Oneself In C. S. Lewis 'Screwtape Letters'

The Real Enemy: Oneself Every Christian will face temptation at some point in their life. The devil wants their soul and tempts them according to their sin nature. Each human is created differently and with that, each person has been given their own set of obstacles which can benefit God, or the devil. Although everyone has different battles, there is one shared by all: choosing God or the devil. This internal struggle is known as psychomachia and is analyzed by C.S. Lewis in the Screwtape Letters. The Screwtape Letters as defined by Edwin E. Aubrey is, “The efforts of a junior devil to keep firm hold on a Christian convert by the sage advice of his infernal uncle, Screwtape,

Lewis introduced the “patient’s” struggle with pride. In the beginning of this letter it is revealed that the human Wormwood is tempting, had become a Christian and through this recent conversion, Screwtape gives advice that utilizes the “patients” pride. “One of our great allies at present is the Church itself…Your patient, thanks to Our Father below, is a fool. Provided that any of those neighbours sing out of tune, or have boots that squeak, or double chins, or odd clothes, the patient will quite easily believe that their religion must therefore be somehow ridiculous” (3). Wormwood’s uncle is referring to the people in the church. He is manipulating the “patient’s” pride by making him believe that he is better than this religion based on the people that practice Christianity. This technique is often used upon Christians because pride is a common battle that will cause more than just one sin. Mark Pestana states “Another famous claim from Christian scriptural tradition and moral theology is that pride is the root of all sins. This rooting has been interpreted to mean that pride is the first act which precipitates other wrongful deeds or to mean that all sins involve an implicit act of prideful revolt. In short, some form of self will is deeply implicated in all wrongdoing.” Screwtape knew that by exploiting the humans pride he could possibly regain the soul by causing him to sin and turn away from God. He also knew that if this

Jesus was born of a virgin which removed him from being born into a sin nature, so the only way the devil was able to tempt Him was when he was without food and water. Matthew 4:1-2 (HCSB) “Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the Devil. After he had fasted 40 days and 40 nights, He was hungry.” The Devil tempted Jesus three times and we see in Matthew 4: 4,7, and 10, that the Devil did not succeed. The Devil could not exploit Jesus’ weakness and make Him give into temptation because He was not born of sin. In The Screwtape Letters, Screwtape instructs Wormwood to tempt his “patient” according to what the human is struggling with. Matt Jackson-McCabe said, “the ultimate source of temptation, sin and death is not God, but rather human desire.” Of course it clearly states in James 1:13 that God cannot tempt anyone, but this statement Jackson-McCabe made is the underlying theme throughout The Screwtape Letters: temptation follows sin nature. Most Christians like to give more credit to the Devil than he deserves. What this means is the Devil, can and will tempt everyone, but he is not the reason any sin is committed. God has given all people free will, therefore, Christians cannot claim that the Devil made them