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?