From Mr Stephen York
Sir, - In his article on the festival of Christ the King (Comment, 21
November), the Revd Dr Richard Lindley comments on a
spontaneous negative reaction, displayed by some lay Anglicans in a
small survey, to the image of God the King. He goes on to conclude
that the "analogy" of kingship no longer works.
It is obvious from other remarks in the article that kingship
for the respondents evokes the notion of a modern constitutional
monarch. Surely this is simply an example of the historical
illiteracy generally prevalent today. The sort of king implied in
the phrase "Kingdom of God" would have been understood, from the
earliest period of history until (in England and Scotland, at
least) the trial and execution of King Charles I, as an
all-powerful figure whose word was law and whose decisions were
binding on all his subjects - something very different from a
modern constitutional monarch.
Further, the English notion of kingship has always contained the
principle of a covenant between the king and his subjects, with
mutual obligations (freely entered into on the part of the
monarch). Doesn't that have a biblical resonance?
On another point, why did the very short list of English
monarchs (cited with the implication of "bad" monarchs) include
poor old Richard III? There is no shortage of aggressive,
vainglorious psychopaths to choose from among the Kings of England;
so why pick on a king whose ill-advised clemency towards defeated
enemies and insistence on equal justice for all led to his betrayal
and early death?
Possibly the writer is one of those who still convict Richard
III of the murder of the "Princes in the Tower" on not much more
than the evidence of Shakespeare's play. STEPHEN YORK
Hawthorn Cottage, Holywell
St Ives, Cambridgeshire PE27 4TQ
From Dr Christopher Scarf
Sir, - Your thoughtful article asks whether the "relatively new
festival of Christ the King might be", perhaps, already "out of
date". Canon Rosalind Brown (Sunday's Readings, same issue),
emphasises, rather, the questions "Where do we meet Jesus?" and
"Who do we say that he is?" The nature of the kingship of Christ
has been discussed ever since Pilate asked his own pertinent
questions.
I was fortunate enough some time ago to have the opportunity to
study the considered opinions of the three central Oxford Inklings
with Stephen Medcalf, who had himself known them; and my doctoral
thesis, The Ideal of Kingship in the Writings of Charles
Williams, C. S. Lewis and J. R. R. Tolkien, was published by
James Clarke (Lutterworth Press) in a shortened version as a
book.
I mention this not out of a misplaced spirit of
self-aggrandisement, but rather because I truly believe that their
individual and overlapping ideals are, indeed, very relevant to
today's better understanding of the kingship of Christ.
CHRISTOPHER SCARF
39 Bradley Park Road
St Marychurch TQ1 4RD