The Debate About Honest to God

Abstract

Honest to God has been the theological sensation of the decade, at least so far as the English-speaking world is concerned. The Honest to God Debate is the sequel and can appropriately be considered along with the former book. It consists of an introductory chapter by Rev. David Edwards, which is a sympathetic account of the contemporary radical movement in theology, of which the Bishop of Woolwich has become the most celebrated exponent, followed by a brief chapter by the Vicar of Leeds on reactions in the Church of England, the Church most immediately involved. Third, there is a series of readers' letters on Honest to God, edited by David Edwards, which is a striking indication of the contemporary state of confusion among laymen concerning the verities of the faith. The main body of the latter book consists of twenty-three reviews of Honest to God, by all sorts of men, Christian clergy and laity of all varieties and atheists, in many countries. Perhaps the most noteworthy of these are those by Rudolf Bultmann, the great German scholar and exegete to whom Dr Robinson is so conscious of his debt, and Father Herbert McCabe, O.P., the longest review to be printed. I must pay a tribute to the latter review, in spite of the apparent unfamiliarity of the categories in which it is expressed. Even though I am Protestant and Reformed, I found, on closer analysis, that Father McCabe had, with very few exceptions (notably his inevitably greater ethical rigorism), said exactly what should have been said about the book.