Trick or Treat? Charles Williams’ War in Heaven

If you’ve been reading my blog this year, you’ll remember that I’m (occasionally) focusing on the Inklings, a brilliant writing and discussion group including C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien. There were many other members who came and went over the years, but Owen Barfield and Charles Williams were two who stood out. Although they never achieved Lewis and Tolkien’s popularity, they still have a small but avid readership today. Plus, both were intimate, trusted friends of C.S. Lewis. That was recommendation enough for me to check them out.

But where to start? Google told me to begin with Charles Williams’ short novel, War in Heaven. After buying and reading the book, my trust in Charles Williams—to say nothing of Google—is greatly shaken. Let me tell you why.

Williams’ Beliefs and Personality

Williams was an odd guy. He was a staunch member of the Anglican church with a magnetic personality. But alongside his Christian beliefs, he also held on to his background in the occult, trying to blend the two into his own religious order and symbolism. This led him to justify all kinds of un-Christian rituals, behaviors, and ideas that I won’t describe here. From my limited experience with Williams, I can’t see how his beliefs and actions could have anything to do with Christ or Christianity. Tolkien distrusted and probably even disliked Williams because of this, but C.S. Lewis still seemed to trust him.

Lewis valued Williams as a thinker, writer, Christian, and friend. But Lewis’s own interest in the occult as a young unbeliever may have blinded him to the alarming nature of Williams’ adult beliefs. Also, Lewis always gave people the benefit of the doubt, and Williams was able to draw people in when he wanted to. I also read that Lewis was unaware of the depth of Williams’ ritualistic, occultic shenanigans. For whatever combination of reasons, Lewis seems to have trusted Williams, which is more than I can say for myself.

War in Heaven Is the Real Harry Potter

The book War in Heaven is the first in a series of seven novels. I was planning to purchase and read the whole series, but boy, I’m glad I only started with one. I will not be reading the rest. He wrote books one through seven in the 1930s, tacking on a final book in 1945, the year of his unexpected death at age 58.

Apparently, the books are categorized as “spiritual thrillers,” and I’d also add “graphically-demonic and alarming semi-autobiography.” My biggest beef with War in Heaven is that the horrible things he describes seem way too detailed not to have been his personal experiences. These books are what some conservative parents worried Harry Potter would be—a senseless, descriptive dabbling in darkness.

A Mystery and a Relic

It’s hard to get into the book at the beginning because of his disjointed writing style. I had a hard time figuring out who these characters were, what they were up to, and what was wrong with them. Williams certainly didn’t go out of his way to welcome you into the narrative by using an accessible style. Once the plot got going and I found my bearings, the weirdness intensified.

The gist of the plot is that there’s been a murder in an office building, and people are trying to find out whodunnit. Come to find out, Gregory—the guy who dunnit—is in the process of selling his soul to Satan and is looking for gifts to ingratiate himself to the Dark One—gifts like the murder of this man, the control of a young boy’s soul through occultic hypnotism, and the destruction of the Holy Grail. Yes, the actual Holy Grail.

Gregory and two satanic advisors vie for the Holy Grail against an archdeacon and some rag-tag men who want to help. The grail changes possession several times, but that’s just the pretext for describing several alarmingly-detailed satanic scenarios.

Dark Spiritualism

First, Williams describes Gregory’s experience of some kind of satanic communion where he buys an ointment from a “chemist” who has already sold himself to the devil. Gregory anoints himself with the ointment and enters into a kind of trance, promising to offer a certain little boy to Satan. The description of the trance becomes so unsettling that I won’t describe it here.

Later, Greory uses this ointment on the little boy’s mother. She goes crazy, and the father temporarily leaves the little boy in Gregory’s care. (Talk about a poor judge of character.) Meanwhile, Greogry is aware that the archdeacon has the Holy Grail, and Gregory is intent on stealing it in order to offer it to Satan, along with the boy’s soul. The archdeacon and his friends enter into a different kind of spiritual trance to protect the Grail.

Eventually, more people are destroyed through encounters with spiritual forces and attempted soul-swaps. Good prevails in the end, but the story drags you through so much disturbing imagery before then that it’s hard to feel any catharsis at the conclusion.

A Trick, Not a Treat

If this synopsis seems trippy and far-fetched to you, know that the book is even worse. I know there are spiritual forces at work in the world and that Satan is desperately fighting for souls, but God is far greater. It’s not a Yin-Yang scenario, with dark and light evenly matched. God’s light will shatter the pathetic, creeping darkness in the end. Until then, I’d rather fill my mind with what’s good, true, and beautiful.

While Williams’ conclusion does show good triumphing over evil, I don’t believe his ends justify his means. Dark truths can be described in literature, but a writer who claims to be Christian has certainly lost his way if he discusses the darkness with such obvious relish and detail. My job is to align myself with truth and avoid mucking about in dark books like this. Consider yourself warned.