The question I seek to address in this essay is to what extent a rhetoric of exclusion and stigma... more The question I seek to address in this essay is to what extent a rhetoric of exclusion and stigmatisation has historically been part of the very definition of Christian identity. Few would doubt that examples of such a strategy exist, but I argue that their proximity to some of the most fundamental formulations of Christian belief points to an ecclesiological paradox: a Church that is meant to include all cannot exist without excluding at least some. I discuss various liberal and conservative attempts to avoid the paradox, but conclude that it has to be accepted as unavoidable. The Church follows her mission precisely by recognising in her theological self-reflection the distance between its institutional reality and the ideal she is meant to embody.
This chapter traces the movement from ‘exchange’ to ‘co-inherence’ in Williams’ last three novels... more This chapter traces the movement from ‘exchange’ to ‘co-inherence’ in Williams’ last three novels, including the early novel Shadows of Ecstasy since it was only published in 1932. That novel’s ambiguous central figure exemplifies Williams’ theory of transmutation of passion into energy, while he contradicts Williams’ convictions about exchange in love. Descent into Hell confirms that Williams’ emphasis has moved from equilibrium and equipoise to exchange and substitution. The term ‘stillness’ is highlighted as the most comprehensive term Williams can find for the reality that embraces and transcends exchange and substitution, and this is compared to the life of the triune God. ‘Stillness’, however, is treated more negatively in the final novel, All Hallows’ Eve, and co-inherence is the assumed framework of plot, character, and theme. It is apparent that Williams has found the comprehensive concept and image for which he has been searching in his previous six novels.
While Williams fails fully to work out the idea of human co-inherence within the Holy Trinity, th... more While Williams fails fully to work out the idea of human co-inherence within the Holy Trinity, the potential for this is expressed in several writings. For instance, the image of ‘the land of the Trinity’ carries an implication of ‘dwelling’ in the Trinity, and there is also promise of this development in Williams’ earlier theology of romantic love. But the kind of co-inherence that Beatrice exemplifies in The Figure of Beatrice is simply being ‘in Christ’ who is Love itself, rather than participating in trinitarian relations of love. In the principles of The Company of the Co-inherence, the realm of active practices in the Christian life is detached from contemplation of the co-inherent Trinity, and so separated from a participation in the Trinity. The chapter nevertheless detects hints of a full view of human co-inherence in the relations of the Trinity in Williams’ later writings.
The final chapter offers a study of the word ‘co-inherence’ in English-speaking theology before p... more The final chapter offers a study of the word ‘co-inherence’ in English-speaking theology before proposing a way in which differences between Lewis and Williams might be resolved. It recalls that Williams uses kabbalistic imagery to evoke a world in which God’s glory is immanent, while Lewis draws on Christian Neoplatonism to emphasize divine transcendence. An investigation of the term ‘co-inherence’ in modern trinitarian theology shows that these viewpoints might converge, though this is not a conclusion Williams and Lewis reached. The chapter argues that approaching co-inherence as a pattern of diverse relations in God, strengthened by the idea that ‘persons’ in the Trinity are not subjects but ‘relations’, can provide a context for what Williams and Lewis wanted to express, both about analogies between the human and the divine, and about actual engagement in God. If co-inherence is participating in relations, Williams and Lewis can stand on common ground.
This chapter traces Lewis’ and Williams’ first period of friendship, beginning with an exchange o... more This chapter traces Lewis’ and Williams’ first period of friendship, beginning with an exchange of letters in March 1936 about each other’s books. These letters also reveal a crucial difference on the relation between human, especially erotic, love and the religious experience of divine love; Lewis stresses analogy, while Williams discerns a participation of one area in the other. In the next three years, there is partial convergence as Williams admits an element of parody in the ‘love-religion’ of medieval poetry, while Lewis testifies to being somewhat drawn into Williams’ own region of romantic love within their common general territory of romanticism. Lewis shows growing interest in Williams’ ideas of exchange and substitution, but continues to reinterpret Williams’ thought about romantic theology to accommodate it to his own kind of romanticism. The period ends with Williams’ first extensive expression of co-inherence in his book The Descent of the Dove.
