This Book Critique Of Spiritual Warfare: The Battle For

The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis is a book of thirty –one letters in which a retired, senior demon named Screwtape coaches his newly educated nephew, Wormwood. Wormwood is quite troubled when it comes to tempting his “patient.” Nevertheless, he need not fear because faithful uncle Screwtape has offered his services. A unique character featured in the letters is, “The Enemy.” This character refers to God, the natural enemy of Satan. Of course Satan is referred to as “Our Lord.” In the letters, and Wormwood and Screwtape try their very best to please Satan and bring him glory. Although the book is written from the demons’ perspective, Lewis naturally uses it to highlight important truths of the Christian faith.

The author helps us to understand exactly who our enemy is and who our enemy is not. Our enemy is not flesh and blood but, “principalities, and spiritual wickedness in high places”. People are often used by demonic spirits to act in adverse ways. We must never target people as our foes. The enemy would love to have us overlook him and turn on one another. Our brothers and sisters are not who we should fight. It is the spirit behind them using them to distract us into doing something we will later regret.

C. S. Lewis, one of the greatest spiritual writers the world has known, wrote the Screwtape Letters to mock the evil works of the devil and give us an understanding of spiritual warfare that is constantly going on all around us. Many people refuse to believe their lives are being interfered with by spiritual forces, but it is not something that should be ignored. Lewis saw the importance in recognizing spiritual warfare in order to learn how to fight it, and that is one of his inspirations for writing this book. Although we aren’t sure how demons attempt to lead us away from God, Lewis gives a detailed account on what he believes is a way they could go about it.

). However, after a closer examination, the meaning of this sermon is even deeper. Once a reader gains a clear understanding of the times and religious tendencies of the day, he or she will discover that “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” is a historically important document full of literary devices to persuade his parishioners.

Through the use of supernatural motifs that later shape the world, David Cusick’s work illustrates the enduring struggle between good and evil, God and the Devil, heaven and hell.

While reflecting on the assigned reading and preparing to summarize my thoughts I couldn’t help but reflect on the scriptural passage found in 1 Peter 5:8-9 which says “Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walks about, seeking whom he may devour: Whom resist steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world.” (KJV). For me this passage of scripture represented the impetus behind the author’s storyline.

“‘Faith! Faith!’ cried the husband. ‘Look up to Heaven, and resist the Wicked One!’” (Hawthorne 1297) These were the words expressed by Young Goodman Brown during the evil baptisms. Whether Goodman Brown was speaking to himself or his pleasant wife Faith, it is easily seen that there is a definite need of Faith and God to be saved from the “Wicked One”.

Politics and religion in the world of today aren’t subjects that generally go hand in hand in our own society. This was not always the case however; in Europe the two were synonymous up until relatively recently, (recently meant in the loosest sense of the word,) and are still closely tied in foreign parts of the world, the most obvious example being the Middle East. The duos intimate relationship was exemplified during the late sixteenth century, extending into the seventeenth century, during a series of wars which would later on come to be called “the wars of religion.” But is this title completely appropriate? For wars claiming to be centered on religion, they seem to carry an awfully heavy load of political baggage. In fact, one

In Ernest Hemingway's A Farewell to Arms, the main character, Lieutenant Fredric Henry, undergoes a dramatic change in perspective over the course of the novel. It is most interesting to see how the Lieutenant's views on religion change as he becomes more involved in the war.

Both the reader and Goodman Brown begin to realize that no ordinary man can entice the strong in faith from the path of from righteousness unless he is the devil. Furthermore, the

In Sigmund Freud’s, The Future of an Illusion, he studies religious foundations and the influence of religion on civilization and social principles. As he explores the psychological depths relating to religion, he also portrays a scientific and rational civilization. In turn, he reveals his hope for an ideal world where humans surpass their feelings of helplessness and insignificance to live in an improved civilization based on reason and the increase of knowledge. Through his analysis and ideas, Freud is able to incite feelings of doubt surrounding religious beliefs and their validity.

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Religion has been a powerful force in human history. Mankind has longed and searched for the answers to its purpose, the reason for being and the possibility of life after physical death. They reasoned that an afterlife would be a place of accounting and reckoning for the life they lived on earth. Religious belief systems seemed to give the answers as to how to prepare for the afterlife. Religion became the means of giving answers to those basic yet deep-seated questions of both life and death. Religion provided a format of rules and laws for conduct and treatment toward others based on the desires and wishes of a god or gods that people envisioned, imagined or invented. Religious belief systems have been a powerful force for good and bad...good in the sense that it provided a measure of individual behavior and order in society for the wellbeing of the whole, but bad in the sense that men of ambition who craved power and control over others would often use religion as a tool of manipulation and fear. A casual glance of history tells us that complete civilizations have been built, grown and maintained around elaborate religious systems, ancient Egypt being a prime example.

In world events, the Book of Revelation explains how Satan uses people to open doors for his demonic oppression that inflicts a great deal of physical pain as it turns many against God. For example, the last decade of the 19th century in the Ottoman Empire reveals the appearance of a group of young intellectuals. They are mostly students and young army officers, closely following the enlightenment movement in Europe and thinking about how to adopt the liberal and constitutional ideas to prevent the subdividing of the Empire and to relieve the nation from oppression. In the late 1890s, the Young Turks gain strength in Europe, whereas the obstruction within the Ottoman Empire has to suffer from the tyranny of the Sultan. In 1908, this young group of nationalist Turkish military officers (The Young Turks) overthrows the Sultan . This ends the many-centuries-long confrontations in the Ottoman Empire between the Turkish nation and the Ottoman . It also encourages a nationalist movement among the different cultural groups in the Ottoman part of the Balkans . While the move by the Young Turks qualifies them as the evil men in Asia Minor, globally Satan is unlocking doors in mostly Europe’s: Austria-Hungry, Germany, France, England, Russia, and Siberia.

The enemy makes us think, if we don’t get success the way the world tells us, nothing else matters. For instance, one evening, as I sat at my computer because I couldn’t find work, I told the Lord I felt like a failure. The Spirit of the Lord told me to identify what I thought