Saturday, April 09, 2005

Charles Williams: The Place of the Lion

NOTES FROM READERS GROUP, APRIL 9, 2005
THE PLACE OF THE LION, by CHARLES WILLIAMS
Present: Brother Brendan, Imelda, Mary (guest) Sally, Mark, David, Brother Peter, Peter, Georgia
BP- This book is the most bizarre written by Williams. We read it during the Easter season as it supposedly had resurrection themes, and some words similar to Revelation (like lion and lamb), also like Ezekiel’s "form of". If you read it again would it be more meaningful to you?
Im- No, it left me blank. The only meaningful thing I could get was Damaris’ conversion
P- Williams probably knew a lot of people like Damaris: self-absorbed, academic-focused.
BP- Williams was Anglican, and admired C.S. Lewis because he was more mystical than the usual Anglican, more like a Catholic.
B- In his young years Williams was a Rosicrucian; dabbled in magic, and in later years was a devout Anglican, but way out on the edge. (?)
P- He was a friend of Alistar Cr---, interested in witchcraft, etc.
BP- There’s a problematic hero in this book too- Anthony wants to take the good he’s found and use it for control.
G- I have a problem with those who try to mix New Age beliefs with Christianity, they just don’t meld. And I don’t agree that this book resembled Revelation. If studied with the help of the Church, Revelation is understandable, beautiful, and true…there’s nothing in this book that is any of those.
B- Like Lewis’ trilogy with angelology. I think he’s trying to say that we moderns have tamed the divine, that intellectual work is more and more dry. But God cannot be pinned down; when angels break into our world they can be terrifying. He also speaks vaguely about these, using "shadows and forms" which prevent us from seeing clearly. I think the character Damaris equates with knowledge deracinated. It’s Williams’ worst book.
S- Then why did we read it?
B Williams believes that love and truth lead to salvation.
BP- Some of it is more Christian than first realized. Damaris with her reading; her conversion led her to re-think her reading: "Oh, Abelard really was seeking this and not what I thought before." The problem with her conversion is that there seemed to be no compunction.
Im-Her conversion was cursory, a change to giving of self (?) How do you explain what happened to the people changing forms, etc.? Was it sheer terror?
BP- Dora, Foster, and Berringer were in too deep-
D- It was power without intellect which unleashes something that can’t be controlled.
BP- Encounters by the impure with the holy destroys them…like in the Raiders of the Lost Ark.
G- I had trouble understanding Foster’s explanation to Anthony of what was happening.
D- I didn’t get it either.
BP What killed these people was a confrontation with the divine
P- People can’t look at God and live-
B- Like the stories ion the Bible, in Samuel, where people just took one peek at God and were demolished.
BP Or in Leviticus where rules are laid down for coming into God’s Presence (and punishment for doing this on one’s own was portrayed). In Roman Catholicism, not just anybody can offer Mass.
P- Reminds me of Neil Gaiman stories of people disappearing…
S- Yet Jesus came as one of us, one of the folks, accessible to all. This author, and literature that makes God out as scary doesn’t make me comfortable with God.
B- Theologically we need both: an accessible God, but a holy one. Jesus takes us as we are, but asks us to change. There is a nobility in human beings. Maybe Williams was reacting to the established church in England, where God was seen as an "English gentleman".
D- He uses Platonism and mysticism to define civilization. The Hebrew God was only available to certain people. But there is freedom to God, we can’t make him in our image.
B Maybe we should read next Lewis’ "That Hideous Strength".
(BP and B left here for prayer)
Discussion ensued as to our next book: "Helena" by Evelyn Waugh was suggested, and then the trilogy by Lewis. Concerns were voiced about our being a CATHOLIC AUTHORS reading group, but we keep reading non- Catholics. No one brought the list given us last month L . "In This House of Brede" was also suggested.
Monks returned and BP clarified an earlier statement of his: Holiness shouldn’t be scary, as we’re sons and daughters of God through Christ. However we can forfeit that relationship by mocking God.
Two trilogies are being considered for summer reading: "Lord of the Rings" and "Out of the Silent Planet".
Our book for this month is "Helena" by Evelyn Waugh