The Screwtape Letters | Chapters 6–7 | Summary 6-7장 요약

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The Screwtape Letters | Chapters 6–7 | Summary 6-7장 요약

https://www.coursehero.com/lit/The-Screwtape-Letters/chapters-6-7-summary/

Chapter 6

Wormwood has informed Screwtape that his patient could be called up for military service. 

This is good news, especially as there is an element of uncertainty. 

This will fill the patient with hope and fear /as he imagines what could happen to him. 

The suspense and anxiety will create major barricades between the patient and the Enemy.

The patient will believe that God wishes him to patiently accept [whatever suffering is dealt out to him].

He has been taught to say, "Thy will be done"

and to expect () the resources—the daily bread—necessary to meet his needs will be provided.

Screwtape points out that the patient will mistake [the array of things () he fears] /for the real tribulation () he must bear,

which is his present anxious state. It is impossible for a human to patiently resign himself "a dozen different and hypothetical fates," and God cannot help him do so. Therefore, keep him helplessly focused on all these fears.

Screwtape explains that there is a spiritual law at work here. When the patient's fixed attention is turned outward to the 

detriment of his soul, the devil must encourage that. As an example, Screwtape cites a patient's reaction to an insult or sight 

of a woman's body. If the patient can look inward to eval‎uate his feelings—anger or lust—he can deal with them. 

Therefore, it is best (from the devil's point of view) to keep his attention fixed helplessly outward on the insult or woman's body. 

On the other hand, if the patient's attention is focused outward to the benefit of his soul, the devil must work to reverse that. 

For example, if the patient is focusing on the Enemy or his own neighbors instead of himself, the devil must work to turn the 

patient's thoughts inward.

Screwtape warns Wormwood not to depend on the hatred /stemming from war to help him corrupt his patient.

This hatred is aimed at an imagined enemy /drawn from descriptions in newspapers; not real people.

When faced with a living person, the English cannot be depended on to act upon this "fanciful hatred."

Too often, the opposite occurs.

The devil advises his nephew that his patient has both benevolence and malice in his soul. 

Wormwood must guide his patient to direct malice toward people around him and benevolence to a remote, largely imagined 

circle of people. This will render [malice] ["wholly real"] and benevolence a fantasy.

To clarify how this works, Screwtape describes the inner life of the patient as concentric circles. 

From the inside out, these circles are the patient's will, his intellect, and his fantasy. Each contains traces of the Enemy 

in the form of virtues. These virtues must be eradicated. Once they reach the patient's true Will—"what the Enemy calls the Heart"—they can be acted on. That is fatal to the devil.

Chapter 7

Wormwood has asked if it is essential to keep his existence hidden from the patient. Screwtape replies that it is policy 

to conceal this fact from humans. Otherwise, they cannot be turned into materialists and skeptics //who do not believe in anything () they cannot sense. There is always hope that, in time, their science can be manipulated to support belief

in devils /while remaining closed to belief in the Enemy.

The ideal is to produce a "Materialist Magician" who believes in life forces in the world but denies the existence of spirits.

In the meantime it is best to keep humans in the dark about devils. Screwtape advises that, as Wormwood's human begins

to suspect his existence, he should raise ridiculous images in the patient's mind of "something in red tights" that he cannot believe in.

Screwtape then returns to the subject of how best to use the war to manipulate the patient. The goal is to inflame his passions 

toward embracing extreme patriotism or extreme pacifism. Generally speaking, extremes of all sorts are useful to the devil, 

except extreme devotion to the Enemy. Extremists will form and belong to small, exclusionary groups, or coteries, centered 

around a "Cause." These are factions, secret societies, or cliques //that foster pride and hatred of the outer world in the name of their "Cause." Screwtape notes that even a group /formed around a good cause, such as the Church, may acquire some of the negative qualities of a coterie. However, he admits that devils have failed to sufficiently corrupt it.

Screwtape suggests that the patient might be induced to become a conscientious objector to the war. 

But this will not work /if the man had pacifistic convictions before the war, is a man of courage (not a coward), and believes he is serving the Enemy through his pacifism. If this is the case, then a different approach is called for. 

Wormwood should introduce an emotional crisis that thrusts the patient toward extreme patriotism.

Either way, the patient should be encouraged to treat his new extreme as part of his religion. Gradually, religion will become merely support for the "Cause," offering strong arguments for or against the war. The "Cause" will cease to serve a higher 

purpose. It will become a worldly goal () the patient pursues, and faith will become only the means of achieving it.

The worldly cause matters more than "prayers and sacraments and charity." This is the devil's objective.

Analysis

The central idea of Chapter 6 is that anxiety produces fear //that can be used to wall off the human soul from God. Anxiety does not result in a singular fear /grounded in reality but an array of dark, nameless, faceless terrors. 

Although God promises to provide the resources /necessary to cope with dark moments in life, trust in him is driven out

by this multitude of manufactured fears. At times of crisis the devil's job is to keep the human focused on the many fearful

but imagined things //that could prey upon him in the unknown future.

