The Screwtape Letters: Letter XII

The devil must be very careful when dealing with us humans. He must be carefully because deep down we are not programmed to his advantage. Augustine says “Our hearts are restless until they find their rest in you.” This is a program that we can never really leave, because it is within. The prodigal son, for example, did not need any outside force to convince himself that he had done wrong. Instead he “came to himself” realizing, quite of his own volition, that this was not the way it was supposed to be. So the devil must be careful to numb us, slowly and subtly, to prevent us from awakening to our position.

So the way to corrupt a human is to fragment him. It is necessary, as Lewis says, to give him a “cloud of half-conscious guilt”. If a sin is small enough, if it is insignificant, it is a small enough blemish to ignore, as it is not worth correcting. And of course, once a sin is established as rather bad, but not worth correcting, it can be repeated without too much guilt. And with repetition, the sin becomes more and more difficult to peel off. Eventually, the sin must be regarded as normal.

And this is where things begin to fragment. One can still believe in God, but at the same develop a morality divergent from a Christian one. This fragmentation, this holding onto a double standard, is made possible by never thinking too deeply about what it means to follow Christ. It involves a perpetual avoidance of true contemplation. Only by holding these two standards at arm’s length, and squinting at them, can a person be prevented from seeing their inconsistencies. As C.S. Lewis says, when one begins to avoid contemplation, any activity, any “dreary flickering of the mind” will be a welcome distraction.