The Henson Journals

[168]

Monday, September 19th, 1921.

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I received a letter from Burkitt, in which he writes of the Cambridge Conference rather disconcertingly. I recall that Ralph thinks him "a most dangerous man".

"What a fuss has been made in certain quarters over the meeting at Girton! I found myself actually there, more or less by accident, as I had not supposed I should be in Cambridge at the time. I have felt it my duty to tell a good many people that the tone of the actual meetings was not incendiary, but on the contrary quite pious. I heard Rashdall and Bethune–Baker and Parsons among others. That Rashdall should have been misrepresented as an iconoclast does not so much surprise me, because he was occupied with technical theology. He was beautifully clear, but all serious theological thought is now so alien from the circles in which 'good churchmen' and journalists revolve that they cannot at all distinguish between orthodoxy and heresy. Very much the same is true about Bethune–Baker's address as is true of Rashdall's. But that R. G. Parsons should have been pilloried as a heretic surprises me and a little alarms me – not for Parsons, but for the future of thinking in Church circles.

'Good churchmen' and journalists want a Jesus Christ who is regarded as wholly non–human: the 'good churchmen' want it because they are out of touch with the thought of the age, & the journalists want it because they prefer the Christians to be antiquated'. I mean by 'it' that the worldly [169] [symbol] journalists want the Christians to have a belief that can be labelled ANTIQUE."

I wrote to Burkitt in order that, if I do break openly with the 'Liberals', he may not be wholly taken by surprise: – in the course of my letter I said:–

"Does criticism properly disallow the impression which the N.T. as a whole does unquestionably give? I cannot think it. Isolated prodigies (e.g. the Virgin Birth) which plainly had no place in the Apostolic Belief, or "miracles" which plainly reflect the crude science of the age, may, and, indeed, must fall out of a modern Christian's scheme of belief, but the substance and the proportions of the Apostolic Witness remain: and only because they remain, is Christianity a continuing and identical religion. "Jesus Christ is the same: yesterday, today, yea, and for ever." But I am not a critic: only, for my sins, a Bishop."

As I approached the task of composing the Congress Sermon; the extreme difficulty becomes ever more apparent. It is fully clear to me that I shall not escape a plentiful amount of denunciation from the "Liberals", who will say (with the grossest of injustice, but that will make no difference) that I am betraying them. In this respect also I must repeat the experience of Archbishop Temple: but he had friends and 'interest': I have neither.

I wrote to George in the course of the morning.

[170]

After lunch I took with me Ella, Clayton, & the Strutherses, to Satley, where I dedicated a war–memorial in the parish church of St Cuthbert. The parson, Revd A. W. Hutton, seemed rather feeble, & his "parsonic" voice nearly drove me to distraction. A number of ex–service men formed a conspicuous element in the congregation. My address was a repetition of that which I gave at Kelloe last Saturday. After service we motored to Lanchester where we visited the parish church. William photographed us in a group against the tower, and also the Roman altar in the porch. We continued on the way to Durham, and there I entertained the party in the Castle at tea. We looked at the Castle, & walked across to the Cathedral. Then we returned to Auckland, arriving about 6.45 p.m. Mrs Johnson arrived on a visit.

I received a letter from the Bishop of Jarrow informing me that he had decided in deference to the advice of the Newcastle doctors to be operated upon for the removal of gall stones. The pundits are, or profess themselves to be, very hopeful, but it is impossible to escape a feeling of anxiety. I telegraphed a message to him, bidding him to hold himself free from duty until the New Year. My suffragan's retirement will place me in a difficult position. The confirmations may, perhaps, be managed by reducing the number of centres, but there are many other matters, which the Diocesan has hitherto left to the Suffragan, which it will be difficult to manage.

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