The Screwtape Letters

By C. S. Lewis

A Masterpiece of Satire on Hell’s Latest Novelties and Heaven’s Unanswerable Answer

C.S. Lewis’s The Screwtape Letters has entertained and enlightened readers the world over with its sly and ironic portrayal of human life and foibles from the unique vantage point of Screwtape, a highly placed assistant to “Our Father Below.” At once wildly comic, deadly serious, and strikingly original, C.S. Lewis gives us the correspondence of the wordly-wise devil to his nephew Wormwood, a novice demon in charge of securing the damnation of an ordinary young man. The Screwtape Letters is the most engaging account of temptation—and triumph over it—ever written. 

• Language: English
• Publisher: HarperCollins
• Release date: Jun 2, 2009
• ISBN: 9780061949043

C. S. Lewis

Clive Staples Lewis (1898–1963) was one of the intellectual giants of the twentieth century and arguably one of the most influential writers of his day. He was a Fellow and Tutor in English Literature at Oxford University until 1954, when he was unanimously elected to the Chair of Medieval and Renaissance Literature at Cambridge University, a position he held until his retirement. He wrote more than thirty books, allowing him to reach a vast audience, and his works continue to attract thousands of new readers every year. His most distinguished and popular accomplishments include Out of the Silent Planet, The Great Divorce, The Screwtape Letters, and the universally acknowledged classics in The Chronicles of Narnia. To date, the Narnia books have sold over 100 million copies and have been transformed into three major motion pictures.

Book preview

The cover of a book titled, “The Screwtape Letters” authored by C.S. Lewis is shown. The cover is painted into three sections in three colors, yellow, white, and red from top to bottom. The nib of a fountain pen is shown placed atop the letter “w” of the word screwtape, leaving ink spots. Ink spots are also visible at the top-left and bottom-right sections of the cover.

The Screwtape Letters

C. S. Lewis

with

Screwtape Proposes a Toast

The name of the publisher, “HarperCollins e-books” is shown, with its logo as a stylized set of flames atop waves.

Dedication

To J. R. R. Tolkien

Epigraph

The best way to drive out the devil, if he will not yield to texts of Scripture, is to jeer and flout him, for he cannot bear scorn.

LUTHER

The devil . . . the prowde spirite . . . cannot endure to be mocked.

THOMAS MORE

Contents

Cover

Title Page

Dedication

Epigraph

Preface

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

Chapter 20

Chapter 21

Chapter 22

Chapter 23

Chapter 24

Chapter 25

Chapter 26

Chapter 27

Chapter 28

Chapter 29

Chapter 30

Chapter 31

Screwtape Proposes a Toast

Preface

Screwtape Proposes a Toast

About the Author

Also by C. S. Lewis

Copyright

About the Publisher

Preface

I have no intention of explaining how the correspondence which I now offer to the public fell into my hands.

There are two equal and opposite errors into which our race can fall about the devils. One is to disbelieve in their existence. The other is to believe, and to feel an excessive and unhealthy interest in them. They themselves are equally pleased by both errors and hail a materialist or a magician with the same delight. The sort of script which is used in this book can be very easily obtained by anyone who has once learned the knack; but ill-disposed or excitable people who might make a bad use of it shall not learn it from me.

Readers are advised to remember that the devil is a liar. Not everything that Screwtape says should be assumed to be true even from his own angle. I have made no attempt to identify any of the human beings mentioned in the letters; but I think it very unlikely that the portraits, say, of Fr Spike or the patient’s mother, are wholly just. There is wishful thinking in Hell as well as on Earth.

In conclusion, I ought to add that no effort has been made to clear up the chronology of the letters. Number 17 appears to have been composed before rationing became serious; but in general the diabolical method of dating seems to bear no relation to terrestrial time and I have not attempted to reproduce it. The history of the European War, except in so far as it happens now and then to impinge upon the spiritual condition of one human being, was obviously of no interest to Screwtape.

