The Real CS Lewis: His Life and Writings
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Calvin Academy of Life Long Learning The Real C.S. Lewis: His Life and Writings Compiled by Paulo F. Ribeiro, MBA, PhD, PE, IEEE Fellow Session III Spring 2003, AD SB 101 Scripture The joy of the Lord is our strength. Neh. 8:10 The Real C.S. Lewis: His Life and Writings Provisional Schedule 3/13/ - Surprised by Joy: The Chronology and Development of a Tough And Holistic Christian Mind 3/20 - Mere Christianity: Orthodoxy and Basic Christian Doctrines (Other books: Reflections on the Psalms and Miracles) 3/27 - Screwtape Letters: Hell and Heaven 4/3 - God in the Dock: Common Sense Christian Practice and Pain and Love: The Problem of Pain and the Four Loves: 4/10 - From Narnia to Literary Criticism: A Fully Integrated Christian Mind 4/17- The Last Ten Years: Shawdowlands (BBC Movie) "When Christianity says that God loves man, it means that God loves man: not that He has some concern for our welfare, but that we are the objects of His love. You asked for a loving God: you have one. The great spirit you so lightly invoked, is present: not a senile benevolence that drowsily wishes you to be happy in your own way, not the cold philanthropy of a conscientious magistrate, not the care of a host who feels responsible for the comfort of his guests, but the consuming fire Himself, the Love that made the worlds, persistent as the artist's love for his work and despotic as a man's love for a dog, provident and venerable as a father's love for a child, jealous, inexorable, exacting as love between the sexes. How should this be, I do not know: it passes reason to explain why creatures, not to say creatures such as we, should have a value so prodigious in their Creator’s eyes.” CS Lewis, The Problem of Pain Three sides: Lewis, the distinguished Oxbridge literary scholar and critic; Lewis, the highly acclaimed author of science fiction and children's literature; and Lewis, the popular writer and broadcaster of Christian apologetics. Screwtape Letters Be faithful, even to the point of death, and I will give you the crown of life. Rev. 2: 10 I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise. Lk. 23:43. The Screwtape Letters" is fiction. But only fiction in the sense that the characters and the dialogue sprang from the imagination of one of the greatest modern Christian writers. Yet in our terrestrial reality the issues confronted in this book play out in our lives every day. The book contains thirty-one letters from Screwtape to his nephew, Wormwood, who is Screwtape's underling in fiendishness. Screwtape is an upper-level functionary in the complex bureaucracy of the underworld. The "Screwtape Letters" are friendly advice from this elder statesman to a front-line tempter on how to procure the soul of his "patient", a young Christian man just trying to live out his everyday life. We get the letters only from one side of the correspondence (Screwtape's), yet the story of the meanderings of the Christian "patient's" soul is clearly read between the lines. The letters begin with Wormwood's failure to keep his subject from becoming a Christian. The urbane Screwtape informs him that, although this is an alarming development, his patient is by no means lost to the dark forces of evil. World War II serves as the backdrop for the Letters. Yet war and strife do not play a significant roll in the work. The book is about more everyday and universal problems. Problems every individual must deal with even today. Thus, each letter addresses various aspects of the travails of the human soul and how the devil tempts that soul away from goodness and toward evil - not evil on a grand scale, but evil on a petty scale. They show how evil can seep into a Christian's relationships with friends and family, in his views on the church, even in his practice of prayer. As each letter unfolds, we find the Christian "patient" slipping more and more out of the hands of Wormwood and his temptations. Screwtape's advice to the tempter becomes more firm and yet more subtle. And, by degrees, we come to see the workings of evil in our own hearts. "The Screwtape Letters" is a book that entertains while it instructs. It is a book to be treasured and studied. The correspondence of devils would not be an easy composition for most writers. Yet C. S. Lewis was a master at revealing subtleties of the diabolical mind. We find Screwtape to be urbane, intelligent, witty and even charming. These qualities are tools. Like a hammer or a screwdriver, in the right hands they can build a cathedral. In the wrong hands they could destroy a highspeed turbine in motion. Through the "Screwtape Letters" we come to realize that evil seldom pops up as the genocidal maniac slaughtering millions (though it does on occasion show up in the guise of a Stalin or a Hitler). For individuals, it generally takes the form of little urgings that come from within, telling us to respond brusquely to a family member or to frown on that poor soul in the neighboring pew with the funny hat. It is evil in our everyday lives that Screwtape addresses, petty evils that add up in the end to the destruction of our morality, the demise of our individuality and the utter destruction of our souls. The book is sprinkled with advice from Screwtape to his nephew, Wormwood, telling him what he must do to gain the soul of a Christian for the underworld. This mostly involves "muddying the waters". That is: not allowing the "patient" to clearly see the truth. Thus we are shown how evil is overcome by simple, clear actions and thought. In the end we find that the battle between good and evil is fought out on the field of our relationships with others and most of all our relationship with God. Each Letter has something important to say, and should be read and reviewed in detail. You can get an inexpensive paperback copy Outline 1 - Reason / Truth, Material Needs and Science Books and Friends Intellect, Philosophies, Doctrines Material Needs Meaning of Life Science & Knowledge 2 - Appearance, Reality and the Church Habits (Mental, Bodily) The Church Appearance and Reality Emotions Humility Prayer 3 - Relationships, Prayer and Faith and Action Relationship With Spouse and Family Common Ground and Actions Prayer Coffee and Heart Attack Outline 4 - Prayer: Why? And Does It Work? Prayer Form Position Attitude Direction 5 - War, Fear of Pain, Suffering, Death and Faith Pain, Suffering and Faith Reaction to War Death Faith 6 - My (Not Thy?) Will Be Done Life's Tribulations General Activities of the Mind General Attitude to War General Attitude Outline 7 - Devil' s Existence, Church and War The Devil' s Existence Church Attitude to War (different ages) Church and War 8 - The Natural Law of Undulation Human Nature Human Freedom The Continuous Struggle The Best Weapon 9 - Undulation, Moderation and Phases Undulation and Pleasure Knowledge of Right and Wrong Religion Outline 10 - Flirting with the World Friends and Acquaintances Attitudes Christian Literature Parallel Lives 11 - Human Laughter: Joy, Fun, the Joke Proper, and Flippancy Joy, Fun The Joke