{"id":5104,"date":"2018-08-09T10:01:05","date_gmt":"2018-08-09T18:01:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/?p=5104"},"modified":"2018-08-09T10:01:05","modified_gmt":"2018-08-09T18:01:05","slug":"the-screwtape-letters-preface-and-the-first-five-letters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/archives\/2018\/08\/09\/the-screwtape-letters-preface-and-the-first-five-letters","title":{"rendered":"The Screwtape Letters: Preface and the First Five Letters"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_5106\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-5106\" style=\"width: 199px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-5106\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/screwtape-letters.jpg?resize=199%2C300&#038;ssl=1\" alt width=\"199\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/screwtape-letters.jpg?resize=199%2C300&amp;ssl=1 199w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/screwtape-letters.jpg?resize=768%2C1156&amp;ssl=1 768w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/screwtape-letters.jpg?resize=680%2C1024&amp;ssl=1 680w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/screwtape-letters.jpg?resize=1200%2C1807&amp;ssl=1 1200w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/screwtape-letters.jpg?w=1600&amp;ssl=1 1600w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 199px) 85vw, 199px\"><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-5106\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Screwtape Letters by C.S.&nbsp;Lewis<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><em>Blog readers: Chi Alpha @ Stanford is engaging in our annual summer reading project. As we read through three books by C. S. Lewis, I\u2019ll post my thoughts here (which will largely consist of excerpts I found insightful). They are all tagged <a href=\"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/archives\/tag\/summer-reading-project-2018\">summer-reading-project-2018<\/a>. The schedule is <a href=\"https:\/\/xastanford.org\/summer-reading\">online<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This week we begin our final summer bookk, The Screwtape Letters. Before I give some thoughts on this week\u2019s reading, I have some general observations.<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The letters were originally published as a weekly serial, one letter at at time, in a church magazine.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The full text of <em>The Screwtape Letters<\/em> is available online at <\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.truechristianity.info\/en\/the_screwtape_letters.php\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">http:\/\/www.truechristianity.info\/en\/the_screwtape_letters.php<\/span><\/a><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><em>The Screwtape Letters<\/em> is also available as an audiobook read by John Cleese(!) \u2014 check it out <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=SBxpcGfznos&amp;list=PLA8BAC9375345E6C7\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">on YouTube<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<div class=\"jetpack-video-wrapper\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"1 -The Screwtape Letters (Narrated by John Cleese)\" width=\"840\" height=\"630\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/SBxpcGfznos?list=PLA8BAC9375345E6C7\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<p>On to the main course:<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Demonic correspondence in a hellish bureaucracy is a genius idea for a book and I assumed it would have been fun to write, but Lewis said \u201c<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Of all my books, there was only one I did not take pleasure in writing.\u201d&nbsp;<em>The Screwtape Letters<\/em> \u201cwere dry and gritty going. At the time, I was thinking of objections to the Christian life, and decided to put them into the form, \u2018That\u2019s what the devil would say.\u2019 But making goods \u2018bad\u2019 and bads \u2018good\u2019 gets to be fatiguing.\u201d (<\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.cbn.com\/churchwatch\/archive\/2010\/09\/02\/c.s.-lewis-on-the-screwtape-letters-and-man-in-space.aspx?mobile=false\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">source<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">)<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I\u2019m glad Lewis put up with the fatigue. The result is tremendous. Let me begin with one of my favorite quotes from the book (from the preface):<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">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. They themselves are equally pleased by both errors and hail a materialist or a magician with the same delight.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This paragraph has special meaning to me as a Pentecostal. Some corners of the Pentecostal world seem to believe there is a demon behind every headache and traffic jam. But much of our society has a hard time acknowledging that there is anything demonic about something as overt as Satan worship. There is a more sensible position which Lewis here describes and which the Apostle Paul modeled:&nbsp;<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Paul was comfortable with the spirit realm and demons recognized that he was a force to be reckoned with (Acts 19:11\u201316), but he did not obsess over it. He was not an easy man to distract. Once a demon was harassing him, but it took several days before it got on Paul\u2019s nerves enough for him to respond to it (Acts 16:16\u201318). Strive to be like Paul \u2014 deal with the demonic realm without becoming consumed by the demonic realm.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In the first letter, Screwtape writes to Wormwood about how modern trends have made demonic work easier:<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Your man has been accustomed, ever since he was a boy, to have a dozen incompatible philosophies dancing about together inside his head. He doesn\u2019t think of doctrines as primarily \u201ctrue\u201d or \u201cfalse\u201d, but as \u201cacademic\u201d or \u201cpractical\u201d, \u201coutworn\u201d or \u201ccontemporary\u201d, \u201cconventional\u201d or \u201cruthless\u201d. Jargon, not argument, is your best ally in keeping him from the Church. Don\u2019t waste time trying to make him think that materialism is true! Make him think it is strong, or stark, or courageous\u2014that it is the philosophy of the future. That\u2019s the sort of thing he cares&nbsp;about.