The Screwtape Letters

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The Screwtape Letters

Author	C. S. Lewis
Country	United Kingdom
Language	English
Genre(s)	Religious, Christian novel
Publisher
Released	1942
Media Type	Print (Hardback & Paperback)
ISBN	NA

The Screwtape Letters is a work of Christian fiction by C. S. Lewis first published in book form in 1942. The story takes the form of a series of letters from a senior devil to a subordinate advising him on methods of securing the damnation of an earthly man, known only as 'the Patient'. We do not see Wormwood's letters to Screwtape, but the contents can be inferred from Screwtape's replies.

Screwtape (an Under Secretary in the Lowerarchy) addresses these letters to his subordinate 'nephew' Wormwood, a "very junior Tempter", giving detailed advice on methods of undermining faith and promoting sin, interspersed with observations on human nature and Christian doctrine.

The irony of the tale is that Wormwood's blundering efforts are utterly unable to prevent the soul's salvation, while Screwtape seems incapable of comprehending or acknowledging true human virtue when he sees it.

Versions of the letters were originally published in The Guardian, and the standard edition contains an introduction explaining how the author chose to write his story.

While The Screwtape Letters is one of Lewis' most popular works, Lewis himself claimed that the book was distasteful to write, and he vowed never to write a direct sequel. However, in 1959 he wrote an addendum, Screwtape Proposes a Toast, an after-dinner speech given at to the Tempters' Training College for Young Devils. It first appeared as an article in the Saturday Evening Post.

Contents 1 Plot 2 Reception 3 Cultural references 4 External links

[edit] Plot

"The Screwtape Letters were written by C.S. Lewis and is comprised only of letters written by an ‘affectionate uncle’ named Screwtape, a senior devil. He writes to his nephew/niece, Wormwood, about how to turn people towards the ‘Father below’. Wormwood is a junior tempter trying to convert his ‘patient’ so that he can engulf the patient’s soul."

After the first letter, the Patient converts to Christianity, and Wormwood is given a severe rebuking and threatened with the "usual penalties" at the House of Correction for Incompetent Tempters. Wormwood's task is now to undermine the Patient's faith as well as to tempt him to explicit sins which may result in his ultimate damnation, thus reflecting the Catholic-Anglican view on "mortal sin" and salvation. It is important to note, however, that the nature of the explicit sins is discussed in such a way as to give rise to a thoughtful and reflective speculation of the nature of the distance sin creates between God and Man, as Screwtape explicitly tells Wormwood that the gentle, sliding slope of habitual small sins is better than any grandiose sin (presumably murder, rape, sexual immorality, etc.) for the devils' purposes in terms of damning a patient. Screwtape also notes that conventional churchgoing is so boring that the Patient will soon tire of it.

Lewis' use of this 'correspondence' is both varied and hard-hitting. With his usual unexpected mix of lenient and hardline theology, Lewis covers areas as diverse as sex, love, pride, gluttony, and war. He depicts intellectuals as largely under Satan's influence, especially in regards to the "Historical Point of View."

In the last letter, it emerges that the Patient has died during an air raid (World War II having broken out between the fourth and fifth letters), and has gone to Heaven. Wormwood is punished for letting a soul 'slip through his fingers' by being handed over to the fate that would have awaited his patient had he been successful: the consumption of his spiritual essence by the other demons. Screwtape responds to his nephew's desperate final letter by assuring him that he may expect just as much assistance from his "increasingly and ravenously affectionate" uncle as Screwtape would expect from Wormwood were their situations reversed.

The short sequel essay (Screwtape Proposes a Toast), first published in 1959, is his criticism of public education, more specifically, public education in America.

[edit] Reception

One reader wrote to The Guardian that he was canceling his subscription to the magazine, saying that he found the advice within the letters to be "not only erroneous but positively diabolical."

[edit] Cultural references

Cartoonist Bill Watterson named the fictional first-grade teacher in his Calvin and Hobbes after the devil Wormwood [1].

In the animated video to U2's "Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me", a copy of Screwtape Letters is seen falling from Bono's hand. Bono's characters "MacPhisto" and "The Fly", as seen in this and other video and on U2's Zoo TV Tour, were inspired by Screwtape, among other characters.

The author Peter Kreeft wrote a book "in the style of" The Screwtape Letters which is called "The Snakebite Letters".

Author Randy Alcorn also wrote a book similar to The Screwtape Letters called "Lord Foulgrin's Letters." References are made to demons known only as "ST" and "WW," (for it had become a crime in hell to even speak their real names) who had their letters found by a human and were punished by Beelzebub for their incompetence.

[edit] External links

• An introduction to the Screwtape Letters