The Finished Work Of Christ
The Nature of the Atonement, by J. MacLeod Campbell (Clarke, 1959, 464 pp., 17s 6d. and The Christian Doctrine of Reconciliation, by James Denney (Clarke, 1959, 339 pp., 17s. 6d) are reviewed by R. A. Finlayson, Professor of Systematic Theology, Free Church College, Edinburgh.
When the older theologians were explicit in their reference to “the finished work of Christ,” it was in order to distinguish between the objective work completed on the Cross, and the unfinished or progressive work of Christ carried on through His Holy Spirit to the end of the age in the regeneration and sanctification of men. And they were equally clear and insistent on the fact that the objective work of Christ was the basis of man’s subjective experience. It is found that historical deviations from the orthodox view of the atonement tended to neglect this distinction and to view the atonement of Christ mainly, if not altogether, in its ethical implications. This can be more clearly seen towards the close of the eighteenth century when, with the disintegration of the Satisfaction Theory under the impact of Rationalism, there arose the school in theology identified with Schleiermacher and Ritschl in Germany and MacLeod Campbell in Scotland, which labored to place the meaning of atonement purely on a basis of history and experience.
Campbell’s theology was so heretical that in 1831 he was deposed from the ministry of the Church of Scotland. Evidently, the mood of the present generation of theologians is more hospitable to his theology since his book has been republished after the lapse of a full century.
MacLeod Campbell’s theory of the atonement is listed even by so discriminating a conservative theologian as Warfield as among the “Vicarious Theories,” though he places it lowest in the group. The vicarious element in the atonement Campbell regards as Christ’s repentance for us. It was a representation and identification with us on the part of Christ which involved no element of imputation on the part of God. In this identification with us, Christ in His great love was able to make our sins His own to such an extent that He could confess them and render to God an adequate repentance for them. This completely satisfied the demands of God and secured for all men the basis on which they could be forgiven. Thus Christ’s vicarious repentance rendered an unlimited atonement that was as extensive in its scope as the whole of mankind. And now the experience of salvation consists in Christ bringing us into the very experience in which our sin involved Him, and then into His experience of the Father’s love and grace. In short, Christ’s atonement for us guides us to the making of a similar atonement for ourselves.
The two questions that arose immediately, to which Campbell offers no satisfying answer, are: Can there be a vicarious repentance, or repentance, in any true sense of the term, on the part of one who has no consciousness of personal sin? And: Is repentance all that is necessary for forgiveness?
The answer to these questions can be found in James Denney’s classic work reissued at the same time. His estimate of Campbell’s book is, from one point of view at least, very high: “Of all books,” he writes, “that have ever been written on the atonement, as God’s way of reconciling men to Himself, MacLeod Campbell’s is probably that which is most completely inspired by the spirit of the truth with which it deals” (p. 120). One is, somehow, accustomed to these testimonials from Denney to positions that he is about to demolish! And his exposition of the New Testament doctrine of reconciliation, and of reconciliation as achieved by Christ, is a complete answer to MacLeod Campbell. Denney’s own position with regard to the basis of forgiveness is crystal clear in such statements as these: “God forgives our sins through Him who died for them: this is the real basis in the New Testament for such a formula as that Christ by the sacrifice of Himself for sin satisfied divine justice” (p. 161). And again: “If we are to stand on New Testament ground, propitiation is a word which we cannot discard and propitiation can never be defined except by reference to God.” Once more: “Its reference is to sin, and what it signifies is that in the very processes through which God’s forgiveness comes to sinners, justice is done and must be done, to the divine order in which sin has been committed. It is divinely necessary,” he adds, “necessary not only with a view to impressing men, but necessary in order that God may be true to himself, and to the moral order He has established in the world, that sin, in the very process in which it is forgiven, should also, in all its reality, be borne. This is what is done by Christ in His blood.”
Denney’s book, written with all the mental acumen and in the brilliant style that characterize all his works, is a valuable corrective to present-day easy views on sin and forgiveness.
