Book Review: Till We Have Faces

Lewis, C. S. Till We Have Faces: A Myth Retold. New York: HarperOne, 2012 [1956].

One of the most common reactions I have seen in my ministry is my members’ almost universal tendency to blame God when tragedy strikes. When a bad diagnosis is received or a cherished loved one dies, we almost instinctively ask, “God, why me? Why are you persecuting me?” But sadly, we hear no answer to this question. In our travail, we receive little word from this seemingly heartless God — the one who is supposed to love us with an unfathomable love.

This crisis of faith is beautiful explored in Till We Have Faces, C.S. Lewis’s final novel, dedicated to his wife, and likely co-contributor, Joy Davidson.1 Of the novels he wrote, this one is reported to be his favorite. Tolkien also admired the work highly.2 Till We Have Faces is a retelling of the story of Cupid and Psyche written by Lucius Apuleius Platonicus in his second century novel, Metamorphoses.

The beginning of the original story involves three princesses, Psyche and her two sisters. Psyche (Soul), the most beautiful of the three, is worshipped by the people as a goddess at the expense of the true goddess, Venus. Seeking revenge, Venus commands her son, Cupid, to shoot her with love arrows to arouse her passions for common scoundrels. But Cupid, struck by one of his own arrows, falls in love with her himself. He then carries her off to his palace and forbids her from ever seeing his face as a sign of their love. Soon, her two jealous sisters come to visit, and they convince Psyche that the love-struck Cupid is hiding his face because he is, in fact, a hideous serpent. They convince her to take a look at his face while he is sleeping and then stab him in his sleep. However, when she makes her approach, she accidentally pours hot oil from her lantern onto Cupid’s shoulder, awakening him. Realizing her treachery, Cupid vanishes, seemingly forever.

In this version, Lewis concentrates on one sister named Orual, the future queen of the fictional realm of Glome, who raises her half-sister Psyche after her mother dies in childbirth. Because of her beauty and grace, the people offer Psyche as a perfect sacrifice to placate the gods and deliver Glome from a devastating epidemic. Days later, Orual, who was prohibited from attending the sacrifice, assumes that Psyche has been killed by the gods, so she goes to the sacrifice site hoping to bury her sister. But arriving there, Orual finds her sister very much alive, claiming to be married to a god who won’t show his face, and living in a beautiful palace which Orual cannot see. Returning home, Orual confers with her materialistic Stoic teacher/philosopher, known as the Fox, who convinces her that Psyche has been abducted by a common wretch for his own nefarious purposes. Emboldened, Orual returns to the site and threatens to kill Psyche and herself if Psyche refuses to gaze upon her god/husband’s face. Put in a corner, Psyche complies, and as in the original story, is discovered and abandoned by her lover, seemingly forever.

Through this retelling, Lewis is able to more deeply explore issues of faith, sin, and sacrifice from a Christian perspective. There are many facets to explore, but I want to concentrate on two of them.

The first is how we see God, a recurring theme throughout the novel. Lewis’ fascination with this topic is revealed when Orual first visits Psyche. Psyche shows her around her mystical palace, but Orual sees only the forest. But as she is leaving, Orual goes down to a riverbank for a drink which “steadie[s] her mind.” Then she looks up and there it is, “wall within wall, pillar and arch and architrave, acres of it, a labyrinthine beauty” (140). But then, a moment later, it all vanishes. Isn’t this an apt description of the Christian life? When we drink the water of faith, we can, at times, see into God’s world. When those experiences happen to me, I actually write them down in detail in what I call my “miracle journal.” Because if I don’t, those moments, moments in which we can actually see into the metaphysical realm, will simply vanish forever.

Isn’t this an apt description of the Christian life? When we drink the water of faith, we can, at times, see into God’s world.

In another scene, Orual asks the Fox, “You don’t think not possibly—not as a mere hundredth chance—there might be things that are real though we can’t see them (161)?” The Stoic Fox dismisses this notion, but Orual knows better. Pondering this later in the book, she says, “For all I can tell, the only difference is that what many see we call a real thing, and what only one sees we call a dream. But things that many see may have no taste or moment in them at all, and if things that are shown only to one may be spears and water-spouts of truth from the very depth of truth (316).”

The second topic Lewis explores is whether God is, in fact, on our side. Does he love us and want the best for us? Because in times of tragedy it appears he is our enemy, or is simply remaining silent ― but is this true? In the beginning of the book, Orual is convinced that the gods are against her: she is born ugly while her sisters are beautiful, she lives under the control of a despotic and abusive father, and worst of all, the gods have separated her from beloved Psyche, presumably forever. We often feel the same. In our own tragedies we think, ”Won’t God just help me and tell me what to do? Is He even listening to my prayers? Perhaps Christine Norvell best expresses this frustration with God. She writes, “Here, as believers, we understand Orual’s conundrum. Don’t we share the same moments in our relationship with God, moments of doubt, moments of fleeting conviction, moments where we long for a direct instruction from God himself? ‘Just speak to me,’ we think in frustration.”3

This topic is brilliantly highlighted in a vision Orual experiences at the end of the book. In that dream, she makes her case against the gods in front of a sea of those who have gone before her. But in doing so she reveals her own sin – the sin of thinking that Psyche was her possession rather than God’s. She screams, “She was mine. Mine. Do you know what the word means? Mine! You’re thieves, seducers” (333). Orual later writes, “Mother and wife and child and friend will all be in league to keep a soul from being married to the divine nature…..and [while we are doing it] we[‘ll] sa[y it’s because we love]…her (347).” You see, Orual has finally comes to grips with who she is – a sinner standing before the gods. This single realization has given her a face before them. This idea is explored further in the final pages of the book. Orual asks “How can they [the gods] meet us face to face till we have faces? (335).”

And then, after having finally admitted her sin and understood who she is, she sacrifices herself, throwing herself down into the crowd of witnesses, only to be caught by her old teacher, the Fox. A doubter no longer, he immediately confesses his sin of teaching her to doubt the gods’ influence over human events. It’s confession time for Orual as well, as she admits her sin of selfishly keeping the Fox at the royal court when he desperately wanted to return to his native Greece.

Orual: “Are the gods not just?”

Fox: “Oh no, child. What would become of us if they were? But come and see.”

But after the confessions comes the grace. In this riveting novel, Lewis is revealing to us that Jesus isn’t out to “get us,” or even punish us as we deserve, no, the truth is that can’t wait to shower us with his superabundant love and forgiveness.

Fox: “We must go to your true judges now. I will bring you there.”

Orual: "My judges?”

Fox: “Why yes, child, the gods have been accused by you. Now it’s their turn.”

Orual: “I cannot hope for mercy.”

Fox: “Infinite hopes and fears may both be yours. Be sure that, whatever else you get, you will not get justice.”

Orual: “Are the gods not just?”

Fox: “Oh no, child. What would become of us if they were? But come and see” (338).

Rev. Dr. Dennis R. Di Mauro is the pastor of Trinity Lutheran Church in Warrenton, VA (NALC) and is the editor of SIMUL.

Endnotes:

1. Trevin Wax, “How Joy Davidman Altered My View of C. S. Lewis,” The Gospel Coalition, May 22, 2018, https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/trevin-wax/joy-davidman-shifted-view-c-s-lewis/

2. Stephen Beard, Review of Till We Have Faces: A Myth Retold: A Reading Companion by Christine Norvell, Sehnsucht: The C.S. Lewis Journal, volume 18, issue 1 (2024): 205.

3. Christine L. Norvell, Till We Have Faces: A Myth Retold A Reading Companion, Second Edition (Tulsa, OK: Thy Lyre Publishing, 2020), 59.