Looking back at Charles Williams

I’m so glad I spent this year rereading Charles Williams (as well as discovering some new works). Starting with a refresher on his theology set a framework for the body of fiction. When I read him the first time several years ago, I was blown away but definitely just hung on to the stories by my fingernails. There is just so much going on in every story. First, Williams generally drops the reader smack in the middle of a conversation in a living room, and you’ve just got to keep up from there–meeting half a dozen characters at once, tracking their ideas (and his characters are never just shooting the breeze), then seeing how the ideas come to life in the characters as the plot plays out. The combination is an unmatched level of complexity of theme, character development, symbolism, and theology.

Williams is definitely for a reader of faith who has a few miles under their belt. Preferably, miles that include generous helpings of C.S. Lewis, George MacDonald, spiritual formation, and biblical knowledge, with a sprinkle of mysticism and fantasy for good measure. But this reader will find enrichment, nourishment, and imagination that stretches the boundaries of knowledge, belief, and the size of their faith. In particular, the reader who is ready for Charles Williams will see the value of the Church and the pure Power of God’s Kingdom at work in the world. The Church bears one another’s burdens and become reflections of the greater light to one another, and the Power is ever-present to thwart plans of the evil one, no matter how complex they are. Truly, the Power is effortless–not free of action but free of weighty labor.