If we saw the Church wishing to back out of the supernatural and anxious
to explain it away where possible, we would keep our disbelief in the
supernatural in the background, as far as we could, and would explain
away our rejection of the miracles, as far as was decent; furthermore we
would approximate our language to theirs wherever possible, and insist on
the points on which we are all agreed, rather than on points of
difference; in fact, we would meet them half way and be only too glad to
do it. I maintain that in my books I actually do this as much as is
possible, but I shall try and do it still more. As a matter of fact,
however, the Church clings to the miraculous element of Christianity more
fondly than ever; she parades it more and more, and shows no sign of
wishing to give up even the smallest part of it. It is this which makes
us despair of being able to do anything with her and feel that either she
or we must go.