Like William Blake a century before him, D.H. Lawrence is aware of the disintegrating of the huma... more Like William Blake a century before him, D.H. Lawrence is aware of the disintegrating of the human personality under the stress of life, and is in search of the wholeness or ‘integrity’ of the self.1 His characters do not inhabit myths as Blake’s do, yet they form the cast of legends rather than documentaries; though they can be placed on the English social scene, Lawrence depicts their inner states of mind with an intensity that readers often protest is not ‘realistic’. Just as Blake’s figures whirl between death and life in bewildering metamorphoses, Lawrence’s whirl between hate and love for each other with a shocking suddenness. But like Blake, Lawrence is not describing feelings with a clinical precision; he is evoking moods of the conscious and unconscious mind that cannot be captured in words, but which can be hinted at by a disturbing use of language.
This chapter reflects on why Lewis’ use of the image of dance in Perelandra has potential within ... more This chapter reflects on why Lewis’ use of the image of dance in Perelandra has potential within it for expansion into a fuller trinitarian concept of co-inherence than Williams achieved. Lewis’ portrayal of the ‘Great Dance’ marks a high point of the impact of Williams’ idea of co-inherence, and also develops it. Lewis envisages the triune God as the centre of the dance and as engaged in its movement, which was partially anticipated by Williams. Lewis is nevertheless offering something different, first because the context of his ‘moving centre’ is a kind of ‘space theology’. Second, his particular appeal to God as the ‘centre’ develops the notion of co-inherence as an interpenetration beyond Williams’ own thought. Third, the picture of the dance offers a theodicy that is more convincing than Lewis’ conceptual approach in The Problem of Pain, moving beyond Williams’ use of dance as a symbol of cosmic necessity.
Despite the common assertion that ‘co-inherence’ runs through his entire literary output, this ch... more Despite the common assertion that ‘co-inherence’ runs through his entire literary output, this chapter presents evidence that Williams first used the word in January 1939, having found the term in Prestige’s God in Patristic Thought (1936). A few weeks later, Williams outlined the principles of his new Company of the Co-inherence. The chapter considers the emergence of the idea of co-inherence from Williams’ concepts of romantic love, exchange, and substitution. It is argued that the Christological trajectory of these earlier ideas means that co-inherence is basically Christological, concerning the mutual permeation of two natures in Christ and the consequent interpenetration of human beings in the life of Christ at the same time as in each other. Williams is thus using co-inherence in an analogical way. What appears to be missing is any firm grasp on the concept that human beings co-inhere or dwell in the fellowship of the Trinity.
Outside Lewis’ extensive use of the word ‘co-inherence’ in his account of Williams’ Arthurian poe... more Outside Lewis’ extensive use of the word ‘co-inherence’ in his account of Williams’ Arthurian poems, it appears only in his letters, but this chapter argues that—like Williams—Lewis ‘shows’ co-inherence. He does this through metaphors, adding the dimension to co-inherence that seems lacking in Williams—an ‘indwelling’ of finite beings in the infinite Trinity. Until his late work, Lewis only finds an analogy between human passion and divine love, but once a human nature has become ‘supernatural’ through union with Christ, it participates in the relations of the Trinity in a way that Williams does not articulate. Lewis goes even further in Perelandra, giving the impression that everybody and every body participates in the life of the Trinity. Thus, he exhibits a tension between metaphors that show co-inherence and concepts that run counter to it. Finally, however, Lewis arrives at co-inherence between human and divine presences in the world.
The essays in Pilgrim Pathways: Essays in Baptist History in Honour of B.R. White explores the la... more The essays in Pilgrim Pathways: Essays in Baptist History in Honour of B.R. White explores the lasting influence of one of the most prominent scholars of the history of Christianity.Topics examined in this book include: Baptist identity in light of historic patterns and transatlantic treatments, the theology of children, the rise of Baptist hymnody as an indicator of Baptist piety, and the application of Baptist principles in context. Readers will find this an indispensible book for understanding both the ideas of White and the early history of Protestantism in Europe.
The question I seek to address in this essay is to what extent a rhetoric of exclusion and stigma... more The question I seek to address in this essay is to what extent a rhetoric of exclusion and stigmatisation has historically been part of the very definition of Christian identity. Few would doubt that examples of such a strategy exist, but I argue that their proximity to some of the most fundamental formulations of Christian belief points to an ecclesiological paradox: a Church that is meant to include all cannot exist without excluding at least some. I discuss various liberal and conservative attempts to avoid the paradox, but conclude that it has to be accepted as unavoidable. The Church follows her mission precisely by recognising in her theological self-reflection the distance between its institutional reality and the ideal she is meant to embody.
