Sir, - Charles Clarke's letter of January 4th reminded me of the very perceptive comments of C.S. Lewis, former professor of English at Cambridge, in his brilliant little book, Mere Christianity. Lewis had moved from Methodism through atheism to high Anglicanism, describing himself as "perhaps the most relucant convert in all England". He remained actively faithful to the end, despite very severe testing - remember the film Shadowlands? Although a friend of J.R. Tolkien (The Lord of the Rings), he found it difficult to accept Tolkien's profession of Catholicism.
Here, in brief, is what he said that is relevant to the present controversy about Very Rev Andrew Furlong:
"I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about him \: 'I am ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher but I don't accept his claim to be God'.That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. . .
"Either this man was and is the Son of God or else a madman or something worse. You can shut him up as a fool, you can spit on him and kill him as a demon or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronising nonsense \italics mine\ about his being a great moral teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to."
The expression "patronising nonsense", though accurate, may appear a little harsh, but Lewis, with the brilliance of his intellect and the clarity of his language, had little tolerance of confused and long-winded verbiage. - Yours, etc.,
Rev JEROME CURTIN,
Cherbury Court,
Booterstown,
Co Dublin.