Recently, I re-read Descent into Hell by Charles Williams. Williams was an "Inkling," friend and colleague of C. S. Lewis and J. R. R. Tolkien, whose work spans literary criticism (of Dante and other medieval writers), theology (specifically on the religious meaning of love), church history, and...believe it or not, popular thriller novels (of which Descent into Hell is perhaps his greatest).
C. S. Lewis was once asked to list the top ten books that influenced his own theological perspective. Lewis included Descent into Hell on that list, and one can discern clear influences from that work in many of Lewis' own books, including The Great Divorce, Till We Have Faces, and The Problem of Pain (just to name a few).
The book is a thriller in that several of its characters experience supernatural visions or revelations which are indeed frightening. But in its basic theme, it asks and then attempts to answer a very deep philosophical problem: Can something be both frightening and good at the same time?
In the novel, the characters who most clearly "descend into hell" are those who live lives of utter detachment from the world and other people, and choose to love only the vanity of their own thoughts and ideals. Out of fear of an imperfect reality, they retreat into their own minds and neglect the need to be confronted with anything "other," thereby depriving themselves of redemptive relationship. Implicitly narcissistic, they love only their own musings and emotions and offer only bitter contempt for actual reality.
This reminds me of a quote from one of Williams' contemporaries, T. S. Eliot: "Hell is oneself, hell is alone, the other figures in it merely projections. There is nothing to escape from and nothing to escape to. One is always alone." In their desire to protect themselves from the imperfection of this earth and of other people, lost people unwittingly secure their own damnation. For the first step to salvation is to love what is outside ourselves, frightening as that may be for us contemporary Americans who have made self-love, self-reliance, or self-esteem the summum bonum of life. Indeed, to love (and be loved by) a God who is wholly other than us requires that we deny ourselves all together and seek Christ.
While occasionally a cumbersome read, the book is filled with delightful humor, poignant moments of grace, and raw truthfulness about our predisposition to sinful self love. I won't give away any more of the plot, and thereby rob you of a great read. But I will offer you Williams' conclusion to the question raised above:
"Salvation is quite often a terrible thing--a frightening good."
[P.S. - Since Halloween is coming up, I plan on reading another of Williams' thrillers, All Hallow's Eve, and Lord willing I'll have a post on it before Oct. 31!]
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