The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis
This was quite an interesting book. Mr. Lewis wrote it in the form of letters from a demon named Screwtape to his nephew, Wormwood. In the letters, Screwtape was giving Wormwood advice on how to entice the "patient," a newly converted Christian, into straying from the path of Christianity. The advice was given in the form of thoughts to put into the "patient's" head, such as, “Have him become prideful in his increasing reputation, his widening circle of acquaintances, his sense of importance, the growing pressure of absorbing and agreeable work, build up in him a sense of being really at him in earth, which is just what we want."
At times the letters were very funny, because if demons were to really put those thoughts in our heads, I could see that I was guilty of succumbing to many of those thoughts myself in the past; and still struggle with many more in the present. My biggest challenge always seems to come when I get my ego involved.
My favorite part was the letter where Screwtape details to Wormwood that the best way to secure our souls was not to have us do something outrageous or outside our characters that could actuallv cause us to repent of our sins, but to actually set us down the path in gradients. "Indeed, the safest road to Hell is the gradual one - the gentle slope, soft underfoot, without sudden turnings, without milestones, without signposts." I can relate with that passage. I had lost my soul through the gradual layers upon layers of lies that I had erected for myself; it was the dark choices that I made with that false façade that set me down that path of death and destruction At my darkest moments, I easily would have been Wormwood's most prized possession. Now, I am just simply trying to make my way back home, one correct choice at a time.
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