The Law of Undulation
Screwtape names this pattern of repeated spiritual highs and lows that affects a human’s interests, appetites, and affections.
What is the law of undulation?
Screwtape tells Wormwood not to celebrate the patient’s spiritual “dryness,” because it’s not Wormwood’s doing but this.
What is a natural phenomenon (the law of undulation)?
Discussion Question
Screwtape says, “He wants them to learn to walk and must therefore take away His hand.”
What does this metaphor reveal about the Enemy’s (God’s) method of teaching? How might removing a sense of God’s presence strengthen (not weaken) a person’s relationship with Him?
The author of The Screwtape Letters
Who is C.S. Lewis?
Mr. Bedell's favorite minor league baseball team
Who are the Lake County Captains?
Screwtape says humans are these “amphibians,” because they’re partly spirit and partly this.
What is animal?
Screwtape says that when God seems absent, the demons’ cause is most in danger if the human still does this.
What is obey the Enemy’s will? (following God's commands and enduring trials through faith rather than emotion)
The Enemy’s purpose for creating humans, according to Screwtape, is to fill the universe with “loathsome little” what?
What are replicas of Himself (or images of Himself)?
The name given to God by Uncle Wormwood
What is "the Enemy"?
Mr. Bedell's zodiac sign
What is a taurus?
According to the letter, the undulation exists because humans live in this dimension, which involves continual change.
What is time?
Discussion Question
Screwtape contrasts the devils’ desire to “absorb” humans with God’s desire to make them “servants who can finally become sons.”
What do these opposing goals show about the difference between selfish love and self-giving love? How does this contrast help explain the spiritual struggle between good and evil in the story?
According to Screwtape, the Enemy “cannot ravish; He can only” do this.
What is woo? (God respects human free will and cannot force people to love him or be good)
The name and topic of another letter
*answer*
Mr. Bedell's vocation/employment prior to GA
What is the seminary/John Carroll/CCC? (bonus points for all three)
Screwtape warns that the current dryness in the patient is this. Not Wormwood’s doing, but a natural example of undulation.
What is a trough (or a dry spell)?
The Enemy’s aim is creatures whose wills freely conform to His; Screwtape contrasts this with demons’ desire to make humans into these.
What are cattle (or food / objects for consumption)?
The Enemy wants servants who can finally become this, while “Our Father Below” wants cattle who can finally become food.
What are sons?
The key historical event occurring during the writing of The Screwtape Letters
What is World War II?
Mr. Bedell's birthstone
What is emerald?
Discussion Question
Screwtape explains that humans experience constant “peaks and troughs” in all areas of life, including faith.
How does the “law of undulation” reflect real human experience? In what ways might spiritual “troughs” actually help a person grow in maturity or faith?
Screwtape scolds Wormwood for thinking their goal is simply to make the patient miserable, reminding him that demons actually aim for this darker outcome.
What is the absorption of the human’s will into theirs (to become food for Our Father Below)?
The Enemy’s goal, according to Screwtape, is “a world full of beings united to Him but still” this.
What is distinct? (God wants humans to freely and willingly unite with him while remaining separate and individual creatures, whereas Satan seeks to completely absorb and erase a human's individuality)
The publication date of The Screwtape Letters
What is 1942?
You have to do this to make sure your milk doesn't go bad