Monday, April 7, 2008
Letter 17
When reading this weeks letters, there's one that sticks out the most to me. This letter happens to be letter 17. This letter stuck out to me because of the topic that it concentrated on, Gluttony. When I first starting reading this section, I honestly had to look up the true definition of gluttony, because I couldn't truely understand what they were talking about. As I continued reading, I kind of found the letter to be humorous. The definition that I found for gluttony is eating to excess (personified as one of the deadly sins). I pondered on this for a moment and then honestly chuckled. Is gluttony really considered one of the seven deadly sins? The other sins include these six things: pride, covetousness (greed), lust, anger, gluttony, envy, and sloth. I thought that it was very interesting that it was put into this category. The way that C.S. Lewis captures this sin is by saying that, as people, we revolve around 'I want" statements. He's discussing the nature of the patients mother throughout this whole letter. When it comes to food, we use this statement to help get what we want. Because of this, I'm guessing that's why its a deadly sin? Any feedback on that? I also found this quote to be very interesting, "What begins as vanity can then be gradually turned into habit. But, however you approach it, the great thing is to being him into the state in which the denial of any one indulgence..." I like this quote because it better explains how gluttony turns into indulgence, which in my mind can turn into the other seven deadly sins...
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3 comments:
Gluttony is a bad habit. To me it means being out of control of myself. I understand the way devil works. I always have had problems about gaining weight even I do not over eat. That makes me sad, angry, and frustrated. This situation doesn't let me to enjoy my life even my relation with God. I am learning to know me and to be disciplined. The point that Screwtape is trying to mention is discipline and will.
I agree that I found this letter interesting. I think its because i had never thought of gluttony as anything but food. I think hes also trying to make the point that it can be when people take for granted what they have and expect more than they should.
We definitely live in an " I want" society. Gluttony is just like excess, the things we want but we really don't need but we have them just have them. Kind of like when people eat late before they go to bed just because they are bored. They don't really need the food they just do it to do it. I guess screw tape would want us to do this because we are ingnoring those who really need the things we are gluttonizing. That is my guess anyway.
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