Screwtape Letter #17 – Discussion Guide

Letter #17

Screwtape’s recommended attacks on the patient take a dramatic turn here.

The previous letter was about trying to change the patient’s attitude about going to church. Apparently that wasn’t working out so well, since he now turns to issues of vice.

My dear Wormwood,

The contemptuous way in which you spoke of gluttony as a means of catching souls, in your last letter, only shows your ignorance. ... She would be astonished—one day, I hope, will be—to learn that her whole life is enslaved to this kind of sensuality, which is quite concealed from her by the fact that the quantities involved are small. ... If challenged, she would say she was doing this to avoid waste; in reality she does it because the particular shade of delicacy to which we have enslaved her is offended by the sight of more food than she happens to want.

17.1) Gluttony is defined simply as excessive eating and drinking these days. Going back a little in history, it comes from a French word – “gourmand” – which was to indicate a person who is fond of good eating, often indiscriminatingly and to excess.
Temperance is habitual moderation in the indulgence of a natural appetite or passion, while intemperance is a lack of moderation or due restraint, as in action or speech.
Talk about how changing the way we view words over time can affect the way we view our actions – and how trying to avoid doing something (even for a good reason) can cause us to miss that fact that we’re doing something else that we wouldn’t want to be doing if we were aware of it.

Before that – from Exodus with the Manna – we see in verse 28 that the issue is bigger than “just” over eating. It has to do with listening to and obeying God’s command.

Ex 16:11 The LORD said to Moses,  12 “I have heard the grumbling of the Israelites. Tell them, ‘At twilight you will eat meat, and in the morning you will be filled with bread. Then you will know that I am the LORD your God.’ ”

Ex 16:13 That evening quail came and covered the camp, and in the morning there was a layer of dew around the camp.  14 When the dew was gone, thin flakes like frost on the ground appeared on the desert floor.  15 When the Israelites saw it, they said to each other, “What is it?” For they did not know what it was.

Moses said to them, “It is the bread the LORD has given you to eat.  16 This is what the LORD has commanded: ‘Each one is to gather as much as he needs. Take an omer for each person you have in your tent.’ ”

Ex 16:17 The Israelites did as they were told; some gathered much, some little. 18 And when they measured it by the omer, he who gathered much did not have too much, and he who gathered little did not have too little. Each one gathered as much as he needed.

Ex 16:19 Then Moses said to them, “No one is to keep any of it until morning.”

Ex 16:20 However, some of them paid no attention to Moses; they kept part of it until morning, but it was full of maggots and began to smell. So Moses was angry with them.

Ex 16:21 Each morning everyone gathered as much as he needed, and when the sun grew hot, it melted away.  22 On the sixth day, they gathered twice as much—two omers for each person— and the leaders of the community came and reported this to Moses.  23 He said to them, “This is what the LORD commanded: ‘Tomorrow is to be a day of rest, a holy Sabbath to the LORD. So bake what you want to bake and boil what you want to boil. Save whatever is left and keep it until morning.’ ”

Ex 16:24 So they saved it until morning, as Moses commanded, and it did not stink or get maggots in it.  25 “Eat it today,” Moses said, “because today is a Sabbath to the LORD. You will not find any of it on the ground today.  26 Six days you are to gather it, but on the seventh day, the Sabbath, there will not be any.”