Letter 13: Asphyxiating Cloud

Review:
  • Let patient believe they are not slipping away from God
  • Nice slow gentle path to Hell
Outline:
  • Wormwood has lost ground. Serious ground.
  • Patient was protected by strange cloud.
  • Allowed patient to enjoy true pleasures:
    • An enjoyable book, not a book to discuss with new friends
    • Walk to old mill & tea
  • Real pleasure (or pain) puts things in perspective; Wormwood had made some progress in detaching him from himself, but that is undone.
  • This detachment different from the 'die to self' God wants
    • God loves us, and the differences.
    • God wants the loss of "the clamor of self-will"
    • God "hates to see them drifting away from their own nature for any other reason"
  • Satan wants "to eradicate … any strong personal taste which is not actually a sin"
    • this is true in the indifferent things (non-virtues).
    • if he enjoys it in spite of what other folks think, it is humility.
    • use jargon, do not read an enjoyable book, but an 'important book'.
  • Screwtape discusses how to recover - keep patient from doing anything as a result of this. Allow him to think about how wonderful he is because of it. Keep it out of his will.
Terminology:
  • Asphyxiating - suffocating
  • Childe Harold - reference to Lord Byron's (1788-1824) Childe Harold's Pilgrimage where man travels, romantic, outcast, bitter; possibly reflects Byron's own problems. Born with club foot; Dad was a jerk; rumors of being gay; and 12  year old girls.
  • Werther - reference to Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1774) book "The Sorrows of Young Werther"
  • Twopence - (Tup ince) 2 cents
  • Eradicate - eliminate
  • Tripe - stomach tissue of something like an ox
Questions/Discussions:
  • In last letter, what was Wormwood suppose to be doing with patient? (keeping him from dealing with the fact that he was becoming separated from God) )What did the patient do between letters 12 and 13?
  • Is there something you like to do that does nothing for you in World view of Happiness, Fame, or Fortune?
  • What do you think of the 'asphyxiating cloud' shielding the patient?
  • Screwtape only spends a sentence or two talking about the 'defeat of the firstorder.' that is, Grace.
  • What are real pleasures/pains that have brought you back to reality?
  • When asked 'Do you feel like doing xyz?' do you ever answer Yes, even when you do not feel like doing it? Why? (a later letter talks to this in more detail).
  • Do you think you are unique? Why?
  • 'Active habits are strengthened by repetition' = practice makes perfect?
Scripture:

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