Proper (Sudden perception of incongruity) Flippancy (frivolous, disrespectful, saucy, impertinent) 12 - Lukewarm Behavior - The Safest Road to Hell Spiritual Condition Prayer Life Pleasures Activities Outline 13 - The Asphyxiating Cloud, Personality, Faith and Action Divine Grace Pains and Pleasure (reading a good book, walk to the park, tea at the lawn, etc.) Personality Ideas vs. Actions 14 - Humility: The Way to God - Pride: Chief Cause of Misery and Sin Humility 15 - Time and Eternity The Dialectic Nature of Human Life 16 - Church Shopping Diversity and Unity for Eternity 17 - Gluttony (of Delicacy), Eating Disorders, Chastity Gluttony (of Delicacy) Eating Disorders Chastity Outline 18 - Complete Abstinence or Unmitigated Monogamy Sexual Temptation Philosophy of Hell Sex 19 - The Essence of God: Love Love The Essence of the Devil Marriage and Being in Love 20 - The Devil's Agenda: Sexual Insanity, Promiscuity and Pervasion Chastity Sexuality and Marriage Sexual Taste 21 - Our False Sense of Ownership - All Belongs to Him Intellect Claims on Life Time – Ownership - Possession Outline 22 - Beatific and Miserific Visions Love Character Traces Pleasures Witness Music and Silence The Devil 23 - Liberal Theology Spirituality Theology and Politics Historical Jesus Prayer and Sacrament Resurrection & Redemption Christianity and Politics Outline 24 - Spiritual Pride and Inner Circles Armor of God Color of our Faith Pride Inner Circles 25 - The Horror of The Same Old Thing - Replacing Mere Christianity By Fashion and Christian Coloring Fashions Feelings Experience of reality in time Emotional Changes Intellect The Future Outline 26 - Love, Unselfishness: Charity and Conflict Relationships Unselfishness Generous Conflict of Illusion Mrs. Fidget (The Four Loves) 27 - Prayer, Love, and Truth Prayer Love and Petitionary Prayer Time, Prayer and Predestination The Historical Point of View 28 - Time, Aging, and Perseverance Life and Death, Body and Soul, Time and Eternity Youth, Longing, Optimism. Perseverance, Middle Age, Adversity and prosperity, Worldliness, Old Age, Pride, Experience, Death Outline 29 - Virtues and Vices Danger and Virtues Love / Hatred Fear, Cowardice Courage Despair 30 - Fear, Fatigue, Emotions, and "Reality" Self Knowledge Emotions Fatigue Reality 31 - Death: Is that The End? Eternal Life: Everlasting Glory or Eternal Damnation Death New Life In God's Presence My DEAR WORMWOOD, I note what you say about guiding your patient's reading and taking care that he sees a good deal of his materialist friend. But are you not being a trifle naïf? It sounds as if you supposed that argument was the way to keep him out of the Enemy's clutches. That might have been so if he had lived a few centuries earlier. At that time the humans still knew pretty well when a thing was proved and when it was not; and if it was proved they really believed it. They still connected thinking with doing and were prepared to alter their way of life as the result of a chain of reasoning. But what with the weekly press and other such weapons, we have largely altered that. Your man has been accustomed, ever since he was a boy, to having a dozen incompatible philosophies dancing about together inside his head. He doesn't think of doctrines as primarily "true" or "false," but as "academic" or "practical," "outworn" or "contemporary," "conventional" or "ruthless." Jargon, not argument, is your best ally in keeping him from the Church. Don't waste time trying to make him think that materialism is true! Make him think it is strong or stark or courageous that it is the philosophy of the future. That's the sort of thing he cares about. Remember, he is not, like you, a pure spirit. Never having been a human (oh, that abominable advantage of the Enemy's!) you don't realize how enslaved they are to the pressure of the ordinary. I once had a patient, a sound atheist, who used to read in the British Museum. One day, as he sat reading, I saw a train of thought in his mind beginning to go the wrong way. The Enemy, of course, was at his elbow in a moment. Before I knew where I was I saw my twenty years' work beginning to totter. If I had lost my head and begun to attempt a defense by argument, I should have been undone. But I was not such a fool. I struck instantly at the part of the man which I had best under my control, and suggested that it was just about time he had some lunch. The Enemy presumably made the counter suggestion (you know how one can never quite overhear what He says to them?) that this was more important than lunch. At least I think that must have been His line, for when I said, "Quite. In fact much too important to tackle at the end of a morning," the patient brightened up considerably; and by the time I had added" Much better come back after lunch and go into it with a fresh mind," he was already halfway to the door. Once he was in the street the battle was won. I showed him a newsboy shouting the midday paper, and a No. 73 bus going past, and before he reached the bottom of the steps I had got into him an unalterable conviction that, whatever odd ideas might come into a man's head when he was shut up alone with his books, a healthy dose of" real life" (by which he meant the bus and the newsboy) was enough to show him that all "that sort of thing" just couldn't be true. He knew he'd had a narrow escape, and in later years was fond of talking about "that inarticulate sense for actuality which is our ultimate safeguard against the aberrations of mere logic." He is now safe in Our Father's house. You begin to see the point? Thanks to processes that we set at work in them centuries ago, they find it all but impossible to believe in the unfamiliar while the familiar is before their eyes. Keep pressing home on him the ordinariness of things. Above all, do not attempt to use science (I mean, the real sciences) as a defense against Christianity. They will positively encourage him to think about realities he can't touch and see. There have been sad cases among the modern physicists. 1fhe must dabble in science, keep him on economics and sociology; don't let him get away from that invaluable "real life." But the best of all is to let him read no science but to give him a grand general idea that he knows it all and that everything he happens to have picked up in casual talk and reading is "the results of modern investigation." Do remember you are there to fuddle him. From the way some of you young fiends talk, anyone would suppose it was our job to teach! Your affectionate uncle SCREWTAPE The Screwtape Letters, CS Lewis Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that your brothers throughout the world are undergoing the same kind of sufferings. I Peter 5:8-9 Letter # I – Summary Title: Reason / Truth, Material Needs and Science Chronological Snobbery – the uncritical acceptance of the intellectual climate common to our own age – anything out of date is to be discredited. Rather, we have renounced secret and shameful ways; we do not use deception, nor do we distort the word of God. On the contrary, by setting forth the truth … The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. 