Letter #26

I thought this chapter to be quite good. It was all about the idea of unselfishness. In it Screwtape compared how men and women take this term to be two different ideas. For women unselfishness means "chiefly taking trouble for others", men on the other hand take it to mean "not giving trouble to others". Thus the sexes are separated in this ideal. A woman also thinks of doing good offices, and a man of respecting other people's rights. Both sexes, however, as Screwtape states know that they must display a degree of charity. Going further in rules, the two sides do as the other would want, ignoring their own feelings.
Screwtape says to his nephew to prevent what the letter has said, is to keep with some degree of mutual falseness. Don't let the sexes know that they are being unselfish toward one another. If they do notice these it will lead to "love", and this is not wanted.

Screwtape Letter 20

I thought it quite amusing how Screwtape was leading Wormwood to help the Patient fall in love. In particular to fall in love with someone who didn't lead him to a helpfully spiritual, happy and fertile marriage. This type of relationship and subsequent marriage would be bad for Screwtape to get the Patient completely. When Screwtape went on to describe how they have had a hand in attraction it was also quite interesting. To make the beard unattractive to females, and how they have changed who men are attracted to. How they are currently drawing the desires of men to things that do not exist.
This chapter just leads you to think about love, and attraction. How the Devil does and could have a hand in these dealings.

Letter #17

I enjoyed this letter. It was amusing how Screwtape spoke of the two different kinds of gluttony. In particular how he spoke of the Patients mother. That she eats small portions, but asks for something that is not presented to her by others. That she makes them go out of their way for what SHE wants. She even goes as far as to send back what the poor waitress has prepared, for a smaller quantity of food. All of this in the end shows how, her stomach dictates her entire life. She only wants what she wants, and for it to be "properly" made. She is never happy.
We too are often like this. Those who are rich, or those who just want everything, are never happy. They never have enough things. Which can easily be seen as an issue the Devil has a hand in.

Screwtape Letter 15

Letter 15 was the most interesting to me. The concept of living in the future and not the eternal or present. Satan does seem to get us in this aspect, for we have fear and uncertainty of the future and this is what in the end leads us to stray.
This is part of why I think college students are away from God. We aren't under the supervision of parents and free to make our own choices. Along with this we are busy worrying and planning for our futures. This particularly effects me, as I am a senior and am constantly worrying about the future and what the next step I take will be. I fear and am excited for the future, and do try to not think of it, but then the questions of whats next arise and I'm set back. It is hard to think of God and be mindful of God when looking to the future.

Screwtape Letters 8-11

After reading these letters, I choose to write on letter eight. I thought it to be the most amusing and telling. Screwtape is constantly chastising his nephew, and laying the whole situation out on the line, in a blatantly obvious fashion. He lays out exactly how God wants to capture the hearts of man and how the Devil just wants to capture man. They are in it to basically get the human as food; God on the completely opposite hand wants to not absorb the human but to have their wills be in uniform with his. Screwtape states how they are empty and want to be filled by the humans they take over, and God is full and flows over. The best distinction and one most awe striking to me is how he stated God wants the world full of beings united to him but still distinct. In accord with him but still individuals. It just seeks to solidify my faith, as I read on this. That is what I want to be an individual but still in accord with God, not just taken over as food for the Devil. This whole letter just really makes one think what they want, and how the Devil uses his trickery to take one over.

As reading this I was still a bit lost, but mutteled through. I am choosing to write on the fourth letter. I thought the discussion on prayer was very interesting. I liked how Screwtape was coaching Wormwood on how the patient should pray. I thought it amusing that he did want him to pray spontaneously, so as to be led towards a superficial path. He encourages Wormwood to focus on the fact that the patient hasn't seen the luminosity of God so are coming at it from a completely different angle.The whole discussion on “the enemy” as God is called, was quite amusing. In this the incarceration and the other two parts of God are discussed. Overall this was a confusing but rather amusing letter.

Screwtape Lettters chapters 1-3

When reading the first three chapters of the Screwtape Letters, I was very confused as to what was going on. Screwtape seems to be guiding and feeding his nephew advice as to how to treat a certain patient. After reading others’ blogs they seemed to have had the same issues, but then I also so that some figured out it was potentially Satan writing to a relative to get a human to join them. This made perfect sense to me when looking back, for Screwtape would say such things as Our Father Below. But on the other hand I am still utterly confused. Regardless it does seem as though this Screwtape fellow is guiding and helping his nephew in how to convert someone into their way of thinking. They don’t in any case seem to be Christian, what they are exactly still is illusive to me.

Though I didn’t understand this reading very much I thought the last letter was the most amusing. In how Screwtape was telling his nephew how to wedge the patient and his mother apart. It was all about playing on the weaknesses that exist or could potentially exist between them. As a psychology major I tend to read things on how issues interpersonally arise and such. I just thought this amusing in that the weaknesses he told him to pray on are the most frequent of human weaknesses.

I do hope that this whole book makes it self a lot clearer. I am definitely confused.