C. S. LEWIS

MAGDALEN COLLEGE,

5 JULY 1941

1

My dear Wormwood,

I note what you say about guiding your patient’s reading and taking care that he sees a good deal of his materialist friend. But are you not being a trifle naïve? It sounds as if you supposed that argument was the way to keep him out of the Enemy’s clutches. That might have been so if he had lived a few centuries earlier. At that time the humans still knew pretty well when a thing was proved and when it was not; and if it was proved they really believed it. They still connected thinking with doing and were prepared to alter their way of life as the result of a chain of reasoning. But what with the weekly press and other such weapons we have largely altered that. Your man has been accustomed, ever since he was a boy, to have a dozen incompatible philosophies dancing about together inside his head. He doesn’t think of doctrines as primarily ‘true’ or ‘false’, but as ‘academic’ or ‘practical’, ‘outworn’ or ‘contemporary’, ‘conventional’ or ‘ruthless. Jargon, not argument, is your best ally in keeping him from the Church. Don’t waste time trying to make him think that materialism is true! Make him think it is strong, or stark, or courageous—that it is the philosophy of the future. That’s the sort of thing he cares about.

The trouble about argument is that it moves the whole struggle on to the Enemy’s own ground. He can argue too; whereas in really practical propaganda of the kind I am suggesting He has been shown for centuries to be greatly the inferior of Our Father Below. By the very act of arguing, you awake the patient’s reason; and once it is awake, who can foresee the result? Even if a particular train of thought can be twisted so as to end in our favour, you will find that you have been strengthening in your patient the fatal habit of attending to universal issues and withdrawing his attention from the stream of immediate sense experiences. Your business is to fix his attention on the stream. Teach him to call it ‘real life’ and don’t let him ask what he means by ‘real’.

Remember, he is not, like you, a pure spirit. Never having been a human (Oh that abominable advantage of the Enemy’s!) you don’t realise how enslaved they are to the pressure of the ordinary. I once had a patient, a sound atheist, who used to read in the British Museum. One day, as he sat reading, I saw a train of thought in his mind beginning to go the wrong way. The Enemy, of course, was at his elbow in a moment. Before I knew where I was I saw my twenty years’ work beginning to totter. If I had lost my head and begun to attempt a defence by argument I should have been undone. But I was not such a fool. I struck instantly at the part of the man which I had best under my control and suggested that it was just about time he had some lunch. The Enemy presumably made the counter-suggestion (you know how one can never quite overhear what He says to them?) that this was more important than lunch. At least I think that must have been His line for when I said ‘Quite. In fact much too important to tackle at the end of a morning,’ the patient brightened up considerably; and by the time I had added ‘Much better come back after lunch and go into it with a fresh mind,’ he was already half way to the door. Once he was in the street the battle was won. I showed him a newsboy shouting the midday paper, and a No. 73 bus going past, and before he reached the bottom of the steps I had got into him an unalterable conviction that, whatever odd ideas might come into a man’s head when he was shut up alone with his books, a healthy dose of ‘real life’ (by which he meant the bus and the newsboy) was enough to show him that all ‘that sort of thing’ just couldn’t be true. He knew he’d had a narrow escape and in later years was fond of talking about ‘that inarticulate sense for actuality which is our ultimate safeguard against the aberrations of mere logic’. He is now safe in Our Father’s house.

You begin to see the point? Thanks to processes which we set at work in them centuries ago, they find it all but impossible to believe in the unfamiliar while the familiar is before their eyes. Keep pressing home on him the ordinariness of things. Above all, do not attempt to use science (I mean, the real sciences) as a defence against Christianity. They will positively encourage him to think about realities he can’t touch and see. There have been sad cases among the modern physicists. If he must dabble in science, keep him on economics and sociology; don’t let him get away from that invaluable ‘real life’. But the best of all is to let him read no science but to give him a grand general idea that he knows it all and that everything he happens to have picked up in casual talk and reading is ‘the results of modern investigation’. Do remember you are there to fuddle him. From the way some of you young fiends talk, anyone would suppose it was our job to teach!

