Screwtape Letter #14 – Discussion Guide

Screwtape Letters
Screwtape Letter #14 – Discussion Guide is article #30 in the series: Screwtape Letters. Click button to view titles for entire series

Letter #14

The Screwtape Letters Study Guide

This is the first letter after the patient’s second conversion.
Things don’t appear to be getting any better from Screwtape’s point of view.

 

 

My dear Wormwood,

The most alarming thing in your last account of the patient is that he is making none of those confident resolutions which marked his original conversion. ... This is very bad.

I see only one thing to do at the moment. ... But don’t try this too long, for fear you awake his sense of humour and proportion, in which case he will merely laugh at you and go to bed.

 

14.1) It has been said that “virtue is the middle path between two extremes”. How does this fit in with the patient’s new attitude about promises and expectations?

At the same time, Screwtape appears to see the patient’s new virtue as either going the way of something “very bad” or as a small window of opportunity. What two extremes is Screwtape looking at?

 

one extreme - promise everything

One extreme would be to promise everything – without really knowing what that means. We saw that even from the mother of James & John asked:

A Mother’s Request

20:20-28 pp — Mk 10:35-45

Mt 20:20 Then the mother of Zebedee’s sons came to Jesus with her sons and, kneeling down, asked a favor of him.

Mt 20:21 “What is it you want?” he asked.
She said, “Grant that one of these two sons of mine may sit at your right and the other at your left in your kingdom.”

Mt 20:22 “You don’t know what you are asking,” Jesus said to them. “Can you drink the cup I am going to drink?”
“We can,” they answered.

Mt 20:23 Jesus said to them, “You will indeed drink from my cup, but to sit at my right or left is not for me to grant. These places belong to those for whom they have been prepared by my Father.”

Mt 20:24 When the ten heard about this, they were indignant with the two brothers. 25 Jesus called them together and said, “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them. 26 Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, 27 and whoever wants to be first must be your slave— 28 just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

another extreme - promise nothing

The other extreme would be to promise nothing and expect everything.The danger, as we discussed before – is that the “second conversion” is so strong – usually more so than the first.

The window of opportunity, we see from –

The Parable of the Sower

13:1-15 pp — Mk 4:1-12; Lk 8:4-10
13:16, 17 pp — Lk 10:23, 24
13:18-23 pp — Mk 4:13-20; Lk 8:11-15

Mt 13:1 That same day Jesus went out of the house and sat by the lake. 2 Such large crowds gathered around him that he got into a boat and sat in it, while all the people stood on the shore. 3 Then he told them many things in parables, saying: “A farmer went out to sow his seed. 4 As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up. 5 Some fell on rocky places, where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly, because the soil was shallow. 6 But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched, and they withered because they had no root. 7 Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the plants. 8 Still other seed fell on good soil, where it produced a crop—a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown. 9 He who has ears, let him hear.”

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