I’m reading C.S. Lewis’ The Screwtape Letters. If you’re not familiar with the book, it is a collection of letters to Wormwood, a junior tempter, from Screwtape, Wormwood’s uncle.  Screwtape is a much more experienced demon: in fact, the under-secretary of a department.

Yes, the main characters are both fallen angels, and the Letters are thus a one-sided conversation about how to render Christians ineffective in the Christian life and ultimately woo them to hell. Thus, everything you read is backwards: the Enemy is Jesus, Our Father Below is Satan himself, “the patient” is the Christian to whom Wormwood is assigned to harass.

Lewis was a genius and his book is insightful, witty, and at times even frightful. It is worth reading. I found these words particularly provocative:

“You will say that these are very small sins; and doubtless, like all young tempters, you are anxious to be able to report spectacular wickedness. But do remember, the only thing that matters is the extent to which you separate the man from the Enemy. It does not matter how small the sins are, provided that their cumulative effect is to edge the man away from the Light and out into the Nothing. Murder is no better than cards if cards 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.” C.S. Lewis, The Screwtape Letters, 54.

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