SCREWTAPE

He does this by creating an inverted moral order. Those values promoted by “the enemy” (God)–honesty, chastity, humility, and prayer–are abhorrent, while pride, envy, lust, and anger are desirable. When Wormwood expresses joy in the fact that World War II has started (Lewis wrote the book in 1943), Screwtape urges caution. Human carnage is entertaining, he admits, but the horror tends to turn humans toward God. “Men are killed in places where they knew they might be killed and to which they go, if they are at all of the Enemy’s party, prepared,” Screwtape writes.

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Far more conspicuous is Mike’s attraction to Judy. They fall in love, but their relationship founders on that old bugaboo of orthodox Christianity–sex. “You said you wanted me, but you don’t,” Judy tells Mike. “You want sex.”