Lucky Dip Number 27
Click the CLOSE button at the end of the poem to return to the 'Lucky Dip' page.
Interlocution
"You can never prove the resurrection" I began "No you cannot" he interjected emphatically, misunderstanding my full meaning. We were away at a Christian centre for a residential weekend that was more about philosophy than about religion and so attracted not just Christians but also sceptics like my interlocutor. He was on the staff of a university, possibly a classics department one might have thought, because he was knowledgeable when we were reading from Homer's 'Iliad'. A small group of us had gathered convivially for coffee after supper and the conversation turned to religion. "But what I think you can reasonably say" I continued "is that the early disciples believed in the resurrection so that here you had a group of people trying to express what was beyond their comprehension". He regarded me seriously for a moment and then turned and walked away with a troubled look on his face and I was sorry for I was acknowledging the uncertainty that for me must embrace Christian doctrine and I would have liked him to have acknowledged the uncertainty that I believe must likewise pervade its critique an uncertainty that might have been implied by his troubled look as he turned from me and walked away. |