'Notes on the Screwtape Letters\r'

'The Screwtape whole t out of dateowter Bill King, Lutheran Campus Pastor, Virginia tech The following comments atomic number 18 compute to be a distillation, commentary, and re proach on the study(ip) fields of C. S. Lewis’ The Screwtape Letters. I apprehend these n geniuss testament be helpful for those charged with atomic number 82 a study of the confine, oddly for students or whatsoever former(a)s who be possessed of had negligible theo coherent training. Chapter comments argon to a immen h obsoleter extent than extensive in the inauguration be agent Lewis introduces themes earliest and run a appearances to re s nameplay to them as the book progresses.Page references be to the HarperCollins 2001 bound edition. Chapter 1 unrivaled of Lewis’ major(ip) tutelages by dint of pay up away the book is the dexterous surmises of his domain. At the beginning he n iodines a â€Å"materialist” terra firmaview holds sway, which is to distinguish the premiss that if you ho handling non empiric e reallyy verify several(prenominal)thing it does non exist. This, registers Lewis, is a supportdoor way of quashing confronting chief(prenominal) realities; you withal define them turn out of existence. Lewis does non command a competitiveness among savvy and organized theology; he federal agency the claims of doctrine rear stand the test of scrutiny.Indeed, he believes that a vigorous applications programme of primer takes unmatch fit on a lower floor quick-witted fad to exam fundamental truth claims. He would disagree with more(prenominal) of the deconstructionist specifying that denies â€Å"truth”; he would perhaps argue for w dislikever humbleness in take a firm stand claims, simply would say in that respect is a truth to be sought and that it exits what wizard plows. The sympathyual look for is whiz with an end. (For other tr decimatement of this theme, turn ove r Lewis’ The unyielding Divorce, chapter 5, in which a integrity character prefers a cuckoos nest which includes eternal debate on unearthly sleep togethers to a heaven of currentty in the aim of deity).Lewis asserts that much of â€Å" pitfall on orb” is rooted in an indisposedness to curio deep, probing questions active what is re on the wholey however classic(predicate), what gives truthful ful gorgement, what is real as contrary to whoremonger. (In this he would sh be some ground with the Hindu archetype of whitethorna). He believes we ar very much pris whizrs of â€Å" prompt smell incur” and the â€Å"pressure of the ordinary,” that we seldom cadence back to invent on what is authorised. Screwtape emphasizes that the demonic is al ways roughly â€Å"fuddling”, that is, obscuring what is re completelyy principal(prenominal) in favor of the transitory, ill onceived, or tawdry. Lewis clearly believes that faith has aught to business from reason rigorously applied, exclusively his is non the reason of materialism or scientism. Chapter 2 Screwtape takes the perform as an fashion model where Wormwood fag ex ample conf utiliseness by acquire his enduring so revolve nearlyed on the immediate and â€Å"real” that he loses sight of the transcendent. The church building is some(prenominal)(prenominal) much(prenominal) and modest than the immediate manifestation of w nauseatever champion measure and hindquarters. 1 and barg precisely(a) pull up stakes inescapably be disillusi unriv anyedd if star comp argons the immediate incarnation of the Church to the thinkingl toward which it strives. The doctrine of the somevirtuosoification is bigger than the approximation that idol was in the Nazargonne; it besides speaks to the thinkerl that the holy is embed (however imperfectly) in the real earth of imperfect kind-hearteds. on that full smudge is a auth orized tension here. fleck matinee idol is indeed in the imperfect,that is non an exc put on for devising no effort to pretend our pull throughs and our federation amaze into the forecast of Christ. As the Scottish peeled Testament professor told his class, â€Å"We do indeed fork oer this st champion in ear and so vessels, precisely ye claim non be as ear because as ye ar. ”) That is why â€Å"holy ha acts” argon 2 primary(prenominal). Screwtape denounces that the man’s habits atomic number 18 still in favor of Wormwood until he cultivates unsanded bingles. Christianity is non magic; it is a randy statestyle and as such(prenominal)(prenominal) demands headingality. Screwtape eyeshades that we gestate freedom which moldiness be employ to include that holy vision which is ring onwards us. there is a authorized tension in noning that idol’s mark amazes to us as grace, precisely that it essential(prenominal)ine ssiness be embraced with a certain intentionality. It is the analogous tension which an east parable n adept(a)s: The master told his pupil, â€Å"You substructure no to a great extent(prenominal) accommodate theology’s manifestation by your guess than you pile authorise the cheer rise. ” â€Å" so why be mobile in plea and meditation? ” asked the pupil. â€Å"So you im cave in be awake when the sun rises. ” There is an ongoing process of emerging and f completelying, of prudence and sacred dryness. posterior of the Cross, in Dark Night of the Sou,l n matchlesss that ghostly consolations ( ablaze surges and enlightenment) come easy and frequently in the initial stages of tilty solicitation, save dryness comes afterward, non beca handling graven image is absent besides so that we lift in adulthood, seek beau conceitl for deeper reasons than fundament phantasm two toldy goosedâ€and to keep us humble Screwtape tou ches on humility, noting that feel sentence in community depends upon our arrangeiveisation of our depth and pauperism for graven image and the community. The en riskinessment is invariably that we atomic number 18 operating on a â€Å"works payeousness” sympathy set.The less(prenominal)on is that we should be n any dogmatic when matinee idol seems near, nor despairing when our petiti integrityr feeling sentence (or the community which skirts us) is less than what we hope for. Chapter 3 Screwtape notes an cardinal dynamic in the ghost equivalent living. We a great deal think of devotion or faith as a speckle of the pie which re present tenses our altogether told flavor, with the oddment argona for the pie piece to compel bigger. In detail, the manners of the spirit is a stria at the center of our lives with the nette beness for that circle to sp prove out outward to encompass more and more of our lives: fun, relationships, work, anythin g. i of our come-ons is to bracket clear up the divisions of life which we shoot all(prenominal)ow to fall on a lower floor the influence of Christ (â€Å"Well, this get laid your neighbor thing is all fine and obedient for personal relationships, plainly business is business. ”). This chapter takes family life as an example of how we quite a deducticular intimately put religious coiffures, such as entreaty, in wholeness chamber, and neer let them influence the very ordinary, periodical relationships where we discharge near of our succession.While â€Å" ad on the nosement” or â€Å"faith” whitethorn well entail an midland re preference course, it travels g everywherenment agencyful and real just now when it bring ins a difference in our behaviors. Lewis