Demonology 101: Screwtape – Letter 12

The Gentle Slope: How Spiritual Apathy Leads Us Away from God

We often assume that if someone is drifting away from God, it must be because they have committed some major sin. We imagine them abandoning church, engaging in immoral behavior, or openly rejecting their faith. But what if the real danger isn’t in obvious rebellion but in something far more subtle? What if the greatest threat to our spiritual health is simply… drifting?

In The Screwtape Letters, C.S. Lewis exposes this quiet, almost imperceptible process in the twelfth letter from Screwtape to his apprentice, Wormwood. The demons are not concerned with leading their human “patients” into blatant sin, at least, not at first. Their real strategy is far more dangerous: to lull them into a slow, steady detachment from God.

The Illusion of Staying Close to God

One of the most effective ways to deceive someone is to convince them that they aren’t really changing at all. Screwtape puts it this way:

“We know that we have introduced a change of direction in his course, which is already carrying him out of his orbit around the enemy, but he must be made to imagine all the choices which have affected this change of course are trivial and revocable.”

The key here is deception. A person who is drifting spiritually will often think that their faith is intact because they still attend church or still pray before meals. But what they fail to realize is that they are no longer centered on God. Like a planet that has been knocked just slightly off course, they are moving away from the light without even noticing it.

Screwtape reassures Wormwood that as long as the patient still outwardly looks like a Christian, he will be blind to the internal decay happening within him. Instead of facing his spiritual decline head-on, the patient will experience only a vague feeling of unease, an uneasiness that the demons can exploit.

Avoiding True Repentance

If you’ve ever felt guilty about something but did nothing to change it, then you’ve already experienced the kind of spiritual paralysis the demons aim for. Screwtape explains that the best tactic is to keep the patient in a state of low-grade guilt without letting it grow into real repentance:

“If such a feeling is allowed to live, but not allowed to become irresistible and flower into real repentance, it has one invaluable tendency: it increases the reluctance of the patient to think about the enemy.”

Think about how this plays out in daily life. Have you ever avoided prayer because you felt ashamed of how little time you’ve spent with God? Have you ever skipped reading your Bible because it reminded you of how distant you’ve become? The more we avoid God, the more uncomfortable we become at the thought of returning to him. And yet, the longer we wait, the harder it is to turn back.

This is exactly what the demons want. If they can make us feel guilty just enough to discourage us but not enough to push us toward repentance, they have succeeded.

The Dangers of Spiritual Numbness

As the patient drifts further from God, the demons no longer need to tempt him with real pleasures. Instead, they can distract him with meaningless trivialities.

“You no longer need a good book which he really likes to keep him from his prayers or his work or his sleep. A column of advertisements in yesterday’s paper will do.”

This line hits harder in our modern world than it did in Lewis’s time. Today, the equivalent of those newspaper ads is the endless scroll of social media, binge-watching Netflix, or mindlessly browsing the internet. None of these things are necessarily sinful, but they are empty. They take up space in our minds and our schedules, leaving little room for meaningful engagement with God.

Instead of confronting our spiritual struggles, we fill the silence with distractions. We stay up late, not because we’re doing anything worthwhile, but because we’re just there, scrolling through endless content, avoiding reality. And the demons love it.

The Road to Hell is a Gentle Slope

Many people assume that spiritual failure comes from dramatic moments of rebellion. But Screwtape corrects this misconception:

“The only thing that matters is the extent to which you separate the man from the enemy. It does not matter how small the sins are, provided that their cumulative effect is to edge the man away from the light and out into the nothing.”

He then delivers one of the most chilling lines in all of The Screwtape Letters:

“Indeed, the safest road to Hell is the gradual one, the gentle slope, soft underfoot, without sudden turnings, without milestones, without signposts.”

Think about that for a moment. Most people don’t reject God in a single moment of defiance. Instead, they slowly stop praying. They miss one Sunday service, then another. They replace time in Scripture with time on their phones. Their faith, once strong, becomes weak, not because of one catastrophic sin, but because of a thousand small distractions.

Are You Drifting?

It’s easy to think of “bad people” as those who commit obvious sins, but what Screwtape reveals is that spiritual decay happens in the quiet, unnoticeable decisions of everyday life. If we aren’t careful, we may wake up one day to realize that we are far from God, not because we chose to leave him, but because we never intentionally chose to stay close.

So what’s the remedy?

• Recognize the Drift – If your prayers feel weak, your time with God is inconsistent, or your heart feels distant, acknowledge it. Don’t let vague guilt keep you from running back to God.

• Repent Quickly – True repentance is not just feeling bad; it’s turning back to God. The longer we wait, the harder it gets.

• Cut Out the Noise – What trivial distractions are keeping you from spending time with God? Start reclaiming that time.

• Recommit to the Essentials – Bible reading, prayer, Christian community, these are not optional. They are the foundation of a life that stays in orbit around God.

At the end of the day, the question isn’t whether you’ve committed a “big” sin or a “small” sin. The question is: Are you growing closer to God or drifting away from him?

Because the safest road to hell is not a dramatic leap into sin, but a slow, comfortable drift away from the light.