The Screwtape Letters
It has taken me forever to get through this book - not because it is a lengthy book, but the content is really hard to swallow. Also, the timing - my grandmother passed away recently. However, Sunday's message at church was especially revealing in terms of bringing my struggles to light and truly seeing some things that I've been cloaking in the darkness that is "denial". Yikes. So anyway, I'm back and I'm moving along and I've started to read again... so without further ado, here's the review:
The Screwtape Letters, as the title suggests, is a series of letters (31 in total) written by senior Tempter Screwtape to his nephew-tempter Wormwood, advising him on tricks of the trade used to turn people away from God. By the way, C. S. Lewis makes it clear in his preface to the book that tempters don't love. They hunger instead, and "affectionately" lead the humans away from God, not to build their legion, but out of hunger, like raising souls for spiritual slaughter and consumption. Since this book is written from a Tempter's standpoint, terminology is as follows: "We" = the Tempters, "our Father" = the devil, "the Enemy" = God, and "the Patient" = the human they are trying to obtain. They also refer to their ranks as positions in the "lowerarchy".
A lot of Screwtape's letters mock the fickleness and greed of humans, which I'm sad to admit, I deeply related to. It was downright discouraging to read at times, because a lot of the attacks Wormwood slid his "patient" into hit too close to home and it was shameful to admit to myself that I fell for those same "tricks" and thoughts he placed in his Patient's mind. For example, Screwtape encourages Wormwood to use their greatest trio of assets: Complacency, Mindless Thoughts and Idleness (XVI - "the more lukewarm he is, the better"). Troubled times and tragedy may bring humans closer to God as they seek comfort in their faith, so Screwtape advises Wormwood to lead his Patient into a leisurely life of the daily job, steady income, and food on the table so he will forget to seek God or even thank Him and not want anything more out of his comfortable lifestyle. Just to note, there is nothing wrong with the comfortable lifestyle. Contrary to popular belief and the secular negative connotations of "purity" - God is a hedonist. He created pleasures for humans: food, love, music, art, etc - but it is the obsessive worship of novelty and/or meaningless gluttony of these pleasures that distract us from enjoying them the way God had intended.
Another "trick" they used is to convince the Patient that he has earned everything for himself and that he is entitled to his earnings while completely discrediting God's blessings and gifts:
XXI - "You must therefore zealously guard in his mind the curious assumption "My time is my own." Let him have the feeling that he starts each day as the lawful possessor twenty-four hours. Let him feel as a grievous tax that portion of this property which he has to make over to his employers, and as a generous donation that further portion which he allows to religious duties. But what he must never be permitted to doubt is that total from which these deductions have been made was, in some mysterious sense, his own personal birthright."
The book comes to a turning point in letter XXIII, where the Patient meets a girl. A girl who completely loves the Lord and just infects everybody with that Love, and introduces the Patient to brothers and sisters who are good for him, much to Wormwood's and Screwtape's extreme displeasure. (By the way, I totally want to grow to be at the level where I can be that girl.) Screwtape's letters become increasingly angrier as you realize that the Enemy is wooing the Patient, as He wants the Patient to love and seek Him for himself, out of his own will. I'm not going to completely give the details of the ending away, but it just brought thrills and chills to the bone simultaneously, because God triumphs and claims what is His while Screwtape turns on Wormwood in hunger, and the penned sign-off "Your increasingly and ravenously affectionate uncle" takes on a suddenly sinister meaning.
I'm really glad that it actually took me this long to read the book. Had I read it a couple years earlier, it would not have meant as much, or I may have treated it as fanciful satire. It's only because I'm reading it at this stage in life that it's left such an impression on me and is so relevant to what I'm going through now as a young adult.
Thumbs-up: Yes. Highly recommended and extremely insightful. It helps if you read this with an introspective mindset.
Buyability: Worth buying.
Re-readability: Highly re-readable as a reminder and encouragement to know that God's looking out for us.
