of humans in order to make us more and more unhappy because there is nothing worse than a happy human.
ReplyDeleteSarah Vaughan
"The truth is that the Enemy, having oddly destined these mere animals to life in His own eternal world, has guarded them pretty effectively from the danger of feeling at home anywhere else. That is why we must often wish long life to our patients; seventy years is not a day too much for the difficult task of unravelling their souls from Heaven and building up a firm attachment to the earth" (Letter 28). While Wormwood relishes human death, Screwtape scolds him; reminding him that keeping people on earth longer allows tempters more time to tie them down. Knitting a man to earth, Screwtape advises, secures more satisfaction than death. He says the belief that death is simply a negative event is their own propaganda; in fact, death could be a good thing for "the Enemy". Instead of focusing on death versus life, Screwtape wants Wormwood to keep the Patient clouded from the truth during his life on earth. This is a recurring theme in the Letters: Screwtape takes matters that are in the gray area for his advantage. This is also Screwtape's main formula for temptations.
ReplyDeleteFurthermore, this section hints at why his temptation strategies fail in the end. The patient is meant for God's eternal world and not the earth; this man "escape[s] the worldly friends with whom [Wormwood tries] to entangle him; he ['falls] in love' with a very Christian woman and is temporarily immune from [Wormwood's] attacks on his chastity; and various methods of corrupting his spiritual life which [the demons try] are so far unsuccessful" (Letter 28). He is not attached to the earth, and before Screwtape or Wormwood has time to “unravel” his soul from its intended destination, the patient meets death and eternal life.
Rough Outline of my Presentation:
ReplyDeleteThe Screwtape Letters, Letter Twenty-Seven
Prayer and the Future~
Anything but distraction
- distraction only works if unrealized
- distraction prayed for is ‘harmful’
Heads I win, tails you lose
- prayer answered or unanswered = same conclusion
Time
- Time as God sees
- Prayers as coordinates
Foresee vs. See
- God’s timeline
- Past, Present, Future
Boethius
- philosopher
- works
Historical Point of View
- older generations study
- ‘proves’ nothing, too outdated?
This passage in letter 28 really grabbed my attention and made me to think about for quite some time : “You see,it is so hard for these creatures to persevere. The routine of adversity, the gradual decay of youthful loves and youthful hopes, the quiet despair (hardly felt as pain) of ever overcoming the chronic temptations with which we have again and again defeated them,the drabness which we create in their lives and the inarticulate resentment with which we teach them to respond to it-all this provides admirable opportunities of wearing out a soul by attrition” (155). Perseverance is so key, many times Jesus in Revelation speaks of being able overcome, I think this also speaks of being able to keep going. To press through despite the temptations and trials. Then its so true that in life we constantly face seasons and situations which tempt us and try us, they are a attack to get us to gradual decline in our walk with God. As youth we have big dreams and huge hopes for the future. Some will never see these come to pass but still they must not doubt in God’s ability to perform on our behalf. Then the chronic temptations we face, Jesus gives us victory in them once we depend on Him to be our strength, we must fully rely on Him. All this tries to do is to slowly gradually break down your strength and gradually reduce our effectiveness to impact the world.
ReplyDelete"But the greatest triumph of all is to elevate the horror of the same Old Thing into a philosophy."
ReplyDeleteScrewtape often takes innate desires that God has created for our enjoyment and takes them to an extreme thus decreasing our pleasures and increasing our desires. One example is man’s desire for change. The above quote resonates with the common phrase: “I am sick and tired of the same old thing. All I do is the same thing over and over.” Although there are times for change and growth, Screwtape wants to take the desire for change to its extreme: continual novelty. One of the most dangerous ways that Screwtape uses the desire manifests itself in creating additions to the Gospel. Going to church every Sunday, listening to the same gospel message can seem to become repetitive when one forgets their constant need for their Savior. When the idea of continual novelty is fully matured, it can lead to heresies that try to constantly bring excitement or something new to Christianity. When one does so, it is redefining Christianity thus creating a new gospel. Screwtape wants the Patient to follow additional ideologies to that of the gospel such as “Christianity and Faith Healing”. In order to keep oneself in check, it is important to remember our constant need to hear the gospel because we are a forgetful people prone to sin.
