Screwtape Letter #6 – Discussion Guide

Screwtape Letters
Screwtape Letter #6 – Discussion Guide is article #14 in the series: Screwtape Letters. Click button to view titles for entire series

Letter #6

The Screwtape Letters Study Guide

Screwtape recognizes something -
the greatest fear we humans have is -
fear.

 

 

My dear Wormwood,
I am delighted to hear that your patient’s age and profession make it possible, but by no means certain, that he will be called up for military service. We want him to be in the maximum uncertainty, so that his mind will be filled with contradictory pictures of the future, every one of which arouses hope or fear. There is nothing like suspense and anxiety for barricading a human’s mind against the Enemy. He wants men to be concerned with what they do; our business is to keep them thinking about what will happen to them.

 

6.1) Wait a minute here. Wasn't it just in the last letter that Screwtape wrote -

Consider too what undesirable deaths occur in wartime. Men are killed in places where they knew they might be killed and to which they go, if they are at all of the Enemy’s party, prepared.

So why is it that now - in the very next letter - Screwtape is delighted to hear that the patient may be called up to war? What's different now? The circumstances? The plan of attack?

 

One big difference is the circumstances - which leads to a different plan of attack.

Screwtape talks about suspense and anxiety. Today – thanks in large part to the computer industry – it’s something now known as FUD. There are several different claims as to exactly who coined the term – but here’s one that I’m familiar with –

FUD was first defined with its specific current meaning by Gene Amdahl about 1975 after he left IBM to found his own company, Amdahl Corp.: “FUD is the fear, uncertainty, and doubt that IBM sales people instill in the minds of potential customers who might be considering Amdahl products.”   (to read more about FUD and Christianity, please check out The problem of FUD – Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt.)

And that’s what Screwtape is hoping for here. Instead of maybe waiting to be bombed at home – or in a bomb shelter – now the patient may have to actually go out and fight. Presumably – that means a higher level of fear – more uncertainty as to what might happen to him – and hopefully that’s followed by doubt about his recent Christian activities and friends. Hopefully he’ll be more concerned about himself – and forget about “The Enemy” .

Of course – that also means the Wormwood is supposed to forget – or not realize the importance of – what Screwtape wrote in the previous letter –

Consider too what undesirable deaths occur in wartime. Men are killed in places where they knew they might be killed and to which they go, if they are at all of the Enemy’s party, prepared.

 

 

Your patient will, of course, have picked up the notion that he must submit with patience to the Enemy’s will. What the Enemy means by this is primarily that he should accept with patience the tribulation which has actually been dealt out to him—the present anxiety and suspense. ... resignation to present and actual suffering, even where that suffering consists of fear, is easier and is usually helped by this direct action.

An important spiritual law is here involved. I have explained that you can weaken his prayers by diverting his attention from the Enemy Himself to his own states of mind about the Enemy. ... Contrariwise let the reflection ‘My feelings are now growing more devout, or more charitable’ so fix his attention inward that he no longer looks beyond himself to see our Enemy or his own neighbours.

 

6.2) An allusion is a reference to a famous historical or literary figure or an event, making a comparison or contrast between that and something in the story, generally to add a deeper level of association or understanding. In Letter 6, Screwtape tells Wormwood to get his patient to regard fears of imagined or possible things as his “crosses,” but not to regard current fear of real things as his “appointed cross.”

To what does this allusion refer?

What do people generally mean when they use this allusion?

Read Mark 8:34—9:1. Is there a difference between Jesus’s statement and the common meaning to one’s “cross”?

Jesus Predicts His Death

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