New Life Bible Study discussion

Ah, Screwtape Letters! *fangirls

LOL, I really hope I can get to this book in November. It's one of my favorites!

Hey y'all! I just read the first letter (I think there are about 30 letters total, so I think I'll aim to read 2 a day). I'm so excited, this is my first time reading something other than my Bible in a while! XD

While I was reading, I thought it would be cool to actually have some discussion questions/thoughts about the book, so I compiled some from a few websites. Here they are!

Letter 1:

Summary Questions
❖ Who is…
- Wormwood (WW)? (view spoiler)[A novice devil, Screwtape’s nephew (hide spoiler)]
- Screwtape (ST)? (view spoiler)[A wise old devil (hide spoiler)]
- The Patient? (view spoiler)[The devil’s charge; it is that devil’s responsibility to bring the patient to Hell (hide spoiler)]
- The Enemy? (view spoiler)[God (hide spoiler)]
- Our Father Below? (view spoiler)[Satan (hide spoiler)]
❖ What did ST say was not the way to “win over” the patient & why? (view spoiler)[By argument, because then he would invoke reason and that would start him down the path of thinking about God. (hide spoiler)]
❖ What did ST suggest works better? (view spoiler)[Distracting him. Getting him to react to immediate sensory experiences. (hide spoiler)]
❖ Do you agree or disagree with ST’s assessment?
❖ What example did ST use to support his position? (view spoiler)[An atheist was reading a book. He started to question faith. God tried to intervene by helping him to think and question. ST distracted him by thinking about lunch and the newsboy. This was enough to influence the patient (hide spoiler)]

Observations To Consider
❖ ST encourages labels like ‘practical,’ ‘outworn,’ ‘strong,’ or ‘stark.’ How are these terms different than ‘true’ or ‘false?’
❖ ST says, “Never having been a human (Oh that abominable advantage of the Enemy’s!) you don’t realise how enslaved they are to the pressure of the ordinary.”
→Remember, Jesus was tempted and tried (Matthew 4). He understands what we’re going through.

Lessons to Learn
❖ Reason MATTERS:
(view spoiler)[-“Come now, and let us reason together,”
Says the LORD,
“Though your sins are as scarlet,
They will be as white as snow;
Though they are red like crimson,
They will be like wool." (Isaiah 1:18)
- When they had passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica, where there was a Jewish synagogue. As his custom was, Paul went into the synagogue, and on three Sabbath days he reasoned with them from the Scriptures, explaining and proving that the Christ had to suffer and rise from the dead. “This Jesus I am proclaiming to you is the Christ,’” he said. Some of the Jews were persuaded and joined Paul and Silas, as did a large number of God-fearing Greeks and not a few prominent women. (Acts 17:1-4) (hide spoiler)]
❖ Science MATTERS: Why is the devil afraid of science?
(view spoiler)[Over the last decades, we’ve been taught that science disproves God. That Creation and evolution are incompatible. However, if we honestly keep an open mind, compare the two using actually Hebrew words/meaning instead of what we read in our American translations, we’ll see they line up quite nicely. As they should, given that God, as the Creator of everything, defined science and set all its laws.

If Wormwood’s patient occupied himself with reading science, he might quickly discover that he doesn’t know it all. He may more readily accept belief in something outside of his familiar “real life.”

Science can lead to reason at a level that could either be provable – or could be not provable but capable of showing that there are so many things we don’t understand. (hide spoiler)]

Discussion Questions
❖ How would you summarize this letter?
❖ How is our culture influencing your, or people’s in general, relationship with God?
→Book references (view spoiler)[- Screwtape is pleased that the Patient is seeing “a good deal of his materialist friend.”
- Lewis alludes to human beings being “enslaved … to the pressure of the ordinary.” (hide spoiler)]
→Scripture references (mostly about being enslaved) (view spoiler)[- At one time we too were foolish, disobedient, deceived and enslaved by all kinds of passions and pleasures. We lived in malice and envy, being hated and hating one another. (Titus 3:3)
- Formerly, when you did not know God, you were slaves to those who by nature are not gods. But now that you know God—or rather are known by God—how is it that you are turning back to those weak and miserable forces ? Do you wish to be enslaved by them all over again? (Galatians 4:8-9)
- So also, when we were underage, we were in slavery under the elemental spiritual forces of the world. (Galatians 4:3)
- But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life. (Romans 6:22)
- You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness. (Romans 6:18)
- For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body ruled by sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin— (Romans 6:6) (hide spoiler)]
→Consider: Info overload, easily distracted
❖ What do you learn about the diabolical and the divine when it comes to the value of both argument, ¶ 2, and science, ¶ 4?
❖ What did you learn about the nature of both divine and diabolical strategies that is new or surprising to you?

Sharing
Screwtape gives us an example of when he successfully distracted his patient. The writer of this resource says, “I actually experienced this. I mentioned it in the intro’s to the series. I was talking with my Father, a confirmed “I don’t need God because I have me” kind of person. I was finally beginning to get somewhere with him. But all of a sudden he declared, “I’m hungry, let’s go get lunch!” And it was over. I never got him back on the discussion again. Ever. Sadly, he died with that same mindset.”

Have you had a similar experience? Anything you’d like to share?

Please don't feel overwhelmed by the amount of text! It would be really cool if we could talk about some of those things mentioned:) If you don't even have time to read the book, the summary questions at the beginning sum it all up pretty well:)

And your input is really valuable to me! Is this too much? Should we just stick to "regular" discussion? Would it be more helpful to see the discussion thoughts/questions on here or on a Google doc? I don't want to do this if nobody's interested:)) Thank you!

I’ve read most of Lewis’s works but The Screwtape letters i have yet to read as it has never been in my parents’ personal library. I’ve ordered it from the library and I cannot wait!!!!

Yay Lilly!! I've only read Screwtape Letters and Mere Christianity:)

You should read the Problem of Pain. It gets really deep and brain twisting but it’s reallyyyy good.

@Lilly Oo it sounds really good! Before I die, I want to read all of the CS Lewis books 😄

@Elijah Ah no problem, thanks for being a part of so many of the BOTM discussions! I got to read Luke this month, but I only ended up reading the first Screwtape letter. And I also forgot to make a poll for December's BOTM. Haha, should we have the same BOTMs for December again? I honestly wouldn't mind rereading Luke, and I'd like to get to Screwtape:)

@catherine lol same 😆

I managed to read Screwtape Letters last month (barely) I let it sit on my shelf for 3 weeks then realized I had I week before so had to bring it back to the library so I racked it.

I loved it -as I knew I would- I’d just procrastinated because I wanted to be sure I’d fully appreciate it; but felt I’d been to preoccupied to do so. I’ll have to reread them again so I can fully take it in.

Thanks for your feedback, Elijah!

@Lilly 😂

Congratulations!! You read Screwtape in a week? It took me a lot longer than that XD I have to admit that I paused and restarted quite a bit. The ending was spectacular though, and well worth the time. Sent shivers up my spine:)) Yeah, it definitely takes a lot of brainpower (at least for me 😆) to really reflect and soak in Lewis's books, especially when I'm tired. I hope you can find time during December to reread/discuss! Thanks for reading it during November:)