Letters | 18 September 2010

The ventures of faith

Sir: Peter Hitchens eloquently describes the moral vacuum created by the permissive society, and suggests recourse to the Book of Common Prayer (‘In the shadow of the Pope’, 11 September).

The world, however, will never be saved by beautiful prose. Indeed, aesthetic indulgence may all too easily substitute for moral rigour. ‘We do earnestly repent, and are heartily sorry for these our misdoings,’ we Anglicans pray; ‘the remembrance of them is grievous unto us; the burden of them is intolerable.’ How glorious to surrender to such seductive self-flagellation. And then we go out and sin again.

The Christian message is that we can overcome sin only through suffering. This principle, however, can hardly be voluntarily entertained without a strong conviction that we may be rewarded or condemned in another life. Yet how many, today in England, truly believe in either heaven or hell? Who is prepared to risk what Newman called the ventures of faith? ‘After two thousand years of Mass,’ wrote Thomas Hardy, ‘we’ve got as far as poison gas.’