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Title: Descent into Hell by Charles W. Williams ISBN: 0-8028-1220-1 Publisher: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co. Pub. Date: December, 1965 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.88
Rating: 4
Summary: Ye shall bear one another's burdens
Comment: Ere it shall be told. Ere Babylon was dust, the Magus Zoroaster, my dead child, Met his own image Walking in the garden. That apparition, sole of men, he saw. -Percy Bysshe Shelley, Prometheus Unbound
Charles Williams is less well known than his fellow Inklings, like C. S. Lewis and J. R. R. Tolkien, but like them he wrote a series of novels which combine elements of fantasy and Christian symbolism. The action of Descent into Hell takes place in Battle Hill, outside London, amidst the townspeople's staging of a new play by Peter Stanhope. The hill seems to reside at the crux of time, as characters from the past appear, and perhaps at a doorway to the beyond, as characters are alternately summoned heavenwards or descend into hell.
Pauline Anstruther, the heroine of the novel, lives in fear of meeting her own doppelganger, which has appeared to her throughout her life. But Stanhope, in an action central to the author's own theology, takes the burden of her fears upon himself--Williams called this The Doctrine of Substituted Love--and enables Pauline, at long last, to face her true self. Williams drew this idea from the biblical verse, "Ye shall bear one another's burdens :"
She said, still perplexed at a strange language : 'But how can I cease to be troubled ? will it leave off coming because I pretend it wants you ? Is it your resemblance that hurries up the street ?'
'It is not,' he said, 'and you shall not pretend at all. The thing itself you may one day meet--never mind that now, but you'll be free from all distress because that you can pass on to me. Haven't you heard it said that we ought to bear one another's burdens ?'
'But that means---' she began, and stopped.
'I know,' Stanhope said. 'It means listening sympathetically, and thinking unselfishly, and being anxious about, and so on. Well, I don't say a against all that; no doubt it helps. But I think when Christ or St. Paul, or whoever said bear, or whatever he Aramaically said instead of bear, he meant something much more like carrying a parcel instead of someone else. To bear a burden is precisely to carry it instead of. If you're still carrying yours, I'm not carrying it for you--however sympathetic I may be. And anyhow there's no need to introduce Christ, unless you wish. It's a fact of experience. If you give a weight to me, you can't be carrying it yourself; all I'm asking you to do is to notice that blazing truth. It doesn't sound very difficult.'
And so Stanhope does take the weight, with no surreptitious motive, in the most affecting scene in the novel. And Pauline, liberated, is able to accept truth.
On the other hand, Lawrence Wentworth, a local historian, finding his desire for Adela Hunt to be unrequited, falls in love instead with a spirit form of Adela, which seems to represent a kind of extreme self love on his part.
The shape of Lawrence Wentworth's desire had emerged from the power of his body. He had assented to that making, and again, outside the garden of satisfied dreams, he had assented to the company of the shape which could not be except by his will and was imperceptibly to possess his will. Image without incarnation, it was the delight of his incarnation for it was without any of the things that troubled him in the incarnation of the beloved. He could exercise upon it all arts but one; he could not ever discover by it or practise towards it freedom of love. A man cannot love himself; he can only idolize it, and over the idol delightfully tyrannize--without purpose. The great gift which the simple idolatry os self gives is lack of further purpose; it is, the saints tell us, a somewhat similar thing that exists in those wholly possessed by their End; it is, human experience shows, the most exquisite delight in the interchanges of romantic love. But in all loves but one there are counterpointing times of purpose; in this only there are none.
As he isolates himself more and more with this insubstantial figure, and dreams of descending a silver rope into a dark pit, Wentworth begins the descent into Hell.
Because of the way that time and space and the supernatural all converge upon Battle Hill, the book can be somewhat confusing. But it is rich in atmosphere and unusual ideas and it is unlike any other book I've ever read. It is challenging, but ultimately rewarding if you stick with it.
