Charles Williams: the unsung Inkling

ADMIRERS of the fantasy novels of J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis are familiar with their involvement in the Inklings. This informal literary group of Oxford dons -- primarily Christians -- held meetings at which they would read their works in progress, and critique each other's writing. Probably the most significant work to be shaped by this process was Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings.

Various members were influenced by G.K. Chesterton (The Man Who Was Thursday and the Father Brown stories) and George MacDonald (Phantastes). Dorothy L. Sayers (the Lord Peter Whimsey mystery novels), a friend of several members, was considered an 'honorary Inkling.'

Lewis introduced Charles Williams to the group in 1939. Williams (1886 - 1945) wrote poetry, drama and theological treatises, but is best known for his seven supernatural suspense novels, including Many Dimensions and Shadows of Ecstasy.

Before he wrote these books, Williams had taken an interest in the occult. He spent 10 years as a member of the Rosicrucian-influenced 'Fellowship of the Rosy Cross' (FRC), an offshoot of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn --whose members included poet W.B. Yeats and infamous occultist Aleister Crowley. Williams left the group in 1927; for the rest of his life, he was known to be a staunch Anglican.

Williams referred to his fantasy novels as "metaphysical thrillers." They generally depict dire struggles between forces of absolute good and utter depravity. War in Heaven, his first and most famous novel, portrays a titanic battle for possession of the Holy Grail; in The Greater Trumps, immense destructive power is unleashed through a pack of tarot cards; Descent into Hell explores the functioning of prayer throughout time; and in The Place of the Lion, angelic powers come to earth as huge animals.

Williams was a longtime friend of T.S. Eliot, who wrote: "To [Williams] the supernatural was perfectly natural, and the natural was also supernatural. And this peculiarity gave him that profound insight into Good and Evil, into the heights of Heaven and the depths of Hell, which provides both the immediate thrill and the permanent message of his novels." -- David F. Dawes