2 Co. 4:2-4 Like a good chess player he (Satan) is always trying to maneuver you into a position where you can save your castle only by losing your bishop. CSL Strategy Matrix Area of Life Devil’s Advice Books and Friends Relativistic, materialistic Intellect Avoid argument and reasoning. Use jargon instead. Make him THINK he is strong Encourage several Incompatible Philosophies inside his head Doctrines? Academic or Practical Outworn or Contemporary Conventional or Ruthless Language Use Jargon (and propaganda) Materialism? The Philosophy of the Future Philosophies Doctrines God’s Way References, Observations Christian Character Building Search for Wisdom Truth, honesty are needed God is the source of truth, reason and understanding . God says be strong, Avoid stupid arguments… Built on the foundation of Christ ... Avoid unstable teaching James 1:6 Prov. 4:7 Is. 59:14-15 Prov. 4:7 Phill3:13-14 II Tim. 2:23 Eph. 2:20 Eph. 4:14 True and False We do not use deception – the god of this age has blinded … II Co. 4:2-4 Use argument / reasoning Guide me in your truth.. Ps. 25:5 Yes be yes… Mt. 5:37 II Tim. 3:16 True and False Use Scriptures Material Needs Takes Precedence Use the pressure of the ordinary to enslave your patient. Teach him to call it “real life” Lower Priority (Material) Not of bread alone Seek first the kingdom… Real Life – Eternal Life Not of bread alone… Mt. 4:4 Mt. 6:33 Jn. 17:3 Meaning of Life Keep pressing home on him the ordinariness of things Purpose and Meaning of Life God has an eternal plan Ps.139:16 Proven science Ps. 19:1 & Use Chronological Snobbery General / updated information, modern investigations Avoid exact science. Try sociology, economics Knowledge Fuddle Seek Wisdom Prov. 4:7 Science “Resist the devil and he will flee from you.” James 4:7 Paulo&AdrianaRibeiro Last Thought: Be prepared – correct, rebuke and encourage with great patience and careful instructions. Questions 1 – How enslaved are we to chronological snobbery? 2 – How can we use reasoning to grow spiritually? 3 – How enslaved are we to the pressures of the ordinary? 4 – How argument and reason can bring us close to God? (Gods ways are not our ways, but should we use our God given intellect?) 5 – Is science (real science) a help or a threat to our understanding of God? My DEAR WORMWOOD, I note with grave displeasure that your patient has become a Christian. Do not indulge the hope that you will escape the usual penalties; indeed, in your better moments, I trust you would hardly even wish to do so. In the meantime we must make the best of the situation. There is no need to despair; hundreds of these adult converts have been reclaimed after a brief sojourn in the Enemy's camp and are now with us. All the habit of the patient, both mental and bodily, are still in our favor. One of our great allies at present is the Church itself. Do not misunderstand me. I do not mean the Church as we see her spread out through all time and space and rooted in eternity, terrible as an army with banners. That, I confess, is a spectacle which makes our boldest tempters uneasy. But fortunately it is quite invisible to these humans. All your patient sees is the half-finished, sham Gothic erection on the new building estate. When he goes inside, he sees the local grocer with rather an oily expression on his face bustling up to offer him one shiny little book containing a liturgy which neither of them understands, and one shabby little book containing corrupt texts of a number of religious lyrics, mostly bad, and in very small print. When he gets to his pew and looks round him he sees just that selection of his neighbors whom he has hitherto avoided. You want to lean pretty heavily on those neighbors. Make his mind flit to and fro between an expression like "the body of Christ" and the actual faces in the next pew. It matters very little, of course, what kind of people that next pew really contains. You may know one of them to be a great warrior on the Enemy's side. No matter. Your patient, thanks to Our Father Below, is a fool. Provided that any of those neighbors sing out of tune, or have boots that squeak, or double chins, or odd clothes, the patient will quite easily believe that their religion must therefore be somehow ridiculous. At his present stage, you see, he has an idea of "Christians" in his mind which he supposes to be spiritual but which, in fact, is largely pictorial. His mind is full of togas and sandals and armour and bare legs and the mere fact that the other people in church wear modem clothes is a real-though of course an unconscious-difficulty to him. Never let it come to the surface; never let him ask what he expected them to look like. Keep everything hazy in his mind now, and you will have all eternity wherein to amuse yourself by producing in him the peculiar kind of clarity which Hell affords. Work hard, then, on the disappointment or anticlimax which is certainly coming to the patient during his first few weeks as a churchman. The Enemy allows this disappointment to occur on the threshold of every human endeavor. It occurs when the boy who has been enchanted in the nursery by Stories from the Odyssey buckles down to really learning Greek. It occurs when lovers have got married and begin the real task of learning to live together. In every department of life it marks the transition from dreaming aspiration to laborious doing. The Enemy takes this risk because He has a curious fantasy of making all these disgusting little human vermin into what He calls His "free" lovers and servants"sons" is the word He uses, with His inveterate love of degrading the whole spiritual world by unnatural liaisons with the two-legged animals. Desiring their freedom, He therefore refuses to carry them, by their mere affections and habits, to any of the goals which He sets before them: He leaves them to "do it on their own." And there lies our opportunity. But also, remember, there lies our danger. If once they get through this initial dryness successfully, they become much less dependent on emotion and therefore much harder to tempt. I have been writing hitherto on the assumption that the people in the next pew afford no rational ground for disappointment. Of course, if they do -if the patient knows that the woman with the absurd hat is a fanatical bridge player or the man with squeaky boots a miser and an extortioner - then your task is so much the easier. All you then have to do is to keep out of his mind the question "If I, being what I am, can consider that I am in some sense a Christian, why should the different vices of those people in the next pew prove that their religion is mere hypocrisy and convention?" You may ask whether it is possible to keep such an obvious thought from occurring even to a human mind. It is, Wormwood, it is! Handle him properly and it simply won't come into his head. He has not been anything like long enough with the Enemy to have any real humility yet. What he says, even on his knees, about his own sinfulness is all parrot talk. At bottom, he still believes he has run up a very favorable credit balance