What is the name of C.S. Lewis’s 1942 Christian apologetic novel written as letters from a demon?
Answer
The Screwtape Letters
C.S. Lewis’s 1942 Christian apologetic novel written as letters from a demon is The Screwtape Letters.
The book consists of correspondence from Screwtape, an experienced demon, to his junior nephew Wormwood. Screwtape offers advice about tempting a human subject, allowing Lewis to discuss moral weakness, distraction, pride, prayer, and spiritual formation from an intentionally inverted viewpoint.
Lewis wrote the work during the Second World War. It was first published in Britain in book form in 1942 after appearing in serialized form in the Manchester Guardian. The unusual epistolary structure helped make complex theological and ethical ideas vivid for general readers.
The book is sometimes grouped with Lewis’s nonfiction apologetics, but its fictional letters and demonic narrator make it a satirical novel. The title character is Screwtape; Wormwood is his inexperienced correspondent, not the book’s title.