3 DECEMBER 2005, Page 26

Conciliar confusion

From Professor Sir Michael Dummett

Sir: Paul Johnson (Letters, 26 November) criticises me for historical inaccuracy; even if he were right on this, it would be irrelevant to the Catholic Church’s consistent denial that the soul exists before the body, contrary to his wild assertion. The three councils whose dates he cites were all ecumenical councils. I neither said nor supposed that the council I referred to was one of these; but though no Western representatives attended, it was ratified by the Pope. I should rather have misdated a Church council than have written nonsense about our souls having existed before space and time; happily, I did neither.

Michael Dummett Oxford