The Screwtape Letters
Ratings287
Average rating4.1
Thought-provoking, scintillating, daringly religious but also revealing of entirely spiritual matters. A look into the opposite side of things, as opposed to having someone be converted and view it through their eyes, it's viewed through the eyes of the tempters. Lewis's writing brings about a whole bunch of things that you yourself might not want to think about, and in that manner, the book thoroughly disturbed me. It's written in the form of high-vocabulary essays, which might turn off younger readers or most of them. To me, however, it was perfect, a brilliant collection of scathing lettres. It's something I'll sit on, and go back, and read another time with another perspective.
A very interesting book written from the perspective of a demon mentoring a junior demon on how to taint a human. Really got me thinking about how I act myself and dangers that I hadn't even thought of myself.
Lewis makes the argument that the Devil's work is never truly over, they can always find something to use against us to make us reject God as he intends. He focuses on a lot of different aspects but relationships tend to be one. He notes how humans interact can lead to conflict and this conflict is what the Devil exploits. Thus it seems Lewis is directing us towards not a worldly ideal human relationship but towards what the Bible views as the ideal relationship between people.
There are also some great ideas such as selfishness of time and unselfishness differing between the genders.
I will likely revisit this.
A fictional account of a correspondence between two demons on how to influence humans. This book shows the Christian perspective on evil and how it affects humans. The influence is not overt. It's a little bit here and a little bit there that really gets most of us in this end.
3.25/5 â
This book was assigned reading for school so I didn't have very high expectations. But it surprised me. Since it was written in 1942, I expected old-timey, unreadable garbage. The writing felt relatively modern and it was actually understandable. It was a little hard to follow along at the beginning because everything was written from the devil's point of view. But you get used to it quickly. It made a lot of good points and its definitely the kind of book that read slowly to digest it. Overall, pretty good for a schoolbook
I really enjoyed this book and highly recommend it. I'm looking forward to reading some of his other works as well.
It is a work of fiction from the perspective of a mentor demon training a new demon. While it is fictional, it is also very thought provoking. It was written in a setting of the Great War, but there is still so much about people today and today's society that it could have been written this year.
Had the occasional briefly interesting thought but felt so unbearably smug that I wouldn't have been able to finish the book had it been any longer.
Seems to be written for an audience who wants their confirmation bias stroked. I had hoped for more.
Super unique - written from the point of view of a demon but it provides a different perspective
Lewis could be devilishly clever when he wanted, and that may be apparent no more clearly than in this book. I marathon-read this book in two days, but I'd recommend taking it a bit slower than I did. Unfortunately, Mr Screwtape's tongue drips with honey and the way Mr Lewis writes him is joyous to read; but it is all the same exhausting to read, and, apparently, exhausting to write, if CSL's words on the matter are taken seriously. I did not read the âshort storyâ which follows, âScrewtape Proposes a Toast,â although I did start it; I was simply too tired of Mr Screwtape to continue. His wickedness had worn me thin.
C.S. Lewis's writing and wit, however, shall never wear thin. At least, not for me.
Sometimes you need a book to make you actually think, and take a look at your life, that is this book. Lewis has us questioning our actions and reevaluating our decisions during and after reading these letters. I highly recommend everyone to give this quick collection of letters a read and put a little thought into what is being discussed.
Although this truly singular novel will turn 80 years old in 2022, it remains powerfully relevant to our times. If you've never read it - put it at the top of your list.
I was recommended this by friends years ago and have been meaning to read it ever since. I mostly liked it, it was partly quite clever.
Finally started reading it through. Great book, definitely worth a listen more than once.
This book by C.S. Lewis is a collection of letters from a demon (Screwtape) to it's also demonic nephew (Wormwood). We know the content of the correspondence of the latter to the former by the way the Screwtape answers to its nephew. Anyway, this brilliant book is a glimpse into how Lewis saw the temptation working, by driving us apart from Gid, from His love, from the Church, and the virtues. Lewis poses some interesting questions about how we can deviate from the Truth and become numb to God's presence in our lives. The Screwtape Letters is a short book, but with an unique perspective of the spiritual warfare.
I'm not entirely sure if this is meant for me. The premise is intriguing and the prose is pretty much perfect, but this put me to sleep in parts.
Lewis is so clever, intelligent, and insightful - it makes me sad that he was beholden to irrational beliefs that inspired him to ignore the logical conclusions of his inquiries, and sometimes even to advocate for truly monstrous ideas.
The good:
Screwtape's observations are keenest when they touch on human nature and the pleasure or misery it can bring to oneself and others. The passive-aggressiveness that can reside in âselflessness,â the danger of assuming that romantic infatuation alone can sustain a long-term relationship, and the paradoxical human need for both novelty and familiarity - these are examples of the most thought-provoking and useful passages.
The bad:
By writing from the satirical point of view of a demon, Lewis certainly brings some humor to the tale. But this also allows him to dodge the Problem of Evil and other logical gaps. From the demons' vantage, Yahweh is understandably inscrutable. But if one steps back, it's pretty disturbing how much the âlovingâ deity likes to mess with the heads of its followers.
In fact, I found it really shocking that Lewis, who seems genuinely interested in morality and benevolence, explicitly venerates infant death as one of the greatest goods on Earth.
And of course, he's completely a product of his time. His language is unrelentingly sexist, and his ideas don't contradict that theme.
He sometimes seems less philosophically reflective than butthurt that trendy people consider him passe. In the later âScrewtape Proposes a Toast,â he goes full Grumpy Old Man, decrying kids these days. His rant dovetails perfectly with today's âeveryone getting a trophy is ruining civilizationâ complaints. Except that his objections go far beyond soccer trophies. He literally argues against free universal education, worrying that the âduncesâ are dragging down the properly intelligent (i.e. rich enough for private school) students.
The upshot:
All in all this was worth reading because Lewis is so influential, and he does offer some very clever insights into human foibles. But it was neither as entertaining nor as intelligent as I would have expected.
Fantastic book. In the past year, I've read two books by CS Lewis and both have blown me away. I read this book with my wife and after each chapter we'd look at each other and talk about how accurately Lewis captures the human condition, sin and suffering.
I am surprised that I have not had a review of this on good reads before. I have read it at least 4 or 5 times. It is a surprisingly quick read if you just read it through. But it is also deep so I can see reading it very slowly. This should be considered an important book in spiritual formation. It is a negative primer on the many ways that our own spiritual formation is hindered. Lewis is always wise.
I read this again in Nov 2016. I don't have anything really to read. But I continue to get value by re-reading it.