Screwtape letters8/2/2023 ![]() ![]() Look for yourself, and you will find in the long run only hatred, loneliness, despair, rage, ruin, and decay. There are two kinds of people: those who say to God, ‘Thy will be done,’ and those to whom God says, ‘All right, then, have it your way. The only thing it cannot be is moderately important. LewisĬhristianity, if false, is of no importance, and if true, of infinite importance. It is best to attack from where we are unseen and unsuspected.“God cannot give us a happiness and peace apart from Himself, because it is not there. I hope you can see now, Snagglewart, that there is much more to this work than frontal assaults after all, the Enemy has some measure of defense against these methods. If you can move correctly, soon he will go from having been overcommitted, overburdened, and exhausted all the time, to a creature of leisure and sloth, who regards it as a good thing that he spends hours on end twiddling his thumbs and doing little else. His time should begin to feel like a jealously-protected resource, so that he will always be on his guard against those whom he suspects of desiring it. In fact, he may come to resent those who rely on him, despite your patient being the one who offered his services in the first place. “After all,” he’ll think, “why shouldn’t I allow myself time as I see fit?” - ignoring all the while his obligations to others and thinking only of his own tiredness. If all goes well, you can even convince him that giving his word to do something is not as binding as he once believed it to be. ![]() Now is a time of utmost importance you must be there to tell him that this break is deserved, and furthermore that future breaks would be deserved as well. When the patient finally gives himself this time to breathe, after weeks of activity, he will realize just what a relief it is to shirk a duty. It is when a chaotic time falls upon him that you must convince him that he can drop something out of his schedule, preferably - but not necessarily - a visit to church. Those, Snagglewart, can bring down almost any patient to the level we so desire, and are all the more effective at these schools they so “love.” I shall give you two avenues of attack that I have found to be particularly useful against students at these wonderful pits of confusion and depravity: schedules and friends. How foolish! The proper route is not a direct attack, where he will be wary of affronts, but a more subtle sabotage in a place that he will not suspect. You seem to think that giving him niggling feelings of doubt whenever he attends the Enemy’s home or egging him on to say yes to every dubious act is the best way to do this. While these are admirable goals, and what you will ultimately aim for, your methods are, frankly, pathetic - they aim to do too much in too little time. You, dear Snagglewart, have started with your goals far too high! I see here that you aimed to make your patient hateful of his religion, and to drive him straight to debauchery. Lewis’ ‘Screwtape Letters’ in this college professor’s course.įrom what I have seen of your first report, you have fallen prey to a very common mistake made by novices in our field. Editor’s note: This article is an original letter written by a Providence College student who was introduced to C.S. ![]()
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