A Severe Mercy: A Story of Faith, Tragedy and Triumph

In A Severe Mercy, Vanauken shows how Van and Davy change as the years go by, painting a picture of a relationship that grows and matures. They fall in love quickly because they are so alike and share so many interests. Their instant kinship may appear to signal that they have nowhere to go and nothing to learn, but this is not the case. While they do not undergo radical change in their personalities or desires, they continue to learn as time passes, from each other, from others, and from the Christian tradition they come to embrace.

There are three main stages to their growth. The first occurs from the time they meet to the time they decide to go to Oxford. This first period is spent learning about each other, developing their relationship, crafting the Shining Barrier, and entering into their relationship with full enthusiasm:

Creeping separateness and sharing were opposite sides of one coin. We rejected separate activities, whether bridge or shooting or sailing, because they would lead to creeping separateness; on the other hand, if one of us liked anything, the other, in the name of sharing, must learn to like it, too (37).

They began to see, Van relates, that if one of them genuinely enjoyed something, there must be something about it to like and enjoy; in this case, if a loved one loved something, then one could also learn to love that thing.

The second stage of their growth occurs during their time in Oxford. This is the most radical time of change as they encounter Christians for the first time to whom they are attracted, and they form lasting friendships that will carry them through all the tragedies that they will have to suffer later in life. Never having given Christians a chance, their new experience shifted their perspective, the “sheer quality of the Christians we met at Oxford shattered our stereotype” (77). Not only was their experience of the Christian individual brand new, but Van relates how it was his curiosity and his desire to know for certain—to “resolve some day to have another look at the case for Christianity” (82)—whether or not this thing could possibly be true that ultimately led to their conversion. Van’s reading of Lewis’s Cosmic Trilogy proved the first step: “Apart from being beautiful and enthralling, it made me conscious of an alliance with him” (84).

The third and final stage of their growth was their growth in their newfound Christian convictions at a time and place where it was inconvenient and lonely, having left Oxford for Virginia. There they learned how to suffer and go about a life of evangelization and mentorship as they opened their home to the college students who had questions and concerns and just needed people to talk to. Ultimately, the final lesson was that of Davy’s death, as Davy learned how to die well, and Van learned how to suffer the death of a loved one and carry on in the wake of their absence. As before with their conversion, Lewis again looms large, helping Van come to terms with his grief and sense of loss.