Thursday, March 22, 2007

The Screwtape Letters


I have just completed reading C. S. Lewis' book The Screwtape Letters. This has been an incredible read. Some books I have read that have been written in the last 5 years seem already out of date. While this one was copyright 1942 seems to be dripping with truth that won't be dried out by time. Lewis writes as one senior demon to another on how to tempt and tear down a man. Everything you read in this book black becomes white and white becomes black. We learn about Christ and Heaven out the plans of these demons and what they are fighting against and for.


Here is a sampling of quotes (or read a chapter here) "Indeed the safest road to Hell is the gradual one - the gentle slope, soft underfoot, without sudden turnings, without milestones, without signposts"
"The Enemy [God] wants him, in the end, to be free from any bias in his own favour that he can rejoice in his own talents as frankly and gratefully as in his neighbor's talents - or a sunrise, and elephant, or a waterfall. He wants each man, in the long run, to be able to recognise all creatures (even himself) as glorious and excellent things.
"All the time the joke is that the word 'Mine' in its fully possessive sense cannot be uttered by human beings about anything. In the long run either Our Father [Satin] or the Enemy [God] will say 'Mine' of each thing that exists, and specially of each man. They will find out in the end, never fear, to whom their time, their souls, and their bodies really belong - certainly not to them, whatever happens. At the present the Enemy says 'Mine' of everything on the pedantic, legalistic ground that He made it: Our Father hopes in the end to say 'Mine' of all things on the more realistic and dynamic ground of conquest"
"They, of course, do tend to regard death as the prime evil and survival as the greatest good. But that is because we have taught them to do so."
"It is obvious that to Him [God] human birth is important chiefly as the qualification for human death, and death solely as the gate to that other kind of life. "

Alright that is enough quotes. This book has made me hungry for more. I pray that I just learn what it means to be a follower of Christ, then do it.

2 comments:

Chuck said...

I found the title of the "sequel" to the book: "Screwtape Proposes a Toast."

SteveM said...

Actually, the copy of The "Screwtape Letters" I have includes "Screwtape Proposes a Toast" and an interesting preface from C. S. Lewis.