Madam, - I write with reference to Hilary Wakeman's article "Theological myths at root of Church's Decline" (Rite and Reason, December 22nd). I would put it to Canon Wakeman that her point of view (which strikes me as a kind of atheism dressed up in the robes of progressive theology, and is not at all uncommon among clergy who like to be thought of as "modern" and "sophisticated") is at the root of the Church's decline.
Does Canon Wakeman actually believe in God? If so, what kind of God? A personal and omnipotent God who can most certainly trancend the laws of nature which He created in order to perform the "unbelievable" and has enough interest in our destiny to do so? Or a kind of cosmic blancmange, mildly benign, with neither the ability nor the will to even formulate a plan for our salvation, let alone carry it through? A creator with less personality than a jellyfish?
I know which one gets my vote.
Why should anyone wish to worship an ineffectual god, or, for that matter, a very nice man who lived rather a long time ago, but who, when all is said and done, was only man?
Canon Wakeman also quotes that old God-basher Richard Dawkins in an effort to put the case for scientific reductionism (that most depressing of theories) as a complement to her own spiritual reductionism. Yet her scientific view of the universe is Newtonian, nuts and bolts, and - dare I say it? - a bit old-fashioned. If she has the time to brush up on her quantum physics, I dare say the Assumption of Mary will not remain such a hard piece of dogma to swallow.
On the other hand I do empathise with her regret at the loss of the Latin Mass and agree that modern services are prosaic, and another root cause of the general decline. For what is the point of religion without the transcendence and mystery for which mankind has a deep, unspoken longing?
Clergy who are always neurotically nipping and tucking at Christianity, trying to reduce it down to just the paltry little bits they can personally stomach, should beware of letting their own lack of faith prey on the faith of others, for to damage someone's faith is to do them a terrible disservice.
Just because we do not understand exactly how something is achieved does not mean it is untrue. By all the laws of aero-dynamics the bumble-bee shouldn't fly but it irrefutably does. - Yours, etc.,
SUZANNE WALSH, The Old Mill, Ratoath, Co Meath.