IRENE NI MHAILLE,
Sir, - Under the heading, "The Resurrection: a faith to live and die for", in the Thinking Anew column of April 6th, I read: "Any thoughtful believer will still have a sour taste in his or her mouth and feel distinctly short-changed after last weekend's foray into resurrection territory by this newspaper.
The author, "G.F.", was referring to an article of the previous weekend by Patsy McGarry, Religious Affairs Correspondent of The Irish Times, on the topic of the Resurrection.
I hope I can call myself "a thoughtful believer", but far from having a sour taste in my mouth, I am very grateful to Mr McGarry for playing his part in enlightening the Irish laity about matters such as the Resurrection, that are being debated in the Christian Churches for decades.
The Irish Hierarchy has been more interested in keeping the laity unenlightened, in perpetual spiritual childhood and under their control. We should therefore be grateful to the media for breaching this gap.
St Paul does not tell us that Jesus rose bodily from the tomb nor does he use his understanding of resurrection to deify Jesus as was done later by the clerical church. G.F. quotes Scripture selectively. He needs to quote a little further on in the same passage (1Cor 15) where Paul explains that he is talking about the resurrection of all human beings into new spiritualised, heavenly bodies. He explains this further in 2 Cor 5.
G.F. asserts that clerics vow at their ordination to confess that Jesus of Nazareth rose bodily from the tomb on the third day! How tragic! They should surely vow to serve the faith of the laity rather than seek to control their beliefs. But, of course, G.F. is not unmindful of the laity! He claims that his contribution is a "token protest on behalf of the thousands of orthodox, convinced believers who found cold comfort in their newspaper last Saturday". I haven't so far met any of these people who suffered from their reading of The Irish Times on March 30th.
This is not the first time that I have been shocked by the contribution of G.F. to the "Thinking anew" column. On Saturday, December 29th, we were treated to a venomous attack on all modern Christian thinking entitled "Faith in a world of falsifications".
I ask myself: what is the agenda of G.F.? To attack any kind of new thinking? Why then does he write for this column? This could be a wonderfully creative time for Christian faith in Ireland but new wine needs new bottles! - Is mise,
IRENE NÍ MHÁILLE,
Seapoint Avenue,
Blackrock,
Co Dublin.