Summary Of The Screwtape Letters

C.S. Lewis was a Christian writer who was able to understand deeply about the world around him, what God had done in his life, and what he could do for others. He instilled the Christian faith in everything he wrote as seen in his well-known book, “The Screwtape Letters.” In this story, the “affectionate uncle” Screwtape was talking to his nephew Wormwood about his patient and what Wormwood could do to persuade his patient’s soul for the “Father Below.” Screwtape, a demon, was highly concerned to teach Wormwood, his nephew and apprentice, the law of undulation so that it would allow Wormwood to understand man’s nature in regards to the Law of Undulation, the “Enemy’s” tactics during the two phases of undulation, and how to use the trough phase

“To decide what the best use of it is, you must ask what use the Enemy wants to make of it… [God] relies on the troughs, even more, the on the peaks” (Screwtape 38). Screwtape states that the reason this is because “the Enemy wants a world full of beings united to Him but still distinct” (39). Screwtape goes into how God will bring the “patient” out of the trough stage for His will. “He will set them off with communications of His presence” for a short time. Then “he leaves the creature to stand up on its legs-to carry out from the will alone duties which have lost all relish… it is growing into the sort of creature He wants it to be” during the trough period (40). God allows believers to go through trough periods for the allowance to grow, to be what he wants us to be, and does not suppress the free will of man so that the being can either fall for the traps of tempters or realize what is wrong and come to follow Christ. Screwtape knew this and made sure Wormwood was aware of this so that he can do the will of the “Father