Week 2 Slides and Notes
The Screwtape Letters – OLLI Class #2
·
Daily News – NY Times and BBC
o
Events of the world and how they parallel with
events today
o Look at Individuals – where do you find parallels with the Patient and others
·
Values, Virtues, and Vices
o
Values – what we believe at our core
§
Meta-ethical level
§
Change takes conversion
§
Faith
o
Virtues – the Practice of Values
o Vices – Virtues corrupted
·
Letter 3 – Mutually Annoying
o
We meet The Patient’s mother
§
Not his own mother
§
Possibly patterned after Mrs. Janie Moore
·
Paddy Moore – friend in WWI
·
Pledged to care for parent if killed
o
Glubose – Mother’s demon
§
Combination of Glucose and Obesity
§
Diabetes drug
o
Mutual Annoyance through Daily Pinpricks
§
Expurgated Version in his own mind
·
Expurgated - remove anything objectionable or
unsuitable
·
Selfness – it’s all about me
·
Horror and neglect of the obvious
§
Prayers Innocuous
·
Keep them spiritual and “holy”. Not real.
·
Praying for Mother’s soul and her sins
o
Body and Soul from Greek Philosophy.
o
1 Peter 1:9 misread – saving souls
§
Soul in the NT refers to the whole person – A
Gentle Soul
·
Tones and Looks
o How innocent am I
·
Double Standard
o
Little White Lies
o
A different standard for me!
·
Letter 4 – The Painful Subject of Prayer
o
Why painful?
§
Direct experience of the Divine
§ Prayer is conversation with God
o
Parrot like nature of his prayers
§
From childhood
§
The Lord’s Prayer
§
Prayers at meals
§
Closing prayer at Emmanuel Baptist
· Lots of Churchy sounding words.
o
Vaguely devotional mood
§
Samuel Taylor Coleridge
·
Founder of Romantic Movement in poetry
o
Rime of the Ancient Mariner
· Drug use and infidelity
o
The Value of Feelings
§
Pray for courage – feel brave
§ Pray for forgiveness – feel forgiven.
o
Praying to the God of my own creation
§
God created in the image of me
§
God of too much liturgy – I feel holy
§
My own icon.
Letter 5 – the Fear of Suffering
o
Next 2 letters are about WWII
o
1st thing we learn is that demons
thrive on anguish and bewilderment. Not
knowing what will happen is fertile ground for temptation
§
Terror of the future – the unknown
§
Romanticize the past
§
Distract the present
o
The value of Extremes
§
Extreme Patriot or Ardent Pacifist
§
Defend your position
·
No room for considering other views
·
The Position is what is most important
§
Community of like minded
o
The Virtue of dying a hero verses the fear of
dying alone
·
Letter 6 – Uncertain Circles
o
The Patient may be called to active duty
§
What will happen?
§
The value of Fear itself (from letter 5)
§
What is best for me should be best for all
·
The Rise of Individualism
§
Imaginary scapegoats quote
o
The will be done!
§
It’s “God’s will” is the wrong interpretation.
§
God’s will in the Bible means yearning
§
God’s will is Love God and Love your neighbors
o
We act in Concentric Circles
§
Inner Circle – the Will
§
Middle Circle – the Intellect
§
Outer – the Fantasy
·
Fantasy ethics are
o
Not Grounded
o
Situational
o
Fleeting
·
Letter 7
o
High command says that humans shouldn’t know
about demons first hand.
§
Let us use our imaginations – How can we believe
what is obviously not true – a devil in red tights and Converse all stars
o
Ultimately want to produce the Materialist
Magician
§
Back to introduction
§
The man, not using, but veritably worshipping,
what he vaguely calls “Forces” while denying the existence of “spirits.”
o
Useful Factions
§
Coterie – a small, close knit, exclusive group
formed around a particular cause.
§
Follows a path
·
Extreme as part of his religion
·
Becomes the most important part of his religion
·
Shifts to religion as part of the cause
·
The cause is his religion
·
Letter 8 – Life on a Roller Coaster
o
Letter 8 and 9 are about Peaks and Troughs in
life or the Law of Undulation
§
Sunday is great, but then there is Monday –
Saturday.
§
Camp McDowell
o
Humans are amphibians – Why would he call us
that?
§
Live part of their lives in the water and part
on land
§
We live equally inconsistent lives
o
The Law of Undulation
§
Peaks and Troughs
o
God relies on the troughs even more than the
peaks.
§
Dependence on God
§
Let go and Let God.
o
Full over Empty
§
When we are empty God fills
§
Quote
o
God wants us to choose to follow
·
Letter 9 – Troughs and Phases
o
Particularly good time to prey on the weak
o
Pleasures
§
God’s inventions
§
Demons corrupt
o
Dryness is NOT Permanent
§
He just thinks it is.
§
Maybe the low is not really all that low
o
Go back to Jargon
§
Moderation in all things
§
Zealot and Zeal
o
It was a phase