I picked up this book because it was recommended to me as very funny and, having been a huge fan of The Chronicles of Narnia as a child, I wanted to read an example of C.S. Lewis's overt literary argument for Christianity. I thought I might find a Christian counterpoint to Twain's Letters from the Earth. I'm afraid I was somewhat disappointed.
The Screwtape Letters is an epistolary novel with the central conceit being that C.S. Lewis has recovered letters of advice that a Demon from the depths -- Screwtape -- had written to one of his foot soldiers -- Wormwood -- whose job it was to stick by a mortal and suggest certain lines of thought to him and exaggerate certain emotions in key moments, leading him astray. We are only privy to Screwtape's letters, and it is through his criticism of his apprentice's efforts, and his advice, that the reader is to divine the mortal's story, the efforts of Wormwood, and the nature and methods of Evil and Good.
But Screwtape is Evil, …show more content…
And "The devil .. the prowde spirite .. cannot endure to be mocked." -- Thomas More. It all reminds me of St. Augustine's vision of the saved gloating over the torments of the damned. (St. Augustine also had some insights into the psychology of man.)
In fact, in Screwtape Lewis suggests the best method with which to corrupt man is to make him feel like he is doing good, being Christian, when in reality he is only doing so to feed his own pride, his own vanity. Unfortunately, I think more Christians will feel the sting of this critique in Twain's Letters from the Earth than they will in Screwtape. I'm afraid that Lewis inadvertently helps the "saved" feel comfortable in their self-regard, which, of course, would be terribly ironic, but not terribly
The Screwtape Letters is an epistolary novel with the central conceit being that C.S. Lewis has recovered letters of advice that a Demon from the depths -- Screwtape -- had written to one of his foot soldiers -- Wormwood -- whose job it was to stick by a mortal and suggest certain lines of thought to him and exaggerate certain emotions in key moments, leading him astray. We are only privy to Screwtape's letters, and it is through his criticism of his apprentice's efforts, and his advice, that the reader is to divine the mortal's story, the efforts of Wormwood, and the nature and methods of Evil and Good.
But Screwtape is Evil, …show more content…
And "The devil .. the prowde spirite .. cannot endure to be mocked." -- Thomas More. It all reminds me of St. Augustine's vision of the saved gloating over the torments of the damned. (St. Augustine also had some insights into the psychology of man.)
In fact, in Screwtape Lewis suggests the best method with which to corrupt man is to make him feel like he is doing good, being Christian, when in reality he is only doing so to feed his own pride, his own vanity. Unfortunately, I think more Christians will feel the sting of this critique in Twain's Letters from the Earth than they will in Screwtape. I'm afraid that Lewis inadvertently helps the "saved" feel comfortable in their self-regard, which, of course, would be terribly ironic, but not terribly