The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis - Book Report/Review Example

The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis PART 1 1. The patient’s mother and mutual annoyance Screwtape suggests to Wormwood to build up a good settled habit that comprises of mutual annoyances in a bid to pull the patient away from the enemy. In this regards, Screwtape knows that once such mutual annoyances exist then there is a high possibility of the patient running away from the enemy thinking that he (enemy) is not concerned within his or her (patients) situation. The idea that the patient believes to be abandoned is enough to pull her away from the enemy. The mutual annoyances in this case are daily pinpricks resulting from keeping of the enemy’s mind on the inner life as well as rendering the prayers innocuous. 2. The worldly couple and a double life Screwtape suggests that since Wormwood has already provided worldly pleasures to the patient, there is need to delay as much as possible the pleasures so that the patient does not get to realize that such pleasures are unrelated to his or her faith. According to Screwtape, as long as people are interested and absolved in the worldly things in life, they will find it easier to stay away from God. A man will therefore want to live a double life given the temptations from worldly things that cause distractions from God. 3. The young woman and her minor fault Screwtape is worried about the Christianity in the young woman given the fact that she is a novice. Nevertheless, Screwtape advices Wormwood to make sure that the spiritual pride in the woman increases to a level of exaggeration. Once the spiritual pride becomes exaggerated, then there is a likelihood that she is going to start enjoying sexual love and pride and this will draw her away from God hence conquering her. Screwtape talks about the young woman and mentions that her minor fault lies in the fact that when she is testing out life’s temptation she forgets about prayers for those moments and this make her more vulnerable. 4. Real pleasures as a special class of pleasures Screwtape believes that a good strategy for drawing away patients from God is through making them discover real pleasures as the last thing. Real pleasures are a special class of pleasures since they are expensive tedium. Some of the examples of real pleasures to man are the raw materials, starting points with which God has furnished them with. These can be counteracted by different worldly, conventions, or fashions to the patient thus drawing him away from God. 5. Church shopping In this concept, Screwtape after hearing that the patient is not wholly convinced with his current church despite the fact that he has been attending the same since he was converted, he (Screwtape) advices Wormwood to make the patient to start church shopping. Church shopping in this regards means the idea of going around to different churches to find the best that suits an individual. The reason for making creating within the patient the spirit of discontentment within his church thus shop for other churches is to break the possibility of unity that is likely to exist if the worshippers continue going to the same church. 6. Emotion and imagination in prayer In regards to emotions and imaginations, the two identifies that the enemy would always like to pray towards composite objects. In this regards, all his emotions and imaginations will be towards the composite object. Screwtape tells Wormwood to encourage the patient to attach significant value to the composite objects. This will keep his imagination on the same object throughout the prayer. In doing this, they will be successful as the patient will have little or no time to pray for what he knows. 7. The historical point of view and truth Screwtape talks about how he wants to make sure that every man in only told a part of the truth. Keeping in mind the theme of truth, he wants to lead the patient into so much confusion that is hard to understand what the actual truth is. The historical point of view asks different questions such as who influenced the ancient writer, how far is the statement consistent with what he said in other books, and what phrase in the writer’s development, how it affected later writers, and how often it has been misunderstood amongst others. Such people never ask whether the statement being given is true or untrue. Using this concept, Screwtape believes that the only way of conquering the patient is through historical point of view. 8. Gluttony of delicacy Gluttony means wanting excess of something. Gluttony of delicacy means that idea of patients wanting it exactly our way in excess. According to Screwtape, there has been increasing gluttony of delicacy other than gluttony of excess. In this regards, this would mean that patients would be more responsible in the worldly aspects that they are not aware of where they come from. It is pathetic that by the time they realize that such excesses are not from God, they shall have been very withdrawn from the same. Therefore, Screwtape advices Wormwood to ensure that there is increasing gluttony of delicacy other than excess since the former comes from Screwtape while the later may come from God. 9. An extreme position with regard to the war On the concept of war, extreme positions such as patriotism, pacifism, or super-patriotism are applicable in weakening the faith and charity of the patient. Achieving this concept based on Screwtape advice is that there is need to make the patient treat such patriotism, pacifism, or super-patriotism as his religion. After this, the patient should be made to regard such concepts as the most important part under the influence of partisan spirits. Screwtape then advices Wormwood to gradually and quietly nurse man to the last stage of making religion to be merely cause for valuing Christianity. Through this, the patient will withdraw from God. 10. Pride in humility Patient in humility involves the patient becoming proud of his own humble actions. Screwtape strongly believes that at this point when the patient has become humble, Wormwood should attack and make him proud of his humility. This is attainable at the point where the patient is poor in spirit, which results into creation within his mind the fact that he is gratifying reflection. Any attempt by the patient to smother his new form of pride should be met by stages of making him even more proud. This should however not be done for long lest he wake up and realizes that there is increasing sense of humour and proportion. PART 2 1. First conversion; First conversion involves the conversion of a patient from non-Christianity to Christianity where he is expected to assimilate within himself the virtues and values of the new religion. In this case, there is both pride and fear in the heart and mind of the patient because he wants to believe in God so much that his entire life is devoted to it. However, it is coupled with uncertainty as to whether God will accept him because of his conversion. 