Preview
Discussion Questions
Narration Prompt
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 temporal Future, and the rule about planning. Then identify the single conviction toward which it builds: 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 labour to fix them on 'the Future.' Why is Screwtape so intent on which region of time the man's mind inhabits, and how is being present to today different in kind from being lost in tomorrow? Use Screwtape's words to Wormwood to defend your reading.
- Screwtape prizes the Future because it is 'unknown' and makes people 'think of unrealities,' so that 'nearly all vices are rooted in the future.' Why is an imagined tomorrow so much more fertile soil for fear and craving than the moment a person is actually living? Use Screwtape's words to Wormwood to develop your answer.
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Critical Thinking
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