“You can get a large audience together for a strip-tease act—that is, to watch a girl undress on the stage.
Now suppose you come to a country where you could fill a theatre by simply bringing a covered plate on to the stage and then slowly lifting the cover so as to let every one see, just before the lights went out, that it contained a mutton chop or a bit of bacon, would you not think that in that country something had gone wrong with the appetite for food?”
This video is based on C.S. Lewis’ radio broadcast during World War II, which was later used as the foundational chapter of one of his famous books, “Mere Christianity”, one of the best basic presentations of Christianity.
There are lots of other videos on the CSLewisDoodle YouTube channel for other works of CS Lewis. They’re definitely worth seeing.
“He came down from heaven” can almost be transposed into “Heaven drew earth up into it,” and locality, limitation, sleep, sweat, footsore weariness, frustration, pain, doubt, and death are, from before all worlds, known by God from within. The pure light walks the earth; the darkness, received into the heart of Deity, is there swallowed up. Where, except in uncreated light, can the darkness be drowned?
– C. S. Lewis, Letters to Malcolm: Chiefly on Prayer
It has been well-known for some time that written exchanges between demons may, on occasion, be intercepted. A well-known collection of such communications was previously compiled and made available to the public back in the 1940’s. A new series of writings has recently come into my own possession. How this came about is not important, but I will be publishing them here over the coming months.
If you are familiar with the previously-released correspondence between Screwtape and his nephew Wormwood, you will no doubt recognize the author’s name on these new letters. They were penned by Screwtape’s “friend”, Slubgob, the head of Hell’s Training College for Demons.
In the years since the publishing of Screwtape’s letters, things in Hell have changed somewhat. Following some “anonymous” complaints about the operation of the Training College, the institution’s study program has received something of shake up. Would-be tempters are now sent “into the field” as part of their final year of training. Under the watchful eye of an experienced Tempter, the students are now assigned a “patient”, a human to tempt, in order to put into practice what they have learnt in the classroom. If a demon is successful, and secures the soul in his charge, he then qualifies for graduation and attains the sought-after rank of “Junior Tempter”. The letters which will be published here are Slubgob’s instructions to such a trainee, the undergraduate tempter named “Bogwash”.
The collection of Screwtape’s letters was prefixed with a warning and I would like to repeat that same warning here. Please remember that Satan has always been a liar and a deceiver. Likewise, not everything Slubgob says is true, even from his own twisted, upside-down perspective. Even demons are susceptible to self-deception and they can often be blinded by their hate of all that is good, true and beautiful.
I was recently having a conversation with some friends and the subject of religion and gender came up. It is a common conception that the practice of religion is generally stronger among women rather than men.
I have to admit that, in my experience, it has been the complete opposite. When I was back in England the prayer group and young adult group that I attended was predominantly male. The Bible study group I led here in the States was also predominantly male.
I’m interested to hear your own experiences. Have you noticed a particular gender dominance at your parish and parish groups? Do you have any explanation for this?
I’ve recently been enjoying a blog series by my favourite street-preaching hobo (her own words, not mine), Meg Hunter-Kilmer. It is entitled “Is Jesus God?” and in her latest part reflects on a conversation she had with a girl from Boulder:
Last year I didn’t complete my Reading List and so to encourage me to finish it this year I’m going to post an update on the 1st of every month with my progress.
I was recently having a conversation with some friends and the subject of religion and gender came up. It is a common conception that the practice of religion is generally stronger among women rather than men.
