[To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR.]
Sin,—Your cogent article on " The Church and Divorce " might have carried 'its argument even further by pointing out the essentially materialistic attitude of the Church in this matter. That marriage in the flesh shall count as the vital thing which holds as long as the body endures, is perhaps only to be expected in a Church which bases its foundation doctrines of Incarnation and Resurrection on physical rather than on spiritual acts ; nevertheless it is amazing and deplor- able that a Religion whose Founder and chief Apostle so exalted and deified the Spirit in man should be represented as making the Spirit completely subordinate to the flesh. If marriage is not of spirit with spirit it is not Christian marriage at all, and the legality which binds it reduces it to the level of the herd. The Church appears to be incapable of freeing itself from its materialism. In Communion physical elements are essential and in Ordination authority cannot be transmitted without the actual touch of hands. It is indeed disappointing to find Bishops and Clergy still dominated by conceptions which make Religion for many people today so unspiritual and impossible.—Yours truly,
Previous page
