The Screwtape Letters

1. What is Screwtape’s relationship to Wormwood?

A) He is Wormwood’s brother.

B) He is Wormwood’s uncle.

C) He is Wormwood’s father.

D) He is Wormwood’s friend.

2. Who is “the Enemy”? (short answer)

3. Why does Screwtape recommend Wormwood draw “the patient’s” attention to his fellow churchgoers?

A) He’s likely to find them disappointing.

B) They are intimidating and unwelcoming.

C) It will distract him from church services.

D) He does not recommend that Wormwood do this.

4. Screwtape’s remarks about prayers for another person’s soul suggest which of the following?

A) These prayers serve no purpose in spiritual life.

B) These prayers are the most difficult to challenge.

C) These prayers ennoble the person doing the praying.

D) These prayers often don’t reflect real love and concern.

5. In his discussion of prayer, Screwtape suggests that people often confuse which of the following with spiritual practice?

A) sensory pleasures

B) charitable works

C) self-reflection

D) rote religiosity

Discussion Suggestion: Why might C.S. Lewis have chosen to write this work from the perspective of a demon? What does his depiction of Screwtape reveal about his ideas of evil?

6. The rhetoric Screwtape uses to describe Hell’s relationship with God or Heaven often evokes which of the following?

A) class

B) politics

C) marriage

D) war

7. Lewis implies The Screwtape Letters takes place during which of the following real-world events?

A) The Depression

B) World War II

C) The Spanish Flu

D) The Cold War

8. What does Screwtape tell Wormwood regarding revealing himself to the young man? (short answer)

9. What is Screwtape’s opinion of religious sects?

A) He views them negatively because they are, by definition, at odds with his goals.

B) He views them with indifference because he sees all religion as a sham.

C) He views them as potentially helpful because they tend to generate ill will towards outsiders.

D) He views them positively because all sects misunderstand the true, personal nature of spirituality.

10. Screwtape’s discussion of patriotism and pacificism suggests which of the following?

A) It is dangerous to use Christianity to justify one’s preconceived ideologies.

B) Christianity is incompatible with war.

C) Christianity encourages patriotic feeling.

D) It is important to find a sect of Christianity that corresponds to one’s values.

Discussion Suggestion: How does the wartime backdrop of The Screwtape Letters intersect with the spiritual drama that’s unfolding?

11. What does Screwtape mean by “Undulation”?

A) the ups and downs of human emotional life

B) the shape-shifting powers of demons

C) the push and pull of opposing spiritual forces

D) the cyclical pattern of human history

12. Screwtape’s discussion of absorbing souls is an example of what literary device?

A) allusion

B) irony

C) metonymy

D) foreshadowing

13. What kind of sin does Screwtape suggest “trough” periods especially encourage? (short answer)

14. Screwtape’s discussion of pleasure suggests which of the following?

A) Pleasure has no relationship to sin.

B) At its core, pleasure is sinful.

C) At its core, pleasure is godly.

D) All forms of pleasure are equal.

15. What sort of language does Screwtape advise Wormwood to use with his patient?

A) rational

B) emotional

C) precise

D) vague

Discussion Suggestion: The Screwtape Letters suggests that thought plays a complex role in spiritual life. What kinds of thinking are productive, from Lewis’s perspective, and which aren’t? Why?

16. Which of the following best describes Screwtape’s depiction of the middle-aged couple the young man befriends?

A) devout

B) intolerant

C) shallow

D) corrupt

17. What sort of laughter is least useful from Screwtape’s perspective?

A) joy

B) fun

C) the “Joke Proper”

D) flippancy

18. What, according to The Screwtape Letters, is the potential trap people fall into with self-deprecating humor? (short answer)

19. From Lewis’s perspective, flippancy interferes with which of the following?

A) patriotism

B) human sexuality

C) anxiety

D) thoughtful reflection

20. What is Screwtape’s position on minor sins?

A) He sees them as a waste of his time.

B) He sees them as the safest way to ensnare someone.

C) He rejects the idea that some sins are “better” than others.

D) He describes them as the most entertaining to watch.

Discussion Suggestion: What role does humor play in the storytelling found in The Screwtape Letters? How does that role reflect the discussion of humor in these chapters, if at all?

21. What two experiences cause the young man to recommit to Christianity?

A) attending church and visiting his mother

B) enjoying a book and taking a walk

C) falling in love and going on vacation

D) surviving an air raid and enjoying a meal

22. The Screwtape Letters suggests humility is best understood as which of the following?

A) self-forgetfulness

B) the absence of pride

C) an opinion of oneself

D) an emotional state

23. According to Screwtape, sin especially flourishes when people are thinking about which of the following?

A) the past

B) the present

C) the future

D) the eternal

24. What action does Screwtape recommend Wormwood take to thwart the young man’s ongoing church attendance?

A) ignore it and hope he will eventually grow bored

B) encourage him to remain at a church that dissatisfies him

C) persuade those closest to the young man to stop attending church

D) encourage him to shop around at several churches

25. What character does Screwtape offer as an example of “gluttony of delicacy”? (short answer)

Discussion Suggestion: How do the experiences that draw the young man back to Christianity relate to Lewis’s broader claims about temporality and spiritual practice?

