The article examines the concept of coinherence (or co-inherence) as one of the central and unifying concepts in the life and work of Charles Stansby Williams (1886 – 1945), English poet, writer, and literary critic, also known as “the third Inkling” in conjunction with C .S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien. Through a close study of the writer’s biography and letters as well as his poetry, novels, theological treatises and essays we trace the origin of the term “coinherence,” borrowed from the Church Fathers in the meaning of mutual indwelling of the Persons of the Holy Trinity, uncover the unique interpretation that Williams gave to the term, and look at various ways he used to integrate it into his writing. Understanding coinherence as a fundamental ontological principle of comprehensive mutual interdependence, exchanged life, and substitution as direct fulfillment of the Gospel commandment “to carry each other’s burdens,” Williams portrays it as a necessary condition of any truly human existence and expounds its universal nature on every level of life, from childbirth to money as a means of exchange, to mutual services of empathy, to intercessory prayer, and to self-sacrifice for another’s sake. In his thinking, people can carry each other’s burdens even through barriers of space and time, since they are simultaneously co-inherent to each other and to God who exists both outside of time and space and in all time and space. Thus, in his novels Williams often employs a version of Dante’s vertical chronotope of simultaneity, and one of the most important symbols that reflect the nature of coinherence is the City as a web of continuous mutual exchange and substitution, in its turn coinherent to the City of God. Williams portrays refusal to participate in the principle of co-inherence as “descent to hell” which is seen as a gradual unraveling of any personhood and ultimate annihilation.
