Letter 12 Summary

This letter deals with the subtlety involved in tempting a human being away from Heaven. Wormwood is doing well. Screwtape fears he may be going too quickly though. It is good the patient is still going to church, because if he were not, he would notice his Christianity is slipping away from him. As it is, he is probably only experiencing a vague unease that he is not doing as well at his faith as he should. Soon, this may make him reluctant to pray or to think about the Enemy. A major sin or sudden awakening to just how lax he has become would be disastrous for the patient's progress to Hell.

This is Screwtape's preferred method of temptation. Subtly, by degrees, without the patient really knowing what is happening to him, the world will creep into him. Soon his existence will...