Rating: 
Summary: A toast for a great book
Review: The masterful style of Jack demonstrates that you do not have to be argumentative to be insightful. Jack was a master of paradox and in this book we get a read that is light but profound, Funny but serious, and Divinely hellish. This book gives laughs to the casual reader and scary insights to the deeper one. Contrary to the usual Christian writer, Jack was a wonderful writer that was a Christian. A must for any personal Christian library.
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Summary: Know thy enemy is this book's premise.
Review: Lewis gives us excellent insight and perspective on the nature of temptation and how Satan works. The work is set up as correspondances between a beaucrat in hell and his nephew Wormwood. The letters are advice and training for Wormwood who is given charge of luring certain people down to Hell. The book is entertaining, humorous, but also deep and should strike a chord with those expiriencing strong temptation in their life towards some form of evil. The best way to fight your enemy is to know him, and this book is an theory on how the devil and his angels might work to take souls away from God. The book is also very easy to read, and without the pretentious philosophical jargon that theologians use. It's down to earth, common sense theology taught in story form. An excellent work!
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Summary: Kind of a scary insight into Hell, when you think about it.
Review: Screwtape, a mid-level bureaucrat in Hell, is coaching his nephew, Wormwood--a recent graduate from the Tempters College fresh on his first job as the tempter to a youngish English man who still lives with his mother, but begins dating a young woman must as World War II breaks out. The first letter begins with Screwtape chiding Wormwood for allowing his "patient" to become a Christian. Lewis was given a fair amount of criticism when these letters first were published in the "Guardian" in the 1940's. Most of this criticism was from somewhat dense people who didn't realize Lewis was joking. They actually thought Lewis was trying to get people over to the Devil's side. Lewis' intent was just the opposite. I enjoyed the book, but found it somewhat scary. I am also a government bureaucrat and some of Screwtape's verbiage is very familiar to me! The best insight I gleaned from the book was one passage where Wormwood is complaining his "patient" is not committing any large, grandiose sins. Screwtape advises his nephew that it doesn't really matter how bad the sin is, only that it is a sin. It helps Screwtape and his fellow minions if their "patients" don't realize the "gentle path, soft underfoot" on which they are traveling is really going downhill. Makes you think.
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Summary: So that's what they're thinking
Review: C. S. Lewis takes you into the mindset of a pair of demons named Screwtape and his nephew Wormwood, who connive to corrupt an unnamed British man living during World War II. The elder Screwtape is imparting his wisdom on the lesser experienced Wormwood throughout the letters, often agonizing on the effect the "enemy" (God) is having on the subject human. Screwtape discusses a variety of tactics Wormwood might take in pulling this man's soul toward their goal. The book is very interesting, but somewhat difficult to read. Lewis writes in an academic style which one might expect from an Oxford professor.
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Summary: Screwtape is a must read!
Review: The Screwtape Letters is a diabolical delight, a must read for every professing Christian or anyone seeking insight into the mind of the Evil. Lewis delves into the darkest realm of self-absorbance, pride, and the temptation of the human soul through the fictitious correspondence of Screwtape, a senior "Tempter", to his nephew, Wormwood. In so doing, Lewis creates a correspondence with imagery likening to that of Milton and Dante, but with far greater illumination as to the thinking and workings of the spiritual forces opposed to their "Enemy", God. Yet within this disclosure of the nature of Evil, Lewis invokes contemplation upon the true attributes of the Divine. Although short and to the point, this book speaks volumes to the goings-on in the eternal struggle between Good and Evil. Read and reread this masterfully crafted work of Lewis's, and prepare to be drawn into a reflection upon the unseen realm of the supernatural.