As Screwtape notes, the Enemy's prescription for dealing with fear is to trust in him and to "accept with patience" the problem 

//that actually exists at present. The human is encouraged to stay in the moment, without adding past or future worries

to the problem. To clarify this idea, Screwtape references two concepts from "The Lord's Prayer," as taught by Jesus:

"Thy will be done" and "daily bread."

The first is couched in the phrase " Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven." It expresses the belief //that God's will transcends human will and must be deferred to. This involves trust and willingness to follow the path () God has laid out

in any given situation. Jesus himself expressed this willingness /as the time of his torture and death approached.

Praying in the Garden of Gethsemane,

he said, "O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me: nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt."

The reference to "daily bread" is found in the next lines of the Lord's Prayer: "Give us this day our daily bread." 

More than food, "our daily bread" is whatever is necessary to cope with life's challenges this day

—courage, wisdom, peace of mind, a friend, and so on. This underscores the idea of taking troubles day by day.

Screwtape advises his nephew that, to subvert these two concepts, he must drive his patient's attention toward all his 

nameless fears and guide him to "regard them as his crosses." This reference to crosses points to the Gospel of Luke 

//in which Jesus tells his disciples, "If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily,

and follow me." As a Christian, the patient would try to follow this directive, enduring his "cross," or sufferings, each day.

If Wormwood can convince [the patient] [that his false fears are all crosses () he must pick up,

the prospect will be spiritually overwhelming and destructive.

Finally, Screwtape shares his "wisdom" about the relationship between feelings and actions. He explains to Wormwood that 

strong negative feelings like hate are not much good /if the human does not act on them. Conversely, acting upon virtues must be discouraged. It is best if they remain passive

 ideas. As Screwtape explains, "It is only in so far as they reach the will and are there embodied in habits that the virtues are 

really fatal to us." This mirrors his observations in Chapter 3 /concerning the worthlessness of conversion or faith //that fails

to positively change bad behavior. In other words [simply knowing what is right or virtuous] is not enough.

It is [acting upon this knowledge] that truly expresses faith and promotes positive life changes.

Screwtape begins Chapter 7 with a discussion of devils and the dangers of being exposed as real to the patient at this time. 

Belief in devils is likely to inspire belief in the Enemy. Screwtape expresses the hope that one day science may be manipulated to promote belief in his side of things /while denying the existence of God. 

This could be accomplished by infusing it with elements of emotion and myth. 

Philosophies that support "the 'Life Force,' the worship of sex, and some aspects of Psychoanalysis" may prove useful.

"Life Force" is an essential element in Creative Evolution, a philosophical theory /proposed by French philosopher Henri Bergson (1859–1941) in the early 1900s. It theorizes that a creative consciousness, or life force, is the catalyst for unpredictable change in the orderly process of evolution. Evolution is the process //by which different kinds of living organisms—including humans—are believed to have developed from earlier forms during the history of the earth.

This theory is useful to Screwtape /as it downgrades the existence of God.

Psychoanalysis was Austrian neurologist Sigmund Freud's (1856–1939) revolutionary, although controversial, approach to understanding human personality. He coined the term in 1896. Psychoanalysis explores the relationship between body and mind in all its complexities as well as the role of emotions in physical and mental health. Although Freud was raised by a devout Jewish father, he was an atheist. He rejected religion, believing () its doctrines were time-worn and no longer relevant, and that the human race must be set free of religion's delusions in order to progress.

Freud's theories steadily gained popularity and, as Screwtape notes, are now useful in his work.

Screwtape explains to Wormwood that this devilish attempt to subvert science has a specific goal: 

to produce "the Materialistic Magician." Materialism is the theory //that physical matter is the only reality. There is nothing more—nothing spiritual //that transcends the physical universe. Everything can be explained as an expression‎ or result of matter. Even ideas are products /drawn from the raw materials of the world, such as the environment or brain chemistry.

Materialism rejects reason (the mind's ability to think logically) and objective truth (things universally /held to be true). Screwtape's "perfect work," the Materialistic Magician, will embrace materialism /while simultaneously believing in "life forces" and rejecting the idea of "spirits."

Next, Screwtape expands on the subject of ardent pacifism and ardent patriotism first brought up Chapter 5. 

He explains to Wormwood that, from a devil's point of view, "all extremes, except extreme devotion to the Enemy, are to be 

encouraged." Lewis uses this point to highlight the dangers of extremism. A human caught up in extremism will inevitably 

move away from God and toward a faction, or group, with a "Cause." Even if the cause may arise from well-intentioned, righteous conviction, there is danger /when the faction loses sight of that founding conviction.

Its cause becomes a source of pride, hatred for the outer world, and defensive self-righteousness.

Although the Church has successfully escaped this fate, Screwtape has seen hopeful signs at times among subordinate 

factions within her. He singles out the case of St. Paul the Apostle  and the Alexandrian Jewish Christian Apollos. 

Both lived and preached the Gospel during the first century. Apollos had a huge following //to which Paul objected

because the people called [themselves] [followers of Apollos], not followers of Christ.

Such divisions, or factions, weaken the Church /as they lose sight of its core focus and message.

It is worth noting that this chapter begins a series of letters /concerned with temptations of the world, ending at Chapter 16.