2 AUGUST 1940, Page 13

DOGMA OR DOCTRINE?

Sis,—Professor Mozley's contribution_ to this discussion is not very helpful. The issue before us is, shall we abandon " dogma " and teach only " doctrine " based on individual experience? So far as I can understand him, the Professor says, in effect, "a plague on both "- which does not get us very far. So far as he deals with my part in the correspondence, all he does is twice to insert an " only " into my words and then attack me for what I neither believe nor said. This does not strike me as a method of controversy worthy of one holding four professorial chairs at once!

For the rest—theology is still "Regina Scientiarum," and, let one who has tried to serve, her for more than half a century say, a dear but a hard task-mistress at that! To a Professor of Engineering I should not venture to lay down the law about, shall we say, the Theory of Cantilevers, or the probable effects of tidal action on submerged structures, nor would I dare to discuss the works of such writers as Diophantus, Legendre, or our own G. G. Stokes on the "Theory of Numbers" with a Professor of Mathematics. But a Professor of Physics, &c., &c., &c., may instruct me about, shall we say, The Case against Monophysitism, The Theory of Grace, or The Nature and Value of Apocalyptics, and he will settle for me off-hand the " Johannine Problem "! There is still something to be said for the proverb " Ne sutor ultra crepidam."—I am, Sir, yours faithfully,