The Screwtape Letters

Screwtape articulates his theory on human existence as “undulation—the repeated return to a level from which they repeatedly fall back, a series of troughs and peaks” (37). Screwtape sees the paradox in how humans will often come closer to God in a “state of dryness.”  

Screwtape goes further with the subject of “troughs” in human life. He suggests that these periods offer opportunities for all sensual temptations, particularly those of sex” (43).