Screwtape 28-31

I chose to write on letter 28 because of the new way of thinking that I gained from it. I always thought that the devil would want humans to die because when I think of the devil or hell I think of death. But after reading letter 28 I was enlightened to think that the devil would prefer humans to be alive in order to keep presenting temptations to them to keep bringing their souls to the evil side.
Screwtape is upset because Wormwood thinks that it is a good thing that the war is coming to the area that the patient lives in. The war coming is not a good thing because the patient is then at risk for dieing at a younger age. If the patient dies then the little progress that has been accomplished is lost. The patient at this stage is more towards the enemies side than the devils side and therefore it is a bad time for the patient to die.
I thought this was interesting because Screwtape would prefer the patient to live to a very old life because then there would be more opportunity to completely transfer the patients soul to the devils side. The whole reason for temptation is so when the human dies they will go to hell instead of heaven.

Screwtape 22-24

I chose to write on letter 22. After reading this letter I could not wait to read the following letters. I was interested in what Screwtape would have Wormwood do because of this new relationship and also the fact that the girl is a devout Christian, the worst kind of girl according to Screwtape. I also was interested with how Screwtape related the Christian faith in the household of the girl to a tainted smell. He says that anyone who goes in that house smells of it and therefore it was a place that the patient should have never entered, because it is a temptation to go towards the Christian side or evil side and forget all that Wormwood had done so far in the case. This letter has been my favorite so far, I am attracted to this letter because of the way that Screwtape handles this new information.

Screwtape 16-18

I chose to write about letter number 16 because it was the one where I connected to the best. I thought that when Screwtape was talking about being "cured of churchgoing" he would tell Wormwood to make his patient to stop attending church completely. Then when I saw that Screwtape would like to have the patient become a test-taster for churches I was confused at first. Then I realized why it would be beneficial for him to do this. If the patient is not listening to just one churches' view then he will start pointing out the differences between the different churches that he is attending. This is beneficial because then instead of listening to the word of God the patient will only be listening in order to criticize what each church is doing. While doing this it will make the patient sin more.
When Screwtape was talking about the two churches that were right in the neighborhood of the patient I was wondering why it would be that anyone would attend either of these churches. I would not when knowing the way each of them are ran. But it seemed like the patient has attended them at least once.

Screwtape 12-15

In letter 12 Screwtape is talking to Wormwood about the excellent progresses happening with the patient, and how to keep moving forward with progression. The patient has shown a complete change in how he acts and thinks, which is a great thing for Wormwood because it shows him leaving the Enemy. I think the most intriguing part of this letter is that Screwtape wants Wormwood to keep the patient thinking that he is still changing toward the Enemy while in reality he is actually changing toward Hell. If the patient is knowledgeable about the change toward Hell then he would immediately go back to the Enemy. If the patient is able to think about being with the Enemy and not act on it then eventually the patient will loose faith and the change will be reversed. I thought this was the best part because it is saying that Screwtape still wants the patient to have Christian thoughts and not practice them, because then the change toward Hell is a lot easier for the demons to make. It makes perfect sense to me why Screwtape would want Wormwood to keep these actions going. In my own life there are things that I can be thinking about and consider myself to be but when I do not act upon them for long periods of time I eventually loose all thoughts and beliefs about them. In reality this means that I no longer will consider myself to be part of that category I once used to describe myself as.

Screwtape 8-11

I chose to write about letter number eight because I was intrigued about certain lines from this letter. As I was reading the first time I was just doing just that reading and not really looking into anything that was being said. Then when I went back and reread everything this letter caught my eye. The first thing that caught my eye was the line "Humans are amphibians- half spirit and half animal" (p. 37). This actually made me laugh because it was a different way of looking at the human life. I thought about it a little deeper and it made complete sense. I do have the animal side of myself where I can die and my physical body will rot away. Then there is the spiritual side which is never ending. The spirit can live with out a body to support it. I kept reading and the next thing which supported what I thought about the human/ amphibian comment was "As spirits they belong to the eternal world, but as animals they inhabit time" (p.37). I felt that this was an accurate statement made by Screwtape. Those were the main statements from letter 8 which intrigued me. I generally liked the letter but those two parts were the best for me.

Screwtape 4-6 Entry

I was still in the same position as I was last week when I was reading the letters. I had to go back and reread certain parts and the complete letters. After realizing what is going on in the letters I chose to write on letter number 4. Prayer was one of the main topics in this letter and I was curious about it. I thought why is this a main point of discussion, should attending church be the main issue and not prayer? It is felt by Screwtape that if the 'patient' prays more often and freely, then there will be no actual concept of prayer. This goal is needing to be accomplished because then the patient will not go to Heaven, which is the most important goal of Screwtape. Screwtape knows that if thoughtful prayer is accomplished then He, God will be able to win in the battle. Therefore, free prayer, meaning prayer just because it is thought you have to is the way to have the patient go. That way He will not be able to have an upper hand in the battle.

Screwtape 1-3 Entry

When reading the first three letters from The Screwtape Letters I at first had to take a step back and think about what was the actual objective Screwtape was trying to get his nephew to accomplish. I had known nothing about the book before I started to read, so I was at first confused as to what was being discussed. Once I established what was going on I had different thoughts about the letters. I really liked the third letter because I could relate personal experiences to what was being said. I loved the paragraph on page 13 about what happens when two humans have lived together for a long time. When i read this first sentence I immediately thought of my mother and I. Before reading any further I thought about all the things that drive me nuts which my mother does. I also thought of all the good things that I love about her also. When I was done reminiscing about the positive and negative about my mother I kept on reading and was surprised when the things I had just thought about was what was written in the letter. I feel like the best way to get someone to fall into the temptation of evil is to make someone upset with another person, especially one who they are living with. By trying to get the patient upset with his mother because of little actions she does, which she is probably not even aware of, is the best tactic to tempt the patient to crossing back over to the "evil" side.
I call the side of the demon the "evil" side only because that is the most common distinction between the two sides discussed in the letters. I believe that there is both a good and bad side to both of the different aspects discussed in the letters. I just wanted to clarify that part of my blog.