The Screwtape Letters

These are my notes from the bible study on C.S. Lewis "The Screwtape Letters" for the UCCC College and Career Group. The series ran from Fall of 1996 through the Winter of 1997. I recall some apprehension on my part when I first decided on this study. Well, it wasn't just my decision, but anyway. The group is suppose to be a bible study and the Screwtape Letters are not the Bible. The Letters also deal with Satan and demons and these are not necessarily subjects everyone is comfortable discussing. The Lord was really gracious about this with me. I was able to find (or was pointed) to relevant scripture for all the letters. I also have a new appreciation for Lewis. He really makes me think and articulates how we think and Satan works. This made it easy to pull in current examples and analogies for each of the letters, which helped with group discussion.

What follows are notes for each of the letters. Some weeks we covered multiple letters, and just one on other weeks. Everyone in the group had a copy of the book and the readings were supplemented with a the book on tape read by John Cleese.

Introduction

Screwtape is demon, of some authority. Over seeing junior tempters
Wormwood is his nephew (scriptural?) and junior tempter
Book is series of 31 letters from Screwtape to nephew. The nephew writes back, but we never see those reports.
The "patient" is a man, human
Remember the reverse since from demon's view.
- The Enemy = God
- Father = Satan
- Not everything written is the truth; demons lie.