R. A. FINLAYSON
East German Witness
A Christian in East Germany, by Johannes Hamel, edited with an introduction by Charles C. West (Association Press, 1960, 126 pp., $3), is reviewed by Carl F. H. Henry.
Here is an exciting window on the Christian witness in East Germany, that heartland of Luther’s Reformation now in the lap of Communism. Johannes Hamel has a message for Christians in the West as well as in the East: that Communists are not simply to be damned, but are to be addressed as sinners for whom Christ died. The reader will note the Barthian stamp on his view of the Bible (pp. 60 ff.), his downgrading of dogmatics (p. 63) and his view of truth (pp. 91, 97 ff.), but he must not escape the force of his plea that the Christian community has a missionary obligation as much to Khrushchev’s world as to Nero’s.
CARL F. H. HENRY
Evangelical Archbishop
Archbishop Mowll, by Marcus L. Loane (Hodder and Stoughton, 1960, 262 pp., 21s.), is reviewed by Noel S. Pollard, formerly Precentor, St. Andrew’s Cathedral, Sydney, New South Wales.
Billy Graham said during his Crusade in Australia that he had “never been in a city where he was so conscious of the influence of one man, who had walked with God, as he was in Sydney, where the influence of the Archbishop was still everywhere evident” (p. 253). This estimate made almost a year after Howard Mowll’s death explains why a biography of him should interest Christians all over the world. The fact that Marcus Loane is the author of this work will be a further recommendation to those who have read his other biographical writings. For those interested in the fortunes of the Evangelicals in the Church of England and in the part played by a fine Evangelical leader in the affairs of the world church, this is a rich storehouse. Dr. Loane has abundantly demonstrated that Archbishop Mowll was the rightful successor to the great Evangelical leaders such as Bishops Ryle, Moule, Knox, and Taylor Smith.
Most valuable of all, Bishop Loane has given us a wonderfully detailed picture of Mowll’s work in the four countries where his influence was greatest. First, in England during his student days, he played an important part at one of the most difficult times in the recent history of Evangelicalism. His name is still remembered and honoured in Cambridge today. Then, during the years of the Great War, he exercised a far-reaching pastoral ministry in Canada among the clergy of that dominion. During the 1920s he was made bishop in West China and he assisted at the birth of the indigenous church there. Finally, in the fourth period of his ministry as Archbishop of Sydney and Primate of Australia, he did much to lay the foundation of a strong and virile Evangelical witness in that vast continent over a period of twenty-five years.
A complete estimate of the man and his work can only come when we can look back over a longer period and see his life in perspective. But for the present here is a most valuable and detailed guide to his career and achievements. Those who know the Diocese of Sydney and who knew the man himself can only give God the praise for all we read in this book.
N. S. POLLARD
Pioneer In Education
J. M. Price: Portrait of a Pioneer, by Clyde Merrill Maguire (Broadman, 1960, 138 pp., $2.95), is reviewed by James DeForest Murch.
Southern Baptist churches are noted for their great Sunday Schools and their progressive ideas about Christian education at the local church level. Much of this accomplishment is due to the pioneer work of John Milburn Price.
Price came from the hills of Fair Dealing, Kentucky, but as a young college student he caught the vision of an educated church, earned doctorates with honors in eastern universities, and founded the School of Christian Education in Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary—one of the most advanced institutions of its kind in the world.
Maguire pays a much-deserved and inspiring tribute to this true scholar who achieved greatly but never lost the common touch.
JAMES DEFOREST MURCH
Unique Phenomenon?
The Prophets of Israel, by Curt Kuhl. Translated from the German. (John Knox Press, 1960, 199 pp., $3.50). Reviewed by Oswald T. Allis, formerly Professor of Old Testament at Westminster Theological Seminary.
