Screwtape Letters
Everyone should answer this question: React to this statement: "Reason stands sentry over my heart." What did Lewis believe about the power of story?
Question: CS Lewis is a master storyteller. He weaves biblical truth and revelation throughout his stories and the Screwtape Letters. For the blog post this week, refer to the 5 letters you've read so far and answer one or two of the following questions:. NOTE: My goal is for every student to choose a DIFFERENT question- Since we are not meeting in class this next week- I'd like to use the blog to address the first five letters.
Letter 1
Question: CS Lewis is a master storyteller. He weaves biblical truth and revelation throughout his stories and the Screwtape Letters. For the blog post this week, refer to the 5 letters you've read so far and answer one or two of the following questions:. NOTE: My goal is for every student to choose a DIFFERENT question- Since we are not meeting in class this next week- I'd like to use the blog to address the first five letters.
Letter 1
- Screwtape affirms Wormwood for encouraging his patient’s association with a “materialist” friend, ¶ 1. How would a preoccupation with the physical side of reality and ignorance of the spiritual be foundational for diabolical strategy?
- How did Screwtape use what he called the “pressures of the ordinary,” and the familiar, to “rescue” him from the influence of the Enemy?
- In what ways do you think the pressures of the “ordinary” make you susceptible to diabolical influence
Letter 2
- Screwtape celebrates how easy it is to highlight the hypocrisy of other Christians while encouraging Christians to ignore their own hypocrisies. Consider what there is about your own conduct and character that you prefer to avoid or ignore?
Letter 3
- Next to the church, the family is a choice tool for tripping up Christians. How can a false spirituality be a snare?
- Under the influence of the tempters, it seems that familiarity can indeed breed contempt. What does Screwtape encourage Worm- wood to highlight?
Letter 4
- According to Screwtape, the best way to keep a “patient” from praying is to cultivate a “devotional mood” What is there about such a mood that Screwtape likes?
- Next to a devotional mood, Screwtape recommends a focus on feelings. What is there about feelings that Screwtape likes when seeking to twist prayer
Letter 5
- WW II was raging in Europe during the correspondence between Screwtape and Wormwood, so it is not surprising that war is a subject of several of the letters. What is the surprising devilish attitude toward war?
- In Screwtape’s scenario, why do devils prefer death in a nursing home to death during the war?
- How does the Enemy use war to his advantage?
LETTER 1:
ReplyDeleteAddressing the question: How did Screwtape use what he called the “pressures of the ordinary,” and the familiar, to “rescue” him from the influence of the Enemy? If we think about, it the same thing tends to befall just about everyone. In this case, let's believe that 'ordinary' means society. Like how us, as Christians try to live in our society, to say the least, it can become difficult. Although this was all taking place years and years ago I think it may be safe to assume that back then anyone would have just as hard of a time not falling into the temptations of society. So to officially answer the question, Screwtape used the everyday evil and faults of society in an attempt to withhold his patient from God. Any additional thoughts?
There is something about the "backwardness" of the letters - meaning God equals enemy- that forced me to examine my life. I'm not sure they would have had the same effect had they been a collection of letters/advice. There is wisdom in battle/war to examining the strategies of your enemy in order to defeat him. One of the characteristics that stands out to me about the letters is that they were just as relevant today as they were in the 50's.
DeleteI think that C.S. Lewis is a great writer, in the sense that he portrays the opposite perspective, and it is dead on. We are called to be in the world, but not of the world, but we often slip. These slips into the secular world is what the devils capitalize on in order to tempt us away from God. So, I definitely agree that by using the evils and faults of society, the demons around us are able to pull us into sin and away from God. Great post!
DeleteLETTER 2
ReplyDeleteMatthew 7:5 says,
“You hypocrite! First remove the beam out of your own eye,
and then you can see clearly to remove the speck out of your brother’s eye.”
This verse points out that we as fallen humans have an irrational tendency to look at the things others are doing wrong before looking at what we ourselves are doing wrong. This idea is precisely the flaw that Screwtape and Wormwood focus on in letter 2.
The question for this letter is “Consider what there is about your own conduct and character that you prefer to avoid or ignore? “ (why was this question a good idea? It’s very personal. Bleck, personal questions ;)) My answer to this personal question would probably have to be my wanting to be the best at everything. Most of us can relate to that feeling of annoyance when we come into contact with people who have the irrevocable need to be perfect but, if I look myself, and if we all look at ourselves I believe that in one way or another we all have this same feeling. This annoyance with others about something that you are just as guilty of is the incarnate definition of hypocrisy. (Well there you go, how about you all put your heart out on the table and answer what you think about this question?)
M- thanks for tackling a personal question. I can tell you that my feet were held to the fire a few times throughout the letters!
Delete"Reason stands sentry over my heart." What did Lewis believe about the power of story?
ReplyDeleteI agree with what we discussed in class on this, about how stories can sometimes get truth past skepticism. By declaring something fictional up front, people naturally try to start picking out fact in it. True fiction would be nonsensical without some grounding in real life principles.
Letter 4, question 1
"According to Screwtape, the best way to keep a “patient” from praying is to cultivate a “devotional mood” What is there about such a mood that Screwtape likes?"
It's like when you are sore and you think you can take extra rest days because of how you feel. You don't end up doing anything you could have. I think the devotional mood is like this, it gives you the illusion of being "spiritual" without actually doing anything.
Letter 3, question 1
"Next to the church, the family is a choice tool for tripping up Christians. How can a false spirituality be a snare?"
