Birth Control
The Population Explosion and Christian Responsibility, by Richard M. Fagley (Oxford, 1960, 260 pp., $4.25), is reviewed by Sherwood E. Wirt.
Dr. Fagley, son of a noted Congregational clergyman, has written what the publishers call the “first full-length analysis from a Protestant perspective of the world’s most neglected social problem.” As an active participant in the ecumenical movement, he is convinced that the “way forward” in meeting the world population crisis is that represented by the various pronouncements on the subject of birth control and family limitation by Protestant church groups, including the National Council of Churches.
The book is roughly divisible in two sections, the first coming to grips with the impending demographic crisis. In many ways this is the most interesting and informative part of the book. He rejects two possible answers to the problem: a shifting of populations and a stepped-up food supply. Both are considered inadequate. What is left? Nothing, according to Fagley, but birth control. Planned parenthood is thus advocated not for its own sake but as a deterrent to keep the hordes of the future from being born.
The author reviews some of the attitudes toward parenthood that are found in world religions. His New Testament exegesis suffers from its basic presuppositions: he suspects convenient “embellishments” in the text, such as the Lord’s discourse in Luke 20 relating to celibacy. Whoever it was that wrote 1 Timothy 2:15, he did not mean that faithful women would be saved through childbearing, but that they would come “safely through childbirth.”
Undoubtedly the book will become a standard reference in future WCC discussions of birth control. It raises two questions among others: (1) Is it good hermeneutics to take a point of view and seek to corral scriptural arguments—and arguments from other religions—to support it? Why not rather take the problem reverently to Scripture itself for solution? (2) What ultimately is really solved by the kind of birth control here envisioned? Will barrenness produce godliness in America? Will it do so in Asia? Is a thinned-out population morally and spiritually superior to other kinds? Is this the divine path to peace and the abundant life?
The truth is that God has ways of confounding the statisticians. As Dr. Fagley says (p. 81), the solution may lie on another planet. One has a feeling that by the year A.D. 2000 such books as this will be seen to have been looking for the right answers in the wrong places.
SHERWOOD E. WIRT
A ‘Width’ Dimension
Culture and Mental Health (Cross-Cultural Studies), edited by Marvin K. Opler (Macmillan, 1959, 533 pp., $8.75), is reviewed by Theodore J. Jansma, Chaplain-Counselor of the Christian Sanatorium of Wyckoff, New Jersey.
This is a collection of 23 studies on mental health problems in various cultures and ethnic groups, from American Indians to African Zulus, delinquent youth in China to personality adjustments of American Jews. It is not a round-the-world survey of mental health but “intended to be pioneering studies in the world mental health, each of which establishes important findings within a more total pattern of basic questions concerning mental health.” It is a valuable addition to the growing volume of studies in cultural anthropology which is bringing new insights to the problems of mental health and illness.
These studies serve both as a corrective and challenge to the biological and instinctual emphasis of Freudianism. As an example of this corrective and challenge to classical psychoanalytic theory we may cite the article on “Obsessive-Compulsive Disorders in Chinese Culture.” Although the case material is limited and the author’s conclusions “tentative,” he points out the socio-cultural etiology rather than the psycho-sexual. If Freud is credited with adding a “depth” dimension to psychology, then these anthropologists are adding what may be called a “width” dimension. They view man not merely as an organism driven by his instincts but as a social being interacting with his environment, molding and being molded by his social milieu, participating in and influenced by the values and tensions of his particular social and cultural setting.
All the contributors are recognized scholars in the so-called behaviorial sciences. Much of it is fascinating reading and a valuable contribution to the multi-discipline approach to mental health.
THEODORE J. JANSMA
Kerygmatic Emphasis
The Dynamics of Christian Education, by Iris V. Cully (Westminster Press, 1958, 205 pp., $3.75), is reviewed by D. G. Stewart, Chairman of the Department of Christian Education, San Francisco Theological Seminary.
