"Humans are amphibians—half spirit and half animal. (The Enemy's determination to produce such a revolting hybrid was one of the things that determined Our Eather [Satan] to withdraw his support for Him). As spirits they belong to the eternal world, but as animals they inhabit time."
-Screwtape (The Screwtape Letters, 44)
This is one of the ideas that helped C.S. Lewis decide that he was a Christian. The idea that humans are have a dual nature is not a new concept. It has been taught among Christians for centuries. But the term amphibian is attributed to a man named Thomas Browne. The intellectual and atheist Lewis read Brown's work and it made him pause. He said that he was "deeply and lastingly satisfied by Thomas Browne" (Sir Thomas Browne, Screwtape, and the "Amphibians" of Narnia, Benita Huffman) Muth because of his ideas.
This amphibious nature is presented by Screwtape in Lewis' work both as a strength and a weakness. Lewis states that because we as humans inhabit time yet have eternal souls we are bound to be inconsistent, for that's what we are made of, inconsistent pieces of a whole. We go through times of great excitement punctuated by dull melancholy. We are either enticed to fill our drab time with unsavory activities, or to have our passions overcome us during a point of excitement. Lewis shows this poinently when speaking about war. He councils his nephew to either temp the man to become angry and pationate or docile and uncaring (22).
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