C. S. LEWIS, The Screwtape Letters (1942) | Indeed the safest road to Hell is the gradual one--the gentle slope, soft underfoot, without sudden turnings, without milestones, without signposts.
One of the most nefarious aspects of evil is the subtlety with which it can infiltrate even our familial relationships. The Adversary uses any number of devious methods to divide husbands and wives…parents and children…brothers and sisters…
You don’t need to spend much time reading the news to understand the tragic price that humanity is paying for this insidious division.
One of the methods explored by Lewis relates to how the devil uses misdirection to focus our attention on the unhelpful so that we completely miss the obvious. This is especially effective in stunting spiritual development.
SCREWTAPE: Keep his [the Patient] mind off the most elementary duties by directing it to the most advanced and spiritual ones. Aggravate that most useful human characteristic, the horror and neglect of the obvious.
The chief tempter offers Wormwood several methods to exploit this familial relationship and create a rift between the Patient and his mother. The first method is to keep the Patient’s attention on abstract truths to avoid thinking about his own obvious weaknesses and idiosyncrasies. Once the Patient comes to believe that this is what is meant by “self-examination”, he can be prevented from ever discovering the truth about himself…which is readily apparent to everyone who knows him.
In other words, focus on sprinting before learning to walk. That way, you will be hindered from learning to do either one.
SCREWTAPE: You [the demon Wormwood] must bring him [the Patient] to a condition in which he can practice self-examination for an hour without discovering any of those facts about himself which are perfectly clear to anyone who has ever lived in the same house with him or worked in the same office.
As Socrates (470-399 BC) pointed out long ago, “The unexamined life is not worth living.” Unless we become truly honest with ourselves, then even when we do engage in self-reflection…we are basically examining someone who doesn’t exist. And that, completely negates the point of self-assessment.
This form of self-deception uses one of two “lenses” to examine ourselves. Looking through the first lens, we see ourselves in the best possible light while offering ourselves the benefit of every doubt. On the other hand, looking through the second lens, we assume that everything is not only our fault…but also fully deserved. But neither lens can lead us to the healing truth that God is inviting us into.
SCREWTAPE: […] see to it that each of these two fools [the Patient and his mother] has a sort of double-standard. Your patient must demand that all his own utterances are to be taken at their face value and judged simply on the actual words, while at the same time judging all his mother’s utterances with the fullest and most over-sensitive interpretation of the tone and the context and the suspected intention. She must be encouraged to do the same to him. Hence from every quarrel they can both go away convinced, or very nearly convinced, that they are quite innocent.
Based on Wormwood’s report, Screwtape advises his nephew to introduce a consistent series of small annoyances between the Patient and his mother. The devil assures his apprentice that these frustrations are possible…because although much joy begins with the mother-child relationship…much human misery originates there as well.
If one’s intention was to discover the best way to insulate oneself from personal responsibility, it’s hard to imagine a better way to go about it than to follow the advice of Screwtape. Once personal responsibility has been removed, all sorts of relational divisions become possible.
The devilish instruction recommended by Screwtape is also used to critique the shortcomings of 17th century French philosopher Rene Descartes (1596-1650), who famously declared, “I think, therefore I am.” For Lewis, Cartesian philosophy neglects the obvious fact that human experience consists of secret thoughts and emotions…AND of interactions, actions, etc. Thus, the excessive focus on “inner life” keeps the Patient securely within Hell’s reach.
Another method recommended by Screwtape for creating a rift between the Patient and his mother is to divert all of the Patient’s prayers for his mother into vague and dull requests for her soul…but never for her physical problems (e.g., her rheumatism). Wormwood is told that keeping the Patient consumed with thoughts of his mother’s sins and moral weaknesses will give him a constant reminder of her annoyances. Screwtape makes the alarming boast that this method has proven so successful that some of his Patients can pray for their children’s souls and then beat their children in the same night.
SCREWTAPE: Once this habit is well-established you [Wormwood] have the delightful situation of a human saying things with the express purpose of offending and yet having a grievance when offense is taken.
We now live in the era of the perpetually offended self and some people have seemingly made it their life’s ambition to find something…anything…to be offended by. Unfortunately, the more easily you are offended, the lower your level of leadership.
Screwtape advises that offense can be easily fostered by encouraging the Patient and his mother to speak to one another using a blunt or angry tone of voice, even when the content of their speech is normal. In this way, they will be conditioned to take offense at everything the other says, while believing that their own statements are completely inoffensive.
There is something deeply disturbing in the suggestion that sin and corruption can begin with something as simple—and common-place—as the situation Lewis describes.
[NOTE: This is the fourth of a series. You can start with the first post here.]