The Screwtape Letters by C.S. LewisMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
I've read Screwtape Letters three times, not completing it the second time, and only following it, understanding it, and able to remember it after my third try this year (2019). Brain injury kiboshed my reading ability; Lindamood-Bell's visualizing and verbalizing program restored my reading comprehension, and this book was part of my reading practice after I completed the program. I'd intended to write a review before now -- I mean, it's been over a month since I finished it (Sept 11, and I'm writing this on Oct 27). How much will I remember? How well can I review this from memory?
The premise of the book is that the Undersecretary to the Department, Screwtape, has a nephew who's just become a junior temptor and has received his first assignment: a man in 1940s England. Screwtape seemingly kindly agrees to help his nephew through letters. The novel is epistolary in nature, taking place entirely in the milieu of Screwtape's letters to his nephew Wormwood.
Lindamood-Bell's method hinges on creating imagery. Imaging these two characters was fairly easy because their names are so evocative. Actually, CS Lewis is such a popular writer because of the sensory richness in his stories. On the other hand, the long sentences, the convolution of abstract concepts, having to discern when Screwtape is lying and when he's not as was warned in the Preface, trying to keep track of chronology that Screwtape couldn't care less about, being skeptical of our own thoughts arising out of our own theories and certainties, makes imaging this novel tiring yet rewarding when successful.
The exact location isn't given, only that the patient, as Screwtape calls Wormwood's assignment, seems to live in a city or perhaps a town in the British Isles. The time isn't fixed, other than a war breaks out after the start of the letters, which naturally makes Wormwood drunk. Apparently, demons get drunk on the fear humans emit; their food is captured souls. Screwtape is wiser: wait for the soul to be sent to the Father Below before getting drunk and losing track of one's mission. We don't know the patient's occupation. Something to do in an office, I think. Screwtape doesn't seem concerned about that. The patient's age seems to be as a young adult. He still lives with his mother and is finding his way in adult life. Adulting, I think some call it now.
And that's the crux.
The patient, whose name we never know, is seeking his way into adulthood, into adult belief systems, and Wormwood is fighting God for his soul. In the Preface, CS Lewis in the persona of a person who's chanced upon these letters, offers them to the reader as a way to learn about demons. The persona warns that thinking too much about demons (the magician) or dismissing their existence (the materialist), both serve demons and the "Father Below." He offers these letters "as is" to the reader so that we can learn about how demons operate and how to give them enough due to protect ourselves but not be so consumed as to see them everywhere all the time.
Yet the story unfolding in these letters isn't just about the battle for the patient's soul, it's also about how he matures into his belief system. Or perhaps he doesn't . . . The reader will have to read the novel to find out. Will Screwtape be able to guide Wormwood into capturing the patient's soul for their Father Below? Or will God win the patient's soul? Will the patient grow healthy relationships, join a flourishing and beneficial community, and thrive? Or will he create superficial relationships that make him feel important and part of the best of society; join groups that feed his ego about belonging to a select bunch of people against the world; learn to pray in a way that satisfies his feelings while avoiding thinking about the object of his prayers; see himself as the same as those who've spent a lifetime in God's service, learning and acting out God's teachings? And how will he survive the war? Both the war for his soul and the war for his country?
While CS Lewis keeps our eyes focused on these questions through Screwtape's advice to Wormwood, there's another battle machinating its way to victory. In a way, this battle reflects the nature of evil. It's not easily seen; hides itself gleefully; hides its motives; seeds resentments from the powerful to the less so; germinates gotcha moments; whispers false promises of overthrowing another; blames another for failure; and stuns us the readers with its ending.
This novel gave me much to chew on. I couldn't predict how it would end. It wasn't just that my ability to predict what comes next in a novel continues to be weak; it was also because the road to adulting and the ways demons try to capture us winds and wends in unpredictable ways. The story on its own is an engaging read. Yet it's also the source of hot discussions over demons, souls, the nature of God's relationship with us, faith, humour, human relationships, group dynamics, the church, and what are we. I highly recommend this book.
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