Screwtape Comes to America and Confronting Evil for What It Really Is

[claireokc]

The Screwtape Letters was a series of compositions by C. S. Lewis, the religious apologist. The series is comprised of letters written by Uncle Screwtape, a Senior Devil, to his nephew, Wormwood, an apprentice in the act of tempting Christians away from God. I've read them and can understand why C. S. Lewis had to stop writing them. He said it put his mind in such a bad place that it was becoming increasingly hard to go to that place. They are extremely illuminating. He wrote them purposely during some of the worst times in British history. Dunkirk had just occurred, the British Isles seemed days if not hours away from invasion - all the time - from the Nazi forces just across the Channel which was tearing good peoples' souls apart. Some of the best writing from England came from this period, The Lord of the Rings series, The Narnia Chronicles, individual works from both Lews and J. R. R. Tolkien were meant to encourage, uplift, and help the British people survive the horrendous conditions, mental and physical, that they were undergoing.

This article from American Thinker is wonderful in how it manages a clear and direct correlation to today as if C. S. Lewis wrote this for us and our current dilemmas. Today is no different, and this article from The American Thinker reminds us how timeless Lewis's work is. Here are some excellent quotes from The Screwtape Letters.

Remember these are from a Senior Devil to a Junior apprentice. They are meant to remind us of Evil's direction and purpose.

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…. turn their gaze away from Him [God] towards themselves. Keep them watching their own minds and trying to produce feelings there by the action of their own wills.

Here's a preface to one of his articles:

The greatest evil is not now done in those sordid ‘dens of crime’ that Dickens loved to paint. It is not done even in concentration camps and labor camps. In those, we see its final result. But it is conceived and ordered (moved, seconded, carried, and minuted) in clean, carpeted, warmed, and well-lighted offices, by quiet men with white collars and cut fingernails and smooth-shaven cheeks who do not need to raise their voice.

On the road to hell:

Murder is no better than cards if cards can do the trick. Indeed the safest road to Hell is the gradual one-the gentle slope, soft underfoot, without sudden turnings, without milestones, without signposts…

If you don't have a copy of the book, it's available at your public library (if they haven't banned it yet - it's sustenance for the moral and upright).