Till We Have Faces
I recently finished one of the more obscure C.S. Lewis novels, Till We Have Faces. It is a complex read with numerous levels of understanding, many of which I believe were beyond me. One of its intricate themes is a treatment of the conflicting nature of the divine: how its truth includes and is explained by both intellectual wisdom and emotional experiences. A further, related theme is why the divine keeps their intentions and directions hidden from human minds; why don’t they speak with us plainly, face-to-face? Pete Lowman describes this well in his analysis of the book:
...it becomes clear how the debate between the Priest and the Fox is an analogy of the problem presented by the plurality of religions in the real world. “Holy places are dark places,” asserts the Priest when the two conflict. “It is life and strength, not knowledge and words, that we get in them. Holy wisdom is not clear and thin like water, but thick and dark like blood.” Yet the advantage of the Greek wisdom that is “clear and thin” is plain too. Can there be a resolution? ... Lewis' narrative focuses these issues: the problem of how one is to reconcile the insights of “thick” and “clear;” of what truth might lie behind the strength and horror of the “thick;” and the supernaturalistic question beyond these, of how to regard the divine silence – or hiddenness – that causes and is expressed in this enigma.
The resolution appears to comes at the end of the book. After Orual, the main character, comes face-to-face with the gods, she asserts:
I know now, Lord, why you utter no answer. You are yourself the answer. Before your face questions die away. What other answer would suffice? Only words, words; to be led out to battle against other words.
This is the essence of the Christian God, even if the themes are presented here in the setting of mythological pantheism. God is inscrutable to us on an intellectual level, although I hold that there is much to be gained from considering God intellectually. However, God is graspable to humans, for however short of a fleeting moment, when we humbly meet Him relationally and emotionally; we glimpse His face.