Well, I'm back. I found that over Christmas I was really enjoying writing again. I think its good mental exercise to reflect on what I'm reading and sort out the thoughts stirred up in my mind.
Last Saturday, Dane, Lucy and I went to see a stage production of C.S. Lewis' The Screwtape Letters. It was a marvelous performance and it reminded me of so many of the thoughts I had when I first read the book. I've decided to do an analysis of the book and compare it to some of the things I'm reading about in the scriptures.
C.S. Lewis is such an incredible story teller and I always marvel at his command of allegory as a plot device. While The Screwtape Letters doesn't have the imagination or the prose of the Chronicles of Narnia, the brutal personal honesty of A Grief Observed or the wide-sweeping criticisms of society in the Abolition of Man, it does seem to persist in popularity. I think the reason it resonates with people from all walks of life and religions is that it challenges you on a personal level more than almost any of Lewis' other books.
The personal nature of The Screwtape Letters demands that the reader abandon their comfy chair for the depths of the soul in order to see where the logic of Screwtape might be lurking. This can be a painful process to the reader, especially someone who might be reading this because they were told it is a comedy. It is comical, but the comedy is pure irony. The kind of irony that has a way of punching you right in the face with its parallels to your own life.
I think that this book was a favorite of C.S. Lewis' and he dedicated it to his friend, J.R.R. Tolkien. They were colleagues at Oxford and both had a tremendous influence on the others writings.
I don't know if you've read The Screwtape Letters or not, if you haven't I would encourage you to read it. I know you just have so much time on your hands '-) It's not like you're serving a mission or anything.
The book is told in a series of letters of advice from Screwtape, a leading tempter in the Lowerarchy of Hell, to his nephew a novice tempter, Wormwood. The reader never gets to hear directly from Wormwood, it is all inferred in Screwtape's responses, so we are dependent on his interpretation of events. This can make it tricky, because Lewis himself warns us that it is “very unlikely that the portraits…are wholly just. There is wishful thinking in Hell as well as on Earth” That quote is found in the preface to the book. I think it is a pretty apt description of Satan's desires for us. Misery loves company and so he hopes or wishes that we would not listen to the promptings of the Spirit and repent.
The other main character of the book is the "patient." The "patient" is either agnostic or atheistic. I'm not sure which. But it is Wormwood's job to ensure that he is never converted to Jesus Christ. Screwtape is Wormwood's uncle and mentor. Wormwood has only recently graduated from "Demon College." Screwtape begins his mentoring with all of the charm and affection you would expect from a close family member. He also signs all of his correspondences "your affectionate Uncle, Screwtape."
Lewis starts off the book by putting in a preface explaining why he’s published the letters he’s “found.” He says that “There are two equal and opposite errors into which our race can fall about the devils. One is to disbelieve in their existence. The other is to believe, and to feel an excessive and unhealthy interest in them.” The first warning seems fairly obvious: to disbelieve in the devil is to leave ourselves open to their attack. The second one is more interesting. It might mean that we have to watch our curiosity about evil so that we do not plunge ourselves too far into its depth lest we find ourselves consumed by it. I think this would apply most to our forays into mainstream culture.
Take rated-R movies for example. Exposing ourselves to that kind of entertainment does provide us with a better perspective into evil and sin but too much of it and we find ourselves neatly ensnared into the traps of Screwtape. Or perhaps the second warning refers to the inclination people have to write off all their problems and sins to the devil. “The devil made me do it” denies free agency and allows for the sinner to comfort himself while continuing a life of sin that ultimately leads to us becoming another tasty treat for Screwtape (that is something I had not mentioned earlier. In The Screwtape Letters the reason getting souls is so important to the tempters is that it is their source of food, but this is only discussed in passing). Either way, Lewis is driving home the point that dealing with the devil is tricky business.
Lewis himself illustrates this point when he talks about why there was a 20 year span of time that passed between when he wrote The Screwtape Letters and when he wrote a sequel called "Screwtape Proposes a Toast." Lewis said, “it was not fun, or not for long. The strain produced a spiritual cramp. The world into which I had to project myself while I spoke through Screwtape was all dust, grit, thirst, and itch. Every trace of beauty, freshness, and geniality had to be excluded. It almost smothered me before I was done. It would have smothered my readers if I had prolonged it.”
Lewis is driving home the point that we always have to be on guard against Satan and his Screwtapes.
The Screwtape Letters is all about the different devices that Satan employs to tempt us and keep us from realizing our true potential.
Here is one of my favorite quotes from the books:
“You will say that these are very small sins; and doubtless, like all young tempters, you are anxious to be able to report spectacular wickedness. … It does not matter how small the sins are, provided that their cumulative effect is to edge the man away from the Light and out into the Nothing. … Indeed, the safest road to Hell is the gradual one—the gentle slope, soft underfoot, without sudden turnings, without milestones, without signposts.”
President Foust had a message in the January 2007 Ensign called "The Forces that Will Save Us."
"However, we need not become paralyzed with fear of Satan’s power. He can have no power over us unless we permit it. He is really a coward, and if we stand firm, he will retreat. The Apostle James counseled: “Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.”
It is such a scary world that we live in and there is temptation everywhere we turn. It is so hard resisting my own demons let alone trying to warn my children. They have to be always on their guard. Mom, why didn't you ever tell me that parenting doesn't EVER stop? It really is a lifelong job.
We were having a discussion with Brien the other night about holding grudges. He has a tendency to get fed up with people (after giving them many, many chances). Once he gets fed up though there is almost no getting back in his good graces. He can be so unforgiving. He was saying how he's tired of being "the bigger person." Well that slapped me right in the face. Because that is kind of what is happening to me in areas of my life. So we read in Matthew about the Beattitudes and about how we're commanded to love our enemies and do good to them that curse us. We're commanded to be perfect! Not try to be perfect. We're commanded to BE PERFECT. Withholding forgiveness is not an option. It is like telling the Savior "No Thank You" for the atonement. Boy was that a humbling moment for me. But it was also a really great teachable moment with Brien. I don't know that what I said made much of an impact, but the advice both of us received from the Scriptures is not wrong.
I'm so grateful for the scriptures and the roadmap and purpose they give my life. I'm really starting to understand more fully about "If there is anything virtuous, lovely or of good report, we seek after these things." Our minds are like sponges and the more things we put into them that are not of good report, the more ammunition we give the advesary.
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