The Screwtape Letters: Letter XV Summary & Analysis

Even before Lewis answers his own question (which is more sinful, confidence or cowardice?), it’s clear that he’s alluding to the doctrine of the mean once again. Extreme emotions of either kind—bravery or cowardice—can lead to questionable morality. Only moderation can be called virtuous.

Lewis’s thinking in the subjects of time and eternity are similar to those of Boethius, the last classical philosopher who proposed that God can “see” all time simultaneously. At the same time, Lewis criticizes such modern ideologies as Communism and evolution. Karl Marx, the father of communism, and Charles Darwin, the discoverer of evolution, have often been compared to one another in the sense that they “took man’s fate out of his own hands”—in other words, focused too excessively on the abstract processes of “progress” that pointed toward the future. For more information on Darwin and Marx, see Background Info.

Lewis’s diagnosis of sin is a disturbing one for humanity. Politicians, philosophers, and intellectuals are always talking about “looking ahead to the future”—but by Lewis’s estimation, this kind of thinking is dangerous. One notable philosopher who agrees with Lewis was Karl Popper. In The Open Society and its Enemies, Popper explained how ideologies—communism, for example—focus excessively on realizing a glorious future. This allows proponents of Communism to justify any actions in the short-term, on the basis that they’re necessary to achieve future aims.

Lewis is fond of counterintuitive arguments with this structure (he’ll later make similar points about gluttony, politics, etc.). In a sense, to argue which is worse, fear or love for the future, is to miss the whole point: thinking too much about the future at all is what leads to immorality.