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.

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 questions

1.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?

4.Lewis believed in both the reality of free will and the overwhelming, patient love of God — two commitments that create genuine tension. Screwtape is repeatedly frustrated that 'the Enemy' refuses to simply override human will and force people to love him. How does Lewis handle this tension between divine sovereignty and human freedom in the book?

5.The book implies that genuine faith, love, and virtue are actually more substantial and resilient than evil, which can only operate by pretending to be something it isn't. Does this optimistic anthropology — the idea that goodness is more fundamental than evil — come through in the letters? Where?

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Closing Prayer

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God of all goodness, we thank you that evil is not your equal — that it can create nothing, love nothing, and sustain nothing on its own. We thank you that even Screwtape's frustrated descriptions of you are inadvertently beautiful. Help us to see evil clearly — not to romanticize it or to panic at it, but to recognize it for what it is: a parasite on your goodness. And help us to run toward you, the source of every real pleasure, every genuine love, and every lasting joy. Amen.

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