No earnest Christian teacher can take issue with Mrs. Cully’s intention to discover and interpret the power which should pervade and motivate Christian teaching. Her attempt to find a basis for this while accepting the conclusions of form criticism is noteworthy. The book indicates a thorough knowledge of recent scholarship. But one would wish that she had not placed so much emphasis on the conclusion of C. H. Dodd in regard to the kerygma. It leaves one with the impression that the dynamic of Christian teaching is only forthcoming when and if the content of the kerygma is taught or preached. And it opens the way for criticism on the part of the teacher of little children.
This reader is not sure contemporary curriculum material misses the dynamic of Christian education with realistic approaches to the child in accordance with his age and capacity. Wherever Jesus is faithfully and dynamically presented in all his teachings, his deeds, and the Cross, there power should exist in teaching. The book is provocative and worthy of careful study.
D. G. STEWART
Changing World
The Structure of Nations and Empires, by Reinhold Niebuhr (Scribner’s, 1959, 299 pp., $5, is reviewed by Andrew K. Rule, Professor of Church History and Apologetics, Louisville Presbyterian Seminary.
The author has lived with this book, having taken a special leave from his teaching duties for the purpose of preparing it. In fact, one may say that he has really lived with it throughout his career as an author, all of his previous writings being foundational to this supreme accomplishment. That is why the reviewer would agree with the statement appearing on the dust jacket: “This is perhaps Dr. Niebuhr’s most ambitious and most important book to date.” And it is readable.
The author is impressed by two basic facts. One is the fact of American opportunity and responsibility in a world situation of nuclear stalemate which could issue towards a glorious future or abrupt disaster. The other is that this young nation may go wrong through lack of experience and an overemphasis on the novelty of the situation. He is concerned that she should learn from the past, distinguish permanent patterns from changing accommodations that frequently occur in communities, and then apply this learning to the present world situation.
Dr. Niebuhr ranges widely through history, and his expectation that specialists will not always agree with his factual statements or his treatment of controversial questions is probably justified. It is the reviewer’s opinion, however, that Dr. Niebuhr has been remarkably correct. He faces the facts of the past and the present with realism born of a recognition of original sin and its play upon all of human affairs. Yet he writes without cynicism or despair. His prescription for modern America is that we recognize the part which historical developments are bound to play in the Soviet system, and seek in every way to encourage a long-term accommodation with it. With respect to historical developments, he fails to lend sufficient weight to the probable tensions between the Chinese and the Russian centres of power. Had he done so he would have strengthened his thesis.
But this is a great book, and extremely timely. Americans would do well to let it stimulate and guide their thinking.
ANDREW K. RULE
Anthroposophy
Man, The Bridge Between Two Worlds, by Franz E. Winkler (Harper, 1960, 268 pp., $5), is reviewed by Arthur Holmes, Professor of Philosophy at Wheaton College (Illinois).
The post-Sputnik cry for more science and more technology has been tempered in many circles by renewed appreciations of the arts and the humanities. The present volume is one attempt to provide a philosophical basis for such a balance between the physical and the intangible. The bridge between these two worlds, both of which mold human destiny, is to be found, according to Dr. Winkler, in the individual ego which can only assert its true freedom in a resurgent life of intuitive consciousness.
The writer is an American physician of Austrian birth, who was led to his philosophical position by experiences as a psychotherapist. Acquainted, but dissatisfied, with the approaches of both Freudian and behaviorist, of both Marxist and instrumentalist, he draws heavily upon nineteenth century romanticism. He cites Goethe (and Bergson) with approval, but is most indebted to Rudolph Steiner.
This fact explains the book. Steiner edited Goethe’s works on natural history, later became a leader in German theosophy, only to break with that movement and found, in 1913, the Anthroposophical Society (Anthroposophy understood the universe in the light of man’s fundamentally “intuitive” consciousness). Recommending the anthroposophical solution, Winkler sees man not as a highly complex animal organism but as spirit descending into matter. Man’s plight arises from the loss of his elemental powers of intuition. Regain this, and man will be well.
