to-the-fishies replied to your photo “Can’t you take a joke?” has been a transparent excuse for bullying...”
...........isn't the whole point of The Screwtape Letters that it's a demon's take on how to tempt effectively? I admit that it's been awhile since I've read it, but Lewis Writing Screwtape |= Lewis As Lewis
Yes, but the point of the story is a moral sermon by Lewis -- the text is a demon talking about temptation, but the subtext is “these are my values, as espoused through juxtaposition with what a demon would value”. When Screwtape says “Your Patient has fallen in with the worst kind of woman -- sweet, virginal, and obedient” (I’m satirically paraphrasing, but not too far from the text), Lewis means “This is what should be valued in women, because evil doesn’t value it or even understand its sincerity.” It is actually brilliantly written because that kind of oppositional prose can get tedious if it’s done badly. Lewis keeps it relatively compelling, though he could have used a more brutal editor once or twice.
LECTURE FOLLOWS, but this is just me yelling, I’m not like, yelling at you, promise. :D
The problem is that the book basically has two lessons: A) You cannot be a good person if you are not a good Christian and B) there is really only one set of values that makes you a good Christian, and those are the ones he lays out in the book. Some of his values I agree with, but many are not limited to (or even original to) Christianity, and some range from silly to appalling.
For instance, he talks about how Christian sexuality can only ever be heterosexual monogamy or total chastity; anything else is pride and indulgence, surrender to bodily pleasures, and a step towards Satan. Uh-huh, Clive, okay then buddy. It’s fine to believe that for oneself; I’m not onboard with believing that is required to make a person good and worthy. He also speaks, although a little more sidelong and I think unintentionally, about how Christians should put “prayer and charity” over political activism. Which is an understandable belief for a man who, being a white wealthy cisgender academic, can literally treat all of politics as an intellectual exercise, but functionally it’s not on for most of humanity, especially during the time he was writing.
It is a fun read overall, but every couple of pages we reach a point where I roll my eyes and yell at him for a little while for being some mix of oblivious, sanctimonious, and ludicrous.
The temptation to write a sequel in which an Archangel writes to a guardian angel about guiding one of their own Patients to a slightly more compassionate, understanding, and diverse view of the world is probably the work of Screwtape. :D