in the Enemy's ledger by allowing himself to be converted, and thinks that he is showing great humility and condescension in going to church with these "smug," commonplace neighbors at all. Keep him in that state of mind as long as you can. Your affectionate uncle SCREWTAPE The Screwtape Letters, CS Lewis Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that your brothers throughout the world are undergoing the same kind of sufferings. I Peter 5:8-9 Letter # _2 Summary Title: Appearance, Reality and the Church When tempted no one should say God is tempting me (James1:13) No temptation has seized you except what is common to man…He will also provide a way out so you can stand firm under it. I Cor 10:12-13 You however are not controlled by a sinful nature (Romans 8:5-17) We should never ask of anything “Is it real?,” for everything is real. The proper question is “A real what?,” e.g., a real snake or a real delirium tremens? CSL Strategy Matrix Area of Life Devil’s Advice God’s Way Questions, Observations Sinful nature and the fruits of the Spirit(Gal 5:10-26) Consider others better than yourself (Ph2:3) Colossians 1:18 Habits Mental Bodily Now the habits are still in our favor See with eyes, not heart Our nature should be controlled by the Spirit (Romans 8:9) Continue to work your salvation with fear and trembling (Ph 2:12-13 The Church Unfinished buildings Unpleasant people Appearance Reality Lean heavily on outward appearances Rooted in eternity, spread through space and time, terrible as an army with banners. Reality, the real body of Christ, inward beauty Appearance signing out the future Keep the real question out of sight, keep everything hazy Do not let them come past the initial dryness Teach us to stand on our own feet, Gods plan is our victory Inward beauty Veil OT (II Cor3:7, unveiled NT: II Cor 3:17-18 Emotions Fluctuating emotions - work hard at disappointment and the anticlimax Humility Avoid humility Making him Think he is humble Prayer Today A culture of the now No hard work or effort Only feelings and what you see counts Teaches self esteem Real Life (disappointments help to get rid of emotions) Sound reasoning: see our own faults - God’s word: a mirror (James 1:2225) God teaches real humility Loose all to gain all A pearl (Mt13:46) Ph 3:7 Consider all loss) Ro 5:3 (suffering produces perseverance) Heb 12:1 (run the race …) Mt 18:4(be humble), Mt23:12, Pr.16:18 (a haughty spirit before the fall) Ph 3:8-11 “Resist the devil and he will flee from you.” James 4:7 Only let us live up to what we have already attained Ph3:16 Last Thought: James 4:7-12 Humble yourselves before the Lord, and He will lift you up. Discuss Screwtape advises Wormwood to focus the patient’s attention upon the actual people in the church sitting in the pews around him; but not upon “the Church as we see her spread out through all time and space and rooted in eternity, terrible as an army with banners.” 1 - Habits: mental and bodily – the need for discipline and sanctification. 2 – The Church: Visible and Invisible (Building, People, Liturgy - Transcendental Body) 3 – Reality and Appearance 4 – The Conversion Experience 5 – Disappointments in the Christian Life 6 - Hypocrisy 7 – God’s Love and Our Response 8 – Are Christians Better Than Other people? 9 – God wants us to be His “free lovers and servants. My DEAR WORMWOOD, I am very pleased by what you tell me about this man's relations with his mother. But you must press your advantage. The Enemy will be working from the center outwards, gradually bringing more and more of the patient's conduct under the new standard, and may reach his behavior to the old lady at any moment. You want to get in first. Keep in close touch with our colleague Glubose who is in charge of the mother, and build up between you in that house a good settled habit of mutual annoyance: daily pinpricks. The following methods are useful. 1. Keep his mind on the inner life. He thinks his conversion is something inside him and his attention is therefore chiefly turned at present to the states of his own mind - or rather to that very expurgated version of them which is all you should allow him to see. Encourage this. Keep his mind off the most elementary duties by directing it to the most advanced and spiritual ones. Aggravate that most useful human characteristic, the horror and neglect of the obvious. You must bring him to a condition in which he can practice selfexamination for an hour without discovering any of those facts about himself which are perfectly clear to anyone who has ever lived in the same house with him or worked in the same office. 2. It is, no doubt, impossible to prevent his praying for his mother, but we have means of rendering the prayers innocuous. Make sure that they are always very" spiritual," that he is always concerned with the state of her soul and never with her rheumatism. Two advantages will follow. In the first place, his attention will be kept on what he regards as her sins, by which, with a little guidance from you, he can be induced to mean any of her actions which are inconvenient or irritating to himself. Thus you can keep rubbing the wounds of the day a little sorer even while he is on his knees; the operation is not at all difficult and you will find it very entertaining. In the second place, since his ideas about her soul will be very crude and often erroneous, he will, in some degree, be praying for an imaginary person, and it will b,e your task to make that imaginary person daily less and less like the real mother-the sharptongued old lady at the breakfast table. In time, you may get the cleavage so wide that no thought or feeling from his prayers for the imagined mother will ever flow over into his treatment of the real one. I have had patients of my own so well in hand that they could be turned at a moment's notice from impassioned prayer for a wife's or son's "soul" to beating or insulting the real wife or son without a qualm. 3. When two humans have lived together for many years, it usually happens that each has tones of voice and expressions of face which are almost unendurably irritating to the other. Work on that. Bring fully into the consciousness of your patient that particular lift of his mother's eyebrows which he learned to dislike in the nursery, and let him think how much he dislikes it. Let him assume that she knows how annoying it is and does it to annoy-if you know your job he will not notice the immense improbability of the assumption. And, of course, never let him suspect that he has tones and looks which similarly annoy her. As he cannot see or hear himself, this is easily managed. 4. In civilized life domestic hatred usually expresses itself by saying things which would appear quite harmless on paper (the words are not offensive) but in such a voice, or at such a moment, that they are not far short of a blow in the face. To keep this game up you and Glubose must see to it that each of these two fools has a sort of double standard. Your patient must demand that all his own utterances are to be taken at their face value and judged simply on the actual words, while at the same time judging all his mother's utterances with the fullest and most oversensitive interpretation of the tone and the context and the suspected intention. She must be encouraged to do the same to him. Hence from every quarrel they can both go away convinced, or very nearly convinced, that they are quite innocent. You know the kind of thing: "I simply ask her what time dinner will be and she flies into a temper." 