Religion, art, and nature all bear symbolic testimony. Eden, accordingly, is “prenatal” (p. 155). The Fall, Babel, and Peter’s escape from prison, are alike legend concerned not with historical events but with lost intuitive truths. Christianity has contributed a new kind of love to enrich the inner life of man.
While poorly organized and unlikely to gain acceptance in either philosophical or theological circles, the subject matter provides intriguing reading.
ARTHUR HOLMES
Wrong Beginning
The Case for Theology in Liberal Perspective, by L. Harold DeWolf (Westminster Press, 1959, 206 pp., $3.50), is reviewed by William C. Robinson, Professor of Historical Theology at Columbia Theological Seminary.
This case is presented by an able exponent. There are neat turns of expression, careful outlines, forceful arguments, and many good things which he says.
From our point of view, however, his approach is too broad. “God speaks to us through many channels,” such as natural theology, philosophy, general history, the Church, and the human will. Thus Jesus “known to history” is presented as a man (p. 60) the son of Joseph, the carpenter, and his wife, Mary (p. 67). When the author tries to deal with God in Christ, he labors with what Kierkegaard calls the inability of thinking to start with Jesus as a man and to change categories in the midst of the argument and bring out in the conclusion something which is infinitively greater than what was in the premise. Accordingly, Professor DeWolf is unwilling to admit identification of Jesus with God even in the Gospel of John. His treatment of the Cross as a propitiation and as a legal transaction is equally unsatisfactory.
Christian faith at its best has ever held to the principle, credo ut intelligam. Here as elsewhere finis origine pendet. Of Him are ye in Christ Jesus who is made unto us wisdom from God. This means that a believer ought to begin intellectually where God has graciously placed him, that is, in Christ Jesus, in the Christian revelation, in the Christian faith. The foundation which God has laid is neither “neutral” history, nor philosophical principles, nor scientific hypotheses, but Christ Jesus.
WILLIAM C. ROBINSON
‘Broad-Brush’ Theology
The Bible Speaks, by Robert Davidson (Crowell, 1960, 252 pp., $3.95), is reviewed by Walter W. Wessel, Professor of Biblical Literature at North American Baptist Seminary.
Books on the various themes of biblical theology are becoming more and more popular these days. Here is one by the youthful lecturer in biblical study at the University of Aberdeen, Scotland, and it deals in a popular and refreshing way with all of the major themes in the Bible: God, Man, the people of God, the Covenant, Jesus, the Church, the Day of the Lord, and so forth.
A “broad brush” treatment of the thought of the entire Bible is beset with difficulties, but that this is an honest attempt to set forth what the Bible actually says is evidenced by the author’s abundant use of Scripture. The relevant passages are not merely cited by chapter and verse but are printed out in full so that the reader has the biblical material immediately available. By the time one has completed reading the hook’s 252 pages, he will have read considerable portions of both the Old and New Testaments.
Another particularly commendable feature is the brief content-summaries at the head of each chapter. This, along with the simple but competent handling of the biblical material, makes The Bible Speaks suitable as an introduction to biblical theology for students, pastors, and intelligent laymen.
WALTER W. WESSEL
Lenten Meditations
And Still He Speaks, by Edward L. R. Elson (Revell, 1960, 127 pp., $2.50) is reviewed by Sherwood E. Wirt.
Seven recorded expressions of Jesus Christ after his Resurrection are used by Dr. Elson to provide the setting for a thoughtful series of Lenten meditations on the reality of the Risen Christ.
Interspersed with interesting illustrations from his war experiences and his years as pastor of the National Presbyterian Church in Washington, D. C., these chapters will not fail to make the forty days of our Lord’s tarrying before his Ascension come alive to the reader. Dr. Elson acknowledges a debt to his tutor and friend, the late Professor Doremus A. Hayes, whose The Resurrection Fact was published in a period when Hayes attended Dr. Elson’s church in La Jolla, California, where they frequently conversed about this high theme. The reader will find not only a happy congruity between Dr. Elson’s and Dr. Hayes’ works, but at times even a similarity of argument and turn of phrase.