The Screwtape Letters, as the title suggests, is a series of letters (31 in total) written by senior Tempter Screwtape to his nephew-tempter Wormwood, advising him on tricks of the trade used to turn people away from God. By the way, C. S. Lewis makes it clear in his preface to the book that tempters don't love. They hunger instead, and "affectionately" lead the humans away from God, not to build their legion, but out of hunger, like raising souls for spiritual slaughter and consumption. Since this book is written from a Tempter's standpoint, terminology is as follows: "We" = the Tempters, "our Father" = the devil, "the Enemy" = God, and "the Patient" = the human they are trying to obtain. They also refer to their ranks as positions in the "lowerarchy".
A lot of Screwtape's letters mock the fickleness and greed of humans, which I'm sad to admit, I deeply related to. It was downright discouraging to read at times, because a lot of the attacks Wormwood slid his "patient" into hit too close to home and it was shameful to admit to myself that I fell for those same "tricks" and thoughts he placed in his Patient's mind. For example, Screwtape encourages Wormwood to use their greatest trio of assets: Complacency, Mindless Thoughts and Idleness (XVI - "the more lukewarm he is, the better"). Troubled times and tragedy may bring humans closer to God as they seek comfort in their faith, so Screwtape advises Wormwood to lead his Patient into a leisurely life of the daily job, steady income, and food on the table so he will forget to seek God or even thank Him and not want anything more out of his comfortable lifestyle. Just to note, there is nothing wrong with the comfortable lifestyle. Contrary to popular belief and the secular negative connotations of "purity" - God is a hedonist. He created pleasures for humans: food, love, music, art, etc - but it is the obsessive worship of novelty and/or meaningless gluttony of these pleasures that distract us from enjoying them the way God had intended.
Another "trick" they used is to convince the Patient that he has earned everything for himself and that he is entitled to his earnings while completely discrediting God's blessings and gifts:
XXI - "You must therefore zealously guard in his mind the curious assumption "My time is my own." Let him have the feeling that he starts each day as the lawful possessor twenty-four hours. Let him feel as a grievous tax that portion of this property which he has to make over to his employers, and as a generous donation that further portion which he allows to religious duties. But what he must never be permitted to doubt is that total from which these deductions have been made was, in some mysterious sense, his own personal birthright."
The book comes to a turning point in letter XXIII, where the Patient meets a girl. A girl who completely loves the Lord and just infects everybody with that Love, and introduces the Patient to brothers and sisters who are good for him, much to Wormwood's and Screwtape's extreme displeasure. (By the way, I totally want to grow to be at the level where I can be that girl.) Screwtape's letters become increasingly angrier as you realize that the Enemy is wooing the Patient, as He wants the Patient to love and seek Him for himself, out of his own will. I'm not going to completely give the details of the ending away, but it just brought thrills and chills to the bone simultaneously, because God triumphs and claims what is His while Screwtape turns on Wormwood in hunger, and the penned sign-off "Your increasingly and ravenously affectionate uncle" takes on a suddenly sinister meaning.
I'm really glad that it actually took me this long to read the book. Had I read it a couple years earlier, it would not have meant as much, or I may have treated it as fanciful satire. It's only because I'm reading it at this stage in life that it's left such an impression on me and is so relevant to what I'm going through now as a young adult.
Thumbs-up: Yes. Highly recommended and extremely insightful. It helps if you read this with an introspective mindset.
Buyability: Worth buying.
Re-readability: Highly re-readable as a reminder and encouragement to know that God's looking out for us.
I really love this book. And yeah, Lewis is awesome at pointing out it's the little things that distract us. If we SENSE we're being full-on tempted/attacked, we can actively resist it, but if it's like "Oh, I guess I'll watch this tv show instead of pray right now" then it's not so big a deal. But then it develops into a behavioral pattern.
ReplyDeleteGlad you liked eeeeeet.
Yes, exactly! That's why this book's so scary! But you were right when you told me it had a kinda sorta happy ending.
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