The Screwtape Letters

I came upon C.S. Lewis' Christian classic in a way the author would certainly classify as an example of Grace -- through the recommendation of my Buddhist meditation teacher.  As my esteemed colleague at FPiPE has made pretty clear, I'm just about the opposite a Christian.  So it was extremely surprising to find that this strange articulation of the spiritual significance of Christ's life made me feel right at home.  Naturally, a lot of this effect is due to the perverse manner in which Lewis elaborates what is, from an intellectual perspective, pretty standard Christian dogma.  The letters of the title are the missives sent from an older and more experienced devil (Screwtape) to a much younger "tempter" (Wormwood) on the occasion of the latter beginning his training in the art of corrupting human souls.  They describe all the psychological tricks that Hell possesses in its quest to separate us from "the Enemy".  Combined with Lewis' dry wit, the infernal epistolary structure makes a brilliantly amusing device.  

But what's most notable from my perspective is how frequently the devil's strategy overlaps with the precise psychological tricks Buddhism suggest we play on ourselves.  We congratulate ourselves for abstract virtues like "saving the world", but treat the concrete people around us with indifference.  We escape into the future or past as a way of cultivating an ignorance of the beauty and terror of the present.  We let ourselves be captivated by worldly values to the point of excluding all things spiritual as intangible sentiment.  And we simply and constantly forget the impermanence of our mind state and time here.  These observations overlap so thoroughly with my (more or less) Buddhist viewpoint that it's enough to make me believe in a core set of 'spiritual' teachings shared by every religious tradition.  Naturally, there are still many differences.  While I think Grace fits smoothly into my views, I find the concept of Sin, and particularly Original Sin, downright pernicious.  Nor is a battle between Heaven and Hell the metaphor I would chose in describing the plight of my soul.  And yet, as Lewis describes this battle, I hear something terribly familiar.  His devil is not very concerned with cultivating some intrinsic capacity for evil embedded in our souls.  Instead, the road to Hell is paved with the idea of good intentions that obscure a practice of everyday ignorance and petty malice.  Meanwhile, redemption is made possible not by overcoming our sinful essence, but through surrender and self-forgetfulness.  May we all find it.  

#reread