The Screwtape Letters- A Summary

The Screwtape Letters is a very interesting book. The story revolves around two demons writing letters to each other. One demon is named Screwtape and he is sending letters to his nephew, Wormwood. The reader does not get to read Wormwood’s letters but only reads Screwtape’s Letters. The letters from Screwtape are basically “How to be a Successful Demon” lessons given to his nephew. Wormwood appears to be a young demon who has just got out of his schooling and is for the first time being assigned to a human. His goal is to keep his human from falling into the “Enemies” hands. Screwtape advised him on how to take natural human emotions, thoughts, and actions and twist them to be used against the Enemy.

Wormwood ultimately failed to keep him patient from the Enemy. The human became a Christian right after Wormwood was assigned to him and found strong Christians to associate himself with. At the end of the book, the human died while fighting in World War II and was taken to heaven.

I really enjoyed this book because of the unusual angle that it took. It is amazing how much truth can be told through the perspective of a demon. Lewis was very good about showing the truth of our actions. We try to convince ourselves that we do not sin, but this book took away all doubt and confusion and showed our actions for what they are. Screwtape explained many lies that we easily fall for, confusions that distract us from the truth, and key points for temptation.

I believe that the most important idea I learned from this book is that we cannot act solely based on our own choices, not being influenced by anyone else. There really is no sitting on the fence between God and the Devil. Either we need to sacrifice our lives and live for Christ, or we are living for the Devil. We may think that we are choosing our behavior on our own, completely independent from the spiritual world, but it is the temptations and lies from the Devil that are truly running us. We either live by the truth, or we are living by our sinful natures. We either live for Christ, or by denying Christ’s will for our lives, we are living for the Devil. We are either living in the light or in the dark. There is no living in an alternate universe that has no concept of light or dark.