69 pages • 2-hour read
The Screwtape Letters
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Chapters 5-7Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 5 Summary
It is the beginning of World War II, and the patient is uncertain about his future. Wormwood is “drunk” with the pleasure of the young man’s “anguish. However, while Screwtape rejoices in the death and destruction the war will bring, he warns Wormwood that war is not an unmitigated good. In the crisis of a war, people will often turn to the “Enemy,” and this will ultimately negate any benefits caused by their temporary suffering (which, in any case, Christianity instructs people to expect). Screwtape prefers the more mundane scenario of people who “die[] in costly nursing homes amid doctors who lie, nurses who lie, friends who lie, as we have trained them, promising life to the dying, encouraging the belief that sickness excuses every indulgence” (23-24).
Chapter 6 Summary
Screwtape is pleased the patient doesn’t know whether he will be drafted, as a state of anxious uncertainty makes faith difficult. However, it is important that the patient not become aware that this state of anxiety is itself among the trials that Christians are asked to accept, as this would refocus him on the present rather than the future while also making him aware of his own weaknesses. Screwtape also advises Wormwood against counting too much on the young man’s hatred of the Germans; since the patient does not actually know any Germans, all he hates is an idea, not flesh-and-blood people. Screwtape would rather have the patient’s natural tendencies toward malice focused on “his immediate neighbors whom he meets every day” (28).
Chapter 7 Summary
Screwtape first considers whether Wormwood should alert the patient to his existence. This is against current “policy,” though Screwtape admits that there are trade-offs; it facilitates atheism but prevents misdirected worship, so Screwtape’s ultimate hope is to see the emergence of the “Materialist Magician.”
Screwtape then ponders how to direct the patient regarding the war. Screwtape favors extremes, so he discusses the possibility of making the young man into either an absolute pacifist or an unthinking patriot, as either is likely to make him part of a “faction” that looks down on others. Screwtape comes down on the side of pacifist, in part because this will make the young man unpopular and separate him from his neighbors. However, a pacifist motivated by genuine Christian belief will do the devils no good, so Screwtape underscores that the important task is to ensure that either pacifism or patriotism gradually supplants Christianity as the focus of the young man’s attention and belief.
Chapters 5-7 Analysis
This section shifts the narrative with the introduction of World War II. The book was published in 1942, when the war dominated the lives of everyone in Europe, so Lewis’s choice of setting works to ensure the work’s relevance to his readers. Beyond that, however, it allows Lewis to express his opinions about war and Christianity. As Screwtape explains, war can certainly encourage human beings to act badly when they are driven by hatred of the enemy and the desire to save themselves from harm. However, Screwtape also cautions that war can have the opposite effect—e.g., by encouraging bravery, patience, and reliance on God’s help in times of crisis.
This duality speaks to the broader significance of the novel’s wartime setting. World War II is often seen (and was often spoken of even at the time) as a struggle between good and evil. Lewis does not entirely disavow this framing, but he does suggest it is incomplete. From a Christian perspective, the evils that the war gives rise to are ultimately transient, as Screwtape explains: “When I see the temporal suffering of humans who finally escape us [by dying and going to heaven], I feel as if I had been allowed to taste the first course of a rich banquet and then denied the rest” (22). Moreover, to the extent that the war is a struggle between good and evil, it reflects a deeper struggle, as evidenced by the fact that Wormwood consistently uses militaristic language (e.g., “the Enemy”) to describe Hell’s relationship to God.
It is also important to note that Lewis avoids merely ascribing good and evil to sides in a conflict. Screwtape may view the patient’s hatred of Germans as trivially sinful, but Lewis is clear that it is still in some sense wrong since it conflates a person’s actions (which may be subject to condemnation) with the person themselves (who is not subject to judgment by other humans, according to Christian teaching). Ultimately, the theme of Love, Self-Love, and the Conflict Between Good and Evil pertains to the individual soul rather than to nations.
The wartime setting also allows Lewis to indirectly respond to a common critique of Christianity. Lewis implies that in abiding by Christian principles, a person can effectively be Christian without ever professing belief: “[God] often makes prizes of humans who have given their lives for causes He thinks bad on the monstrously sophistical ground that the humans thought them good and were following the best they knew” (23). This is Lewis’s rebuttal to the claim that it is unfair or unreasonable to make salvation contingent on choosing the “correct” faith when so many belief systems exist, though those with sincerely held beliefs in other religions (or no religion) may still find it unsatisfactory.
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