Week 8: 'Screwtape Proposes a Toast' — Bonus Essay

1.Screwtape's 'Toast' is a speech at a demonic graduation banquet, and he opens by lamenting the poor quality of modern souls being served as food — 'the gentle Pharisee, the scrupulous Judas.' What does this dark humor suggest about Lewis's view of what makes a soul 'flavorful' to hell — i.e., what qualities make someone more or less easily corrupted?

2.The central argument of the Toast is that hell has discovered a powerful new weapon in democratic societies: the sin of envy dressed up as a passion for equality. Screwtape celebrates the slogan 'I'm as good as you' — not because it lifts the low, but because it drags down the excellent. Where do you see this envy-disguised-as-equality operating in culture today? In the church?

3.Lewis has Screwtape argue that modern education has been corrupted by the goal of making every student feel adequate rather than genuinely helping them grow. The result is that mediocrity is celebrated and excellence is resented. This was controversial when Lewis wrote it, and remains so. Do you think his critique is fair? Where does it need to be qualified?