Toast

The first thing that really stuck out to me about the 'Screwtape Proposes a Toast' reading is the different style it took. I was so accustomed to reading a personal letter towards Wormwood, the young tempter, that the different format kind of threw me off guard. But nonetheless, I found the Screwtape to be the very same demon that I found so humorous in the rest of the book. However, the commentary about the feasting on the souls that he makes during the first part of his speech I found to be quite grotesquely entertaining. The talk about feasting on adulterers and other type of sinners was both digusting and quite humorous. Yet, the point Screwtape makes about the abundance of souls, despite the extreme lack of quality of them, really stuck out to me. He feels like there really aren't any 'great sinners' anymore, but rather just herds of simply somewhat bad people - those who have made a few mistakes in their life, but not becasue they are inherently evil, but rather for a number of trivial reasons. This point really stuck out to me, because many people who aren't exactly religious may still consider themselves to not be evil people so that must mean that they will get to Heaven, yet this is the opposite of what we see to be true. It's not just the horrendous people that are going to Hell, but rather just vast amounts of poor souls. The other comment that I found interesting was that Screwtape says that he can use the 'great sinners' to influence "tens of thousands of the huan sheep with him" (193). Today, it seems like many people tend to simply follow the celebrities and TV stars of the day, no matter what they do. Little girls flock to be like Paris Hilton, etc. Ultimately, I can really see how what Screwtape is saying with this point to be quite true. Overall, I found the toast to be quite shocking, but also amusing as a whole.

Chap 28

I really found the concept of life and death that was presented in Chapter 28 to be quite thought-provoking. In the chapter, Screwtape acknowledges the fact that it is the Devil's work to make humans believe that life is the "greatest good" while death is the "prime evil". In the Christianity point of view, dying is not exceptionally detrimental and could even be considered beneficial in attaining unity with God. Further, time spent living on earth could be considered somewhat of a trial perioid and a chance for Christians to share with the people of the world the 'good news' of the gift of eternal life offered through Jesus. While Christians are to cherish their their lives that God has given them, dying is but gain. In contrast, a Christian dying is the worst thing that can happen for the Devil, as it forever prevents the Devil from corrupting that person. Yet, while a person is still living in their temporary life here on Earth, there is still the opportunity for that Christian to be corrupted and turned into a non-believer. Ultimately, I kind of thought this was an interesting viewpoint, as life is normally considered good, and death not so much. However, it makes logical sense to see how through the Christian perspective that death can be considered the ultimate good. Overall, the chapter contained some interesting material on the concept of life and death.

Chap 26

I found parts of chapter 26, which discussed the concept of unselfishness within relationships, to be really light-hearted and humorous. The first sentence of the letter I found to be quite disturbingly true, as Screwtape says that "courtship is the time for sowing those seeds which will grow up ten years later into domestic hatred". I feel that a lot of the time, when you first are starting to get to know somebody that you're romantically interested in, you really focus on the positive qualities you see in the person. However, things that may slightly perturb you really get ignored, so much that you may not even know they exist. Yet, if these issues aren't properly brought up and discussed, then the person won't know how to change these little annoyances, and they can increasingly build up into huge issues later on down the road. This idea kind of reminded me of the book Sex God that we read, as it kind of brought out the issue that you need to discuss even the littlest issues in a relationship, before they build up into even bigger ones. The more light-hearted issue brought out in the chapter was where Screwtape points out that in discussing any issue, "it becomes obligatory that A should argue in favour of B's supposed wishes and against his own, while B does the opposite". I think this was humorously true, as many times in relationships, you really do make decisions on what you think the other person would want, while your partner does the exact same for you. And usually, you end up doing something that neither of you want, but something that you both think the other wants to do. Overall, the letter contained some pretty interesting insight into relationships, both profound and comical.