“Prosperity knits a man to the World. He feels that he is ‘finding his place in it’, while really it is finding its place in him. His increasing reputation, his widening circle of acquaintances, his sense of importance, the growing pressure of absorbing and agreeable work, build up in him a sense of being really at home in earth, which is just what we want.” (126)
ReplyDeleteLast week we talked about how the sins and ways of living of the patient that Screwtape speaks of hit close to home for many of us. In this passage, Screwtape suggests that the worldly success not only ties him closer to the earth, a temporal place of existence, but more importantly closer to himself, buffing up the ego and pride and foregoing the quest for the eternal kingdom. I thought that this statement is applicable universally, especially at a university like Berkeley where many students are ambitious and seek personal success. If even several decades later, these letters have relevance then they really do speak about an Everyman and not just the “patient.” So, how does this work? When looking through the letters, it appears that the “patient” is never named. The namelessness gives that subject a blank face which we all feel that we could identify with. Furthermore, when talking about the patient, Screwtape often talks about the general behavior of man, like in letter 26, rather than specifically addressing the patient, he addresses mankind in general. Even in this passage, he conflates the patient with a singular “man.” Really, who Screwtape is talking about transcends the literal “patient” and speaks to all of us regardless of age, gender or nationality.
The topic of Screw tapes last letter is the entry of the patient into and wormwoods failure. He admits that heavens pleasure are superior to wormwood uses as temptation; “all the delights of sense, or heart, or intellect, even the delights of virtue itself, now seem to him in comparison but as the half nauseous attractions of a raddled harlot would seem to a man who hears his true beloved whom he has loved all his life and whom he had believed to be dead is alive” the tone of the letter seems to be one of defeat. Screwtape, significantly, seems to admit that the enemy’s power is beyond his understanding; “he is caught up in a world where pain and pleasure take on transfinite values and all our arithmetic is dismayed...the inexplicable meets us.” This world of pleasure is beyond Screwtapes understanding. Significantly Screwtapes here acknowledges this lack of understanding. Yet Lewis doesn’t end the book on this triumphant note. Rather he ends it with Screwtapes conviction that his realism will win out. This realism seems to based on falsity of all the enemies silly notions such as love. The reason I think for this ambiguous note is to demonstrate the persistence of Screwtapes and the demons lack of understanding of the enemy and the power in this falsely held belief can have over others. Thus this ambiguous conviction functions as a warning of the tenacity of temptation. Further I think that this conviction also functions as a warning on a second level, that it could be seen to reflect the persistence refusal to understand the nature of god of the irreligious. Lewis seems to parallels screwtapes perplexity on understanding love and the divine with his pre-conversion self as related in Surprised By Joy
ReplyDeleteI found very interesting that on Chapter 31 there is a response to my previous curiosity posted on reflection 7: Lewis reveals what all that “affectionate uncle” closings were all about. Screwtape admits to Wormwood that he loved him “as dainty a morsel as ever he grew fat on.” Throughout the book, Screwtape refers to Wormwood with the adjective “my dear”, and closes his letters as “your affectionate.” This slowly and steadily builds in the reader’s mind as if the two of them are not only partners in crime, but also have a genuine friendship between them; as though Screwtape is really an affectionate uncle, and would take care of Wormwood if something happened. The first paragraph of chapter 31, though, is a revelation of Screwtape’s real feelings. He does not, nor ever has, loved Wormwood. Wormwood is really only a means to his ends. He uses him to get more patients to abide to his evil, and to get away from Christianity.
ReplyDeleteThis revelation, and the way Lewis constructs it, is important because it shows two contrasting ideas: the idea of God being the ultimate forgiveness and love representative, and of Screwtape being the ultimate believer in the inexistence of love and forgiveness. Screwtape does not accept Wormwood back besides his mistake to lose the patient to Christianity. He does not forgive, and admits he does not love Wormwood, his own niece. Lewis passes the message once more that only God can forgive and love us unconditionally.
I found the following passage from Letter 31 very interesting:
ReplyDelete"Next to the curse of useless tempters like yourself the greatest curse upon us is the failure of our Intelligence Department. If only we could find out what He is really up to! Alas, alas, that knowledge, in itself so hateful and mawkish a thing, should yet be necessary for Power!"
this passage reminds me of the letter in which Screwtape talked about Love and how did not comprehend God's love. Here Screwtape again reveals that he does not understand what God does or why He does it. It is quite perplexing, yet revealing of Screwtape because he does not understand what God does or why He does it. Yet, he is determined to be in complete and total opposition to God. We see that he is even using Wormwood as a way to simply contribute to his destructive cause.
Furthermore, it seems that while Screwtape does not comprehend God's plan that there is an understanding that God is in control and that in the end he is powerless to alter God's plan. We see this with the Patient and how they tried so hard to bring him to destruction.
"Since we cannot deceive the whole human race all the time, it is most important thus to cut every generation off from all others" (letter 27)
ReplyDeleteI found this really fascinating because there is no way Lewis could write this without at least considering that he could be talking about himself.
He seems to be saying that we should regard the ancient writers as a source of knowledge. But it had to have crossed his mind that in time he would be considered an ancient writer. This means then that he probably meant that we should accept his writings as a source of knowledge. I found this pretty interesting how without actually saying it, he tells us to listen to what he is writing.
Later on he also mentions that "where Virtue is concerned "Experience is the mother of illusion"".
