I was going through some of the Screwtape Letters study guides on the net for the book. We tried to use them in a small group at church. We found that they were maybe too structured and didn’t leave enough room to really consider life, our lives – the things actually happening – and how to relate them to both the Bible and to the things that encounter every day.

That’s the goal here, to provide a more open set of questions. This is the way our group ended up going – with more open-ended questions to think about and discuss.  For those times when it’s difficult to get a discussion started for any given question, I’ve also included some possible “answers” to get things going.

The Screwtape Letters Study Guide is article # in the series: Screwtape Letters. Click button to view titles for the entire series

Why I’m updating this Screwtape Letters Study Guide

As the guides for each letter/chapter are added, I include publish dates for those segments below. The category page in the blue box above already has publish dates, including for the older versions. That way you’ll be able to tell when the updates are made.
Given that it’s just me, and I’ve got two sites to run, it won’t happen overnight – literally or figuratively. But I will try to keep at it so it won’t take too long.
Note – as you progress through the series, that same blue box is at the top of the page for each letter/chapter in the book.

That’s from something like 15 years ago. Much has changed since then. Especially me. I retired. Went through four abdominal surgeries. Am a cancer survivor for three and a half years. Just completed eight weeks of radiation treatment on April 27th, 2023.

Oh yeah – and the thing that really impacted my faith and trust in God, a staph infection that the doctors in the hospital told me was going to leave me with permanent organ damage. My primary care doctor told me I “beat the reaper” on that one.

God prepared me well for all that stuff. We (my wife and I) cared for a dog who lived with pancreatitis for many years. Another dog with lymphoma for many months. And another dog with kidney failure for nearly a year. the thing is, all of them had a good life and enjoyed not only the time they had, but even the treatments. They couldn’t wait to get back to the vets who were caring for them.

So when I was diagnosed with cancer back in 2019, I just knew that God brought them into our lives to prepare us, especially me, for what we’re going through now.

So yeah – I’ve changed a lot. Learned a lot.

So many people have been through this study guide over the years. I don’t know how many, because I only recently started to keep track. But many thousands from around the world.

Now, after all that, I got the urge this afternoon that it’s time to update this series. Not just the formatting that’s been done before to keep it looking interesting. But to add the totally different faith and trust I have in God now.

I must say though, I still don’t hold a belief that people will be miraculously healed by God if our faith is strong enough. You’ll see that if you checked out either of the series referenced above. But I do believe God has a plan and a purpose for us. Sometimes, the prep will seem pretty brutal. But I can also say, the two weeks of radiation I just finished would be included as one of the high points of my life, in a good way, because of my faith.

And at some point, there will be an end to this life. It may even be from this same cancer. But it’s OK. When this life is over, things only get better. Eternity with Jesus! All we need to do is believe in Jesus, try our best to follow Him, and try to live the “life to the full” He promised us. And, as one special person told me – maybe we’ll end up in the same Zip Code in Heaven.

That’s what I’m aiming to bring to the updated version of this Study Guide. My favorite three books from C. S. Lewis are this one, The Screwtape Letters, The Great Divorce, and Mere Christianity. Lewis really gets to the heart of what’s important. Not the little things that different Christian denominations disagree on and spend way too much time/effort on. But the core of Christianity.

The Screwtape Letters, in one sentence.

The Screwtape Letters takes us through an interesting look, from the other side, of things that Satan will send our way to try to keep us paying attention to the wrong things.

Studying in a group

Even with this updated version, I’m not saying this is the only way – or even the best way – to study this book. We’re not all the same. Different people react to different things. This, the original, just seemed to work for us. Hopefully, the updates make it better. But, no matter how you do it – The Screwtape Letters tells us all a lot about the way Satan works in the world – and how God is always there to help us and save us – if we want Him to.

Can I use this guide as an individual?

It can also be used by an individual.  I believe having more people gives a wider variety of points of view.  Different things any one of us might not have considered.  Although the suggested “answers” help in that regard, people in our group did come up with other thoughts as well.

One thing I’ll be adding is more scripture and more explanation of how it all fits together. There are two reasons for this.

1. My wife impressed on me the need to have “more application” included in what I write. That means more than just including some Bible verses.
2. Along with that were comments from some readers and from the Senior Pastor at the church I go to, saying I need to have more of my own explanation tying it all together. Just having verses and including extracts from what some scholar wrote doesn’t get to what’s in my head. People are left to assume things about what I meant to point out. Sometimes, what people read and what I meant weren’t even close. 

One side effect of that is it might make it better for someone who studies by themselves.
However, even me, the extreme introvert, has come to realize that God means for us to be “in community”, as we say. Then we can both be supported by others and help to support others. It’s not easy for some of us. Believe me, I get it. I live it. But it is important to at least try.

A bit more info on the format of The Screwtape Letters

In The Screwtape Letters, C. S. Lewis provides a series of lessons on the importance of taking a deliberate role in Christian faith by portraying a typical human life, with all its temptations and failings, seen from devils’ viewpoints. Screwtape holds an administrative post in the bureaucracy (“Lowerarchy”) of Hell, and acts as a mentor to his nephew Wormwood, an inexperienced (and incompetent) tempter. In the thirty-one letters which constitute the book, Screwtape gives Wormwood detailed advice on various methods of undermining faith and of promoting sin in “the Patient”, interspersed with observations on human nature and on Christian doctrine. In Screwtape’s advice, selfish gain and power are seen as the only good, and neither demon can comprehend God’s love for man or acknowledge human virtue.  ¹//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Screwtape_Letters

---

 

---

---

---

---

---

---

---

---

---

 

Footnotes

• 1
  //en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Screwtape_Letters