18 September 2012

Screwtape Letters 1-5


  1. Letter 1: No Tall Poppy Here
    1. Screwtape encouraged Wormwood to latch onto "how enslaved they [humans] are to the pressure of the ordinary." What are these pressures? How do they help Screwtape?
    2. S/T warns Wormwood against engaging in argument? Why? What could go wrong for S/T and his purposes?
    3. The power of distraction (I forgot what my question was)
  2. Letter 2: Church Disappointment
    1. We encounter the Church in all its crude, boring and hypocritical actuality. This encounter can enchant pride in our self and disenchant our self regarding others. How has the church been a snare?
    2. How does the Enemy use our disappointment in the Church for His purpose?
    3. What about the Church does S/T not want us to see?
  3. Letter 3: Family Annoys Us
    1. Prayer, where we separate spiritually minded thoughts from the physical actions and interactions with those in our lives.
    2. Family, where we get annoyed, and justifiably annoy others because they first annoyed us. 
    3. Challenge: who annoys you? why? what in them and their actions gets to you? Now ask: is there anything in you, in your view of yourself, in your view of them, which is to some degree responsible for the annoyance you are feeling?
    4. Challenge: does any of our religious/church behavior annoy our family/close friends? Do we justify our actions because they are religious/church actions, regardless of the fact they annoy others (turn a blind eye, hide our actions behind the veil of God)?
    5. What 'spiritual' acts do we partake in that could just as easily serve Screwtape's purposes as the Enemy's purpose?
  4. Letter 4: Being Spiritual
    1. Why does S/T like 'moods'?
    2. S/T encouragement: create a god to help you concentrate, then concentrate on that god. Why is this dangerous?
  5. Letter 5: War (hunh), what is it good for? (less than Wormwood thinks)
    1. "Do not allow any temporary excitement to distract you from the real business of undermining faith and preventing the formation of virtues."
    2. Spiritually speaking, why is war a strange mixture of good and bad?
Labels: , ,