The reality of the devil
“He [the devil] can be mentioned and taken seriously only in such a way that he who is myth in person is demythologised and delivered up to ridicule.”
—Karl Barth, Church Dogmatics IV/3, p. 261.
Taste, Good and Bad
2 hours ago
Against the popular tide I am not a great fan of C. S. Lewis' work, but my favourite is "The Screwtape Letters", which begins with two admirable epigrams:
"The best way to drive out the devil, if he will not yield to texts of Scripture, is to jeer and flout him, for he cannot bear scorn." - Luther
And from Luther's arch enemy Thomas More:
"The devil . . . the prowde spirite . . . cannot endure to be mocked."
Well, go ahead and jeer and flout and mock the Devil, then, - if you can. Because you will be jeering and flouting and mocking a big part of you, all that you crave even though you should not have or do it, all that is not as it should be or where you act as you should not, everything that makes you vulnerable to temptation...
Is that such a small part that you can easily jeer and mock it, and truthfully so? Self-negation is not such an easy sport, I should think...
ok, sorry, now that is the second time I'm prattling on about the same old same old in your weblog, riding my "Evil hobbyhorse", as it were. And in a pontificating way, to boot. Do forgive me - I find myself tempted to it just to easily. :-)
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