Mere advice would be no good every sentence would have to smell of Heaven.' (Pp. But who could supply the deficiency? Even if a man-and he would have to be a far better man than I-could scale the spiritual heights required, what ‗answerable style‘ could he use? For the style would really be part of the content. Without this the picture of human life is lopsided. Ideally, Screwtape‘s advice to Wormwood should have been balanced by archangelical advice to the patient‘s guardian angel. 'I had, moreover, a sort of grudge against my book for not being a different book which no one could write.

Lewis gave up on the idea realizing that it is easy to get into the mind of the diabolical and impossible to get into the mind of the angelic (note the ―Preface to the 2nd edition, Pp. Lewis planned to write a sequel featuring one angel encouraging a junior angel on how to be a good guardian angel. The concept for the book is one devil, Screwtape, writing to his nephew, training him how to be successful as a tempter. One can‘t help but wonder what that sermon was about on that particular Sunday morning. Lewis came up with the idea for The Screwtape Letters as he was leaving his church (Holy Trinity, Headington) after a Sunday service. The Screwtape Letters is well-written to a point Lewis can certainly turn a phrase when the mood suits him, but after a time the letters become repetitive. The Screwtape Letters: Background IntroductionĬ.S. The seriousness of this endeavour is shown in the Lewis’s introduction to Screwtape proposes a toast like a bonus track attached at the end of the book.

Lewis the screwtape letters