I just reread The Screwtape Letters. I didn't get much from them on a read thirty-five years or

[struggle4progress]

or so ago. Then I found the book boring and uninformative. Now it seems wise and insightful. But when I first read it, I had a habit of only enjoying texts that I easily agreed with and now -- well, not so much that anymore

It's a short WWII-era novel, developed entirely as a series of coaching letters from an older and more experienced demon to a younger one, mostly advice about how to mislead the man to whom the younger demon has been assigned as a tempter. This affords author CS Lewis an opportunity to take aim at various ideas about "Christianity":

Keep his mind on the inner life. He thinks his conversion is something inside him and his attention is therefore chiefly turned at present to the state of his own mind ...

It is, no doubt, impossible to prevent his praying for his mother, but we have means of rendering the prayers innocuous. Make sure they are always very 'spiritual', that he is always very concerned with the state of her soul and never with her rheumatism ...

In civilized life domestic hatred usually expresses itself by saying things that would appear quite harmless on paper .. but in such a voice, or at such a moment, that they are not far short of a blow in the face ... You know the kind of thing: 'I simply ask her what time dinner will be and she flies into a temper' ...

[TygrBright]

1. Lewis knew human nature very well.

His version of Catholicism is closer to humanistic than most mid-20th Century apologists.

And Screwtape is one of his best-written apologia.

If you get a chance, listen to the spoken-word version read by John Cleese. He just NAILS the vocal characterization of Screwtape.

reminiscently,
Bright

[struggle4progress]

2. I thought he was Anglican rather than Catholic. I'll try to find the Cleeese reading: thanks

[Dorian Gray]

5. He was Anglican

Tolkein claimed that if he lived longer, he would have converted to Catholicism, but we'll never know.

I love The Screwtape Letters. I should give them another read. It's been ten years.

[Hardrada]

3. I loved reading his books and read many when he was alive.

His death on 11/22/1963 was another hard thing to bear on that day.

[The Magistrate]

4. Only Decent Thing He Ever Wrote, Sir

A very well done piece.

[LAGC]

6. I just read a sample of the first chapter on Amazon...

I notice C.S. Lewis takes no time in bashing and scapegoating atheists.

s4p, do you really believe demons sit on your shoulder and try to tempt you to do bad things?

I'd hate to live like that, questioning my own thoughts and wondering every moment whether my own thoughts were natural or not...

[struggle4progress]

7. I think many forms of language can be useful, even if one does not take them literally

Nor do I think people need to agree completely on concepts, in order to have useful communication: post-Gödel, for example, it may be entirely defensible to take the point of view that "the system of natural numbers" is not a single well-defined system but may mean many different systems, depending on one's point of view and philosophical prejudices -- and yet there are many details on which people having different views can nevertheless agree

So if Lewis might believe literally in demons and might simultaneously does not want to become too obsessed with them, I meanwhile, as a modernist, may not find the notion "demons" useful as a literal notion, but I might still find "demonic" a useful notion -- and I might find Lewis' remarks about temptation by "demons" to be useful advice about various allures I might consider "demonic"

As far as "questioning my own thoughts" -- well, here I find one of the central issues of psychological maturity: I learned long ago to question my intellectual ideas, as a process of honing them, and it is not easy work at all, if one proceeds diligently -- but then one should not one also be equally willing to continually examine other psychological aspects of oneself?