The Screwtape Letters

📖 The Scoop

The Screwtape Letters is a Christian apologetic novel by C.S. Lewis. It is written in a satirical, epistolary style and while it is fictional in format, the plot and characters are used to address Christian theological issues, primarily those to do with temptation and resistance to it. First published in February 1942, [1] the story takes the form of a series of letters from a senior Demon Screwtape to his nephew Wormwood, a Junior Tempter. The uncle's mentorship pertains to the nephew's responsibility in securing the damnation of a British man known only as "the Patient". SummaryEdit In The Screwtape Letters, C.S. Lewis provides a series of lessons in the importance of taking a deliberate role in Christian faith by portraying a typical human life, with all its temptations and failings, seen from devils' viewpoints. Screwtape holds an administrative post in the bureaucracy ("Lowerarchy") of Hell, and acts as a mentor to his nephew Wormwood, an inexperienced (and incompetent) tempter. In the thirty-one letters which constitute the book, Screwtape gives Wormwood detailed advice on various methods of undermining faith and of promoting sin in "the Patient", interspersed with observations on human nature and on Christian doctrine. In Screwtape's advice, selfish gain and power are seen as the only good, and neither demon can comprehend God's love for man or acknowledge human virtue. Versions of the letters were originally published weekly in the Anglican periodical The Guardian, in wartime between May and November 1941, [2][3] and the standard edition contains an introduction explaining how the author chose to write his story. Lewis wrote the sequel "Screwtape Proposes a Toast" in 1959 - a critique of certain trends in British public education. (Although Britain calls its major private schools "public schools", Lewis is referring to state schools when he criticizes "public education".) Omnibus editions with a new preface by Lewis were published by Bles in 1961 and by Macmillan in 1962. The Screwtape Letters became one of Lewis' most popular works, although he claimed that it was "not fun" to write and "resolved never to write another 'Letter'".[4] Both The Screwtape Letters and "Screwtape Proposes a Toast" have been released on both audio cassette and CD, with narrations by John Cleese, Joss Ackland and Ralph Cosham. The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis is a classic masterpiece of religious satire that entertains readers with its sly and ironic portrayal of human life and foibles from the vantage point of Screwtape, a highly placed assistant to "Our Father Below." At once wildly comic, deadly serious, and strikingly original, C.S. Lewis's The Screwtape Letters is the most engaging account of temptation--and triumph over it--ever written

Genre: Religion / Christianity / General (fancy, right?)