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 offence is taken. Finally, tell me something about the old lady's religious position. Is she at all jealous of the new factor in her son's life? -at all piqued that he should have learned from others, and so late, what she considers she gave him such good opportunity of learning in childhood? Does she feel he is making a great deal of" fuss" about it - or that he's getting in on very easy terms? Remember the elder brother in the Enemy's story. Your affectionate uncle SCREWTAPE Letter # - III – Summary Title: Relationships, Prayer and Faith and Action Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before us endured the cross… Hebrews 12:1-2 Let us purify ourselves from everything that contaminates body and spirit, perfecting holiness out of reverence for God II Cor 7:1 “The most useful human characteristic common among Christians and young revolutionaries is that they want to fix the world before they know much about it”. CSL Strategy Matrix Area of Life Devil’s Advice God’s Way Questions, Observations Relationship With Spouse, Family Good and settled habit of mutual annoyance, “Daily pinpricks” Love and understanding From the center outwards Romans 15:1-7 (accept one another) Common ground and actions Dualistic approach: horror and neglect of the obvious Keep his mind on “inner” life Off the elementary duties Integrated action Mt 19:19 (Love your neighbor as yourself) Prayer Keep the patient from the intention of prayer altogether. Parrot like prayers, in devotional mood (no will or intelligence) feeling is important and position makes no difference. Make it spiritual (find out others peoples sin) separate people from reality(imaginary person) From prayer to insult (sharp tongued) Use: voice tone and moment (keep double standard) Luke15:28-30) Keep things out of his mind or misdirect: need Charitable feelings to have Charity Feel brave Courage Feel forgiven to be Forgiven Coffee and heart attack Not see the dependence on initial feeling Pray to “IT” not to the person who made me “Resist the devil and he will flee from you.” Pray at all times, in all situations, all kinds of prayers with WILL, INTELECT, directly to the Lord (Peter at the sea) God’s peace means no noises( no radio interference’s) How Isaiah 62:6-7 Running a race IN Faithfulness Pray to God the Creator in NAKEDNESS of the soul James 4:7 Ephesians 6:18 (at all times) Romans 8:26 (The Spirit intercedes with groans) Luke 18 (parable of the persistent widow Mat 26:41 (Not fall into temptation) Phil 4:4-7 (Gods peace will result)!!!!! Mt 7:3 (See the speck in someone else’s eye: not your own) I Cor 9:24, Heb 12:1 (run the race) Mt 23:23 (Justice, mercy and faithfulness) – as He is faithful (Rom 3:3 I Jn 1:9 (confess our sins) Discuss 1 – How can domestic irritations adversely affect the Christian life? 2 – Why should we avoid concentrating our minds on the inner life? 3 – How should we pray? My DEAR WORMWOOD, When I told you not to fill your letters with rubbish about the war, I meant, of course, that I did not want to have your rather infantile rhapsodies about the death of men and the destruction of cities. In so far as the war really concerns the spiritual state of the patient, I naturally want full reports. And on this aspect you seem singularly obtuse. Thus you tell me with glee that there is reason to expect heavy air raids on the town where the creature lives. This is a crying example of something I have complained about already-your readiness to forget the main point in your immediate enjoyment of human suffering. Do you not know that bombs kill men? Or do you not realize that the patient's death, at this moment, is precisely what we want to avoid? He has escaped the worldly friends with whom you tried to entangle him; he has "fallen in love" with a very Christian woman and is temporarily immune from your attacks on his chasti1y; and the various methods of corrupting his spiritual life which we have been trying are so far unsuccessful. At the present moment, as the full impact of the war draws nearer and his worldly hopes take a proportionately lower place in his mind, full of his defense work, full of the girl, forced to attend to his neighbors more than he has ever done before and liking it more than he expected, "taken out of himself," as the humans say, and daily increasing in conscious dependence on the Enemy, he will almost certainly be lost to us if he is killed tonight. This is so obvious that I am ashamed to write it. I sometimes wonder if you young fiends are not kept out on temptation duty too long at a time-if you are not in some danger of becoming infected by the sentiments and values of the humans among whom you work. They, of course, do tend to regard death as the prime evil, and survival as the greatest good. But that is because we have taught them to do so. Do not let us be infected by our own propaganda. I know it seems strange that your chief aim at the moment should be the very same thing for which the patient's lover and his mother are praying-namely, his bodily safety. But so it is; you should be guarding him like the apple of your eye. If he dies now, you lose him. If he survives the war, there is always hope. The Enemy has guarded him from you through the first great wave of temptations. But, if only he can be kept alive, you have time itself for your ally. The long, dull, monotonous years of middle-aged prosperity or middle-aged adversity are excellent campaigning weather. You see, it is so hard for these creatures to persevere. The routine of adversity, the gradual decay of youthful loves and youthful hopes, the quiet despair (hardly felt as pain) of ever overcoming the chronic temptations with which we have again and again defeated them, the drabness which we create in their lives, and the inarticulate resentment with which we teach them to respond to it-all this provides admirable opportunities of wearing out a soul by attrition. If, on the other hand, the middle years prove prosperous, our position is even stronger. Prosperity knits a man to the World. He feels that he is "finding his place in it," while really it is finding its place in him. His increasing reputation, his widening circle of acquaintances, his sense of importance, the growing pressure of absorbing and agreeable work, build up in him a sense of being really at home on Earth, which is just what we want. You will notice that the young are generally less unwilling to die than the middle-aged and the old. The truth is that the Enemy, having oddly destined these mere animals to life in His own eternal world, has guarded them pretty effectively from the danger of feeling at home anywhere else. That is