The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis
Week 9: Lewis's Vision of Evil — A Theological Pause
Re-read selected letters of your choice from The Screwtape Letters, focusing on Screwtape's descriptions of God and of hell's own nature. Key passages: Isaiah 14:12–15; John 10:10; 1 John 4:7–8.
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This week we step back from the narrative to examine the theology underneath — Lewis's understanding of the nature of evil, the character of God, and the cosmic stakes of the moral life. What kind of universe does The Screwtape Letters assume?
Discussion Questions
7 questions1.Throughout the letters, God is called 'the Enemy' — but Screwtape's descriptions of him, filtered through demonic frustration, are often unexpectedly beautiful. What portrait of God emerges from what Screwtape grudgingly admits about him? List two or three attributes that Screwtape acknowledges even while resenting them.
2.Lewis's Screwtape operates with a fundamentally parasitic view of evil: hell cannot create, only corrupt; it cannot invent pleasures, only misdirect them; it cannot manufacture love, only consume it. How does this 'parasite' model of evil compare with other ways people understand the problem of evil? What are its strengths?
3.Screwtape describes hell as a place where every relationship is ultimately about consumption — devouring and being devoured. He says this is simply the logical end of a life organized around self. Does this portrait of hell feel psychologically realistic to you? Can you see how a life oriented around self would naturally move in this direction?
a.How does Lewis's portrait of hell as radical self-absorption compare with Dante's concentric circles or traditional images of hell as punishment?
b.What does this suggest about what heaven, by contrast, must be like?
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