Screwtape Letter #29 – Questions

Letter #29

Screwtape’s logic now begins to reveal much
- about us.

My dear Wormwood,

Now that it is certain the German humans will bombard your patient’s town and that his duties will keep him in the thick of the danger, we must consider our policy. ...

Well, I am afraid it is no good trying to make him brave. ... A very unsatisfactory arrangement, but, I trust, we shall one day learn to do better.

Hatred we can manage. ... In other words let him consider himself sufficiently identified with the women and children to feel hatred on their behalf, but not sufficiently identified to regard their enemies as his own and therefore proper objects of forgiveness.

But hatred is best combined with Fear. ... And Hatred is also a great anodyne for shame. To make a deep wound in his charity, you should therefore first defeat his courage.

29.1) One analysis of The Merchant of Venice from the Law School at Samford University in Alabama says of the play –

Merchant of Venice is neither a simple tale of an unfounded prejudice, nor is it a tale that pits justice against mercy merely characterizing a puzzle without offering an, albeit tentative, resolution. Rather, the play offers a conception of justice that embraces both law and mercy. What one learns by the end of the play is not that vengeance overtakes mercy or that mercy trumps law. Instead, the play suggests that mercy, understood properly as an undeserved sacrifice, is a necessary condition to the fulfillment of law, understood as that which binds a community together in its bond.

How does this relate to what Screwtape is saying?

Although you may not know the full details of the play, can you see how it could parallel Christ’s sacrifice to save us?

Now this is a ticklish business. We have made men proud of most vices, but not of cowardice. ... There is here a cruel dilemma before us. If we promoted justice and charity among men, we should be playing directly into the Enemy’s hands; but if we guide them to the opposite behaviour, this sooner or later produces (for He permits it to produce) a war or a revolution, and the undisguisable issue of cowardice or courage awakes thousands of men from moral stupor.

29.2) Screwtape is revisiting an old topic – fear.

Screwtape has written about fear in previous letters. He returns to it again – but this time with some warnings about too much fear possibly driving people to “The Enemy”. Look at Jesus’ message to His disciples before he sent them out to proclaim the good news in Matthew 10. Talk about some of the reasons why Screwtape would be afraid of generating too much fear in the patient.

Mt 10:5 These twelve Jesus sent out with the following instructions: “Do not go among the Gentiles or enter any town of the Samaritans. 6 Go rather to the lost sheep of Israel. 7 As you go, preach this message: ‘The kingdom of heaven is near.’ 8 Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse those who have leprosy, drive out demons. Freely you have received, freely give. 9 Do not take along any gold or silver or copper in your belts; 10 take no bag for the journey, or extra tunic, or sandals or a staff; for the worker is worth his keep.

Mt 10:11 “Whatever town or village you enter, search for some worthy person there and stay at his house until you leave. 12 As you enter the home, give it your greeting. 13 If the home is deserving, let your peace rest on it; if it is not, let your peace return to you. 14 If anyone will not welcome you or listen to your words, shake the dust off your feet when you leave that home or town. 15 I tell you the truth, it will be more bearable for Sodom and Gomorrah on the day of judgment than for that town. 16 I am sending you out like sheep among wolves. Therefore be as shrewd as snakes and as innocent as doves.