Screwtape Letters (Letter 4)

This section was a lot easier to read, having the background from our discussion in class this week.  All of the anti-Christian ideas were easier to understand.  It is interesting how the 4^th letter begins.  The uncle is talking about how he needs to fully inform Wormwood about the “painful subject of prayer”.  The adjective painful is not how Christians normally would describe their main way of talking to God, because praying brings Christians closer to God this is a painful action to Satan, because it pulls people away from him.  He instructs Wormwood to not just stop the patient from praying, but to the person from even thinking about praying.  This is good advice for the Uncle to give, because if the thought is not in the head there is no doubt or intention to do it later.  

I also thought this was interesting “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” (pg. 16).  This is a very interesting idea, what are your opinions on this subject?  Another interesting idea that is found in this letter is the idea of turning their attention away from God and toward themselves.  By doing this we take away the selflessness the God wants us to have and become a self-centered person, only thinking about ourselves and not doing Gods work.  What were your opinions on this idea of turning the attention away from God and towards themselves?

Just an aside, while I was reading this I could not help but wonder how hard it would be to write this book.  I feel like I was raised to live by God’s word and could not imagine trying to come up with all of these ideas that C.S. Lewis has.  Did anyone else think about this?

Screwtape Letters (Letter 1)

This was a very confusing read and I did not understand what was going on.  As I began reading the book I was very confused and became very lost.  I struggled through the rest of our assigned reading in hopes of trying to get a better understanding of the literature.  Although I made it through the reading I was just as confused at the beginning of the reading as I was at the end.  I was just wondering if anyone else had this same experience?

From what I understand this is a uncle who is writing to his nephew about a patient that they are both familiar with.  I have not yet figured out what type of patient this is, it seems as though they may be in some religion that is against Christianity and they are trying get as many people as possible away from Christianity and into their religion.  The thought of the power that these men may have over people and what they choose to believe in is scary.  The even scarier thing is that it happens in our everyday lives.  Even today people are being influenced by music, movies, books and other forms of entertainment to join different religions.  

I thought that their strategy for how to keep their patients in line was interesting.  The idea of keeping the patients head our of the books and getting him out into the 'real world' is very powerful, because if your head is stuck in a book it is easy to make your own conclusions, but when you are forced into the 'real world' there are so many things that influence your thoughts and experiences that they become no longer your own.  

This book seems very confusing and I hope that as we dig deeper and deeper into the core of the book I am able to understand the plot better and grasp the message the author is trying to portray.  I was just wondering if anyone understood the first section of the book and if you did your response to my writing will be greatly appreciated.