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About This Passage
Here Screwtape lays out his most ambitious scheme: not to make men deny the supernatural outright, but to 'emotionalise and mythologise' science until a disguised 'belief in us' slips in unnoticed. The passage builds to his 'perfect work' — the Materialist Magician, who worships vague 'Forces' while denying spirits — and shows a young writer how a paragraph can advance from a general hope to a single, vivid, frightening figure.
I have great hopes that we shall learn in due time how to emotionalise and mythologise their science to such an extent that what is, in effect, a belief in us (though not under that name) will creep i...
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Discussion Questions
Narration Prompt
In your own words, retell Screwtape's seventh letter to Wormwood in sequence. What two strategies does he lay out, and how can you tell which one he treats as the deeper threat to the man's soul?
Discussion Questions
- Screwtape tells Wormwood the devils face 'a cruel dilemma': disbelief costs them 'direct terrorism,' but belief blocks them from making 'materialists and sceptics.' Why is concealment the shrewdest answer to that dilemma at present, and what does Screwtape hope will 'creep in' while the man's mind stays 'closed to belief in the Enemy'? Use Screwtape's words to Wormwood to explain.
- Screwtape names the 'Life Force,' 'the worship of sex,' and 'some aspects of Psychoanalysis' as tools for producing the 'Materialist Magician.' Why does Lewis have Screwtape point to real modern enthusiasms rather than to obvious devil-worship, and what makes a disguised 'belief in us' more dangerous than an open one? Point to the words that describe this 'perfect work.'
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Vocabulary Builder
Item 1
Someone who believes only physical matter is real and denies the spiritual.
Item 2
People who doubt or refuse to believe claims, especially religious ones.
Item 3
To turn something into a myth or surround it with awe and wonder.
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Critical Thinking
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