MM#95--Screwtape's Spiritual War

Welcome to the theory to action podcast, where we examine the timeless treasures of wisdom from the great books in less time to help you take action immediately, and ultimately to create and lead a flourishing life. Now, here's your host, David Kaiser.

Hello, I am David and welcome back to another Mojo minute. This week beginning this Wednesday, actually, tomorrow, we will kick off another spiritual season of Lent for most Christians around the world. And seasons, I think are kind of like natural seasons, you know, like spring, summer, fall and winter. And these natural seasons help us to kind of get in a rhythm of sorts. And I think the same thing happens with spiritual seasons. The season of Lent, after all is to remind observers of that special preparation period before the season of Easter begins, which for Christians, we celebrate the resurrection and the ascension of Jesus Christ, God made man and we celebrate his rising from the dead. And then after 50 days, His ascension back into heaven. And usually this season of Lent lasts roughly 40 days, or about six weeks, from the time of Ash Wednesday, which will be tomorrow to Holy Saturday. Usually, it is accompanied by fasting and some spiritual sacrifices and more intense spiritual devotions. 

Now, in early Christianity, there was already a practice of this worldwide, at least within the meta training and Roman world. Because an ad 339 St. Athanasius, my patron saint by the way, he wrote the the Lenten fast was a 40 day fast that the quote entire world, observed, unquote. And from that same time, St. Augustine of Hippo, who we will talk about, on Thursday wrote that, quote, our fast at any other time is voluntary. But during Lent, we sin if we do not fast, unquote. Now the church has made some changes to St. Augustine, its insistence on fasting, and if it is actually a sin, if we don't fast, so there's some. So it's certainly made a little bit more mild. Fasting is always a good thing, and certainly under the guise of a spiritual director. Now, I understand we're living in the third decade of the 21st century, and we are certainly living in a post Christian world. So most Christians these days, if they believe at all, they believe half heartedly in Christianity, you know, a Christianity that's only filled with, quote, good works, and there is no evil, or if there is evil in the world, it's because Christianity really lacks its own understanding of it, unquote. 

And we've seen this on full display since the events of 911, when some Christians unbelievable, as it may seem, tried to reason that we didn't have a complete understanding of why Muslim man hijacked planes and flew them in describe skyscrapers, which to me was complete evil on its face, no matter of, quote, understanding, unquote, would have ever been complete to justify the mass killing of other human beings. But I say all of this to introduce our mojo nugget of wisdom today, that there really is evil in the world. It's real. And it's certainly very dangerous. And we hope in this podcast, to scour the world to find and introduce those books and ideas that we believe continue to contribute to that evil to that spirit of age to that zeitgeist, as the Germans like to call it to that ultimate evil in this world, and we hope to call them out to identify them and shine a light on them. After all, light is the greatest disinfectant. But to kick off today's Mojo minute, we can start by starting from a solid foundation. And to start from a solid foundation, let us return to this Christian classic written some 75 years ago Buy the always an ever popular, Clive staples, Louis. 

And let's kick it off with a quote.
My dear Wormwood, I know what you say about guiding your patients reading and taking care that he sees a good deal of his materialist friend. But are you not being a trifle naive? It sounds as if you suppose that that argument was to keep him out of the enemy's clutches. That might have been so if he had lived a few centuries earlier. At that time, the humans still knew pretty well, when a thing was proved and when it was not. And if it was proved, they really believed it. They still connected thinking with doing and were prepared to alter their way of life as a result of a chain of reasoning. But what with the weekly press and other such weapons, we have large largely altered that your man has been accustomed ever since he was a boy to have a dozen incompatible philosophies dancing about together inside his head, he does not think of doctrines as primarily true, unquote, or false. But as quote academic or practical, or outworn, or contemporary, or conventional or ruthless. Jargon not argument is your best ally in keeping him from the church. Don't waste time trying to make him think that materialism is true. Make him think it is strong or Stark or courageous, that it is the philosophy of the future. That's the sort of thing he cares about. Unquote. 

