Till We Have Faces

Introduction

Although C.S. Lewis is now known as one of the great Christian apologists and writers of the 20th Century, he did spend a period of time as a committed atheist. It wasn't until later on in his academic career that he would convert to a theist and then, some time after that, to a Christian. But in those early years, God was working in his life in a very particular way—through the stories that he loved and the friends he met. 

Myth, particularly the Norse myths, gripped his imagination from boyhood and then onward throughout his life. To the young atheist Lewis, these myths were entertaining but not of any practical value. As he stated to his friend J.R.R. Tolkien, “Myths are lies, though lies breathed through silver.” This statement was recorded as part of a transformational conversation they held while on a stroll down Addison's Walk at Magdalen College in 1931. Tolkien would go on to lift the fog from Lewis’s eyes, showing him that the myths he so dearly loved were not meaningless lies and childish fancies but instead, as Tolkien replied, “They [i.e., myths] reflect the eternal truths that are in God.”

Throughout the course of that conversation, God used Lewis’s own love for myth and the challenge of a good friend to open his eyes to the truth. As he would later describe his conversion to Christianity that took place during or shortly after that walk, Lewis said, "I gave in, and admitted that God was God ... perhaps that night, the most dejected and reluctant convert in all England." His beloved myths were no longer a guilty pleasure, but an important piece of his understanding of the world. The Gospel now made sense of all that he loved in both his imagination and his intellect. Lewis would go on to write some 30+ books, all of which were influenced by his love of myth, reason, and his faith in Christ. Fittingly, the final book he wrote was a myth retold in Till We Have Faces (1956). 

Orual and Psyche

Till We Have Faces is Lewis’s rendition of a story from ancient Roman Mythology on Cupid and Psyche. In Lewis’s book there are two main characters who are step sisters—the older of the two is Orual and the younger is Psyche. The novel is written in the form of a memoir from the perspective of Orual with a very specific purpose—it is a challenge and accusation against the gods as she reflects on the trials of her life. Her aim in doing this was to exonerate herself of all the wrongdoing that may eventually be placed at her feet. As you will see, Orual is an embittered, hardened, and sorrowful character. In her you see the tragedy of a life lived as a victim. Orual cannot face the truth, and thus she covers herself with lies to hide from the brokenness within and the judgement without. 

Psyche, the half-sister born to the same tyrannical father as Orual, is the prize of all Glome (a Kingdom in a barbaric, pre-Christian world). Psyche is kind, beautiful, joyful, and a friend to all. The greatest of her friends is her sister Orual. As the two grow, their love for one another does too; they are inseparable, and all is well between them. That is, until things take a severe turn in the land of Glome. A drought, a famine, and a plague strike the land. No relief is in sight, so the King, with his back against the wall, accepts the advice given to him by a local priest that serves one of the pagan gods. This advice was to make an offering to the god of the mountain, and the one that was to be sacrificed “on the Holy Tree” (48) was to be the “best in the land,” (49) which was none other than Psyche. 

As Psyche and Orual come face to face with the evils of the world and contemplate separation from one another, we see two very different reactions. The reader gets to walk alongside Orual as she wrestles with the atrocities that she encounters. On the one hand, you will be challenged directly by Orual to discern for yourself if she is justified in her complaints against the gods and right to be pitied. On the other hand, you will also be challenged by Lewis as you are pulled into the story, confronted by the deepest questions of faith, hope, and love. 

The Danger of Deception

Orual, by many accounts, is a morally decent person that genuinely wants to love and serve as she ought. This is why the book is so impactful. Lewis has a profound understanding of human nature, so he is able to create a character that we can all relate to. As Orual wrestles internally with how to best love Psyche and her friends, you too will be stopping to consider what she should do. It's not always obvious nor easy, and that’s exactly what brings the story to life.

In Genesis 3, Adam falls through his disobedience to the One who gave him life. This breaking of fellowship with God leaves Adam vulnerable and exposed. Immediately following his rebellion, Adam hides from God and refuses to shoulder the blame for his mistake. Orual too, throughout this novel, commits the same two sins—hiding from the truth and passing blame for her folly. Where this sin really takes root is in her deception about her true nature. You will see the blinding and deafening effect of self-deceit and how it poisons everything around her. The lies grow thick like calluses on her heart, and the result of this is a worship of self-preservation and love that prioritizes herself over others.

This is particularly evident early in the book in a key exchange shortly after she learned that Psyche was going to be sacrificed to the barbaric Shadowbrute on behalf of the pagan idol Ungit. Orual’s self-serving love is evident here. She asks for pity when her sister was the one facing death, and cries victim when she ought to be comforting Psyche who was soon to be sacrificed. 

We will jump into the end of the conversation as Psyche begins to describe why she has hope as she awaits death: 

(Psyche) “The sweetest thing in all my life has been the longing—to reach the Mountain, to find the place where all the beauty came from—” 

(Orual) “And that was the sweetest? Oh, cruel, cruel. Your heart is not of iron—stone, rather,” I sobbed. I don’t think she even heard me. 

(Psyche) “—my country, the place where I ought to have been born. Do you think it all meant nothing, all the longing? The longing for home? For indeed it now feels not like going, but like going back. All my life the god of the Mountain has been wooing me. Oh, look up once at least before the end and wish me joy. I am going to my lover. Do you not see me now?” 

(Orual) “I only see that you have never loved me,” said I. “It may be well that you are going to the gods, you are becoming cruel like them.” (74-75)

Blinded by her deception, Orual sees herself as the victim. This narrative, a false one, keeps her from caring for anyone other than herself. She wants Psyche to remain hers, for her own sake.

The Unveiling

Lewis takes this 2nd century Myth, baptizes it, and delivers a brand new story that many consider his best. Orual, like the pre-converted Lewis, like Adam, like all of us before God made us see, is veiled by her deceit. A veiled life is a blind life, a life of separation, a life of darkness. 

John 3:19-20 says,

“And this is the judgement: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed."

—John 3:19–20

Psyche will later sacrifice herself for the love of her sister, despite the wicked deeds Orual commits against her. This act will eventually be Orual’s salvation, but it does take time. Orual buries and covers the truth deep inside. She suppresses it, and for most of her long life, she is veiled, and darkness rules over her. But, like a seed, the truth that she buried does not die—God will shine upon her and Psyche's tears will bring it to life.

Hear Orual’s words as she comes to recognize that she has been hiding from God, “I saw well why the gods do not speak to us openly, nor let us answer. Till that word can be dug out of us, why should they hear the babble that we think we mean? How can they meet us face to face till we have faces?”

Let us, too, unveil ourselves before God, fully trusting and believing that the work of Christ at Calvary covers our guilt and shame and is sufficient for our salvation. Let us look forward to the day where we see Jesus in all His Glory.

“For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.”

—1 Corinthians 13:12