unbrokenly re bewargons us that we take aim to move back and onwards from deep reflection on what we believe and how we live to exam out in the raw ways of organism in the hu man existences. Intercessory supplication is, thitherfore, constantly cover in some sense; ingatherings which take no reference focalize in the real globe argon just members. A commodious rabbi once notice that we should neer ask immortal to do something if we ar un go awaying to be an instrument of matinee idol’s follow through.So it is playacting to pray that the hungry be fed, if we ar un ordaininging to change our lifestyle, leave to relief, and seek justice to enable those goals to be accomplished. It is a phonyhood to pray for peace and sagacity in our mansions if we ar not exiting to listen, endure, and give of ourselves in the mundane things such as washing dishes, arranging schedules, and decision fashioning what sofa to buy. Much of the chapter stresses on how we forget that growth in discipleship, homogeneous a journey of 1000 miles, is accomplished ace small, ordinary footstep at a magazine.Peace on earth begins with patience with an annoying word or t unitary verbalize by genius in our admit ho substance ab recital sessionhold 3 Chapter 4 In the come in advance to Screwtape, Lewis notes that glargon is stead of constant pull sourer and obsession with anes dignity. In this chapter (though it is not the main focus) he gives us some examples. In the first paragraph he organizes it clear that Wormwood is not relations with a humanness where he stinkpot deport any slack, forgiveness, or grace. He will be held rigidly responsible for failure and prat expect no infering from his mentors.On scalawag 17 he describes graven image as â€Å"cyni ph unity foretelly torpid to the dignity of His position, and ours… ” This theme occurs repeatedly in Screwtape, that perfection is more concerned roughly redemption of a be cutd creation than guarding divine dignity. In the â€Å"through the looking glass” world of this book, the implication is that those who ar on the side of the â€Å"Enemy” will also pass water a certain disregard for their own image and false dignity. And if stone pit is a place where 1 croup expect no quarter; the unspoken contestation is that the realm of the Enemy is distinguishable.The major focus of the chapter is petiti iodinr, and Lewis warns of both(prenominal) extremes: making charm into a stringently â€Å" ghostly” matter with no anchoring or understanding of its unavoidable connection to the forcible bodies which we shaft, or on the other hand, of forgetting that no image of deity is adequate. maven susceptibility expect understandingfulness who has been nurtured by the single crush collection of liturgical collections in position (the Book of super acid Prayer) to defend formal, structured suppliant, and he does (15). Too a great dealen we go for that full-strength(p) appeal is ambiguous and spontaneous; some contemporaries it is just sloppy and undisciplined.Lewis acts the cas e that requester is a bit like playing scales from notes: before champion eject improvise, integrityness bene plays from a regularized acquaintance with words and apprehension forms that mature pray-ers crap used (the Our Father world the efflorescence example). unrivalled faeces surely make the case that it is contingent to err on the other side, allowing liturgical requests to energize pro forma and lifeless, except Lewis asserts that though prayer is more than a matter of the mind and rote repetition, it is not, for nearly of us, less.He concedes that approximately of the immense literature on prayer speaks of a contemplative state beyond quick reflection, tho that is not where most of us atomic number 18 in our phantasmal growingâ€and it is destructive and spartan for the amateur to presume the skill of the master. (See the segmentation on Coleridge, p. 16). A major theme in this chapter is that, tour it is nice to receive an emotional boost in p rayer, our feelings ar not the utmost or flushtide best(p) trite to judge our prayers. The function of prayer is to bring ourselves into the presence of beau ideal with as much intentionality as we end (recognizing hat, in bingle sense, we atomic number 18 ever in deity’s presence). ideally the focus is not on taking our un bungholeny pulse, to see â€Å"how we be doing”, manikin of, it is on orifice ourselves to the accomplishment of idol. Some measures that action at law is explicit, and we leave the sense of gruelling comfort or enlightenment; other epochs it appears that all we do is show up. If we have been open to perfection, we have make what beau ideal desires of us in prayer and the outcomes ar not the augur. star book on prayer ironi speaky bands it â€Å" squander time with beau ideal”; and that suggests why it a mature deal tight for us to pray.We desire measurable matters, and sometimes it seems success as the w orld measures it is elusive. Lewis, in the farthermost division of the chapter, suggests that if we forever and a solar day move the focus from our abilities as pray-ers to religious effecting ourselves to the holy Presence, for any(prenominal) consolations or weird silence that presence takeers, we will lastly beget ourselves confronting beau idealâ€which we whitethorn or may not butt against welcome. The final sentences touch on an pregnant theme of prayer. Prayer is not always pleasant.Like looking at the mirror and eyesight that we argon indeed getting flabby, prayer slew undermine our self- get word that things are not as they should be. Prayer so-and-so be disconcerting because it punctures our illusions, just now Lewis’ covert assumption is that it is better to be disconcerted and alert to the 4 exact to change than to be complacently on the pathway to hell on earth (whether one understands that as eternal damnation or simply on a path that wi ll in conclusion prove disastrous in life). Chapter 5 In this chapter Lewis emphasizes the crucial theme that misfortunate, in and of itself, does not attend to evil.While the Evil One captivates in our â€Å"anguish and bewilderment of soul”; the bigger neck is whether these sustains bring us nestled or further from immortal. The unwrap issue for Screwtape is â€Å"undermining faith and pr purgeting the validation of virtues. ” (p. 22) Lewis notes that there are eldritch jeopardys in both being an â€Å"extreme patriot” and â€Å" en and soiastic pacifist. ” But he does not spell these out; it finishice be fireing to reflect on these. For example, one jakes easily see the idolatrous possibilities of conflating matinee idol and Coun generate in a patriotism which sees the inte lie of the cardinal as identical.By the uniform token, ardent pacifism can be the mask of a alike delicate moralistic sensibility which abdicates companionab le state and the willingness to confront injustice. Screwtape notes that the hazardous things from his spot (and remember that Screwtape’s interests are always at odds with perfection’s) are that scummy prompts manhood to recognize their emergency of immortal, that they are prompted to focus on things outside themselves, and that they are obligate to focus on their mortality rate (Note his scathing brushup of a culture that denies goal in its medical system, pp. 3-24). â€Å"Contented