“Things are to be many, yet somehow also one” (Pg 94).
I think what Screwtape was trying to say was that some things are both numerous and singular at the same time. An example of this is the trinity. God exists as three distinct persons, yet He is one God. Another example is family. Within a family, there are separate and different members, but they are united in a unique and responsible way.
Chapter XIX
“Like most of the other things which humans are excited about, such as health and sickness, age and youth, or war and peace, it is, from the point of view of the spiritual life mainly raw material” (Pg 103).
Screwtape is saying that like many things, love is a basic material to the spiritual life. He compares it to health, sickness, age, youth, war, and peace. I would think that such materials are complex and would be very influential to our spiritual lives.
Chapter XX
“For as things are, your man has now discovered the dangerous truth that these attacks don’t last forever; consequently you cannot use again what is, after all, our best weapon—the belief of ignorant humans, that there is no hope of getting rid of us except by yielding” (Pg 105)
Screwtape is saying that the best weapon for them to use is the human belief that the only way to get rid of them is by giving in to their temptations. Once the patient realizes that these temptations do not last forever, that weapon can no longer be used on him.
Chapter XXI
“In the long run either Our Father or the Enemy will say ‘Mine’ of each thing that exists, and specially of each man” (Pg 114).
Nothing on earth is really “ours” because in the end all it comes down to is who owns our souls. It will be either God or the Devil.
Lewis, Clive S. The Screwtape Letters. New York: HarperCollins, 1996. Print.
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