Letter 23 Summary

In this letter Screwtape sums up that the man has met the girl's family and all their friends. Now they will not be able to remove spirituality from the man's life. Therefore, they must corrupt it. Screwtape sees hope in perhaps dividing the man from these friends through political disagreements as to how to apply faith to social realities.

There is a rather lengthy discussion on theories of the historical Jesus. Such theories remove people from encountering the facts of the Resurrection and the Redemption and propel them into theoretical realms. This is related to the discussion of removing the man's focus from the spiritual to the political. Making Christianity a means to an end—for example, a means to social justice—is a way to remove people from encountering truth and reality and force them to strive to live up...