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I am an inveterate collector of quotations, which I will squirrel away on my computer against the day when I can fetch them to make a point – in this instance, a remark from Philip Stanhope, Fourth Earl of Chesterfield, statesman, author and notable wit. Except that in this case I find myself unable to verify that he actually said it, nor can I remember where I came across it to begin with. I am sure I did not simply make it up, since I had never previously heard of Lord Chesterfield. However, now that I know a bit more about him, I can tell you this is exactly the sort of bon mot for which he is celebrated. So we will proceed on the assumption it is his, even if he said no such thing. Consider yourself duly warned.
And what is the point I wanted to make by trotting out this potentially spurious quotation from his lordship? Just this: Jesus’ resurrection from the dead is one doctrinal point on which all professing Christians can agree, even if they don’t actually believe it (and there are plenty who don’t). But what would happen if someone rose from the dead now? I am not speaking here of Jesus returning once again from the dead, another doctrinal point of which all Christians can agree. I’m talking about someone else rising from the dead, perhaps in some obscure place and attested to by the same sort of ragtag bunch as those who witnessed Jesus’ resurrection. Would the Archbishop of Canterbury be the first to deny it?
As far as I know, the Roman Catholic Church is the only Christian denomination with a formal process for verifying miracles. It is used to examine candidates for sainthood, who must be credited with two bona fide miracles to be canonized. In fairness to the Archbishop of Canterbury, who is an Anglican, he would have no access to such expertise. Therefore, he would not be in a position either to confirm or deny a miraculous event he had not witnessed himself -- certainly not any latter-day resurrection of the dead.
I suspect Lord Chesterfield invoked the Archbishop of Canterbury because he was the highest religious authority in Britain at that time. In apostolic times, the religious authorities were the chief priests and scribes in Jerusalem. They thought they had eliminated Jesus as a threat by having him crucified, only to be confronted by reports that he had risen from the dead. Their response was to order Jesus’ followers to stop preaching in his name. When that didn’t work, they threw them in jail, which didn’t work either. Nothing worked, and now this once obscure Jewish sect is the most powerful religious institution in the world.
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