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Copywork
About This Passage
Screwtape is careful and exact here, and that is what makes the passage worth copying. The Enemy is not against planning for tomorrow — He wants 'just so much' thought about the Future as today's good work needs. The trick of the sentence is its quiet turn: even the job of planning tomorrow is 'today's duty,' done in the Present. Copying these two sentences shows a writer how a careful thinker guards against being misunderstood, marking exactly where a good thing ends and a trap begins.
To be sure, the Enemy wants men to think of the Future too—just so much as is necessary for now planning the acts of justice or charity which will probably be their duty tomorrow. The duty of planning...
Full copywork activity with handwriting lines available in the complete study guide.
Discussion Questions
Narration Prompt
In your own words, tell the story of Screwtape's fifteenth letter to Wormwood. What does the Enemy want people to pay attention to — eternity and the Present — and what does Screwtape want them thinking about instead?
Discussion Questions
- Screwtape says the Enemy wants people attending to 'the Present,' because it is 'the point at which time touches eternity,' but the devils want them living in 'the Future.' Why is Screwtape so anxious about which one the man's mind is fixed on, and how is living in today different from being lost in tomorrow? Use Screwtape's words to Wormwood to defend your reading.
- Screwtape explains that the Future is good for the devils partly because it is 'unknown' and makes people 'think of unrealities.' Why is a mind full of imagined tomorrows easier to fill with fear than a mind paying attention to what is really happening now? Use Screwtape's words to Wormwood to develop your answer.
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Vocabulary Builder
Item 1
Time without end; a forever outside of clocks and calendars.
Item 2
Belonging to time; passing, not eternal.
Item 3
Thankfulness for what one has been given.
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Critical Thinking
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