© MMW 2005
EDITORIAL
Editor and Webmaster: Bishop Michael Wright - 18 Frenchfield Road, Peasedown St John, Bath, BA2 8SL, UK: Tel. (0)1761 433149: Fax. (0)1761 434388, e.mail Bpmwright@aol.com
Editor and Webmaster: Bishop Michael Wright -
Dear Friends,
In the 1950s Canon J.B.Phillips was well known for his modern language version of St Paul’s Epistles, ‘Letters to Young Churches’. This was a popular break- through from the language of the Authorised (King James) version. The two versions could be read through helpfully in parallel. Later modern language versions, such as the New English Bible, were not so successful. J.B.Phillips went on to write a number of books on the Christian Faith and held a place comparable to that of C.S.Lewis as an apologist for Christianity in the contemporary post-war world. One of his most significant books had the title ‘Your God is too small’ which challenged the limitations which Christian placed on the true scope of the Faith. One of the categories which attracted Phillips’s scorn was that of, as he termed it, the habitual ‘bosom-flier’
Phillips took this term from the opening lines of a beloved hymn of Charles Wesley; ‘Jesus lover of my soul, let me to thy bosom fly’. The hymn is, in fact, a powerful recognition of man’s need of God’s grace in Christ, but Phillips perceived that it could so easily become an excuse for in spiritual self-indulgence on theme of ‘Jesus fulfils all my needs, I don’t have to bother myself further.
Another well known hymn can appear in the same light. ‘I heard the voice of Jesus say ‘Come unto me and rest’. Hymns of this kind come under the category of ‘personal devotion’ and have also been used to effect in mission services where personal commitment of the individual to Christ is presented as a challenge.
There is a fine line to be drawn here between thankfulness for the consequences of Christ’s saving ministry and the tendency to limit Christianity to the small circle of personal experience. It is not surprising that, to the outside world, religion, and Christianity in particular, is misrepresented as a product of human psychology and no more. In the early Christian centuries this mistaken attribution did not arise. The Christian Church was surrounded by cults struggling to supplant the Faith with their own ‘world view’ often raiding the Scriptures and Christian terminology to camouflage some very weird and complex notions. There was then a philosophical battle to be won, and the task grew ever more urgent as far more sophisticated paganised versions of Christianity, such as Arianism, made inroads into the Faith now endorsed by the Roman emperors.
We must not allow Philips’s ‘bosom flying’ to distract from the hard thinking which Christianity requires. It is important to remember that there is a philosophical side to the Faith of which the world is always in need.
Please note the following:
A new Page has been added to the ‘Europe’ section of this web-site; it reports on the Spanish Mission of Fr. David Worsley.
Bishop Victor Manuel Cruz-Blanco now has a dedicated web-site for his Diocese. The web-site location is:
In the 1950s Canon J.B.Phillips was well known for his modern language version of St Paul’s Epistles, ‘Letters to Young Churches’. This was a popular break-
Phillips took this term from the opening lines of a beloved hymn of Charles Wesley; ‘Jesus lover of my soul, let me to thy bosom fly’. The hymn is, in fact, a powerful recognition of man’s need of God’s grace in Christ, but Phillips perceived that it could so easily become an excuse for in spiritual self-
Another well known hymn can appear in the same light. ‘I heard the voice of Jesus say ‘Come unto me and rest’. Hymns of this kind come under the category of ‘personal devotion’ and have also been used to effect in mission services where personal commitment of the individual to Christ is presented as a challenge.
There is a fine line to be drawn here between thankfulness for the consequences of Christ’s saving ministry and the tendency to limit Christianity to the small circle of personal experience. It is not surprising that, to the outside world, religion, and Christianity in particular, is misrepresented as a product of human psychology and no more. In the early Christian centuries this mistaken attribution did not arise. The Christian Church was surrounded by cults struggling to supplant the Faith with their own ‘world view’ often raiding the Scriptures and Christian terminology to camouflage some very weird and complex notions. There was then a philosophical battle to be won, and the task grew ever more urgent as far more sophisticated paganised versions of Christianity, such as Arianism, made inroads into the Faith now endorsed by the Roman emperors.
We must not allow Philips’s ‘bosom flying’ to distract from the hard thinking which Christianity requires. It is important to remember that there is a philosophical side to the Faith of which the world is always in need.
Please note the following:
A new Page has been added to the ‘Europe’ section of this web-
Bishop Victor Manuel Cruz-
Both Bishop Wright and Bishp Cruz-
