LITERALISM AND DOCTRINE
[To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR.] SIR,—" Janus' " depression because of the way in which ecclesiastics build up a doctrine, or an ethical system, on a text is shared by many Christian ministers. He cites the case of divorce, but it seems to me that transubstantiation, the Petrine see, and the idea that the historic episcopate is of the esse of the Church, all come under the same category.
Yet the very people who make so much of taking Christ at
His word or the New Testament at its word, in these matters, calmly claim the right to interpret the Sermon-on the Mount,
and especially the non-resistance passages, in a way which allows them to justify war. Somehow it all savours of unreality.
Presbyterian Church of Wales, , Cartrelle, Queen's Road, Merthyr Tydfil.
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