Charles Williams, a first encounter

Charles Walter Stansby Williams (1886–1945) was an author and intellectual, born in Londen on September 20th 1886, went to st Albans school and the University College in Londen. In 1908, Oxford University Press hired him as a literary adviser. Until his death on May 15th 1945 in Oxford (of which a later poetry professor said: “This was a general disaster, like an air raid ... The war with Germany was over. Charles Williams was dead. And suddenly Oxford was not the same again.”) he remained employed there and increasingly became a valued and beloved member of staff. In 1917 he married Florence (‘Michal’) and they got a son Michael.

Williams was, as an anglo-catholic, a dedicated member of the anglican church with a refreshing tolerance for the scepticism of others as well as the most original lay theologian of the 20th century. Important themes to him were romantic love (how it can help to understand our relationship with God, ‘Theology of the body’ avant la lettre) and the ‘co-inherence’ of all human creatures. However his most important theme, not explicitly mentioned yet pervading his works, is promoting the Omnipresence & Omnipotence of God (especially regarding Redemption) where "most people are, effectively, dualists." A sort of combination of the theological Via Negativa and Via Positiva (most concisely expressed in his motto: "this also art Thou; neither art Thou this") then follows as well.

According to T.S. Eliot it was even “one of [Williams’] most important tasks in life to unknowingly imprint people with healthy teachings of faith (with now and then a snif of heresy, of course, yet of the very best kind).”

Williams wrote, lectured (‘thrilling!’) and spoke with a never ending and inspiring energy. Besides anthologies, some prefaces and a hardly interrupted series of reviews, this yielded more than thirty volumes of very diverse character: poetry (on themes connected to the Arthur-cycle), plays, literary criticism (e.g. The Figure of Beatrice, which inspired Dorothy L. Sayers to translate The Divine Comedy), novels (e.g. War in Heaven, one of his seven ‘supernatural thrillers’ that made him an important predecessor of the Urban Fantasy genre), biographies and theological writings (with the Descent of the Dove as the most important one; W.H. Auden reread it every year and in Williams' presence felt himself “transformed into somebody who couldn't do or think anything lowly or without love”).

Williams shared with G.K. Chesterton (the greatest contemporary influence on his style and thinking) a love for the paradox. In his time people found his writings often difficult and obscure. On the other hand he was a briljant and beloved speaker on English literature for evening-institutes and later on the university of Oxford while staying there during WWII. This got him a well earned recognition in the form of a MA degree of the university of Oxford in 1943.

In his Oxford-years Williams also took actively part in the literary society 'the Inklings' around C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien where a.o. The Lord of the Rings was first read and discussed. Williams’ last book All Hallows’ Eve also came into existence there. His strong influence on C.S. Lewis (who was his greatest fan) can be seen best in Thulcandra (the last part of Lewis’ Space Trilogy). Penguin books even claims that in the 30s and 40s there were but very few authors that had such an influence on who knew and read them as Williams.

To conclude some beautiful personal impressions of Williams by T.S. Eliot: “To have known the man would have been sufficient; to know his books is sufficient; but nobody who both knew the man as the books would have voluntarily renounced one of both experiences.” “What he had to say was more than he, and probably also language, could say once and for all in one single medium. Probably that's why this diversity in writing forms: plays, poetry, literary or philosophical essays, and the novel … Books that should continue to exist because there is nothing comparable or can take their place.” “The supernatural was completely natural for him and vice versa. And this speciality gave him that special insight in Good and evil, in the heights of Heaven and the depths of hell, which constitutes both the momentary excitement as the permanent message of novels. No-one was less locked up in conventional morals, in judging good and bad behaviour, than Williams: his morality is that of the gospels.” “They are good reading even for those that never rereads novels and who only require that they will entertain them for some hours. I believe that Williams himself would have liked them to be read, the first time, in this way … To those open to it he shows the terror of the dark abyss; but in the end he brings us closer to what another explorer of the darkness has called 'the laughter at the heart of things'."