“I was in the coffee shop at Waterstone’s a couple of days ago, and got talking to another old boy. I was remarking on a book by an ex-nun. It’s a history of Christianity; and the review in the London Review of Books says she has a bee in her bonnet about Jesus never being shown in the New Testament of the Bible, to have claimed divinity for himself, i.e, she says he never said he was God. The other chap said that was an unremarkable claim, and that indeed Muslims must claim exactly that: a prophet but never one who claimed to be God. So, I told this man I would consult you on this matter. There’s my question: is that what Islam teaches re Jesus: he never said he was God; or maybe the thinking is that he did claim Godhood but was just deluded on this point?”

(John P. S.)