Product Description

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.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1889 in Books
• Published on: 2001-02
• Released on: 2001-02-06
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 224 pages

Amazon.com Review
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

From Library Journal
Lewis's satire is a Christian classic. Screwtape is a veteran demon in the service of "Our Father Below" whose letters to his nephew and prot?g?, Wormwood, instruct the demon-in-training in the fine points of leading a new Christian astray. Lewis's take on human nature is as on-target as it was when the letters were first published in 1941. John Cleese's narration is perfect as he takes Screwtape from emotional height to valley, from tight control to near apoplexy. This will be a popular in most libraries.ANann Blaine Hilyard, Lake Villa Dist. Lib., IL
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From AudioFile
These letters of advice from senior fiend Screwtape to his nephew, Wormwood, an apprentice tempter trying to capture the soul of a mortal Englishman wavering between sin and salvation, appeared in 1942 in some of the darkest months of WWII, when evil certainly seemed personified and loose in the world. Joss Ackland inhabits the character of Screwtape masterfully, making him a suave and seductive elder statesman who uses his velvety charm and deep knowledge of human nature to make you forget that his politics are appalling. It is not necessary to be a Christian to be fascinated by this apologia, and Ackland's brilliant performance makes it well-nigh unforgettable. B.G. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2003, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine

Customer Reviews

Funny (and Serious) as Hell !
Like all Lewis' works, this book is full of insights into human life - into those aspects which are often too big and obvious for us to notice. These insights are given us directly from the enemy through the writings of a devil named Screwtape. He writes to his nephew (a novice tempter devil) about his nephew's "patient," a human struggling with faith, who is a representation of us. This book bettered my attitudes about people and life and faith by orders of magnitude! I recommend it to everyone!!

Enlightening read for committed (and thinking) Christians
I don't know how well this great book translates to agnostic readers, but for me it was a very enlightening and concrete way to understand what it means to try to be a good man in a world of temptation.

In keeping with the time period, I believe it was Winston Churchill who said "All evil needs to triumph is for good men to do nothing". In the Screwtape Letters the senior tempter, tells his apprentice, it is just as affective to get a man to stare into a fire until it turns to ash, as to get him to commit some great sin, because either keeps him from doing what he should. I wonder what Mr. Lewis would have thought of digital cable television? I am as guilty as anyone of staring at that box instead of doing good.

So here's the deal.

This is an excellent book for any believer from High School on up, that wants to be good and avoid evil.

But that's just me.

Insights on The Operation of the Realm of Darkness
Though seemingly humorous in style, there is an intense sense of sobriety behind every scene that C.S. Lewis depicts to illustrate how the devil operates to tempt us. The background is World War II England. The object that the devil preys on is a young Christian. The circumstances of temptation; all of which are something we can relate to everyday, vary from personal devotional time, personal relationships, romance, and vocation to culture, worldviews and the war itself which the readers would discover to be the means to a happy ending for the young Christian, not a usual one, however. The appendix entitled, "Screwtape Proposes a Toast" deals with a more general strategy that the realm of evil formulates in their quest to ruin mankind by pushing them to the deepest abyss their depravity is capable of, "to harden these choices of the Hell-ward roads into a habit by steady repetition, ... to turn habit into a principle." Another interesting strategy is to wreck havoc in the culture by twisting the meaning of the word "democracy" from a narrow strict sense to a broad one.

The reason why Lewis does an excellent job in giving us the insights on the operation of the realm of the devil is because he understands human beings and culture well, which makes this book deeply personal, worth reading and learning from.