![]() ![]() ![]() Skewer them with an argument, and they squirmed away. Make an inescapably rational point, and they changed the subject. It was impossible to counter the debaters in any way. Satan always speaks with the same calm reasonableness, the sweet seeming sensibleness of utilitarianism combined with compromise for a good cause and yielding for what seems to be a worthy reason. ![]() I realized that this was the serpent of Eden speaking today. This mood would usually be expressed in a style of assumed kindness, “deep concern,” and a kind of faux wisdom that was at once patronizing and nauseating in its artificial charitableness. Their mood was one of unremitting, serious self-righteousness. What I discovered is that they had no sense of humor and no sense of humility. What impressed me more is that mockery is the best pitchfork to pitch against him, as opposed to the dreadful seriousness with which I sometimes engaged in arguing with the enemies of the Christian faith.įrom time to time on my blog I would allow myself to be involved in debates with atheists, homosexual activists, feminists, or ideologues of some other sort. One of the best ways to battle against the devil is to mock him. What I learned by writing The Gargoyle Code was that Luther and St. If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, then the sage of Oxford is being flattered world without end amen. The Gargoyle Code is structured to be read during Lent and is updated and set in a Catholic context. A few years ago a forgettable attempt named Operation Screwtape was published, and not long after my own attempt at the genre- The Gargoyle Code saw light. Screwtape has featured in a Bono music video, the cartoon strip Calvin and Hobbes and there has even been a Mormon book written in the same style. Randy Alcorn has written two books, Lord Foulgrin’s Letters and The Ishbane Conspiracy. Peter Kreeft wrote The Snakebite Letters. Lewis’ classic has also spawned a sub genre of books. Walden Media, who produced the Narnia films has promised a film version, and various famous actors have recorded audio versions of the book-the most recent being Andy Serkis who plays Gollum in the Lord of the Rings movies. In 2003 the Fellowship for the Performing Arts did a stage adaptation of The Screwtape Letters which ran for eleven weeks in New York City and is now on a national tour. ![]() Over the years Lewis’ Luciferian Letters have become ever more popular. Thomas More writes, “The devil…that proud spirit…cannot endure to be mocked.” Luther says, “The best way to drive out the devil, if he will not yield to texts of Scripture, is to jeer and flout him, for he cannot bear scorn.” For his part, St. Thomas More on the need to take Lucifer lightly. Indeed in the opening pages he quotes Martin Luther and St. Lewis does not apologize for the fact that The Screwtape Letters is an entertaining and amusing read. The Screwtape Letters is a collection of epistles from a senior devil to his junior colleague, outlining how he should handle his “patient.” Lewis wrote the book as a series of articles for The Guardian newspaper and confessed that the letters were not “fun to write.” Lewis published one of his most enduring and endearing books. In the dark days of the Second World War, C.S. ![]()
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