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Copywork
About This Passage
Here Screwtape brags about a clever trick: getting wise, educated people to ask every question about an old book except the one that matters most — 'is it true?' Copying this sentence helps a reader hold on to the most important question to ask about anything anyone says: not who said it or when, but whether it is really true.
The Historical Point of View, put briefly, means that when a learned man is presented with any statement in an ancient author, the one question he never asks is whether it is true.
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Discussion Questions
Narration Prompt
Tell the story of Screwtape's twenty-seventh letter to Wormwood in your own words. What unfair trick does Screwtape use to make a person doubt that prayer works? And what one important question does he stop clever people from ever asking about old books?
Discussion Questions
- Screwtape teaches a trick: if a prayer is not answered, that 'proves' prayer does not work; but if it IS answered, he says it 'would have happened anyway.' Is that a fair way to argue, or a rigged game in which the person can never win — and why? Which detail in the letter to Wormwood helps you decide?
- Screwtape brags that the devils get clever people to ask everything about an old book except 'whether it is true.' Of all the questions you could ask about something someone tells you — who said it, when they said it, or whether it is true — which one matters most, and why? Name the detail in the letter to Wormwood that shows the one question they never ask.
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Vocabulary Builder
Item 1
Real; matching the way things actually are.
Item 2
Talking to the Enemy, including asking Him for things.
Item 3
Something that shows for certain that a thing is so.
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Critical Thinking
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