Screwtape's 4th Letter

In letter 4, Screwtape is advising Wormwood on the topic of prayer, and how he can pull the patient farther away from the “Enemy,” which we all have figured out by now, is God. In the previous reading, we discovered that the patient is currently caring for his mother, who is in poor health. He has been praying for her, but his prayers somewhat reflect his personal feelings of his mother, be it frustration or whatever else. At any rate, the patient’s prayers are just the target for Wormwood and Screwtape to aim for in their efforts of causing his downfall.

They speak of dampening the patient’s intentions of praying all together. Also, to remind him of the “parrot-like” prayers most children memorize, often times against their will. Finally, Screwtape mentions the patient, or mankind in general, trying to manifest the feelings or actions they are praying for on their own. The example given is the idea of asking God for charity, and it doing so, they create charitable feelings for themselves. So, instead of sincerely asking God for charity, they feel sorry for themselves. This personal feeling makes them believe they are actually deserving of charity.

At the end of the chapter, Screwtape begins to describe the act of praying to an “image” of God. This doesn’t mean an idol, but rather an idea. For example, many followers of the Catholic faith have crucifixes hanging in their homes. Screwtape’s assertions would be similar to the person with the crucifix actually believing that the object embodied God.

This of course, isn’t true. God is all around, He’s omnipresent, yet His form is unknown to us. As humans, we cannot possibly know what God looks like or just how powerful His presence is. I think this is true; we simply can’t grasp God’s awesome presence. There was a passage in the Bible that we looked at the first night of class that echoed this idea. Moses wanted to know what God looked like. God responded by allowing Moses to see where He had been: His backside, if you will. He put Moses between two rocks, and as God passed, He put his hand up to block Moses’s view. The direct image of God would have killed Moses otherwise.

These ideas of prayer and praying actually to God, letting go of ourselves and our “images” of God and just praying, talking to Him, is what I think C.S. Lewis is telling us. It’s what we should be aiming for each time we pray.

The Screwtape Letters 1-3

Starting of the book, I was genuinely confused. I feel like I’ve no idea what is going on, nor does Screwtape do a good job of explaining what he’s talking about. The second letter was a bit easier to understand than the first, due to the fact that by the middle of the letter, I could find some themes that made sense. These letters are obviously between two individuals, and uncle and his nephew, who have a deep past and are scheming together on some sort of endeavor.

Uncle Screwtape refers to a “patient” throughout the three letters, and it seems to me that the nephew plays a sizable role in the patient’s life. The second letter is what I’d like to focus on.

The patient has recently become a Christian, according to Screwtape. During the letter, Screwtape advises Wormwood, the nephew, of the faults of the Church and how to turn the patient astray from Christianity. To achieve this, Wormwood is to sway the patient into looking at his fellow Christians for face value, picking out all of their faults and beginning to judge them. Screwtape refers to the neighbor with squeaky boots and the double chin…finally mentioning that the patient will see these faults in his neighbors and deem the religion a farce.

This second letter made me think about my own views on church and organized religion. In many churches today, the followers are focused on appearances. It all seems to be an act. To be a Christian is good for the reputation, it’s a social status and not a belief or creed. It’s exactly the opposite of what I think it means to be a Christian. Acceptance and love is a big part of it, at least in my mind.