What happens in Letter XXIII – Patriotism and Causes of The Screwtape Letters?
In Letter XXIII, the senior demon Screwtape advises his nephew Wormwood on how to manipulate the human patient's connection to patriotism and political beliefs. Screwtape points out that the best way to corrupt the patient isn't to make him completely abandon his country, but rather to twist his love for it into a fierce, partisan hatred—turning patriotism into a source of pride, contempt, and tribalism. The patient has become part of a social group with strong political views, and Screwtape urges Wormwood to make sure that the patient's identity merges with a Cause instead of with God. The demon explains that someone dedicated to a Cause may carry out cruel and self-righteous acts that he would never allow himself in everyday life, all while feeling morally superior. Screwtape makes a distinction between the "patient's cause" and the purposes of the Enemy (God), highlighting that Hell's greatest success is getting humans to follow Hell's agenda while thinking they are fulfilling Heaven's. The letter concludes with Screwtape's typical cold satisfaction: the patient's spiritual energy is being drained into ideology, pushing him further away from true charity and closer to damnation.
Analysis
Lewis sharpens Screwtape's inverted rhetoric here, using the demon's approving tone to highlight how ideology devours real virtue. This ironic endorsement reveals that every tactic Screwtape praises—merging identity with a Cause, fueling righteous contempt, weaponizing patriotism—serves as a spot-on diagnosis of human shortcomings precisely because the demon endorses it. Lewis doesn’t outright condemn patriotism; instead, Screwtape targets the distortion of love into possession and loyalty into tribalism. This distinction is the chapter's moral pivot.
The theme of substitution is prevalent: Cause takes the place of God, partisan identity fills in for conscience, and the warmth of collective indignation substitutes for true charity. Lewis anticipates what later thinkers would refer to as "political religion," and the letter's satirical tone feels strikingly relevant today.
Tonal shifts in the chapter oscillate between Screwtape's bureaucratic smugness and an urgent undertone—the demon's almost gleeful demeanor signals to attentive readers that the danger described is real. Lewis also uses the series' recurring structural irony: the more convincingly Screwtape argues, the clearer the trap becomes for readers. The letter’s concise format—it addresses patriotism, political hatred, and the corruption of moral energy all in one tight dispatch—showcases Lewis's essayistic skill, making the epistolary form serve as both fiction and theological discussion.
Key quotes from Letter XXIII – Patriotism and Causes
“Let him begin by treating the Patriotism or the Pacifism as a part of his religion. Then let him, under the influence of partisan spirit, come to regard it as the most important part.”
Screwtape outlines the incremental strategy by which a political loyalty is elevated above faith itself, revealing Hell's preference for slow doctrinal displacement over outright apostasy.
“The man who truly and disinterestedly enjoys any one thing in the world, for its own sake, and without caring twopence what other people say about it, is by that very fact forearmed against some of our subtlest modes of attack.”
Screwtape concedes, with characteristic irritation, that genuine, ego-free pleasure is a defence against demonic manipulation—a rare moment where the demon's complaint illuminates what authentic human goodness looks like.
“All mortals tend to turn into the thing they are pretending to be.”
Screwtape offers this as a warning and a weapon, noting that sustained performance of hatred or contempt reshapes character—a compact statement of Lewis's broader theme that habit forms the soul.