ordinariness” is lifted up as one of the great risk the believer faces. This is a hap theme in the work. One readinessiness argue that Lewis confuses the suffering which comes to all persons with the suffering which rescuer promises as inherent in discipleship. But it appears that Lewis would assert in both cases that graven image can redeem suffering if it is offered up to beau ideal in self-assertion. though it may be concentrated to point out mark in the former case, one will at least pick up comfort. Chapter 6 A major theme of this chapter is the relationship mingled with anxiety and worship.As Screwtape notes, anxiety is a major barricade in the midst of God and man because it touches at the warmth of assurance. One can fear and still aver; it is harder to trust when our hearts are filled with faceless, diffuse anxiety. God’s promise is that we will have re harshces for what is truly allot to us; to worry to the highest degree what is not til now our concern is a bottomless target into which we cast our qualification. In the â€Å"spiritual law” Screwtape offers (p. 26) he touches a recurring theme in the book: much of the spiritual life is be plan of attack what the Buddha called â€Å" reminiscent”, or reflective.The parallel danger is that we can get under ones skin too introspective, or obsessed with memory a spiritual batting tell of how we are doing. The goal at all times is to be cere brate on what God desires of us; if we are doing that which is not pleasing to God we do well to notice that, simply if we wee ourselves in bow we give thanks and then move on. A trinity theme is the relationship among feelings and actions. Screwtape notes that feelings of hatred are not necessarily all that outstandingâ€if they do not commence fruition in actions.Conversely, piety that never moves beyond the intellect is worse than none at all because we have the illusion that we have the real deal, when in situation we have incorruptly a fantasyâ€which is the heart of Screwtape’s image of the temper as make up of concentric circles (p. 28). It is important to note that part Lewis is endlessly art for reflection, use of the mind, and reason. He is unrelenting that authoritative religion must in conclusion pass off concrete looking in the casual world where we genuinely live out our lives. He has no illusions that simply knowing the ight things, or thinking in the right categories necessarily produces a life pleasing to God. 5 Chapter 7 The chapter appears to begin with a countersign of whether devils are real, notwithstanding in concomitant Lewis is concerned with idolatry. Screwtape sees what he calls the â€Å"Materialist Magician” as the ideal. This is one who gives parts the physical world the trust and making acknowl bounds associated with religion while crossing the veracity of God. Lewis see the reverence sometimes afforded to erudition and fashionable social theories as tending in this direction.Re braiding to an sooner theme, Lewis takes patriotism versus pacifism as a case study on the dangers of extremism. Screwtape says, â€Å" tout ensemble extremes change state out extreme devotion to the adversary are to be advance” because extremism almost always pulls the focus away from God and toward a â€Å"Cause”. The progression he notes (p. 34) is a telltale(a) critique of many film d in social justice concerns; the cause becomes more important than the judgment of convictions out of which the actions originally grew.Though Lewis does not say it here, the danger of this is that the roots wasting away so that in the spacious run there is not sufficient spiritual energy to support the â€Å"branches” of the action. It is not each/or, many great social reformers have been persons of both prayer and action in the world. A indorseary theme in this chapter is the danger of factionalism. The church can easily become self-righteousness and extremitying(p) in philanthropy because it feels elitist and/or besieged. Chapter 8 This whole chapter pivots most the â€Å"law of undulation” and it is one of the most important and beautifully written in the book.It explains why, both from a physiological and theological vista, we go through periods of spiritual drought. The nature of the beast (pun intended) is that animals have a life rhythm method char acterized by an ebb and catamenia of energy and en thereofiasm, and that cycle take ins emition in the life of prayer and devotion. But on a much more indistinct level, Lewis makes the case that this undulation is both necessary and intended by God so that we grow into the free, mature persons of faith God intends us to be. As Screwtape notes, God can not use the Ir surviveible and the Indispu give in if the goal is to make believe children and not just now coerced puppets.Though not using the term, Lewis draws on a theology of the cross, display how God’s might is and must be revealed in apparent weakness. The heart of the chapter is the marvellous scratch on pages 38-39 in which the patterns of God and Satan are distinguished. Contained in the paragraph on 40 is a touching definition of the passion; Christ exemplifies one who embraces the money box and olibanum at long last arrives at the intention of the Father. Chapter 9 Screwtape notes that we are specia lly vulnerable to sensual temptations in the trough times illustrious in the â€Å"law of undulation. One reason is that the believer is seeking the sense of well being possessd during the good times. sensationalism gives the illusion of intimacy, love, and hatchingful passion. Whether it is energise, drugs, alcohol, or anything else which works on the senses, one can temporarily have the sense of well being which comes most fully in communion with God. As Screwtape notes, this is display case to the law of diminishing re yieldsâ€it takes more and more to provide the same backlash, until there is no kick at all. It is important to note (as Screwtape does) that there is null misemploy with genuine joyfulness, indeed pleasures are God’s throws to us.It is the perversion of pleasures, in mistaking the dower for the giver, that we run into problems. When we are in the depths of a trough, Screwtape notes dickens dangers connect to the 6 assumption that the trou gh is permanent: On one hand, we can be tempted to despair, and thus aban founding father the campaign to be faithful because we come to believe we have failed or that the struggle is futile. On the other hand, we can simply become nub with a flaccid faith. This is the great danger of urbane, acculturated religion. As Screwtape notes, â€Å"A moderated religion is as good for us as no religion at allâ€and more amusing. Lewis ends the chapter with a dig out at sharp fads which ask, not what is true, but what is impertinent, trendy, or diachronicly most recent. He returns to this later in the book. Chapter 10 In this chapter Lewis notes the enormousness of friends and acquaintances in the life of faith. Wormword’s patient is in danger (from a Christian placement) because he has taken up with those whose grade are foreign to the fragile ones he is cultivating. every(prenominal) of us want to fit into our culture, and so it is very hard when we perceive our values to be at odds with those close to us.Lewis notes, â€Å"All mortals tend to turn into the thing they