why we must often wish long life to our patients; seventy years is not a day too much for the difficult task of unraveling their souls from Heaven and building up a firm attachment to the Earth. While they are young we find them always shooting off at a tangent. Even if we contrive to keep them ignorant of explicit religion, the incalculable winds of fantasy and music and poetry-the mere face of a girl, the song of a bird, or the sight of a horizon-are always blowing our whole structure away. They will not apply themselves steadily to worldly advancement, prudent connections, and the policy of safety first. So inveterate is their appetite for Heaven, that our best method, at this stage, of attaching them to Earth is to make them believe that Earth can be tuned into Heaven at some future date by politics or eugenics or "science" or psychology or what not. Real worldliness is a work of time-assisted, of course, by pride, for we teach them to describe the creeping death as Good Sense or Maturity or Experience. Experience, in the peculiar sense we teach them to give it, is, by the bye, a most useful word. A great human philosopher nearly let our secret out when he said that where Virtue is concerned "Experience is the mother of illusion"; but thanks to a change in Fashion, and also, of course, to the Historical Point of View, we have largely rendered his book innocuous. How valuable time is to us may be gauged by the fact that the Enemy 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. Well, there is our opportunity. The smaller it is, the better we must use it. Whatever you do, keep your patient as safe as you possibly can. Your affectionate uncle SCREWTAPE Letter # XXVIII – Summary Title: Time, Aging, Perseverance Therefore, my dear brothers, STAND FIRM. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain. 1 Cor. 15:58 Aslan to Jill: “ You would not have called to me unless I had been calling to you.” (CSL in The Silver Chair, p 19) Strategy Matrix Area of Life Devil’s Advice (during war time bombing) God’s Way References Life and Death, Body and Soul, Time and Eternity Don't rejoice in deaths; your patient would go to heaven now (more spiritual; loves Christian girl; helps others) *so keep your patient alive; show: most important is survival (spell?) [or: tell him: if God were love...see what men do to each other...] Do not be afraid... Mat 10:28 No sorcery against Jacob Stand firm, in the faith Numb 23:23 1 Cor 15:58; 1 Pet 5:8,9 YOUTH longing, optimism. Perseverance? Youth short; young more willing to die than older; they have deep seated appetite for heaven and feel the Enemy in religion, fantasy, music, poetry; *so make them believe that earth can be turned into heaven by politics, etc [cf liberation theology] Remember your Creator in the days of your youth Enjoy life, it is "tof" Be a blessing Stand firm, on His promises: Grace according to temptation, His Word in our hearts Hope in restoration: Maranatha! Eccl 12:1 Eccl 9:9; Prov 18:22 Acts 20:35 1 Cor 15:58; 2 Cor 1:20 1 Cor 10:13 Ps 119:11 (Is 41:10) 1 Cor 16:22 MIDDLE AGE Adversity and prosperity, Worldliness. Perseverance? Middle age will help us: perseverance? *use adversity (decay of love and hope; growth of drabness and despair) or prosperity (man finds his place in world = the world in him... by work, friends, wealth) OLD AGE pride, experience, perseverance? death "real worldliness is a work of time assisted by pride" *so teach them to describe creeping death as good sense, maturity, experience Stand firm, by His strength: Use sword of the Spirit. Careful, watch and pray Command is a blessing (Calvin: cane) (Die before you die) Stand firm, in His peace: My times are in Your hand, Open your hand (let go). Be a blessing He is faithful (consolation His presence; grow up, then He bigger; (cf Aslan, said Lucy, you are bigger. That is because you are older, little one. Not because you are? I am not; but every year you grow, you will find me bigger. Prince Caspian, p 55) “Resist the devil and he will flee from you.” James 4:7 Ps 73:24. You guide me with your counsel, and afterwards ... glory ... You take me up! CSL: The term is over: the holidays have begun. The dream is ended: this is the morning. (inside the Door, in The Last Battle, p 183) 1 Cor 15:58; 1 Cor 16:13 Eph 6:17 Mk 14:38 Ps 32:8 (Ps 143:10) (Gal 2:20; 2 Cor 2:10,11 1 Cor 15:58; Is 26:3 Ps 31:15 1 Pet 5:7 Ps 71:18 1 Thes 5:23,24 Heb 10:36; Rev 2:25 Hab 3:17-19 Ps 4:8 Discuss 1- Why do time and prosperity lead us from God? 2 - What can we grow old gracefully and wisely? 3 - Why is Security our greatest enemy? My DEAR, MY VERY DEAR, WORMWOOD, MY POPPET, MY PIGSNIE, How mistakenly, now that all is lost, you come whimpering to ask me whether the terms of affection in which I address you meant nothing from the beginning. Far from it! Rest assured, my love for you and your love for me are as like two peas. I have always desired you, as you (pitiful fool) desired me. The difference is that I am the stronger. I think they will give you to me now; or a bit of you. Love you? Why, yes. As dainty a morsel as ever I grew fat on. You have let a soul slip through your fingers. The howl of sharpened famine for that loss reechoes at this moment through all the levels of the Kingdom of Noise down to the very Throne itself. It makes me mad to think of it. How well I know what happened at the instant when they snatched him from you! There was a sudden clearing of his eyes (was there not?) as he saw you for the first time, and recognized the part you had had in him and knew that you had it no longer. Just think (and let it be the beginning of your agony) what he felt at that moment; as if a scab had fallen from an old sore, as if he were emerging from a hideous, shell-like tetter, as if he shuffled off for good and all a defiled, wet, clinging garment. By Hell, it is misery enough to see them in their mortal days taking off dirtied and uncomfortable clothes and splashing in hot water and giving little grunts of pleasure - stretching their eased limbs! What, then, of this final stripping, this complete cleansing? The more one thinks about it, the worse it becomes. He got through so easily! No gradual misgivings, no doctor's sentence, no nursing home, no operating theatre, no false hopes of life: sheer, instantaneous liberation. One moment it seemed to be all our world; the scream of bombs, the fall of houses, the stink and taste of high explosive on the lips and in the lungs, the feet burning with weariness, the heart cold with horrors, the brain reeling, the legs aching; next moment all this was gone, gone like a bad dream, never again to be of any account. Defeated, outmaneuvered fool! Did you mark how naturally-as if he'd been born for it-the Earth-born vermin entered the new life? How all his doubts became, in the twinkling of an eye, ridiculous? I know what the creature was saying to itself! "Yes. Of course. It always was like this. All horrors have followed the same course, getting worse and worse and forcing you into a kind of bottleneck till, at the very moment when you thought you must be crushed, behold! you were