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Copywork
About This Passage
These two sentences hold the Enemy's whole idea, and it is the opposite of Hell's. Hell says 'what one gains another loses' — if you win, I lose. The Enemy says something Hell calls impossible: that people can be 'many, yet somehow also one,' so that the good of one person can also be the good of another. Copying this slowly is worth doing, because it names the difference between a world where everyone competes and a world held together by love.
Things are to be many, yet somehow also one. The good of one self is to be the good of another.
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Discussion Questions
Narration Prompt
Tell the story of Screwtape's eighteenth letter to Wormwood in your own words. What does Hell believe about how to live, and what does the Enemy believe instead?
Discussion Questions
- Hell believes 'my good is my good and your good is yours,' so 'what one gains another loses.' What might make Hell's idea — look out for yourself first — seem smart or safe, and what does the Enemy's idea of love offer that competing never can — and why? Which detail in the letter to Wormwood helps you decide?
- Hell says a stronger self grows by 'absorbing' a weaker one, like the spider who eats her mate. The Enemy makes a body whose 'parts' are 'made to cooperate.' Is it better to grow by taking from others or by working together with them — and why? Name the detail in the letter to Wormwood that shows what the Enemy made.
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Vocabulary Builder
Item 1
Wanting what is good for someone else, not just for yourself.
Item 2
Who you are; your own person.
Item 3
Being able to choose and act for yourself.
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Critical Thinking
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