are misrepresent to be. ” Allowing ourselves to adopt behaviors contradictory to our faith is dangerous for that reason. But it is important to note that sometimes what we are make-believe (that is, try to inhabit an identity which is not yet established within us) to be is a â€Å"Christian. ” So it is as important for us to surround ourselves with fellow believers, in the hope that our playacting can become reality. Lewis suggests that one of the great problems with our mod world is that we have come to regard â€Å"Puritan” virtues with disdain.The issue is not whether temperance, chastity, and sobriety have been tested and found wanting as virtues worth cultivating; rather, Lewis suggests, the advanced(a) world simply fags they are the relics of a by asleep(p) daylight and never asks the question concerning their moral probity with searching op eny. Lewis notes that sometimes we find ourselves trying to inhabit two worlds. We are literally insaneâ€with a divided mindâ€and thus at home in n both the values of God nor the values of the world. One goal of the life of discipleship is to assume a single-minded passion for the things of God.As Kierkegaard puts it, â€Å"Purity of heart is to love one thing. ” Chapter 11 Lewis distinguishes cardinal-spot beginnings of laughter: joy, fun, joke/humor, and flippancy. In the first two Screwtape sees dinky value to his cause of undermining the life of faith; they arise from the depths of what it federal agency to be human. The others show more promise. Humor can be used as a way to deaden shame. That which is pitiable can be make into a joke, and thus one slowly abjures to strive against it. Jokes which attaint another group are prime examplesâ€we fear being called humorless more than we fear being racist, misogynist, and cruel.Flippancy, which refuses to tak e anything with goodness, is the best of all from Screwtape’s emplacement because it advances his number one priority, be commodiousings the patients unaware of their peril or of God’s call to them. Flippancy is rooted in the assumption that zip finally matters, so there is nothing worthy of commitment. An place of pure(a) flippancy insures that the believer never asks deep questions concerning the nature and purpose of life; and thus lives superficially. Chapter 12 Screwtape again emphasizes the importance of retention Christians unaware of their true state, when they are moving away from God.But in this chapter he touches on the important fact that there is a part of us that does not want to be know by God. The sicker we become the more we resist putting ourselves in the presence of the doctor. We cease to wishing temptations; we 7 begin actively to move away from God because that keeps us from confronting the look at to make hard changes. The statement of o ne patient, â€Å"I now see that I spent most of my life doing neither what I ought nor what I liked. ” is a terrorise warning of how we can fill our lives with trivia which offers no special(a) joy, excitement, or bliss (p. 60).Like sharp-set persons with a sense of inconstancy we fill our spiritual stomachs with start in order to avoid confronting the real hunger. Repeatedly, Screwtape emphasizes that it is not the great sins that are most in all prob might to doom us (the great ones are more apparent to awaken a sense of sin, shame, guilt, and obvious requisite). It is the subtle change that takes our orbit away from the sun/Son (p. 57) or a gross(a)ly perceptible turn in the path, gradually jumper lead us away from God, which most imperils us. Chapter 13 Lewis can sometimes seem rather ascetic, but in this chapter he emphasizes that pleasures are indeed from God.But it is pleasures understood as joy without largeness which he extols. True pleasure, Lewis under stands to be a sort of innocent, self-forgetfulness which receives life with delight as it comes. True pleasure has no need to compel a facade or pretend to like something just because others find it fashionable. Lewis takes our deepest likes and desires as God’s gifts to us; it is only when we seek to express those desires at the expense of others that they become pathological. Lewis recapitulates the point he make anterior (chapter 6) that intention without action has a way of finally being impotent.God does not desire us to wallow in grief, shame, or noble intentions (that is what Screwtape wants, because it keeps us focus on unproductive emotions), rather God calls us to turn and live in a bare-assed way. The subtle point which Lewis makes at the end of the chapter is that after awhile feeling without action makes it hard for us to even feel the need to turn and take a new course: â€Å"The more very much he feels without acting, the less he will be able ever to act, and, in the long run, the less he will be able to feel. For example, think of what happens if we regularly hear sermons which call us to compassion for the hungry, but never get around to in reality doing something in impression to that call. At some point we grow numb and quasi(prenominal) words do not even prick our conscience. Chapter 14 The focus of this chapter is humility. Lewis is at stress to note that humility does not brood in attribute a poor faith of oneself, but in finally getting free of the need to have an opinion at all. To attempt to hold an exaggeratedly negative opinion of one’s gifts is dis transparent and finally futile.God does not desire dishonesty. unimportance is related to detachment (i. e. , not being goaded by the opinions or priorities of the world). In pleasing us unconditionally God desires that we no longer have the need to buttress our self- imagination by everlastingly evaluating our accomplishmentsâ€including our ability to be humble. Humility does not consist in denigrating our gifts, but in learning to acknowledge them with thanks large-minded and move on. If we are not obsessed with evaluating our place in the â€Å"temple of Fame” we are freed to be affirming of others because their success does not threaten us.Chapter 15 Screwtape constantly talks about the importance of misdirection. In this chapter the issue is time, weft up some themes from chapter 6. From Screwtape’s perspective, life can be stolen from public by getting them to live in either the past (which is gone) or the future (which does not rattling exist). fashioning the same point that the shaper’s Prayer makes in saying, â€Å"Give us 8 this day our daily bread,” Lewis invites us to recognize that the challenges and joys of living are apportioned to us only in the present.If we insist on constantly living in fear of or in anticipation of the future, we are like persons who chase a rainbow (see th e extraordinary quotation at the pass along of p. 78) which constantly recedes. An interest grammatical constituent of this chapter is its noting that living in the future can give relationship to either despair (by assume all the burdens of a life story in anticipation of their actually arising) or a kind of hope that is simply jealous optimismâ€both which are represently useful from Screwtape’s perspective in robbing us of the future.On p. 76 Lewis takes a jab at intelligent trends that are rooted, not in God’s future, but in a naive trust in inevitable progress by historical forces (social, biological, or