Descent Into Hell

I just finished Descent Into Hell by Charles Williams. Quite a fascinating book. One of the main themes (and apparently a theme in every one of his seven novels) is substitution and exchange--my life for yours. This doctrine of substituted love allows every character in some small way to take part in Christ's sacrafice, though we are told that "there's no need to introduce Christ, unless you wish." In Descent, one person may choose to take on another's fear or pain and fully alleviate the other person of this burden ("If you give a weight to me, you can't be carrying it yourself"). Each character must choose a life for Self (and Hell) or a life for Others (and Heaven).

I don't know much about Charles Williams, but I bet it would be a great biography. Williams was self-educated. He dropped out of school at an early age to help support his family. Yet, he was a core member of the Inklings along with Tolkien and Lewis. As Thomas Howard wrote:

He may have been self-educated, but he was self-educated. The great tribute to this is the fact that Lewis and Tolkien managed to secure a lectureship at Oxford for Williams, in some semi-official way.

His peers seemed to mark him as a strange person:

Tolkien claimed he never knew what Williams was talking about. Eliot said that when Williams lectured, he hopped all over the place, crossing and uncrossing his legs as he perched on the desk, jingling coins in his pocket, and so forth.

So Charles Williams was an odd man who wrote bizarre books, but I'm sure this was never a real concern--genius always seems to come in that package.