The Germans are coming to the patient's hometown. Screwtape knows this will force the patient to face his possible death. The devils of course do not want him to die with faith in God. They would like him to doubt. In this letter Screwtape discusses how they should accomplish this goal, either by cowardice or courage followed up by hatred of the Germans or pride.
Screwtape tells us how cowardice is a truly painful vice, "horrible to anticipate, horrible to feel, horrible to remember," and that hatred is actually pleasant to feel. (Screwtape Letters p 160). The more a man fears, the more he will hate. To make hatred acceptable to his Christian side, the patient can be made to hate the Germans on behalf of the women and children.
He goes on to discuss how courage is the high point of all virtues. In order to be completely honest, you must sometimes need to be courageous too.
From these two choices, it seems cowardice may be the best to use.
Here are some questions you may want to discuss:
1. Why can the devil produce no virtues?
2. How can hatred be pleasurable?
3. What does fear lead to? (self-knowledge or despair).
No comments:
Post a Comment