God, Sex, War
ROBIN DENNISTON writes: God, sex and war for 3s. 6d. sounds very good value, but the latest collection of lectures from the Cambridge frontiersmen* is rather more modest in its achievement than the title suggests: we have Professor Mackinnon in a closely argued attack on the 'deterrence' idea, now for the moment supplanted by the test ban: the Vicar * GOD, SEX AND WAR. By D. M. Mackinnon, H. E. Root, H. W. Montefiore, J. Burnaby. (Fontana, 3s. 6d.) of Great St. Mary's and Howard Root on sex troubles (the former is definitely anti copulation before marriage) and Professor Burnaby with a more generalised and orthodox discussion of conduct and faith. One is left with a faint feeling that if this is unorthodox Christianity. what room is there for the more orthodox variety; for apart from the unpatronising approach, and the assumption that the hearers are as intelligent as the lecturers (not a common assumption) there is nothing one would not hope and even expect to find issuing from pulpits all over the country. The trouble is that only committed Christians will accept the presuppositions of Professor ' Burnaby, sonic may think Hugh Montefiore starts with his conclusions and works back from there instead of vice versa, while what angers Professor Mackinnon as much as the muddled thinking of the defence boys is that innocent body the Christian Frontier Council. In fact, although these and other recently published Cambridge lectures are nominally addressed to the world at large, at least part of their motivation arises from domestic clerical differences, which at best are unworthy and at worst actually distort the argument.
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