The Screwtape Letters - Types of Love

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Recommended: Screwtape letters chapter 1

While attending Oxford University, C.S. Lewis went from being an atheist to a renowned Christian. Lewis touched a vast audience with his numerous books (around thirty or more) including The Screwtape Letters, Mere Christianity, and The Four Loves. He brought fantasy and entertainment into his writing along with slight to thunderous bits of theology woven through his stories and books. This made Lewis one of the most influential Christian writers of the 20th century.

One of the better known books from C.S. Lewis is The Screwtape Letters. The Screwtape Letters is a fiction book comprised of thirty-one letters from Screwtape, a senior tempter and head in a department in Hell, to his nephew who is a novice tempter Wormwood. These letters are detailed instructions on how to cause Wormwood’s patient to fall from the Christian life. Screwtape, in all his devilish wisdom, pin points certain tribulations that all humans face and gives a devil-sided view to the human responses. The book is fiction, yet can be studied because of the spiritual lessons that are inversely taught throughout the letters.

In The Screwtape Letters, C.S. Lewis addresses a position on love that is seldom heard, yet universally felt. Screwtape makes a very clear distinction between his ideal of love and true love. If we take what Screwtape thinks love is, and reverse the teaching completely, all that is left is the love that God approves of. The purest and most sought after love is God’s. Love has been divided by C.S. Lewis into five ways. One way, taught in The Screwtape Letters is “being in love”. The other four ways is taught through The Four Loves: Affection, friendship (philia), romantic love (eros), and Agape love. Understanding the difference between the lo...

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...coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket—safe, dark, motionless, airless—it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, and irredeemable. The alternative to tragedy, or at least to the risk of tragedy, is damnation. The only place outside Heaven where you can be perfectly safe from all the dangers and perturbations of love is Hell. (6)

Works Cited

Collins, Harper. "C.S. Lewis Classics". Harper Collins Publishers. March 10, 2010 .

Lahti, David. "Lewis, C. S. The Four Loves ". 11 March 2010 .

Lewis, C.S,. The Screwtape Letters. New York: Simon & Schuster Inc., 1996.

Rayment, W.J.. "Synopsis of the Screwtape Letters". Bible Study Resource Center. March 10, 2010 .

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