The Screwtape Letters – C.S. Lewis

Title: The Screwtape Letters

Author: C.S. Lewis

Genre: Religious

Plot: Screwtape is a demon sending letters to his nephew, Wormword. Wormword is a novice demon who is trying to convince a new Christian man to stray away from Christianity. Screwtape is constantly sending him letters to help him convince Wormword’s human to stray. The letters consist of trying to convince the human to stay via pride, choosing between heroism or cowardice, losing interest in his usual activities, becoming stuck up, looking down on others, etc. Screwtape is constantly telling Wormword how to fix situations that Wormwood is screwing up. The more letters you read, the closer Wormwood’s human is becoming a full fledged Christian is becoming. Screwtape becomes increasing frustrated and has to explain more and more conniving ways to sneak into the human heart and lead them astray. But will Wormwood succeed in turning the human away from Christianity?

C.S. Lewis adds a little bonus content at the end of the story. He adds a toast from Wormwood at the demon’s college for training demons astray. It tells of how humans need sneakier ways of getting humans astray and how much weaker humans are when they are convinced.

Rating: 4.0 – this was a great read, thought provoking

Opinion: This was a good read, though dense. It was an eye opener for me. C.S. Lewis was good at portraying how demons try to sneak into our lives. I enjoyed learning about the different ways they sneak into your heart. I’ve always had a general idea, but now I know more of the ways they use the simplest idea to get in past your defenses. I just wish I could have focused better. The book, although short, is dense. I had a hard time concentrating on it for long times. Though, the chapters (separated by letters) are short, they are still thought provoking. I am glad I read it and look forward to reading it when I feel like I can read it more in depth. I enjoyed C.S. Lewis’s creativity in approaching the subject. It’s been a long time since I’ve had quotes from a book stick out in my mind and this book had a few. I will cherish this book for a long time. This book is a great read, if you give yourself the time to read it without distractions. If you are looking for a thought provoking book, read this book.