I. Two jobs that must be begun at once:
A. Understanding how to apply the 'Golden Rule' in detail to modern society.
B. Becoming the sort of people who would want to apply it if we knew how.
II. Psychoanalysis
A. The medical and scientific theory of curing psychic disease must be respected.
B. The philosophical accretions by Freud need not be respected.
III. A moral choice
A. The choice itself
B. The raw materials that precede and influence the choice
1. Case 1: natural feelings
2. Case 2: abnormal feelings and fears
a. Curing abnormal feelings is possible through psychoanalysis.
b. The patient is still free to make a moral or immoral choice.
C. Bad psychological material is a disease to be cured.
IV. How man and God judge
A. Man judges by externals.
B. God judges the heart, taking into account all the raw material.
C. God’s judgements may be very different from our own.
D. Much of the raw material is physical and will depart.
E. These are the reasons we are told not to judge.
V. The consequences of choices
A. The result of each choice is a minute change of character.
B. The net trajectory of character is either heavenly or hellish.
1. The effect of choices is cumulative.
2. God’s grace alone can straighten out the fault that bad choices leave.
C. Knowledge of good and evil
1. Those who are improving understand good and evil better.
2. Those who are getting worse understand neither.
Discussion Questions: (pp. 88-93)
1. Compare Romans 7:14 with Lewis’s statement, “God does not judge [one] on the raw material...but on what [one] has done with it.” (p. 91) Does God judge us on a “sliding” scale?
2. What are Freud’s philosophical assertions, that Lewis would reject?
3. Is progression towards a heavenly (or hellish) creature (p. 92) related to the “becoming” Lewis discussed on p. 81?
Note: V.C. stands for the Victoria Cross, the highest British military award for bravery (p. 91).
A. Understanding how to apply the 'Golden Rule' in detail to modern society.
B. Becoming the sort of people who would want to apply it if we knew how.
II. Psychoanalysis
A. The medical and scientific theory of curing psychic disease must be respected.
B. The philosophical accretions by Freud need not be respected.
III. A moral choice
A. The choice itself
B. The raw materials that precede and influence the choice
1. Case 1: natural feelings
2. Case 2: abnormal feelings and fears
a. Curing abnormal feelings is possible through psychoanalysis.
b. The patient is still free to make a moral or immoral choice.
C. Bad psychological material is a disease to be cured.
IV. How man and God judge
A. Man judges by externals.
B. God judges the heart, taking into account all the raw material.
C. God’s judgements may be very different from our own.
D. Much of the raw material is physical and will depart.
E. These are the reasons we are told not to judge.
V. The consequences of choices
A. The result of each choice is a minute change of character.
B. The net trajectory of character is either heavenly or hellish.
1. The effect of choices is cumulative.
2. God’s grace alone can straighten out the fault that bad choices leave.
C. Knowledge of good and evil
1. Those who are improving understand good and evil better.
2. Those who are getting worse understand neither.
Discussion Questions: (pp. 88-93)
1. Compare Romans 7:14 with Lewis’s statement, “God does not judge [one] on the raw material...but on what [one] has done with it.” (p. 91) Does God judge us on a “sliding” scale?
2. What are Freud’s philosophical assertions, that Lewis would reject?
3. Is progression towards a heavenly (or hellish) creature (p. 92) related to the “becoming” Lewis discussed on p. 81?
Note: V.C. stands for the Victoria Cross, the highest British military award for bravery (p. 91).
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