The Screwtape Letters by C. S. Lewis
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Book Reviews of The Screwtape Letters
Book Review: C.S Lewis is criticizing secular Materialism and intellectual skeptism
Summary: 5 Stars
C.S Lewis reveals the paradox of World II, opposes Englands involvment in the war, warns against the false beliefs of war, the Nazi dillusion of anti-semitic hatred, and praises the Jewish unconquerable spirit of faith in the Lord. C.S Lewis illustrates two opposing idealogies and the subtle tactics of the enemy groups. Each group believes they can win and this increases the tension as the teacher advises the student as he illustrates the complexity and distress of the situtations. One group is the personification of Good and the other the personification of evil. It is difficult to know of C.S Lewis was condemning one group over another. However, it does seem reasonable that the primary issue of the day was resentment of Jewish commerce, banking, and elitism verses maintaining the estabish religious and economic order.
Good: God wants man to be concerned about "What to do".
Bad: The enemy wants man to keep men thinking about what will "Happen to Them".
Good: Reasoning awakens in man, action that cannot be foreseen by the enemy.
Bad: Jargon, not argument is the tempters best ally, in keeping man from church. First, the tempter is too make the man think , he is strong, or stark, or courageous. Second, tell man, he must learn "real life" and constrain all his believes and actions within the framework of "real life". Third, focus on the pressures of the ordinary and keep man occupied with the ordinary pressures: entertainment, careers, hobbies, and peer conformance as a means of control. Fourth, when a spiritual awakening is emerging divert the experience by attempting to postpone the experience, giving the man time to reevaluate and return too what is "real life" by appealing to his carnal desires, appetites, and passions; "It is much better too come back after lunch and go into it with a fresh mind". Fourth, don't attempt to use science as a defense, it will encourage man to think about realities he can not touch or see, instead keep him focused on the study of economics and sociology, both "non-precise and non provable" arts.
Good: God's power and presence is terrible as an army with banners. The tempters fear God and his presence makes them uneasy.
Good: Experience is the prize and experience increases knowledge and increases light and enlarges man's understanding of truth. Man is a free agent. The Lord works from the heart outward and conduct and behavior change under the new standard.
Many of the Holocaust Jews, in the death camps, found meaning for life, enjoyed simple pleasures, and kept their eyes upon the Lord.
Bad: The tempter job is too narrow experience too the ordinary and void man of "man's search for meaning and happiness". Doing kept the Holocaust Jews from falling in despair; charity to their brothers maintained with humanity even as they were starving; hope in the Lord provided power to endure.
Bad: Materialism and Skeptical philosophy is impossible when tempter have direct interaction with man. Therefore, in order for the philosophies of materialism and skepticism too flourish, the enemy must remain invisible to humans. Here lies the danger, `If man gets through this initial dryness successfully, the man becomes less dependant of emotion and therefore much harder to tempt."
Good: Man is to keep his focus on God. The Lord's servant is too be the lest among men and the most helpful of man, both humble and meek.
Bad: The enemy encourages his tempters to distract man, too keep man's mind off the most elementary duties by directing focus to the most advanced spiritual ones. The enemy of righteousness suggests that spiritual self -righteousness is justified and that the family is not important. The enemy desires man, the neglect of the obvious and "bringing him to a condition where he can examine for an hour without discovering any facts about himself."
Good. Prayer is encouraged for all men. God expects all men to pray with concentration of will and intelligence.
Bad: If is possible keep the patient from the serious intention of praying and encourage parrot like prayers of childhood and encourage spontaneous, inward, informal, and un regularized prayer. Work at keeping spiritual hope and concepts out of the mind of the patient and turn the patients gaze away from Christ towards himself; keep them watching their own minds and trying to produce feeling thereby the action of their own wills; keep him focused on the sins of others and their state of soul never about the rheumatism or alignments causing pain. So, keep the patient focused on the sins of others and let the definition of sin be anything that is inconvenient or irritating; encourage the patient to watch for Tones or expressions on the faces as signs to be preyed upon); keep rubbing the wounds a little sorer each day; all the man to pray for this imaginary individual who man being demonized by the patient and make the person who is the object of prayer less human each day. Mastery is achieved when a man can be turned on a moments notice from impassionate prayer to beating or insulting the real wife without qualm. "If you can secure his soul, you will have a chalice of despair, horror, and astonishment which you can raise your lips to as often as you like".
Good: The enemy uses both patrotism and pacificism as tools to gain control. God teach man to live in peace and avoid extremes.
Bad: The enemy and his tempters have unquenchable hunger for suffering, pain, misery, commerce, gain, and control. The Lord tells man war is evil and to be avoided. The enemy finds war entertaining and both the fear and suffering of humans entertaining. The Lord reminds men that war bring death, carnage, and injustice. The enemy glamorizes war.