Your affectionate uncle

SCREWTAPE

2

My dear Wormwood,

I note with grave displeasure that your patient has become a Christian. Do not indulge the hope that you will escape the usual penalties; indeed, in your better moments, I trust you would hardly even wish to do so. In the meantime we must make the best of the situation. There is no need to despair; hundreds of these adult converts have been reclaimed after a brief sojourn in the Enemy’s camp and are now with us. All the habits of the patient, both mental and bodily, are still in our favour.

One of our great allies at present is the Church itself. Do not misunderstand me. I do not mean the Church as we see her spread out through all time and space and rooted in eternity, terrible as an army with banners. That, I confess, is a spectacle which makes our boldest tempters uneasy. But fortunately it is quite invisible to these humans. All your patient sees is the half-finished, sham Gothic erection on the new building estate. When he goes inside, he sees the local grocer with rather an oily expression on his face bustling up to offer him one shiny little book containing a liturgy which neither of them understands, and one shabby little book containing corrupt texts of a number of religious lyrics, mostly bad, and in very small print. When he gets to his pew and looks round him he sees just that selection of his neighbours whom he has hitherto avoided. You want to lean pretty heavily on those neighbours. Make his mind flit to and fro between an expression like ‘the body of Christ’ and the actual faces in the next pew. It matters very little, of course, what kind of people that next pew really contains. You may know one of them to be a great warrior on the Enemy’s side. No matter. Your patient, thanks to Our Father Below, is a fool. Provided that any of those neighbours sing out of tune, or have boots that squeak, or double chins, or odd clothes, the patient will quite easily believe that their religion must therefore be somehow ridiculous. At his present stage, you see, he has an idea of ‘Christians’ in his mind which he supposes to be spiritual but which, in fact, is largely pictorial. His mind is full of togas and sandals and armour and bare legs and the mere fact that the other people in church wear modern clothes is a real—though of course an unconscious—difficulty to him. Never let it come to the surface; never let him ask what he expected them to look like. Keep everything hazy in his mind now, and you will have all eternity wherein to amuse yourself by producing in him the peculiar kind of clarity which Hell affords.

Work hard, then, on the disappointment or anticlimax which is certainly coming to the patient during his first few weeks as a churchman. The Enemy allows this disappointment to occur on the threshold of every human endeavour. It occurs when the boy who has

Reviews for The Screwtape Letters

[pennsylady · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Excellent full-cast dramatization of this C. S. Lewis classic."Diabolical" Radio Theater at its best."The story is carried by the senior demon Screwtape played magnificently by award-winning actor Andy Serkis (“Gollum” in Lord of the Rings) as he shares correspondence to his apprentice demon Wormwood." (from audio jacket)4.5 ★

[shanaqui_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I don't know where to start with reviewing The Screwtape Letters. Perhaps with the fact -- probably already well-known to people who get my reviews in their inbox -- that I am not a Christian, but a Unitarian Universalist. But I do love reading C. S. Lewis' work: I think he was very good as using cool intellect and reason to examine himself in his faith (not just the faith of others, which would likely be unbearably holier-than-thou), a process myself and other UUs tend to value highly. He was ready to think about his faith, and seek answers -- or understanding, at least -- of things others deem unfathomable, the whys of things.

The Screwtape letters is a fictional frame for more of that work, really. He examines the ways that people are lead away from their faiths, not just through large sins like unchastity but through being proud of humility, for example... And the way he puts this makes it not only an examination of Christian goodness, but general moral goodness.

Definitely worth a read for that, and amusing in it's own way, as well -- old Uncle Screwtape's unfortunate transformation, for example.

[angelag86 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A senior devil gives advice on tempting humans to his nephew, a junior devil

[Matt Tate · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

It is a thought provoking as well as entertaining book.

[Joe Santiso · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

CS Lewis’ remarkable and perceptive understanding of the tools of the darkness make this book such an inspiring and eye-opening read. Though, of course, fictional, the principles elaborated upon are most useful for the pious life.

[seintgatc · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

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[Rae Huang · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

A witty portrayal of sins and temptations which reminds us to keep our faith in check

[Missy Simar · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I had to highlight so many captivating thoughts of the writer as they apply to people today in overdrive. CS Lewis always a good read.