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Reading this paragraph reminded me of the Prime Minister of Canada, Justin Trudeau. He once famously answered a question about his cabinet composition by saying, \u201c<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=LLk2aSBrR6U\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Because it\u2019s 2015!<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201d This is the kind of thing Screwtape is talking about. It\u2019s the kind of answer we have been conditioned to respond to, and so it\u2019s the kind of answer a skillful politician gives.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Later in the same letter, Screwtape makes a good point about science:<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Above all, do not attempt to use science (I mean, the real sciences) as a defence against Christianity. They will positively encourage him to think about realities he can\u2019t touch and see. There have been sad cases among the modern physicists. If he must dabble in science, keep him on economics and sociology; don\u2019t let him get away from that invaluable \u201creal life\u201d. 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 \u201cthe results of modem investigation\u201d.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I\u2019ve ministered at Stanford since 2002, and in my experience mathematicians and students of the hard sciences have an easier time embracing the gospel than do students of the social sciences or the humanities. In part, it seems to me, it is because&nbsp;social scientists tend to look for answers that \u201c<\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/archives\/2018\/06\/30\/the-abolition-of-man-chapter-3-appendix\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">explain away<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201d whereas hard scientists tend to look for explanations.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p>The final sentence, though, is the real kicker. We assume something is true because a lot of people keep saying it and thereby mistake repetition for reason. When someone tells me \u201cthe Bible is full of contradictions\u201d I often discover they don\u2019t have any to offer. They\u2019re not lying \u2014 they are merely repeating something they have heard so often that they assume it must have a solid foundation.&nbsp; Sometimes there\u2019s more cognitive dissonance, such as when someone assumes the sexual revolution has been a net positive for society. In that case my interlocutor is usually ignoring or discounting evidence they have personally observed. But again, they\u2019re not consciously lying. The sexual revolution is nearly always presented as progress, and people assume that there must be something to that since it keeps getting repeated.<\/p>\n<p>I am not saying we should mistrust the consensus of experts who are speaking to us about something we have no knowledge of. Deferring to expert consensus is an excellent heuristic, except when the consensus conflicts with something we know. In that case we humbly return to the evidence and think things through again, with openness to the idea that we might be wrong but so might the experts. Here\u2019s the rub: when it comes to things like morality and religion we will almost always have some direct knowledge which we need to consider. And especially with subjects like morality and religion we need to remember that both the experts as well as ourselves have powerful motives to not think things through all the way. All that to say: trust the experts, but not too much. Furthermore, don\u2019t assume our cultural consensus is the same thing as the expert consensus. If that was always the case, we wouldn\u2019t need experts!<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I\u2019ll content myself with sharing one final quote from the reading, this one from Letter Four:<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> It is funny how mortals always picture us as putting things into their minds: in reality our best work is done by keeping things out.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Distraction is one of the chief enemies of spiritual growth, and we live in an age that is full of it. Sustained and slow thought is one of the chief instruments in our transformation. If Lewis is right and one of the infernal legion\u2019s goals is to keep you distracted and prevent you from focusing, let that inform your use of apps and the internet. Just a thought.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Blog readers: Chi Alpha @ Stanford is engaging in our annual summer reading project. As we read through three books by C. S. Lewis, I\u2019ll post my thoughts here (which will largely consist of excerpts I found insightful). They are all tagged summer-reading-project-2018. The schedule is online. This week we begin our final summer bookk, \u2026 <a href=\"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/archives\/2018\/08\/09\/the-screwtape-letters-preface-and-the-first-five-letters\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> \u201cThe Screwtape Letters: Preface and the First Five Letters\u201d<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wp_typography_post_enhancements_disabled":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"Thoughts inspired by the preface and the first five of The Screwtape Letters.","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[8],"tags":[230,229,236],"class_list":["post-5104","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-resources-reviews","tag-c-s-lewis","tag-summer-reading-project-2018","tag-the-screwtape-letters"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6Ded-1kk","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5104","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5104"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5104\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5110,"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5104\/revisions\/5110"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5104"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5104"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5104"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}