In The Screwtape Letters, Lewis imagines a series of lessons in the importance of taking a deliberate role in Christian faith by portraying a typical human life, with all its temptations and failings, seen from devils' viewpoints. The uncle's mentorship pertains to the nephew's responsibility in securing the damnation of a British man known only as "the Patient." It is written in a satirical, epistolary style and while it is fictional in format, the plot and characters are used to address Christian theological issues, primarily those to do with temptation and resistance to it.įirst published in February 1942, the story takes the form of a series of letters from a senior demon Screwtape to his nephew Wormwood, a junior tempter. Lewis’s Christian admirers sometimes describe him as “the apostle to the skeptics.” But Lewis’s critics have countered that the Christianity Lewis advocates can be dull and sterile.The Screwtape Letters is a Christian apologetic novel by C. Because of this rational, workman-like approach to spirituality, C.S. The Screwtape Letters emphasize moderation and diligence over excitement and euphoria. Extremity itself is destabilizing, The Screwtape Letters argue, and, when humans are unstable, they are more likely to stumble into sin. When Screwtape tells Wormwood to create extreme emotions in the Patient, those wishing to avoid temptation might reinterpret Screwtape’s advice to mean: take the middle way. All that matters is that the Patient’s attitudes about the war be out of proportion with his present circumstances.
Screwtape tells Wormwood that it does not really matter whether the Patient is for the war (a patriot) or against the war (a pacifist). The specific kinds of extreme passions Screwtape advises Wormwood to promote in the Patient are extreme patriotism or extreme pacifism.
Screwtape gives this advice concerning moderation in the seventh letter, in the midst of a discussion about World War II. “All extremes, except extreme devotion to the Enemy, are to be encouraged.”
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