[Jade Gage · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Meh -- this was wickedly funny in its time, but popular fiction has gotten more edgy and this one hasn't aged well.

[thesilverofhisfining · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This is my copy, which is on my favorites' shelf. Wonderful! Makes one think about the reality of the prince of this world and his tactics.

[Tyler · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Simply one of the most spellbinding studies, of life, love, and Christianity ever written. A C.S. Lewis Masterpiece.

[Katie Hamby · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Never has a book called me out so much. I really need to re-evaluate my life after reading this. 5/5

[blbooks-14314 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

First paragraph: I note what you say about guiding your patient’s reading and taking care that he sees a good deal of his materialist friend. But are you not being a trifle naïf? It sounds as if you supposed that argument was the way to keep him out of the Enemy’s clutches. That might have been so if he had lived a few centuries earlier. At that time the humans still knew pretty well when a thing was proved and when it was not; and if it was proved they really believed it. They still connected thinking with doing and were prepared to alter their way of life as the result of a chain of reasoning. But what with the weekly press and other such weapons we have largely altered that. Your man has been accustomed, ever since he was a boy, to have a dozen incompatible philosophies dancing about together inside his head. He doesn’t think of doctrines as primarily “true” or “false”, but as “academic” or “practical”, “outworn” or “contemporary”, “conventional” or “ruthless”. Jargon, not argument, is your best ally in keeping him from the Church. Don’t waste time trying to make him think that materialism is true! Make him think it is strong, or stark, or courageous—that it is the philosophy of the future. That’s the sort of thing he cares about.

I definitely enjoy rereading C.S. Lewis' The Screwtape Letters every few years. These 'letters' are from 'Uncle Screwtape' to his nephew 'Wormwood.' Both Wormwood and Screwtape are demons. That should tell you a little something about this topsy-turvy Christian fantasy.

Wormwood's human has just become a Christian. But with a little help from his uncle, Wormwood hopes to change that, to reverse the damage, to keep him *his*. Readers only view Screwtape's letters to Wormwood, so, we have to piece together the rest of the story, in a way. Readers can piece together that there is a world war going on. Also perhaps that Wormwood's human dies in a bomb raid.

Screwtape's letters are packed with advice on how to keep Wormwood's human from being an effective Christian. How to keep him from praying, for example, to name just one. What Screwtape and Wormwood fail to understand is the futility of their efforts. True, C.S. Lewis may not have known how futile himself. Since Lewis most likely believed that one could 'fall from grace' and 'lose salvation.' But. Putting all that aside, one knows from Scripture that isn't the case.

And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day. For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.” John 6:39-40

My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father's hand. I and the Father are one.” John 10:27-30

Can believers benefit from reading Screwtape Letters? I think so. The letters are engaging, and, give readers plenty to think about.

From the first letter: "Your business is to fix his attention on the stream. [The stream of immediate sense experiences]. Teach him to call it 'real life' and don't let him ask you what he means by 'real.'" (2)

From the second letter: "He has not been anything like long enough with the Enemy to have any real humility yet. What he says, even on his knees, about his own sinfulness, is all parrot talk. At bottom, he still believes he has run up a very favorable credit balance in the Enemy's ledger by allowing himself to be converted, and thinks that he is showing great humility and condescension in going to church with these 'smug' commonplace neighbors at all. Keep him in that state of mind as long as you can." (6)

From the third letter: "You must bring him to a condition in which he can practise self-examination for an hour without discovering any of those facts about himself which are perfectly clear to anyone who has ever lived in the same house with him or worked in the same office." (7)
"It is, no doubt, impossible to prevent his praying for his mother, but we have means of rendering the prayers innocuous. Make sure that they are always very "spiritual," that he is always concerned with the state of her soul and never with her rheumatism. Two advantages will follow. In the first place, his attention will be kept on what he regards as her sins, by which, with a little guidance from you, he can be induced to mean any of her actions which are inconvenient or irritating to himself. In the second place, since his ideas about her soul will be very crude and often erroneous, he will, in some degree, be praying for an imaginary person, and it will be your task to make that imaginary person daily less and less like the real mother--the sharp-tongued old lady at the breakfast table." (8)

