The Patient’s Spiritual Course

The Screwtape Letters

This flow traces the patient from ordinary skepticism through conversion, compromise, renewal, and final arrival in Heaven.

increasing

Bearing strength in each event

decreasing

The Ordinary World The Ordinary World from "The Screwtape Letters". Life in Habit Attention The patient begins among familiar routines and materialist assumptions.

The Ordinary World from "The Screwtape Letters". Life in Habit Attention The patient begins among familiar routines and materialist assumptions.

Life in Habit Attention The patient begins among familiar routines and materialist assumptions. His attention rests on immediate impressions rather than questions of lasting meaning. Vulnerability Screwtape advises Wormwood to protect this settled outlook by distracting the patient whenever reason approaches religious truth. The ordinary can become a shield against change.

First Conversion First Conversion from "The Screwtape Letters". A New Allegiance Change The patient becomes a Christian, unexpectedly disrupting Wormwood’s plan.

First Conversion from "The Screwtape Letters". A New Allegiance Change The patient becomes a Christian, unexpectedly disrupting Wormwood’s plan.

A New Allegiance Change The patient becomes a Christian, unexpectedly disrupting Wormwood’s plan. His established habits remain, however, and conversion has not yet remade his daily conduct. Danger Screwtape treats the first weeks as an opening for disillusionment. The patient’s new faith must survive both imperfect church life and fading emotional excitement.

Worldly Drift Worldly Drift from "The Screwtape Letters". A Gradual Departure Compromise The patient keeps outward religious habits while taking on the attitudes of worldly acquaintances.

Worldly Drift from "The Screwtape Letters". A Gradual Departure Compromise The patient keeps outward religious habits while taking on the attitudes of worldly acquaintances.

A Gradual Departure Compromise The patient keeps outward religious habits while taking on the attitudes of worldly acquaintances. Silence, social vanity, and neglected obligations begin to alter his direction. Concealment Wormwood’s success depends on making each choice appear small and reversible. Screwtape recognizes that an unexamined drift can separate the patient from faith without a decisive break.

Renewed Repentance Renewed Repentance from "The Screwtape Letters". A Recovered Direction Recognition A book the patient genuinely enjoys and a solitary walk restore contact with unforced pleasure.

Renewed Repentance from "The Screwtape Letters". A Recovered Direction Recognition A book the patient genuinely enjoys and a solitary walk restore contact with unforced pleasure.

A Recovered Direction Recognition A book the patient genuinely enjoys and a solitary walk restore contact with unforced pleasure. These experiences loosen the artificial values that had accumulated around him. Action The patient’s renewed repentance becomes more than a mood when it changes what he does. Screwtape calls the recovery a serious defeat because the patient turns again toward God.

Final Arrival Final Arrival from "The Screwtape Letters". The Final Passage Death The patient dies amid the destruction of the raid, after a period of duty, love, and increasing dependence on God.

Final Arrival from "The Screwtape Letters". The Final Passage Death The patient dies amid the destruction of the raid, after a period of duty, love, and increasing dependence on God.

The Final Passage Death The patient dies amid the destruction of the raid, after a period of duty, love, and increasing dependence on God. Wormwood’s efforts have not secured his soul. Fulfillment The patient enters Heaven and recognizes the spiritual presence that had accompanied his earthly life. The ending reverses the demons’ expectations: death becomes liberation, not defeat.

Before the patient’s conversion

Early in the letters, after the patient turns to Christianity

After the patient’s early religious fervor subsides

After the walk to the old mill

At the ending, during the bombing raid