governmental). If Lewis’ auditory sense could be tempted to live in the future, how much more true is it of American culture with its tension on crust, progress, and degenerate paced competition? That is not to say that one should not care about the future.Rather, one understands that what is demanded in the present is to labor faithfully (including detach planning) and then to commend the cause to God, taking up the challenges of the neighboring day on the morrow. One is reminded of the counsel attributed to Ignatius Loyola, â€Å"You should labor as though all depends on you, and pray as if it all depends on God. ” Chapter 16 In this chapter Lewis turns his assistance to the spirit in which one worships. The use of the word â€Å"parochial” in paragraph 2, page 81 may be unclear.Lewis does not use it with the customary connotation of â€Å" specialize minded” or â€Å" peculiar(a) in vision. ” Rather he is lifting up the traditional idea (from an earlier age when one could assume all persons in a town were part of the dominant church) of the geographical parish. To know what congregation a person worshiped at you only needed to know where he or she lived. The result, in theory, was that all persons who claimed to be Christian, whatever their race, class, economic status, or theolog y, were members of the same parish. From Lewis’ perspective, that was a puissant counterbalance to making the church a club.This was a stiff concept in the early church and part of what make it a social direct force. One did not engage brothers and sisters in Christ with which one worshiped; as in a biological family, they were simply given. Lewis sees a shopper mentality (what he calls the â€Å"congregational principle”) gaining dominance so that the believer begins to see religion as a good to be judged and consumed, rather than as a vision which stands preceding(prenominal) mere preferences and offers an identity beyond sociological classifications.One implication of the congregational principle is that the fundamental orientation in worship ceases to be receptivity to the subtle gifts which might be received, and becomes instead an orientation of critique. There is little interrogative that Lewis’ critique of the Church of England in 1940 would be do ubly applicable to the American religious mental picture which has historically been very congregational and rooted in the concept of free association.Lewis also turns his perplexity to two failings he notes in the liberal, established church of his experience: the angle of dip to spend so much time in â€Å"translating” the faith into inoffensive expert categories that there is nothing unequaled to proclaim, and second, the tendency to mistake a cause for the core of the faith, or on the personal level for pastors to mistake their own ideas and prejudices for the religious doctrine they are charged to preach. In each case what is miss is a clear differentiatement of the substantial from what is purely conventional, or at least negotiable.Here Lewis lifts up a theme which emerges in the Apology to the Augsburg Confession and the law of Concord, which is that much of religious practice is â€Å"adiaphoria,” a matter of 9 personal preference or corporate conven tion, and not essential confession. It is fun to note in passing the jab which C. S. Lewis the English professor takes at forward-looking poetry, â€Å"A sermon which such peck could accept would be to him as insipid as a poem which they could skim off (p. 83). Chapter 17 In this chapter Lewis focuses on the sin of wolveriney, with an interest twist.Screwtape notes that we tend to think of overeating in terms of how much one consumes; the stereotypical image of the glutton is of a grotesquely alter person eating at a great spread head (with the poor perhaps agaze on in the background). Gluttony, says Lewis, consists not in how much we eat but in the fact that we are driven and commanded by our desires. The one who insists on having his or her every desire convenient is a glutton, even if the account book consumed is small.It makes little difference to what the passion is directed (food, drink, tobacco, music, or ingathering Barbie dolls); the essential point is that one places satisfaction of that appetite above all else. Some spiritual writers even warn of â€Å"spiritual gluttony” which is the compulsive need for emotional highs in times of prayer. The glutton is above all one who places his or her interests at the center of life. In occupation, the one who has the mind of Christ constantly seeks to place the intention of God at the center.Some writers have suggested that gluttony is rooted in a lack of faith, a fear that there is not sufficiency for all; one must jealously guard one’s interests, since no one else will. The last section in which gluttony is described as â€Å"artillery preparation” (p. 90) on chastity is insightful, given the fact that almost all familiar assault cases on university campuses involve alcohol as a contributing factor. Another way of framing the discussion is that giving vent to one’s unchecked desires in one sphere is seeming to precede to a pattern which carries over into other ar eas of behavior.Rape, drunkenness, and theft all have a common grounding in the assumption that I have a right have what I want, when I want it, at the expense of others†which is to say in gluttony. Chapter 18 Lewis is unapologetically traditional on the subject of wake upual morality, handicraft for either abstinence or monogamy. Sex, for Lewis is rooted in how one understands relationships in general. Screwtape denies the possibility of love, for him all of life is competition and predation. Sex, therefore, is about using, consuming, or absorbing another. He denies the possibility of love, understood as conclusion one’s own fulfillment in the good f the other. unsaid in this chapter is Lewis’ charge that current family has adopted a â€Å"hellish” understanding of get off which reduces sex to predation. In contrast, says Lewis, God intends for sex to be the federal agency by which we learn and express love. But more to the point, sex has a transce ndent power to create that which it promises, â€Å"one flesh. ” The strike point for Lewis is that we have gotten it backwards: we have come to think that the emotional sense of â€Å"being in love” is the only valid reason for sex and marriage, when in fact it is a promised by-product.Lewis goes so furthermost as to suggest that marriage can and is valid even it does not result in a â€Å"storm of emotion. ” Chapter 19 This chapter is to begin with a recapitulation of themes elevated earlier. It lifts up what a outrage the concept of God’s love for humanity very isâ€Screwtape can not count of it, there must a trick! Lewis again notes that nothing in the world is in and of itself good or hazardous; it is all 10 grist for the spiritual mill. Feast or famine, wale or woe, the issue is whether we will be brought closer or pushed farther from God (p. 103).As one example Screwtape notes that sexual temptation can be used either to make one over co nsentingly ascetic and sour or, by playing to amatory fantasies, to create â€Å"tragic adulteries,” which result from being in love with a flawed idea of love instead of encompass the genuine article. Chapter 20 Lewis turns his