Thursday, February 14, 2008

Atheist damns cleric ...

... To Hell With the Archbishop of Canterbury, Christopher Hitchens declares. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)

The archbishop, who seems like a nice enough guy, has come off in this as a bien-pensant parody.

Some years ago I attended a talk by the late Basil Pennington, a Benedictine abbot who had engaged in much dialogue with Buddhists (his monastery was near Hong Kong). He pointed out the commonest complaint he heard from them was that Christians brought nothing to the table. They wanted to get something from the Buddhists about Buddhist spiritual tradition and practice, but were insufficiently familiar with their own tradition and practice to have anything to offer in exchange. The good archbishop's readiness to concede ground to Islam makes one wonder how much he appreciates the ground on which he is supposed to stand firm.

Just for the hell of it, here's a view diametrically opposed to Archbishop Williams's: John Quincy Adams Knew Jihad.

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