What Did Screwtape Reveal About Time’s True Cruciform Character?

This reflection on C.S. Lewis’s The Screwtape Letters explores how time serves as both prison and portal. Lewis’s demon Screwtape fears humans discovering that the present moment—where “time touches eternity”—is their access point to God. Since Einstein discovered time is an illusion that bends and warps, past and future are merely mental constructs where demons keep us trapped in regret and anxiety. The crucifixion exists eternally, not just historically, meaning every present moment reveals God’s cruciform nature. Whether in triumph or suffering, victory or defeat, each “now” manifests the same reality displayed at Golgotha—making the present dangerous to demonic strategy because it’s where eternal, sacrificial love continuously breaks into human experience.
What Did Screwtape Reveal About Time’s True Cruciform Character?