Mystical Paths

Mystical Paths
Susan Howatch

The author’s most famous and well-loved work, the Starbridge series, six self-contained yet interconnected novels that explore the history of the Church of England through the 20th century.1968, with the swinging sixties sliding into decadence, finds Nicholas Darrow wrestling with overwhelming personal problems: How can he bring himself to marry his fiancée, Rosalind, when he is unable to avoid promiscuity? How can he become a priest when he finds it so difficult to live as one? And how can he break his dangerous dependence on his father Jon, whose psychic gifts he shares? It is at this crucial moment in his life that Nick becomes involved in the mystery surrounding his friend, Christian Aysgarth. Gradually, he realises that discovering the truth about this enigmatic and complex man will unlock the answers to his own baffling problems. However, his journey through darkness into the light reverses all the old certainties and, in his experiments with the psychic powers, Nick risks even his own life and sanity.

Susan Howatch

MYSTICAL PATHS

COPYRIGHT (#ulink_139192a6-3308-583c-b274-d83ecff73497)

HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd. 1 London Bridge Street London SE1 9GF

www.harpercollins.co.uk (http://www.harpercollins.co.uk)

Extracts from The River Within and Jung and the Christian Way by Christopher Bryant published and copyright 1978 and 1983 by Darton, Longman and Todd Ltd. Extracts from Canterbury Pilgrim and Canterbury Essays and Addresses by Michael Ramsay published by SPCK. All reproduced by kind permission of the publishers.

First published in Great Britain by HarperCollinsPublishers 1992, then by Fontana 1993 and by HarperCollinsPublishers 1995

Copyright © Leaftree Ltd 1992

The Author asserts the moral right to

be identified as the author of this work

A catalogue record for this book is

available from the British Library

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Source ISBN: 9780006496878

Ebook Edition © MAY 2012 ISBN: 9780007396405

Version: 2018-10-08

PRAISE (#ulink_86bf8ad3-3873-566a-b966-59f51da3e43e)

From the reviews:

‘Arguably no one writing today can equal Howatch’s ability to write compelling novels that combine theology and psychology in a complex, fast-moving plot offering beautifully delineated characters and the suspense of a mystery thriller’

Publishers Weekly

‘A fascinating, mind-bending exposition … Howatch wins out’

Sunday Times

‘Taking on the style of a psychological thriller … Mystical Paths covers in a profound and theologically thoughtful way the powers of light and powers of darkness … Her success should not go unrewarded’

Catholic Herald

‘Howatch writes thrillers of the heart and mind … everything in a Howatch novel cuts close to the bone and is of vital concern’

New Woman

‘Susan Howatch … is writing for anyone who can recognise that mysterious gift of the true storyteller’

Daily Telegraph

‘One of the most original novelists writing today’

Cosmopolitan

AUTHOR’S NOTE (#ulink_9abc6d0d-3ce3-5647-90a7-32db3d96a314)

Mystical Paths is the fifth in a series of novels about the Church of England in the twentieth century. Each book is designed to be read independently of the others, but the more books are read the wider will be the view of the multi-sided reality which is being presented.

The first novel, Glittering Images, was set in 1937. Glamorous Powers, narrated by Jon Darrow, opened in 1940, Ultimate Prizes was narrated by Neville Aysgarth after the war, and Scandalous Risks viewed the Church in 1963 through the eyes of Venetia Flaxton. The sixth and final novel, Absolute Truths, will take place in 1965, three years before the main events described by Nicholas Darrow in Mystical Paths, and Charles Ashworth, the narrator who opened the series, will narrate the novel which brings the series to a close.

The ecclesiastical era of Nicholas Darrow’s youth was dominated by ARTHUR MICHAEL RICHARD RAMSEY, who was born in 1904. While still in his thirties he became the Van Mildert Professor of Divinity in the University of Durham and a Canon of Durham Cathedral. Two years later he married. A short period as Regius Professor of Divinity at Cambridge preceded his appointment as Bishop of Durham at the age of forty-seven, and his ascent to the top of the Church’s hierarchy continued to be rapid: by 1956 he was Archbishop of York, and in 1961 he became the one hundredth Archbishop of Canterbury.

Ramsey combined a first-class intellect with a striking appearance and a considerable degree of eccentricity and originality in his speech, manner and dress; a member of the Catholic wing of the Church, he was the first Archbishop of Canterbury to adopt the uniform of a purple cassock instead of the traditional frock-coat and gaiters. The combination of eccentricity and a deep personal holiness made him seem a remote figure to some in the turbulent days of the 1960s, but others appreciated his traditionalism at a time when all traditions were coming under attack. Hostile at first to the outbreak of radical theology he later adopted a more flexible approach, recognising that the widespread questioning of both Christianity and the Church needed careful answering, not instant condemnation.

‘It may be the will of God that our church should have its heart broken,’ Ramsey said before his enthronement at Canterbury, and this proved a prophetic statement. During the secular triumphalism of the 1960s, the Church suffered a loss of confidence and a numerical decline, but Ramsey provided the spiritual leadership needed to sustain it during the dark days of demoralisation, and to lead it towards more fruitful times.

Having retired from Canterbury in 1974, he died in 1988 in the midst of an era very changed from the one over which he had presided twenty years before.

The thought of Jon and Nicholas Darrow reflects the work of CHRISTOPHER BRYANT, who was born in 1905 and ordained not long after he had graduated, like Michael Ramsey, from Cambridge University. In 1935 he became a professed member of the Society of St John the Evangelist, known as the Cowley Fathers, which is the oldest religious community for men in the Church of England. For almost all of the next twenty-five years he was based at the Society’s house in Oxford; he became first novice guardian, then assistant superior, and it was here that he began to make a special study of psychology.

In 1955 he was put in charge of St Edward’s House, the Society’s London home, and he became increasingly famous as a spiritual director. As he approached seventy his writing career began: he embarked on committing to paper the insights into religious belief which he had obtained from studying Jung’s psychology. The book failed to find a publisher, but another religious community came to the rescue and published it under their own imprint as Depth Psychology and Religious Belief. His other books, however, found favour with a well-known religious publisher and all his work came to have a wide readership. The River Within, The Heart in Pilgrimage and Jung and the Christum Way were published before his death. Journey to the Centre was published posthumously. He died in 1985

CONTENTS

COVER (#u5443c8b9-299f-5333-adf5-9fdb355a77a4)

TITLE PAGE (#u2f21e0ee-213f-57fb-affb-e1e50fdea51c)

COPYRIGHT (#ulink_13f3acd1-fd56-5f63-a31b-32abd3a4249e)

PRAISE (#ulink_746060a9-23db-58f4-a8b8-06a929b7316e)

AUTHOR’S NOTE (#ulink_4a1a0e76-f4b8-5b1e-869d-c85b728a2c22)

PART ONE THE JOURNEY AROUND THE CIRCLE (#ulink_fff3a275-ec91-51f3-ab58-12137b607805)

ONE (#ulink_7521eaa5-8f5e-5640-99e3-3be13b486837)