The Atom & the Archbishop

Sometimes just to declare Christian doctrine can shock and stir bitter debate--even among Christians. Last week Dr. Geoffrey Fisher, the Archbishop of Canterbury, did just that. Asked to comment on a tract by Author Philip Toynbee (who argued that nuclear destruction was so terrible that the only solution was immediate disarmament and peace with the Russians on any terms, even surrender), the Archbishop had replied with a tart reminder that man cannot live by dread alone. Wrote the Archbishop:

"I am convinced that it is never right to settle any policy simply out of fear of the consequences . . . For all I know it is within the providence of God that the human race should destroy itself in this manner [nuclear war].

"There is no evidence that the human race is to last forever and plenty in Scripture to the contrary effect. Though, as you say, the suffering entailed by nuclear war would be ghastly in its scale, one must remember that each person can only suffer so much; and I do not know that the men and women affected would suffer more than those do who day by day are involved in some appalling disaster. There is no aggregate measure of pain. Anyhow, policy must not be based simply on fear of pain.

"I am not being unfeeling. Christ in His Crucifixion showed us how to suffer creatively. He did not claim to end suffering, nor did He bid His disciples to avoid suffering. So I repeat, I cannot establish any policy merely on whether or not it will save the human race from a period of suffering or from extinction."

Published in London last week as a part of Toynbee's compilation (The Fearful Choice), the Archbishop's letter shocked many Britons. Said London's Laborite Daily Herald: "If this is the only spiritual guidance the Primate can offer anxious millions on this supreme question, he had better hold his peace or lay down his office. Clearly the Archbishop has lost faith in mankind." Many churchmen agreed. "Singularly futile, stupid and un-Christian," snapped Dr. John S. Thomson, moderator of the United Church of Canada. "There is no justification for anyone, even the Archbishop of Canterbury, to put himself in the place of God," said Canon L. J. Collins of St. Paul's Cathedral, and added that he would cease to be a Christian if he thought "that the God revealed in Jesus Christ is callous to the amount of suffering in the world ... It may be in the providence of God that we should blow ourselves up, but this does not excuse me or the Archbishop if we condone an evil policy, such as reliance upon nuclear weapons to defend our way of life."

But the Archbishop also had defenders. "In an evil world, war can be the lesser of the two evils," said Dr. Christopher M. Chavasse, Britain's Bishop of Rochester. Other churchmen agreed.

Furthermore, had the Archbishop actually said that God might "will" man's end in nuclear war? No, declared Toronto's Canon H. R. Hunt, general secretary of the Anglican Church of Canada. The Archbishop had simply noted that God's providence leaves man's fate up to man. Said Canon Hunt: "Perversity in human conduct and wanton disobedience of divine law result inevitably in the destruction and death of sinful man. Whatsoever man sows, that shall he reap."

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