Fiction has a way of showing us things that would otherwise go unnoticed. I’m ashamed to admit it, but I recently completed C.S. Lewis’ classic work The Screwtape Letters for the first time. I can honestly say, within the pages of this book, I’ve learned lessons that may save my life.
Lewis’ satirical apologetic has been on my to-read list for as long as I can remember, but I’ve put it off time and again over the years. For some reason, perhaps the prompting of the Holy Spirit, I decided to pick up my copy a few weeks ago. My only regret is that I didn’t do so sooner.
In The Screwtape Letters, Lewis offers us one side of a conversation between two demons as they correspond by sending letters back and forth. We only read the words of Screwtape, a veteran and distinguished human tempter. He writes to his nephew Wormwood, who is a novice in the trade of temptation, attempting to mentor him as Wormwood seeks to secure his first human soul for the purpose of eternal torment.
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