Preview
Discussion Questions
Narration Prompt
Reconstruct Screwtape's fourteenth letter to Wormwood in sequence — the alarm at the man's real humility, the trick of making him notice it, the redefinition of Humility as a low self-opinion, and the Enemy's contrasting aim. Then identify the single conviction toward which it builds: that the direction of a man's attention, not the height of his self-estimate, is the real battlefield.
Discussion Questions
- Screwtape labours to 'conceal from the patient the true end of Humility,' wanting him to take it for 'a low opinion of his own talents' rather than 'self-forgetfulness.' Is humility better understood as thinking little of one's gifts or as forgetting oneself altogether — and why does the letter to Wormwood teach one rather than the other? Use Screwtape's own words to defend your reading.
- Screwtape's cleverest stroke is to make the man 'value an opinion for some quality other than truth.' Why does building humility on that move introduce 'an element of dishonesty and make-believe into the heart of what otherwise threatens to become a virtue,' and what does this reveal about Lewis's conviction that no virtue can finally rest on a falsehood? Use details from the letter to Wormwood to develop your answer.
+ 2 more questions in the complete study guide
Critical Thinking
+ 7 more questions in the complete study guide
Get the complete study guide — free
Sign up and get your first book with every chapter included. Copywork, discussion questions, vocabulary, and critical thinking.
Sign up free