Screwtape Writes To Wormword Summary

Since these souls lived their lives in a windstorm of emotions and feelings, their penalty represents the literal way in which they sinned. In addition to the punishments relating to the sins of the sinners, there are also punishments which contrast with the actions of the sinners and represent what the sinner was lacking in life. For example, the neutral souls were people who could not choose between good and evil during their life, being untouched by cares of religion and faith. As punishment in hell, they have to forever chase a blank banner in circles and are constantly stung by wasps and hornets. By taking no action on Earth in regards to their faith, they have to spend an eternity running after a banner with no hopes of catching it. And because they were untouched by cares, hornets and wasps symbolically sting them forever. The neutral souls' retribution was opposite of their sin, but most punishments represent the crimes in an ironic fashion. By choosing this method of eternal punishment, God is able to inflict the most pain on the souls in hell because they are constantly reminded of their sins at all times and are never able to escape the truth of what they did. This punishment closely resembles the eye-for-an-eye tactic preached in the Old Testament, but is done mainly to carry out perfect justice. Even the inscription above the gates of hell, "justice it was that moved my great creator" (89), suggests that the sole purpose of this place

He does this because Wormwood wants the girlfriend to feel like she’s not good enough for the patient. Eventually the patient loses the love of his life because he she was convinced that she didn’t deserve him. Screwtape also believes that instead of waiting until marriage to have sex, a person should be able to do it whenever they feel like it. Eventually at the end of the book the patient dies but he is sent to Heaven. Wormwood wasn’t successful in turning the patient away from Christ. Screwtape is turned into a larger centipede for failing to convince his nephew to convince the patient to leave God .The theme of this novel is would be to try and prove that Christianity will always prevail. Even though as Christians our faith is tested everyday we should just persevere and know that God is with us. Even though Screwtape was evil he was also very wise. Screwtape knew exactly what to do in order to lead the patient down the wrong path. Whenever a person is suffering Screwtape says that “it feels like I had a rich buffet.” Screwtape basically lives of people’s daily suffering. Wormwood is easily persuaded, whatever his uncle tells him to do to the patient it would get done. He’s also easily excited, whenever the Europeans went into a second war he was “delirious with joy.” But Screwtape had to teach him not to get joyful so fast. Finally, the patient would be described as a person who is easily influenced. Throughout the novel you notice that whatever wormwood tells him to do it would be done. He believed that the things he was doing would benefit God, but it was actually benefiting Satan. But in the end Satan lost because the patient went to Heaven to be with our Father in Heaven. In the end Christianity still beat Satan and the patient is happy in

For example Screwtape tells Wormwood to do everything in his power to keep his patient from regular communion with God, and to convince the patient that being busy in life and ministry is an acceptable excuse not to spend regular time in prayer. If you can get him to rationalize that because he offers short prayers to God throughout the day, he doesn’t need to have a dedicated and disciplined time of prayer. If you can get him to the point where he tells people he prayed for them, without actually praying for them, even better. This example tells me that having a dedicated time to pray is something Satin doesn't want. This is just one of many instances where I recognise Satan's deception. “Indeed the safest road to Hell is the gradual one the gentle slope, soft underfoot, without sudden turnings, without milestones, without signposts,...Your affectionate uncle, Screwtape.” This quote shows Satan's subtle deceptions when Screwtape is telling Wormwood to slowly bring his patient to sin. I’ve seen this happen at times in my life where one month I was very consistent with devoting time with God in prayer and scripture and then the next not being as consistent because I began prioritizing other things over

A child hits someone; they hit them back. An individual deceives someone; they seek retaliation. While growing up as individuals in society, the phrase “Two wrongs do not make a right” is well known. The phrase is a lesson. It means because someone does something wrong towards another individual it is not justified to do something retaliate. As human-beings, the motive behind retaliation is revenge, which is the reaction behind every negative outcome towards another person. In life, behind every action that is made, a consequence follows. People in society must take the negativity that is thrown towards them, and turn it into positivity. The novel Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption shows many instances why two wrongs do not make a right. For instance, all heinous crimes in the novel are committed for the sake of retaliation. In general, every action that is made can often be justified; however, a positive outcome is not always guaranteed.

Could anyone feel sympathy for a groveling, sly demon? The demons did have a hard job, but it was a despicable job of choice. In The Screwtape Letters, by C.S. Lewis, Screwtape busily instructs his nephew, Wormwood, who scrambles to trip up his “patient,” and bring the man to hell. Throughout the book, everyone should plainly realize that neither Screwtape nor Wormwood deserved pity or sympathy in the least. The first reason for this is that the demons’ malevolence revealed itself plainly in the book. Secondly the demons’ hate for all that is good and innocent reared its ugly head, snarling in the reader’s face. Finally, the pitiable, vile, cruel plans of the demons wiped out any lingering sympathetic feelings in the reader. The demons were purely cruelty.

The patient in The Screwtape Letters is an interesting character. He is a struggle for Wormwood who is trying to keep him close to the Devil. I see him as a writer who has been put into the army to do defence work. I see him as a writer who was a professor so his knowledge is very extensive in many things in life.

Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis, is an interesting novel containing the interaction between a devil named Screwtape and his young nephew Wormwood. The book is comprised of letters corresponding between the two devils. Screwtape is a senior devil and is tasked as a mentor to his less experienced nephew. Screwtape instructs Wormwood on how to tempt a new Christian, or "patient". He suggest many different intricate ways of using human emotions, thoughts, and weaknesses to tempt their faith, and keep them from the kingdom of heaven. The ultimate goal to attain humans for their master in hell. Wormwood is at first encouraged by his uncle Screwtape, but is later criticized because he can't control his patient, and fails at keeping him from church.

In the Essay on Man, Pope brings up many theories about the universe, Earth, and The Great Chain of Being. One of the most significant ideas he brings up is the idea that “All partial evil, (is) universal good”(293). What Pope is trying to say here is that perhaps the suffering of a few benefits everyone in the long run. However, the true meaning of this quote isn't extremely clear to the eye from the reading, and leaves the reader's mind open. Another one of Pope's ideas is the great chain of being, and everything's position on it. He believes it is a law of the world and that breaking it would be nearly impossible. He states that:

In Genesis the word of God leads humanity in the direction of self preservation, urging them to procreate, to ”Be fruitful and multiply” (Genesis 9:1), and to minimize hostility and violence among people. As Freud asserted, “Besides the instinct to preserve living substance and join it into ever larger units, there must exist another, contrary instinct seeking to dissolve those units and bring them back to their primeval, inorganic state” (Freud 77). Genesis exemplifies the struggle between the two opposing human instincts, with God acting as a moderator between them. Forms of justice are put into place in an attempt to control these drives, one example being the proclamation that “Whoever sheds the blood of a human, by a human shall that person’s blood be shed” (Genesis 9:6). The ethics and laws that develop throughout Genesis seek to “prevent the crudest excesses of brutal violence” but are unable to control “the more cautious and refined manifestations of human aggressiveness” (Freud 70). Since they cannot be completely eradicated, the scriptures instead play into the more negative aspects of human nature, especially narcissism, and manipulate them into a force for conservation rather than annihilation.

Screwtape wants to destroy the patient and his mother's relationship all together. They both already had a mutual annoyance for each other despite what screwtape was trying to do. First method he wants to use is keeping the patient's mind on himself. This will cause anger and annoyance towards his mother in doing so. This all relates towards logos by being factual evidence to cause anger. With pathos, C.S. Lewis wants to show emotion that the reader can relate to. He does this by showing tone in the story with the patient and his mother. “I have had patients of my own so well in hand that they could be turned at a moments notice from impassioned prayer for a wife’s or son’s soul to beating or insulting the real wife or son without qualm.” This gives us the sense of how evil devils can be towards

Love is a very impactful thing. The fact that the Patient has great love for his mother stands out as a problem for Wormwood and Screwtape. These two accomplices believe that if they strip the patient of all sources of love that he will turn away from God. Wormwood is provided with a list filled with details on how he can turn the patient’s love into anger and annoyance towards his mother. One way that they attempt to do this is by distorting the patient’s prayers into prayers

This law of retaliation is taught throughout our entire childhood and applies universally. The golden rule of, “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you,” is just another way of phrasing this law. However, in order to prove the effectiveness of this law, we must apply to all circumstances in a situation. That’s when problems begin emerging. Questions about right and wrong, fair and unfair, just and unjust, and deciding who is to be the judge of the problems, are some of the troubles we face.

The question of whether or not God exists has been asked by billions of people since the concept of religion emerged. Many people try to explain things such as hurricanes and tornadoes as “Acts of God” or even the existence of human beings and the world itself to be “created” by an almighty power. Others claim that the harm they inflict was demanded of them by their God. CS Lewis argues that through the comprehension of standards of good and bad, God’s existence is proven. However, Lewis’s defense for the existence of God is adequate because it fails to acknowledge the possibility for people to be good on their own, without the instruction of a supernatural entity.

Boethius claims that bad things do happen, and they happen to both good and bad people. However, in both cases they occur in order to ultimately achieve a greater good. Is it just that people that are otherwise virtuous, receive bad things? According to Boethius, the answer would be yes, it is just, because the function of bad things is to make one stronger. "What does not kill me, makes me stronger." (_______) When bad things happen to righteous people, it is to teach them, to remind them what good is (change) to make sure they remember the most important concepts in life. When bad things happen to bad people it is to punish them. God governs bad things in order to bring about good. That leads Boethius to question the fact that criminals often escape punishment, consequently being rewarded for their wrongdoing.

His intended action however was unskillful; his subjects learned that by killing they could take what was not theirs. As an example of the cause and effect that occurs in the first portion of the Sutta, it is written, “Thus, from the not giving of property to the needy, poverty became rife, from the growth of poverty, the taking of what was not given increased, from the increase of theft, the use of weapons increased, from the increased use of weapons, the taking of life increased – and from the increase in the taking of life, peoples life-span decreased …” (Walshe, 399-400) To clarify, after the new King ruled his people according to his own ideas, his purposeful action of not giving poverty to the needy created a negative result of karma that caused thievery. Stealing is an unskillful action that is done with intent, thus it as well produced a negative result. From this point, more negative results of karma occur because the law of karma is based on a complex system of cause and effect. The negative results cause more unskillful actions and a downward spiral results, until the next generation is affected, and the one after