Week 3 Notes and Slides
Intro
·
The Characters thus Far
o
Screwtape – The
demon uncle. A conflation of Screwed up
and Red Tape
o
Wormwood – The
demon nephew and demon assigned to The Patient.
Bitterness and Grief in the OT and a Great Star in Revelation 8 that
falls to earth making a 3rd of the waters bitter and causing many
deaths.
o
Our Father Below – The devil.
o
The Enemy –
God.
o
The Patient –
a young Englishman patterned in some ways after Lewis himself.
o
His Mother –
possible patterned after Mrs. Janie Moore
o
Glubose – The
mother’s demon. Name comes from Glucose
and Obesity.
o
Scabtree – a
minor demon mentioned in passing,
o
Slubgob -
the head of the Tempters' Training College, where young devils like
Screwtape's nephew Wormwood are taught their dark trade.
·
Virtues and Vices
o 4 Cardinal Virtues – from the Latin cardo
meaning “hinge” because all other virtues hinge upon them. First outlined in Plato’s Republic.
§ Prudence – the ability to judge
correctly what is right and wrong in any situation.
§ Justice – Fairness in relationships
§ Fortitude – Courage
§ Temperance – Moderation
o 3 Theological Virtues
§ Faith
§ Hope
§ Love
o 7 Deadly Sins
§ Pride
§ Avarice (Greed)
§ Envy
§ Wrath (Anger)
§ Lust
§ Gluttony
§ Sloth
·
Values, Virtues, Goods, Pleasures, and Vices
o Values – a principle or belief that guides
behavior and decision-making. What’s
important. Subjective, varies by
culture or individual.
o Virtues – A moral excellence or trait of
character that is universally admired and cultivated. Timeless, often seen as objectively good.
o Goods – Plato described the Good as the
highest Form – an eternal, perfect, and unchanging reality. Aristotle said that the Good is achieved
through virtue and rational activity over a lifetime. A philosophical quest.
o Pleasures – understanding what makes life worth
living, what motivates us, and how define well-being. Putting Virtues into action.
o Vices – corrupts virtues, undermines
values, and corrupts pleasure.
·
Poems
and Prayers by Matthew McConaughey
Letter 10
– Vanity
·
New
Friends - a middle-aged couple
o Rich, smart, superficially
intellectual, and brightly skeptical about everything in the world.
o Triptweeze is their demon
o Vanity is the vice
· The opposition of the couple and
their worldview with the Christian faith.
o
All
mortals tend to turn into the thing they are pretending to be
o
The
Enemy’s counterattack
§ God is faithful and comes to our
rescue. Will we choose to follow?
· Pleasure of community corrupted by
the Vice of Vanity
o
Classification
of Puritanism
· Parallel lives – be a different man
in each of the circles he frequents.
o
Vanity
of believing he is keeping each in its proper place
o
Saving
his new friends from themselves
o
Neglect
of his mother
Letter 11
– Laughter
·
Clear
example of how a Vice corrupts
·
New
Friends who are great laughers
o Steady, consistent scoffers and
worldlings
·
Causes
of human laughter
o Joy
§ Music as a good example
§ Occurs in Heaven
·
He
who sings prays twice – St. Augustine
§ Of no use to demons
o Fun
§ Also of no use
§ Promotes charity, courage,
contentment and many other evils
o Joke Proper
§ It turns on sudden perception of
incongruity
§ 2 types
·
Baudy
jokes give rise to incongruities (guilt)
·
Incongruities
can be cultivated to shift to lust – Baudy jokes work.
§ Focus on getting them to take their
sense of humour too seriously
§ Everything is funny and a joke.
o Flippancy
§ Best of all
§ Every serious subject is made fun of
– Nothing is serious
§ Builds up an armor against the Enemy
Letter 12
– Small Sins
· Sin vs Sins.
o
Sin
is turning away from God – Repentance is turning back
§ God is always present
· Omnipresent – God being fully present
everywhere at all times without limit of space or time.
· Omniscient – God having complete,
unlimited, and infinite knowledge. All
knowing and perceiving all things
· Omnipotent – All powerful
§ Do not want to anthropomorphize God –
God existing under human limitations.
o
Sins
seek to quantify so we can discount ours by the number or severity of others.
· Tension of Parallel Lives
o
Going
to church
o
Partying
on Saturday night
· Cultivating the Uneasy Feeling
o
A
matter of conscience
o
Too
strong – may repent
o
Right
amount
§ Reluctance to think about God
§ Think about religious less and seek
distractions
· Makes temptation increasingly
unnecessary
o
Avoiding
God rather than having to be drawn away
· Long and slow is best
o
Indeed
the safest road to Hell is the gradual one