From the fourth letter: "It is funny how mortals always picture us as putting things into their minds: in reality our best work is done by keeping things out" (11).
"The simplest is to turn their gaze away from Him towards themselves." (11)

From the fifth letter: "In wartime not even a human can believe that he is going to live forever." (15)

From the seventh letter: "All extremes except devotion to the Enemy are to be encouraged" (20).

From the ninth letter: "Never forget that when we are dealing with pleasure in its healthy and normal and satisfying form, we are, in a sense, on the Enemy's ground." (26)

From the twelfth letter: "Do remember, the only thing that matters is the extent to which you separate the man from the Enemy. It does not matter how small the sins are, provided that their cumulative effect is to edge the man away from the Light and out into the Nothing....Indeed, the safest road to Hell is the gradual one--the gentle slope, soft underfoot, without sudden turnings, without milestones, without signposts." (36)

From the sixteenth letter: "Surely you know that if a man can't be cured of churchgoing, the next best thing is to send him all over the neighborhood looking for the church that 'suits' him until he becomes a taster or connoisseur of churches." (46)

From the nineteenth letter: "Nothing matters at all except the tendency of a given state of mind, in given circumstances, to move a particular patient at a particular moment nearer to the Enemy or nearer to us." (56-7)

From the twenty-first letter: "Let him have the feeling that he starts each day as the lawful possessor of twenty-four hours." (61)

From the twenty-fifth letter: "What we want, if men become Christians at all, is to keep them in the state of mind I call 'Christianity And...' (73)

From the twenty-seventh letter: "Anything, even a sin, which has the total effect of moving him close up to the Enemy makes against us in the long run." (79)

[lycomayflower · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Entertaining (there's some sharp social commentary), and I found having to reverse the psychology, as it were, a useful intellectual exercise that worked my brain nicely (and, I think, helped me get the theological points Lewis was making). My copy ends with a "Screwtape Proposes a Toast," which I found *quite* tedious, unfortunately. Well worth a read, even if you're disinclined (as I am) to take the religious aspects.... religiously. *looks askance at LW3*

[cbl_tn · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

In a series of letters written from one demon, Screwtape, to his nephew and trainee demon, Wormwood, Lewis exposes the nature of temptation and how easy it is to rationalize sin. It didn’t take me long to realize that Lewis had “stopped preaching and started to meddling”. I didn’t like what I saw reflected in my own life. Lewis died before I was born, yet his theological, philosophical, and cultural observations still feel fresh and relevant.

