Greetings once again! As promised, here is chapter 7, and even better, on the day that I promised! Now, to work on the time of day (night) which I post...
Screwtape's opening sentence addresses an issue that perhaps far too many Christians have either forgotten or willingly dismissed: the ignorance of Wormwood's existence in the patient's mind (I am quite sure that to disbelieve that demons, fallen angels, and the powers of Hell itself which the Enemy commands is a near-fatal mistake for any Christian). Wormwood is given further reflections from Screwtape's own experience that concealment has not always been the case. He does mention that either belief or disbelief in demons by human beings takes away some of the courses which tempters can then guide their patients on. However, the perfect work that Screwtape mentions on page 31-the Materialist Magician-sounds all too similar to my ears of the many individuals who trumpet the near-mystical properties of technology to solve the problems of the world. Once that has been accomplished, Screwtape says that the end of the war will be in sight.
However, Wormwood must conceal himself and work with the common misconception of a cartoon demon to keep his patient from awakening to his predicament. In the meantime, Screwtape ponders the choice between guiding the patient into extreme patriotism or extreme pacifism. The primary reason for doing so is to blind the patient to the "Enemy", or God; admittedly, any mission or church-plant or outreach done for the sake of mission or church-plant or outreach blinds the participants to what God is doing. In the patient's case, extreme patriotism may make him vicious to 'enemies of the state' as much as the foreign aggressors. 'Enemies of the state' would include, funnily enough, extreme pacifists as well as spies and defectors. Extreme patriots would charge headlong into actions that may harm themselves as well as others. Extreme pacifists, on the other hand, may perhaps avoid anything that may be seen as aiding the war effort to the point where he or she refuses to invite the neighbors over for tea (or coffee, or wine, or any other drink that may accompany a social gathering of the sort) because the neighbors have donated their time, money, and resources to the war effort in some fashion.
The devil's overall mission with both groups of people is to create factions, which I have mentioned in some of my previous writings. The parties of Paul and Apollos in the church at Corinth are cited by Screwtape as examples of factions within the Church itself (not the Catholic Church, not the Church of England necessarily, but all churches worldwide) which have done considerable damage to the body of believers. With the patient, the idea is not necessarily to bring him into a faction, but rather to make one of the two extremes of patriotism or pacifism a part of his religion at first, then slowly twist the extreme so that the religion ends up being a means to the ultimate ideal of either patriotism or pacifism. Screwtape declares that once the movement matter more to the patient than prayers, the patient will be in the power of Hell. He wraps up his letter by mentioning that Wormwood might see a pretty cageful of falsely religious people who used Christianity as a means to gain the world, a rather chilling statement about the true state of some contemporary Christians in our own times.
Any thoughts?
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