Which C.S. Lewis book presents a debate between an older and younger demon about tempting a human?

The Screwtape Letters presents a debate between an older and younger demon about tempting a human.

The book is structured as a series of letters from Screwtape, an experienced demon, to his nephew Wormwood. Screwtape advises Wormwood on how to undermine the spiritual life of a human known only as “the Patient.” The fictional correspondence examines distraction, vanity, social pressure, fear, and self-deception.

Lewis wrote the work during the Second World War, and the letters were first published in book form in 1942. The book’s satirical method reverses the usual viewpoint: readers hear devils discuss how to influence people, while the divine perspective is mostly indirect. That reversal creates much of the work’s humor and moral force.

The Screwtape Letters is a work of Christian apologetic fiction, not a claim that Lewis had personal conversations with demons. Its epistolary format also distinguishes it from Lewis’s direct nonfiction books such as Mere Christianity and The Problem of Pain.