[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"doc-seo-279374-105":3,"detail-sidebar-cat-1-en-105":81,"doc-detail-279374-en":127},{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":6},0,"ok",{"site_id":7,"language":8,"slug":9,"title":10,"keywords":11,"description":12,"schema_data":13,"social_meta":74,"head_meta":76,"extra_data":78,"updated_unix":80},105,"en","the-screwtape-letters-chapter-1-my-dear-wormwood","The Screwtape Letters - Chapter 1 - MY DEAR WORMWOOD","","A satirical epistolary work presenting advice from the senior tempter Screwtape to his nephew Wormwood on how to influence a human soul toward spiritual ruin. The preface frames the correspondence as practical moral caution, warning readers that the devil is a liar and that devilish chronology is not strictly aligned with earthly time. Chapter 1 critiques Wormwood’s reliance on direct argument and urges attention control, using jargon and everyday distraction to keep the patient from the Church.",{"@graph":14,"@context":73},[15,34,56],{"@type":16,"itemListElement":17},"BreadcrumbList",[18,23,27,31],{"item":19,"name":20,"@type":21,"position":22},"https://docshare.wps.com","Home","ListItem",1,{"item":24,"name":25,"@type":21,"position":26},"https://docshare.wps.com/template/","Template",2,{"item":28,"name":29,"@type":21,"position":30},"https://docshare.wps.com/template/letters/","Letters",3,{"item":32,"name":10,"@type":21,"position":33},"https://docshare.wps.com/template/the-screwtape-letters-chapter-1-my-dear-wormwood/279374/",4,{"url":32,"name":10,"@type":35,"image":36,"author":41,"headline":10,"publisher":44,"fileFormat":47,"inLanguage":8,"description":12,"dateModified":48,"datePublished":49,"encodingFormat":47,"isAccessibleForFree":50,"interactionStatistic":51},"DigitalDocument",{"url":37,"@type":38,"width":39,"height":40},"https://docshare.wps.com/thumbnails/the-screwtape-letters-chapter-1-my-dear-wormwood/279374.png","ImageObject",442,249,{"name":42,"@type":43},"Seraphina","Person",{"url":19,"name":45,"@type":46},"DocShare","Organization","application/pdf","2026-10-30","2026-09-16",true,{"@type":52,"interactionType":53,"userInteractionCount":55},"InteractionCounter",{"@type":54},"ViewAction",39,{"@type":57,"mainEntity":58},"FAQPage",[59,65,69],{"name":60,"@type":61,"acceptedAnswer":62},"What overall warning does the preface give readers about Screwtape’s statements?","Question",{"text":63,"@type":64},"The preface advises remembering that the devil is a liar, so not everything Screwtape says should be taken as true, even from his own perspective.","Answer",{"name":66,"@type":61,"acceptedAnswer":67},"Why does Screwtape tell Wormwood not to use direct argument?",{"text":68,"@type":64},"Screwtape argues that argument moves the struggle onto the Enemy’s ground and can awaken the patient’s reason, strengthening a habit of thinking about universal issues rather than immediate lived experience.",{"name":70,"@type":61,"acceptedAnswer":71},"What approach does Screwtape recommend for guiding the patient’s attention?",{"text":72,"@type":64},"He urges Wormwood to fix the patient’s attention on the stream of immediate sense experiences by presenting them as “real life,” and to prevent the patient from questioning what “real” means.","https://schema.org",{"og:url":32,"og:type":75,"og:title":10,"og:site_name":45,"og:description":12},"article",{"robots":77,"canonical":32},"index,follow",{"doc_id":79,"site_id":7},279374,1790819359,{"code":4,"msg":82,"data":83},"success",[84,89,94,99,104,109,114,118,123],{"id":85,"doc_module":22,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":86,"show_sort_weight":87,"slug":88},11,"Presentations",90,"presentations",{"id":90,"doc_module":22,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":91,"show_sort_weight":92,"slug":93},12,"Resumes",80,"resumes",{"id":95,"doc_module":22,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":96,"show_sort_weight":97,"slug":98},14,"Invoices",70,"invoices",{"id":100,"doc_module":22,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":101,"show_sort_weight":102,"slug":103},15,"Posters",60,"posters",{"id":105,"doc_module":22,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":106,"show_sort_weight":107,"slug":108},16,"Social Media",50,"social-media",{"id":110,"doc_module":22,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":111,"show_sort_weight":112,"slug":113},17,"Forms",40,"forms",{"id":115,"doc_module":22,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":29,"show_sort_weight":116,"slug":117},18,30,"letters",{"id":119,"doc_module":22,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":120,"show_sort_weight":121,"slug":122},21,"Paper Templates",5,"papers-templates",{"id":124,"doc_module":22,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":125,"show_sort_weight":4,"slug":126},158,"General","general-158",{"code":4,"msg":82,"data":128},{"doc_id":79,"user_id":129,"nickname":42,"user_avatar":130,"doc_module":22,"category_id":115,"category_name":29,"doc_title":10,"doc_description":12,"doc_content":131,"file_id":132,"file_url":133,"file_type":134,"file_size":135,"view_count":55,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":22,"is_downloadable":22,"audit_status":22,"page_count":136,"language":137,"language_code":8,"site_id":7,"html_lang":8,"table_of_contents":138,"faqs":139,"seo_title":140,"seo_description":12,"update_tm":141,"read_time":142},962075114101,"https://ap-avatar.wpscdn.com/avatar/e000253a75eb197efd?x-image-process=image/resize,m_fixed,w_180,h_180&k=1780044092746381165","THE SCREWTAPE LETTERS  \nBY  \nC. S. LEWIS  \nPREFACE  \nTo J. R. R. TOLKIEN  \n“The best way to drive out the devil, if he will not yield to texts of Scripture, is to jeer and flout him, for he cannot bear scorn.” —Luther  \n“The devill   the prowde spirite   cannot endure to be mocked.” —Thomas More  \nI HAVE no intention of explaining how the correspondence which I now offer to the public fell into my hands.  \nThere are two equal and opposite errors into which our race can fall about the devils. One is to disbelieve in their existence. The other is to believe, and to feel an excessive and unhealthy interest in them. They themselves are equally pleased by both errors and hail a materialist or a magician with the same delight. The sort of script which is used in this book can be very easily obtained by anyone who has once learned the knack; but disposed or excitable people who might make a bad use of it shall not learn it from me.  \nReaders are advised to remember that the devil is a liar. Not everything that Screwtape says should be assumed to be true even from his own angle. I have made no attempt to identify any of the human beings mentioned in the letters; but I think it very unlikely that the portraits, say, of Fr. Spike or the patient's mother, are wholly just. There is wishful thinking in Hell as well as on Earth.  \nIn conclusion, I ought to add that no effort has been made to clear up the chronology of the letters. Number XVII appears to have been composed before rationing became serious; but in general the diabolical method of dating seems to bear no relation to terrestrial time and I have not attempted to reproduce it. The history of the European War, except in so far as it happens now and then to impinge upon the spiritual condition of one human being, was obviously of no interest to Screwtape.  \nC. S. LEWIS  \nMAGDALEN COLLEGE  \nJuly 5, 1941  \nChapter 1  \nMY DEAR WORMWOOD,  \nI note what you say about guiding our patient's reading and taking care that he sees a good deal of his materialist friend. But are you not being a trifle naive? It sounds as if you supposed that argument was the way to keep him out of the Enemy's clutches. That might have been so if he had lived a few centuries earlier. At that time the humans still knew pretty well when a thing was proved and when it was not; and if it was proved they really believed it. They still connected thinking with doing and were prepared to alter their way of life as the result of a chain of reasoning. But what with the weekly press and other such weapons we have largely altered that. Your man has been accustomed, ever since he was a boy, to have a dozen incompatible philosophies dancing about together inside his head. He doesn't think of doctrines as primarily “true”of “false”, but as “academic” or “practical”,“outworn” or “contemporary”,“conventional”or “ruthless”. Jargon, not argument, is your best ally in keeping him from the Church. Don't waste time trying to make him think that materialism is true! Make him think it is strong, or stark, or courageous—that it is the philosophy of the future. That's the sort of thing he cares about.  \nThe trouble about argument is that it moves the whole struggle onto the Enemy's own ground. He can argue too; whereas in really practical propaganda of the kind I am suggesting He has been shown for centuries to be greatly the inferior of Our Father Below. By the very act of arguing, you awake the patient's reason; and once it is awake, who can foresee the result? Even if a particular train of thought can be twisted so as to end in our favour, you will find that you have been strengthening in your patient the fatal habit of attending to universal issues and withdrawing his attention from the stream of immediate sense experiences. Your business is to fix his attention on the stream. Teach him to call it “real life” and don't let him ask what he means by “real”.  \nRemember, he is not, like you, a pure spirit. Never having been a human (Oh tha","cbCaifyNt7SG7ihW","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaifyNt7SG7ihW","pdf",512042,64,"English","# Preface\n# Chapter 1\n## MY DEAR WORMWOOD","[{\"question\":\"What overall warning does the preface give readers about Screwtape’s statements?\",\"answer\":\"The preface advises remembering that the devil is a liar, so not everything Screwtape says should be taken as true, even from his own perspective.\"},{\"question\":\"Why does Screwtape tell Wormwood not to use direct argument?\",\"answer\":\"Screwtape argues that argument moves the struggle onto the Enemy’s ground and can awaken the patient’s reason, strengthening a habit of thinking about universal issues rather than immediate lived experience.\"},{\"question\":\"What approach does Screwtape recommend for guiding the patient’s attention?\",\"answer\":\"He urges Wormwood to fix the patient’s attention on the stream of immediate sense experiences by presenting them as “real life,” and to prevent the patient from questioning what “real” means.\"}]","The Screwtape Letters - Chapter 1 - MY DEAR WORMWOOD | PDF",1789519571,22]