Critical Essay on Screwtape Letters
The Screwtape Letters: A Critical Essay
The Screwtape Letters is a satirical book written by C.S. Lewis with the intent to deliver practical lessons on a person’s daily exercise of his or her faith. The book’s overall theme is “God vs. the devil” or “good vs. evil” in the human experience. In the book, two devils – Screwtape, an elder tempter, and Screwtape’s novice nephew Wormwood -- are in a fight to claim as many souls, or ‘patients,’ as they are referred to in the book, and Screwtape advises Wormwood on the particulars of his job through a series of letters to his nephew, which are then “published” as this book. When Luke Johnson says in his essay “Powers and Principalities: The Devil is No Joke” “When Satan’s power is portrayed in terms of individual temptation and seduction rather than systemic evil and social oppression, when the cosmic battle between the angels of Michael and of Satan pictured by Revelation is reduced to “My guardian angel” and a nemesis imp competing for a moral victory…the way is cleared for devil jokes,” (Johnson 3) he captures what Lewis was trying to deliver…the simplistic and overlooked talents of the devil to win the hearts and minds of people. What will be examined today are the lessons presented by C.S. Lewis in the book The Screwtape Letters, the relevancy to Christian life, and the main point of the book in reference to theology.
One of the main lessons Screwtape attempts to teach his nephew is that humans are shallow, and that a convincing argument is more important than the truth when seeking to persuade humans. In one letter Screwtape tells Wormwood that trying to argue against the truth that God is good or that He is not real is futile. Screwtape advises, “Jargon, not argument, is your best ally” (Lewis 1) and tells Wormwood to “Teach him to call it ‘real life’ and to not ask what he means by ‘real’” (Lewis 2).
In addition to suggesting ways to mislead individual humans, Lewis, through Screwtape, presents the
The Screwtape Letters is a satirical book written by C.S. Lewis with the intent to deliver practical lessons on a person’s daily exercise of his or her faith. The book’s overall theme is “God vs. the devil” or “good vs. evil” in the human experience. In the book, two devils – Screwtape, an elder tempter, and Screwtape’s novice nephew Wormwood -- are in a fight to claim as many souls, or ‘patients,’ as they are referred to in the book, and Screwtape advises Wormwood on the particulars of his job through a series of letters to his nephew, which are then “published” as this book. When Luke Johnson says in his essay “Powers and Principalities: The Devil is No Joke” “When Satan’s power is portrayed in terms of individual temptation and seduction rather than systemic evil and social oppression, when the cosmic battle between the angels of Michael and of Satan pictured by Revelation is reduced to “My guardian angel” and a nemesis imp competing for a moral victory…the way is cleared for devil jokes,” (Johnson 3) he captures what Lewis was trying to deliver…the simplistic and overlooked talents of the devil to win the hearts and minds of people. What will be examined today are the lessons presented by C.S. Lewis in the book The Screwtape Letters, the relevancy to Christian life, and the main point of the book in reference to theology.
One of the main lessons Screwtape attempts to teach his nephew is that humans are shallow, and that a convincing argument is more important than the truth when seeking to persuade humans. In one letter Screwtape tells Wormwood that trying to argue against the truth that God is good or that He is not real is futile. Screwtape advises, “Jargon, not argument, is your best ally” (Lewis 1) and tells Wormwood to “Teach him to call it ‘real life’ and to not ask what he means by ‘real’” (Lewis 2).
In addition to suggesting ways to mislead individual humans, Lewis, through Screwtape, presents the