Into the Wardrobe

Answer Away!

Welcome to the Wardrobe!

That's a pretty open-ended up question, and we have several other threads regarding The Screwtape Letters. Perhaps you could participate in some of those, or ask something a little more specific. That might elicit more discussion.

Ah yes, Screwtape was the first book by C.S. Lewis I ever read. And It got me hooked! A friend of mine who belonged to the "Moonies" (a whole 'nuther story) lent me this book one evening back around 1980. I began reading it on the subway home. And I could not put it down. I continued reading it for hours after I arrived home. Then after getting some sleep, finished it the next day. It's still my favorite "how not to" book. Lewis claimed he hated writing Screwtape because he had to contort his mind into a diabolic outlook. I appreciate what Lewis has done by approaching the subject of human temptation from the Devil's point of view. I just wish he had been able to illustrate this situation from our guardian angel's outlook, as he suggests in the introduction. What I do enjoy about the Letters is the dark and dry humor. The notion of Hell as a sort of bureaucracy seems more beliveable to us today than old traditional visions.

The Screwtape Letters was one of the three books that converted me to Christ. The other two are Michael Green's You Must Be Joking and The Little World of Don Camillo by Giovanni Guareschi.

Screwtape opened my eyes to a lot of shortcomings people in their relationship with God. We seem to recognize very little how just a little temptation can throw off our entire devotion to religion. It also offers hope that even though we falter if we persevere, we can still triumph over adversity.