The author of this short but meaty volume justifies his choice of subject by describing it as “the unique phenomenon of Israelite prophecy, unparalleled among any other people or in any other literature.” This encourages the reader to expect a rich repast. Unfortunately, when he has completed his examination of the volume, the reader finds that very much of the uniqueness has disappeared. For one of the main results of that “critical” movement which the author represents has been to decrease or destroy that uniqueness. In religious matters Israel, according to Kuhl, “was profoundly influenced by its surroundings”; and its “two essential elements,” the mantic and the ecstatic, are both derived from her neighbors.
One of the distinctive features of biblical prophecy is prediction. In proof of this the reader is referred to Isaiah 40–48. But according to Kuhl 2 Samuel 7:8–17 “has no messianic character whatsoever”; and the same view is taken of Isaiah 7:14 (“the mediaeval Jewish opinion … that the reference is probably to the prophet’s wife, is probably nearest the truth”) and of 9:7. With especial reference to Isaiah 53 he tells us that we must be “content with the inadequate solution that the central figure in the songs is Deutero-Isaiah himself.” The significant thing about this solution is that it is admittedly “inadequate.” According to Kuhl there are three Isaiahs. But to call the third “Trito-Isaiah” is a “misnomer” because Trito is himself composite. There are three Zechariahs, three hands to be distinguished in Obadiah. Ezekiel did not write chapters 34–48. Joel, Jonah, and Daniel belong to the late-post-exilic period.
If Dr. Kuhl really holds that biblical prophecy is so “unique” and so “unparalleled,” he owes it to himself and to his readers to treat it with the respect which such an amazing phenomenon deserves.
OSWALD T. ALLIS
Congregational Way
The Congregational Way of Life, by Arthur A. Rouner, Jr. (Prentice-Hall, 1960, 182 pp., $3.50), is reviewed by Henry David Gray, Minister, South Congregational Church, Hartford, Connecticut.
Arthur Rouner writes a Word for today which is warmly evangelical and profoundly Christian. I can testify, as Chairman of the Committee on Congregational Polity for four years and as one of the nine members of the Constitutional Commission of the General Council during the biennium of its existence (1954–56), that Mr. Rouner’s descriptions are accurate concerning the ministry, the sacraments, the worship, the association, the conferences, the councils and the covenants of our traditional Congregational Way of life.
The value of the book lies in its cogent imposition of the life and work of a Spirit-commanded fellowship. The principle of ‘the gathered Church’ here breathes a commitment to Christ founded on the twofold recognition that Christ is “Lord and King of His Church” (p. 46) and that “His presence gives authority to our order … validity to our sacraments … and … power” (p. 46).
‘Freedom’ is seen to be ‘freedom in Christ’, “the freedom of a voluntary agreement with Christ and with our fellow Christians to walk together in love—to obey the Lord … (p. 64). “Because of this direct line of authority to churches from their Lord, our Way is known as ‘Independency,’ and our churches as ‘free’ churches” (p. 65). In a penetrating and often soul-disturbing manner Mr. Rouner unfolds the theme that “a Congregational Church lives or dies by the dedication and devotion of its people” (p. 68), with special concern for individual and corporate searching of the scriptures and with an enunciation of the principle that all church bodies beyond the local church are “formed to serve” the churches and are “in no sense their masters” (p. 75).
With considerable eloquence Mr. Rouner pleads for a “high ground of faith (which we) can stand on together” (p. 85). The New Testament testimony “Jesus is Lord” is proclaimed as the center of “a free, creative fellowship” (p. 91) with the overwhelming conviction that “God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself.” A Bible faith which “springs from the deep wells of human experience” (p. 95) in living personal relationship to God—this is the transforming reality which needs no creed when conviction leads a man to the personal confession of faith “Jesus is Lord.”
There is also a definitive plea for a consecrated, care-for-each other, expectant, lay-led, adventurous, believing and serving fellowship which radiates “the apostolic joy” (p. 116).
