I Have An Inkling: Studying Screwtape: discovering the strategies of Hell

Wednesday, July 6, 2016

Studying Screwtape: discovering the strategies of Hell

Review of C. S. Lewis Goes to Hell

This review was originally published on Examiner.com.

C. S. Lewis' fame in America has arguably been tied to the September 8, 1947 cover of Time magazine, where he appeared with an image of the devil behind his left shoulder. The Screwtape Letters, an imaginative account of a senior devil writing advice to his "nephew" apprentice, made waves when it was published in February of 1942, quickly selling out multiple printings. The "letters" were originally published in an Anglican periodical, the Guardian, as a series which began in May the previous year.

In honor of the seventy-fifth anniversary of the publication, Winged Lion Press has published a new study guide of the book, by William O'Flaherty. O'Flaherty is well known to Lewis academics and enthusiasts as the creator and host of the podcast series "All About Jack," which has published some 264 talks and interviews since 2012. He also runs the Essential C.S. Lewis website, which includes a resource begun last August examining questionable quotes attributed to Lewis. C.S. Lewis Goes to Hell is his first book, but he is well qualified for the task, and the volume has been endorsed by Lewis scholars such as Diana Pavlac Glyer, Devin Brown, and Carolyn Curtis.

Unlike many of the study guides out there, Hell is more than capable of multiple functions. It would serve well as not just a commentary to be read along with Screwtape, but as a guide to use for Sunday School or book club. The provided questions for discussion can be used in a variety of ways, depending on how in depth you or your group want to delve. The "Topical Glossary" is helpful to identifying and understanding the characters, as well as providing a list of topics to explore the various themes throughout Lewis' masterpiece. The appendices provide seven brief essays of interest that could well serve as jumping off points for further study.

C.S. Lewis Goes to Hell is a companion you can decide how to use best. Want to know what Lewis wrote on a certain subject in Screwtape? You can do that. Want just an overview of the book? That's provided. Want to teach Screwtape in a formal or informal setting? This book is suitable for that, too. One can also envision Hell being used as inspiration for academics to gain enlightenment and research further.

C.S. Lewis Goes to Hell is available through Amazon.com. For more information, you can also check out the official web page, screwtapecompanion.com.

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Favorite C. S. Lewis Quotes

"Suppose we have only dreamed, or made up, all those things – trees and grass and sun and moon and stars and Aslan himself. Suppose we have. Then all I can say is that, in that case, the made-up things seem a good deal more important than the real ones. Suppose this black pit of a kingdom of yours is the only world. Well, it strikes me as a pretty poor one. And that’s a funny thing, when you come to think of it. We’re just babies making up a game, if you’re right. But four babies playing a game can make a play-world which licks your real world hollow. That’s why I’m going to stand by the play world. I’m on Aslan’s side even if their isn’t any Aslan to lead it. I’m going to live as like a Narnian as I can even if there isn’t any Narnia. So, thanking you kindly for our supper, if these two gentlemen and the young lady are ready, we’re leaving your court at once and setting out in the dark to spend our lives looking for Overland. Not that our lives will be very long, I should think; but that’s small loss if the world’s as dull a place as you say.” --Puddelglum to the Witch in The Silver Chair

Some people when they say that a thing is meant "metaphorically" conclude from this that is is hardly meant at all. They rightly think that Christ spoke metaphorically when he told us to carry the cross: they wrongly conclude that carrying the cross means nothing more than leading a respectable life and subscribing moderately to charities. They reasonably think hell "fire" is a metaphor--and unwisely conclude that it means nothing more serious than remorse. They say the story of the Fall in Genesis is not literal; and then go on to say ... that it was really a fall upwards--which is like saying that because "My heart is broken" contains a metaphor, it therefore means "I feel very cheerful." This mode of interpretation I regard, frankly, as nonsense. ---Miracles

Favorite JRR Tolkien Quotes

"If we are indeed the Eruhin, the Children of the One, then He will not suffer [allow] himself to be deprived of His own, not by any Enemy, not even ourselves." spoken by Finrod in "Athrabeth Finrod Ah Andreth" (The Debate of Finrod and Andreth), found in the book Morgoth's Ring, by JRR Tolkien edited by his son Christopher

"In sorrow we must go, but not in despair. Behold! we are not bound to the circles of the world, and beyond them is more than memory. Farewell!" Aragorn to Arwen at his death [Appendix A The Return of the King]

"Mighty are the Ainur,and mightiest among them is Melkor [Morgoth]; but now that he may know, and all the Ainur, that I am Ilúvatar, those things that ye have sung, I will show them forth, that ye may see that no theme may be played that hath not it uttermost source in me, nor can any alter the music in my despite. For he that attempteth this shall prove but mine instrument in the devising of things more wonderful, which he himself hath not imagined." -- JRR Tolkien's "Ainulindalë" [The Music of the Ainur] in The Silmarillion