I recently discovered these amazing,
artistic renderings of sundry Lewis writings (please check them out, O Reader,
they are worth your time) and it put me in a mood to re-read Screwtape Letters
in particular. It had been quite a while.
For those unacquainted, the book is written
as letters from a senior devil to a junior, all of which regard the best ways
to tempt a given “patient” (a human) and lead him away from what the devils
refer to as “the Enemy,” meaning God.
I forgot how excellent this book is!
I had actually hesitated slightly before
re-reading, because I wanted to read it out loud to my husband, and reading in
the voice of a devil seemed a little uncomfortable. Of course, Lewis had to write in that voice, mind you. He said
it was the easiest book he ever wrote and the least enjoyable, all “dust, grit,
thirst, and itch.”
Since my review of Pilgrim’s Regress has
turned out to be a helpful post, I decided I could add to the Lewis reviews. If
nothing else, this is an exposé on my character, because what I will list here
are all the most convicting elements of the Screwtape Letters…all the ways in
which I have allowed myself to be fooled, lied to, tricked, and clouded.
1.
Argument style:
This one is best
relayed in quotes, as follows. Screwtape is telling Wormwood (the junior devil)
to encourage his patient to focus on those little habits or mannerisms of his
mother’s which most annoy him so as to damage their relationship by inches and
pinpricks.
“Let [the patient] assume that she knows how annoying it is and
does it to annoy…And, of course, never let him suspect that he has tones an
looks which similarly annoy her.”
Screwtape then
advises that the patient be made to speak normal words in a particularly
nettling manner, thence to be “surprised” that the nettle finds its mark.
“Once this habit is well established you have the delightful
situation of a human saying things with the express purpose of offending and
yet having a grievance when offense is taken.”
*Ahem* Reading this
passage was like having cold water dumped on my head. Deservedly. I have done this. I have said things in sharp and
exasperated tones, then been irritated that anyone should take offense but me.
“All I said was such-and-such. How could that possibly hurt your feelings? It
certainly wouldn’t hurt mine.”
2.
Approved but
inactive virtues:
Along the lines of
believing in God—as even the demons do while shuddering—faith without deeds is
useless.
“All sorts of virtues painted in the fantasy or approved by the
intellect or even, in some measure, loved and admired, will not keep a man from
Our Father’s house: indeed they may make him more amusing when he gets here.”
“Here” being hell,
remember.
There are so many
times where I see a truth but struggle to adhere to it in the clutch. I approve
a truth, but do not internalize it. I agree with a truth, but do not apply the
discipline necessary to live it. And this is deadly in the most honest sense.
3.
Political
Christianity (it doesn’t even matter which side):
When the war (WWII)
breaks out Screwtape tells Wormwood that he would do well to try and figure out
whether Patriotism or Pacifism would be a better inducement to folly. It’s not
to do with which is worse or better, but rather which is better suited to his
personality and, therefore, more easily twisted to his endangerment: “All extremes, except extreme devotion to
the enemy, are to be encouraged.”
“Let him begin by treating the Patriotism or the Pacifism as
part of his religion….Then…come to regard it as the most important part.”
This is something of
which we should always be leery: cramming God into a political agenda, even a
good one. Now, I have very strong political ideals and leanings. But they must
all be measured by a rubric outside of themselves: whatever is not of God must
fall off. There is much that is not of God in absolutely every corner of the
political field. We must never forget that. We must never fall prey to the
belief that ANY earthly faction perfectly represents God’s “interests” or
character, for in that moment with have replaced Him with something that is NOT
GOD, and it does not matter how good it seems or is. In this case especially,
the perceived good is the enemy of the actual great.
AND YET
We must always be “alive to the social implications of [our]
religion” even though the intersection of theology and politics is regarded
to be an excellent point of spiritual attack.
A tricky situation
indeed….a dangerous road that we must nevertheless walk.
4.
Law of Undulation
Simply put, we are
rhythmical, amphibian creatures—“half
spirit half animal”—and thus we go through peaks and troughs.
Screwtape tells his
nephew Wormwood that God appears to use the troughs of spiritual life even more
than the peaks…indeed “some of His special favourites have gone through longer
and deeper troughs than anyone else.”
A period of
spiritual dryness or dullness is neither the loss or end of faith, but the
refining of it to great purpose. Remember
this. I am telling myself, and anyone else who will listen.
5.
I’ll just leave this quote right here: “An ever increasing craving for an ever
diminishing pleasure is the formula. It is more certain; and it’s better style.
To get the man’s soul and give him nothing in return…”
6.
In one letter, Screwtape berates Wormwood
for having let ‘the patient’ slip back towards the Enemy…and how did this
happen? The patient read a book he really liked and took a peaceful walk. Joy,
nature, and clear thought become an act of routing the devils’ intentions, or
at least taking cover from direct fire. Another thing we would do well to
remember.
7.
The combat of daily
prayers:
Even Screwtape
assumed daily prayers as a given, though of course he regards them as a
troublesome barrier to tempting. I forget about this sometimes. Daily prayer.
Such a simple, seemingly little thing. But it’s humility, it’s warfare…and it’s
necessary.
8.
A Taster of
Churches:
Screwtape advises
Wormwood “Surely you know that if a man
can’t be cured of churchgoing, the next best thing is to send him all over the
neighbourhood looking for the church that ‘suits’ him until he becomes a taster
or connoisseur of churches.”
This is especially
convicting of our broader culture. It often does lead to giving up on church
altogether, for all churches have flaws, even drastic ones. She is, after all,
made up of humans.
9.
“…zealously guard in his mind the curious assumption ‘My time is
my own.’ Let him have the feeling that he starts each day as the lawful
possessor of twenty-four hours…the assumption which you want him to go on making
is so absurd that, if once it is questioned, even we cannot find a shred of
argument in its defense.”
Our time is not our own.
10.
“How valuable time is to us [tempters] may be gauged by the fact
that the Enemy [God] allows us so little of it. The majority of the human race
dies in infancy; of the survivors, a good many die in youth. It is obvious that
to Him human birth is important chiefly as the qualification for human death,
and death solely as the gate to that other kind of life. We are allowed to work
only on a selected minority of the race, for what humans call a ‘normal life’
is the exception. Apparently he wants some—but only a very few—of the human
animals with which He is peopling Heaven to have had the experience of resisting
us through an earthly life of sixty or seventy years.”
That’s kind of a
thrilling notion, isn’t it? What we experience isn’t just the norm. It’s
intense training and preparation.
So I actually had TWENTY-EIGHT bullet points when I started
this, but it was getting so long, I decided I’ll save the others for another
time. Or perhaps I should just say: read the book, and see what you find.