This chapter traces the movement from ‘exchange’ to ‘co-inherence’ in Williams’ last three novels... more This chapter traces the movement from ‘exchange’ to ‘co-inherence’ in Williams’ last three novels, including the early novel Shadows of Ecstasy since it was only published in 1932. That novel’s ambiguous central figure exemplifies Williams’ theory of transmutation of passion into energy, while he contradicts Williams’ convictions about exchange in love. Descent into Hell confirms that Williams’ emphasis has moved from equilibrium and equipoise to exchange and substitution. The term ‘stillness’ is highlighted as the most comprehensive term Williams can find for the reality that embraces and transcends exchange and substitution, and this is compared to the life of the triune God. ‘Stillness’, however, is treated more negatively in the final novel, All Hallows’ Eve, and co-inherence is the assumed framework of plot, character, and theme. It is apparent that Williams has found the comprehensive concept and image for which he has been searching in his previous six novels.
While Williams fails fully to work out the idea of human co-inherence within the Holy Trinity, th... more While Williams fails fully to work out the idea of human co-inherence within the Holy Trinity, the potential for this is expressed in several writings. For instance, the image of ‘the land of the Trinity’ carries an implication of ‘dwelling’ in the Trinity, and there is also promise of this development in Williams’ earlier theology of romantic love. But the kind of co-inherence that Beatrice exemplifies in The Figure of Beatrice is simply being ‘in Christ’ who is Love itself, rather than participating in trinitarian relations of love. In the principles of The Company of the Co-inherence, the realm of active practices in the Christian life is detached from contemplation of the co-inherent Trinity, and so separated from a participation in the Trinity. The chapter nevertheless detects hints of a full view of human co-inherence in the relations of the Trinity in Williams’ later writings.
The final chapter offers a study of the word ‘co-inherence’ in English-speaking theology before p... more The final chapter offers a study of the word ‘co-inherence’ in English-speaking theology before proposing a way in which differences between Lewis and Williams might be resolved. It recalls that Williams uses kabbalistic imagery to evoke a world in which God’s glory is immanent, while Lewis draws on Christian Neoplatonism to emphasize divine transcendence. An investigation of the term ‘co-inherence’ in modern trinitarian theology shows that these viewpoints might converge, though this is not a conclusion Williams and Lewis reached. The chapter argues that approaching co-inherence as a pattern of diverse relations in God, strengthened by the idea that ‘persons’ in the Trinity are not subjects but ‘relations’, can provide a context for what Williams and Lewis wanted to express, both about analogies between the human and the divine, and about actual engagement in God. If co-inherence is participating in relations, Williams and Lewis can stand on common ground.
This chapter traces Lewis’ and Williams’ first period of friendship, beginning with an exchange o... more This chapter traces Lewis’ and Williams’ first period of friendship, beginning with an exchange of letters in March 1936 about each other’s books. These letters also reveal a crucial difference on the relation between human, especially erotic, love and the religious experience of divine love; Lewis stresses analogy, while Williams discerns a participation of one area in the other. In the next three years, there is partial convergence as Williams admits an element of parody in the ‘love-religion’ of medieval poetry, while Lewis testifies to being somewhat drawn into Williams’ own region of romantic love within their common general territory of romanticism. Lewis shows growing interest in Williams’ ideas of exchange and substitution, but continues to reinterpret Williams’ thought about romantic theology to accommodate it to his own kind of romanticism. The period ends with Williams’ first extensive expression of co-inherence in his book The Descent of the Dove.
Like William Blake a century before him, D.H. Lawrence is aware of the disintegrating of the huma... more Like William Blake a century before him, D.H. Lawrence is aware of the disintegrating of the human personality under the stress of life, and is in search of the wholeness or ‘integrity’ of the self.1 His characters do not inhabit myths as Blake’s do, yet they form the cast of legends rather than documentaries; though they can be placed on the English social scene, Lawrence depicts their inner states of mind with an intensity that readers often protest is not ‘realistic’. Just as Blake’s figures whirl between death and life in bewildering metamorphoses, Lawrence’s whirl between hate and love for each other with a shocking suddenness. But like Blake, Lawrence is not describing feelings with a clinical precision; he is evoking moods of the conscious and unconscious mind that cannot be captured in words, but which can be hinted at by a disturbing use of language.
