The Screwtape Letters

Imagine a world in which each of us is the prize in a game of tug-of-war between a guardian angel and an emissary of the Devil, assigned to their jobs of trying to win our souls to their cause. That’s Screwtape’s world, and, for that matter, it could be ours — the game is invisible.

Actually Screwtape is himself higher up in the bureaucracy of Hell. He’s mentoring his nephew, Wormwood, assigned to bring about a young man’s ruin. Wormwood seems to be especially inept at ruination. Screwtape’s letters constantly point out Wormwood’s failures, his laziness, his inattentiveness, his falling for easy solutions that miss their target. It's hard to find good help in Hell.

It’s interesting to hear Screwtape’s advice on the show more weapons Wormwood should use against his target.

“Spirituality” itself, he says can be a weapon. “Spirituality” as the trappings and piety of organized religion keep the target’s attention away from real life and on himself. Keep his attention entirely on the appearance of spirituality and piety, on the words he says or the lofty thoughts in his mind and prayers, or on the memberships and such that give him standing in the religious community. Screwtape calls this “the strongest and most beautiful of the vices — Spiritual Pride.”

Screwtape especially values strategies that keep the target’s attention on themselves, that keep the target’s mind busy — the over-examined life. There’s nothing better at defeating humility, for example, than considering yourself humble. All of that busy-ness about yourself keeps you from engaging with the world, or keeps you from engaging with other people for their own sakes, or with what Screwtape calls “The Enemy” (God).

Screwtape’s world is one in which virtues are subterfuges. That worldview is as much aspiration as fact — it’s the world he wants to make real. It’s part of the work of Wormwood and all the other Tempters in Hell’s service.

God, on the other hand, promotes such things as love and cooperation, birth, and parenting, all of which violate Screwtape’s avowed spirit of “every man for himself” and zero-sum games.

Having said that God loves the world He has created, Screwtape takes it back — it doesn’t fit how he thinks the world works, or how he wants it to work. Love is in fact impossible in that world, and God must be using the whole idea to some gain. What gain, he confesses he doesn’t know, but there must be one. He sees God reflected in his own distorting mirror.

What exactly is victory for Screwtape? It isn’t just turning the targets (us) into selfish, mean, evil-doing miscreants. Those things are nice, but what he wants is our souls, to consume them. In fact, in the included essay that Lewis wrote twenty years later in 1961, “Screwtape Proposes a Toast”, we are present at a banquet where those captured souls are eaten. The evil that they have done enhances their flavors, but it is the feast of the souls themselves that matters most.

If you ask why God, at least in theory the all powerful creator of everything in our and Screwtape’s world, would allow such a competition for souls to go on, you’ll get to the same answer we get for a whole category of questions. Why would God compete with Satan over Job’s faith? Why would God make an out and out bet with Satan over the soul of Faust? Why would God permit the Fall of Adam and Eve?

Without free will none of this happens. Free will is a gift whose price has to be less than its benefit. Without it, Screwtape’s got no game. God could rig the game so that no souls are lost. He doesn’t. That’s Screwtape’s (and the Devil’s) opening, but it’s also what makes his loss a loss. show less

This book has been on my mental TBR list for a good 7-8 years now. Somehow, even though we had it on the shelf, I never quite got around to reading it until a good friend recommended it to me again. I expected it to be good, but didn’t realize just how good it was until I got into the pages.

This book is packed full of truth, even though it’s written from the perspective of a master of lies. I found it fascinating to see what the Christian life might look like to the evil world, and found this an engaging medium for examining my faith—especially, what it looks like boiled down to its bare bones.

Lewis spends a lot of time talking about the different things the Devil does to distract our focus from the Lord, and I found that show more immensely helpful in putting voice to things I’ve thought about in a nebulous sense, but haven’t found the words to really be able to examine said thoughts.

An incredible work. It made me think, made me see things I haven’t seen before, and gave great encouragement. Definitely one I want to re-read one day! show less

Last year was an eye opening to me when it comes how easily can people be manipulated. One would think manipulation is required when there is no apparent danger - trust me when I say that it does not matter and even in case of direct health threat (like last year) manipulation is used by the unscrupulous parts of society. In everlasting quest for power, forces-that-are are willing to further the suffering of the people. Why? I guess their assistants say why not! Cannot harm to create such an atmosphere that would help them remain in power. No matter the cost.

