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Lewis's vision of Satan is far more useful and scary than Hollywood's. The film industry loves making movies about hell. In these high-budget visions of the underworld, demons usually emerge to do bad things to people, causing death and destruction here on earth. The hero either slays them or works some mystic incantation that sends them back, after which life on earth returns to what it was before. The demons are just like other Hollywood bad guys: terrorists, serial killers, the ruthless rich out to rule the world. In these visions, the bad thing about Satan is that he wants to do bad things to us here and now.

C. S. Lewis's marvelous imagination, by contrast, should remind us that this vision is dangerously wrong. The terrible tragedies that befall the world work to Satan's benefit only if we despair. Suffering, as Screwtape reminds his nephew, often strengthens faith. Better to keep people alive, he says, long enough for faith to be worn away. The death of a believer is the last thing the Devil wants.

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Carter wrote about Greg Easterbrook's Progress Paradox in his article "A Politics of Gratitude."

J. I. Packer wrote an article on What Oswald Chambers and C.S. Lewis teach us about living through the long battle with terrorism.

Recent Christianity Today columns by Stephen L. Carter include:

The ACLU Is Not Evil | And neither are many people with whom we disagree. (May 11, 2006)

The 'Judicial Philosophy' Dodge | Why opposing 'activist judges' isn't as straightforward as you'd think. (Jan. 3, 2006)

Evolution, Not Revolution | Christians need to lower their Supreme Court expectations. (Nov. 1, 2005)

Sticker Shock | When a judge violated the church-state peace treaty. (March 02, 2005)

Politics for Adults | A Supreme Court justice showed us how to "do business" with opponents. (Jan. 12, 2005)

Defending Our Neighbor | Can we start a war to protect others? (Nov. 10, 2004)

Loving Military Enemies | War does not exempt Christians from the second-greatest commandment. (Sept. 07, 2004)

Hope Deferred | Christians are uniquely positioned to further racial equality. (June 29, 2004)

A Politics of Gratitude | Stop whining, count your blessings, and love your global neighbors. (March 08, 2004)

Sports Mobs and Manners | There's a difference between cheering the home team and being boorish. (Aug. 25, 2003)

Roe vs. Judicial Sense | Forget briefly its immorality—it's just bad law (July 1, 2003)

Willing to Lose | By voting we place our hope in the next world. (March 4, 2003)

Virtue via Vouchers | The Supreme Court's recent decision can help prevent more corporate scandals. (Dec. 4, 2002)

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September 2006, Vol. 50, No. 9