The War’s Spiritual Pressure

The Screwtape Letters

This flow follows the war from distant anxiety to immediate danger and the patient’s final death.

increasing

Bearing strength in each event

decreasing

War Begins War Begins from "The Screwtape Letters". A New Threat Alarm The outbreak of war excites Wormwood, who initially savors the patient’s fear.

A New Threat Alarm The outbreak of war excites Wormwood, who initially savors the patient’s fear. Screwtape warns that suffering is useful only when it contributes to the capture of a soul. Reassessment War can redirect attention toward causes beyond the self and remind people of mortality. It is therefore dangerous to infer that crisis automatically benefits Hell.

Suspended Service Suspended Service from "The Screwtape Letters". Anxiety as a Target Projection Wormwood is told to keep the patient imagining incompatible futures.

Suspended Service from "The Screwtape Letters". Anxiety as a Target Projection Wormwood is told to keep the patient imagining incompatible futures.

Anxiety as a Target Projection Wormwood is told to keep the patient imagining incompatible futures. He should worry about what may happen rather than respond faithfully to present uncertainty. Reorientation Screwtape argues that the present fear itself can be borne as an actual trial. Hypothetical disasters cannot all occur, but anxiety can consume the moment already given.

Danger Approaches Danger Approaches from "The Screwtape Letters". Survival Becomes the Strategy Changed Priorities Screwtape orders Wormwood to protect the patient from death.

Danger Approaches from "The Screwtape Letters". Survival Becomes the Strategy Changed Priorities Screwtape orders Wormwood to protect the patient from death.

Survival Becomes the Strategy Changed Priorities Screwtape orders Wormwood to protect the patient from death. The patient’s growing care for neighbors and attachment to a Christian family make his survival a demonic necessity. Long Campaign The demons hope that years of comfort or adversity will weaken him later. Their revised plan reveals that time and ordinary life are more useful to them than a spectacular disaster.

First Air Raid First Air Raid from "The Screwtape Letters". Duty Under Fire Fear The patient is frightened and judges himself cowardly.

Duty Under Fire Fear The patient is frightened and judges himself cowardly. Yet fear does not prevent him from carrying out his responsibilities and doing somewhat more than duty requires. Moral Reality Screwtape distinguishes the painful emotion from the choice to act. The raid tests the patient’s virtue at the point where danger makes moral commitments concrete.

Death in the Bombing Death in the Bombing from "The Screwtape Letters". The Sudden Passage Loss The patient dies in the violence Wormwood had been instructed to prevent. The physical horrors of the war end abruptly for him.

Death in the Bombing from "The Screwtape Letters". The Sudden Passage Loss The patient dies in the violence Wormwood had been instructed to prevent. The physical horrors of the war end abruptly for him.

The Sudden Passage Loss The patient dies in the violence Wormwood had been instructed to prevent. The physical horrors of the war end abruptly for him. Reversal The demons’ idea of loss becomes the patient’s liberation. His entrance into Heaven makes the wartime story a final contest over what death means.

When the European war starts

During the patient’s uncertainty about military service

When air raids threaten the patient’s town

During the patient’s first air raid

At the ending, during a later bombing raid