Corruption Course: Advanced Lessons in Temptation for College Students | Blasphemous Advice Inspired by C. S. Lewis’s The Screwtape Letters [9781646805365]

Overview

In the spirit of C. S. Lewis’s The Screwtape Letters, these devilish essays offer a witty and eye-opening look at the spiritual pitfalls of modern college life.

Written by students who know campus life firsthand, Corruption Course offers a peer-to-peer spiritual reality check. Through a collection of clever, satirical letters, it exposes familiar temptations with startling clarity and helps you navigate the college years with wisdom, freedom, and faith.

As a final project for a course on C. S. Lewis at the University of Notre Dame, students imagined a correspondence between two demons, Fumewit and Clashmore, who exchange strategies for leading college students astray from the Enemy—that is, God. “Humans are inherently flawed,” Clashmore writes to Fumewit, “so all you have to do is tease out their wretchedness—and college is the perfect place to do it.”

Their devilish advice reveals the subtle traps that can compromise every area of your life:

• Recreation: Revealing how partying and squandered time can lead to regret, shame, and emptiness

Devilish Advice: “Now, about this party you mentioned at the residence hall—what an opportunity! A night devoted almost entirely to noise, drink, poor choices, and self-forgetting. It’s as though they’ve built the perfect altar to Our Father Below without even knowing it. Your task, dear nephew, is not simply to get your patient drunk (any half-wit could manage that) but to ensure that what he becomes in his drunkenness binds him more securely to us.”

• Identity: Accepting the danger of rooting your self-worth in grades, career ambitions, or romantic relationships

Devilish Advice: “Convince her that she has no time for excessive spiritual endeavors or acts of charity. Keep her so focused on her own goals and ambitions that she neglects to love (or even to realize that she can love) the person in front of her. Tell her that it is the Enemy’s plan for her to pursue these earthly ambitious goals, and thus she should put all her time into these efforts.”

• Technology: Unmasking the vanity of social media and the integrity-crushing shortcuts made possible by AI

Devilish Advice: “It brings me great satisfaction to hear that sniveling creature has developed an attachment to one of our more recent tools: a glittering shrine of self-worship, where the creatures kneel daily for the sacrament of attention. They call it social media. I have learned from Cramwell that the apps that encourage posting “selfie” photos meant to garner false approval and feigned praise remain popular among your fellow demons, as they do much of the heavy lifting for you. You have stumbled upon fertile land here, my boy, and I expect to see you reap a full harvest of misery from your patient. The feasting halls are ever hungry, and Our Father Below grows impatient for another soul to season the flames.”

• Relationships: Navigating hookup culture, peer pressure, and the myth of self-sufficiency

Devilish Advice: “Above all, do not let this situation lead to a moment of prayer! In times of distress, the little vermin tend to remember the Enemy. While these appeals to the One Above are often selfish and flippant, they can just as easily lead to moments of accountability. . . . In conclusion, keep the patient thinking that she is superior socially, intellectually, culturally, and personally, and never, above all things, let her enter a humble spirit of grace and humility.”

• Practices of Faith: Recognizing how even faith can be distorted by performative religion or spiritual pride

Devilish Advice: “Keep her wholeheartedly focused on trying to achieve perfection, while neglecting recourse to the Enemy. It is very easy to lead your patient to think that she is capable of making something of herself, rather than letting the Enemy mold her. Since the beginning of time, we have succeeded in festering that beautiful vice of pride within the hearts of humankind.”

Corruption Course avoids easy answers and goes straight to the heart of the struggle. These letters, written for students by students, unmask the subtle lies that can lead to isolation, exhaustion, and spiritual apathy. By revealing how temptation works—and how the enemy seeks to exploit our weaknesses—they offer readers greater clarity and the courage to resist it.

Whether you’re a high school senior preparing for move-in day or a college student feeling the weight of the “sophomore slump,” these hilarious yet sobering letters offer an unforgettable perspective on the spiritual life. College is more than a place to earn a degree. It is also a time to discover who you are, deepen your relationship with God, and build a faith strong enough to last long after graduation.