Screwtape Letter #12

In Letter 12, the letter deals with tempting a human away from Heaven in a subtle yet effective way. Although Wormwood is doing okay with it, Screwtape feels that he may be going too quickly for what will work. The patient's Christianity is slowly slipping away from him, but since he is still going to church he is unable to notice and/or even care what is happening before him. His faith begins to deterierate but the patient does not seem to notice. Because his faith is begininning to be lost, he is forgetting to pray and practice his faith which is leading him away from Christianity. The patient is now on his way to Hell and his progress could very well be interupted by a sin or a sudden awakening towards Heaven. Screwtape prefers this particular way to tempt the patient because he feels it is the most effective. Because the temptations are done so subtly the patient is converted without any knowledge of it. This kind of temptation is apparent in our world today. Many day to day ativities can have small, insignificant sins within them. We are not opened to them because of how small they are. This is similar to Screwtape's method with the patient to lure him slowly but surely away from Heaven to Hell.

Letter #7

In this letter,Wormwood begins to ask his uncle, Screwtape, for more insight about what he should do with his patient. He asks his uncle because he feels that he needs advice from an elder about his current situation. He was unsure if he should reveal himself to his patient or not. Screwtape tells his nephew that the 'devils' do not reveal themselves to humans. They have found out that by making people dibelieve is more useful than scaring people away. Screwtape then tries to consider what Wormwood should do in this circumstance. Wormwood must decide if he should make the patient a patriot or a pacisist. He then comes to the realization that it won't really matter. As long as the patient's thoughts about God are nonexistant then he feels his job is complete.

Screwtape Letter #4

After having read the first 3 letters, and the way that Screwtape writes, I feel that these letters were a little easier to comprehend. I still felt a little lost at times, but by reading the letters over again, I was able to pick up on the main points that the letters were trying to convey. The letter I chose to do was Letter #4. I tried to listen to Letter 5, but it didn't really do much help for me. In this letter Screwtape's tone to Wormwood is more angry and seems to speak in a cold sense. Wormwood is criticizing his methods and this does not make Screwtape very happy. The main method that Wormwood seems to be criticizing is Screwtape's method of prayer. Although Screwtape is not happy with Wormwood's criticism, he decides to deal with in a greater sense. He tells Wormwood to just not have his 'patient' prayer at all to solve all problems. Screwtape feels that if the 'patient' prays more freely, than he will not practice ANY concept of prayer. This is what Screwtape would ultimately want because than they would not want to go to heaven but rather to Hell with him. In his whole scheme of things, he is conniving in order to get exactly what he wants. In man y situations today I can see this corruption through authority as well. Just because they are ahead of you in their line of work than you feel that you must follow them, in whatever it may be, to succeed.

Screwtape Letters 1-3

After reading the first three chapters of the Screwtape letters, we are introduced to the 'Devil' Screwtape and his nephew Wormwood. It was a confusing read at first, but after reading it again you understand the way that Screwtape is trying to have his nephew encourage his patient away from Heaven and into Hell. However, when the patient wants to become a Christian Screwtape assures Wormwood that many people have been 'saved' from becoming Christians. He warns his nephew to tell the patient of the faults of being Christian to sway him from Heaven. Wormwood is then told by his uncle to cause conflict between the patient and the patient's mother. He also tries to find any little thing wrong with their relationship to sway him away and closer to the 'perks' of hell. I feel that it is too early in the reading to understand the true underlying conflict that the Devil is trying to convey to his nephew. I feel that Screwtape is so uneasy about the patient wanting to convert to Christianity is because they are able to indulge in the truth. Christians have the clarity of thought to cut through the devil’s ways in a straightforward way that is intimidating to him.