This little gem, which I am re-reading for the eight or ninth time, is a great mind-bender. Primarily because it’s a book about Christianity, but it’s written from the point of view of a demon in Hell. So you have to constantly remind yourself that when the demon says “The Enemy” he means God, and when he says “Our Father” he means Satan. And it’s the story of one man who lives in London just at the breakout of the Second World War, and the attempts by the demons to get the man into Hell. It’s also the story, interwoven skillfully, of the main demon, Screwtape, who is undersecretary of a department in Hell, and his nephew, Wormwood, a sub-level tempter responsible for securing the soul of the man. The tension throughout the book as to whether the new tempter will gain his man for Hell, or lose him to Heaven, and what will happen to the demons in either case, is incredibly well-done and subtly interwoven into the book, which is written as a series of letters from Screwtape to his nephew in regard to how better to secure the man’s soul.
The Screwtape Letters is one of C.S. Lewis’s shortest works, but it is also one of his most powerful. The chapters dealing with various vices and virtues lay open the true state of the human soul, and the true motives of the human psyche, far better than any straightforward account would do. I love the exposition of the Law of Undulation and of the meaning of true Humility. I’ve never seen these two concepts explained better.
I highly recommend this book to anyone who wants to know what true Christianity is really all about. Just remember to flip your mind over as you read it.