London was divided. Half backed Handel. The other half backed a musician whose name I and many others cannot remember. The Duke of Marlborough found himself obliged to take sides. Not everybody took this seriously. Some made play of the fact that here was a distinction without a difference. Tweedledum and Tweedledee agreed on the important things. They were squabbling over peccadilloes or motes rather than beams if you stick to the Sermon on the Mount.
The Tweedles are always looking for an open door. Satan’s job is to upset the apple-cart. This is often accomplished by inflating a trivial difference into a glaring dispute. Dee and Dum become so hopelessly involved that they cannot afford to lose face. The dispute lingers. The good work loses its supporters.
Those who are not theologians see Savonarola and Calvin as bringing about outcomes of the same kind. They may see contestants such as Aquinas and, shall we say, Schleiermacher as purveyors of a systematic Christianity that goes further into definition and prescription than is proper.
The Church east and west, north and south needs a ministry of Word and Sacraments. It cannot avoid a world of intellectual contest – not that is if it intends to survive and be taken seriously. It cannot have any truck with the Tweedles.
When a person of the stature of Handel gets drawn into the fray, genius comes into it. The scale of the dispute changes. Tweedledum and Tweedledee are brushed aside to confine their attentions to their natural diet.
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