The Screwtape Letters

I recently re-read C S Lewis’s “The Screwtape Letters”, that fascinating construction of a conversation between an older and a younger devil, as they seek to lead their ‘clients’ astray. Despite its age, there is still plenty that is relevant there. For example, one might hope, but with a lack of certainty, that this picture of the church is somewhat inaccurate – “One of our great allies at present is the Church itself. Do not misunderstand me. I do not mean the Church as we see her spread out through all time and space and rooted in eternity, terrible as an army with banners. That, I confess, is a spectacle which makes our boldest tempters uneasy. But fortunately it is quite invisible to these humans. All your patient sees is the half-finished, sham Gothic erection on the new building estate. When he goes inside, he sees the local grocer with rather an oily expression on his face bustling up to offer him one shiny little book containing a liturgy which neither of them understands, and one shabby little book containing corrupt texts of a number of religious lyrics, mostly bad, and in very small print. When he gets to his pew and looks round him he sees just that selection of his neighbours whom he has hitherto avoided. You want to lean pretty heavily on those neighbours. Make his mind flit to and fro between an expression like “the body of Christ” and the actual faces in the next pew.” That suggests plenty to consider as to how we behave and how we are seen, and challenges us to present a rather different reality. We do need to get things right. As Lewis also reminds us through the correspondence, “To be greatly and effectively wicked a man (sic) needs some virtue.”