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THE THEOLOGY OF ROMANTIC LOVE by Mary McDormott

THE THEOLOGY OF ROMANTIC LOVE

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Pub Date: Jan. 31st, 1961
Publisher: Harper

Charles Williams, poet, novelist, mystic, theologian, died in 1945, having forty and more than 200 essays and book reviews. He has already taken his places as one of the great Christian romantics, -- along with Dante and Kierkegaard -- but his have been comparatively few. This is so partly because he has addressed himself to a limited group because of the theological implication of his writing, but also because he wrote in image at a time when the art of comprehending imagery was known by only a few. This Stuly by Mary makes the meaning of this imagery more clear, especially as Williams complex pattern of the theology of romantic love with respect to the Christian doctrine of man, sin salvation, God, and the world. He found romantic love to be an exact correlation and parallel of Christianity, and he wrote of his discovery in a rich imaginary necessary to express that for which words alone are inadequate. This appraisal of Williams' thought will be a necessary help to those who have read him, if only because it traces painstakingly the strands of his thinking through all his writings. It is thoughtful that it will win for him many new ones. The material still remains the reward mostly of other mysteries, poets, and theologians.