Week 4 Notes and Slides
Week 4
Notes
Letters 13
and 14 are about the patient’s new conversion experience.
Letter 13
– Real, Positive Pleasures
· A second conversion
o
Probably
deeper than the first
o
Grace
– the asphyxiating cloud… present to the patient under certain modes not yet
fully classified.
· 2 pleasures
o
Read
a book for the pure enjoyment
o
Take
a walk to the Old Mill
· Experience real positive pleasures
o
A
touchstone of reality
§ Elbow to the ribs bringing him back
to his senses
o
The
opposite is Romanticized views of the World submerged in self-pity
§ Childe Harld or Wether – see notes
o
To
disconnect a man from God, the first aim is to detach him from himself.
· God wants us to lose ourselves “to
abandon the clamour of self-well.“
o
When
they are wholly His they will be more themselves than ever.
o
Knowing
our true selves as Children of God created by Him.
o
Lewis
and Original Sin
· Keep the patient focused on doing
things to impress others and not simply because they enjoy something.
Lewis’s view of Original Sin - Pride
as the Core of Sin
·
The essence of original sin is Pride—putting the
self at the center instead of God.
·
This prideful bent is what we inherit, and it manifests in
selfishness, vanity, self-worship, and contempt for God’s authority.
Letter 14 – Pride in my Humility
·
Patient is depending on God daily and even hourly instead
of seeking “Grace for Life”
·
Thus he is now humble.
o
Make him feel humble
§ Proud of his
humility
§ Don’t let him catch
on and see how ridiculous that is.
·
Hide the truth of Humility
o
Make him think that humility is proclaiming a low opinion
of his talents and character.
o
False Modesty – Quote! “By this method”
·
God’s focus is to “get the man’s mind off the subject of
his own value altogether.
o
No opinion of his own talents
o
Lift up others
o
Love himself AS he loves his neighbors. Quote! “when they have learned to love their
neighbors as themselves”
Letter 15 – Present, Past, Future & Eternity
The
philosophy of time is a branch of metaphysics that explores what time is, how
it relates to change and existence, and how humans perceive and experience it.
It has deep implications for how we understand reality, memory, and even our
own identity. Let me give you an overview, then connect it to perception.
1. Competing Philosophical Views of Time
- A-Theory (Presentism / Dynamic Time):
Time is "tensed." Only the present truly exists; the past has gone, and the future has not yet come. This view aligns with how we intuitively feel time passing. - Impact on perception: It gives us a strong sense of
the "now," shaping the way we experience urgency, nostalgia,
and anticipation.
- B-Theory (Eternalism / Block Universe):
Time is "tenseless." Past, present, and future equally exist, like different locations on a map. Time does not "flow"; it simply is. - Impact on perception: Suggests that our sense of
"flowing time" is an illusion of consciousness. This can change
how we view loss, mortality, and continuity — events are permanent, just
not all accessible to us at once.
- Growing Block Theory:
The past and present exist, but the future does not. Reality is like a growing block, expanding with each passing moment. - Impact on perception: Balances between A and B
theories, acknowledging the reality of our past while still treating the
future as open and undetermined.
- Screwtape tells Wormwood to keep the patient focused on the future.
- God calls us focus on the present and eternity
- Daily bread, our present cross to bear, present grace
- The Kingdom of Heaven now and forever.
- Eternity and the future are not the same.
- Eternity is not a moment in Time.
It is not in time.
- The future comes with
- Hope that things will be better
- Fear that they won’t
- “Hence nearly all vices are rooted in the future.”
- Gratitude looks to the past
- Love exists in the present
- Fear, avarice, lust and ambition look ahead
Letter 16 – The Best Church
·
The Setting – Patient is attending one parish
church and he is not wholly pleased with it.
·
The Question – Why is Wormwood allowing him to
stay there?
o Come to the reality
that there is more good than bad
o Stefanie joining the
Roman Catholic Church.
·
The Tactic – Send the man on a search for a
suitable church
o Makes him a critic –
what is wrong with this parish
o 2 church near to him
§ Vicar long engaged
in watering down the faith
·
15 favorite Psalms, 20 favorite scripture lessons
§ 2nd
church – Father Spike
·
Opinion about everything
·
Changes daily
·
Hatred – mock, grieve, or puzzle his parents and their
friends.
·
“The teaching of the Church is” Jacques Maritain (1882 –
1973). Metaphysics and contemporary
concerns.
o Party Churches
§ High Church vs Low
Church
·
Pride themselves on being distinct because of minor
“doctrinal issues”
·
Confusion over what they actually mean.
·
Broad Church
Letter 17 – Gluttony
·
7
Deadly Sins
o Pride
o Avarice (Greed)
o Envy
o Wrath (Anger)
o Lust
o Gluttony
o Sloth
· Corresponding Virtue is Temperance
(moderation, self-control, gratitude).
·
Gluttony
of Delicacy vs gluttony of Excess
·
“All-I-Want”
state of Mind
o Hyacinth Bucket in “Keeping up
Appearances”
o
https://youtu.be/-ZlIMDh9RpU?si=ATA5D_oGhnl4wSim
·
The
Patient practices more a Gluttony appealing to Vanity
o Make them think they know “the only
restaurant in the town where steaks are really ‘properly’ cooked.
o The Gluttony of expertise.
Letter 18 – Abstinence, Monogamy & Marriage
· Letters 18, 19, and 20 are about the
Value and Virtue of Love and how to corrupt them.
· 2 Virtuous Options
o
Complete
abstinence – the most challenging
o
Monogamy
· Poets and novelists have been used to
confuse things around the idea of “being in love.” If the excitement is gone, you must not be in
love, therefore marriage and monogamy are no longer binding.
· Philosophy of Hell is individualism
o
My
good is my good and your good is yours.
What one gains, another loses.
o
“To
be” means to be in competition
· Heaven’s Philosophy is the good of
the Other
o
The
good of one self is to be the good of another.
o
The
definition of Love
§ Love is all about the other
§ Lust is all about me
o
Example
of the Trinity
o
The
2 become one flesh.
§ Much More than physical which is the
focus of Hell
§ 100%/100% commitment to one another
Letter 19 – God’s Love is Impossible
·
Starts
off answering a question from Wormwood about how God can love humans if love is
a contradiction since “to be is to be in competition.”
o Love is heretical to demons. Demons cannot love.
·
Love
for humans must be “a disguise for something else.”
o What is God’s real motive?
·
Is
being “in love” a desirable state for humans?
o It is “raw material” to work with
Letter 20
– Marriage
· God has ended Wormwood’s attacks on
the patient’s chastity.
· Temptation is used “to guide each sex
away from those members of the other with whom spiritually helpful, happy, and
fertile marriages are most likely.”
· Public ideals of “beauty.”
· Role of the eye should be more and
more important rather than the heart.
· 2 ways to encourage the patient’s
desires
o
Terrestrial
Venus – the “perfect” marriage partner.
Type casting for male and female – role of the husband and of the wife.
o
Infernal
Venus – prostitute or mistress. Seeking
the danger and perceived reward.
· Ultimately can use the Patient’s
unreasonable expectations to bring about his undoing. Fear of the future alone or with the wrong
person.