Monday, March 17, 2008

Chapter 12-15

I'm writing about chapter 15 and it was pretty interesting to me. I didn't understand the beginning as I did in the end of the letter. In the beginning, I think Screwtape tells Wormwood that we should live in the present to its fullest and the enemy doesn't. The enemy only looks at the future and we want the enemy to look at the present day. From what I think Screwtape says, he says that we should look at the present because we don't know what will happen in the future. It's unknown to all of us, it could bring us fear, and it is least like eternity. He means that the future is temporary. It's temporary because we don't know when we are going to die. We have to plan for tomarrow and we should not give our hearts to the future. I think he's trying to say live you day everyday like there is no tomarrow? I liked what he said on pg.78. He says: "We want a whole race perpetually in pursuit of the rainbows end, never honest, nor kind, nor happy now, but always using a mere fuel wherewith to heap the altar of the future every real gift which is offered them in the present."

1 comment:

Corianna said...

I also wrote about letter 15, but had a very different take on what Screwtape was saying in the letter. On page 76, he talks about how the Enemy being God encourages us to live in the present or eternity, because then we "meditate in our eternal union" with Him, or are "bearing the present cross, recieving the present grace, and giving thanks for the present pleasure". Screwtape is acing for Satan and therefore is trying to get us to live in the future to keep our minds off of these ideas and bring us closer to him. Therefore he is encouraging his nephew to bring us into thinking about the future and away from thinking about the present and eternity.