Discussion Thread: Compare and Contrast "The Screwtape Letters" and "The Great Divorce"

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from Discussion Thread: Compare and Contrast "The Screwtape Letters" and "The Great Divorce"

Aug 13, 2025 7:49AM

Kyle Panchot

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

If one were to read only The Screwtape Letters, they might come away with the impression that C. S. Lewis believes the main obstacle to union with God is demonic activity. On the other hand, if they were to read only The Great Divorce, they might conclude that the main obstacle is human free will. However, these are really just two sides of the same coin.

In The Screwtape Letters, even the demons are concerned about human free will. That is why Wormwood cautions Screwtape not to be overly obvious about his demonic activity:

> “The fact that ‘devils’ are predominantly comic figures in the modern imagination will help you. If any faint suspicion of your existence begins to arise in his mind, suggest to him a picture of something in red tights… persuade him… he therefore cannot believe in you.”^2

I have always thought that one reason why demonic activity is more common in the third world than in the developed West is that in the West we tend to brush off anything supernatural as mere superstition. So long as we do not believe in the supernatural, why would demons show themselves when they already have us right where they want us?

> “We are really faced with a cruel dilemma. When humans disbelieve in our existence we lose all the pleasing results of direct terrorism… On the other hand, when they believe in us, we cannot make them materialists and skeptics.”^3

Demons do not have to possess us to get us to do evil things. Our own inclination toward sin is more than enough for that:

> “But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin; and sin when it is full-grown brings forth death.”^4

 

 

 

 

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Footnotes

 

1. 1 Pet. 5:8 (RSV-2CE).

 

2. C. S. Lewis, The Screwtape Letters (New York: HarperOne, 2015), 2.

 

3. Ibid., 8.

 

4. Jas. 1:14–15 (RSV-2CE).

 

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Bibliography

 

Lewis, C. S. The Screwtape Letters. New York: HarperOne, 2015.

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