out of the narrows and all was suddenly well. The extraction hurt more and more and then the tooth was out. The dream became a nightmare and then you woke. You die and die and then you are beyond death. How could I ever have doubted it?" As he saw you, he also saw Them. I know how it was. You reeled back dizzy and blinded, more hurt by them than he had ever been by bombs. The degradation of it! -that this thing of earth and slime could stand upright and converse with spirits before whom you, a spirit, could only cower. Perhaps you had hoped that the awe and strangeness of it would dash his joy. But that is the cursed thing; the gods are strange to mortal eyes, and yet they are not strange. He had no faintest conception till that very hour of how they would look, and even doubted their existence. But when he saw them he knew that he had always known them and realized what part each one of them had played at many an hour in his life when he had supposed himself alone, so that now he could say to them, one by one, not "Who are you?" but "So it was you all the time." All that they were and said at this meeting woke memories. The dim consciousness of friends about him which had haunted his solitudes from infancy was now at last explained; that central music in every pure experience which had always just evaded memory was now at last recovered. Recognition made him free of their company almost before the limbs of his corpse became quiet. Only you were left outside. He saw not only Them; he saw Him. This animal, this thing begotten in a bed, could look on Him. What is blinding, suffocating fire to you is now cool light to him, is clarity itself, and wears the form of a Man. You would like, if you could, to interpret the patient's prostration in the Presence, his self-abhorrence and utter knowledge of his sins (yes, Wormwood, a clearer knowledge even than yours) on the analogy of your own choking and paralyzing sensations when you encounter the deadly air that breathes from the heart of Heaven. But it's all nonsense. Pains he may still have to encounter, but they embrace those pains. They would not barter them for any earthly pleasure. All the delights of sense or heart or intellect with which you could once have tempted him, even the delights of virtue itself, now seem to him in comparison but as the half-nauseous attractions of a raddled harlot would seem to a man who hears that his true beloved whom he has loved all his life and whom he had believed to be dead is alive and even now at his door. He is caught up into that world where pain and pleasure take on transfinite values and where all our arithmetic is dismayed. Once more, the inexplicable meets us. Next to the curse of useless tempters like yourself, the greatest curse upon us is the failure of our Intelligence Department. If we could only find out what He is really up to! Alas, alas, that knowledge, in itself so hateful and mawkish a thing, should yet be necessary for Power! Sometimes I am almost in despair. All that sustains me is the conviction that our Realism, our rejection (in the face of all temptations) of all silly nonsense and claptrap, must win in the end. Meanwhile, I have you to settle with. Most truly do I sign myself Your increasingly and ravenously affectionate uncle SCREWTAPE Letter # XXXI – Summary Title: Death: Is that The End? Eternal Life: Everlasting Glory or Eternal Damnation The last enemy to be destroyed is death. I Cor. 5:26 The body is born in dishonor, it is raised to glory. I Cor. 15: 43 There will be no more death or mourning, or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away. He who was seated on the throne said: “I am making everything new!” ... Rev. 21:4 At present we are on the outside of the world, the wrong side of the door. We discern the freshness and purity of the morning, but they do not make us fresh and pure. We cannot mingle with the splendors we see. But all leaves of the New Testament are rustling with the rumor that it will not always be so. Some day, God willing, we shall get in. Weight of Glory Do not think that you can escape me; do not think you can call me Nothing. To you I am not Nothing; I am the being blindfolded, the losing all power of self defense, the surrender, not because any terms are offered, but because resistance is gone: the step into the dark: the defeat of all precautions: utter helplessness turned out to utter risk: the final loss of liberty. The Landlord's Son, who feared nothing, feared me. Pilgrim’s Regress Die before you die, there is no chance after. Have Faces CSL Strategy Matrix 20 AD Area of Life Devil’s Advice Death Now that all is lost ... You have let a soul slip through your fingers ... The end Till We Sunday, December God’s Way References & ???? To die is a gain ... The new beginning A sudden clearing in his eyes This final striping, this complete cleansing. Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord. Rev. 14:13 Discuss how we can avoid the fear, and temptations of death. New Life In God’s Presence Not, “ Who are you? but ... “So it was you all the time.” The earth born vermin entered the new life … … beyond death “He saw Them” God: The suffocating fire to you is … …The angels, Him, the Presence … now cool light to him, is clarity itself, and wears the form of a Man. "His lord said to him, 'Well done, good and faithful servant; you were faithful over a few things, I will make you ruler over many things. Enter into the joy of your lord.' Mat. 25:21 “Resist the devil and he will flee from you.” James 4:7 Last Thoughts: Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain. I Co 15:56. Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life. Rev. 2:10 There was a real railway accident, said Aslan softly. Your father and mother and all of you are – as you used to call it in the Shawdowlands – dead. The term is over: the holidays have began: The dream is ended: this is morning.. The Last Battle. Rev. 21:5 Then He who sat on the throne said, "Behold, I make all things new." There will be no more death or mourning ... Rev. 20:4 Discuss your images of heaven / eternal life. Pilgrim’s Regress, C.S. Lewis, Book Nine CHAPTER THREE This Side by the Darkness Within an inch of him he had seen a face. Now a cloud crossed the moon and the face was no longer visible, but he knew that it was still looking at him--an aged, appalling face, crumbling and chaotic, larger than human. Presently its voice began: "Do you still think it is the black hole you fear? Do you not know even now the deeper fear whereof the black hole is but the veil? Do you not know why they would all persuade you that there is nothing beyond the brook and that when a man's lease is out his story is done? Because, if this were true, they could in their reckoning make me equal to nought, therefore not dreadful: could say that where I am they are not, that while they are, I am not. They have prophesied soft things to you 1. I am no negation, and the deepest of your heart acknowledges it. Else why have you buried the memory of your uncle's face so carefully that it has needed all these things to bring it up? Do not think that you