Sir: I should like to express my appreciation of the
first rate articles which the Dean of Peterhouse contributes to the Spectator from time to time, and which must be a revelation to many who do not know what Crhistianity is all about. I thank you also for the anonymous articles which appeared in your Christmas and Easter numbers.
I fear that I cannot congratulate you on the meanderings of the Dean of St Paula, who appears to think that Christianity has newly arrived and who shows little knowledge of its traditions etc.
He spent one article in some vague suggestions which appeared to be stating that he did not believe in a local or spatial heaven, and that he did not believe in some Biblical theory of creation, but he never got down to brass tacks until he wrote a second article on precisely the same lines.
I find it odd that he thinks that belief in in a local heaven (or hell) which is fixed in space has been declared at some time to be the teaching of the traditional Church. The Fathers did not think so. The Dean must have got his odd views from the old edition of Hymns Ancient and Modern. In spite of that it is still true to say that heaven is above us and hell, I hope, is beneath us. There are many other things above and beneath us, and no sensible person misunderstands what is meant by this.
In the same way the Church has at no tulle been committed to any special idea of creation and some of the Fathers said that by " days " we must not understand what we normally mean by days. In any case Darwinism is now somewhat old fashioned as the preface to the Centenary Edition (Everyman) of The Origin of Species shows.
If the Dean knows Greek and even if he reads modern translations then he knows that Christ did not rebuke his mother at Cana. However, we must not expect too much from our modern "with-it clergy."
After all the Dean did throw himself down from the pinnacle of the Temple, a temptation which his Lord resisted, but the dean took the precaution of having a parachute.
Neuille Francis PO Box 47, Lower Brook Street, Ipswich.
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