Sir: I hope that the lucid and interesting theo- logical
articles in your issue of 21 June will be followed by a similar pair about early Chris- tianity. The reader will then be better able to judge whether God has 'shown up' or not.
Approaching the question as a professional student of the ancient world, not as a philo- sopher, I have tried for many years to view the New Testament records in exactly the same light as the other documents of the period. I have not consciously balked any difficulty. Sometimes, to make sure of playing fair, I have put the Gospels in quarantine as historical sources and relied only on the undisputed Epistles of St Paul. My inquiries have convinced me that .the Divine manifested itself unambiguously and in no metaphorical sense during the reign of the Emperor Tiberius.
Did Tiberius show up? Tacitus, of whom I have copies on the floor as I write, evidently thought that he did. I really cannot desert the paths of history and follow Van Buren into his Wilderness.
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