The Screwtape Letters

Rating:
Summary: No Other Book Like It On The Planet; Should Be 6 Stars!
Review: If you've ever heard the verse "Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light." (2 Cor. 11:14 NIV) and wonder what it means, Lewis masterfully illustrates it in this book. If there is one word that sums up the meaning of this verse and the book, it is distraction. Distraction from God toward anything else.

The book is a series of letters from a senior devil to a junior devil on how to thwart or subvert a Christian's spiritual growth. This book shows that goal of the enemy is not necessarily overt sin, but anything that diverts focus away from God and his will, which is primarily demonstrating love to other people. By learning how the enemy tries to weaken your Christian walk, you will be better equiped to walk with God.

I have read this book 4 times in the last 10 years, and will do so many more times. The lessons here are unique and penetrating, and worth reviewing regularly!

Rating:
Summary: More Diverting Than Funny
Review: I picked up this book because it was recommended to me as very funny and, having been a huge fan of The Chronicles of Narnia as a child, I wanted to read an example of C.S. Lewis's overt literary argument for Christianity. I thought I might find a Christian counterpoint to Twain's Letters from the Earth. I'm afraid I was somewhat disappointed.

The Screwtape Letters is an epistolary novel with the central conceit being that C.S. Lewis has recovered letters of advice that a Demon from the depths -- Screwtape -- had written to one of his foot soldiers -- Wormwood -- whose job it was to stick by a mortal and suggest certain lines of thought to him and exaggerate certain emotions in key moments, leading him astray. We are only privy to Screwtape's letters, and it is through his criticism of his apprentice's efforts, and his advice, that the reader is to divine the mortal's story, the efforts of Wormwood, and the nature and methods of Evil and Good.

But Screwtape is Evil, and thus his advice may not necessarily be intended to help his charge, and I think we are to take The Screwtape Letters as an investigation into the psychology of Evil as it reveals itself in the mischievous advice. The difficulty in knowing which advice is straightforward is illustrative of Lewis's epistemology, "A great human philosopher nearly let our secret out when he said that where Virtue is concerned 'Experience is the mother of illusion' ...." -- which is also a dig at the modernist concept of the untrustworthy author. In the final analysis there's not much you can do with liars outside of laugh at them. Hence, "A more modern writer -- someone with a name like Pshaw -- has, however, grasped the truth."

And Lewis obviously had a lot of Dickensian fun with his demons' names, "Toadpipe", "Triptweeze", "Glubose", "Slubgob" and "Slumtrimpet", and there are some pretty funny lines like "Only the learned read old books and we have now so dealt with the learned that they are of all men the least likely to acquire wisdom by doing so." And "Do not let us be infected by our own propaganda."

There are also compelling lines like "Humans are amphibians -- half spirit and half animal." and "For the present is the point at which time touches eternity." But in my opinion, to be honest, the book is really not all that funny. It is interesting, very well written, and even describes a profound vision of human psychology. But it is not particularly funny. It is humorous, but not Catch 22, At Swim Two Birds or The Magic Christian belly laugh funny. You end up finding yourself quietly amused.

I suppose we are warned, the two epigrams at the start of the book refer to scorn and contempt, not humor: "The best way to drive out the devil, if he will not yield to texts of Scripture, is to jeer and flout him, for he cannot bear scorn." -- Luther. And "The devil .. the prowde spirite .. cannot endure to be mocked." -- Thomas More. It all reminds me of St. Augustine's vision of the saved gloating over the torments of the damned. (St. Augustine also had some insights into the psychology of man.)

In fact, in Screwtape Lewis suggests the best method with which to corrupt man is to make him feel like he is doing good, being Christian, when in reality he is only doing so to feed his own pride, his own vanity. Unfortunately, I think more Christians will feel the sting of this critique in Twain's Letters from the Earth than they will in Screwtape. I'm afraid that Lewis inadvertently helps the "saved" feel comfortable in their self-regard, which, of course, would be terribly ironic, but not terribly funny.

This edition also includes Screwtape Proposes a Toast, which was initially an Op-Ed for the Saturday Evening Post attacking the leveling psychology of democracy, which Lewis sees as dangerous because it produces a type of person who "resents every kind of superiority in others; denigrates it; wishes its annihilation. Presently he suspects every mere difference of being a claim to superiority." He considers this phenomena to be a banal version of envy, and predicts -- in the vein of Arendt -- a new mass of sinners who aren't of the great sinners variety, but damned by their lack of humility nonetheless.