GRADE : B
Rating: 4
Summary: Williams starkly portrays the choice between heaven or hell
Comment: Charles Williams was certainly an intriguing and brilliant writer and I agree with the reviewer who concluded her review by describing him as the real thing. He had an influence on CS Lewis as one of the Inklings (Tolkien , Lewis and Williams are probably the three best known members of the group). Genius though he was, William's has been overshadowed by Tolkien and Lewis. Nevertheless his books are worth investigating if this offering is anything to go by.
Regarded as the key to his thought, Descent into Hell is a tour-de-force, containing a wealth of (at times explosive) imagery. As the other reviews have noted, it focuses on two characters in particular - Pauline Anstruther and Laurence Wentworth. The story centres on the production of a play by a poet called Peter Stanhope, who becomes a friend of Pauline by reason of her having a part in the play. Pauline confides in Stanhope and discloses to him a secret fear she has had for many years. She is offered by Stanhope the choice of giving her fear to him and letting him bear it for her. This then leads to a climactic point in the story when Pauline has to offer to bear the burden of one of her ancestors. Here we see the old medieval notion of substitution, which is the central theme of Descent into Hell. At this point Williams misunderstands the Christian teaching on substitution, giving his characters the part of Saviour-Redeemer (which is unique to Jesus Christ). I mean by this that he portrays his characters as bearing burdens which Christ alone can bear. See the books recommended at the end of this review for an example of how CS Lewis at one point (in his personal life, not his writings) was influenced by William's doctrine of substitution (Lewis greatly admired William's as a writer and speaker).
The character of Wentworth in the story reveals how compulsive a fantasy life can become. Choosing to take to himself an insubstantial fantasy of the woman he desires, he becomes increasingly in-coherent, and enclosed in himself - finally falling into the hell of self, an abyss of non-being.
I recommend anyone reading this book to also study two chapters from the writings of Leanne Payne - a chapter entitled Incarnational Reality - The Key to Carrying the Cross in her book - The Healing Presence, and also the appendix of Real Presence entitled The Great Divorce, by the same author.
These chapters will shed light on some of the erroneous extremes in William's writings and thought.
Rating: 4
Summary: poetic mysticism
Comment: I am sympathetic to both those who were put off by the perceived opacity of this book and those who loved it. Contrary to what one reviewer wrote, it is not an easy book to read unless one's mind is uniquely conditioned, attuned, and receptive. (And though there must be more than only one mind like that out there, there cannot be very many.) Intelligence and some familiarity with theology, Judeo-Christian folklore of the occult, multi-dimensional conceptualizations, English literature and culture, etc. help a great deal, and may be essential for the patience, stamina, or faith it takes to read it. If one is looking for an easy read, this will not be it. If one is willing to read, and re-read (even aloud sometimes), think, and read, perhaps, once more, (as he would read a poem) this book will reward you richly.
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Title: Many Dimensions by Charles W. Williams ISBN: 080281221X Publisher: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co. Pub. Date: December, 1965 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
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Title: The Mind of the Maker by Dorothy L. Sayers ISBN: 0060670770 Publisher: Harper SanFrancisco Pub. Date: December, 1987 List Price(USD): $13.95 |
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Title: Creed or Chaos? Why Christians Must Choose Either Dogma or Disaster (Or, Why It Really Does Matter What You Believe) by Dorothy L. Sayers ISBN: 091847731X Publisher: Sophia Inst Pr Pub. Date: 01 December, 1999 List Price(USD): $10.95 |
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Title: THAT HIDEOUS STRENGTH by C. S. Lewis ISBN: 0684823853 Publisher: Scribner Paperback Fiction Pub. Date: June, 1996 List Price(USD): $6.95 |
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Title: The Weight of Glory by C. S. Lewis ISBN: 0060653205 Publisher: Harper SanFrancisco Pub. Date: 20 March, 2001 List Price(USD): $10.95 |
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