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Example research essay topic: Grand Rapids Michigan C S Lewis - 3,252 words

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... his time as his own and feels that it is being stolen. You must therefore zealously guard in his mind the curious assumption My time is my own but what he must never be permitted to doubt is that the total from which these deductions have been made as, in some mysterious sense, his own personal birthright (Lewis 112). Screwtape knows that if Wormwood's cover is blown here that their fight for the mans soul will be dealt a severe setback. He emphasizes to Wormwood that he must not allow the Patient to realize that his time is a wonderful gift of God and that the notion in his mind that he has ownership or authorship of his time is completely absurd. There is no counter-attack once this realization is reached, The assumption which you want him to go on making is so absurd that, if once it is questioned, even we cannot find a shred of argument in its defence (Lewis 112 - 113).

Screwtape is well aware of the fact that time is Gods invention, and He owns it as surely as He owns the heavenly bodies (Walsh 29). He just wants Wormwood to make sure that the Patient never becomes aware of it. On the broader topic of entitlement and ownership, Screwtape tells Wormwood that the sense of each is always to be encouraged. Mans idea that he owns his time, as well as other things, Screwtape says, is an object of humor in both Heaven and Hell. The heavenly and hellish bodies find it laughable that a human being claims ownership to anything. Therefore, Wormwood is directed to cultivating this sense of ownership within his Patients mind.

Letter 23 finds Screwtape in a slight panic over the new relationships the Patient is building. The Patient now has a girlfriend of immaculate character and Christian virtue. Further, the Patients girlfriend has brought him into contact with her parents and other advanced Christians daily. Screwtape notes that because of this Christian immersion, the Patients spirituality will not be removable for a long time; it can, however, be corrupted by various means. Screwtape tells Wormwood that the most successful place to attack the Patients new friends is likely at the border of theology and politics, as many of the group are politically active. Screwtape warns to not let the collective Christianity of the groups members flow over into their political life, for the establishment of anything like a really just society would be a major disaster, but encourages Wormwood to let men treat Christianity as a means; preferably, of course, as a means to their own advancement (Lewis 126).

Success in political advancement by using Christianity will not only boost the pride of the Patients friends, but will certainly anger God, for the Enemy will not be used as a convenience (Lewis 123, 126 - 127). Screwtape wants Wormwood to get these people to essentially use God as a means to worldly accolades. As another means of spiritual corruption, Screwtape proposes the Patients girlfriend. The girl herself cannot be infiltrated; she is wholly devoted to God and His will for her.

The only flaw in her is that she is slightly too pious, though with the most innocent ignorance to the fact. This can be used, Screwtape notes, to negatively influence the Patient. Ironically, Screwtape encourages Wormwood to spur on the Patient to adopt her Christianity in excess and exaggeration. This will ultimately cause him to become spiritually prideful and phony, Can you get him to imitate this defect in his mistress and to exaggerate it until what was venial in her becomes in him the strongest and beautiful of the vices Spiritual Pride? (Lewis 130). Screwtape recognizes that the new group that the Patient associates with is great for breeding pride in him. He implores Wormwood to capitalize on the favorable conditions to produce pride as well as a sense of social and intellectual superiority over the rest of society (Lewis 130 - 131).

The beginning of this mindset will damage his Christianity, as it directly opposes the will of God, and include him in the stereotypical Christian outlook of secular society. In Chapter 27, Screwtape realizes that Wormwood is losing his grip on the Patient and tells him that he is currently doing very little good. The Patient has fallen in love and has increasingly been gathered to the side of the Enemy. Screwtape wants to infiltrate and corrupt his prayer life, so he suggests that Wormwood implement what he calls the heads I win, tails you lose (Lewis 148) argument.

Screwtape explains to Wormwood how it works: If the thing he prays for doesnt happen, then that is one more proof that petitionary prayers dont work; if it does happen, he will, of course, be able to see some of the physical causes which led up to it, and therefore it would have happened anyway, and thus a granted prayer becomes just as good a proof as a denied one that prayers are ineffective. (Lewis 148) Screwtape knows the lifeblood of the Enemy's followers is prayer; to damage the Patients prayer life is to bring him that much farther away from the Enemy and closer to damnation. The heads-tails strategy of petitionary prayer is vital to accomplish this goal. World War II begins to escalate and unfold around the Patient. Screwtape reiterates to Wormwood just how important it is that the Patient be kept alive. He gives pros and cons of both the Patient living and dying.

In regards to dying, Screwtape says to Wormwood, I know it seems strange that your chief aim at the moment should be the very same thing for which the patients lover and his mother are praying namely his bodily safety. But so it is; you should be guarding him like the apple of your eye. If he dies now you lose him (Lewis 154). The demons fate is bleak if the Patient dies, but possibilities abound for them if he survives the war. To this end, Screwtape says five things: If he survives the war, there is always hope, you have time itself as your ally. The long, dull, monotonous years of middle-aged prosperity or middle-aged adversity are excellent campaigning weather, The routine of adversity, the quiet despair of ever overcoming the chronic temptations with which we have again and again defeated thermal this provides admirable opportunities of wearing out a soul by attrition, If, on the other hand, the middle years prove prosperous, our position is even stronger.

