Interpreting this Screwtape Letters Quote

[SnowAngels]

Hi everyone!

I was just re-reading “The Screwtape Letters” by CS Lewis again. I came across a passage, and I wasn’t sure what it was referring to. In the paragraph, Screwtape, a demon, is talking to his nephew-demon about tempting their “patients”.

*“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 therefore inaccessibly to us.” *

I did a bit of research and the best guess I found as to what this “barbarous weapon” is is grace or the presence of the Holy Spirit. What do you think?

Thank you! God bless!

 

[Arizona_Mike]

Hi everyone!

I was just re-reading “The Screwtape Letters” by CS Lewis again. I came across a passage, and I wasn’t sure what it was referring to. In the paragraph, Screwtape, a demon, is talking to his nephew-demon about tempting their “patients”.

*“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 therefore inaccessibly to us.” *

I did a bit of research and the best guess I found as to what this “barbarous weapon” is is grace or the presence of the Holy Spirit. What do you think?

Thank you! God bless!

I think you are correct.

 

[DCNBILL]

Hi everyone!

I was just re-reading “The Screwtape Letters” by CS Lewis again. I came across a passage, and I wasn’t sure what it was referring to. In the paragraph, Screwtape, a demon, is talking to his nephew-demon about tempting their “patients”.

*“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 therefore inaccessibly to us.” *

I did a bit of research and the best guess I found as to what this “barbarous weapon” is is grace or the presence of the Holy Spirit. What do you think?

Thank you! God bless!

 

[MarcoPolo]

I also think it would be a reference to the Holy Spirit. Lewis may have been invoking the cloud in the Old Testament that followed the Ark of the Covenant, and its New Testament type, Mary, who was “overshadowed” by the Holy Spirit.