And so begins the famous letters to quote my dear worm would buy arguably one of the greatest Christian apologists in the 20th century, CS Lewis, Clive staple, Lewis, as I mentioned earlier, is one and this is one of his most famous books, this quote, we just read The Screwtape Letters. And then the so called Letters, 31 of them in all, are written from the point of view of Screwtape, a senior devil and management in the hierarchy of hell, over his devil, Junior devil that is, and who direct reports to him. And his name is wormwood. And CS Lewis cleverly captures the conversation, obviously, it's a made up conversation. Because this is a work of fiction, but he does capture what we can certainly think of and be, or could be the real conversation that is happening within the spiritual war for human beings. Now, traditional Christianity since the beginning of the faith, both those Jewish and Christian theologians have agree that there is a real spiritual world war happening in and all around us. And they have believed, like I said, this since the beginning of their face. Christians even more so get this worldview confirmed by Jesus Christ, when He says in the gospels, what evil is, and he describes evil ways. As an example, let's go to the Holy Gospel of John chapter eight, verse 44. Where Christ says You are of your father, the devil, and your will is to do your father's desire. He was a murderer from the beginning, and has nothing to do with the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks according to his own nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies, unquote. 

And furthermore, if we get to Luke's Gospel, the God made man Christ said, quote, he saw Satan falling like lightning from heaven, unquote. And both of those give us some insight to this cosmic war of good and evil. And this cosmic war war has been happening since the beginning of time, between good angels and bad angels. The bad angels are seeking human souls. The good angels are battling the bad angels, because they want all souls to go to heaven.


Now if we insert CS Louis's remarkable classic The Screwtape Letters into the time period it was first published just in the middle of World War Two, February 1942. You can easily see where Lewis is absolutely brilliant. Now remember, February of 1942 is an is an incredibly horrific time. If we just think back to our quick history lesson, go back to history class and high school. Hopefully you learned about this in high school. Germany invades Poland in September of 1939. England survives the complete onslaught of the German aerial fighters from July to the end of October of 1940. What is known as the Battle of Britain, then England stands by herself on the world stage. And has been since the opening of the war. But it finally gets help at the end of December of 1941, after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, and the Americans come into the war. So you can see in this context of England's peoples, who CS Lewis is writing, when in February of 1942, they're reading these letters, The Screwtape Letters for the first time. And they certainly have watched death happen all around them. So they do believe evil exist. As a people and a culture, a true Christian religion, was still being practiced and believed in the 1940s, England. 

And so The Screwtape Letters appeals across all Christian denominations, and it's regarded as one of the greatest spiritual classics of the 20th century. In Lewis's writing, he creates and imagines that intriguing picture of the Christian, spiritual battlefield we're all familiar with. And with Louis's unique flair for the intriguing conversation between the devils, he conjures up that quote, Our Father below the devil versus what we commonly known as our Father in heaven. Additionally, Lewis has the devil's talking of, quote, The enemy's own ground, quote, which is good soil for Christ and His angels and saints to battle on. Which is another example of the clever wit of writing by CS Lewis. But I think the most impressive part, or will where Lewis's brilliance really shines, is in these theological statements. Here's one quote remember, he is not like you a pure spirit. Never having been a human, oh, that abominable advantage of the enemy. You don't realize how enslaved they are, to the pressure of the ordinary, unquote. So Lewis calls being a human being a huge advantage because human beings are made in the image and likeness of God and angels are not. And you can see with these examples, you can really see Louis's brilliance, it is an is extraordinary way of painting for us the upside down world of the devil and his allies. 

Now, The Screwtape Letters is one of the best examples of CS Lewis's writing, and especially his imagination at the heights of his profession. Now, Clive staple Lewis was born in Belfast, Ireland, near the turn of the century in 1898. And he grew up to be a writer and a lay theologian while teaching at Oxford and Cambridge. He's best known for his kids fantasy novels, and you might have read them the chronicle of Narnia series. And also he authored many nonfiction Christian apologetics. Some of those titles are Mere Christianity miracles in the problem of pain. Now, some don't know this, but Lewis was a peer and an Oxford friend to the famous J. R. R Tolkien. And ultimately, he had a profound Louis or profound influence on Louis's return to Christianity later in life. Tolkien did it 

So in today's Mojo minute as another when is upon us beginning tomorrow, perhaps just perhaps, let us go back to the classics. And perhaps let us go back to this Christian classic, The Screwtape Letters to remind us human nature doesn't change and the spiritual war that has been happening all around us since the dawn of time. And be mindful, this is a spiritual war. Perhaps we can read The Screwtape Letters and will help us to really see the war that's going on. Because after all, much like the belief in gravity, this spiritual war will continue on. Whether we want to believe it is happening or not.

Thank you for joining us. We hope you enjoyed this theory to action podcast, be sure to check out our show page at T Mojo academy.com where we have everything we discussed in this podcast as well as other great resources. Until next time, keep getting your mojo on