From Mr Christopher
Briscoe
Sir, - I was astonished by
your report on the World Evangelical Alliance review on preferred
usage for translation of biblical terms such as God the Father and
Son of God (News, 31 May).
I am not primarily
concerned, as they were, with the likely impact of such
translations on Muslims, although we do need to be sensitive to
such reactions today. I am concerned about the impact on
Christians, and especially on those unchurched folk who might ever
consider becoming Christians.
All mainstream Christians of
all traditions have always taught that Jesus Christ, our Lord and
Redeemer, is true God and true Man, born of a human mother in whom
he was incarnate by the Holy Spirit. In that context, and relative
to the Lord himself, it is fair enough to use terms such as Son or
Sonship.
With the First Person of the
Blessed Trinity, it is surely otherwise? The unanimous tradition
here is that the Creator and Sustainer of the Universe is pure
spirit. In so far as our feeble minds can comprehend that concept
at all, it follows that the Creator is without magnitude, location,
gender, or any other anthropomorphic quality that applies to mere
creatures. It is thus misleading and deeply unhelpful to refer to
him exclusively by anthropomorphic terms such as Father, or to
describe his relation to the Son as Fatherhood.
The medieval mystics quite
rightly taught that we can and should think, too, of the
Mother-hood of God. It is simply playing into the hands of bigots
of the Dawkins persuasion exclusively to adopt words that imply a
solely human parentage. That would indeed be to create an idol made
in our own image. Muslims have some reason to feel abhorrence if we
do. It simply perpetuates the widespread impression that Christians
worship an old man with a long white beard who sits up on a
cloud.
As the possessor of a
modestly long white beard myself, I regard such appendages as
harmless and theologically neutral, but am very clear that they
have nothing whatsoever to do with the Godhead. We can and should
use Father, Son, and Holy Ghost in some of our speech and writings,
but it is vital to balance that by using some such formula as
Creator, Redeemer, and Holy Spirit, and be clear that, when we do
use Father, it is in no crude biological sense.
Otherwise, we teeter on the
edge of heresy, and lose all credibility with our paganised fellows
to boot.
CHRISTOPHER BRISCOE
Corner Cottage
2 Clyst Hayes Court
Budleigh
Salterton EX9 6AR