The Tempter’s Challenge Essay

 

The Tempter’s Challenge Essay

 

Kyle D Panchot
APOL 330: C.S. Lewis and the Apologetic Imagination
July 6, 2025
Professor Seth Johnson

 

Introduction

“Be sober, be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour”¹

C. S. Lewis’s book The Screwtape Letters is a timeless classic, offering deep insight into the Christian life and the ways the devil may seek to attack it. Though it was written in the 1940s, it remains particularly relevant today. The effectiveness of the methods Lewis describes has only increased over time. In the following, I wish to describe some of these methods.

Distractions

“But the cares of the world, and the delight in riches, and the desire for other things, enter in and choke the word, and it proves unfruitful”²

At first, Screwtape seems content to use the distractions of daily life to keep the client from thinking about God or higher truths. By focusing his attention on the day-to-day grind, he will not have time to stop and ponder deeper matters. When those higher thoughts do creep into the client’s mind, Screwtape advises using practical concerns—like satisfying hunger by breaking for lunch—as a distraction.

This is particularly relevant in our modern world of social media and short videos, where algorithms learn your personal tastes and feed you an endless supply of videos and posts tailored to those tastes.

Cultivating Pride

“God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble”³

Screwtape advises Wormwood to cultivate pride in his patient. Pride is the king of vices; it is the root from which all sin derives. It is pride that turns one inward, seeking to put one’s own needs above all others. It was pride that caused Lucifer to say, “I will not serve,” and it was pride that led our first parents to give in to the temptation of being like God.

The irony is that when, out of love, we set aside our pride and put others’ needs before our own, we are more like God than at any other time. But pride brings a certain blindness, where we often cannot see what is right before our eyes.

Lewis writes, “You must bring him to a condition in which he can practise self-examination for an hour without discovering any of those facts about himself which are perfectly clear to anyone who has ever lived in the same house with him.”⁴

Natural Inclination Toward Sin

“For I know that nothing good dwells within me… For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I do”⁵

When the man encounters the living God—whom Screwtape calls “the Enemy”—the demon shifts his strategy. He exploits every person’s natural inclination toward self-centeredness to pit the man against those around him, urging him to notice all the little things people do that annoy him. By focusing on the faults of others and his preconceived notions of them, he is less likely to examine himself seriously.

This becomes especially apparent in his interactions with his mother, whom he is encouraged to think acts deliberately to irritate him.

Alongside social media distractions, the internet has spawned phenomena like the keyboard warrior and the internet troll, both emboldened by anonymity to treat others in ways they never would face to face.

Sexual Desire

“Do not desire her beauty in your heart, and do not let her capture you with her eyelashes; for the price of a harlot is only a loaf of bread, but a married woman hunts down a precious life. Can a man carry fire in his bosom and his clothes not be burned?”⁶

Screwtape urges the client to act on his base desires, viewing the object of his affection as merely that—an object to conquer and use for his own gratification, not someone to be loved and protected. By encouraging him to act on these desires, they hope to bind him to someone with whom he will be unequally yoked, ultimately bringing both pain and suffering.

Today we are bombarded by sexual content from every angle, all designed to inflame passions and manipulate us—whether through overtly sexualized imagery on screens and magazines, fantasies peddled in so-called romance novels, or explicit material online. All of this stems from the sexual revolution, which was fueled by the Church’s compromise on its teaching about the immorality of artificial birth control.

Attacks on the Family

“For I hate divorce, says the Lord the God of Israel”⁷

One of the most effective strategies today is the attack on the family. Lewis notes in The Screwtape Letters that convincing someone the only valid reason for marriage is the initial feeling of love leaves the door open to divorce once that feeling fades.

While this is true—just look at the “love at first sight” trope so famously pushed by Disney—this is far from the devil’s only tactic. I believe that if C. S. Lewis could see our time, he would be shocked by how broken the family has become, with the divorce rate among Christians nearly matching that of non-Christians and many today not even attempting to marry or have children.

In my view, there has been a clear progression: acceptance of artificial birth control → greater sexual promiscuity → perversion of the ideal of love → no-fault divorce → broken families → a generation that does not want marriage.

A New Strategy for the Modern World

“Do not be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewal of your mind…”⁸

If C. S. Lewis were writing today, I think he would have Screwtape promote isolation—encouraging Wormwood’s client to withdraw from real human contact, relying instead on more frequent yet increasingly superficial online interactions.

This would erode the client’s support structures, leading inevitably to deeper loneliness and despair. Lewis writes, “Aggravate that most useful human characteristic, the horror and neglect of the obvious,” and today we are far too inclined to neglect the most obvious of things: real human interaction in favor of a digital imitation that pales in comparison.⁹

Conclusion

“Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil”¹⁰

Screwtape’s strategy is perfectly suited to today’s world. His timeless tactics, rooted in human nature, have only grown more effective.

The trends Lewis observed in his own day have been magnified by modern technology, especially the internet, providing precisely the kind of gentle slope Screwtape would have wanted: “The safest road to Hell is the gradual one—the gentle slope, soft underfoot, without sudden turnings, without milestones, without signposts.”¹¹

 

Citations

 

1. 1 Peter 5:8.

2. Mark 4:19.

3. James 4:6.

4. C. S. Lewis, The Screwtape Letters, Letter 3.

5. Romans 7:18–19.

6. Proverbs 6:25–27.

7. Malachi 2:16.

8. Romans 12:2.

9. C. S. Lewis, The Screwtape Letters, Letter 3.

10. Ephesians 6:11.

11. C. S. Lewis, The Screwtape Letters, Letter 12.

 

Bibliography

 

Lewis, C. S. The Screwtape Letters. New York: Macmillan, 1942.

The Holy Bible, Revised Standard Version, Second Catholic Edition. San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 2006.