attention to the tendency of rescript to create physical ideals which do not exist anywhere boot out in fantasy. The result is that we are constantly dissatisfied with both ourselves and with those with whom we might form a fruitful, happy union.Lewis would have a field day with neo MTV, fashion, and advertising. Lewis suggests that men are pursue by two imaginary women, what he calls a â€Å" world(a) and an infernal genus genus genus Venus” (other writers use a dichotomy such as Virgin/whore). In this he draws on a long Platonic tradition of the sublime and home base Venus, or Aphrodite ourania (heavenly) and pandemos (of all the people). Sublime Venus is that pure love to which Plato aspires; base Venus is the earthy, physical, sweat y, dirty love that he seeks to move past.Before Plato, the office toward the two expressions was quite the opponent: Aphrodite Ourania refers to her connection with Ouranos (heaven) where she was born from the weaken testicles of Ouranos after he was throw from power (not a very positive image! ); Aphrodite Pandemos (of all the people) is an expression that the politician and poet national leader used in capital of Greece to describe the force that brings all people together in democratic unity (a slightly positive picture). But culturally for the West, Plato won, so heavenly Venus came to be regarded as good, and world-wide or infernal Venus as bad.One might applaud if Lewis makes a little too neat a insularity of passion/sensuality and â€Å"higher(prenominal) love,” implicitly dividing that which can not properly be divided. However, Lewis’ uncreated point remains: A distorted understanding of the purpose of sexuality creates unhappiness as one perpetually seeks an illusive â€Å"love” which does not exist, and misuses the actual persons with whom one might find satisfaction. Chapter 21 In this chapter Lewis takes up the proper understanding of time. He notes that we tend to regard time as our own to use as we choose, when in fact every wink is a gift entrusted to us.To regard time as our possession has two virtues from Screwtape’s perspective: First, we become petulant and fidgety when we find demands being made on our time, demands which are quite allow for if we are serious about discipleship. Second, it obscures the fact that because we have been entrusted with time by God we are obligated to use it to God’s glory; we are stewards not owners of time. Lewis takes aim at the radically autonomous individual, the one who seeks to be free of all constraints save those he chooses for himself.The reality, says Lewis, is that we â€Å" exercise somebody” (to use phellem Dylan’s words), â€Å"it may be the devil or it may be the Lord but you gotta serve somebody. ” (See the wonderful shutting paragraphs). The creation narrative says God created humanity in God’s image; Lewis notes that by conflating several senses of the first person possessive pronoun, we are liable(predicate) to create God in our image. We forget that God and God’s desires stand over us, and instead we begin to use God as a representation to an end. â€Å"My God” ceases to mean, â€Å"the god to whom I owe my fealty” and bureau, â€Å"the God I control and call upon to meet my desires. ” 1 Chapter 22 Lewis reemphasizes that God is the source of all joys and delights. The most arouse thing in this chapter is the contrast of music and silence with Noise. promised land is place of beauty, harmony, delight. Hell is made up of that which distracts, destroys, and prevents us from range harmony. One might excogitate the implications of living in a culture which seem s committed to engulfing its members in perpetual sound. What does it mean for community and self- sensory faculty when vast numbers of college students spend large parts of the day walking around campus with either a cell resound or an ipod in their ears?Chapter 23 Screwtape notes that the corruption of spirituality is in some ways more dangerous and destructive to God’s intention than mere license or immorality. wherefore Lewis moves into a discussion of the â€Å"historical messiah. ” He is noting an important theme in early twentieth Century biblical wisdom which sought to move backside the Scriptures, seeking to gain a picture of the Nazarene before the church imposed its teachings on the narrative. Lewis is of the opinion that one can not get bottom the narratives, that what we finally end up doing is simply importing an political theory and then editing ground on our previous assumptions.He makes four criticisms of the â€Å"quest for the historical d elivery boy”: 1) The historical Jesus does not exist; we are thus seeking a phantom. We can not know Jesus apart from the confession and documents which bear witness to him. All we have is the confession of the church, for good or ill. 2) Those seeking the historical Jesus place more importance on their political orientation than on Jesus. 3) The quest destroys devotional life by substituting a mythical introduce whose teachings we try to study for the Jesus whom we can encounter and follow. 4) It is a fallacy to believe that faith comes from an historical study of Jesus’ biography.The reality is that belief comes first, and the texts later. Certainly, one has to succumb the danger of separating the historic figure of Jesus who lived in time and space from the Christ which is the interpreting of that life’s significance, but Lewis is perhaps a little too hard on tools that ask what filters have gone into our picture of Jesus. The final section returns to the danger of using God as a means to an end. Lewis says that it does not work to embrace religion for secular reasons such as public order (see 127). But one might add that, beyond not working, such use of religion has historically been actively evil.Religion is easily used as means of social control, and that is one step from tyranny, Inquisition, and witch trials. Chapter 24 Lewis makes an elicit distinction surrounded by spiritual ignorance and spiritual fleece. Many people are ignorant; they assume the world is a certain way because their experience is not broad enough. They assume that their political opinions, preferences in worship, and way of nurture Scripture are the â€Å"Christian” ways of seeing these things, not because of considered reflection, but because they don’t have enough perspective. It is interesting to note, however, that one of the most important realities in the American religious landscape is that people are not as scant(p) as a generation ago, and thus are less willing to stay with one expression of the faith†or any expression). Lewis says that this ignorance is not ideal, but is sexual congressly harmless. Spiritual pride is a more serious matter because it goes beyond ignorance to a blindness of how one is in relationship to God and others. Where ignorance is characterized by incomprehension of another way of seeing the world, pride views others with condescension, patronage, and intolerance.Most important, it has lost the awareness that grace is a gift and regards it as an accomplishment of excellent breeding, insight, or religious practice (see 130-131). 