Even under Slubgob you must have learned at college the routine technique of sexual temptation, and since, for us spirits, this whole subject is one of considerable tedium (though necessary as part of our training) I will pass it over. But on the larger issues involved I think you have a good deal to learn.
The Enemy’s demand on humans takes the form of a dilemma; either complete abstinence or unmitigated monogamy. Ever since our Father’s first great victory, we have rendered the former very difficult to them. The latter, for the last few centuries, we have been closing up as a way of escape. We have done this through the poets and novelists by persuading the humans that a curious, and usually shortlived, experience which they call ‘being in love’ is the only respectable ground for marriage; that marriage can, and ought to, render this excitement permanent; and that a marriage which does not do so is no longer binding....
Your affectionate uncle,
SCREWTAPE
CS Lewis, The Screwtape Letters (originally 1942; this edition: Harper Collins, 1996) 93.
Technorati Tags: Screwtape Letters, C.S. Lewis, sexuality, marriage, love
Wednesday, August 11, 2010
The Screwtape Letters: A snippet from Letter #18
My dear Wormwood,
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