I refer to Frank Muscat’s contribution on atheism and believers (November 5). His contributions are always worth digesting. Mr Muscat has a way of putting across his reasoned views without being offensive: a rare gift when it comes to treating controversial issues. I have, very patiently, plodded through Karen Armstrong’s A History Of God (Vintage UK, 1999), mentioned by Mr Muscat and I have found it very revealing and startingly challenging.

Perhaps another publication worth recommending is Richard Swinburne’s Was Jesus God? (OUP, 2008). Fergus Kerr OP, had this to say when reviewing the book, in The Table (September 6, 2008) “(Swinburne) argues, against both (that is, against Christian fundamentalism and militant atheism) that the key doctrines about Jesus – that he was God Incarnate, atoned for our sins, rose from the dead, and founded the Church – each is at least ‘moderately probable’ in terms of sheer logic. It is an exercise in what Catholics used to call natural theology that would have taken St Thomas’ (Aquinas) breath away”. This book, of just 175 pages, is perhaps, easier to digest than Armstrong’s massive 511-page small print volume. Fr Kerr is the editor of New Blackfriars and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. Among his works is Twentieth Century Catholic Theologians, Blackwell Publishing, 2007.

Prof. Swinburne is a Fellow of the British Academy, and, up to 2002, was professor of philosophy of the Christian religion, University of Oxford. His works include Is There A God?, Revelation, Faith And Reason, The Resurrection Of God Incarnate and The Existence Of God.