Chap 24

The more interesting discussion that I found in the assigned reading was that of spiritual pride. Probably the most thought-provoking and profound lines in the entire reading so far was the fact that Screwtape considers spirtiual pride to be "the strongest and most beautiful of the vices" (pg. 130). This really is a relevant point and most certainly a true one. A lot of the time, some certain groups of Christian may come off as extremely self-righteous, believing that they are better than not only non-believers and those of other faiths, but also other groups of "lesser" Christians. They may think that if somebody does not believe in the exact same interpretation of the Bible and have the exact same views on faith and spirituality as themselves, that they are not Christians in fact. This kind of spiritual pride is actually an extremely big sin. The ignorance of these prideful Christians is exactly what Jesus says that believers should NOT do. In the eyes of Jesus, we are all fallen and fall short of the glory of God. Therefore, since we are all sinners, whether or not we are believers or not, we are all equal on Earth. People should love one another regardless of beliefs or strength of belief, and these with such extreme spirtual pride are simply blind to the world. Certainly, one should not every consider themselves and the group of people that they associate with to be above all other people, as this certainly has disasterous consequences, as in indeed one of the greater sins that one may commit.

Chap 21

The reading set forth a new concept to me that I felt was really thought-provoking, specifically in the final chapter of the assigned reading. The chapter discusses the concept of possession of a number of things, from one's own body to time and finally to random objects like boots. The discussion is based on the premise that humans do not actually own anything that they consider "theirs". Everyone labels things as "mine" and tries to claim ownership of everything, including their "own" bodies, where in fact the reading makes the point that a person does not actually own ANY of these objects, even their body. Because ultimately, everything that we "own" actually belongs to God (or consequently the Devil), because He is who actually created such things. All of their time, their souls, and their bodies ultimately will belong to either God in Heaven or the Devil in Hell. I felt this was a really interesting perspective that I have rarely if ever thought about. People often believe they can do whatever they want, from drugs to sex, because it's their body and they can do what they want with it. But ultimately, these things can be deemed wrong because it is not in fact their body, it's God's creation, and abusing substances can be considered harming God and his creation. Overall, I feel that people should really consider their actions and what they are doing to themselves and analyze what exactly gives them the right to do such damage to "their" body. Another interesting tangent to this point that I kind of thought about was how people tend to claim ownership over things like land and animals. For people will buy a plot of land and then say, "This is MY land". But who really gave them the power to OWN the land, and why exactly is it theirs? Because they paid a large sum of money to some other person? But what gave that person who sold the land the owernship and possession of the land? The same can go for animals and pets. What gives a person the ability to claim ownership and possession over another form of life? For example, why can a person claim that Lassie is THEIR dog? Anyway, I just felt like the reading had an interesting perspective about ownership and possession that was really thought-provoking. It kind of made me consider ownership from a quasi-Native American perspective...

Chap 18

Chapter 18 was a discussion about a number of topics including love, sex, marriage, and how all three are related to one another. The main thing that struck out at me when I was reading this chapter was how strikingly similar much of the chapter had to do with relation to the book Sex God that we were reading for class. I felt as the though the short three-page chapter was really close to what a concise synopsis of Sex God would be. One of the more interesting points I enjoyed in the reading was that sex was originally unprofound and simplistic, but then God associated affection and love between the two people. Further, God makes offspring dependent on their parents and gives parents the impulse to raise their child. Looking at nature, all species simply use sex as a means of reproduction and then a large portion of these species then go on and do not raise their offspring. A lot of times they allow them to fend for themselves. So in a sense, I agree with the fact that God could have gifted love and affection to two sexual partners, uniting them as "one flesh", which is another topic mentioned later in the reading. The other profound point that I felt really connected with what Sex God was all about was the quote, "The truth is that wherever a man lies with a woman, there, whether they like it or not, a transcendental relation is set up between them which must be eternally enjoyed or eternally endured" (pg 96). This sentence really was a concise way of summing up the overall main point that I felt Sex God tried to develop. Did anybody else see any other strong connections between the book Sex God and the reading in the Screwtape Letters?

Chapter 12

I felt the most interesting chapter of the assigned reading was Chapter 12, which discussed the patient and his slow dwindling away from the "Enemy". Screwtape talks about how it is good (in his view) that we as humans waste our time doing "neither what [we] ought nor what [we] like". I felt this as a big parallel to the discussion we had in class we had just before break, talking about the priorities activity and how much time we actually devote on spending time on those priorities. At the time, I felt as though I wasted a lot of time in my daily life, doing frivolous things and things that did not even relate to anything that was on my priorities list. Similarly, the patient is wasting his time "in the gratification of curiosities so feeble that the man s only half aware of them", or in other words, pointless things. These tiny wastes of time all add up and can ultimately have a huge negative impact upon our own pursuit of priorities. The patient is turned off to God by such distractions, and I feel like I am put off from all of my own priorities from these same distractions. One line that really seemed to sum everything up in the chapter was, "Murder is no better than cards if cards can do the trick". Overall, I really feel as if the content of the chapter had a strong connection to do with the in-class discussion we had about time and priorities. Ultimately, I feel like I need to start managing my time better and being more productive, focusing more on my priorities, rather than wasting my time doing feeble things such as checking Facebook, lying around doing nothing, etc.

