The Screwtape Letters

I listened to the Screwtape Letters on Audible, with narration provided by Ralph Cosham.

Cosham does a good job narrating the letters with evenly paced speech, clear enunciation, and voice inflection to emphasize the major points of Lewis's prose. However, I wouldn't recommend the audiobook to someone new to reading C. S. Lewis. You may find it difficult to follow some of his satirical points in various chapters of the Letters, as much of the prose is about abstract philosophical and spiritual ideas. It is a short book that one can presumably read in one sitting and the audiobook is roughly 2:59:00.

Lewis crafted The Screwtape Letters as a series of epistles from a senior tempter in Hell, Screwtape, to his nephew Wormwood who was responsible for tempting a Londoner into sin and damnation. Through satirical prose, Lewis spells out the various ways that malignant spirits tempt mankind into a fallen state of sin—whether by encouraging dullness of mind, distraction from intellectual and rational pursuits, judging the "Church" by an unrealistic ideal standard of what a "Christian" looks like in everyday life, or by the slow and someone benign sins of gluttony, complaint, and during World War II: cowardice.

While Lewis wrote The Screwtape Letters during the Second World War, you will find little mention of the conflict among Screwtape's epistles. He sometimes refers to the war but only in the context of how Wormwood can direct his man toward cowardice, self-loathing, and eventual despair.

There are a couple points in the book that will probably resonate with the reader. For example, Lewis emphasizes that humans cling to the illusion of "ownership." Screwtape encourages his nephew to instill in his man the idea that he "owns his day" and that his "time is his own" because it will raise quarrels between him and his family. He will become bothered by human relationships that take up precious time during his day, and therefore drift away from the Biblical command to love thy neighbor. He will also practice selfishness with his time as a daily habit. This is also a practical problem not necessarily related to Christianity but to the secular maintenance of the family—when mothers or fathers value their time to pursue individual goals in education and careers over their familial and parental obligations it will create discord within the family. Of course Lewis is not suggesting that men and women cast aside their individual dreams and aspirations through his satire, but merely suggesting that occasions call for the subordination of individual self-interest to familial or community good.


Another point that resonates with both Christians and non-Christians is that humans often find "aspirational dreaming" far easier than "laborious doing." Screwtape encourages Wormwood that when his man attends church for the first time all is not lost, because the aspiration to become a Christian—as with the aspiration toward marriage, parenthood, and employment—is often far easier than the mundane, day-to-day labor of that life.

The other point that I found especially interesting was a chapter on the sin of gluttony. We often hear about sexual immorality, temperance, and admonitions against cursing from the pulpit today. Screwtape, however, gleefully acknowledges that with man's obsession with sex, drink, and language he has elided the equally pernicious sin of gluttony—not necessary gluttony of quantity but a gluttony of quality. According to Screwtape (and Lewis), the abuse of servers and waitresses and the complaints about the quality of food have done more to tempt man toward Hell than any other vice. First, men and women delude themselves into a prideful assertion that they are, in fact, not gluttons because they eat small portions and all the while lambast cooks and servers when their food is not quite proper. This is far worse than simply indulging oneself in heaping platters of food because it leads to a self-centered culture of sensuality—the pursuit of food for pleasure and for taste. Taste becomes an overriding drive for men and women as they become increasingly obsessed with finding quality food.

Most will find Lewis's satire humorous and informative—a blend of escapism (Chronicles of Narnia) and philosophy (Mere Christianity).