The Screwtape Letters (1942) (edit title/settings)

Ridiculously Simplified Synopsis edit see section history

Summary edit see section history

Characters/People edit see section history

• Wormwood: Screwtape's nephew, a junior "tempter".
• Screwtape: Wormwood's uncle, a senior devil
• the Patient: The Patient (who is also the Christian... not sure why shelfari is listing them as two people) is the person wormwood is assigned to, to tempt him out of faith in God. He is a new Christian, and doesn't quite understand things like the way temptation works, what things should take his focus, etc.
• The Christian: Referred to as "the patient' this particular man is under the 'care' of Wormwood who is supposed to secure his damnation.
• The Enemy: Known to humans as "God," the demons view The Enemy as their opponent in an endless war between good and evil, the key player on the other side in their game of souls.
• Slumtrimpet: The tempter in charge of the woman that Wormwood's patient falls in love with.
• the asphyxiating cloud: The Holy Spirit
• Our Father Below: Screwtape's name for Satan

Quotes edit see section history

• “The Enemy wants him, in the end, to be so free from any bias in his own favour that he can rejoice in his own talents as frankly and gratefully as in his neighbour’s talents-or in a sunrise, an elephant, or a waterfall.”

  Screwtape

• “Hell is "All Noise". Silence allows you to reflect and connect to God.”

• “Experience is the mother of illusion.”

• “It is funny how mortals always picture us as putting things into their minds: in reality our best work is done by keeping things out.”

• “He really does want to fill the universe with a lot of loathsome little replicas of Himself - creatures whose life on its miniature scale, will be qualitatively like his own, not because he has absorbed them but because their wills freely conform to His .." .. The devil want cattle (us) for food, but God "wants servants who finally can become sons”

• “He wants them to learn to walk and must therefore take away His hand; and if only the will to walk is really there He is pleased even with their stumbles.”

• “All mortals tend to turn into the thing they are pretending to be.”

• “Active habits are strengthened by repetition but passive ones are weakened. The more often he feels without acting, the less he will be able ever to act, and, in the long run, the less he will be able to feel.”

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• Indeed the safest road to Hell is the gradual one—the gentle slope, soft underfoot, without sudden turnings, without milestones, without signposts,

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• It is funny how mortals always picture us as putting things into their minds: in reality our best work is done by keeping things out.

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• Our cause is never more in danger than when a human, no longer desiring, but still intending, to do our Enemy’s will, looks round upon a universe from which every trace of Him seems to have vanished, and asks why he has been forsaken, and still obeys.

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• If once they get through this initial dryness successfully, they become much less dependent on emotion and therefore much harder to tempt.

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• The more often he feels without acting, the less he will be able ever to act, and, in the long run, the less he will be able to feel,

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• There is nothing like suspense and anxiety for barricading a human’s mind against the Enemy. He wants men to be concerned with what they do; our business is to keep them thinking about what will happen to them.

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• A moderated religion is as good for us as no religion at all—and more amusing.

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• We want cattle who can finally become food; He wants servants who can finally become sons. We want to suck in, He wants to give out. We are empty and would be filled; He is full and flows over. Our war aim is a world in which Our Father Below has drawn all other beings into himself: the Enemy wants a world full of beings united to Him but still distinct.

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• Hence nearly all vices are rooted in the future. Gratitude looks to the past and love to the present; fear, avarice, lust, and ambition look ahead.

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• An ever increasing craving for an ever diminishing pleasure is the formula.

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Setting & Locations edit see section history

• Heaven
• England
• Hell

Organizations edit see section history

• Tempters: Group of demons dedicated to winning souls for Satan.

First Sentence edit see section history

Table of Contents edit see section history

Series & Lists edit see section history

List the series to which this book belongs.

Authors & Contributors edit see section history

1. C. S. Lewis (Author)

First Edition edit see section history

Classification edit see section history

• Library of Congress: Add the Library of Congress Classification.
• Dewey: 248.4

Notes for Parents edit see section history

Contains strong sarcasm and irony with the aim of criticism common uses of religion and religious beliefs.

Subjects edit see section history

• Books › Religion & Spirituality › Authors, A-Z › ( L ) › Lewis, C. S.
• Books › Religion & Spirituality › Christianity › Literature & Fiction › Fiction
• Books › Literature & Fiction › Comic
• Books › Religion & Spirituality › Fiction
• Books › Literature & Fiction › Classics
• Books › Literature & Fiction › Classics
• Books › Literature & Fiction › Contemporary

Links to Supplemental Material edit see section history

• wikipedia: Online encyclopedia.
• The Screwtape Letters: Audio Drama

Books Influenced by This Book edit see section history

Books That Cite This Book edit see section history