June 15, 2012 by Erin

Allusion

I’m not sure I’ve ever been quite so affected by a book as I was by Sheldon Vanauken’s A Severe Mercy. I’m saying a lot here, because my thinking has been shaped by some incredible writers. But, rarely has a book engaged my mind and my heart so deeply at once. I was quite literally speechless when I finished.

The story is straightforward enough – it’s basically a memoir of of the author’s life with his wife, Davy. He shares their love story, their journey to faith, and his own process of grief after Davy’s early death (I’m not giving anything away that’s not on the back cover). He also recounts his friendship with C.S. Lewis, and the book includes much of their correspondence. The events of the story are intriguing, to be sure – Sheldon and Davy lead a life of enviable adventure. But what I found so gripping was the depth of feeling and insight with which Vanauken treats his experience. His style, at times, tends toward floweriness, and there’s enough praise of nature to make Wordsworth proud. But I felt he avoided sentimentalism. He’s a romantic in the best sense, extracting every last drop of beauty and meaning from life.

Obviously, I loved reading about Vanauken’s interaction with Lewis. The letters are exactly what I would expect – simply brilliant. Because the protagonist’s journey to Christ takes place against the backdrop of storied Oxford, the faith described is not quite in sync with normal American Evangelicalism. It carries a more academic, traditional air, but it penetrates the heart as much (or perhaps more so) as any revivalism. This is a robust, thoughtful, and rooted faith I find very compelling.

What left me speechless, though, is the sheer depth of commitment to Christ that Vanauken speaks of. It is a total surrender. As he writes in a journal entry even before his conversion, “It is not possible to be ‘incidentally a Christian’. The fact of Christianity must be overwhelmingly first or nothing” (86). For Sheldon and Davy, Christ becomes all, replacing their own love as their source of life. I was more than a little convicted by their abandonment to God, thinking of so many idols that daily tempt me to bow. A Severe Mercy reminded me that everything must fade in the light of Divine Love.

Needless to say, I loved it. It was truly a pleasure to read, on all levels. I’ll be chewing on this one for a good while.