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the study and analysis of literature
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The book, The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis, shows how Screwtape uses subtlety and psychology when he is tempting human beings into sin. He plays with the patient’s imagination, emotions, will, and intellect. Also, he shows great shrewdness when encouraging sin that does not appear to be sin. Screwtape shows effective psychology in encouraging the patient to displace intellect and will in prayer with imagination and emotion, and he shows subtlety in encouraging gluttony of delicacy, pride in humility, and superiority in being part of an elite Christian social circle.
Screwtape uses psychology to manipulate the patient into replacing the intellect and will in prayer with imagination and emotion. To remind the patient of his childhood prayers is the fist step; it causes him to repel from this way of prayer, and on his own attempt to create a prayerful mood that is spontaneous and inward, and that is void of will and intelligence. Another way is to keep the patients prayers solely focused on himself instead of God, so that when he asks for favors or graces he will develop imaginary emotions to satisfy these requests; replacing intellect and will with imagination and emotion. Furthermore, Screwtape shows how twisting the patient’s object of prayer so that he is praying to it, a crucifix or an icon, instead of God, inconspicuously deletes will and intellect in prayer. Using effective psychology, Screwtape shows how to successfully replace intellect and will in a persons prayer life with imagination and emotion.
Screwtape masterfully makes gluttony of delicacy appear to be harmless, but in reality it is just as sinful, if not worse than, gluttony of excess. In allowing the patient to imagine that he is not being gluttonous by on...
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...ts what is originally good by using false reasoning to subtly encourage gluttony of delicacy, pride in humility, and superiority in being part of an elite Christian social circle, and he uses psychology when directs their prayers to spring from their imagination and emotions instead of their intellect and will. He cleverly uses manipulative behavior to replace the will and intellect in prayer with imagination and emotion. Screwtape subtly makes gluttony of delicacy appear to be a virtue. He also uses subtlety in encouraging pride in humility, and superiority in being part of an elite Christian social circle, to make them seem like virtues. The subtlety and psychology used in C.S. Lewis’ The Screwtape Letters, awakens the readers awareness of the devil’s relentless struggle to gain possession of the human soul, and enhances the readers desire to remain close to God.
...to associate such power with McMurphy. Establishing similarity between the two figures serves to demonstrate the effect McMurphy had on his disciples that mere physical description would not depict. McMurphy battled against conformity and oppression throughout One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, and instilled faith in the patients' sanity, which they were blinded from. Likewise, Christ battled against temptation and sin in the bible to instill faith in God and relieve humanity of original sin. "In His death He is a sacrifice, satisfying for our sins," (Martin Luther).
The Screwtape Letters are a fictional series of letters compiled into a book and written by the highly acclaimed apologist and author, C.S. Lewis. The Letters discuss topics such as salvation, the Christian lifestyle, depression, love, and many other subjects that are pivotal to the way we live, think, and interact with others and the world around us.
Lewis’s poems that reflects his Christian belief is Cliché Came Out of its Cage. Cliché Came Out of its Cage is a free verse poem since it does not follow a certain foot or meter. In Cliché Came Out of its Cage, C.S. Lewis aggressively attacks the ideas of Paganism. Some of the lines could be seen as dark and gruesome. This is evident in certain lines like: “For the end of man is to partake of their defeat and die” (33). This depicts a darker image of the end of someone’s life. His attitude in this piece of literature is despondent in the sense that he feels like people are moving towards the wrong ideologies for the wrong reasons. Although Pagans believe similarly that there is a need for gods, C.S. Lewis believes their reasoning as well as their choice is misled (Morhan). Throughout the poem, C.S. Lewis addresses that history repeats itself. The title of the poem suggests that it had come out of a cage; this suggests that something so normal and heavily exploited can pertain a new purpose and escape from the foregoing reality. However, it is still the same occurrence as the previous endeavors. The poem is trying to illustrate that the absence of following God can follow up to a disturbance in the events of history. Once paganism is set free, the beast will be set free. C.S. Lewis is trying to relate this to the Devil. As the poem states: “Look in, ready to invade it. The Wolf, admittedly, is bound” (28). This represents C.S. Lewis’s notion that the
We witness one of these never-ending dances first hand in C.S. Lewis' novel, The Screwtape Letters, as a high-ranked demon named Screwtape advises his naïve and inexperienced nephew on the best methods to use in corrupting his assigned ?Patient? and preventing the ?Enemy? from gaining the ?Patient? for himself. But though it may come from the evil perspective of an expert demon, the piece is really a reflection of the internal struggle in humans between good and evil, Lord and Satan, on a small, subtle, and discreet level. The conflict portrayed in this novel addresses the everyday sins and mindsets that more often than not lead to the downfall of a seemingly good and righteous person (unlike the focus on absolute evils such as outright dishonesty and murder common in other works on morality). The main character?s struggle plays out this idea that it is the little things a person does that have the biggest impact in his or her life, an idea that can be applied not only to the salvation of our spiritual immortality, but also to the value of our mortal lives as well.
For my Lenten spiritual reading, I chose to read The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis. This book is about a junior demon, named Wormwood, who is learning how to tempt his “patient” and capture his soul, and is mentored by his uncle, a senior demon named Screwtape. Throughout the novel, Screwtape instructs his nephew how to exploit vices and how to how to twist his values so he will stray from god and into damnation. I initially chose this book because I liked the author, and because I’ve been told the book was a good read.