Prosperity knits a man to the World, and finally, That is why we must often wish long life to our patients; seventy years is not a day too much for the difficult task of unraveling their souls from Heaven and building up a firm attachment to the earth (Lewis 154 - 156). Ironically, the more years and success the man accrues, the better opportunity Wormwood has to capture his soul. Wormwood has failed at many of the strategies given to him and has begun to let the Patient slip. At this point, Screwtape encourages Wormwood to try and use the war to stir up cowardice in the Patient.

Screwtape says that anything that is in opposition to courage is good. One thing that frightens Screwtape is that the Patient actually does feel like a coward; this frightens Screwtape because the man felt like a coward while actually performing and obeying his occupational duty: the young man becomes involved in civil defense. During his first experience in an air raid, he is badly frightened and thinks of himself as a spineless coward. But actually he had done his duty in spite of his fear (Gibson 105).

Wormwood has failed yet again by not making the Patient weaker from his trials. Screwtape begins to see that he and Wormwood are just spinning their wheels with this man, and knows from past experience that the Patient could be lost soon. Soon after the first air raid, Wormwood loses the Patient to death in a second air raid and Screwtape is none too happy about it: You have let a soul slip through your fingers. The howl of sharpened famine for that loss re-echoes at this moment through all the levels of the Kingdom of Noise down to the very Throne itself (Lewis 171). Screwtape tells Wormwood that the Patient saw him as he was being taken to Heaven and realized at that moment that Wormwood had been tempting him his whole life, but that he no longer had any power over him. Screwtape is enraged: Screwtape describes in an agony of rage how the human soul at the moment past death recognized Wormwood for what he was and then stepped into the new life as it he had been born to it (Gibson 105, Lewis 171).

At the end of the story, it becomes clear that Wormwood represents sin and death to the Patient; once the Patient dies and goes to Heaven, he realizes that sin and death no longer have power over his life. The demons from below know the truth about God all the time. They know that they are fighting a battle that is a lost cause because God has already won the spiritual war. Still, there are many instances where Screwtape says things about the Enemy that makes readers think Screwtape is just trying to comfort himself. Screwtape calls God a hedonist at heart, which is to say that God is simply out to seek pleasure all the time. This statement carries much irony, because it is a derogatory comment that is true at its core: This derogatory word, which usually means one who spends his life seeking and enjoying pleasure, is used ironically to express a great truth about the divine nature.

The love which is at the center of the Trinity, of course, produces pleasure (Gibson 108). Screwtape's insult backfires, and the term hedonist is given a new definition in the context of the book. The tactics of Screwtape, manifested in many complex physical attacks, can be divided into four categories or progressive stages. The first of these is to draw a soul away from Christianity. The means of accomplishing this goal are: making the Christian dislike small, insignificant oddities within the congregation, recommending party churches which have meaningless differences with one another, and promoting the concept of the historical Jesus to draw attention away from the immortal Jesus (Gibson 108).

Screwtape's second stage of assault is direct psychological attacks on the individual. The best example of this is the utilization of humility to breed spiritual pride, where the individual becomes prideful over humility. Another example is the weakening of the human faith and trust in petitionary prayer by employing the heads I win, tails you lose argument (Gibson 109). These two actions are very important to Screwtape because they are dangerous and effective; these are Screwtape's bread and butter so to speak, as he comes back to them again and again when in need. Humility and prayer are two things the Christian life is founded upon, and among Screwtape's deadliest weapons is the ability to contort them.

The third category of attack is one that plays off of spiritual pride. It is the attempt to make the Christian try to shape surrounding peoples attitudes to further his or her own purposes. This is to say that Screwtape encourages his subjects to make humans think they have the right to form societal customs and standards. Two examples of this are when Wormwood tries to convince the Patient that being in love is necessary for and throughout marriage, which is something that society as a whole does not generally agree with. Another example is when the Patient begins to become annoyed when he has no free time because he feels that he possesses his own time (Gibson 109). Screwtape encourages thoughts like this because they will lead souls away from the Enemy and will negatively affect society for his cause.

The fourth and final category is the warning of dangers to Hell within Gods work. Put more simply, he reveals to Wormwood the procedures of God in order that Wormwood can be warned to work against them. Examples of this are Screwtape's analysis of Gods measure of true humility and free will of humans to walk with God. Screwtape takes every caution to make Wormwood aware of these things so he can he implement temptation strategies that can either exploit the Enemy's strategies, or minimize the damage inflicted to their cause by these strategies.

Screwtape explains that the inner workings and core of Hell are in jeopardy as long as God bases His love for human souls on true humility and free will. The character of Screwtape serves as a powerful refining tool for Christian apologetics in The Screwtape Letters. His character forces readers to think about the world from a secular point of view because the book is written from Hells perspective. Additionally, Screwtape as a character causes readers to wonder how much deep contemplative thinking they have done on the subject of temptation and spiritual warfare.