can escape me; do not think you can call me Nothing. To you I am not Nothing; I am the being blindfolded, the losing all power of self defense, the surrender, not because any terms are offered, but because resistance is gone: the step into the dark: the defeat of all precautions: utter helplessness turned out to utter risk: the final loss of liberty. The Landlord's Son who feared nothing, feared me. "What am I to do?" said John. "Which you choose," said the voice. "Jump, or be thrown. Shut your eyes or have them bandaged by force. Give in or struggle." "I would sooner do the first, if I could." "Then I am your servant and no more your master. The cure of death is dying. He who lays down his liberty in that act receives it back. Go down to Mother Kirk." John looked about him when next the moon shone. The bottom of the chasm was level far below him, and there he saw what seemed a concourse of dark figures. Amidst them they had left an open space, where there was a glimmer as of water: and near the water there was someone standing. It seemed to him that he was waited for, and he began to explore the face of cliff below him. To his surprise it was no longer sheer and smooth. He tried a few footholds and got five feet below the ledge. Then he sat down again, sick. But the kind of fear which he now suffered was cold and leaden: there was no panic in it: and soon he continued his descent. "I see," thought John to himself, "that they have brought me here to kill me," but he began, nevertheless, to take off his clothes. They were little loss to him, for they hung in shreds, plastered with blood and with the grime of every shire from Puritania to the canyon: but they were so stuck to him that they came away with pain and a little skin came with them. When he was naked Mother Kirk bade him come to the edge of the pool, where Vertue was already standing. It was a long way down to the water, and the reflected moon seemed to look up at him from the depth of a mine. He had had some thought of throwing himself in, with a run, the very instant he reached the edge, before he had time to be afraid. And the making of that resolution had seemed to be itself the bitterness of death, so that he half believed the worst must be over and that he would find himself in the water before he knew. But lo! he was still standing on the edge, still on this side. Then a stranger thing came to pass. From the great concourse of spectators, shadowy people came stealing out to his side, touching his arm and whispering to him: and every one of them appeared to be the wraith of some old acquaintance. First came the wraith of old Enlightenment and said, "There's still time. Get away and come back to me and all this will vanish like a nightmare." Then came the wraith of Media Halfways and said, "Can you really risk losing me for ever? I know you do not desire me at this moment. But for ever? Think. Don't burn your boats." And the wraith of old Halfways said, "After all--has this anything to do with the island as you used to imagine it? Come back and hear my songs instead. You know them." The wraith of young Halfways said, "Aren't you ashamed? Be a man. Move with the times and don't throw your life away for an old wives' tale." The wraith of Sigmund said, "You know what this is, I suppose. Religious melancholia. Stop while there is time, If you dive, you dive into insanity." The wraith of Sensible said, "Safety first. A touch of rational piety adds something to life: but this salvationist business...well! Who knows where it will end? Never accept unlimited liabilities." The wraith of Humanist said, "Mere atavism. You are diving to escape your real duties. All this emotionalism, after the first plunge, is so much easier than virtue in the classical sense." The wraith of Broad said, "My dear boy, you are losing your head. These sudden conversions and violent struggles don't achieve anything. We have had to discard so much that our ancestors thought necessary. It is all far easier, far more gracious and beautiful than they supposed." But at that moment the voice of Vertue broke in: "Come on, John," he said, "the longer we look at it the less we shall like it," And with that he took a header into the pool and they saw him no more. And how John managed it or what he felt I did not know, but he also rubbed his hands, shut his eyes, despaired, and let himself go. It was not a good dive, but, at least, he reached the water head first CHAPTER FOUR Securus Te Projice1 On the floor of Peccatum Adae2 stood Mother Kirk crowned and sceptred in the midst of the bright moonlit circle left by the silent people. All their faces were turned towards her, and she was looking eastward to where John slowly descended the cliff. Not far from her sat Vertue, mother-naked. They were both on the margin of a large pool which lay in a semicircle against the western cliff. On the far side of the water that cliff rose sheer to the edge of the canyon. There was deep silence for about half an hour. At last the small, drooping figure of a man detached itself from the shadow of the crags and advanced towards them through the open moonlight. It was John. "I have come to give myself up," he said. "It is well," said Mother Kirk. "You have come a long way round to reach this place, whither I would have carried you in a few moments. But it is very well." "What must I do?" said John. "You must take off your rags," said she, "as your friend has done already, and then you must dive into this water3." "Alas," said he, "I have never learned to dive." "There is nothing to learn," said she. "The art of diving is not to do anything new but simply to cease doing something. You have only to let yourself go." "It is only necessary," said Vertue, with a smile, "to abandon all efforts at selfpreservation." "I think," said John, "that if it is all one, I would rather jump." "It is not all one," said Mother Kirk. "If you jump, you will be trying to save yourself and you may be hurt. As well, you would not go deep enough. You must dive so that you can go right down to the bottom of the pool: for you are not to come up again on this side. There is a tunnel in the cliff, far beneath the surface of the water, and it is through that that you must pass so that you may come up on the far side." Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life. Jn. 3;36 Be faithful, even to the point of death, and I will give you the crown of life. Rev. 2:10 I will tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise. Lk. 23;43 … and the gates of Hades will not overcome it. Mat. 16:18 "Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain. " I Co 15:56. "Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life. " Rev. 2:10 The last enemy to be destroyed is death. I Cor. 5:26 The body is born in dishonor, it is raised to glory. I Cor. 15: 43 There will be no more death or morning... Rev. 20:4 "There was a real railway accident, said Aslan softly. Your father and mother and all of you are - as you used to call it in the Shawdowlands - dead. The term is over: the holidays have began: The dream is ended: this is morning." The Last Battle.
