The Screwtape Letters
The Ransom Cycle Book 3
ISBN 9780060652937
eISBN 9780061949043
ASIN B002BD2V2Y
This book hit very differently reading it this time. I believe that is for a few reasons. Some of which are: One I now believe this is part of the Ransom cycle, more on that below. Two looking back on my life in my mid 50’s I can see many of the snares and traps outlined in this volume, and the success they had in my life. As a father of three teenagers growing up in this day and age I am even more concerned about the trials and temptations the face. I know I read this volume a number of times in University, but that was before I started keeping a list of everything I have read, which I started in October of 1995. At the time of writing this review according to Goodreads there are over 800 editions of this book available. And over the years there have been numerous attempts to update or modernize it including:
Flambeau@Darkcorp.com - Don Hawkings
The Snakebite Letters - Peter J. Kreeft
The Gargoyle Code - Dwight Longenecker
Lord Foulgrin's Letters - Randy Alcorn
As One Devil to Another - Richard Platt
The Gravedigger File - Os Guinness
(Now published as The Last Christian on Earth)
And those are just the ones that come to mind and that I have encountered. I have read half of that list but before I started writing reviews. And from what I recall those I have read paled in comparison to this volume. A quick note before continuing with this review:
Recent scholarship published found a handwritten preface to manuscript edition of The Screwtape Letters in the C.S. Lewis Archive in Wheaton, IL. This note indicates the letters were found and translated by Dr. Ransom. And that they were written in Old Solar. Thus linking the 3 Ransom novels, the 2 Screwtape pieces and the partial fourth Ransom novel into one series. As such this reading of this volume is in the order of it being volume 3 of 6 in that reading order.
So to begin with in the last week prior to reading this, I have reread both Out of the Silent Planet and Perelandra; and looking at this as a volume transcribed by Ransom and provided to Lewis shines an entirely different light upon the work. In part while reading this there was a deep sense of melancholy, for though I read it when I was younger and some of the other volumes mentioned that imitate it, I can looking back see the many times I have fallen and failed.
This volume is terribly powerful. Both of you read it as allegory or if you read it as lessons. Lessons in this case lessons to be avoided. Sort of reverse manual on how to spot traps, snares, and outright interference in your life and the lives of those around you. The real turning point in my life was a weeklong deliverance ministry retreat. But how I wish my eyes had been opened earlier, the pain I would have saved myself and others. Forgive me father.
This is one of those volumes that people today will often scoff at or deride. Even in many Christian circles. Those who do take its warnings could face opposition from friends, family and other Christians. But it is an important work, both as part of the Ransom cycle and just on its own. It is a work I am going to encourage my youngest two read. This edition also contains Screwtape Proposes a Toast, but I have another edition called Screwtape Proposes a Toast and Other Pieces, and I plan to read it in that edition.
I have struggled with the works of C.S. Lewis, when I was in university 35ish years ago he was immensely popular in Campus ministry, with evangelicals, and even mainline protestants. I also know many Catholic scholars, teachers and priests who love his works and use them extensively today. There have been debates of weather he would have converted to Catholicism or if he lived a sort of Catholicism. All I know is that I have hardly read any of his books in decades and that was my loss.
So my recommendation is if you are Catholic, or evangelical or nondenominational that you give this volume a read with an open heart. And see if you are not changed and challenged by the end of the work.
Note: Review written in 2024 after a reread but it was read a number of times in the 1990's and early 2000's.
Note 2: Recent scholarship published found a handwritten preface to The Screwtape Letters in the C.S. Lewis Archive in Wheaton, IL. This note indicates the letters were found and translated by Dr. Ransom. And that they were written in Old Solar. Thus linking the 3 Ransom novels, the 2 Screwtape pieces and the partial fourth Ransom novel into one series.
Other Reviews of Lewis's Books.
A Grief Observed
The Four Loves
A Grief Observed
The Four Loves
...
The Ransom Cycle:
Original Space Trilogy:
Out of the Silent Planet
Perelandra
That Hideous Strength
Out of the Silent Planet
Perelandra
That Hideous Strength
...
The Dark Tower and Other Stories
The Dark Tower and Other Stories
...
Narnia Publication Order:
Prince Caspian
The Voyage of the Dawn Treader
The Silver Chair
The Horse and His Boy
The Last Battle
...
Narnia Chronological Order:
The Horse and His Boy
Prince Caspian
The Voyage of the Dawn Treader
The Silver Chair
The Last Battle
...
Books about C.S. Lewis:
Planet's In Peril: A critical Study of C.S. Lewis's Ransom Trilogy - David C. Downing
The Man Who Created Narnia - Michael Coren
...
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