Sir, - Justin Keating, in the interests of pluralism, takes RTE to task for its broadcasting of the Angelus (May 22nd).
The limits of Mr Keating's own pluralism are surely evident in his unsustainable claim that "there is no historical evidence for the existence of Jesus". Setting aside the convergence of biblical scholars from all Christian traditions on the use of the New Testament as evidence for the existence of Jesus, we can turn to the non-Christian world of the first and second centuries to provide Mr Keating with the evidence he needs.
Sources such as the Roman authors Tacitus, Suetonius and Pliny the Younger, the Jewish historian Josephus Flavius, and the Cynic philosopher Lucian of Samosata enable us to deduce the following: The man, Jesus of Nazareth, was put to death under the procurator Pontius Pilate during the reign of emperor Tiberius; some Jewish leaders in Palestine were involved in his execution; and some, at least, regarded him as the divine founder of a new way of life.
So much for Mr Keating's claim. - Yours, etc., (Rev) Niall Coll,
St Patrick's College, Carlow.