1 FEBRUARY 1952, Page 15

SIR,—One like myself who feels Christianity is inevitably a credal

faith has much he would like to say in retort to Mr. Nickol. I will however confine myself to three points.

1. The Book of Common Prayer does not pretend to be an intro- duction to Christianity. Should, however, an enquirer diligently study it, including the preface to the whole book, he would find that it is grounded upon holy scripture. And it is to this the enquirer should then turn.

2. Those who cavil at scripture and desire to explain large portions of it away as being irrelevant to Christian life are, surely, preaching another gospel. Many have talked about a "simplified version" of scripture, but until it is actually produced—if indeed it can be—none of us quite knows what is implied by the term.

3. Christianity, to use Richard Hooker's phrase, is "more true than plain." Any attempt to make it more plain than true may easily result in the Christian religion becoming no more than a pious and sentimental Dhilosophy. While this might seem more mentally con- venient for some, for others it would destroy the whole meaning of