5 takeaways from The Screwtape Letters

My thoughts after reading one of C.S. Lewis' classics

I enjoyed every page of this one.

Whether you meant to or not, you’ve probably read some C.S. Lewis in your life. If nothing else, you’ve almost certainly read something inspired by his works. 

Certainly one of the most influential Christian writers of the 20th century, his clever insights and thoughtful characterizations of humanity feel as fresh today as they were when first published. I found this to be particularly true with The Screwtape Letters, which I finally got around to reading earlier last month. 

The book is a satirical work, presented as a collection of letters written by a demon, Screwtape, to his nephew, Wormwood. A “Tempter,” Wormwood is tasked with influencing “the patient,” a man whose name we never learn, toward Hell. 

I’ll refrain from sharing too much more about the plot, because I really think this short book is worth reading yourself. But, I did want to share five (spoiler-free) takeaways I found in the story. 

1. Pay attention.

Distraction is a key method that Screwtape recommends throughout his letters to Wormwood, whether in prayer, in assessing current events, or in self-centeredness begotten by pride.

Wormwood can only be successful if he continues to “keep everything hazy” in the patient’s mind, effectively stifling the process of sanctification by making sure the patient doesn’t focus on anything resembling holiness long enough to actually attain it. 

Lewis’ message, certainly potent for his original audience, rings even truer today. Modernity is complicated and loud, and it’s difficult—if not impossible, at times—to escape from the constant cycle of email, push notifications, advertisement, and other content that is doing its best to keep us entertained, informed, and aware, often to our detriment. Screwtape reminded me how eternally important it is to not get swept up in the chaos, but to be intentional in every thought, word, and action. 

2. Undulations are expected. 

Early in the story, Wormwood apparently thinks that his temptations have succeeded, claiming that the “patient’s religious phase is dying away.” Screwtape quickly meets Wormwood with admonishment, introducing him instead to the “law of Undulation.”

“Humans are amphibians—half spirit, half animal,” Screwtape says. “As spirits they belong to the eternal world, but as animals they inhabit time. This means that while their spirit can be directed to an eternal object, their bodies, passions, and imaginations are in continual change, for to be in time means to change. Their nearest approach to constancy, therefore, is undulation—the repeated return to a level from which they repeatedly fall back, a series of troughs and peaks.”

Screwtape goes on to give examples of expected undulations, including interest in work, affection for friends, and physical appetites. Though he encourages Wormwood to make the most of this undulation, Screwtape ensures Wormwood that the Enemy—God—will do the same. 

“It is during such trough periods, much more than during the peak periods, that it is growing into the sort of creature He wants it to be,” he cautions. 

I have experienced my fair share of troughs, peaks, and everything in between. (In fact, I feel like most of life actually happens during those completely neutral in-between times.) This was a helpful reminder that my emotions aren’t telling the whole story, and faithfulness is more important than my feelings. 

3. Reality is Reality.

When you have an eternal mindset, it can be tempting to brush off things that are happening in the here and now. I think Lewis strongly warns against this way of thinking throughout Screwtape.  

“The characteristic of Pains and Pleasures is that they are unmistakably real, and therefore, as far as they go, give the man who feels them a touchstone of reality,” Screwtape says. “How can you have failed to see that a real pleasure was the last thing you ought to have let him meet?”

This leads nicely into my next takeaway, which is: 

4. You are you for a reason.

If these Pleasures were so detrimental to the tempters’ cause, they must have been really extraordinary…right? Take a look at what they were and judge for yourself. The patient: 

• “Read a book he really enjoyed, because he enjoyed it and not in order to make clever remarks about it to his new friends.”

• Took a peaceful walk alone “through a country he really likes.”

This thwarts the tempters’ plan to capture the patient’s soul by having him lose sight of himself in the fog of distraction and busyness. In this illustration, Lewis affirms a belief that I’ve probably implicitly held for awhile: that our God-given gifts, talents, and enjoyments are something to be celebrated. 

“Detaching men from themselves” is a goal that Screwtape and “the Enemy” share—but they go about it in different ways. While the devils seek to replace these “real Pleasures” with “vanity, bustle, irony, and expensive tedium” (in other words, frustrating wastes of time and energy masquerading as important things), the Enemy has something far more wonderful and personal in mind. 

Screwtape says, “Remember always, that He really likes the little vermin, and sets an absurd value on the distinctness of every one of them. When he talks of their losing their selves, he only means abandoning the clamour of self-will; once they have done that, He really gives them back all their personality, and boasts (I am afraid, sincerely) that when they are wholly His they will be more themselves than ever.”

What a beautiful thing to attain.

5. People have always been people. 

If, through some break in the space-time continuum, I found myself sitting across the table from a woman who turned 26 in 1942, I imagine we’d appear to have more differences than similarities. 

She’d probably be surprised at the way I dress and confused by the way I speak—I’d be secretly jealous of her ability to hold a conversation without the nagging worry that she’s missed an email, or a text, or some other (likely unimportant) notification. 

But I also believe that, were we to speak for several minutes, we’d quickly find some common ground. Not because of shared social contexts, but because of the striking continuity of the human experience. 

This became evident to me as I read Screwtape. Though the cultural contexts have changed, humanity’s core motivations, struggles, and anxieties remain fundamentally the same. Familial strife, concern about world events, the desire to remain devout, the temptations of lust and pride—none of these things were invented in the 21st century.

This is supremely comforting to me, and I hope it is for you, as well. Yes, the world today is a very different place than it used to be. But, as Solomon reminds us in Ecclesiastes 1:9, “What has been is what will be, and what has been done is what will be done, and there is nothing new under the sun.”

God is not surprised by the world we inhabit—in fact, he created us for it.

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I could go on for hours about The Screwtape Letters, but I don’t want to risk giving too much away. I was genuinely shocked by the end of the story—I found it lovely, exciting, and completely unexpected, and you’ve got to read it for yourself. 

Now, LMK:

Which of these takeaways resonates most with you? Have you read The Screwtape Letters? If so, what did you carry with you after you finished?

A snapshot from my week:

Here’s a snap from my Saturday, with the book I started as soon as I finished Screwtape and a delicious soft pretzel from a local bakery. (If you’re in the Huntsville, AL, area and haven’t tried Canadian Bakin’ yet, what are you waiting for?!)