Letter 10 Summary

The patient has made some new friends—just the kind Screwtape likes. They are bright, funny, skeptical, wealthy, and worldly. Encouraging these sorts of friendships is just the thing Wormwood should be doing. Screwtape warmly approves.

Although the patient will soon realize his faith is at odds with the way these people think and live, he may not defend it or assert it with them, and he may become so influenced by them that he will abandon his beliefs. He may not realize, in the modern age, that the choice of friends, the use of one's time, and worldly vanities are things the Christian really must be careful about. These old-fashioned virtues have fallen by the wayside. The patient may even be encouraged to pass such concerns off as "Puritanism", one of those useful words Screwtape feels the language department of Hell...