{"id":851,"date":"2017-10-25T15:00:24","date_gmt":"2017-10-25T21:00:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/?p=851"},"modified":"2017-12-17T14:45:45","modified_gmt":"2017-12-17T21:45:45","slug":"book-the-screwtape-letters-1942","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/2017\/10\/25\/book-the-screwtape-letters-1942\/","title":{"rendered":"BOOK: The Screwtape Letters (1942)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong><u><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft\" src=\"https:\/\/images.gr-assets.com\/books\/1359009956l\/16639289.jpg\" alt=\"The Screwtape Letters\" width=\"300\" height=\"400\" \/>The Screwtape Letters<br \/>\n<\/u><\/strong>Year: 1942<br \/>\nAuthor: C.S. Lewis<br \/>\nLength: 216 minutes \/ 3.60 hours<\/p>\n<p>Perhaps the first documented fictional exploration of spiritual warfare,\u00a0<em>The Screwtape Letters\u00a0<\/em>is an expertly crafted examination of what the enemy of our souls is plotting. The reader is given insight into one side of a correspondence between two demons of differing influence and rank, thus providing a \u201cbehind the scenes\u201d look at what the enemy is plotting and what they consider to be a victory for them. At moments, it can be difficult to follow along since the context of Screwtape\u2019s \u201cenemy\u201d is really the \u201cgood\u201d side of the spiritual battle. Either way, C.S. Lewis has crafted a brilliant satire about how little humans understand of their spiritual lives.<\/p>\n<p>While I wouldn\u2019t necessarily ascribe\u00a0<em>The Screwtape Letters<\/em>\u00a0to pure theology, there are plenty of eye-opening and thought-provoking statements in Screwtape\u2019s letters to his nephew. From the demons\u2019 acknowledgment that pleasure is of God\u2019s design but overindulgence in pleasure is in their realm to the ever-constant battle to bring humanity\u2019s spiritual fervor into the \u201clukewarm\u201d category, many of the topics covered in this book are still applicable today. In fact, an astute reader can pick up exactly where the demons have gained victories in today\u2019s society filled with apathy and spiritual malaise.<\/p>\n<p>My biggest qualm with this book is that it wasn\u2019t longer. Lewis unquestionably had the creative spark to package theology in an entertaining context via books like this, so I would have liked if there were more letters included in the set to stir up more conversation and induce more moments of reflection in our own lives. If someone were to write the unauthorized sequel to this book that could do so, I would certainly read it in a heartbeat.<\/p>\n<p>The greatest example of writing from an antagonist\u2019s perspective, I give\u00a0<em>The Screwtape Letters<\/em>\u00a04.5 stars out of 5.<\/p>\n<p><strong><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-647\" src=\"http:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/255px-Five-pointed_star_svg-150x150.png\" alt=\"255px-Five-pointed_star_svg\" width=\"50\" height=\"50\" \/>\u00a0<\/strong><strong><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-647\" src=\"http:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/255px-Five-pointed_star_svg-150x150.png\" alt=\"255px-Five-pointed_star_svg\" width=\"50\" height=\"50\" \/>\u00a0<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-647\" src=\"http:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/255px-Five-pointed_star_svg-150x150.png\" alt=\"255px-Five-pointed_star_svg\" width=\"50\" height=\"50\" \/>\u00a0<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-647\" src=\"http:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/255px-Five-pointed_star_svg-150x150.png\" alt=\"255px-Five-pointed_star_svg\" width=\"50\" height=\"50\" \/>\u00a01\/2<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Screwtape Letters Year: 1942 Author: C.S. Lewis Length: 216 minutes \/ 3.60 hours Perhaps the first documented fictional exploration of spiritual warfare,\u00a0The Screwtape Letters\u00a0is an expertly crafted examination of what the enemy of our souls is plotting. The reader is given insight into one side of a correspondence between two demons of differing influence [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,54],"tags":[100,55,828,911,8,76,912,909,910],"class_list":["post-851","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-4-5-stars","category-book","tag-100","tag-book","tag-c-s-lewis","tag-demons","tag-review","tag-satire","tag-spiritual-warfare","tag-the-screwtape-letters","tag-theology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/851","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=851"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/851\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":941,"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/851\/revisions\/941"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=851"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=851"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=851"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}