Distracting prayer......Letter 27

In this letter, Screwtape is disturbed at the patient's obedience in prayer. It seems that the patient is becoming distracted by his love for his Christian girlfriend. This distraction happens during prayer time too of course, but the patient is also asking God for help in this area. Screwtape feels that his nephew Wormwood is failing in this area and quick diversion is needed to steer the patient away from obedience. This is what he suggests: convince the patient that petition in prayer is ineffective, that God already has determined our actions, that man has no free will, so prayer in this are is not needed. Instead he should pray to praise God only. Prayers that are answered can be explained by mere coincidence.

Screwtape then praises the modern education. He notes that in Europe they no longer have to worry about man reading the wisdom of the great books. That only the old, learned continue to read them and even they are not to be feared since they read from a Historical Point of View only. This view analyzes the book in the traditional way, but forgets to answer the question, "How can I apply this to life today?" I had to do the happy dance when I read this, as this is what I've learned to do through Adler's How to Read a Book, and a question we as a class answer each time we finish a book. If you perceive this book to be true, then how will you allow it to change your life?

Along the lines of "close reading," I came to a name in this letter that I did not recognize, Boethius. After looking it up, I found he was the author of Consolation of Philosophy. Here's what Wikipedia has to say regarding this book:
Consolation of Philosophy

"Consolation of Philosophy was written during Boethius' one year imprisonment while awaiting trial, and eventual horrific execution, for the crime of treason by Ostrogothic King Theodoric the Great. Boethius was at the very heights of power in Rome and was brought down by treachery. This experience inspired the text, which reflects on how evil can exist in a world governed by God, and how happiness can be attainable amidst fickle fortune, while also considering the nature of happiness and God. It has been described as "by far the most interesting example of prison literature the world has ever seen."[4]

Boethius writes the book as a conversation between himself and Lady Philosophy. She consoles Boethius by discussing the transitory nature of fame and wealth ("no man can ever truly be secure until he has been forsaken by Fortune"), and the ultimate superiority of things of the mind, which she calls the "one true good". She contends that happiness comes from within, and that one's virtue is all that one truly has, because it is not imperiled by the vicissitudes of fortune.

Boethius engages questions such as the nature of predestination and free will, why evil men often prosper and good men fall into ruin, human nature, virtue, and justice. He speaks about the nature of free will versus determinism when he asks if God knows and sees all, or does man have free will. To quote V.E. Watts on Boethius, God is like a spectator at a chariot race; He watches the action the charioteers perform, but this does not cause them.[5] On human nature, Boethius says that humans are essentially good and only when they give in to “wickedness” do they “sink to the level of being an animal.” On justice, he says criminals are not to be abused, rather treated with sympathy and respect, using the analogy of doctor and patient to illustrate the ideal relationship between criminal and prosecutor.

Boethius sought to answer religious questions without reference to Christianity, relying solely on natural philosophy and the Classical Greek tradition. He believed in harmony between faith and reason. The truths found in Christianity would be no different from the truths found in philosophy. In the words of Henry Chadwick, "If the Consolation contains nothing distinctively Christian, it is also relevant that it contains nothing specifically pagan either...[it] is a work written by a Platonist who is also a Christian, but is not a Christian work." (wikipedia.org, Confessions of Philosophy).

Love to learn has some great discussion ?'s on this letter: http://www.lovetolearnplace.com/LitGuild/Screwtape/index.html