Simplicity, directness and spiritual power characterize the claim that the uniqueness of the Congregational Way is “a whole people worshipping together, working together, and led by God together: a people who bear responsibility as a whole church and not just by delegated committees or representatives” (p. 124).
The church itself is directly and immediately responsible for the nurture, training, ordination, life and work of the minister as one giving full time to the Christian work which is the concern and responsibility of the whole worshipping community. The call is God’s call; education is for service rather than to gain a position of deference, and ordination is at the call of a particular church, by the people of that church.
Mr. Rouner’s book is inadequate in two chief ways. First, he idealizes certain aspects of English Congregational life, particularly the Church Meeting and the Lay Preacher. Possibly he intends a call to us to use these valid ideas in vigorous ways. Second, even the splendid section on “The Way of the Spirit” does not quite come to grips with the nature and power of theology of Christian experience unveiled in Acts and in the Congregational Way at its best.
Despite minor defects this volume is the clearest trumpet-call which Congregationalism in America has heard in more than a quarter century. For the Congregationalist, it is an accurate, reverent and soul-searching call to commitment. It is the best one-volume introduction to the Congregational Way published in many decades.
HENRY DAVID GRAY
The Jew And Christ
The Church Meets Judaism, by Otto A. Piper, Jacob Jocz and Harold Floreen. (Augsburg, 1960, 98 pp., $1.75), reviewed by Victor Buksbazen, Vice President International Hebrew Christian Alliance.
In this small volume three Christian theologians confront the Church with the challenge of contemporary Judaism.
Jakob Jocz, Professor of Systematic Theology at Wycliffe College, Toronto, gives a penetrating analysis of Israel’s spiritual crisis, from the vantage point of a Hebrew Christian. His conclusion: “The modern Jew is a split personality without deep convictions and definite faith in God. The church must help the Jew find his way back to the source of spiritual life.”
Professor Piper of Princeton Theological Seminary analyzes chapters 9–11 of Paul’s epistle to the Church in Rome and decides, “Our task is not to make the Jew a Gentile Christian but a true Jew, a Jew who sees what Christ actually means for the historical mission which his people have in the world.”
Perhaps the most thought-provoking and even embarrassing challenge to the Christian conscience occurs in Professor Floreen’s contribution to the symposium: “The most direct defiance of Christ’s lordship is the refusal to include Jews or others in our evangelism because of prejudice.”
A stimulating and challenging book for all those who take their Christian responsibility to the Jew earnestly.
VICTOR BUKSBAZEN
Christian Dictionary
The Vocabulary of the Church, edited by Richard C. White (Macmillan, 1960, 178 pp., $3.50), is reviewed by Faris D. Whitesell, Professor of Practical Theology, Northern Baptist Theological Seminary.
If you have ever been confused by the phonetic markings and diacritical signs in standard dictionaries and reference works, you will appreciate this book. In one alphabetical index of over ten thousand word entries, it gives the correct pronunciation of words in a simplified form. Avoiding all diacritical markings, the author uses a system of capitalization, syllabylization, and italicizing to indicate at a glance the right pronunciation of any word. His index includes all Bible names and places, the most used Bible words, and the common names and terms from church history, theology, music, psychology, and philosophy—truly the vocabulary of the Church!
Here are examples of his system: Aaron is ER uhn; Barth is BAHRT; Bethphage is BETH fuh jee; Bezalel is BEZ uh lel; Caiaphas is KAY yuh fuhs; Frelinghuysen is FRAY ling high z’n; Geoffrey is JEF ri; Pharoah is FER o, or FAY ro; Nicanor is nigh KAY nawr; Philistine is fi LIS tin, or FIL uhs teen.
This volume will easily prove worthy of a place alongside the dictionary on the desks of pastors and vocational Christian workers.
