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Copywork
About This Passage
This is the philosophical heart of the letter, and Screwtape states it plainly before he tries to undo it. Humans live in time, but are made for eternity, and the single seam between the two is the present moment — 'the point at which time touches eternity.' Copying this passage shows a writer how an abstract idea can be made exact: the present is not merely 'now' but the one place where 'freedom and actuality are offered,' the only moment a person is actually free to act.
The humans live in time but our Enemy destines them to eternity. He therefore, I believe, wants them to attend chiefly to two things, to eternity itself, and to that point of time which they call the ...
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Discussion Questions
Narration Prompt
In your own words, reconstruct Screwtape's fifteenth letter to Wormwood in sequence — the lull in the war, the Enemy's wish that people attend to eternity and the Present, the devils' preference for the Future, and the rule about planning. Then name the central claim: that the direction of a man's attention in time, not the events themselves, is the real battleground.
Discussion Questions
- Screwtape says the Enemy wants people attending to 'the Present,' 'the point at which time touches eternity,' while the devils want them living in 'the Future.' Why is Screwtape so concerned with which one the man's mind rests in, and how is being present to today different from being lost in tomorrow? Use Screwtape's words to Wormwood to defend your reading.
- Screwtape values the Future because it is 'unknown' and makes people 'think of unrealities,' so that 'thought about the Future inflames hope and fear.' Why is an imagined tomorrow so much easier to fill with dread than the moment a person is actually living? Use Screwtape's words to Wormwood to develop your answer.
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Vocabulary Builder
Item 1
Belonging to time; passing and bounded, not eternal.
Item 2
Similar or comparable in some way that allows a meaningful parallel.
Item 3
The state of being real and in effect right now, not merely possible.
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Critical Thinking
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