Letter to The Editor - Atmosphere of Free Inquiry Rather than Fanatical Authoritarianism

to THE AGE
     David Baxter, quoting from one of the many beautiful hymns in the treasury of Christian sacred tradition, asks a pertinent question (28/7): why does God need human help to spread his word? Well, it seems from the most profound writings in all the great sacred traditions that there is not, after all, a clear dividing line between the divine and the human; rather there is a continuum in the universe linking together all beings and all being. Thus sacred scriptures are a joint activity of God and Man. And language is vital to communication and to community.
     Unfortunately, because ‘to err is human’, these scriptures are not, as it were, perfect and are prone to varieties of misinterpretation. That is why they should always be presented, in sacred buildings and in schools, in an atmosphere of free inquiry rather than fanatical authoritarianism.
NJ, Belgrave, Vic