The Screwtape Letters

published	February 2001 by HarperSanFrancisco
binding	Paperback
isbn	0060652934 (isbn13: 9780060652937)
pages	224
description	Who among us has never wondered if there might not really be a tempter sitting on our shoulders or dogging our steps? C.S. Lewis dispels all doubts. I...more [close] Who among us has never wondered if there might not really be a tempter sitting on our shoulders or dogging our steps? C.S. Lewis dispels all doubts. In The Screwtape Letters, one of his bestselling works, we are made privy to the instructional correspondence between a senior demon, Screwtape, and his wannabe diabolical nephew Wormwood. As mentor, Screwtape coaches Wormwood in the finer points, tempting his "patient" away from God. Each letter is a masterpiece of reverse theology, giving the reader an inside look at the thinking and means of temptation. Tempters, according to Lewis, have two motives: the first is fear of punishment, the second a hunger to consume or dominate other beings. On the other hand, the goal of the Creator is to woo us unto himself or to transform us through his love from "tools into servants and servants into sons." It is the dichotomy between being consumed and subsumed completely into another's identity or being liberated to be utterly ourselves that Lewis explores with his razor-sharp insight and wit. The most brilliant feature of The Screwtape Letters may be likening hell to a bureaucracy in which "everyone is perpetually concerned about his own dignity and advancement, where everyone has a grievance, and where everyone lives the deadly serious passions of envy, self-importance, and resentment." We all understand bureaucracies, be it the Department of Motor Vehicles, the IRS, or one of our own making. So we each understand the temptations that slowly lure us into hell. If you've never read Lewis, The Screwtape Letters is a great place to start. And if you know Lewis, but haven't read this, you've missed one of his core writings. --Patricia Klein [close]
date added	03-28-07 edit book

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Keely rated it:

(review of isbn 0060652896)

05/06/08

bookshelves: fantasy, humor

Read in May, 2008

If not for the fact that this is a satire in earnest, it would serve as a powerful absurdist invective against humanity. There is a degree to which this book helped to improve my view of Christians in general, but only in the sense that it points out that all the faults which I have found in your average Christian are often just as powerful in the uncommited person, the Christian just tends to make themselves more conspicuous in it.

The sharp weapon of Lewis's rhetoric tears down humanity thr...more If not for the fact that this is a satire in earnest, it would serve as a powerful absurdist invective against humanity. There is a degree to which this book helped to improve my view of Christians in general, but only in the sense that it points out that all the faults which I have found in your average Christian are often just as powerful in the uncommited person, the Christian just tends to make themselves more conspicuous in it.

The sharp weapon of Lewis's rhetoric tears down humanity through all the self-righteous hubris, denial, misdirected hopes, and easy mistakes we pile upon ourselves in masochistic suffocation. However, one begins to develop the impression, slowly at first, that Lewis has nothing to offer in return. There are scarcely words of alternatives, let alone improvements.

Lewis does give us a house which disgusts the devils and redeems the man, but this perfect representation of Christian values seems mostly defined by a lack of any description of philosophy, excepting that it is 'suffused' by some sort of magical glow which infects the cat. Indeed, I began to get the impression that Lewis intended to fill in this section later, but that he never got around to it.

Lewis said that the writing of this text was one of the most painful that he had with any book, and that he could not bring himself to write a sequel. I find little surprise in this, because one can see how, as the book goes on, Lewis more and more recognizes and elucidates the failures of mankind but when he comes to express what makes him or his faith any different, he cannot find anything to say.

The 'suffusing glow' then becomes a stand in for Lewis's own righteousness, but it is not difficult to see that, in a book where Hubris and self-assuredness are constantly torn down, that self-righteousness is left with little to stand in.

Along with this, Lewis often presents a very advanced knowledge of rhetoric and human behavior but it oddly deficient in that he applies the same things to one side and then the other first as a positive, and then a negative.

For example, the book begins with the demon advising that humans shoud be encouraged to think of things as being 'real' without ever questioning what that means. The term 'real life' is meant to act as a self-justification for assumptions, not as an introspective view.

