TSL Chapter 4

Chapter Summary

Apparently Screwtape's advice on prayer didn't quite hit the mark for Wormwood. Some unspecified problem arose concerning The Patient praying for his mother, and Screwtape is compelled to offer more advice on the neutralization / misdirection of prayer.

Screwtape doesn't number this time, but I will.

1. Suppress the intention to pray, so that the target engages in seemingly prayer-like activities that aren't actually prayer
2. Have the target try to answer his own prayers rather than ask for intervention
3. Redirect the target so that he prayers to the wrong god -- probably a god of his imagination and own creation

Screwtape then concedes / reminds Wormwood that if The Patient actually does pray -- and to God, himself -- then they're (for the time) defeated and adds one last bit of encouragement: Humans don't really want a connection with God... at least not as much as they say they do.

Literary Assess

Department Undersecretary

We get another sense of how Demons think and work. Screwtape reveals that he is a Department Undersecretary, and gently scolds Wormwood for trying to shift the blame and reminds him of their difference in status. Demons respect (if don't necessarily adhere to) the value of personal responsibility and respect for one's superiors.

Enduring God's Omnipresence: Demonic Pain Management

God, being everywhere, always (omnipresent?) is a constant source of condemnation and pain for the demons. Screwtape describes His presence as a "ghastly luminosity" and "stabbing and searing" pain. This is a reasonable way to reconcile omnipresence with the damned, although it raises all the usual questions about why evil doesn't just wilt and vanish in God's light. 

Theology Assess

Chapter 4 makes it clear that prayer -- actual prayer -- is unbeatable and God's intervention is beyond the power of demons to repel. Screwtape's advice is less about subverting prayer and more about killing the urge to pray.

I'm unsure of the theology of this, but I think it probably works slightly better in the anti-sermon sense. Lewis is reminding us to pray specifically, to pray to an eternal God, rather than one of our own making, and so-on.

These errors (not actually praying or praying to some incorrect deity) strike me as more likely to fail than his previous chapter where prayers could be directed correctly and sincerely, but fail on somewhat technical grounds.

My Reaction

I sometimes get the impression that Lewis hides his most important points in the final paragraphs of the chapter, intending to leave the reader with a lasting thought of some depth. In this case, he points out what might be the biggest issue with prayer -- that we're probably rightly scared of direct intervention by God on his terms.

In addition to being asked to give up all kinds of earthly comforts, God's plan for us (we're told) may involve edifying misery and loss. While it's all well and good to applaud how much of a better person Job became when his family was slaughtered, it's not something I would invite on myself.

We console ourselves with the idea that while God might test us, he wouldn't test us in ways that would destroy us. That might be true, but it's a cold, technical comfort, when we remember that we're talking about an eternal soul that's not being destroyed and not about our sanity or wellbeing here in this earthly realm. My worst nightmares and deepest fears could come horrifyingly true, and I wouldn't be "destroyed"in any eternal sense -- simply improved.

Thy Will Be Done, indeed.