Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: You know, is this idea of a devil or demons, is this real? I mean, is this something I need to be fearful of, like Louis said, behind every bush? Or, you know, there's the two dangers of being denying the existence of the evil or the demonic, or to just, you know, to be paranoid and weird about it. So comment on that a little bit with Lewis, or even just within our culture today, how should we think about that? How should we think about a spiritual realm, there being truly something sinister or evil that's out there that somehow can impact the tangible, materialistic world in which we live?
[00:00:41] Speaker B: Yeah. Well, Lewis asked himself in his own writings publicly, do I believe in the demonic or the devil? And he said, I do.
It comports with the plain sense of Scripture, with words of our Lord, with the tradition of the Church. It conflicts with nothing that the sciences have shown to be true.
However, he also points out, I think, that none of the creeds of the Church require belief in the devil. I believe in God, the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth.
There's never an equivalent article. I believe in the devil.
That's not actually a requirement of creedal Christianity.
With very good reason, too, because we mustn't at all lead anyone to suppose that God and the devil are equal and opposites they are not.
That would be dualism. And Lewis argues very clearly in Mere Christianity against dualism.
You can always tell whether someone is secretly dualistic by asking them who is the opposite of the devil? And if they say God, then they're a dualist. But if they're an orthodox Christian, they say the opposite of the devil is Saint Michael. Saint Michael is the unfallen archangel, whereas Lucifer, the devil, is the fallen angel.
So that's where the dualism obtains.
In the archangelic realm, God has no opposite.
[00:02:26] Speaker A: Exactly.
[00:02:28] Speaker B: And evil is a very mysterious deprivation of or distortion of, or privation of the good.
It's like a cavity in a tooth rather than the tooth.
So, anyway, when it came to the screwtape letters, Lewis uses all his spiritual perceptiveness and psychological acuity, too, all his skill as a novelistic kind of observer of human activity, to winkle out some of the ways in which we are tempted to do what. What we should not do, and how we compromise, how we equivocate and then how we try to cover up.
It's such a skillful, insightful work.
Everybody should read it every year, especially around Lent. I agree, because it's such a brilliant expose. And the thing about it is that because it's done with such Witnesses.
[00:03:35] Speaker A: Exactly.
[00:03:35] Speaker B: You laugh at yourself for being such an idiot that you fall for the wiles of the devil.
A spoonful of sugar makes the medicine go down and Lewis has put a load of sugar on this spoon.
So you swallow any amount of helpful spiritual advice and guidance and hardly realize how helpful it's proving.
[00:04:00] Speaker A: I think so too. I know I find myself in it all the time, reading. And you chuckle because you know it's true. I mean, we're just falling creatures, you know, in a fallen world. Sinners among sinners in a fallen world. You know, I know that St. Peter mentions that the devil's a roaring lion waiting for someone to devour. And then Paul mentions and he disguises himself as a masquerade angel of lies.
[00:04:23] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
[00:04:23] Speaker A: And I think in the west in particular, I think there's been more of this angel of light and things that we thought were good and they're not bad in and of themselves. But as you said, it's that perversion of the good or the twisting or that we're tempted by. Yeah, I think it's really important for us to think of.
Well, to know that that's a reality. But also back to your point about confession, that we can confess our sins and share weaknesses, but also ask our brethren, your brothers, to point out maybe perhaps the blind spots. And I think Lewis does that with Screwtape Letters.
[00:04:58] Speaker B: Yeah, absolutely brilliant book.
Aside from the nine year books. I think the Screwtape Letters is that work by Lewis which is going to last the longest and have the biggest reputation in 400, 500 years time. I'm sure people will still be reading it then.
