November 2013: The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis

                                                   

The appeal of this book

Much of the appeal The Screwtape Letters derives from Lewis's startlingly original reversal: telling a story about Christian faith not from a Christian point-of-view but from the perspective of a devil trying to secure the damnation of one man's soul. Why is this strategy so effective? What does it allow Lewis to accomplish that would have been impossible in a more straighforward approach?

The way to tempt

In the first of Screwtape's letters, he instructs Wormwood not to attempt to win the patient's soul through argument, but rather by fixing his attention on "the stream of immediate sense experiences".
Why is immersion in particulars of "real life" ground for temptation?

Difference in view

In describing the differences in how God and the Devil view men, Screwtape says: "We want cattle who can finally become food; He wants servants who can finally become sons".
What is it about God's relationship to man that Screwtape finds so unfathomable?

Friends

Why is Screwtape so pleased when the patient becomes friends with a group of people who are "rich, smart, superficially intellectual, and brightly skeptical about everything in the world"?
What influence does Screwtape hope they will have on him?

Human Nature

Lewis exhibits throughout his writings a sense of human nature. Do you think this book accurately reflects not just Christians beliefs but the workings of human psychology more generally?

Screwtape and Wormwood

The sub-plot of The Screwtape Letters turns on Screwtape's relationship with his nephew Wormwood, the apprentice tempter and demonic understudy in charge of carrying out Screwtape's instructions. 

How do Screwtape and Wormwood regard each other? 

What is Lewis suggesting by having the story end with Screwtape preparing to devour a member of his own family?

Love

Love is an important theme. Screwtape is confouned by the human idea of love and God's love for man. What do you think Lewis was saying in the book as a whole, about human and divine love?

Temptations

Over the course of The Screwtape Letters, the state of the patient's soul changes as he experiences conversion, doubt, dangerous friendships, war, love, and finally death.
What major strategies does Screwtape use to tempt him into the Devil's camp?
Why do the temptations fail?
In what way can we relate to the Patient?

Ending

In the end Screwtape does not lose faith in his cause even though the patient triumps over temptation.  Why do you think Lewis chose to end the book that way?
Why is Screwtape sustained by "the conviction that our Realism, our rejection (in the face of all temptations) of all silly nonsense and claptrap, must win in the end"?
What warning is implied in the book's ending?