Screwtape's Advice
The Screwtape Letters Reimagined: Letter Two
As promised, I am sharing the next letter in The Screwtape Letters reimagined series. If you have not read the first letter, I strongly suggest doing so before reading on. In todays letter you will get a further look into Aegrus’ work. Enjoy!
Letter Two
Dear Aegrus, I am delighted at your success. It is a great step to have the Patient stop going to church. You said that she began to feel ashamed for missing church. Of course, her shame can be used for our purpose, as I said in the previous letter. However, it seems to me that you have failed at convincing her to think of the shame and guilt she feels as just from the ideas of her family. She needs so believe that she is doing nothing wrong, and if she feels guilt, it is only because of how she was raised. The shame is from the pressure of her parents and their ideals. Push her to think of her parents’ beliefs as old or out of date. You must quickly address this before she is prompted to repentance to The Enemy.
Since the Patient has not forgotten her shame, we must move to a different approach. You must begin by having the Patient actually focus on her guilt, only for a while, otherwise it could prove dangerous. Once she feels submerged in shame, have her start to look for an escape. In her current lifestyle I would recommend having her escapism take the form of immersing herself in her school work. Obviously at this point in your Patient’s life school work is very important, so she will not recognize she is using it as an escape. She can easily justify and rationalize putting so much into time and effort her work, thus ignoring her spiritual wellbeing. Once she is firmly in that mindset, she will be too busy to even think of the shame she felt. This will also cause her to ignore anything to do with God. You must not, Aegrus, allow the Patient to become aware of her escapism.
The Enemy will be most distressed at the Patient’s escapism, and may try to attack our plan. He will be saddened at her efforts to escape the guilt and shame. It is strange to us that the supposed “God of the world” can be so distraught at the stupid actions and dealing of the humans. Anyways my dear Aegrus, you must focus on what you can do at hand, although never forget how The Enemy can twist our deeds. Your Patient has never been very close with the Enemy, which we can use to our advantage. She may think that the practical or material things of her life have no meaning to The Enemy. Put in her mind the thought “why would God care about my school?” The Enemy may prompt her to pray over her studies, although in her current state of mind I do not see the Patient reaching out to The Enemy. Since she does not see how God would be interested in her daily tasks, she will not seek his aid, rather she will attempt to do everything on her own.
Now Aegrus, you must make use of her shame and prompt her to escapism through her school work. As I have said, do not let her become aware of her own escapism. She must be blind to this if you wish for our plan to succeed Your work so far has not impressed me as much as I hoped, you must change this. Another word of advice I have for you, keep the Patient at all cost away from any and all Christians, it would be a terrible misfortune if you allowed such vulgar happenings.
Your Uncle Screwtape