Mr. Buckley's new book, Nearer, My God: An Autobiography of Faith, had caused Mr. Weidhorn to ponder some difficult points in Christian doctrine. The questions he raises are far from new, but it is helpful to hear them articulated by a sympathetic self-described "outsider." MW: "God apparently created the human race knowing that he would damn most of them-because 'strait is the gate,' 'few are chosen'-to eternity. And most people are surely not saints. They cheat on their taxes, they cheat on their spouse, and so on. So they deserve punishment. Would a hundred years in hell suffice? How about a thousand..? But eternity..? There seems to be such a vast disproportion between the crime and the punishment." WFB: "Well, I think I can bring you instant relief on this point, because as far as I know it's only the Calvinists who insist that the overwhelming number of people are doomed to damnation..." MW: "Christianity is above all else a religion of paradoxes. The idea of God dying, and dying by the most humiliating of all punishments...that is such a monumental paradox. It needs dwelling on for the spiritual resonance that it has because it is incomprehensible."