And Still He Speaks makes a spiritual contribution to the field of Lenten literature and will be widely read. Proceeds from the book are being devoted to his church’s Sunday Evening Club, which plans to furnish a Christian center at a college in India as a missionary memorial.
SHERWOOD E. WIRT
Premillennial Proclamation
The Gospel of the Kingdom, by George E. Ladd (Eerdmans, 1959, 143 pp., $2.75), is reviewed by John F. Walvoord, President of Dallas Theological Seminary.
Thoughtful students of biblical theology will find Dr. Ladd’s latest contribution a substantial and lucid exposition of his concept of the kingdom of God. Designed to be a “proclamation,” it is constructive, biblical, and expository rather than controversial or theological.
More mature and comprehensive than his earlier book, Crucial Questions About the Kingdom of God, this work builds upon a definition of the kingdom of God as the reign of God expressed in redemptive history, past and present, and culminating in heaven as the realm of divine rule in the age to come (cf. p. 22). The Kingdom is present as God reigns today and will have a future form in the millennial Kingdom following the Second Advent, and its ultimate form will be achieved in the eternal state. The treatment as a whole is commendable. The author employs excellent and thought-provoking literary style coupled with thorough exegesis of the New Testament doctrine of the Kingdom. The work is solidly premillennial and conservative, and is a positive addition to biblical exposition.
Some shortcomings can be observed however. The redemptive character of the Kingdom is overemphasized at the expense of its governmental aspect. Important points are settled by the author’s “proclamation” of his convictions without sufficient support for them. His exegesis of the parables of Matthew 13 oversimplifies the meaning of some of the parables. He labors to minimize the evil within the Kingdom in its present state. Problems of interpretation of the Sermon on the Mount are solved by labeling its difficulties as parabolic teaching. Though the author mentions contemporary writers such as Cullmann, Bultmann, Niebuhr, Piper, Spengler, and Toynbee, the vast premillennial literature on the doctrine of the Kingdom is ignored, and not a single premillennial scholar or work on the Kingdom is mentioned. The Old Testament doctrine of the Kingdom is given inadequate treatment. More references are made to the Gospel of Matthew than the entire Old Testament. Furthermore, the topical index is very inadequate.
However, in the reviewer’s opinion, these criticisms are minor, and the author is to be commended for an excellent if debatable presentation.
JOHN F. WALVOORD
Resurrection Motif
Saved by His Life, by Theodore R. Clark (Macmillan, 1959, 215 pp., $4.50), is reviewed by J. Hardee Kennedy, Dean of the School of Theology, New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary.
This is a fresh and illuminating study of the doctrine of reconciliation and salvation in the Christian faith. The author is associate professor of theology, New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary.
The purpose of the book is to focus attention on the place that the “resurrection of Christ held in the thinking of the authors of the New Testament.” The thrust of argument is to delineate the sharp contrast between the Cross-Resurrection motif of the New Testament and the emphasis on the Cross alone in traditional interpretation.
This study does not intend to minimize in any way the importance of the Cross. Indeed, it is obvious that “the Cross is a basic theme in the New Testament.” But nevertheless the author directs sharp criticism toward an imbalance in interpretation.
Professor Clark’s efforts to correct this disproportionate emphasis tend toward the severe judgment that is usual in strong reaction. The Resurrection perspective affirmed for the Cross passages of the New Testament may be present likewise in the larger context of thought in certain hymns and essays which are decried because of a seeming isolation of the Cross.
Several chapters bring institutionalism under vigorous attack and expose its subtlety and perils. Such criticisms do not seek to destroy the historical and institutional in Christian faith; rather they appeal for awareness that these point beyond themselves to the risen Christ.
Like numerous contemporary works, Professor Clark’s analysis of man’s basic plight is in large measure psycho-philosophical. The substitution of philosophical terms for biblical terms may be in some instances the modification of basic concepts. A more serious objection may be brought against side issues which are logically unnecessary to the general argument and can be little more than statements of viewpoint or theory. This is particularly true with respect to the theology of Christian missions and certain aspects of eschatology.
