23 JANUARY 1948, Page 16

THE DIVINITY OF CHRIST

Sra,—In his statement that ," of all prophets whn have claimed divine attributes, Jesus was the least concerned to persuade His followers to believe any special proposition about Himself," Mr. Boothby has the consensus of theological opinion with him. But in his letter in your issue of January 16th he is on much less certain ground. He writes that "in Mark xiii Jesus tells . . . exactly what he thinks about the end." Mr. Boothby proceeds to quote from the Little Apocalypse, which is the most suspect of all the sources of an otherwise reliable Gospel. How far from the findings of our best recent critical scholars Mr. Boothby's attitude to these verses is could hardly be better illustrated than in Dr. Glasson's excellent little book, The Second Advent. Dr. Glasson's reasons for believing that the idea of an imminent " end " was not a belief of Jesus Himself seem to me entirely convincing. It would be a pity if any of your readers were given the impression that the views of Schweitzer on this subject were still regarded as tenable by our ablest New Testament scholars.—Yours respectfully, N. S. POWER. Immanuel Vicarage, Highter's Heath, Birmingham 24