However, later on Lewis begins to talk about how the Christians should make sure to follow what is 'natural', without ever defining what that is. He mentions it several times and one is left with the sense that there is little distinction between 'natural life' and 'real life'.

This can hardly surprise, as Lewis maintains a philosophy of Duality. Dualitism presents the 'with us/against us' ideal by which any two groups may grow to hate one another despite the fact that they have relatively few differences. As long as one defines the other as bad, there is no need to define the self as good, as in the Dualistic system, there is only good and evil, and you are either one or the other.

The problem with this is that if one believes morality more complex than black and white, then it is not enough for him to simply say he is better or different than those who so deeply disappoint him.

That being said, it would still be refreshing to meet a Christian who had put as much thought and work into at least attempting to understand and explain themselves. Indeed, this book has reminded me that it is rare enough to find that in or out of religions. Atheists and scientists can be just as troubled, flawed, and deluded as anyone else.

The lesson I will pull from this is that it is important for me to concentrate on myself and my own growth, because worrying about everyone else didn't help Lewis, and it isn't going to help me, either....less

Like this review? yes (2 people liked it)

3 comments

MelissaS rated it:

(review of isbn 0060652896)

01/22/08

Read in August, 2002

recommends it for: Everyone

I love this book - it really makes you think. For those who have not read it, the book is written as a compilation of letters from a "tempter," Screwtape, to his nephew, a "junior tempter" named Wormwoood. In the letters, Screwtape gives Wormwood adivce and counsel on how to best tempt his "subject" - a young man who converts to Christianity, and then falls in love with a Christian woman. Through the letters, you are constantly reminded and made to think about ho...more

Like this review? yes (5 people liked it)

1 comments

Melissa rated it:

(review of isbn 0060652896)

04/01/08

bookshelves: classic-literature

Read in March, 2008

recommended to Melissa by: Michael J. Teh, general authority who quoted it in General Confe
recommends it for: my family

My favorite thing about this book is that it is so fun to talk about with others that have read it. It is a book that will be worth reading again and again and learning something new about myself each time I read it. I am coping a review from MelissaS from CT. I just copied it because it is exactly what I'm thinking and I don't see the need to repeat the work.

"I love this book - it really makes you think. For those who have not read it, the book is written as a compilation of letters...more My favorite thing about this book is that it is so fun to talk about with others that have read it. It is a book that will be worth reading again and again and learning something new about myself each time I read it. I am coping a review from MelissaS from CT. I just copied it because it is exactly what I'm thinking and I don't see the need to repeat the work.

"I love this book - it really makes you think. For those who have not read it, the book is written as a compilation of letters from a "tempter," Screwtape, to his nephew, a "junior tempter" named Wormwoood. In the letters, Screwtape gives Wormwood advice and counsel on how to best tempt his "subject" - a young man who converts to Christianity, and then falls in love with a Christian woman. Through the letters, you are constantly reminded and made to think about how the adversary tempts us. What is truly excellent about the book, though, is that the cunning plans are not centered around obvious sins, that so often are what we think about when we think about temptation and sin. Instead, the tempters focus on much more subtle forms of sins - vanity, pride, distraction, insincerity, forgetting God, and how these can achieve the same effect as more obvious sins ... to lead us away from God. Ultimately, the tempters in this story do not care what sins are committed by their subjects - so long as they accomplish their goal of separating people from God, and leading them to the adversary. In fact, they seem to prefer the more subtle means of leading people astray, as they sense that this is a more hidden and thus secure way to accomplish their ultimate design.

You cannot read this book and not think of how extremely pertinent it is to your life. C. S. Lewis has thought deeply about the things we do each that lead us away from God, and he articulates them very well. As you read the book, you are in a constant introspection of your own life, and the things that are put before you daily that lead you away from what we all desire - a close, personal, consistent, and deep relationship with God, that leads to happiness now and the hereafter. I love this book!"

...less

Like this review? yes (1 person liked it)