Tuesday, April 29, 2008
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.
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2 comments:
Yeah, this was definetly confusing on my end. I don't understand why Screwtape didn't deal with Wormwood myself? I think it may be because he is family or because he did not want to effect their relationship with each other?? I'm not sure. I am not so sure on this particular chapter???
I agree with you. Screwtape definitely thinks of himself as more superior and intelligent than others. That is how the devil operates, including the concept of thinking of himself as more superior than God. Screwtape, like the devil, can only imitate the things of the Enemy (God). He can never truly possess these virtues because he lives in a world of delusion, deceit, and manipulation, not to mention evil whereas God is true, real, and good.
Screwtape could care less about the war because first of all, it does not effect him. Second, he wants war and destruction; it feeds his spirit for "lost" souls and quenches his thirst for power through others. Screwtape (the devil) stops the person from succeeding as a Christian, rendering him harmless, yet preserving him for his folly and after the whole situation blows up in his face, then he projects the blame on everyone else--coward! And, Screwtape will steal the glory or credit from the Enemy (God) and man because he cannot come up with anything that great himself so, he kicks back and watches and then, comes in for the kill (figuratively speaking). The problem for Screwtape was that he could not "properly handle" anyone, not even Wormwood because they did not buy all of things that he wanted them to do; their hearts were not in it like his. All Scretape is doing is running around in circles and drowning in his own arrogance and pride. God always prevails over the devil. The devil can only try to succeed.
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