Book Review: A must-read classic of the 20th century.
Summary: 5 Stars
C.S. Lewis is clearly one of the masters of 20th century prose. His theological ideas are very succulent in their purpose and while I may not agree with every doctrinal belief of his, the essence of his message is a very pure one - fulfilment comes only from submitting your will to the Father, through loyal service, dedication, and love (which He very happily returns to you in limitless abounds).
"The Screwtape Letters" is a collection of epistles from the senior devil Screwtape to his junior 'tempter-in-training' nephew, Wormwood. The contents of Scewtape's letters are various discourses on how to spiritually influence the tempter's human "patient" into staying as far away from God as possible.
Through this devil's advocate style of writing, we are given a very interesting glimpse into the workings of the evil one and how he can gradually pull people away from the Father through subtle tactical advances.
Many times through reading Screwtape's letters as he discussed the behaviour of Wormwood's patient, I would have to stop myself and think, "Wow, I have acted exactly the same in that situation before" and Lewis begins to open up your perception of your own behaviour with an accurate objective commentary of our human thought processes - and the way in which they can be turned against us, e.g. how realising one's own humility can easily turn into a form of spiritual pride.
Most surprisingly, was a passage where Screwtape discusses how God's only desire is for every human being to become exactly as his Son is, to the point where they realise that they are themselves sons and daughters of God. Lewis definitely understands the very core of Jesus' teachings, no matter how much Christianity has corrupted them over the years.
Fiction-wise, all of the characters mentioned are given to us in brief glimpses at different times in the book, to the point where while there may not be large amounts of detail on them all, you could give a good description of each at the end of reading the entire book.
Some of the more "story" focused elements are quite fun, and give us a glimpse into the 'mythos' that Lewis has obviously given some thought to before writing the "Letters". While some events are quite enjoyable, even humorous at times (such as when Screwtape's momentary anger causes him to involuntarily transform into a giant centipede) I felt slightly disappointed that there weren't more plot elements or details of this demonic "world" that Lewis' characters live in - although perhaps this was to preserve the authentic tone of the letters and the fluidity with which the book progresses.
Overall, some passages touched me so deeply that I would have to ponder on them for some time before continuing on. I must admit that some of Lewis' ideas were so profound; they went over my head completely (I'm only 17 and have no qualms about admitting that I still have much more to learn, spiritually and intellectually). I hope that with future re-readings of this book (which for me, there most definitely will be!) I will pick up on things I had missed last time and, with hope, have a few more moments of inspired revelation.
This is most definitely a classic which should be read by everyone, religious or not. It will open up your mind to many philosophical ideas about the nature of human beings and the psychological way in which we perceive spirituality.
For those looking purely for a fictional reading experience, this one may be a little scant on details to satisfy your curiosity.
I have no hesitations in recommending this book with a stellar 5/5 stars.
Book Review: Screwtape Speaks
Summary: 5 Stars
My Dear Amazonians
My diabolical letters having fallen into the hands of one of the Enemy's followers named Lewis they are being abused by the Enemy's camp for their own nefarious soteriological ends so for now perhaps Amazon is the way forward. My letters were directed to my nephew Wormwood a junior devil on a tempting assignment working on a new Christian. He ultimately failed yet it wasn't a total loss as Wormwood became a nice gastronomically satisfying quiche which I immensely enjoyed eating. I narrowly escaped becoming a souffle myself by telling numerous lies to my superior blaming a whole host of junior tempters. I don't know if he really believed me but I do know he relished snacking on those junior mints as I spun my yarn to him. Still Wormwood could have had his man because men are fools and when they realize this is when they begin to approach the Enemy's camp in earnest. Our job is to make them believe they are truly fine fellows in fact maybe a little better than their neighbor a little superior than the rest and then the slide towards our fathers camp is all but assured. What the Enemy calls pride we call shrimp on the barbie. I tried to give Wormwood useful counsel on this in my letters:
"Your patient has become humble; have you drawn his attention to the fact? All virtues are less formidable to us once the man is aware that he has them, but this is specially true of humility. Catch him at the moment when he is really poor in spirit and smuggle into his mind the gratifying reflection, "By jove! I'm being humble", and almost immediately pride--pride at his own humility--will appear. If he awakes to the danger and tries to smother this new form of pride, make him proud of his attempt--and so on, through as many stages as you please. But don't try this too long, for fear you awake his sense of humour and proportion, in which case he will merely laugh at you and go to bed. ... You must therefore conceal from the patient the true end of Humility. Let him think of it not as self-forgetfulness but as a certain kind of opinion (namely, a low opinion) of his own talents and character. ... He (the Enemy) wants to kill their animal self-love as soon as possible; but it is His long-term policy, I fear, to restore to them a new kind of self-love--a charity and gratitude for all selves, including their own; when they have really learned to love their neighbors as themselves, they will be allowed to love themselves as their neighbors. For we must never forget what is the most repellent and inexplicable trait in our Enemy; He really loves the hairless bipeds He has created and always gives back to them with His right hand what He has taken away with His left."