FARIS D. WHITESELL
Sunday School Lesson Commentaries
Standard Lesson Commentary, edited by Orrin Root (Standard, 1960, 440 pp., $2.95); The Douglass Sunday School Lessons, by Earl L. Douglass (Macmillan, 1960, 494 pp., $3.25); Broadman Comments, by H. I. Hester and J. Winston Pearce (Broadman, 1960, 458 pp., $2.95); The International Lesson Annual, by Charles M. Laymon and Roy L. Smith (Abingdon, 1960, 448 pp., $2.95); Tarbell’s Teachers’ Guide, by Frank S. Mead (Revell, 1960, 384 pp., $2.95); Peloubet’s Select Notes, by Wilbur M. Smith (Wilde, 1960, 423 pp., $2.95); are reviewed by Milford Sholund, Director of Biblical and Educational Research, Gospel Light Publications, Glendale, California.
The 1961 outlines of the International Sunday School Lessons and International Bible Lessons for Christian Teaching include four areas of biblical subject matter. The first quarter plus one extra lesson in the second quarter (14 lessons) includes a comprehensive study of the entire Gospel of John. The second quarter is titled Biblical Wisdom and Ethical Problems. Biblical selections are taken from Proverbs, Job, Ecclesiastes, Luke, Ephesians, and James. The third quarter is devoted to personalities of the New Testament. They are Mary, the mother of Jesus, Andrew, Matthew, Mary and Martha, Thomas, Dorcas, John, Mark, Silas, Lydia, Timothy, Aquila and Priscilla, Titus, and Gaius. The last quarter is on the subject of Christian Growth.
The editors and publishers of comments on the International Uniform Lessons are going to the grass roots constituency to find out how to improve these volumes. Last year (1960) Tarbell’s volumes inserted a return post card asking for certain information. Editor Frank S. Mead learned that the principal concern of the teacher-users was for more application of the lessons to daily living. Sunday School teachers and students not only want to know what the Bible teaches but what this teaching means for their daily lives. Within the volume of a book of about 400 pages, the authors seek to make each biblical passage relevant to contemporary life.
A good illustration of the effort to help the teacher do a better job is shown in the format and organization of the lessons in the Standard Lesson Commentary. Orrin Root works with a larger volume with three columns per page. There is the skillful use of art work, layout, and attractive headings. The typical teacher will be fascinated by the book as he works through it for his weekly assignment. One of the unusual features of this edition is the cumulative index of all the biblical passages used in the Standard Lesson Commentaries from 1954 to 1961, listed on six pages. This should be a handy reference for Sunday School teachers and pastors.
Peloubet’s Select Notes for 1961, edited by Wilbur M. Smith, prince of biblical bibliographers, contains an enormous amount of information on the biblical text and related items. Undoubtedly, faithful users of Peloubet’s Select Notes will have become accustomed to the form of the lesson layout well enough that they know almost where to look for what they want. Dr. Smith has the unusual capacity of finding out what the best expositors of Scripture have to say on a given passage. The teacher who spends the time that he should in meditating and thinking about the compilation of truth that Dr. Smith has condensed for each lesson will be full of his subject. He should know what to teach. He may not get all the help he needs on how to relate this knowledge to the class.
The finest example of applying biblical truth to contemporary life is found in Douglass’ Sunday School Lessons. Earl L. Douglass is a master at compiling facts and presenting them in cogent, incisive language that the Sunday School teacher and pastor can use. There is a modernity about Douglass’ presentation of biblical truth that is appealing. Douglass is as certain as the sun rises that the Bible has the answer to man’s dilemma, but the way he brings the Word of God into contemporary language is fascinating and satisfying.
Broadman Comments has a distinctly Southern Baptist flavor, with a healthy emphasis on the all-sufficiency of the Holy Scriptures in faith and practice. H. I. Hester furnishes the exposition of the text. J. Winston Pearce applies the lesson to life. Teaching outlines and helpful visual aid suggestions add to the practical value of the volume.
