Absolute Truths (96 page)
Authors: Susan Howatch
Tags: #Historical, #Psychological, #Sagas, #Fiction
Having succeeded in mesmerising his congregation Charley was
battering them rhythmically with each syllable of the quotation. I
was sure his amber eyes were glowing as he reached his peroration
but I was no longer watching him; my glance was travelling on
around the Cathedral as I recognised the familiar faces, seen and
unseen, the living and the dead, those present in the spirit and those present in the flesh. I saw the people from the days of my bishopric: Malcolm and Nigel, all my chaplains, Miss Peabody,
the Cathedral Canons, all my clergy, the Chancellor of the diocese,
the Lord Lieutenant of the County, the Mayor of the City – the faces streamed on and on – and Lyle was there, of course, and
both Michael and Charley as their past selves, everyone was there,
all woven into the texture of my life in a pattern of multi-coloured
threads, and some of those luminous strands, old friends such as
Jack Ryder and Lady Markhampton – and Jon – kept recurring
and recurring, but now I could see in my mind a later generation
springing up around them – Martin Darrow, amusing us all in
Present Laughter,
Lady Markhampton’s granddaughter Marina,
Aysgarth’s doomed sons, that tiresome feminist Primrose – and
there was Primrose’s former best friend Venetia, recurring yet
again – and young Nicholas Darrow, who had been so very odd
(How
could
he have believed in 1968 that the Theological College
was ‘dead’?) – and beyond Nicholas I saw Lewis Hall, the late
comer to the scene, with his crucifix held high in his hand.
"‘ALL THINGS
INTERMINGLE
FOR GOOD ..."‘
Charley was delivering the text yet again and pouring even more
power into it so that every word crackled with life, and as he raised
his voice he sounded more like Jardine than ever – so that I even
wondered fora fanciful moment if he
was
Jardine, but no, that
was nonsense, and now that I was so old I had to be very careful
not to sink into senile and sentimental thoughts which would be
quite unpardonable for a former professor of divinity. Charley
was not Jardine reincarnated. But Charley’s present was reshaping
Jardine’s past. Jardine’s tragedy remained tragic, but Charley’s life was creating upon it a pattern in which the terrible errors became
so much less important than the great gifts which had survived.
The truth was that out of all the suffering and despair had come
a gifted man willing and able to preach to a new generation the
gospel of hope, faith and love. I could look at Charley and see
redemption – which made me realise afresh that reincarnation is
just a belief which allows us to cling to this imperfect world for
fear of moving on. I certainly believe God has a far better fate in
store for us than endless returns to earth, but how little we know,
how limited we are, how puny are our words as they strain to
describe the truth which lies beyond all truths, the final truth which
is God. Indeed in the end there are no words, only Christ on the
cross symbolising God’s agonising involvement with his creation,
Christ rising from the dead symbolising God’s creative promise to
redeem and renew, Christ enacting in flesh and blood the absolute
truths for all mankind to see.
Charley paused. There was a moment of complete silence as if
the entire congregation was holding its breath. Then as he declared
for the final time: "WE KNOW THAT ALL THINGS
WORK TOGETHER FOR GOOD TO THEM THAT
LOVE GOD!"‘ I felt as if I were clasping hands yet again with
Jon Darrow and Neville Aysgarth as we completed our great twentieth-century spiritual journey out of darkness into light.
AUTHOR’S NOTE
Absolute Truths
is the final volume of a series of six novels about the Church of England in the twentieth century. Each book is designed to be read independently of the others, but the more
books are read the wider will be the perspective on the multi-sided
reality which is being presented.
The first novel in the series,
Glittering Images,
was narrated by Charles Ashworth and described the events which took place in Starbridge in 1937.
Glamorous Powers,
narrated by Jon Darrow, opened in 1940,
Ultimate Prizes
was narrated by Neville Aysgarth after the war, and
Scandalous Risks
viewed the Church in 1963 through the eyes of Venetia Flaxton. In
Mystical Paths,
Nicholas
Darrow set his story in 1968, three years after the events described
in
Absolute Truths.
AUSTIN FA R R E R, whose writings Charles Ashworth so much admired, was one of the most distinguished intellectuals of the
Church of England in the twentieth century. Born in 1904 he was
educated at St Paul’s School in London where he became School Captain before winning a scholarship to Balliol College, Oxford.
Here he obtained a first in Classical Moderations, a first in Greats
and a first in Theology. It was at Oxford too that he became a member of the Church of England. He was ordained deacon in 1928 and served as a curate in a Yorkshire parish.
In 1931 he returned to Oxford as chaplain and tutor at
St Edmund Hall. Soon afterwards his friendship began with Katharine Newton who in 1937 was to become his wife; she was
an undergraduate, and after she had taken her degree they became
secretly engaged. In 1935 he moved from St Edmund Hall to become Chaplain of Trinity College, and in 1945 he took the degrees of Bachelor of Divinity and Doctor of Divinity on the same day. He was happy at Trinity but at last he felt the time had
come to move on, and after failing to be appointed the Regius
Professor of Divinity he became Warden of Keble College in 1960. During his twenty-five years at Trinity Farrer taught both philos
ophy and theology. Moreover, he lectured not only on the philos
ophy of the past but on the philosophy of modern times and was
well acquainted with those systems hostile to religion. He became
famous as the result of his Bampton lectures (published as
The Glass
of Vision
in 1948) and during his last years he wrote a succession of
acclaimed works including
Faith and Speculation
and
Love Almighty
and Ills Unlimited.
The latter, which seamlessly blended his philos
ophy and theology, was concerned with providence, evil and suf
fering. His biographer points out that Farrer was no stranger to
suffering in his home life, for his wife became addicted to alcohol
and his only child, Caroline, had learning disabilities. He died of
a coronary thrombosis in 1968 after months of strain and over
work, but his reputation remains high and his admirers rate him
a religious genius and even a saint.
REGINALD SOMERSET WARD, whose work is also quoted in
this book, took a degree in history at Cambridge and was ordained
in 1904. For a time he was Secretary of the Church of England
Sunday School Institute and in 1913 he became Rector of a Surrey
parish, but two years later he gave up the security of this conven
tional job in the Church and embarked on a peripatetic ministry
of spiritual direction. This meant visiting fourteen city centres
three times a year and seeing people by appointment for spiritual
direction and, if necessary, for confession and absolution. Married
with children, he lived in a house provided by an anonymous
group who supported his work.
He believed in a rule of life which enabled people to get the best out of their souls, bodies and minds; the first priority was
prayer, the second rest and recreation, and the third the God-given
work which they were put in this world to do. His concern was with a God-centred wholeness, and in his desire to help people
overcome the disabilities caused by sin and fear he welcomed the
best insights of psychology. He wrote several books, including a
guide to spiritual directors, but his writings on mystical theology are at present unpublished. He also wrote a monthly ‘instruction’ on prayer for several decades and corresponded with hundreds of
people, many of them clergy, about the spiritual life which he
called ‘The Way’. He died in 1962.