The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis
Week 2: Letters 1–5 — The New Convert
Read Letters 1–5 of The Screwtape Letters. Key passages: Romans 10:17; Hebrews 11:1; James 1:5–8.
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These opening letters catch the Patient at the moment of his conversion to Christianity — precisely the moment Wormwood has apparently let slip through his fingers. Notice how Screwtape's first concern is not to undo the conversion but to ensure it produces as little real change as possible.
Discussion Questions
7 questions1.In Letter 1, Screwtape rebukes Wormwood for allowing the Patient to become a Christian and immediately offers a strategy: keep him thinking about his faith rather than living it, and use 'the stream of immediate sense impressions' to drown out any genuine spiritual reflection. Where do you see this strategy at work in contemporary Christian culture?
2.Screwtape advises Wormwood to steer the Patient toward 'the historical Jesus' or 'the real Jesus' — a Jesus defined by the Patient's own temperament and politics — rather than the Christ of Scripture and the Church. How does this tactic show up in real life? Have you ever constructed a version of Jesus more comfortable than the biblical one?
3.In Letter 2, Screwtape introduces the tactic of using the Patient's church and fellow churchgoers against him — pointing out the hypocrisy, the dull singing, the unattractive people in the pew. Lewis writes that Screwtape wants the Patient to see 'a dozen incompatible alternatives' for Christianity.
a.Have you ever allowed other people's failures to become a reason to distance yourself from the Church? What happened?
b.What does it reveal about the nature of faith that Screwtape sees genuine Christian community as such a threat?
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