[jenneth_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

 A bundle of incomplete, disordered letters fall into your lap in the candle light. Each letter's subject centers on a patient that needs tending by its invisible guide. The letters urge the recipient to work fast, avoid the Enemy, and labor to bring his patient to a glorious feast Below. The letters describe strategy for Man's destruction. The letters are written in scrawled, inky handwriting. The letters are signed "your affectionate uncle Screwtape."This collection of fictional letters from one demonic spirit to the other is a fascinating concept contrived by the great CS Lewis himself. Each letter is carefully composed in an oily, inky-black tone belonging to a well-experienced Devil named Screwtape as he instructs his nephew in training on how to condemn a human soul. Although laced with scholarly, sometimes difficult words with deep concepts and long rabbit trails, the Screwtape Letters were surprisingly enjoyable.I find the term "patient" that Screwtape and Wormwood speak of an intriguing concept. A patient, as if the human was sick and needed treatment. This one word alone creates an unsettling atmosphere to the reader. Something's just creepy when you introduce diabolical, mad scientists and doctors, Screwtape and Wormwood being no different.The Letters are almost like a Biblical devotion of what NOT to do. Time after time I would read Screwtape's advice and be forced to think: "Wow, I never thought of that as a sin before. I never thought that could be a stumbling block. I never thought that Satan could use that against me." Granted, CS Lewis's story is complete fiction, but the concepts and ideas remain true. Screwtape's deep philosophies on pride, for one, is an enlightening concept. There was so much Wormwood could do if he could simply get his unnamed patient to be prideful.My critiques are few. The readers enjoying this story must take in account that not everything Screwtape says lines up with the Biblical facts of Salvation, God, Hell, or souls. Lewis disclaims this fact in the Letter's preface: "Readers are advised to remember that the devil is a liar. Not everything that Screwtape says should be assumed to be true even from his own angle." In the book, Screwtape seems to believe that Salvation can be lost--rather, it can be renounced, and with it, the soul's eternal security. He makes mention of this often in the book, and this, plus Lewis's comment about Susan in the Last Battle, I assume he believes you can "give back" your Salvation. According to Jesus in John 10:29, "No man is able to pluck them out of my Father's hand."Another Biblical inaccuracy takes place near the end of the correspondence. Screwtape mentions a Feast where the demons devour lost human souls they've dragged to Hell. In the terms he describes it, it appears that these souls are consumed, totally, by the demons who currently reside in Hell (quite comfortably, it would seem). In the Bible, Jesus mentions that "the worm dieth not," the "worm" being mankind's soul. So unless the devoured soul continues to be conscious in the demons' bodies, in fiery agony for eternity, this picture Lewis has described can't be considered accurate. Also, Satan is implied to be living in Hell with his demons, all of them unbound and free to do evil. The only demons in Hell, currently, are the ones that have been bound there specifically by God and His angels. The others are free on earth, in no torment...yet. In Lewis's work, it appears as if Hell were a "base" of the demons. Their Heaven. It doesn't sound like a place of torment for them.Bear in mind with these inaccuracies that Lewis does mention in his preface that not all of which you read, even coming from Screwtape, is true. Screwtape gets much of his information from Satan, who is a liar.I find it interesting, and almost sad, that the demons can't comprehend Love. Multiple times Screwtape is baffled over why God would love His creation so much. Why one measly soul is so important to Him. Screwtape vents that it must be some secret He and His creatures are keeping from them. It can't possibly be as simple as He says it is.All in all, I really enjoyed this book, heavy as it may be.Things to Watch Out For:Romance: Demons speak of sex, the way it was intended, and then the way they can twist it to their own means. They use sexual temptation to trip up the patient, but they didn't use descriptions that were too uncomfortable. Demons don't care about going into detail. They don't have the same desires as Man.Language: Talk of damnation, "Hell forbid," "By Hell."Violence: talk of the blitz and bombings during the War, detailed descriptions of human soul consumption and the likeDrugs: mention of smoking and drinking by the patient or other humans that Screwtape talks ofNudity: NAOther: Some slight Biblical inaccuracies such as losing Salvation, Hell, and eternal suffering of souls

[nospi-2 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Brilliant satire on the human condition

[maureencean · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I've put this on my shelf to re-read in print. Not all books can be thoughtfully processed while driving. It was not dense, but the style, a one-sided correspondence, brooked no distraction. I don't believe in the devil, and the depiction of the bureaucracy devoted to his service was comical. The insight into man's behavior and faith, and how they might be manipulated, and are in fact constantly manipulated by the forces of good and evil, was cogent to the point of discomfort at times. Will be looking for a copy at a book sale.

[Pilarmdvl · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Excellent book, easy to read. I laughed a lot because one can see themselves reflected in many of the moments described, as they are generally from the everyday life of any person, but for that same reason it forces you to reflect and pay attention to your life. Perfect to gift to practicing and non-practicing Christians, to the lukewarm and distant; it serves all of us. It is written with a certain charming irony, without inquisitiveness. Of course, the author is top-notch, which makes a big difference. (Translated from Spanish)

[Michellesoto · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

What a curious book, it keeps you hooked imagining everything that happens around those letters. We can see how human life takes twists and turns without even knowing their name. (Translated from Spanish)

