Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis

Laura15 · #1 Nov 3, '11, 8:14 am

Hello everyone,

I just read this book and found it very empowering.
Has anyone read it? What do you think?

manygift1spirit · #2 Nov 3, '11, 9:40 am

One of my absolute favorite books.

Not one letter chapter went by without making me feel wow, sometimes I have done that. Very humbling, in a good way. Lewis really understands temptation, how various things conspire to distract our gaze from God.

I know my wife had a hard time understanding the point of view. You're reading someone else's conversation, but it is a demon's, so the perspective is upside down. That might be hard to parse for some people. "Enemy" is God, "ugly" is the Beatific Vision, etc. If you can get used to this, it is a real treat.

As a bonus, one of the greatest wordplays I have ever heard was born in this book. "Lowerarchy"

Laura15 · #3 Nov 3, '11, 6:29 pm

Oh yes! The perspective of the book can be a bit confusing.
When Screwtape mention Our Father Below I at first was thinking, "Wait a minute. God?"
But no.
Anyway, it just puts things in there that has happened to you or does.
Just scary in a way.

Laura

manygift1spirit · #4 Nov 3, '11, 6:59 pm

If you like this book, I recommend Lewis's The Great Divorce as well. Through the intercession of angelic beings, souls are given one last chance to repent and enter Heaven, or return to Hell forever. But as the souls struggle with their weaknesses, we see how temptation works, how they rationalize their sinfulness and how sin enslaves them.

A very similar set of insights into concupiscence of all sorts, but the point of view is entirely different.

Laura15 · #5 Nov 3, '11, 7:33 pm

Really? I did not think the book was about that. Very interesting. I would love to read it!!
It seemed like a book about marriage and divorce.

I will have to remember to find that.

Now that I am done with the book I have to do an essay and test. Should be interesting in the turn out. Hard too.

grasscutter · #6 Nov 4, '11, 10:08 am

I loved it, too!

jfmarm81 · #7 Nov 6, '11, 9:32 pm

I enjoyed the book as well. I haven't read it in a few years- now I'm thinking about taking it off the shelf again....

Laura15 · #8 Nov 7, '11, 7:43 pm

It is certainly a book to reread. It reveals to you things that you have experienced or done.
It is very interesting how Lewis interprets the frailty of people with power. And the strength of people who are moral and full of grace.

eschator83 · #9 May 1, '12, 4:14 pm

I too strongly recommend The Screwtape Letters, and just about everything else in Lewis' 40 books. I think it might be helpful to comment that Screwtape is quite different than the other writings for which Lewis is renowned, which include the 6-volume Narnia series currently being made into movies, also a science-fiction series, scholastic works, and a lifetime of Christian evangelization and sharing his witness of losing and regaining his faith, including more than two dozen books which support and explain the Christian Faith.
These Screwtape letters by the elderly senior devil to his bumbling young devil nephew provide instruction and reprimand as the nephew attempts to capture a young Christian soul. Lewis said it was his most difficult book to write, as he tried to seriously discuss all forms of sin, yet maintain his enormous ingenuity, scholarship, and wonderful humor.

prodigalson2011 · #10 May 8, '12, 5:05 am

I just ordered a copy of C.S. Lewis' "Complete Signature Classics" (which includes "The Screwtape Letters.") I haven't read it yet, but I'm looking forward to it. I did, however, recently read "The Snakebite Letters" by Peter Kreeft, which is sort of a Catholic "sequel". Same format, different demons and specifically Catholic issues. From what I've heard from others who've read them both, Lewis' narrative is better, story wise, but Kreeft is still funny and hits a lot of homeruns, theologically/morally speaking.