Arguments, Jargon, and Stories

Hello readers!  I guess I should introduce myself (although Mary has already done so in part).  I am Elizabeth, the friend that Mary inexplicably persuaded to take part in this Summer Seminar along with her.  I mostly agreed because I have an unrealized dream to be among the Inklings (a group of friends including C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien who met to discuss their readings and writings).  I am studying English with Mary, as well as Catholic Studies and will be as glad as Mary to finally graduate and read texts of my own choosing!  Well, with that, on to The Screwtape Letters!

“Jargon, not argument, is your best ally in keeping him from the Church.”

Right away in the first letter, C.S. Lewis brings up the use of argument as a form of persuasion away from the Church.  Working from the assumption that the Church is, in fact, True, and therefore reasonable, it makes sense that a devil would be wary of using reason to persuade a person away from the Church.  In the end, it is inevitable that “the Enemy” (i.e. God) will always win the battle.  Luckily for the demons, Screwtape proffers, humanity has been ignoring real reason for quite some time, favoring jargon in its place.  This is largely due to the media, which keep numerous “incompatible philosophies dancing about together” in the minds of the social sphere.  We tend to prefer things because they seem a certain way – “strong or stark or courageous” – they just feel right.  Once somebody begins arguing for a certain philosophy, rather than feeling it out in this way, they risk awakening rationality.  Since God is Truth, actually engaging reason moves a person into dangerous territory (as Screwtape sees it) and opens up the possibility of some understanding of God. 

Screwtape’s concerns seem reasonable and I think Lewis makes an excellent point.  Reason does, necessarily, awaken us in some way to God, for everything that is true must point to He who is Truth.  But if you take this passage another step – claim that, therefore, the Church should use argument and reason alone to win people over to a life of faith, serious problems arise.  Human rationality is limited and argument can only bring us so far.  That is why we need reason combined with faith in order to live out full and fruitful lives within the Church.  Reason is an active pursuit of knowledge while faith, as Josef Pieper would put it (though in his terms the word is intellectus), is a “listening in to the being of things” which is captured in wonder.  An alienation of reason from faith will cause its own problems, tending toward instrumentalism.  The Church, then should approach the faithful not on terms of arguments alone, nor on jargon (which is problematic in its own rite), but on stories. 

We see the power of story-telling active everywhere in the Catholic Church.  To begin, Jesus did not come down and begin laying out the philosophical arguments for why divorce would not be allowed under the new covenant.  No, he just told stories.  Story after story.  Zoom out from there and you begin to see that all of Catholicism is a story, really.  A love story between God and His people as he tries to woo us and win us back to him.  Humanity tends to fall for jargon where there is a lack of story because we are, in the end, more than purely rational beings, but silly things who laugh and dream and love.  We look for the philosophy that feels “strong and stark and courageous” because we look to and love stories where the heroes have the virtue of courage.

This is why it is vitally important to keep not only your copy of the Catechism sitting around, but also the Lives of the Saints.  Awaken your reason, yes, and seek God in Truth, but then awaken your heart and find God in Love.  Faith and Reason, you will find in the stories of the Church, are equally True and equally Beautiful.