So, these two points together would imply that we should read ancient writers works with a sense that it is a source of knowledge, but that any experiences they had with Virtue and temptations might not be as practical to just swallow.
It seems then that we should consider what we read but not blindly accept it.
Josef JOhn
Rough Outline of my presentation:
ReplyDelete:) I haven't done it yet.
I will briefly cover each letter from 25-end.
I'll say very little if any on letter 27.
Josef John
“Music and silence-how I detest them both...Noise, the grand dynamism, the audible expression of all that is exultant, ruthless, and virile-Noise which alone defends us from silly qualms, despairing scruples and impossible desires…” (p.199-120)
ReplyDeleteThis idea that he brings up of Noise compared to Music and Silence is an amazing revelation. A guy that I know once explained to me a while ago, he was a sound man, and I was asking him what noise was coming from the speaker that was interfering with the music that the band was playing?? He said, “Well that’s WHITE NOISE Spence”, and I asked what white noise was? Basically he told me that its all the sounds being jumbled up inside of the speaker and when it comes out it drowns out everything else. So when I think of NOISE I think of WHITE NOISE, and once the white noise was cleared from the speakers, what was being played or spoken could come through the speakers clearly. Ever since then I always ask “what is the white NOISE that is hindering me from truly hearing what God has for my life. Sometimes I may think the noise is gone, but then to realize that its my own mind telling me so, and not God actually speaking. That’s my earnest prayer, that Jesus would help remove all the white noise from my life so that I can clearly hear and act upon what He has given me
Reading through the final letters of the Screwtape Letters, I became interested in the many ways in which Screwtape and Wormwood attempt to tempt the patient. Although at many times it seemed like their temptations would work and come to fruition, bringing "food" for Screwtape and the other demons, they ultimately did not accomplish their ultimate goal of turning his back on "the enemy". His many methods of temptation stretched a wide variety of ideas. From the basic and predictable temptation such as lust and hate to the much more complex temptations such as spiritual pride, religiosity, and other more sophisticated things that many are not able to see as sin from the outside looking in. The sins that no one could see seemed to be the most powerful and the hardest to wrench away from. Ultimately these temptations failed because the patient surrounded himself with other strong believers that kept him on the straight and narrow path. Lewis considers the patient to be an everyman because the temptations he went through seemed to cover the entire range of temptations that both non Christians and Christians go through. While I was reading through the letters, I was able to relate to many of the things he went through and was stunned by the reality of his writing.
ReplyDelete“This is a crying example of something I have complained about already—your readiness to forget the main point in your immediate enjoyment of human suffering. Do you know that bombs kill men? Or do you not realize that the patient’s death, at this moment, is precisely what we want to avoid…he will almost certainly be lost to us if he is killed tonight” Letter 28.
ReplyDeleteThe human suffering is a fundamental strategy of Screwtape. It is through plaque adversities and temptations that Screwtape and the demons attempt mislead and trap Christian converts. Screwtape and his army want the patients to live as long as possible because it gives them more time in their efforts against God’s army. Death is the last thing that Screwtape wants. This passage highlights the power that lies after death. In reading Letter 28 I was reminded of the death of Jesus Christ. Not only did Christ leave His throne of royally to die a merciless death, He took power out of death. Once he rose from the dead Christ birthed life out of death. Once soldiers for Christ die they live in eternal Kingdom of Christ. What a concept that believers in Christ transcend death. Since our time on earth is short, it is all the more important to spread the Gospel of Jesus Christ and welcome them into eternal life amongst the creator.
I decided to focus on “Screwtape Proposes a Toast” because I felt it was one of my favorite parts! In the first section, I was so intrigued by his swooning over people like Hitler, Casanova and Farinata. He brings up these people when discussing the fact that he doesn’t think the problem with people is that they aren’t sinning anymore, it is that they aren’t committing the “heinous” sins he wants. People like Hitler, he claims, had souls that were “only less robust than our own.” In his next section, Screwtape explains that it is okay that these people have diminished because they have led others to be like them by losing their personal expression and losing their personal beliefs. They then begin to mimic people such as Cassanova. What I found what interesting is when he brings up what he calls “Christian Socialism.” The devil is trying to create a society full of chaos, but people become distracted by the phenomena mentioned above. The rich began using their conscience and poor try to become more righteous, which completely goes against the devil’s goals. All of this is so interesting to me. I had never thought of people imitating people in the past that did such terrible things, but it does make sense. In the Islamic world, people believe that they are here to do anything their leader tells them, even if that means blowing up the World Trade Center. This makes me question, what would the world be like if people hadn’t started doing these things? And, how did people who worship the devil and his ideas begin doing these things? If less people did terrible things in the past, would less people be doing them now? It’s so intriguing how imitation of people can lead to both great things and ridiculously harmful things. It’s so puzzling to me!
