The Screwtape Letters
 | By C. S. Lewis HarperOne, 2001, Paperback Customer Rating: 373 reviews Recommend |
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In this humorous and perceptive exchange between two devils, C. S. Lewis delves into moral questions about good vs. evil, temptation, repentance, and grace. Through this wonderful tale, the reader emerges with a better understanding of what it means to live a faithful life.
Who among us has never wondered if there might not really be a tempter sitting on our shoulders or dogging our steps? C.S. Lewis dispels all doubts. In The Screwtape Letters, one of his bestselling works, we are made privy to the instructional correspondence between a senior demon, Screwtape, and his wannabe diabolical nephew Wormwood. As mentor, Screwtape coaches Wormwood in the finer points, tempting his "patient" away from God.
Each letter is a masterpiece of reverse theology, giving the reader an inside look at the thinking and means of temptation. Tempters, according to Lewis, have two motives: the first is fear of punishment, the second a hunger to consume or dominate other beings. On the other hand, the goal of the Creator is to woo us unto himself or to transform us through his love from "tools into servants and servants into sons." It is the dichotomy between being consumed and subsumed completely into another's identity or being liberated to be utterly ourselves that Lewis explores with his razor-sharp insight and wit.
The most brilliant feature of The Screwtape Letters may be likening hell to a bureaucracy in which "everyone is perpetually concerned about his own dignity and advancement, where everyone has a grievance, and where everyone lives the deadly serious passions of envy, self-importance, and resentment." We all understand bureaucracies, be it the Department of Motor Vehicles, the IRS, or one of our own making. So we each understand the temptations that slowly lure us into hell. If you've never read Lewis, The Screwtape Letters is a great place to start. And if you know Lewis, but haven't read this, you've missed one of his core writings. — Patricia Klein
Title: The Screwtape Letters
Sales Rank: 2267 in Books
Author: C. S. Lewis
Publisher: HarperOne, 2001-02, Paperback, 224 pages, ISBN: 0060652934
Package Dimensions: 7.8 x 5.1 x 0.7 inches, 0.15 pounds
- The Screwtape Letters
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- Incredible, Unique, Compelling
- In The Screwtape Letters, C.S. Lewis has presented to us one side of a correspondence between two fictitious demons. Screwtape, a demon with a high position and good standing with the one they name as their 'Father below', writes to his younger nephew Wormwood, teaching him in the methods of temptation. In this unique way, Lewis reveals not only temptations themselves, but… More reviews
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- Read this book for entertainment, great writing, its original premise, or whatever, and you won't be disappointed. If spiritual thoughts start sneaking up on you somewhere along the way, I promise it won't spoil the fun.… More reviews
- A thought-provoking peek into the mind of a senior demon
- This book consists of a series of thirty-one letters written by a senior demon, Screwtape, to his young demon nephew, Wormwood. Wormword has been charged with securing the damnation of a man's soul, but he does not yet know enough about humans to carry out his task successfully.
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