The Screwtape Letters (1942)

The Screwtape Letters are marvelous. For those who do not know, they are a series of letters between a mid-level bureaucrat devil, Screwtape, and a junior "tempter". (Yes, even in Hell, they have bureaucracy.) The tempter's job is to get his "patient" into Hell. Screwtape reviews his progress and provides pointers on how this might be better accomplished. It is quite funny because the diabolical mindset is completely opposite of ours. Still, it is intended to provoke thought and to guide you in avoiding the traps of the tempter assigned to your life. ( )

The Screwtape Letters, C. S. Lewis re-imagines Hell as a gruesome bureaucracy. With spiritual insight and wry wit, Lewis suggests that demons, laboring in a vast enterprise, have horribly recognizable human attributes: competition, greed, and totalitarian punishment. Avoiding their own painful torture as well as a desire to dominate are what drive demons to torment their “patients.”

This book is written as on the premise that a purported collection of letters that has fallen into the author's hands from a senior demon, Screwtape, to a junior tempter, Wormwood. The letters are short and pithy. The apparent love of the “Enemy” (God) for his creatures is incomprehensible and contemptible. One of the fundamental insights of this work is that this Infernal Bureaucracy is founded the axiom of consume or be consumed.

The book is a humorous yet instructional quick read. Though written in the late 1800's it feels like it was just published for today's market. C.S. Lewis offers the reader numerous insights into the dynamics of spiritual life and the nature of the battles we fight or fail to resist. ( )

Cartas del diablo a su sobrino consiste en una serie de 31 cartas en la que un demonio llamado Escrutupo le enseña a su inexperto sobrino Orugario a tentar a un joven que se acaba de convertir al cristianismo. La misión principal de estos demonios es evitar a toda costa que el joven cristiano rinda su vida a quien ellos llaman “El enemigo” (Cristo). En este libro podemos ver el desarrollo de la vida espiritual del joven cristiano: sus luchas, sus tentaciones, su vida de iglesia, sus caídas, los momentos de arrepentimiento, su vida devocional, entre otras.

The Screwtape Letters, C. S. Lewis re-imagines Hell as a gruesome bureaucracy. With spiritual insight and wry wit, Lewis suggests that demons, laboring in a vast enterprise, have horribly recognizable human attributes: competition, greed, and totalitarian punishment. Avoiding their own painful torture as well as a desire to dominate are what drive demons to torment their “patients.”