TSL Chapter 6

Chapter Summary

Annnnnd... we're back. Screwtape returns from a brief look at the wider world to the soul of Wormwood's patient. In this chapter, Uncle Screwtape focuses on the nature of Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt (FUD), and how (not) to deal with them. He touches on the value of self-consciousness and conscious management of emotions (especially ones that might lead to sin) and then on the surprisingly limited value of hatred (especially hatred aimed at distant people).

Finally, he explains the concentric spheres view of man, with the Heart / Will at the core, the "Intellectual" sphere around that, and the the sphere of "fantasy" which contains things the man believes about himself but are not, in fact, true.

Screwtape advises Nephew Wormwood to concentrate on pushing virtues outward, into the fantasy sphere, and away from the heart -- doing so will make the man act from vice while believing in his own inordinate virtue and such may make him all the more "amusing" when he finally ends up in Hell.

Literature

There's not a lot to say here. The chapter focuses on how fear, will, and self-image / self-delusion may interact. There's an awkward bit where Uncle Screwtape has to explain God's will, supposedly for the purpose of explaining how to subvert it -- the facade of the anti-sermon approach gets a little thin.

The concentric-circles-of-man view is somewhat interesting, but it's less a metaphysical view of the world than a conceptual tool. It does, in some ways, address what I saw in earlier chapters as a bit of confusion around the role of self-awareness. Clearly CSL sees value in self-awareness, self-inspection and intellectual management of emotions -- he just advises us to be wary of believing in our own worthiness.

I do think that the idea that a man who believes himself to be virtuous would be more entertaining to torture forever than one who was evil and acknowledges it is pretty chilling. CSL makes the most of the terrifying prospect of an infinity of torture. And who amongst us would not be astonished to discover ourselves forever in the clutches of the Father Below?

I imagine most people would be quite entertaining by Screwtape's lights.

More Pandering

CSL engages in one element of shameless pandering: apparently the English are more -- objectively more -- virtuous than other peoples: Screwtape complains about their hypocrisy in treatment of enemies. While they may intellectually hate Germans, when actually presented with one, their innate virtue of kindness and charity shines through and they treat their sworn enemy decently and humanely.

This is doubly annoying since as a patriotic American I would like our people to have the moral high-ground, but I've seen pictures of how we treat our prisoners taken in wartime and it's neither humane nor infused with charity. I suspect Uncle Screwtape would be less irritated with our management of the prison facilities we ran in Iraq.

The Theology of F.U.D.

If the literary / world-building aspects are light, Chapter 6's theology is somewhat meatier. It deals with Fear, Uncertainty, and indirectly, with Doubt (F.U.D.)

(Fear) Fear is the Mind Killer

Fear -- and the bearing of fear -- as a trial we are expected to endure, is interesting and perhaps even rises to the level of being insightful. CSL counsels patience and forbearance in the face of uncertainty instead of praying for help with imagined, not-yet-manifest circumstances.

I like this, since it fits with my experience that fear does tend to eclipse other concerns. We know that people who live under constant fear have a harder time performing intelligently -- it really does wear down the will and corrupt the heart.

I think CSL's advice is good here, even if it does, somewhat, come from Screwtape's mouth (as I said, his more-or-less-straight-up exposition crumples the conceit of the work a little.)

(Uncertainty) The Circle of Fantasy

In this chapter Lewis illustrates how managing vices and growing in virtue require a clear headed view of one's own internal states. He explicitly describes how a man might identify and react to a potentially problematic emotion through clarity and how a demon subvert that by having the target focus on believed virtues -- ones which don't actually exist.

This is both advice and a warning. The advice is to have clarity about our emotional states. The warning is to be uncertain about our perceived moral position.

Anyone reading Screwtape's advice is invited to wonder: are my virtues really "virtues?" Are they embedded in my Heart, or do they exist in the Circle of Fantasy, where they do me no good? Of course this invites an accounting, but it's inevitably a subjective accounting: humans are notoriously good at self-deception, and any honest man must acknowledge that there's no way he can be sure.

Hence, uncertainty. I think that's where Lewis feels we're supposed to be. While Screwtape doesn't explicitly say this, his examples all suggest that a man who feels certain of his virtue or even his progress toward virtue is a deluded fool -- a plaything of demons and his own fallen nature.

Better then to always be uneasy and uncertain, and thus striving to better, right?

It is, of course, possible to read TSL and think, "Ah -- well, yes -- others ought to be uncertain, but not me, but not me. I'm quite secure in my virtue," or -- for the more sophisticated pallet, who recognizes the abject absence of humility in the previous paragraph, to loudly proclaim, "And I am the worst sinner of all!" and yet feel adequately assured. After all, though worst-sinner, I may be, am I not (by virtue of my salvation) on an inexorable upward track?

(Doubt) Chicks Dig Confidence

I think an intellectually honest Christian would have to exist in a state of doubt. Am I good enough? Am I saved? Am I trending better (evidence of election) or is my positive trend just a laughable, self-deluded fantasy? How could I tell, when my fallen senses and logic will work against me?

Of course in practice we don't see a lot of this kind of doubt. Christians by and large are assured of their salvation. Why is this?

I don't have a definitive answer, but I can find some parallels:

I recall reading an assessment of depression in Japanese culture which pointed out an apparent contradiction: in Japanese culture, people are expected to be self-deprecating. Self-promotion is seen as intolerably rude and arrogant and a gross violation of cultural norms.

However, looking at culture, one noticed that the successful people fully obeyed the norm -- they were quick to enthusiastically declare themselves to be the worst of the worst, the slowest, least capable of the lot... but they didn't seem to internalize those perceptions. At some level they were very much playing the game: their affect and manner, as well as their actions demonstrated a profound confidence in their ability.

And, of course, society reacted: they were praised both for their capability and for their humility. They were winning in both ways.

Depressed people (apparently a lot of them in Japan), on the other hand, often internalized those self-criticisms. They took them to heart, and as a result felt (predictably) miserable. They were meek, effacing, tentative, and often socially isolated and ineffective. Their behavior and affect matched their words.

As a character in the South Park movie (whom I shall decline to name) says, "Chicks dig confidence." I think that's right: we want people who say the right things, but doubt -- honest doubt -- not only isn't attractive, it may be debilitating. It's not what we can afford from our leaders.

At some point, to function, we have to believe in our salvation -- to truly take F.U.D. to heart, would be to stare into the abyss of the unthinkable with no assurance of any kind. Not many people could handle that sort of thing and keep going.