It is with gems such as these that I filled my letters to Wormwood yet the bumbler still lost the prize for my fathers kingdom and his patient made it safely into the Enemy camp. Legions of Devils, Thorns, and Shadies are plying our trade today and we are positively on the march winning victories for the kingdom below as people turn to self and turn away from the face of the Enemy.
Ravenously yours
Screwtape
Book Review: Enjoyable and deep
Summary: 5 Stars
Whenever I review a book on a topic having to do with religion or politics, I always like to read the good and bad reviews. The bad reviews on this book are just amusing. This book is condemned as everything from sophmoric to "Christian brainwashing." Anti-Christians exist just like anti-Semites and anti-Muslims and anti-Black and so forth.
Anyway, the book is a pleasure to read. I suppose if you are hostile to open thought like many anti-Christians claim not to be, then you shouldn't read this if you aren't a Christian. C.S. Lewis never tried to hide his religion or his faith so how it comes as a surprise to some people that all of his books have a similar theme is beyond me.
So the book is a series of letters written by the elder of two demons, Screwtape. In his letters he is writing to his nephew, Wormwood is out for the first time to bring about the spiritual ruin of his target, a young man.
Through the letters, it is revealed the favorite tactics of the demon, such as creating a feeling of malaise and apathy in an individual so that they waste away time or fostering a resentment against family members.
There is a continuing sense of humor in the letters as Screwtape becomes more and more annoyed by Wormwood's growing number of mistakes, such as allowing the man to remember to pray to God.
The book delivers many messages, all of which are relevant today. One of the messages delivered is that spiritual ruin does not occur in one fell swoop but over time. The demons are patient and persistant. The fall from grace is gradual, much like any other form of corruption. I suppose these messages might not be accepted by some but what about the other messages, such as not giving in to apathy and by forgiving others, both of which are seen as counter-productive to the demons.
For Christians, this is a wonderful book. Like much of his work, there is alot of allusion here. Does C.S. Lewis really believe that there is a department somewhere in Hell where demons do paperwork like some office building here on Earth? Or are the demons symbolic of our own internal struggle? Is it a demon that makes you lie or is it your own self giving in to your selfish desires? The book shows through the letters, how our internal struggles can turn us away from God over time.
For non-Christians, well for those who aren't outright hostile towards this faith, this is a book that you can enjoy as well. So you may not believe in the Christian God or any god but that doesn't stop you from enjoying the Star Wars movies, now does it? There are still positive messages to be found in this book. Messages which can make all of us better people.
Book Review: We get to read ol' Splitfoot's mail.
Summary: 5 Stars
In the original preface, Lewis says "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."Lewis had what I consider, a very biblically orthodox and, if I may say, HEALTHY conception of "devils". For him, the devil was NOT an equal power opposite to God, or in any way self-existent from all eternity. The devil was, and is, a created being... originally good, but fallen. An angel, who by the abuse of free will became an enemy to God, and as a corollary, to us. As such, he is the opposite not of God but of Michael (the Archangel).
Anyhoo... in the summer of 1940 Lewis set out to write this book which "would consist of letters from an elderly retired devil who had just started work on his first 'patient'. The idea would be to give all the psychology of temptation from the other point of view."
The result is this collection of thirty-one intercepted letters between the senior devil (Screwtape) and his nephew Wormwood who has been assigned the damnation of one man's soul.
It is brilliant.
Here we see how the everyday life of the 'patient' looks from the viewpoint of Hell... how the many daily temptations are designed to chip away at the very foundation of who he is... to lead him not toward Heaven, but away from it. What is notable is the subtle nature of the temptations... ie., to be picky about what you eat, to hop from church to church, to argue, etc., rather than (for instance) to go out and shoot your neighbor. All is "good" in Screwtape's world as long as it leads ever so gradually downwards! Throughout the course of the letters, the state of this particular patient's soul undulates as he experiences a conversion, doubt, dangerous friendships, war, love, and finally, in death, oneness with God.
The theology latent in this work of fiction is undeniably Christian. Those readers with even the slightest Christian sensiblilties will be further convinced that there are unseen forces presently at work in all of us, whose goal is to sap life in the here AND after! For other readers, as Anthony Burgess once said, "Lewis is the ideal persuader for the half-convinced, for the man who would like to be a Christian but finds his intellect getting in the way."
And, oh yes, "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."
Remember whose mail we're reading after all!