STL 28

Last week in another post and the comments that followed it the nature of how Screwtape speaks came up. Screwtape is arrogant, condescending, and really wants to think of himself as being some huge owner of power. My response to this was to think of the difference between the power he wants to possess, and the power he really possesses. The reality for him is that "the Enemy" has a lot more power over things than he does, yet he doesn't like to admit it. The first page and a half of chapter 28 really struck me because the way I read it, it sound a lot like a weird letter of defeat. Here are thousands of people In England likely to be killed in the near future and Screwtape knows he's in trouble. "The Enemy" he knows is at work and his own powers are really not doing too well. His main message for his nephew is that the patient had better survive the bombings or they're toast. They've thrown everything and the kitchen sink at him and it's not turning out well. This really struck me as strange as I read it since Screwtape's power was on my mind when reading posts from last week. But it gets even better. At the end of chapter 30 Screwtape talks how the patient is toast due to another one of his schemes if, "properly handled." Forget everything Screwtape said before, now everything is going to be alright, which lasts a whole sentence. In chapter 31 Screwtape decides that everything that failed with the patient was due to Wormwood messing up and the Enemy working, as though his ideas were so wonderful and only needed someone to "properly handle" the patient. Perhaps if Wormwood was so difficult Screwtape should have handled him himself? Give Wormwood the kind of person he was supposed to find for a wife. The more and more I read, it seems like Screwtape is exposing himself as an egotistical loser who really needs and ego check. He has ideas that seem good but they really just don't work as well as he claims.

STL 27

The concept that seems to rule this chapter is over-complication. The patient has come to value the power of prayer, and Screwtape is quick to note how bad this is for his nephew's efforts. The response he takes to prayer is to point out the number of ways prayer can be twisted into something that is a whole lot less appealing. The patient is supposed to think that his prayers are doing absolutely nothing and the fact that things don't always go his way are proof of that. Instead of sticking to faith, Screwrapes hopes the patient will essentially start a checklist of when his prayers have or have not been answered, and become frustrated at the number of times they are not answered.

The second part of over-complication comes from reading old books, and figuring out that the world has changed so much over time that the authors were a bit crazy by modern standards. In both instances it is possible to see just how uncertain things are in the world. We cannot remember when we were a week old. We often even have a hard time remembering what we did yesterday. Not knowing everything is just part of life. However, over-complicating things we don't know can also become a part of life. Through doubt and such, the simplest aspects of faith can be destroyed miserably. This is what Screwtape seems to want to see happen with the patient. The more the patient over-analyzes things that should have a level of faith to them, the better for Wormwood.

STL 24

This chapter is probably one of the most sobering chapters I recall reading in this book. The patient has found the perfect women, the exact type of person Screwtape was hoping the patient wouldn't come across. The people the patient is spending time with due to his relationship also seem to be very good in nature. It seems many of the usual tricks Screwtape would recommend do no good with this group, and they know it. The problem this group faces is distinguishing knowledge from judgment. Compared to the many people in the world today, this is the kind of group that really does not need lectures about the difference between good spiritual decisions and bad spiritual decisions, except for the critical judgment detail. They see other people around them behaving in ways they know to be wrong and are a bit too secure about how they are different from these people.

Instead of rushing to judgment a little bit of restraint would be the best route. Just because these people are probably living life by standards lower than one's own does not mean one of the standards is good enough to qualify that person as a judge. There's a reason that in the legal system today sentences handed out vary from letters of apology to the electric chair. In all honesty, if the patient's group of friends were honest about their sins they'd probably think they had committed sins that are getting up there with the electric chair level. But, they certainly do not take this approach to their failures. They give themselves far too much credit than they should and set themselves up for Screwtape's methods. The perfect group is that easily bait for Screwtape, despite the fact they have so much good to begin with. The fact that they are harder bait than others might be just means a bigger hook, better bait, and a bit more strategy are necessary to hook them.

STL 21

Letter 21 deals a lot with the topic of ownership. Screwtape presents the perspective that this sense of ownership so many people have is "equally funny in Heaven and in Hell." Early on in the letter Screwtape starts with the different perspectives one can take on work. He points out that the patient is naturally going to want his 24 hours a day to do whatever he feels like, and work is something that doesn't go along well with this sense of owning time. The sense of ownership conversation soon switches to more material possessions, and the impractical notion of owning people in some fashion. What I find really interesting is how true it seems that ownership can become something that is so misplaced.

The problem with ownership is that so many things that we consider to be our own are so temporary. Drive your car in one Wisconsin winter and you will quickly find out how fast the nice paint turns into troublesome rust. By any piece of electronics these days and soon it will be almost useless. You might own the product, but you sure didn't get to own the value. In connecting all of this to religion, the obvious problem I see is thinking that God owes us anything, especially material. It seems the lesson Screwtape is trying to convey is that the patient must confuse what he wishes he owns with God's mercy and goodness. The patient wants to have the ideal wife, the ideal church, and the ideal outcome to troubling times politically in the world. Screwtape realizes that if the patient takes these desires too far, they will become him owning the right to all these things, with God the one who is responsible for getting them to him. Obviously this is not the way things work, yet it is plenty easy to confuse them. It far easier to endorse the idea that I, the nearly perfect person deserve to own everything I want to own, than the idea that I wish I, the not perfect person am dependent on God's mercy, and should not be possessed by the craving to own whatever I want whenever I want.

STL 16

This chapter starts out with the very interesting concept of the patient creating problems by not being pleased with his church. At first glance it would seem that Wormwood and Screwtape would be rejoicing about the patient being skeptical about his church. If he is skeptical about one church, what stops him from searching other churches with a sour taste in his mouth? Assuming the patient continues to have a hard time finding a church he likes it would seem that eventually he would just give up. Yet, this is not the way both look at the patient's situation. They are anxious for the patient to find the absolute crummiest, most hate filled church that he can love. It strikes me as being interesting that they are more worried about the patient not finding a church than finding a crummy one. The reason seems to be that as long as the patient continues to think critically and intelligently about religion, he will find a way to do what is right, even if the church search is going terrible.

This enforces the concept that critical thinking is such a powerful tool that should not be compromised. Screwtape sees that the second the patient becomes attached to a bad church, things will get really easy for Wormwood. The preacher will basically take over the role that Wormwood is supposed to be taking. Instead of the unattractive demon telling the patient what to do, the appealing and evil preacher will get the job done, and the patient will have a great time falling into the pits of ignorance. The lesson here seems to be one of thinking critically about the religious doctrine one is subscribing to. There are plenty of religious people who can do plenty of harm, and they are helped in this by people forgetting to think critically about what has been said. While the thought of falling for harmful religious teaching is not pleasant and having to think critically about what has been said by someone who one thinks of as a mentor is not pleasant, it is a lot better than not critically thinking and falling for the tricks of a Screwtape.