Letter 6 Summary

As possible military service looms for the patient, Screwtape encourages Wormwood to make sure the patient lives in a state of unreal fears about what will happen in the future, rather than merely dealing with the anxious uncertainty of the present moment. The anxious uncertainty of the present is the patient's real spiritual task. He must be distracted from it.

The hatred war brings is enjoyable, Screwtape admits, but it is also problematic. In the abstract, the English may hate their enemies, the Germans, but the English are kind at heart. They will call for the destruction of their enemies, but if a wounded German pilot lands in their backyards, they will rush to serve him. They are, in other words, hateful in the abstract, but kindly in the concrete. Screwtape recommends directing the man to be the opposite—charitable in the...