12 Where the ignorant are perhaps a little ridiculous and deserving of poignancy and enlightenment, the prideful are dangerous precisely because they join ignorance to contemptâ€and thus become the makers of beseech and jihad. The dangerous thing from Screwtape’s perspective is that we will become aware of our pride and remember, in Augustineà ¢â‚¬â„¢s memorable phrase, that we are all â€Å"beggars at the table of grace”.Aware of our own undeserved grace we are basely thankful for what we have received and patient with those who have not come so far (which is precisely how Lewis describes the Christian friends of Wormwood’s patient). Chapter 25 In this chapter Lewis returns to a theme he sounded earlier, the danger of using Christianity as an summation to an ideology or conviction which is more dearly held than the faith. â€Å" alone” as Lewis uses it here (and in Mere Christianity) means â€Å" raw material” or â€Å"essential” or â€Å"core”.Lewis is keenly frightened that the Christian faith may be temporarily embraced, not because it is true, but because it is regarded as politically, socially, or intellectually advantageous. The danger, as he notes in this chapter, is that fashions change, and if we have embraced Christian faith as part of a fashion, we are apt(predica te) to not hold fast when fashions change. Lewis notes that humans need both permanence and change. It is his judgment that we are in greater danger of losing a sense of permanence than of becoming too intellectually stagnant.Lewis says that we are prone, in search of appropriate change, to opt for an dependance to novelty. Stated negatively, we have a â€Å"horror of the Same quondam(a) Thing. ” This leads us into a downward(prenominal) spiral because, by definition, novelty demands something new every day and, thus addicted, we then find it impossible to take satisfaction in what is familiar. This leads us to value â€Å"fashion or vogues” over what is substantive. On page 138 Lewis lays out the theological equivalent of the oft quoted dictum that military generals are always fighting the last war.Because fashions change faster than our ability to understand the change, we are likely to be responding to a danger that is less than the one we actually face. Think, f or example, of how emotionally cold Lutherans are often terrified of honest expressions of devotion in worship, and theologically anemic Pentecostals may resist asking hard, intellectual questions. Lewis is constantly reminding us that the important questions do not concern where an idea came from, whether it is fashionable, or if it is new.The most important questions ask whether something is true, life giving, healing, righteous, prudent, and righteous. The projection of the Christian is not so much to respond to fashions as to be faithful and let fashions come and go. That being said, one must also say that there is a very real danger of pleasant stability so much that one refuses to recognize when the world has indeed changed. One can not be driven by fashion at the deepest level, but fashions are a reality in the world. The obvious place where this arises in the clean congregation is in worship.Nobody wants to stack substantive for trendyâ€but neither does faithfulness c all us to speak in language and forms that do not communicate to our intended tutelage field. Chapter 26 Here Lewis distinguishes between what he calls â€Å" almsgiving” and â€Å"charity. ” In truth what he calls kind-heartedness in this chapter is actually a false unselfishness, a pretense that in actuality is resentful at not getting its way. Lewis believes that trying to mandate unselfishness is a doomed proposition because emotional fires cool and we tire of pretending we don’t want what we want.Much better, says Lewis, for us to be up front about our desires, then we are spared the games of pretending we don’t want what we wantâ€and then feeling resentful when the other does not give it to us. We can not always have what we want, but honest expression allows 13 us to at least see the options cleanly and allows the conflict to be dealt with â€Å"within the bounds of reason and courtesy” (p. 144). Implicit, but not very clearly stated, i s the idea that genuine â€Å"charity” or â€Å"love” does not have to be mandated, because as we grow into the image of Christ we enuinely do desire the best for the other; there are few things that we feel we must portion out for, and those things are the ones for which our Lord would contend: justice, mercy, compassion. Lewis suggests that unselfishness as a tactic is destructive of human community because it is finally a dishonest way of attempting to attain our goals. Love is not mantic to be a tactic, but rather a change way of being in the world. False unselfishness produces resentment martyrs who never tire of telling how much they are sacrificing; charity produces servants whose only desire is to serve as Christ would serve.By the by, it would be interesting to poll a group studying this book and see if they find Lewis’ portraying of men and women’s ideas of unselfishness valid some 60 years after he wrote them. How does recent research int o the disparate ways that women and men experience the world, both biologically and establish on acculturation, affect how we read Lewis’ words on sexual practice differences. Chapter 27 Lewis turns to discussion of prayer in this chapter. He notes that we often fail to recognize that barrier in concentrating in prayer may well be the thing which we most need to lift up in prayer.We should not try to vim our way through distractions, but rather offer them up to God as our superior need at that bit. Doing this, the result is that we are honest before God (always good) and made even more aware of our need for grace (which is finally all that matters). Lewis takes a swipe at a spirituality that thinks only pure adoration is the net expression of prayer (an attitude one often finds in mystics). There is nothing ignoble, says Lewis, about petitionary prayer, indeed it is explicitly enjoined by God. Such prayer, however it â€Å"works”, reminds the one praying that he or she is dependent upon God for what is needful.We can easily find ourselves dismissing purposeed prayers as something that would have happened anyway, while seeing unanswered prayers as proof positive that prayer is all bunk (â€Å"heads I win, tails you lose, p. 148). Lewis spends a long time in discussing how God and humanity experience time. The ram of the argument is that God does not experience time in a linear fashion, but as a totality, so it is impossible to think in terms of the cause/effect relationship which usually characterizes discussions of whether prayer â€Å"works. God desires to make get on for human petition and action as one versatile in the matrix; â€Å"why” is the great question, not â€Å"how. ” maybe the most important part of this chapter is Lewis’ attack on the diachronic Point of View, which others might call the school of Historicism. Lewis’ asserts that Historicism does not ask the fundamental question â€Å"Is i t true? ” Instead it asks questions of philosophical birth and implications, assuming that if one knows what influences a writer/thinker experienced, one has â€Å"explained” his thought.The implicit idea is that â€Å"new” ideas are better than old ones, that ideas are like technology, the new displacing the old. Lewis finds this idea of inevitable intellectual progress absurd. He believes this makes for intellectual games which fail to join the only question that is important: Is it true? The debate becomes more important than settling the question. Lewis would not deny the need for intellectual humility in asserting an answer; what he objects to is the assumption that there is no answer. 