British Authors Criticized in Press
Diocesan Press Service. June 5, 1963 [XI-10]
Two recent books on the Church of England, one by a Bishop and the other by a young London journalist, have touched off controversies in the British press which are echoing on the other side of the Atlantic.
Although not a churchman himself, Paul Ferris' friendship with several clergymen led him to write "The Church of England" which Macmillan published here recently. A candid and unsentimental observer, Ferris, a staff writer for the London Observer, has written a thorough account of the Church, what its clergy is saying, what its problems seem to be from an outsider's point of view, how it is financed.
Some readers have criticized Ferris because he is an outsider appraising the Church. The same charge can never be leveled at the Bishop of Woolwich, Dr. John A.T.Robinson, whose book "Honest to God" advocates a new image of God.
Bishop Robinson argues that the traditional image of God as "the man up there" no longer applies with contemporary knowledge. He also advocates unconventional views of Holy Communion, prayer, the Church, even the Resurrection.
Most of the clergy and laymen in England were temperate in their response. But the Archbishop of Canterbury, Michael Ramsey, disagreed with Bishop Robinson's book by saying that it was misleading to criticize an image of God as old as Christianity itself.
According to Time, "Honest to God" which sold 126,000 copies in Britain, has "stirred up the Church of England's loudest row in years." The Westminster Press published the book in the U.S. this month.