Chap 11

Of the assigned reading, chapter 11 seemed to stick out the most based on its depiction of the various types of human laughter. A few interesting quotes stuck out most to me, starting with one describing the group of acquantinces the patient has met as "steady, consistent scoffers and worldlings who without any spectacular crimes are progressing quietly and comfortably towards Our Father's house". I feel like this quote really has a lot of long-standing implications. This little group of intellects are not bad people. They don't commit any sort of devious crimes or sins that one thinks of when people think about going to Hell. However, their only misgrievance is that they scoff at religion at God, and thus, without even knowing it, they are slowly making their way into Hell. I felt it is a really interesting quote, because I feel like many people, myself included, who aren't extremely religious people are good people who don't commit any sort of devious crimes or sins. However, just because they don't sin, doesn't mean that they aren't making their way slowly and unknowingly towards Hell. I felt like the quote was an interesting and really concise way of summing up a pretty profound thought.
A few more interesting points I found were that Screwtape says that music is the most detestable art, and it is found in Heaven. I found this interesting, because a lot of the time, people hear about the negative influences of music, such as how now-a-days it is so corrupting and a bad influence. But, I feel as if people forget about the beautiful aspects of music, such as how humans can express themselves in any aspect in it.
A last quote that I found quite fascinating is "Cruelty is shameful - unless the cruel man can represent it as a practical joke." This statement is shockingly true. Cruelty, despite the fact that it is obviously cruel, is often accepted by people if portrayed as a fun, humorous, light-hearted event. There's a number of examples of this, such as how torturing hostages and enemies is accepted if the torturers turn it into a light-hearted event, having fun and joking around with all the "funny" stuff they can do with their captives.
Overall, I found a number of interesting little points in the last chapter of the assigned reading, many of which were extremely profound thoughts summarized in a single concise statement. I really enjoy the to-the-point, succinct nature of C.S. Lewis' writing.

Chap 5

I found Chapter 5 of the chapters of the assigned reading the most interesting in which the reader finds out that the Europeans have started another of their wars, presumably World War II. Wormwood is "'delirious with joy'" at this fact, and I found it frighteningly true that war would cause such an effect. Although America is technically "at war" right now in Iraq, there is a difference between being at war and in war. We as a country on a whole do not feel the negative effects of the war around us on a day to day basis, except for reading in the paper about the soldiers that died that day abroad. I imagine being in the center of a war such as WWII would have such a profound effect upon one's religious beliefs. Being in a constant state of fear and seeing friends and family die around you, being in the center of the war, such as the "patient" in London is currently, would almost certainly be a depressing event that would make you truly question your beliefs about God and how He would allow all this death and suffering to happen around you. I imagine that in World War II (or any other major war for that matter), people who actually experienced the war on a first-person basis would be extremely susceptible for losing their faith as Screwtape and Wormwood are getting so excited about in the chapter.

Overall, I just found Chapter 5 to be interesting as it kind of brought out the idea that events such as war could have a large impact on a person's religious beliefs by seeing death and suffering around one's self on a daily basis.

Chap 1-3

I found The Screwtape Letters to be an interesting read. I was hooked right from the introduction, based on the fact that is quite unlike any other book I've ever read. First off, I felt it was really unique to be telling a religious story from the opposite viewpoint - the side of the Devil and his minions rather than God himself. Every religious books seems to be from the Christian standpoint, so it was kind of a change to see things the other way around for once. I felt that because the book took such an unique viewpoint, it is full of humor, which makes it an even more accesible read. My favorite line from the first three chapters was on page 6, "Provided that any of those neighbours sing out of tune, or have boots that squeak, or double chins, or odd clothes, the patient will quite easily believe that their religion must therefore be somehow ridiculous." The only real question I have regarding the first few chapters is an allusion at the end of Chapter 3, "Remember the elder brother in the Enemy's story?". I'm wondering exactly who the elder brother of God is. Anybody have any insight into this?