Saturday, September 15, 2007

Screwtape

Last January Dr. Bruce Edwards answered thirteen questions about C.S. Lewis's Screwtape Letters for a documentary on the subject. Lewis wrote that imagining himself into the way a devil might think was a very unpleasant ordeal. Edwards explains what he wanted to achieve by doing so:
Lewis’s main intention is to illuminate the psychology of temptation for believers—but also to illustrate the severe limitations and outright ignorance that the underworld has of God’s purposes. Screwtape never understands why the Enemy loves the patient, even to the point of giving up his life for another.

He also wanted to show that there was no “romance” in rebellion, and that those who align themselves with hell are not only choosing the losing side, they are choosing the most banal, boring, bloated, uninteresting creatures. Along the way, he uses Screwtape to point out the foibles and stupidities of human life—identifying the pressure points of pride and vanity undergirding so much of our day to day living.

Its brilliance lies in depicting the everyday and showing how from a demonic point of view, the devotion and care Christians show to their fellow men and women, mirrors of the love God has shown to them, is unfathomable to the desperately lost and unreflectively wicked.
Later Dr. Edwards gives what he believes to be the "most important lesson to be learned from The Screwtape Letters."
That satanic lies can be resisted and refuted by steadfastly holding on to the truth of Who God is, and who we are in Him, and by being knowledgeable and vigilant to oppose the devil’s schemes, through prayer, Scripture, worship, and the company we keep.
Those interested in Lewis will also find Edward's blog, Further Up & Further In both interesting and rewarding.

Edwards very much liked The Company They Keep, the book about the Inklings which I noted in an earlier post, and gives a brief review here.

(And no, this is not becoming a blog exclusively about the Inklings and C.S. Lewis. I've just been coming across a lot of good stuff on those subjects recently.)

Further Up & Further In » Screwtape: What’s Going On?

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