Great Uncle Fred? We are having an argument in our house. Please will you help to settle it. Our argument is about the greatest person who ever lived. Dad says Winston Churchill, my sister who is 14 says the Queen, my brother who is five says Spiderman, I say David Attenborough and my mum says All Mothers. What do you say? (Andrew, Winter 2007/8)

With every respect for your mother`s opinion, for which I have a great deal of time as I do not see how giving birth to a human being can be surpassed as a contribution to the race, and for the opinions of you and the rest of your family, and with all possible consideration for the two thirds of the world`s population which is not Christian, I would have to say that I believe the greatest human being who ever walked the earth was Jesus Christ. Does the fact that there are two billion Christians in the world and, for example, `only` one billion followers of Islam, mean that He was the greatest. No, but there is certainly a case to be made for the supreme greatness of Jesus, and that initial statistic is part of the case. For a life of such obscurity, and brevity, to be at the heart of the lives of one third of the world`s population, 2000 years after the death of this complete non-entity, is more of a miracle than any He came up with while wandering around for those three years speaking stern and kindly sense. Western civilisation is inconceivable without Christ, not only its buildings but its universities, schools, literature, art and music. It is entirely thanks to the church service that music entered the consciousness of the West. The merely cultural consequences of the life of Christ are utterly incalculable and one has to conclude (whether one is Christian or not) (and whether one believes that He was the Son of God or not) that the man himself must have been some man - perhaps the finest example of humanity ever. When you think of the historical personages who come top in those polls to determine who is the greatest Briton, American or whatever, and compare them to Christ, you cannot help but think, `Well...` Such recent winners like Winston Churchill, Ronald Reagan, William Wallace, even Mahatma Gandhi, you think - they simply cannot compare, even at the lowest level, in terms of influence, or fame, with this utterly obscure fellow who didn`t even do much - he told stories and loved human beings. Stories! It`s wonderfully absurd. Jesus Christ!

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