And this brings us to this book. Some say this is christian apologetic book but I can tell you that this book, funny and witty as it is, reads as a bloody manual on a psychological show more manipulation. Direct instructions on how to make people self-centered, how to play on that almighty emotion called fear to control them and direct them, how to make them look down on others and justify everything through the prism of me-me-me-me-and-only-me..... Manual I tell you. And dont get me started on the Toast chapter. It is incredible how some things were visible for over the 100 years now and yet people let majority of these predictions come true. Craazzyy.

In terms of the book itself author has a very sharp mind and is ready to make jokes on his own religion account (imagine that today? HA!). I had a giggle ever so often. Every letter, every instruction strikes right into the heart of the matter and I am sure that non-religious people will also recognize themselves in targets of these tempsters as little devils try to find the chinks in human armor to ensure they end up several floors below the ground (and not above).

Excellent book, highly recommended. show less

Honestly, one of the things I liked most about this book is the unique narrative. Whilst the technical plot is about Wormwood's first assignment as a tempter, we never hear from Wormwood himself. Not even some third person perspective following him. All the information we have about Wormwood comes from the "responses" Screwtape is writing to him. I also appreciated how this kind of unraveled the story in the VERY background of the guy Wormwood was assigned to.
At the heart of the story I think Lewis has a lot to say about the foibles of humanity. It provides a lot of food for thought regarding how we interact with one another, what our disagreements stem from, and the ways we are convinced to dislike one another. While poignant, the way show more these dissections of humanity are delivered quickly felt like I was being preached at. show less

Lewis could be devilishly clever when he wanted, and that may be apparent no more clearly than in this book. I marathon-read this book in two days, but I'd recommend taking it a bit slower than I did. Unfortunately, Mr Screwtape's tongue drips with honey and the way Mr Lewis writes him is joyous to read; but it is all the same exhausting to read, and, apparently, exhausting to write, if CSL's words on the matter are taken seriously. I did not read the "short story" which follows, "Screwtape Proposes a Toast," although I did start it; I was simply too tired of Mr Screwtape to continue. His wickedness had worn me thin.

C.S. Lewis's writing and wit, however, shall never wear thin. At least, not for me.

The Screwtape Letters, C. S. Lewis re-imagines Hell as a gruesome bureaucracy. With spiritual insight and wry wit, Lewis suggests that demons, laboring in a vast enterprise, have horribly recognizable human attributes: competition, greed, and totalitarian punishment. Avoiding their own painful torture as well as a desire to dominate are what drive demons to torment their “patients.”

This is Lewis’s imaginative look at the devil’s schemes. Screwtape is uncle to trainee demon Wormwood. When his charge becomes a Christian, he tells him not to worry, as the old habits, both physical and mental, have not disappeared. In relation to the church itself, the alien world of church liturgy, ritual and badly printed hymn books will act as stumbling blocks. Any newfound friends in the church, believed to be more saintly than previous friends, actually only tolerated the mistakes of newcomers to the church. In addition, a Christian wife could make life difficult if they could be persuaded to marry. Screwtape also points to the differences between men and women, where women see unselfishness as taking on the trouble of others show more and men by not giving trouble to others. Both regard each other as radically selfish and feel the self-righteousness of sacrifice whilst harbouring a grudge against the other for the ease with which that sacrifice has been accepted.

In terms of politics, Screwtape is happy to delude Christians into believing that faith can be used as a means to promote social justice and bring about a just world. This commits a person to the culture and values of the world they live in, rather than any spiritual cause. Thus, he undermines prayer and perseverance by suggesting that there is a physical cause for answered prayer and encourages resentment of adversity. Fear of the future keeps people in a constant pursuit of change, never content with the present.

Originally the book was written for Tolkien, but he objected to the satirical nature of such a serious subject. He worried that individuals may put the devil’s schemes into practice rather than learn from them. show less