[March Delgado · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

In a display of imagination, which we already knew this writer possessed, he has even dared to publish the letters that Screwtape, a devil, sent to his nephew Wormwood. I loved the satire present in each of these thirty-one letters, and I would have liked to know the letters sent by the nephew to understand both versions; the uncle’s perspective is so intelligent and has made me think so much that I can't find a fault with it. The image of the "patient," about whom we know practically nothing but around whom everything revolves, the soul that is intended to be obtained, is interesting. I was struck by the obsession with the mother or the girlfriend, but considering that the first edition is from 1942, there are certain things that can be forgiven. It is very well written, capturing both what draws us towards evil and what keeps us away from it very well. A short book that does not reach 150 pages, it is read very quickly and leaves a very good taste. Totally recommended. (Translated from Spanish)

[drewandlori · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

A "what not to do" guide for Christians. Gotta love it.

[Roiny Chumpitaz · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Excellent book by C. S. Lewis, which offers a very novel approach to spiritual attacks in everyday life. In each of the 31 letters received by an inexperienced demon, we find different ways the devil uses to hinder the spiritual growth of a believer. If you wish to advance as a believer in God, it is worth reflecting on the strategies presented in this book, to be aware and able to identify them in our lives. Highly recommended reading. (Translated from Spanish)

[LucasBerruezo · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

THE SCREWTAPE LETTERS is an epistolary novel in which a demon named Screwtape writes to his nephew Wormwood, a lesser and novice demon, in order to advise him on how to corrupt and lose the soul of a man. Written by the English author Clive Staples Lewis (better known as C. S. Lewis and globally famous for his series THE CHRONICLES OF NARNIA), the novel was published in 1942, during World War II.

C. S. Lewis was a multifaceted intellectual, with undeniable complexity and depth. A writer, essayist, professor, literary critic, medievalist, and Christian thinker, he deployed in these letters all his theological knowledge to unravel not only the "secrets" of the nature of God and demons but also the complexities of human nature and Salvation. In fact, through Screwtape's recommendations, we learn what demons focus on when tempting men, and thus we glimpse human weaknesses and the nature of what we generally understand by "sin," which often does not correspond to what demons (and God Himself) understand by it. Furthermore, everything is written in a simple style that makes reading enjoyable and strikes with the force of what combines the profound with the comprehensible.

Using satire as a tool, Lewis presents a hell that is characteristic of the 20th century: an "office" where efficient work is done. In this way, demons work to achieve their objective: the consumption of human souls, if not of the demons themselves. Wormwood aims for the perdition of the soul of the "patient" assigned to him. If he succeeds, that soul will be absorbed by the demons in an act of appropriation and annulment; if he fails and the man is saved, he himself will be absorbed by his uncle. This is what infernal nature is about: denying the essence of others through the annulment of the weaker by the stronger. For this reason, unlike God, who allows all His creation to be, the lord of the demons is the one who wants everything for himself.

There are several themes developed in THE SCREWTAPE LETTERS: virtue, love, modesty, time, sorrows, pleasures, laughter, prayer, ownership, free will, death, hatred, and a long list of etceteras. Addressed with intelligence and depth, these themes often surprise by revealing a reality different from what we are accustomed to seeing. Sometimes, what we believe to be bad is not that bad, and what we consider good is nothing but a trick of the demon to confuse and lead us astray.

Given the characteristics of this article, it would be impossible to develop even a small part of these mentioned aspects. Therefore, I will settle for pointing out at least one: that of ownership. According to THE SCREWTAPE LETTERS, humans own nothing, and believing oneself to be the owner of something is a deception of the demon. Primarily, this deception centers on two aspects that form part of humanity's indisputable convictions: ownership over time and over one's own body.

1. It is absurd for man to believe he owns his time: "Man cannot make or hold onto a single moment of time; all time is a pure gift; for the same reason, he could consider the sun and the moon his possessions" (Letter XXI).

