Donal Grant: Chapters 8 - 13
Donal’s conversation with Davie in Chapter 13 introduces one of the chief themes of the novel, that is the need to understand oneself aright, which we shall see as we read further along is symbolically placed in terms of the larger mystery of the working of God within the human consciousness.
In so many of his writings GMD explores the mystery of the nature of the human psyche in relation to the divine. One provocative instance occurs in the fairy story The Princess and the Goblins, which was written some ten years before our novel. In that story the castle in which Irene lives can be seen as a symbol of the human mind, with the great-great grandmother–a symbol of the divine presence–dwelling in its uppermost heights, while deep down below is a colony of goblins, representing our baser instincts. Irene, the main character, dwells in the middle. She has freedom to climb up high and visit with the divine, or she can be enthralled and captured by inner evil tendencies.
A somewhat similar metaphor is worked out in Donal Grant. As you read, note the steps by which it unfolds. Please note I am not suggesting the novel is an allegory, for it is not, but the castle with its labyrinthine nature is a symbolic structure in which GMD explores the nature of the human dilemma in relation to divine truth. Note how closely the lord Morven is associated with the castle, how mysterious are his ways, and how his experience develops as the story progresses.
In these chapters GMD gives the spiritual states of several of the characters and we will see the steps by which they grow or decline. Note the remark: “Act-truth is infinitely more than fact-truth–the love of the truth infinitely beyond the knowledge of it” (pp. 51, 52). The term “Act-truth” suggests Actura, and we have a foreshadowing of her significance as the story unfolds. GMD carefully traces the steps by which Actura moves towards an understanding of the truth.
As we saw last week, early in the novel we are given in Rev. Carmichael an example of a serious misunderstanding and distortion of divine truth, and we will see corrections of it as the story unfolds. The effects of such thinking are presented in the attitudes and actions of his daughter Miss Carmichael and they have a powerful influence upon Actura. In Eppie and Forgue and Kennedy we have a variety of individualized characters who are as well types, and GMD is especially interested in tracing their reactions to moral truths.
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Comments
Secondly is the lack of assurance it seems that Donal feels. I realize that even Luther struggled a lot with this same thing. But it seems to me that he is putting too much emphasis on his own ability to live in perfect union with the world and with God in order to earn his place with God eternally. As if the work of Christ's sacrifice on the cross was not enough. Maybe I didn't see the intent of the following clearly enough: Nothing but the beholding of the face of the Son of Man could set him at rest as to its reality; nothing less than the assurance from his own mouth could satisfy him that all was true, all well: life was a thing so essentially divine, that he could not know it in itself till his own essence was pure! But alas, how dream-like was the old story! Was God indeed to be reached by the prayers, affected by the needs of men? How was he to feel sure of it? Once more, as often heretofore, he found himself crying into the great world to know whether there was an ear to hear. What if there should come to him no answer? How frightful then would be his loneliness! But to seem not to be heard might be part of the discipline of his darkness! It might be for the perfecting of his faith that he must not yet know how near God was to him! "Lord," he cried, "eternal life is to know thee and thy Father; I do not know thee and thy Father; I have not eternal life; I have but life enough to hunger for more: show me plainly of the Father whom thou alone knowest." And as he prayed, something like a touch of God seemed to begin and grow in him till it was more than his heart could hold, and the universe about him was not large enough to hold in its hollow the heart that swelled with it. "God is enough," he said, and sat in peace.
The nature of the Atonement is mysterious, and there are differing theological views of it. My position is simply that it is folly to get caught up in intellectualizing Christian experience while ignoring the basic fact that Christians are called not to complete understanding but to lives of active love–love for God and love for others.
As to Donal’s lack of assurance, given the nature of faith, is not an element of doubt inevitable in one’s Christian experience? The remedy for it is not trying harder to believe, but rather to obey Christ’s precepts, actively performing with God’s help deeds of love. This brings the peace of Christ into one’s heart.
And you're right that we all question our faith. It seemed to me that some of the insecurity on the part of Donal was due to his opinion that he wasn't doing enough himself rather than resting on the promises of scripture as supported by some of the doctrine he was fighting against.
Tim