Ludicrous Aspects Of Christianity - A Response To The Challenge Of The Bishop Of Manchester

This essay is a response to the Challenge Of The Bishop Of Manchester. In this essay, the author points out that the Bishop of Manchester, in a speech delivered by him in Oldham in August 1870, is reported to have said that "he could defy anyone to try to caricature the work, the character, or the person of the Lord Jesus Christ." He no doubt felt confident in throwing out such a challenge, as the attempt would be considered so atrociously impious that few men could be found with courage enough to incur the odium of such an act. We confess that we have not the temerity to wound the sensitiveness of the devoutly religious. What may be deemed of the nature of caricature in the following remarks the reader is requested to regard as merely the spontaneous utterance of one who is keenly alive to the ludicrous, and who is not awed by the belief that the Bible is an infallible volume. We find the New Testament, when read without the deceptive spectacles of faith, as amusing, as extravagant, and as contradictory in many places as most books.