2. It is absurd for man to feel he owns his body: "Humans are always claiming properties that are equally ridiculous in Heaven and Hell, and we must ensure they continue doing so. Much of modern resistance to chastity stems from the belief that men are 'owners' of their bodies; those vast and dangerous lands, pulsing with the energy that created the Universe, in which they find themselves without having given their consent and from which they are expelled when Another sees fit!" (Letter XXI)

3. Conclusion: "And throughout all this time, the funny thing is that the word 'mine,' in its fully possessive sense, cannot be uttered by a human being regarding anything. Ultimately, either Our Father or the Enemy will say 'mine' of everything that exists, especially of all men. They will discover in the end, do not fear, to whom their time, souls, and bodies truly belong; certainly not to them, no matter what happens. In the present, the Enemy says 'mine' about everything, with the pedantic legalistic excuse that He made it. Our Father waits to say 'mine' of everything in the end, based on the more realistic and dynamic foundation of having conquered it." (Letter XXI)

With these three quotes, one can see how one of the many themes that THE SCREWTAPE LETTERS develops and delves into is approached.

Without a doubt, we are facing a revelatory book in many ways, which is well worth reading and rereading continuously, time and time again. (Translated from Spanish)

[dazzyj_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

A subtle and profound exploration of the nature and causes of sins, reflecting a lifetime of thinking about the subject by a powerful intellect. Interesting even to this atheist.

[fuzzi_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

"The Screwtape Letters" was interesting, challenging, clever, and funny.

Each short chapter is a letter written by devil/demon Screwtape, sent to his nephew, Wormwood, regarding the latter's work. The nephew has a human he is supposed to protect from becoming a Christian, but doesn't do a good job of it despite his uncle's advice and suggestions.

I wasn't sure about this book at first: it sat on my shelves for probably ten years, unread. As I read each chapter, I began to see how well the author described humans and their nature, and used that knowledge to create an amusing little book about how people think, react, and justify themselves. It doesn't whitewash how those who consider themselves Christians don't always act in a Christian manner, either.

The additional material at the end, "Screwtape Proposes a Toast", was marvelous. C.S. Lewis just nails human nature as it truly exists.

This book is recommended for all, religious or non-religious.

[kathleen586 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I really liked this book overall, but I would have liked it even more if it weren't for Lewis's doctrinal differences. The major difference is that Lewis apparently believed people could lose their salvation. This belief drives the plot of the book. (The devils are trying to get the Christians to lose their salvation.)

[tyroeternal · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

The Screwtape Letters was a really great story. It was insightful and convicting all the while being entertaining.
Right off the bat, the unusual perspective had me hooked. A story about good, told from the perspective of evil; it's not something I would have ever thought of myself. Tucked between moments that made me laugh were also convicting reminders and insights on how sin finds its way into my life. I will definitely keep this book on my list of recommended reading.

[renzomalo · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

“The Screwtape Letters” was my first foray into the mind of C. S. Lewis and I found it interesting and timeless. Written at the height of WWII in 1942, Lewis’s warnings about the false hope and change of “social justice” and “self-esteem” (then referred to as parity of esteem) have unfortunately become fulfilled predictions. In “Screwtape Proposes a Toast” (added twenty years later) Lewis again points to the then (1962) disturbing trend of everyone being equal, this despite obvious and significant differences. No one can be – or at least can be thought of as being – better than another, and he goes on to reinforce the notion that salvation of Democracies (free people) lies in the salvation of the individual – not the collective.
A very refreshing, enlightening and timeless read.

[kristelh_15 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

The Screwtape Letters was written by C.S.Lewis in 1942 with WW2 as the backdrop. This is a series of letters (epistolary style literary work) written by Screwtape to his young nephew, Wormwood, advising him on how to secure the soul of 'the patient'. It also contained the sequel, Screwtape Proposes a Toast in which Screwtape addressed the graduating class of tempters. This was published in 1959 and addresses the politics of the post war world. C.S.Lewis uses this satirical format to address the Christian life. Many of the chapters discuss love. Letter 19 addresses God's love for humanity. Letter 26 addresses courtship. I also very much enjoyed the letters on time, reality, music and noise. There is so much in this little book that rereading it many times would not exhaust the nuggets of truth.