26. What does Lewis imply about the relationship between “being in love” and marriage?

A The two should have no relationship to each other at all.

B) Being in love is a necessary precondition for marriage.

C) Marriage encompasses more than simply being in love.

D) Marriage and being in love are spiritually equivalent.

27. How does Screwtape view “the Enemy’s” claims to love humanity?

A) as a threat

B) as a delusion

C) as a sign of weakness

D) as a pretext

28. What “heresy” does Screwtape commit in Chapter 19 and then ask Wormwood not to discuss? (short answer)

29. What kind of woman does Screwtape advise Wormwood to encourage the young man to marry?

A) one who appeals to his sensuality

B) one who appeals to his vanity

C) one who appeals to intellect

D) One who appeals to his sense of humor

30. What does Screwtape find “funny” about humans’ claims of ownership (Chapter 21)?

A) that humans routinely claim ownership of things they did not create and cannot control

B) that humans habitually lay claim to things that will only be a burden to them

C) that human language distinguishes different forms of ownership

D) that humans do not view love as a form of ownership

Discussion Suggestion: How does Lewis understand sex and marriage in light of Christianity?

31. Screwtape assumes the form of what creature in his anger about the woman the young man has fallen in love with? (short answer)

32. From Screwtape’s perspective, what is potentially advantageous about mixing Christianity and politics?

A) This mix involves two things that should be completely separate.

B) It lets Christianity be used as a means to an end.

C) It encourages the adoption of impossible societal goals.

D) It often produces unjust societies.

33. Screwtape recommends that Wormwood use the young man’s Christianity to elicit which of the following sins?

A) pride

B) wrath

C) envy

D) sloth

34. What does Screwtape tell Wormwood to stop discussing in his letters?

A) the weather

B) the young man’s love life

C) local gossip

D) the war

35. Screwtape’s discussion of the “Same Old Thing” suggests a fundamental relationship between sin and which of the following (Chapter 25)?

A) how humans experience mortality

B) how humans experience one another

C) how humans experience time

D) how humans experience evolution

Discussion Suggestion: What are some ways even an outwardly faithful and virtuous Christian can fall into sinful patterns of thought, as indicated in The Screwtape Letters?

36. According to Screwtape, unselfishness often functions as which of the following, especially in close relationships like marriage?

A) a rote exercise

B) an excuse for disloyalty

C) a form of self-aggrandizement 

D) a means of deceiving others

37. How have the young man’s prayers changed since he fell in love?

A) They have become more abstract.

B) They have become more concrete.

C) They have become less frequent.

D) They have not changed.

38. The Screwtape Letters suggests that the apparent conflict between human free will and an omniscient God relates to which of the following themes?

A) war

B) love

C) sexuality

D) time

39. What does Screwtape fear will kill the young man before Wormwood can ensnare him? (short answer)

40. What does Screwtape argue about the relationship between human lifespan and demons’ chances of capturing souls?

A) The longer a human lives, the more likely it is the demons will succeed.

B) The longer a human’s life, the less likely it is the demons will succeed.

C) The demons’ chances of success peak in the person’s middle age and then steadily decline.

D) There is no relationship between human lifespan and the demons’ chances of success.

Discussion Suggestion: Why is free will important in Christianity (and in Lewis’s understanding of it)? How does he reconcile this with the idea of an omnipotent and omniscient God?

41. What sin does Screwtape characterize as unique in being “purely painful” (Chapter 29)? (short answer)

42. According to Screwtape, all virtues are hollow when not backed by which of the following?

A) courage

B) honesty

C) mercy

D) temperance

43. Immediately after the first air raid, what does Screwtape warn Wormwood will happen to him if he loses the young man’s soul?

A) Wormwood will be burned at the stake.

B) Wormwood will be drawn and quartered.

C) Wormwood will be eaten.

D) Wormwood will be whipped.

44. In his letter following the first air raid, how does Screwtape characterize the distinction he draws between two types of “reality”?

A) rational versus emotional

B) public versus private

C) literal versus figurative

D) physical versus spiritual

45. How does the young man’s story conclude?

A) with his marriage

B) with his death

C) with his loss of faith

D) with his enlistment

Discussion Suggestion: How do Screwtape’s narrative voice and attitude towards Wormwood change in the final letter? How does the ending of the book reflect its overall depiction of sin and evil?

46. Where does Screwtape’s speech take place? (short answer)

47. How does Screwtape characterize the quality of the souls he has just dined on?

A) perfect

B) dreadful

C) outstanding

D) mediocre

48. What does Screwtape recommend regarding democracy?

A) to seek to overturn it wherever possible

B) to promote it as widely as possible

C) to oppose it in its political sense while encouraging a confused idea of it

D) to support it in its political sense while discouraging a philosophical outlook on it

49. Screwtape suggests that the desire to fit in sometimes reflects which of the following ideals?

A) equality

B) freedom

C) justice

D) mercy

50. According to Screwtape, what should the demons ultimately concentrate their efforts on?

A) national events

B) individual souls

C) religious movements

D) family units

Discussion Suggestions: This section discusses politics much more overtly than the rest of The Screwtape Letters. Why might Lewis have chosen to write about democracy, and how do his ideas about freedom intersect with his ideas about free will in Christianity?