Rating: 
Summary: Great Book About the Christian View of Demons
Review: This book consists of thirty-one letters written from a demon (Wormwood) to his nephew (Screwtape) who is also a demon. CS Lewis does a great job of picturing how demons think and act. The demons address many different issues, and how they use these issues to further their cause of evil. The book has helpful in that it made the existence and danger of demons very real. It caused me to think, "How do demons try and ruin me?" One of the most important tools of the demons is religion. Satan and his workers tried to use religion to draw people away from God and God's Word. This book was a fun read, but also a difficult read in some areas. Parts of the book are very philosophical, and somewhat separated from the overall narrative. I think the book was very helpful, and would be enjoyed by the Christian who is interested in the spirit world.
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Summary: The devil's workshop.....
Review: The wry and ironic Uncle Screwtape, an adminstrator in Hell, sends helpful missives to his demon nephew Wormwood regarding the temptation of souls. A tyro, Wormwood consistently fails to tempt his charge into abandoning the enemy (God) - the artifice employed to justify ongoing avuncular assistance. Through this series of 30+ letters, C.S. Lewis provides the reader an opportunity to look at the machinations of sin from the opposite angle. Like a film negative, this view provides an entirely different perspective in which darker, dimmer shadings come starkly to the fore.
A political message is appended with Screwtape Proposes a Toast. In a departure reminiscent of Toqueville, Lewis presents at least one danger inherent in democracy: the egalitarian trend towards mediocrity. This lesson is as crucial today as it was when Lewis composed it.
The Screwtape Letters give a reflective reader much reason for pause. This is no doubt the author's intent. Accordingly, it easily merits 5+ stars.
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Summary: This book creeped me out!
Review: I'll give it one thing. Whopping good writing, as All CS Lewis material is. But I wonder if his thought processes would have been better used dwelling on the bountiful God, the promising God, the providing God, then a bunch of demons writing letters.
C.S. did state at one point that "all the space is owned by either the Lord or Satan" that there is "no middle ground" and I guess he tried to prove it here. But the victorian prose which is his style can be trying, not unlike the 1611 KJV scriptural prose, which to me is the type of writing that takes a concordance to figure out, let alone make a believer out of someone.
That said, there are probably many, many C.S. Lewis fans that are going to hit the "helpful NO" button about this point in the review. Frankly, I don't care, you wanted to read a review... here we are!
I submit that better time could be spent dwelling on the promises of God, the comforter and the Blood of the Lamb... maybe even a quiet round of golf or two, rather than shutting yourself in with anti-theology, lobotomoy, botteinfrontofme liturature. LIVE the LIFE God gave you, and remember the GLORY of the Lord is HERE, and embrace those things that the LORD has given to you. In the Name of Jesus.
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Summary: Our Anti-Father Down Below.
Review: After at least a decade and several personal recommendations to read it each year, I finally got around to buying "The Screwtape Letters." The initial emotion I experienced after reading its introduction was jealously as I could not help but wish that it was I, and not Lewis, who had such an ingenious idea. Once you discover the book's method, which is of a senior demon writing to his nephew with recommendations on how to steal souls, you'll be astounded at the wonderful complexity of the author's mind. His reverse theological technique provided ample opportunity to skewer many of the most powerful members of England's WWII society. What is most remarkable about the book is that it is even more applicable to our present day world than it was to the author's era. Moderate and touchy-feely churches are ubiquitous to our landscape and Screwtape undoubtedly would be most pleased with their constant empthasis on social issues rather than the Lord's Word. The book has tremendous meaning as it difficult to dismiss the possibility that the Devil influences our daily lives and the world around us. One cannot help but wonder if their are Screwtapes and Wormwoods in the air we breath who attempt, with subtle direction, to steer us away from productive activities and into the netherworld of souless entertainment.
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Summary: Devil in the Details
Review: This book is one of the better books by C.S. Lewis, a man of many great books. A junior demon is counseled by his uncle, a more senior demon, on the intricacies of tripping up your average Christian human. It is at times hilarious, and at other times poignant, as there are constant reminders throughout the book of how our weaknesses bind us and trip us up all too often.
C.S. Lewis stated this was the most difficult book he had ever written, because of the strain of putting himself into the frame of mind required to write from a demon's point of view. It will be well worth your time to read it.
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