J. HARDEE KENNEDY
A HUMANIST APPRAISAL
The Religion of the Occident, by Martin A. Larson (Philosophical Library, 1959, 711 pp., $6), is reviewed by Julius R. Mantey, Professor of Greek and New Testament, Northern Baptist Theological Seminary.
On the cover of the book appears this statement: “The teachings of Jesus are traced to their immediate and ultimate sources in Essenism, Judaism, Pythagorianism, Zoroastrianism, Buddhism, and the mystery cults of Greece, Asia Minor and Egypt.” The author calls himself “a searching Humanist” and states that his objective is to investigate the origin of Jesus’ religion, “first, its pagan origin; second, its Jewish sources; third, an analysis of its inner meaning; and fourth, its reconstitution in the pagan world” (p. 16). The teachings of Jesus had four basic components, he affirms: “soteriology, which came from the mystery cults; ethics, which came primarily from India; eschatology, largely derived from Persia; and the supernatural Messianic concept, which was an Essene adaptation of a Zoroastrian doctrine” (p. 295). He says the most basic one of the above four is soteriology. This concept is alleged to have had its origin in the dim past in the Egyptian worship of the mythical god, Osiris, when “the doctrine of the eucharist has its ultimate roots in prehistoric cannibalism” (p. 20). “The Greeks accepted Osiris under the name of Dionysus in their mystery cults and he became their universal savior god and the prototype of Christ” (p. 30).
While the author has gone on record as believing that Jesus was a historical being, he nevertheless does not believe that he was unique in person nor original in his teachings. “The literature of India proves that Jesus drew heavily upon Buddhism directly or indirectly” (p. 148). It is conjectured that Jesus derived many of his doctrines from the Essenes, including the Lord’s Prayer (pp. 292, 340). And the Gospel account of Jesus’ resurrection is designated “a garbled invention.”
The above is enough to indicate the bias of the author and the content of the book. While the book is replete with historical data, quotations from ancient sources of various kinds, such as Egyptian, Persian, Indian writings, and the Dead Sea Scrolls, it lacks convincing quotations to prove that the teachings of Christ were in any sense derived from human sources.
There are many statements common to both Christian and non-Christian literature; but such superlative gems as we have in every paragraph of the Gospels are, in pagan writings, as rare as a grain of wheat in a bushel of chaff. Little wonder that the tests of time have relegated such concepts to a much inferior status in history. In Christ’s teachings every statement is reasonable, authoritative, transcendent, and relevant to our generation in spite of its antiquity and its oriental setting.
Had the author been abreast of the latest findings in New Testament studies, he would not have written that Luke was wrong in dating the birth of Christ during Cyrenius’ term in office. He was assuming that it was in 7 A.D., when as a matter of fact he also held the same office about 8 to 7 B.C. (p. 466). Nor would he have stated that the Fourth Gospel was written about 120 A.D. (p. 314), since early papyri quotations from it make that untenable.
JULIUS R. MANTEY
BOOK BRIEFS
Abraham Kuyper, by Frank Vanden Berg (Eerdmans, 1960, 307 pp., $4)—A biography of one of Holland’s foremost leaders of thought and action in ecclesiastical, educational and political areas, 1865–1917.
Paul Elmer More, by Arthur Hazard Dakin (Princeton University Press, 1960, 416 pp., $7.50)—Authoritative biography of an influential editor of the Nation. Princetonian sage, master of classical and oriental thought, who was known as a “Christian Platonist.”
A Century of Protestant Christianity in Japan, by Charles W. Iglehart (Tuttle, 1959, 384 pp., $3)—A history of missions in Japan published in cooperation with the Japan Committee of the National Council of Churches.
Week of the Cross, by Will Sessions (Bethany, 1960, 96 pp., $2)—The Passion Week story retold dramatically and reverently.
Doom of the Dictators, by Delber H. Elliott (Eerdmans, 1959, 92 pp., $2)—Christianity’s answer to dictators.
