Screwtape Letter

The demons that lurk around each and every one of us, in the darkness and shadows, can use things like reality or bad influences and many other ways to get in their “patient’s” head. The demons can’t even use the same things that God uses, to get to us; the demons just use it in an evil way. In The Screwtape letters, all of these pains plus many more pains are used to lure “Patients” towards the darkness. In the Gospel of Matthew, we are warned about demons and other false teachings, “beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they ravening wolves” (Matthew 7:15).

Have you ever wondered how demons try and lead us away from God and begin to sin? In the Screwtape Letters C.S Lewis shows us how a demon named Screwtape guides his nephew Wormwood on how to make sure their “patient” stays away from Christianity. The Screwtape Letters is an Epistolary novel that was written during World War II. In this novel God is considered “The Enemy” and Satan is “Our Father.” The main characters in this novel are Wormwood, Screwtape, and the patient. Screwtape is a demon who writes his nephew Wormwood from hell. Screwtape teaches his nephew the different steps of keeping his “patient” away from God. Humans are called patients by demons because they are trying to lead humans away from God. In this novel we don’t really

In one such part, Screwtape writes to his nephew that he should keep the patient in the church. He records that, “One of our great allies at present is the church itself.” (5). Ironic because the church contains the truth about God which would ruin Wormwood’s patient. If the patient stays in the church, he will eventually hear the truth. Screwtape also warns his nephew about the use of science and logic. Addressing his nephew, Screwtape composes, “Above all, do not attempt to use science (I mean, the real sciences) as a defense against Christianity. They will positively encourage him to think about realities he can’t touch and see.” (4). Ironically, if Screwtape really, truly believed his own beliefs, he would encourage his nephew to employ logic to uncover the truth. However, Screwtape knows his beliefs stand untruthful and logic and science would find the lies in Wormwood’s arguments. Furthermore, Jesus could also destroy Wormwood’s flimsy arguments. Warned by Screwtape that, “He (Jesus) has to be a ‘great man’ in the modern sense of the word,” (125) Wormwood endeavored to fulfill this demand. This statement displays the irony written by Screwtape. Screwtape doesn’t demand Wormwood convince the patient that Jesus exists; he simply tells him to convince the patient that Jesus is a great man. One would think the smart thing to do would be to convince the patient that Jesus does not exist whatsoever. Clearly, C.S Lewis uses irony

But the more man looks for this meaning, this certainty, the more it becomes obscure for him, because he looks for it in the wrong way, just like the persona who is always "wrong to the light," and therefore can not see what he is looking for. He is then taunted for his seemingly useless search. But he continues to look at the well, because it gives him a picture of himself looking like a god. Though seemingly useless, the looking into the well gives the persona the feeling of loftiness, to the point of arrogance. This then, brings up another point - the persona sees himself as a god, but ironically, he is a god who does not see the truth. The image of his godlike figure is juxtaposed with his ungodly blindness, and this blindness is not caused by an outside force, but by the persona himself.

Lewis refers to God, Satan and Hell many different ways. When mentioning God, he uses the term “The Enemy” which in our minds, would normally be in reference to Satan. He also refers to him as “The Father Above,” and to Satan as “Our Father Below” and “High Command.” Hell is referred to as “Our Father’s House.” “Screwtape Letters” is written with this context because it is from the point of view of a demon who goes by the name of Screwtape. This is satirical, it is the opposite of the way we would normally think. In our minds, we think of God as “High Command,” and as Our Father, not as “The

“The long, dull, monotonous years of middle-aged prosperity or middle-aged diversity are excellent campaigning weather.” Screwtape wished to drag out the Christian’s life and turn it into a purposeless, repeating roll-play. He wanted to slowly and despairingly tear the Christian from God and so tear him from the only true hope and life and joy there is in this world. Do not be alarmed, though, because God is stronger that the demons and He, “having oddly destined these mere animals to life in His own eternal world, has guarded them pretty effectively from the danger of feeling at home anywhere else.” Screwtape admits that God insures his children a place in his forever home and an everlasting joy. Additionally, Screwtape refers to humans as “mere animals.” God created us in His image, which sets us apart from the animals. Screwtape therefore was trying to degrade humankind, to lower us, and how can any of us, humans, feel sympathy for one who so hates us

The patient in The Screwtape Letters is an interesting character. He is a struggle for Wormwood who is trying to keep him close to the Devil. I see him as a writer who has been put into the army to do defence work. I see him as a writer who was a professor so his knowledge is very extensive in many things in life.

