THOMAS HARDY’S ‘THIS’ THE UNITED CHURCH, DORCHESTER

Old Testament Reading: Psalm 8 New Testament Reading: Matthew 25:31-40 The late and beloved Desmond Hawkins believed that Thomas Hardy's The Mayor of Casterbridge was the greatest English literary tragedy since Shakespeare's King Lear. Karl Rahner, a great twentieth century Catholic theologian, centered his teaching and writing in the conviction that one has no idea of God without engaging love in relationship. An enormously influential twentieth century American theologian who was very popular in Great Britain, Reinhold Niebuhr, called 'the law of love the basic law for man'. Because the Bible tells us so? [...]a recent study at Washington and Lee University in Virginia showed that adults who read fiction are more compassionate than those who don't.11 We should not be surprised that even the most devoted Hardy reader may shrink from his truth.