2. Backsliding Backsliding on the part of a Christian indicates the falling under the influence of the worldly couple and pleasures. In most case, Christians during this stage regret their views on conversion and wishing that they never had taken the same steps. New acquaintances in this case have the possibility and capability of influencing backsliding of an individual. This is attainable in various ways such as mockery that the patient has not taken the right path or the need to be as others who tend to enjoy worldly pleasures. 3. Second Conversion Second conversion of an individual involves the idea of an accession of experiencing real life pleasures that makes an individual to opt for the route taken in the beginning hence leading to the second conversion. Second conversion is the repentance and renewal of all the good things that had gone amiss through grade as a show of defeat on first order. Real pleasures, which are different from worldly pleasures, attempt to attract a patient in believing that there must be a supernatural power behind certain aspects or occurrences within his or her life. Therefore, this becomes painful to him knowing that he had missed all these while he had backslide. As a result, the patient opts for second conversion. 4. A Good Influence A good influence in this scenario refers to becoming friends with the Christian young woman. Many good influences occurred within the patient’s life that led to second conversion. The church being one of such good influences enhanced the faith of the patient a great deal. On the other hand, real pleasures obtained other than worldly pleasures were as source of good influences that led to second conversion of the patient. 5. Death/Salvation The idea on death or salvation involves dying bravely in an air raid and attaining Purgatory after death for the purposes of remission of sins in order to be clean enough to enter heaven. After the patient’s brave death, he was taken to Purgatory so that some of the sins could be cleansed in order to permit him go to heaven. PART 3 1. “Once you have made the World an end, and faith a means, you have almost won your man, and it makes very little difference what kind of worldly end he is pursuing.” This means that through different stages and process, the patient’s faith is distorted to change his belief from God to worldly pleasures. Distortion of faith may take various forms such as church shopping through convincing the patient that the church he attends is not holly. The faith has been used in making the patient see nothing as important as the world. In this case, the war is won and the patient loses faith on God rather develops the same on the worldly things, which are entirely devil’s things. 2. “The Christians describe the Enemy as one ‘without whom Nothing is strong.’ And Nothing is very strong: strong enough to steal away a man’s best years..” The meaning of this expression is that there is nothing strong in a person who decides to be lukewarm of indifferent to God yet he thinks that he is a decent person. Many activities may lead to such scenarios for instant the sexual love and the idea of thinking of a church being unholy. Other activities include direction of emotions and imaginations on composite objects as well as doubting God whenever there are downturns in life. 3. “The whole philosophy of Hell rests on recognition of the axiom that one thing is not another thing… ‘To be’ means ‘to be in competition.’” This quote refers relationship between the devil and Godly people turning them into objects or beings that admire worldly things hence making them susceptible to hell. The devil relates to Godly people in number of ways such as worldly pleasures as well as sexual love. Sexual love and worldly pleasures are amongst the sins that the devil use in influencing human beings into sin hence making them susceptible to hell. 4. “The humans are always putting up claims to ownership which sound equally funny in Heaven and in Hell…” It is unclear whether human beings will go to heaven or hell. No one knows even the one who believes to be the cleanest and the holiest of all times. As a result, they always want to make some claims regarding ownership in heaven when in real sense they are never sure of where they will fall. Consequently, this makes it equally funny in Heaven and Hell. PART 4 1. Name and briefly define the four causes of laughter and be able to explain how each one is an advantage or disadvantage for the devils. From the letters wrote by Screwtape, there are four causes of laughter devises that include Joy, Fun, Joke Proper, and Flippancy. Despite the fact that fun is closely related to joy, the latter refers to a sort of emotional froth that comes out of play instinct. On a different perspective, Screwtape defines Joke Proper as sudden perception of incongruity that in most cases promise so much laughter than any other form described above. Nonetheless, flippancy is the best cause of laughter according to Screwtape since it is very economical, hence more advantageous to the devil than other causes. 2. Explain why music and silence are each a characteristic of Heaven and noise is a characteristic of Hell. Music and silence is often termed as very pristine aspects of life, which are given importance and help in healing and spiritual uplifting of the people. Thus, these two aspect are characterized with Heaven, because Heaven is sought to be a place where people go when they have lived a lifetime of peace and prosperity in a very health and clean manner. Those that carry out good deeds and follow and obey the Lord’s orders and demands, are sent to Heaven after their death where they may enjoy an afterlife of peace amidst music, harmony, and silence. On the other hand, Hell is characterized by noise, because it is a dark place where a man goes to absolve himself of his sins. The devils do not believe in living quietly and try to relieve themselves of the trauma that they have been made with. Every man tries to vent out his frustration and cleanse himself off all anger in Hell, making it thus a noisy place. Read More