Abingdon’s International Lesson Annual, edited by Charles M. Laymon, is prepared in more of the traditional format of the lesson exposition verse by verse with departments featured by well-known writers. For the typical Sunday School teacher there probably is more help in this volume on how to proceed to teach the lesson than is found in the other books. This is an important feature because Sunday School teachers too often are simply “talkers” rather than teachers. The King James Version and the Revised Standard Version are printed in parallel columns for those who prefer to use either one or both of these texts. It is interesting to observe that the King James Version continues to remain the popular text in the exposition of the International Uniform Lessons.
All six volumes abound with suggestions for illuminating the truth by audio-visual aids including films, filmstrips, flat pictures, object lessons, and oral illustrations.
Sunday School teachers and pastors who use these Sunday School lesson helps will find more than they can use each week in their Sunday classes. Undoubtedly much of the material published in these volumes will be useful outside of the Sunday School hour. There is a wealth of biblical material, and fortunately the editors are giving more time each year to teaching the Word of God.
MILFORD SHOLUND
Youth Ministry
The Jack Wyrtzen Story, by George Sweeting (Zondervan, 1960, 151 pp., $2.50), is reviewed by Ted W. Engstrom, President, Youth for Christ International.
The life of Jack Wyrtzen is a flesh and blood commentary on the promise of God in 1 Samuel 2:30—“For them that honor me, I will honor.” Wyrtzen and his Word of Life program have been true to the Word of God through many years of faithfully giving out the gospel of Jesus Christ to the youth of the world.
The Jack Wyrtzen Story is an unusual blending of twentieth century biography and solid biblical teaching. The Christian worker cannot help but be encouraged as he sees what God has done through one dedicated life. Teen-agers will also benefit from reading this book.
TED W. ENGSTROM
Word And Worship
Word and Sacrament: A Preface to Preaching and Worship, by Donald Macleod (Prentice-Hall, 1960, 164 pp., $4.65), is reviewed by C. Ralston Smith, pastor of the First Presbyterian Church, Oklahoma City.
This interesting little book by the Professor of Homiletics at Princeton Theological Seminary might better have been named “Word and Worship” because it has to do with these areas more particularly than with “sacrament” as that word is generally understood. It is written with clarity and persuasiveness. The last third of the book is taken up with several examples of meditations and sermons which purport to illustrate ideas of the author’s thesis.
The volume is especially well documented, perhaps too much so, with two hundred references to at least that many authors in its brief compass. Pastors should be helped much by the reading. My only point of real disagreement was in the unwarranted and unnecessary criticism of the ministry of music in the churches. Our own experiences reveals none of the hazards expressed, and I feel the situation described to be the unusual (p. 111).
C. RALSTON SMITH
Mission Surveys
Safe in Bondage, by Robert W. Spike (Friendship, 1960, 165 pp., $2.75) and One World, One Mission, by William Richey Hogg (Friendship, 1960, 164 pp., $2.95), are reviewed by Harold Lindsell, Dean of the Faculty, Fuller Theological Seminary.
These two books are written, the first about home missions and the second about foreign missions. In the first book the author successfully identifies and isolates the various strands which go to make up the complexity of modern American life. Each in itself is a mission field and the Church has not always witnessed successfully to the people who are caught in the web of circumstances. He deals with the big city and its problems of housing, minority groups, the flight to suburbia, and juvenile delinquency. He touches on regionalism, leisure, youth, TV, and industrial problems. Some solutions are offered for increasing the effectiveness of the Church’s witness. It is a searching, thoughtful, and well written book deserving of attention.
Hogg’s book is an elementary treatment or survey of missionary endeavor in terms of the modern ecumenical movement. The background material is synthetic and helpful to the ordinary reader. He shows the comparative strength of the National Council’s Division of Foreign Missions in relation to the IFMA, and the EFMA of the NAE. Having begun with a consideration of the various groups which make up the Church’s witness to the world the latter part of the book is unfortunately devoted only to illustrations of the effectiveness of the National Council’s Division of Foreign Missions witness.
HAROLD LINDSELL
