Descent of the Dove – Charles Williams

By Alexa Chipman

According to the title and general introduction, this was supposed to be a history of the Christian Church and the influence of the Holy Spirit. While parts of it are normal dates and persons to the point of being almost meaningless to most people, a lot of it is simply disturbing. Williams talks about all the things that ‘good Evangelicals’ tend to avoid and ignore. The not-so-normal parts of Church history are often suppressed, even though they are clearly there. He mentioned quite a good deal that I was not familiar with, and with further research found to be true.

This book covers quite a lot of the sort of thing you would not hear in Sunday School, but which was a driving force in the foundation of Christianity and in influencing the doctrinal trends and so forth. I will admit that this book, as I said, includes long sections of rather dull explanations which I am sure would be very exciting to someone who knew more about the events and people mentioned, but to which Williams does not pause long enough to explain why he is mentioning them. This is a great book for someone who has grown up in the Church and has gotten rather comfortable in it – Descent of the Dove will jolt you to yelp ‘what have I gotten myself into?’ For new Christians I would recommend avoiding the book, as it might be confusing. Be careful whom you give this book to as well, because handing it over to a Southern Baptist elderly lady might not be a good idea. I would also recommend not suggesting the book to those who already have rather progressive ideas and are prone to heresy.

Charles Williams proves once again that while keeping to the narrow straight path is good, but you can’t black out what is happening all around. Walk the path, but stop to look at scenery and maybe help the bird who is hurt by the road, rather than plowing ahead staring at the ground; you’re apt to run into a tree branch or take a wrong turn. I have included below some excerpts from the book I found particularly intriguing to give a flavour of it.

“In some sense, the Gnostics avoided any “scandal” to the mind and soul. The stones they offered fitted the corners of many temples; only not of the City of Christendom.” (25).

“The Roman past was rejected; the effort of the Middle Ages was begun. Intellect was accepted; marriage was accepted; ordinary life was accepted…the nature of the Church had not changed, and only fools suppose that it had. It remained reconciliation and sin redeemed; “my Eros is crucified”; “Another is in me”…it had become a Creed, and it remained a Gospel” (48-9).

“The great pagan chieftains had to become Christians before they could become citizens…they became, sometimes, the wrong kind of Christian; they accepted, sometimes, the wrong kind of dogma” (81).

The end of the Middle Ages can be variously regarded as a break-down, a break-up, or a break-through. The last is the least probable; the Middle Ages were not so precluded from intellegence that the discovery of a number of new facts or even of other methods of enjoyment need have much destroyed their balance. They were not, as we now realize, enclosed in narrow dogmas; the dogmas in which they were enclosed were as broad as creation, as high as the top-most movement of the soul, as deep as the genesis of the blood, and as remote as Adam and the Day of Judgement…It is true that there were certain things the Middle Ages did not stress, and perhaps the lack of those things contributed to their wreck; as, for instance, they did not habitually encourage the principle of disbelief. The faith of the Middle Ages accepted Reason as implicitly as it accepted Christ…all this, however, hardly supports sufficiently the image of the Middle Ages “breaking through” into a happier intellectual state. nor do we normally now believe that they did” (127-8).

Works Cited:
Williams, Charles. The Descent of the Dove. Vancouver: Regent UP, 2002.

C.S. Lewis Discussion on KFAX

Aired 8:30pm – 9:30pm PST 15 March, 2009 on KFAX San Francisco Radio

David Theroux, Founder and President of the C.S. Lewis Society of California spoke on a variety of topics including the influence of Mere Christianity and its popularity across denominational barriers, C.S. Lewis’ works in general, his scholarly background steeped in a multitude of literature, the importance of Myth in his conversion, Christian themes in The Chronicles of Narnia, discussion on The Screwtape Letters and more. I do hope you were able to catch this broadcast, if not come to the next meeting of the C.S. Lewis Society of California for more information or contact them directly.

Silver Leaves Inklings Issue

Order Silver Leaves Issue 2 now from the WHITE TREE FUND

The theme for the issue is “The Inklings” with academic, journalistic, reflective, creative and artistic pieces relative to the collective group known as the Inklings and its individual members.

View Preview Pdf:
silverleaves-issue2-preview

Articles included in the issue:

* Alison Baird – A Desire for Dragons
* Melanie M Jeschke – The Landscapes of Narnia : CS Lewis and Northern Ireland
* Jonathon D Svendsen – Narnia and Middle-earth : The Stories that Meant Something
* Steven Dueck – Middle-earth Super Scramblers
* Kathryn E Darden – Journey to the Sea
* Rachel Gamber – Seeing Prince Caspian in New York City
* Alicia Angst – The Wind
* Douglas Gresham – Shards of Diamond
* Missy M McClure – Inklings
* Kathryn E Darden – The Fellowship of JRR Tolkien
* NC Graham – The Woods Still Whisper
* Laura Hwee and Charity Yang – Wellinghall Smial Update
* Brian Sibley – More Than Just the Margins : An appreciation of Pauline Baynes (1922 – 2008)
* PR Miller – For the Inklings
* Kerri-Anne Cundill – Stepping into JRR Tolkien’s World
* Alexa Chipman – Lord David Cecil: The Forgotten Inkling
* Colin Duriez – Devilry and Images of Evil in Tolkien
* Daniel Timmons – The Virtues of Fellowship
* Stéphanie Bourquard – The Role of Judicial Activism in the Development of Principles in International Law of Human Rights: the Case of Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights
* Martha Kosyfi – Breeze
* Melanie M Jeschke – Sunday, August 18, 1940 : CS Lewis’ home, The Kilns, Oxford, England
* Sarah Arthur – The Tale We’ve Fallen Into : Some thoughts on why we never out­grow The Lord of the Rings
* Elijah David – Controversy over The Chronicles of Narnia
* Mark Cooper – Speculation on Film Two of The Hobbit Duology
* Martha Kosyfi – Misty Gates
* John Adcox – In Good Company
* Kathryn E Darden – The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King – The Complete Recordings
* Sara Goodwin – Prince Caspian Review
* Elisabeth C – Prince Caspian Review
* Kelsey Kline – Bad Adaption, Good Movie–on the whole, and taking one thing with another
* NC Graham – You Must Lay Aside Your Inner Purist
* Rachel Gamber – Prince Caspian Review
* Art in Issue 2 from Coralie Allan, Alexa Chipman, Gerda Marz, Jef Murray