Put simply, Screwtape raises questions and provokes self-examination. More importantly, Screwtape is the avenue that Lewis uses to make readers aware that the human life is not set up for itself and within itself, but that life on earth exists within a dangerous spiritual framework. Most importantly, however, is the realization of readers that every decision they make is not purely human and has spiritual ramifications within that framework. All this said, The Screwtape Letters is considered C.

S. Lewis utmost achievement in apologetics, a topic not lightly addressed by the man (Hooper 270, Walsh 30). The Screwtape Letters has no shortage of symbolic representations. Among the most prominent is the asphyxiating cloud which sometimes surrounds a human and makes a close approach impossible (Walsh 32). This cloud symbolizes Gods grace and protection from demonic presence. Wormwood experiences this a few times and is completely dumbfounded by its cause and mechanism.

Another symbol is the theme of eating / consumption versus free fellowship with humans. Screwtape and the bodies of Hell are obsessed with the consumption of lesser beings, but are perpetually unsatisfied upon devouring them. This creates a rigid hierarchy within Hell that builds walls among its inhabitants. This is opposed to Gods desire to commune and interact with His children who choose to love Him by the allowance of free will (Walsh 32). Christian readers of The Screwtape Letters know immediately that the cause of Screwtape and Wormwood is doubtful in the end. Through all of Screwtape's recognitions and acknowledgements of God, readers can reasonably infer that Screwtape already knows his cause is damned: in his last letter to Wormwood it is easy to get the impression Screwtape knew all along that hells reality was false when compared with heavens (Kilby 39).

Screwtape cannot deviate from his course, however, although he entertains the thought: Indeed, Screwtape parenthetically confesses that he is tempted to give up hell for heaven. Could any writer make clearer how infinite he believes the love of God to be? (Kilby 39 - 40). There is no greater example of Screwtape's ultimate knowledge of the fact that his operation is pointless. Another point brilliantly illustrated by Lewis is the fact that Satan never had the advantage of being human as God did. This severely hinders the cause of Hell because the tempters cannot identify with those on whom they are operating. God, however, came into the world as a man so he could sufficiently experience all the things unique to the human race; He was able to get inside the head of man to understand his feelings, actions, and motivations.

By becoming human, God also found meaning for what Screwtape calls his disinterested love for humans when there might not have been meaning previously. These things are what cause Screwtape to be unable to comprehend the motives and actions of God toward the human race; becoming human would have afforded him the opportunity to do that which he cannot do (Kilby 41). In his writing of The Screwtape Letters, Lewis is advocating an active Christianity to combat the thinking of Christian things without the action that should accompany those thoughts. There are many instances in the book where Screwtape tells Wormwood to allow the Patient to think of Godly things, but not to allow him to take any action beyond what takes place in his mind.

Lewis desires for his readers to further themselves in their faith and mature: All of life is to be an active engagement in spiritual growth; indeed birth and death are meaningless apart from such a calling (Kilby 42 - 43). Lewis implication in his writing is that spiritual growth is necessary to adequately fight the increasing temptations and strategies used by Satan. His is a call and warning against spiritual complacency. Based on this idea of spiritual complacency, Lewis is saying that Hell wins souls very gradually over time. The winning of a soul is not instant or immediate, but easing and measured, so as not to disturb the natural, sinful flow of a human life. A passage from Letter 12 where Screwtape advises Wormwood illustrates this notion perfectly: It does not matter how small the sins are provided that their cumulative effect is to edge the man away from the Light and out into the Nothing Indeed the safest road to Hell is the gradual one the gentle slope, soft underfoot, without sudden turnings, without milestones, without signposts (Hooper 272).

Hells aim is to ease human souls into damnation so as not to awaken the human to its true condition. It is easy to get lost in the fantasy and imagination The Screwtape Letters and miss the authors point. C. S.

Lewis writes in this mode of fiction intentionally, however, so that his readers might have an easier way to grasp the difficult, abstract idea of spiritual warfare. Lewis wants his readers to clearly understand what forces are acting upon the Patient and then make the connection to their own lives; he desperately desires that readers realize that the same forces acting on the Patient are those that act upon their own lives in the real world employing the same means and strategies. Lewis goal is to bring to light the unseen world, moving all around us, influencing us, and ultimately waging war over the eternal destiny of our souls; he wants people to see that Heaven and Hell are at war everyday over every soul. Lewis uncomplicated writing effectively highlights his overall purpose and makes readers think about the subject as if to say to themselves, Yeah, I never thought about this in that way before.

C. S. Lewis has done his part in awakening readers to what is going on around them in the spiritual realm, but the rest of the war is up to them. Works Cited Gibson, Evan K. C. S.

Lewis, Spinner of Tales. Grand Rapids, Michigan: Wm B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1980. Hooper, Walter. C. S.

Lewis: A Companion and Guide. New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 1996. Kilby, Clyde S. The Christian World of C. S. Lewis.

Grand Rapids, Michigan: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1964. Lewis, C. S.

The Screwtape Letters. New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 1942. The New Student Bible, New International Version. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1992. Walsh, Chad. The Literary Legacy of C.

S. Lewis. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovic h, 1979.


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