In the Screwtape Letters, it talked a lot about how the devil can distract a Christian. A devil can shift a person’s focus on God with random thoughts and actions. In the book, Wormwood is told by Screwtape to distract his patient from converting to Christianity. Even along the patient's journey of getting into church and being a better follower of God, Wormwood found any little way to make his mind wander. Even today the devil can shift a Christians focus to mundane thoughts. So as we go through Screwtape letters looking at the distractions used by Screwtape lets also think about what mundane things the devil can do to us today.

In the Screwtape Letter, by C.S. Lewis, Srewtape insists that all pleasures are created by the Enemy, meaning God, and that demons have not figured out how to create them. It’s an idea commonly seen in Christian theology. God brought all things into this world to be good, and those things can and have been corrupted by demons and the lot. What Screwtape is saying is that, God wants people to experience pleasure, and that it is a demon’s job to corrupt a person’s sense of that pleasure.

demon, Screwtape, addressed to his nephew, Wormwood. Wormwood is assigned his first “patient” and it is his skilled Uncle Screwtape’s job to help him through the process. A patient is the demon’s human that they are assigned to keep away from God and to constantly face with temptation. Screwtape receives reports from Wormwood each week and then responds with advice and techniques. Screwtape highlights many different ways to keep us from following God, especially with limiting our understanding of “real” to mean only the material (23). In other words, demons don’t want us to think about the spiritual world around us, only about real materials lacking the meaning of the purpose of life so that we don’t ask questions about what will happen to us after death.

I chose to do my research and reading on The Screwtape Letters written by C.S Lewis, which is a novel written in unique perspective of a Senior Devil named Screwtape who writes thirty-one letters to his nephew Wormwood who can be considered somewhat of a novice devil or demon of some sort. In these letters, as readers, we find that they are undated and that they are meant to offer advice to his younger demon nephew as he attempts to steal the soul of a human, referred to as “the patient”. We are first introduced to the concept of “the patient” rather than “the human” when Screwtape explains to Wormwood about one of his first experiences with one. In his first letter, Screwtape explains that the best way to lose the human is if the human somehow decides to use reason because at that point, his reason will take him to God. He does this by teaching his nephew that, “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” (2). Ironically, the devil 's resort to calling God, “the Enemy”. We are first introduced to this idea in the introduction on the first letter when Screwtape states that “The trouble about argument is that it moves the whole struggle on to the Enemy 's ground” (2). Wormwood must find his opportunities by getting his patient to make unwise choices or let his emotions get the best of him. When the patient turns to

According to an article by Larry D. Harwood , “Lewis’s Screwtape Letters: the Ascetic Devil and Aesthetic God”, he states The Screwtape Letters portrays Lewis’s evil character and the principles of the “realism, dignity, and austerity of Hell” (2004). “In The Screwtape Letters Lewis portrays God as a lavish materialist affirming delight in a sensual as a part of being human. Lewis depicts the pleasures of sense...To Screwtape it appears that God took a gamble that not only makes little sense, but also appears to have come with costs to himself.” (Harwood, 2004). According to the article “Lewis's Screwtape Letters: the Ascetic Devil and the Aesthetic God” the mood of The Screwtape Letters is dusty, gritty as Lewis depicts Hell, due to the tone

In The Screwtape Letters, the topic of love appears continuously throughout the text. In different ways, it is seen that the theme of love is used. Love is commonly understood as a deep feeling for another but C.S describes God’s love as so much more. God’s love is unchanging and no matter what wrong is committed, he will continue to love. Whether it is seen in the patients love of Christ, his love of his mother, or his love for his romantic partner, they all point to one prominent thing, God. Screwtape and Wormwood continuously fight throughout the book to strip the patient of the things that he loves in his life to ultimately lead him away from the true source of love, which they call the enemy, Christ.

In 1942 in the United Kingdom C.S. Lewis published his book, The Screwtape Letters. This book is filled with the deep contemplating and theology that Lewis incorporates into much of his work. Whether it is allusions that come from the Bible or the personification of demons, C.S. Lewis is undeniably a prolific and talented author. The Emanuel Church in Rochester believes that the Screwtape Letters have a different twist from normal Christian books as it is from the demon’s perspective. The Church stated, “C.S. Lewis masterfully uses this unique style of writing to present many of the common weaknesses in a Christians life and then gives the reader encouragement… Lewis is known as a skilled writer and may be a little difficult at first to get

Douglas, the narrator, presents the book in the introduction involving two children to be another turn of the screw. This concept paints a