Rating:
Summary: An Audio Classic Deserves more stars ******
Review: Problem, how do you take a book as good, timely, useful, insightful and intelligent as C.S. Lewis' THE SCREWTAPE LETTERS and improve on it?

Answer: Make an audio version and add John Cleese as Screwtape. His great timing, his irreverant humor, (not easy to express with established and unchanging lines!) and a history of making us laugh at bureaucrats and you have an audio book on morality that gets its message accross even better than it did in print.

Of course there are those who don't like the message of the book in the first place, for them it can be percieved as entertainment and fine entertainment. I can't believe something this good is out of print, well print is the wrong word. Find it! Buy it! Learn from it! Enjoy it!

Rating:
Summary: Should be required reading particularly today
Review: If there is a better and more entertaining book about morality, religion and Christianity out there I have yet to read it. If there is a more relevent book particularly for today on religion I'm unaware of it (Other than the bible of course) As a Roman Catholic I am simply enthralled by the writing and the presentation. It address so many important points that it can't be overstated. No Christian of any stripe should be without it. It's letter by letter method allows one to skip to various lessons as they apply to daily life. The final toast is an amazingly accurate prediction of where education would be. One would almost think that he actually intercepted these letters instead of writing them. For they who distain religion, it is a not only a fine treste on morality but a great read, entertaining, amusing and so enjoyable I'm shocked it hasn't been made into a movie yet. (Sean Conery or Anthony Hopkins as screwtape???) For whatever reason you choose to read it just read it. It will not disappoint.

Rating:
Summary: A Good Devotional
Review: If you are interested in a good Christian devotional, this is probably for you. It attempts to challenge you, and should be read a little at a time and pondered.

If you are looking for just an entertaining read, whether Christian or not, don't bother with this.

Rating:
Summary: cool book
Review: Man, this book was the BOMB! Those demons were so cool and funny it made me want to visit HELL to see them myself.

Rating:
Summary: Cleese as Sang Froid...er, uh...Screwtape
Review: There's no way to avoid writing a review of this work without it reading like a Dear John letter.

Cleesey...brilliant choice of medium. Sir John, my man, you are in top form.

To our dear reader/listenter:

If you "loved" Shakespeare's Richard III's playful villainy, the Devil's tearful plea to his fellow fallen angels in Milton's Paradise Lost (thank you for pointing that our Dr. Sellin), or the mental judo the witches use on MacBeth leading to his final downfall...this tome on temptation is for you.

Rating:
Summary: Diabolically Clever!
Review: C.S. Lewis' "The Screwtape Letters" is a diabolically clever read. In this book Lewis writes a series of letters between two devils that are attempting to keep "the patient" in the grasps of the underworld. The techniques that are described will be familiar to anyone that has a conscience, or a soul. It is quite possible that the way Evil works is exactly as Lewis describes it in these letters. The book will make you think about the way you live, and if Evil is being succesfull in fooling you into thinking you are on the right path.

This is a masterful book.

Rating:
Summary: I never fail to learn something new from Lewis
Review: The wonderful thing about C.S. Lewis was that he put an amazing amount of thought into his faith. He understood better than most that becoming a Christian meant constantly trying to understand more, to examine both one's self and one's relationship to God. His penetrating intellegence towards Christianity is something that is often lacking in religion, and every time I read Lewis I learn something new, both about myself and my faith. Lewis is a true master. Another author who I'd highly recomend to anyone who enjoys Lewis, one who explores the Christian faith as brilliantly as Lewis, is Brian Caldwell. His novel, We All Fall Down is breathtaking. I'd put him on a par with Lewis, both for writing ability and theological brilliance. His novel is one of the few Christian masterpieces. Both Lewis and Caldwell should be read by those who have discovered God and want to explore that faith as deeply as possible, and perhaps more importantly, by those who have not.

Rating:
Summary: I hope Screwtape didn't enjoy his nephew too much!
Review: You see, Screwtape's nephew's incompetance is rather good for us - the tempted. Lewis was such a great writer. He wrote so clearly - often it's as if there are no words coming between the writer's ideas and ms - the ideas flow with no interpretative medium at all. What a great idea to look at temptation from the other side - and then to reveal so many brilliant insights. Perhaps it should have been longer!!