For the past several weeks I have attended a class/book club at which the reading material is The Screwtape Letters. Written by C. S. Lewis, the author of many Christian-based novels including Narnia, the work is an eye-opening account of humanity.
The Screwtape Letters is a satirical Christian novel presented as a series of letters from Screwtape, a senior demon who reports to “our father below”, directed to his inexperienced nephew Wormwood. Wormwood has been assigned to tempt a young Englishman, referred to only as “the Patient,” away from faith and virtue. By telling the story from the demons’ perspective, Lewis reverses familiar moral language: God is called “the Enemy,” while selfishness, distraction, and spiritual apathy are treated as desirable achievements.
The letters trace Wormwood’s efforts to influence the Patient through ordinary pressures rather than dramatic acts of evil. Screwtape advises him to exploit irritation, pride, fear, romance, family tensions, politics, war, and even church life. As the Patient converts to Christianity and gradually matures in faith, the demons repeatedly adjust their tactics, revealing how temptation often works through small habits, distorted priorities, and plausible excuses.
A central theme of the book is that moral decline is usually gradual. Lewis portrays evil as parasitic and repetitive, while goodness requires humility, attention, courage, and freely chosen love. Screwtape’s advice also exposes forms of self-deception: people may confuse religious feelings with genuine devotion, mistake anxiety for responsibility, or let abstract causes replace kindness toward the people around them. The demonic viewpoint gives these observations both comic sharpness and serious ethical weight.
Published in book form in 1942 after appearing serially during the Second World War, The Screwtape Letters combines theology, psychology, humor, and social criticism. Its wartime setting raises questions about fear, suffering, death, and courage, but its focus remains the daily formation of character. The book endures because its insights extend beyond its specific religious framework, inviting readers to examine how attention, habit, desire, and choice shape a life.
The class facilitator reminds us weekly that we are worthy. The book is a reminder that both God and satan want our attention – our souls. Each of us have value in the “bigger picture” of life.
I found the book to be challenging reading, although it is well written and expertly structured. Consistently, I had to remind myself that the author of the letters, Uncle Screwtape, works for the “father below.” Thus, turning concepts over, I found wisdom for living a life on the straight and narrow, so to speak. While the book is fairly short and easy to read, the premise is heavy. If you want a book to address moral code, you may enjoy diving in to see what Uncle Screwtape has to offer.
