CS Lewis 1/28: "When Either Despair Or Contentment Will Do"

[Screwtape the demon offers ways to exploit a person's low points in faith]

If your subject is feeling low in their spiritual journey, there are two excellent ways to bring them even lower. First, never let them remember that emotions are like waves, with peaks and valleys. Instead, convince them that the fiery passions of their first days with Christ should have lasted forever, and now that those feelings have cooled, will never return. Once they believe that, you can move ahead with either of two options:

If they are the type who leans towards depression, then keep them away from experienced Christians who might explain that this is normal, and have them try to recover their old feelings by sheer willpower alone. Such an impossible task will quickly land them in the deepest despair.

If, on the other hand, they're a more optimistic soul who can be duped into thinking nothing is wrong, then you must get them used to these current low spirits, and convince them these low feelings maybe aren't so low after all. Lull them into contentment. Whisper to them that their early days in Christ were really a bit excessive, after all, and it's much better to have religion in moderation than an overriding, fiery passion. After all, a "moderated" religion is as good for our side as no religion at all - and much more entertaining.

Suggested Reading: John 16:20-24, Matt 16:24-27


Study Questions:

1) How do your feelings for God compare now to when you first believed? Have you noticed an ebb and flow?

2) How do you react when you feel far from God? Are you more prone to depression or to contentment with the status quo?

3) Do you agree that a moderated religion is the same as no religion at all to the enemies of God? Why or why not?

*****

Original Text: "Finding a Balance"

Screwtape offers ways to cleverly exploit the Patient's dry spells:

But there is an even better way of exploiting the trough; I mean through the patient's own thoughts about it. As always, the first step is to keep knowledge out of his mind. Do not let him suspect the law of undulation. Let him assume that the first ardours of his conversion might have been expected to last, and ought to have lasted, forever, and that his present dryness is an equally permanent condition. Having once got this misconception well fixed in his head, you may then proceed in various ways. It all depends on whether your man is of the desponding type who can be tempted to despair, or of the wishful-thinking type who can be assured that all is well. The former type is getting rare among the humans. If your patient should happen to belong to it, everything is easy. You have only got to keep him out of the way of experienced Christians (an easy task nowadays), to direct his attention to the appropriate passages in scripture, and then to set him to work on the desperate design of recovering his old feelings by sheer will-power, and the game is ours. If he is of the more hopeful type your job is to make him acquiesce in the present low temperature of his spirit and gradually become content with it, persuading himself that it is not so low after all. In a week or two you will be making him doubt whether the first days of his Christianity were not, perhaps, a little excessive. Talk to him about 'moderation in all things'. If you can once get him to the point of thinking that 'religion is all very well up to a point', you can feel quite happy about his soul. A moderated religion is as good for us as no religion at all - and more amusing.

The Screwtape Letters