This letter discusses falling in love. Screwtape points out that God wants either abstinence from us or complete monogamy in marriage. Screwtape discloses that the devils have made monogamy (staying with just one person) very difficult. The devils have done this by promoting the idea of "falling in love." He (Screwtape) explains that falling in love is a short term excitement that he wants humans to think should last forever. If that feeling of excitement doesn't last forever (which it won't) then a marriage should end.
I think the first point C.S. Lewis is trying to make in this letter is that the expectation that a long term relationship will have the giddiness of falling in love is not possible. That God describes marriage as "one flesh." God did not say marriage was a happy married couple or a couple that married because they fell in love, at least not in the way we define falling in love today. God created marriage so man and women could help each other, so they would not be lonely. Marriage does include love, but not the giddy kind of love we expect today, it has more of the enduring steadfast love. By expecting the excitement of new love to last throughout a lifetime will only produce disappointment.
The devils in this letter explain that they can use the idea of "falling in love" to tempt man to do many things. We will see exactly how this is done in the following letters.
4 comments:
This was a very interesting (and mature) letter to read. It's interesting how we find love a giddy, merry feeling and that C.S. Lewis tries to get across that love isn't always that way.
This is a very detailed and awkward letter that is hard (for me) to understand well. My mom and I discussed the content. :{
Are there any questions for this one?
I quite agree with you. This was a very MATURE letter. *ahem.* Quite interesting, indeed.
And you are right, Glenn. Love isn't always that way.
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