This chapter reflects on why Lewis’ use of the image of dance in Perelandra has potential within ... more This chapter reflects on why Lewis’ use of the image of dance in Perelandra has potential within it for expansion into a fuller trinitarian concept of co-inherence than Williams achieved. Lewis’ portrayal of the ‘Great Dance’ marks a high point of the impact of Williams’ idea of co-inherence, and also develops it. Lewis envisages the triune God as the centre of the dance and as engaged in its movement, which was partially anticipated by Williams. Lewis is nevertheless offering something different, first because the context of his ‘moving centre’ is a kind of ‘space theology’. Second, his particular appeal to God as the ‘centre’ develops the notion of co-inherence as an interpenetration beyond Williams’ own thought. Third, the picture of the dance offers a theodicy that is more convincing than Lewis’ conceptual approach in The Problem of Pain, moving beyond Williams’ use of dance as a symbol of cosmic necessity.
Despite the common assertion that ‘co-inherence’ runs through his entire literary output, this ch... more Despite the common assertion that ‘co-inherence’ runs through his entire literary output, this chapter presents evidence that Williams first used the word in January 1939, having found the term in Prestige’s God in Patristic Thought (1936). A few weeks later, Williams outlined the principles of his new Company of the Co-inherence. The chapter considers the emergence of the idea of co-inherence from Williams’ concepts of romantic love, exchange, and substitution. It is argued that the Christological trajectory of these earlier ideas means that co-inherence is basically Christological, concerning the mutual permeation of two natures in Christ and the consequent interpenetration of human beings in the life of Christ at the same time as in each other. Williams is thus using co-inherence in an analogical way. What appears to be missing is any firm grasp on the concept that human beings co-inhere or dwell in the fellowship of the Trinity.
Outside Lewis’ extensive use of the word ‘co-inherence’ in his account of Williams’ Arthurian poe... more Outside Lewis’ extensive use of the word ‘co-inherence’ in his account of Williams’ Arthurian poems, it appears only in his letters, but this chapter argues that—like Williams—Lewis ‘shows’ co-inherence. He does this through metaphors, adding the dimension to co-inherence that seems lacking in Williams—an ‘indwelling’ of finite beings in the infinite Trinity. Until his late work, Lewis only finds an analogy between human passion and divine love, but once a human nature has become ‘supernatural’ through union with Christ, it participates in the relations of the Trinity in a way that Williams does not articulate. Lewis goes even further in Perelandra, giving the impression that everybody and every body participates in the life of the Trinity. Thus, he exhibits a tension between metaphors that show co-inherence and concepts that run counter to it. Finally, however, Lewis arrives at co-inherence between human and divine presences in the world.
The essays in Pilgrim Pathways: Essays in Baptist History in Honour of B.R. White explores the la... more The essays in Pilgrim Pathways: Essays in Baptist History in Honour of B.R. White explores the lasting influence of one of the most prominent scholars of the history of Christianity.Topics examined in this book include: Baptist identity in light of historic patterns and transatlantic treatments, the theology of children, the rise of Baptist hymnody as an indicator of Baptist piety, and the application of Baptist principles in context. Readers will find this an indispensible book for understanding both the ideas of White and the early history of Protestantism in Europe.
This chapter considers the way in which ‘co-inherence’ shapes Williams’ developing perspective on... more This chapter considers the way in which ‘co-inherence’ shapes Williams’ developing perspective on William Blake. The account draws on lecture notes, lectures, and published pieces. Especially significant is the lecture of March 1939, written when Williams was beginning to use the term ‘co-inherence’. Throughout his commentary on Blake, Williams consistently draws attention to the interrelatedness of living things in Blake’s poetry, culminating in the metaphor of a great ‘web’, expressing a wholeness of creation that can be built by the imagination: a ‘co-inherence’ that defeats ‘incoherence’. The necessity of forgiveness, which Williams flags up, takes on a fresh character in the light of co-inherence, since we enter the web of relations through an exchange of forgiveness. Linking imagination and forgiveness with co-inherence leads Williams to believe that Blake’s view of reason is not opposed to Wordsworth’s ‘feeling intellect’. Finally, the context of co-inherence enables Williams to reaffirm Blake’s visionary power.
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Papers on Various Topics by Paul Fiddes
Papers by Paul Fiddes