CRITICISM AND FAITH
Sta,—With all due deference to the Regius Professor of Divinity in the University- of Cambridge, it is difficult to imagine that anyone who in this year of grace, 1947, seriously believes, or even leads, Professor Raven to assume that he believes, in the existence of a "conspiracy of silence which still closes the pulpits to any discussion of Biblical criticism," can really be "a great churchgoer" (in whatever sense of the word "great "), let alone "a great historian." That particular myth is sadly dated, and now belongs to the same limbo as "the Fatal Opulence of Bishops" and "the Hidden Hand." Dr. Raven's unnamed but church-going acquaintance must surely be aware that the pulpit is hardly the appropriate place for "discussion of.. Biblical criticism." I myself have many times had the privilege of sitting under Dr. Raven, and I cannot recall ever having heard him preach a sermon that would satisfy this description: for Dr. Raven knows the difference between a sermon and a lecture, and to that extent appears to have the advantage cf his anonymous but distinguished friend. In any case, vague allegations regarding the suppression by "too many of our Christian leaders" of unwelcome brands.cf theology come very oddly from the doyen of the Divinity Faculty at C.:nbridge, of which the predominantly monochrome camplexion suggests that It has
taken all too seriously the maxim of Psalm cxxxiii. "Behold, how good and joyful a thing it is: brethren, to dwell together in unity!" Possibly Liberals would be less intolerant if they did not suffer from the delusion that they are being persecuted,—! am, Sir, Yours faithfully,
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