Lewis, C. S. Mere Christianity: A Revised and Amplified Edition, with a New Introduction, of the Three Books, Broadcast Talks, Christian Behaviour, and Beyond Personality. San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 2001. Print.
As he proceeds through brief insights on his past, he illuminates the reader and the grandmother on clues as to where he began losing this faith. A large portion of The Misfit’s expulsion of religion is due to the way he feels he was wrongly treated when regarding his conviction for murder. “I was never a bad boy that I remember of,” (18) and that authorities “said what I had done was kill my daddy but I known that for a lie” (18-19) The Misfit claims, yet he was punished regardless, indicating to him a sort of inconsistency with the Christian promise that morally good people do not suffer as he did in the way of his jailing. or cut last sentence and separate to be more concise) He acknowledges that praying would most likely grant him some sort of moral satisfaction or salvation from sin, yet claims “I don’t want no help” (19). This shows how he has lost touch with religion and no longer sees the benefit to having faith in Christianity as a result of the lack of help he received while enduring hard times in jail. The Misfit concludes his denunciation of Christianity by claiming that Jesus had “thrown everything off balance” (21) and made a mistake in raising the dead. The fact that a man would make the life’s work of Jesus out to be an issue in society proves a loss of faith in Christianity, a belief system founded on the idea that Jesus Christ saved society. The heart of The Misfit’s conflict with religion lies in the opinion that he, a morally sound and religiously faithful man, was wronged, punished, and left out to dry by the promises to save him from suffering made by the religion he once trusted. In this way, The Misfit has lost his faith in religion as a result of the emotionally and physically challenging times he endured throughout the process of his
The purpose of tone is to express the author’s attitude toward elements of a story, such as characters, setting, or a situation. This literary device sets the mood of the story for the reader. Henry James uses tone effectively in the novel, The Turn of the Screw. The mood of the story shifts three times as the story progresses. It begins by being cheerful, then hostile and ends being depressing. The tone shifts due to the changes in the attitude and actions by the governess.
Edwards, Jonathan. "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God." The Norton Anthology of American Literature. Ed. Nina Baym. New York: Norton & Company, 1999. 200-211.
In 1741, Jonathan Edwards, a Puritan preacher of that time, had one thing on his mind: to convert sinners, on the road to hell, to salvation. It just so happened to be, that his way of doing that was to preach the reality to them and scare them to the point of conversion. Sermons of this time were preached to persuade people to be converted and to me it seemed that Edwards just had a special way of doing it. Just as people are being influenced by rhetoric appeals today Edwards used the same method on his congregation. In “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” Jonathan Edwards positively affected his readers using pathos, logos, and ethos, while trying to convince the unconverted members of his sermon to be born again.
Entwistle’s book explores the links and integration between psychology and Christianity. As the title explains this book paints a picture of the conflicting worldviews and philosophical foundations that people perceive about how they can be integrated. Entwistle provides research through scholarly reflection and various models that link both psychology and Christianity together. Entwistle remarked by saying “There are many events that raise both theological and psychological questions and such events serve as useful springboards to investigate links between Christian theology and other disciplines” (Entwistle, 2015, p. 8). This statement sets the stage for the readers to understand how some events throughout history have laid the
“Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” by Jonathan Edwards uses imagery and symbolism to persuade the audience to become more devout Christians by channeling fear and emphasizing religious values. Jonathan Edwards was a Puritan minister who preached during the time of the Great Awakening in America. During this period of religious revival, Edwards wanted people to return to the devout ways of the early Puritans in America. The spirit of the revival led Edwards to believe that sinners would enter hell. Edwards’ sermon was primarily addressed to sinners for the purpose of alerting them about their sins and inspiring them to take action to become more devoted to God. Mentioned throughout
Other examples of utilizing temptation is when Screwtape tells Wormwood to put thoughts of arrogance and pride into his patient’s mind so that the man will believe that he is greater than non-Christians, and when Screwtape claims that God’s idea of love is actually contradictory, and tells Wormwood to implant thoughts of lust in his patient. Screwtape sees manipulation of the man’s mind as the essential key to keeping a man separated from God. The demons use mental manipulation to invoke sinful thinking, sinful actions, and doubt of the faith. This belief is demonstrated when Screwtape becomes angry with Wormwood for allowing the man to do things that are spiritually pleasurable to him. The man reads an enlightening book and goes on a walk through nature, which ultimately opens his eyes and heart as a pathway for the love of God. Screwtape is angry with Wormwood for not planting sinful and distracting
This paper will be reviewing the book “Integrative Approaches to Psychology and Christianity: an introduction to worldview issues, philosophical foundations and models of integration, by David N. Entwistle. As the title states, this book discusses how to integrate psychology and theology. It also dives into to why it is so important to be able to integrate the two. Entwistle explains that just because the two are different does not mean they should be separated and that we have to use both our worldviews. “Weaving together perspectives from psychology and Christian theology can help us understand and appreciate humanity more fully than we could either perspective alone.” (p.3)
David Entwistle’s (2010) is the author of the Integrative Approaches to Psychology and Christianity. In the book Entwistle embarks on a journey to explore Psychology and Christianity. As the title suggests several approaches that are used to define the relationship of Phycology and Christianity. In the book Entwistle begins to takes us on shows that psychology and Christianity go in two different directions and meet up someplace in the middle. This allows them to provide different approaches to understanding and studying the human behavior. Entwistle, (2010) took a new approach that has rarely been used in other books that discussed the topic of integration. Entwistle, (2010) began to talk about the relationship of psychology and Christianity