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The Screwdisk E-Mail


transcribed by WS (Skip) Mendler

Preface

It has been fifty years since CS Lewis published his spiritual classic The Screwtape Letters. This work purports to be the correspondence sent by Screwtape, a senior devil, to his n ephew Wormwood concerning the proper methods for leading a soul astray. Much has changed since those days, and much is new -- nuclear weapons, the Internet, the roles of men and women -- but much has remained the same. Hence, the present work, which see ks to bring Lewis' timeless theme into this time, the last gasp of a millenium.

Its inspiration comes from a curious comment made in the preface to The Screwtape Letters, that Screwtape writes from "a highly organized, computerized Hell" -- this despite the fact that computers were not exactly a common item in the world at the time, and the word "computer" is nowhere to be found in the text. This led me to wonder how Screwtape might regard the present day -- and when the name "Screwdisk" came into my mind, my course was set.

My faith differs somewhat from Lewis'; my theology and politics do as well. My personal stands and prejudices will become clear, I am sure, in the course of your reading. Nevertheless, I hope to do his memory justice, and I hope that people of all theol ogical stripes will find something of value here.

This is intended to be a work-in-progress; new letters will be posted from time to time. As befits a Web-published work, I invite feedback from you, the reader -- in fact, please consider yourself solicited to submit letters of your own. I am certain th at I am not the only one who has stumbled upon these missives in his mailbox :-). Any submissions from readers will be found here.

Skip Mendler
The Poconos, October 1995; updated September 1996


Contents

    Introduction
  1. Re: Keeping him online--and on the hook
  2. Re: Cable
  3. FIELD BULLETIN re: the OJ verdict
  4. Re: Nuclear bombs
  5. Re: Threats of peace averted
  6. Re: Old age homes
  7. Re: These so-called "Last Days"
  8. Re: Faustian bargains
... [There are other letters which will appear here in the future]...

(Note: One would be well-served, and one will get much more from the present work, if one goes out immediately and obtains a copy of The Screwtape Letters. It is a small volume, and a quick read. Even better, try to find Jo hn Cleese's marvelous reading on tape...)


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