ReplyDeleteAlso, I apologize for the lateness. =/ I have two midterms this week and I kind of just zoned in on that. Sorrrryy!
“They, of course, do tend to regard death as the prime evil and survival as the greatest good. But that is because we have taught them to do so. Do not let us be infected by our propaganda. I know it seems strange that your chief aim at the moment should be the very same thing for which the patient’s lover and his mother are praying- namely his bodily safety. But so it is; you should be guarding him like the apple of your eye. If he dies now, you lose him. If he survives the war, there is always hope. But if only he can be kept alive, you have time itself for your ally. The long, monotonous years of middle-aged prosperity or middle-aged adversity are excellent campaigning weather. You see, it is so hard for these creatures to persevere.”
ReplyDeleteBefore reading this section, I never really thought about the timing of death and what each side of the spiritual war thought of it. I have always had a fear of death and of course, all living things inherently have a will to survive. But in cases like Wormwood’s patient, he would go to heaven if he died in the war and Screwtape and Wormwood do not want him to die. They are watching out for him and want him to live so that they have more time to weaken his faith and bring him over to their side. And Screwtape’s argument that a longer life can weaken a person’s faith is so accurate. Perseverance does decline over time, and a human’s will can only take him so far. Life can be so exhausting and depressing, and the spirits are looking forward to these weak moments and see them as opportunities. And as Screwtape said, humans love both permanence and novelty, and because we are crave new things, we are sure to be disappointed by monotony and “middle-aged” life. But that is why we must cling to God and ask Him for strength, because a Christian life is not something human’s can do on their own. I think the spirits underestimate how much God’s love can hold onto us.
There is one thing that I am confused about: Screwtape states that he “loves” his nephew and always signs “Your affectionate uncle,” but love is something that the spirits do not understand. So how is it that Screwtape writes about his love for his nephew? Or is their love not really love?
Last week in discussion, we focused on the idea of love – what some collective preconceived notions are, and also what love itself is, how it is defined in the Screwtape Letters. We managed to sift out “lust”, “infatuation”, “passion” and other things from our definition of love. I really enjoyed that discussion, and find it intriguing when C. S. Lewis writes not only about the idea of love as an isolated concept, but as a practically applied one as well. Talking about the idea of marriage as a youthful romantic whimsical thing on the one hand, and as a bitter trap of an institution on the other, I find myself wondering, what are my own ideas of marriage? I have always been rather skeptical of marriage, and I hate to admit it, but I feel like it is because I have such romantic and idealistic expectations that I feel like they can never be realized. After reading the Screwtape Letters, the way I look at marriage and love has changed a little. After reading Screwtape’s statement about how difficult it is for humans to persevere, I remind myself that giving and enduring can be as – if not more – rewarding than pure passion and indulgence.
ReplyDelete“But when he saw them he knew he had always known them and realized what part each of them had played at many an hour in his life when he has supposed himself alone, so that now he could say to them, one by one, not- ‘Who are you?’, but ‘So it was you all the time.’” (188)
ReplyDeleteI found this passage from the last letter from Screwtape compelling and very much associated with contemporary moral and spiritual issues both within and outside of the Christian church. The quote is alluding to the fact that even sinners know who God is, and that he exists, whether they consciously realize it or not. As humans, we always have known and always will know. God will never fail us and will always be there with open arms, even if we have moments of uncertainty. Within the Christian church, a lot of these notions are realized. Lewis is claiming that upon his last moments in life, the Patient has a moment of clarity where he realizes that God has been with him all along. This infuriates Screwtape, as he was hoping that “the scream of bombs, the fall of houses… the feet burning with wearniness” (187), would lead the victim directly to him. He thought the negativity of the world would leave the Patient with no choice but to by cynical and listen to Wormwood. Screwtape was wrong, as the Devil is consistently in the real world.
I find the last letter to be quite interesting. In it Screwtape describes the experience of the patient when he finally dies and is enfolded into heaven. The description is one where if you were to use the same words in a different context it would seem as if Screwtape were praising Heaven. The way he describes death as “if he were emerging from a hideous, shell-like tetter”; an ultimate relief with which there is no equal, or how he describes the rapture of meeting “Him” (God). It sounds as if Screwtape may be jealous that humans have the capacity to experience the wonders of God. He calls it“degradation” that humans are able to stand before the light of spirits when tempters cower in fear. Screwtape’s continued conviction that Hell will find out what God is “really up to” and that their rejection of God will win in the end seems silly and not very persuasive after this description of the “heart of Heaven”. Perhaps Lewis chose to juxtapose these two conflicting ideas to further emphasize the illogic he finds in reality when people reject God. It is possible that the way Hell is always trying to find out the real purpose of God is an metaphor for how people don’t understand the true ideals of Christianity.
ReplyDelete