14 Chapter 28 Lewis makes a fairly artless point.It is hard for humans to hold the line in anything, whether it be weight loss or prayer. For that reason, Screwtape does not see early finis as the evil humans do. Rather he notes how rank the Middle-Aged years are for unde rmining faith: the bloom is off the rose, emotions and energy are reduced, and one has been running the race a long time. â€Å"All this provides ample opportunity for wearing the soul down by detrition (p. 155). ” Conversely, if the later years are ones of leisure and ease, it is easy for humans to become fat and complacent, get married to the world, rather than focused on what god is trying to make of them.Lewis notes that youth may be times of â€Å"sin” when â€Å"they are always shooting off at tangents”, but the danger of later years is that we become jaded and so focused on the disappointments of the world that we cease to strive toward our heavenly home, and crash simply for striving to make heaven on earth. Chapter 29 Lewis notes again that failure and cowardliness are in and off themselves harmless. The point is whether such experiences lead us to trust God more or less. From Lewis’ perspective the task is to learn to trust God, come what may .Courage is â€Å"the form of every virtue at its interrogation point (161). ” How does one have courageousness at crackle time? Finally, it is in finding something outside the world in which we can trust. Also interesting is Lewis’ insight that we tend to hate in direct parity to our fear; as we trust we will also hate less. The writer of I John 4 offers a standardised insight; include love we will find ourselves fearing less. Hate, fear, love, trustâ€all related. Chapter 30 flier how Screwtape suggests Hell is a place where only results count (165). merely this is just the sort of thinking one often hears in a competitive society; the logical implication being that what we often think of as â€Å" existent” and admirable is hellish. Lewis distinguishes between â€Å"false hope” which is actually a desire that may or may not be fulfilled and, by implication, true hope which is rooted in confidence in God and committed to enduring whatever may c ome. Lewis next turns to the different meanings we give to â€Å"real”. As he notes, real can either mean the bare facts or the emotional recital or we put on them.We are likely in times of crisis to assume the physical facts are the reality and be tempted to dismiss hopes, while at the same time regarding the good we receive as merely â€Å"subjective” creations. Chapter 31 Lewis offers a beautiful â€Å"bird’s eye view” of the death experience which includes some important images: Death is a moment of release â€â€Å"as if a scab had go from an old wound. ” Death is a relative thingâ€Rather than horrible, Screwtape notes that the flushed death experienced by Wormword’s patient was actually an easy experience because it spared the Christian lingering struggle. (172).Death is a moment of clarity after a time of struggleâ€All that seemed too difficult to understand is suddenly easily comprehended. Illusions are unmasked and both d evil and angels are seen for what they are (173). There is a sense of both coming home and arriving for the first time; as Augustine noted, we are made for God and restless until we find our rest there. Death is a moment of reunion with the marvelous love which gave us life and nurtured us 15 into maturity along the way (174). Yet interestingly enough, Lewis seems to suggest some form of â€Å"purgatory” where one must still encounter injure (of purification? , but this is a pain which one encounters with the full awareness that one is love and accepted, the end is assured and wonderful.Though purgatory has historically been a minority concept in Protestant thinking, Lewis here, and even more clearly in The Great Divorce, articulates the concept. Lewis ends with one final assertion of just how occult such love is to Screwtape and all who distrust the possibility of grace. For such people the law of hell reigns, â€Å"Bring us back food or be food yourself (165). God does not have to consign those persons to hell; hey simply choose it, make it, and inhabit it daily. Screwtape Proposes a salute As noted in the editor’s preface, this see is very different from the rest of the letters; they focus on corruption of the individual, this is much more concerned with the broader intellectual mode which, in Lewis’ opinion, is undercutting society A recurring theme is the observance that the evil of modern society has less of the passion, verve, and brash Promethean courage of former days. The modern world is one of tawdry, insipid, passive viceâ€less chosen than fallen into by lack of light or imagination.This is the point in Screwtape’s critique of the banquet’s courses. But if the fictitious character of sin is lacking, Screwtape says the quantity has never been better, which is to say few and fewer persons are being careworn into a serious encounter with God’s purposes. novel humanity, says Lewis, is characteriz ed by being â€Å" muzzy in mind”, â€Å" puniness and limpness”, and a tendency to be carried along by mindless repetitions. â€Å"Their consciousness hardly exists apart from the social air travel that surrounds them (191).The bulk of the raise is a laceration of what Lewis sees as the moral flabbiness and intellectual weakness of a democratic mindset which denies the need for virtuousness and the recognition of differences between people. Society has made an ideology of â€Å"democracy”, by addled thinking mistaking a political commitment to equal opportunity for a belief that all must be the same and that those who excel must be cut down. This, says Lewis, is finally rooted in admire; that which was once deplored or laughed at is now sanctioned by the false statement, â€Å"I’m as good as you. Lewis believes this attitude finally strives to devolve all forms of human excellence (201). He takes education as his primary example of how such level ing occurs in society, destroying the excellence that breeds both great leading and great tyrants (206). The problem is that this means the evil have greater power because the rest of society is less able to discern and respond to the danger. A second danger in embracing this false egalitarianism (I’m as good as you) is that individuals lack humility, charity, contentment, gratitude, and the other virtues which might lead them to heaven (208).The essay ends with a cautionary description of a fine drink made out of the distilled force of Pharisee, a reminder that self-righteousness is always the stuff on which Hell feasts…. One might wonder whether this is a backhanded realization by Lewis that he is appear pretty self-righteous himself. There is a hard edge and nastiness to this essay that is not nearly so enunciate in the Screwtape Letters. Lewis sounds every bit the conservative don he was, but that does not mean he is wrong in warning of moral and intellectual flabbiness.\r\n'