Reflect — Akrasia, the Lust of Deceit

Lesson Reading

Read alongside this lesson: Letters 13 and 27, with Letters 9 and 30 in support.

Why these. Letter 13 is the heart of akrasia in the book. Screwtape's rule is to "let him do anything but act." A real repentance can be defused as long as it stays in the imagination and the affections and never converts into action: "The more often he feels without acting, the less he will be able ever to act." Letter 27 shows the self-deception that surrounds prayer: the "heads I win, tails you lose" argument about petitionary prayer, and the way the patient lets distraction become an excuse rather than something he lays before God. Letter 9 (the "moderation in all things" self-talk, the comforting lie that the trough is permanent) and Letter 30 (the way fatigue and false hopes feed self-deception) support the theme.

Discussion and Reflection Questions

  1. In Letter 13, Screwtape's instruction is to "let him do anything but act," to let a real repentance stay in the imagination and never become obedience. Explain why a feeling of repentance that never moves into action is so useful to the enemy.

  2. Lewis writes that "the more often he feels without acting, the less he will be able ever to act." Where in your life have you mistaken a strong feeling, of conviction, of compassion, of resolve, for actually obeying? What did you feel but never do?

  3. Be specific and honest: what is one good thing you know God wants you to do, that you have known for a long time, and still have not done? What is the lie you tell yourself that keeps it in the realm of "someday"?

  4. In Letter 27, Screwtape uses the "heads I win, tails you lose" trick on prayer: if the thing prayed for does not happen, prayer does not work; if it does happen, it would have happened anyway. Where has a version of this self-sealing reasoning crept into your own doubts? How does it protect you from having to obey?

  5. Scripture refuses to let us live in the gap between knowing and doing. "But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves" (James 1:22). According to this verse, what does a person who hears the word but does not act actually become? Sit with that word "deceiving."

  6. Letter 9 shows the patient soothed by the phrase "moderation in all things" and by the lie that his present dryness is permanent. What comforting half-truths do you reach for to excuse a settled compromise? Name one.

  7. Application: take the one good thing from question 3, the thing you keep not doing, and turn it into a single action you can complete this week. Not a feeling, not a plan to plan. One act. What is it, and what day will you do it?