Your family is the group that sees your behavior when you are not at your best. It can be extremely hard to amend your behavior when you are surrounded by people who expect and even sometimes encourage you to go back to your selfish ways. By always sees the worst in someone you are sabotaging their attempt at change. Especially if you don't even know it - that "false spirituality" could be compared to anesthesia. You could bite your own tongue off and not know it if you can't consider feeling.
So for a question, if each of these letters describes a way to trip somebody up, what is the best defense against each?
Great question! I'd love to discuss this in class- perhaps on Thursday. K-do you agree with Lewis about the power of story?
DeleteI'm going to disagree with you on your second answer. I will agree though that some people are trying to change the false spirituality of the church. I do not think we can blame it on the others around his for the reason we are having trouble. I think the reason the church has false spirituality is humans want to be better than others. So they try and show it only at face value and not behind closed doors.
DeleteLetter 5, Question 1
ReplyDeleteI think in this letter Lewis does an excellent job at portraying how the enemy toils in trying to hide evil with good, but sometimes a tempters real stumbling block is evil at face value. Screwtape seems to use the majority of his letter explaining how not to become trapped in the overwhelming evil of war because the evil often has a way of backfiring on a tempter so that "the patients" are more prone to see the light. I think Screwtape points out how "the enemy" has an advantage in war because even though death may bring many to their "father below" the suffering and pure evil of war plainly demonstrates to people how death and deceit are evil and that it is more profitable to embrace good rather than evil. Essentially people will see that evil is despicable and good will save them form the schemes of deceit. The attitude the devil seems to entertain on the topic of war is divided some are for death and destruction while others understand that war does more harm than good.
It was interesting to me that later on in the letters Screwtape tells Wormwood that it is better for their side if the man lives on past the war to experience bitterness and middle age.
DeleteLetter 1, Question 1
ReplyDeleteScrewtape affirms Wormwood for encouraging his patient’s association with a “materialist” friend, ¶ 1. How would a preoccupation with the physical side of reality and ignorance of the spiritual be foundational for diabolical strategy?
A preoccupation with the physical side of reality and ignorance of the spiritual is foundation for a devil's diabolical strategy because it diverts the attention of the patient from the important aspect of life, the spiritual, and only focus on less important aspects, like the physical. Lewis writes about this later on in the book, when he talks about keeping the patient in the here and now. By promoting materialism, the devils would be able to distance the patient from spiritual by having the patient rooted in the material world, rather than the spiritual. If you guys have any other ideas about how it could affect a patient's spiritual life, let me know.
So many scriptures come to mind- the camel and the eye of the needle, no man can serve two masters, etc.
DeleteCould it be you focus on something so much (in this world) that you just lose sight of what you are really here for?
DeleteExample: Someone focus's so much on school, that school becomes their first priority no matter what. When they wake up they have to do their school because it's due, not making any time for jesus. So in result of that you "serve" school instead of God?
I don't know if that is the same or not, or even if it makes sense but there you go. hahaha
Letter 4, Question 2
ReplyDelete"Next to a devotional mood, Screwtape recommends a focus on feelings. What is there about feelings that Screwtape likes when seeking to twist prayer?"
In letter four C. S. Lewis is trying to show us that even though one person may pray, and say they pray they may not have the correct feelings/ attitude about what they are praying for. Like he says, "When they meant to ask Him for charity, let them, instead, start trying to manufacture charitable feelings for themselves and not notice that this is what they are doing." So he is trying to say that the Demons in your mind will tell you, you are praying for this when you are really praying for something else, something selfish. So the feelings you have when you pray really do affect your prayer.
Do you think it's possible to ever do anything with 100% pure motives? Or do you think everything we do comes back some selfish motive?
DeleteI really like what you said. You took a different way of looking at the question then I did. When I looked at the question I thought about how what we feel can affect what we do and when we do. When we have that feeling for Charity we are going to be more willing to give. If we have a feeling of happiness we are going to be more willing to act happy. I still really like the angle you came by. I completely agree with you.
DeleteGreat responses so far! I hope the entire class can contribute before Tuesday!
ReplyDeleteLetter 2
ReplyDeleteNext, to a devotional mood, Screwtape recommends a focus on feelings. What is there about feelings that Screwtape likes when seeking to twist prayer.
Feelings are something that encourages sin, but also something used by God. In this case, its the feeling of instant gratification which is being used to twist his prayers. The devil knows that feelings are very tempting to humans. If we don't get the feeling we want from something we often stop doing it. In this case if we don't feel closer or have a certain feeling as we pray, it deters us from prayer. This is the idea that's being conveyed in this letter.
I definitely agree. The society that we live in today is a society of instant gratification. We expect instant internet, instant attention on social media, and even instant answers to prayer. And, when we don't get something instantly, we feel as if the world has done us wrong. We often, when our prayers are not answered, think that we are entitled to answered prayer, and that we might as well not try if they won't get answered. Great post!
DeleteLetter 2
ReplyDeleteI find that with hypocrisy in the church and with Christians, we all expect everyone to be a perfect example of Christ, but we ourselves are not. Then when someone wrongs us or we see people's sins come out, we are shocked that a Christian could be caught in something so wrong even though we have our own baggage. I think it is completely accurate when a nonbeliever comes into church and says we're all just a bunch of hypocrites, because they are not wrong.
For me the biggest thing I'm avoiding right now is my lack of pursuit in the Lord, and then trying to "perform" at church in worship. I have a hindrance when it comes to having any kind of fellowship with the Lord, and even though I absolutely love to worship, I feel the need to put on a kind of face and facade to conceal my lack of connection.