Preview
Copywork
About This Passage
This is the chapter's climax and its finest sentence. A long periodic structure withholds its resolution through clause after clause — images flung aside, the self entrusted to a Presence 'never knowable by him as he is known by it' — until the suspended verb finally arrives at 'the incalculable may occur.' Studying how Lewis builds and delays meaning rewards close attention to syntax as a form of drama.
Once all his thoughts and images have been flung aside or, if retained, retained with a full recognition of their merely subjective nature, and the man trusts himself to the completely real, external,...
Full copywork activity with handwriting lines available in the complete study guide.
Discussion Questions
Narration Prompt
Give a concise summary of the fourth letter, then identify the single most important sentence in it. Explain why that sentence matters to the book's argument about prayer and the real God.
Discussion Questions
- Screwtape's climactic fear is the man trusting himself to 'the completely real, external, invisible Presence... never knowable by him as he is known by it.' What does this dense definition of real prayer reveal about the asymmetry between the soul and God, and why is that asymmetry precisely what Screwtape must prevent the man from facing? Point to the passage and weigh it.
- Screwtape distinguishes the man's 'composite object' from the real Person, warning that the man may pray 'Not to what I think thou art but to what thou knowest thyself to be.' What does this contrast claim about the difference between worshipping a concept and worshipping a reality, and why might that distinction be the hinge of all genuine religion? Use Screwtape's words to Wormwood to defend your reading.
+ 3 more questions in the complete study guide
Vocabulary Builder
Item 1
Based on personal feelings or perceptions rather than outside reality.
Item 2
Arising naturally, without planning or set form.
Item 3
On the surface only; lacking real depth.
+ 3 more vocabulary words in the complete study guide
Critical Thinking
+ 7 more questions in the complete study guide
Get the complete study guide — free
Sign up and get your first book with every chapter included. Copywork, discussion questions, vocabulary, and critical thinking.
Sign up free