IN-CURIOUSITY ABOUT NUMINOUSITY

"IT SEEMS TO ME THAT YOU TAKE A GREAT MANY PAGES TO TELL A VERY SIMPLE STORY."

"The long and short of it is that you have let the man slip through your fingers. The situation is very grave, and I really see no reason why I should try to shield you from the consequences of your inefficiency. A repentance and renewal of what the other side calls "Grace" on the scale which you describe is a defeat of the first order. It amounts to a second conversion -- and probably on a deeper level than the first."


"As you ought to have known, the asphyxiating cloud which prevented your attacking the patient on his walk back from the old mill, is a well-known phenomenon. It is the Enemy's most barbarous weapon, and generally appears when He is directly present to the patient under certain modes not yet fully classified. Some humans are permanently surrounded by it and are therefore inaccessible to us."

"And now for your blunders. On your own showing you first of all allowed the patient to read a book he really enjoyed, because he enjoyed it and not in order to make clever marks about it to his new friends."

This harsh commentary is of course from Uncle Screwtape and is the 13th letter to his nephew Wormwood. I will try to unpack this when I have a little bit more time and have consolidated my thoughts such that it does not require "a great many pages to tell a very simple story." Pray for me.