Colleges And Institutes On Review
The Bible College Story: Education with Dimension, by S. A. Witmer, Introduction by Merrill C. Tenney (Channel, 1962, 253 pp. with appendix, $3.75), is reviewed by Frank E. Gaebelein, Headmaster of The Stony Brook School, Stony Brook, New York.
Here is the first published full-length treatment of the Bible institute-college movement. Moreover, Dr. Witmer was unusually well qualified to write it. A careful scholar and experienced teacher, he spoke out of years of effective work in Christian education, during which he served as president of Fort Wayne Bible College and, until his death in 1962, as executive secretary of the Accrediting Association of Bible Colleges.
For entirely too long the distinctive contribution of evangelicalism to education through Bible institutes and Bible colleges has been overlooked. Yet the development of the Bible institute-college since the founding of Nyack Missionary College in 1882 and Moody Bible Institute in 1886 has brought to education in the United States and Canada a new genre that occupies a place all its own, quite apart from the liberal arts college on the one hand and the theological seminary on the other hand. As such, and largely through the efforts of Dr. Witmer and other evangelical leaders, the United States Office of Education has recognized the Accrediting Association of Bible Colleges as the one accrediting agency of undergraduate theological education.
The story of the development of the Bible institute and college in America has long needed telling. No group of schools that has influenced the religious life of the country and of the world as widely and deeply as has this group can be overlooked. These schools represent a major force in modern missions both home and foreign, with an important contribution to evangelism. In adult Christian education through evening schools and correspondence courses their influence is great, and they are training a significant number of ministers.
Dr. Witmer has told the story well. From his definition of the Bible institute-college (the cumbersome designation is later in the book shortened to “Bible college”) as “an educational institution whose principal purpose is to prepare students for church vocation or Christian ministries through a program of Biblical and practical education,” to the Appendix with its descriptive list of the Bible institutes and Bible colleges of the United States and Canada, the book is authoritative. Statistical material, reflecting thorough investigation, illustrates the history, philosophy, and outreach of the Bible college.
The 12 chapters of the book find their unifying principle in the subtitle, “Education with Dimension,” the “dimension” being a spiritual one derived from the centrality of Scripture in the life and practice of the Bible institute-college. As Dr. Witmer shows, the spiritual dimension which characterizes these schools is no innovation; on the contrary, it goes back to colonial days and to the very foundations of American education. But whereas the very institutions which were built upon a biblical foundation have long since lost their original Christian dimension, the schools he describes are applying a biblical philosophy to education and are doing this consistently and with awareness of present-day needs.
Dr. Witmer leaves few aspects of his subject untouched. Especially noteworthy are his discussions of the contribution to public education made by Bible colleges in the training of teachers, the vital influence in a time of moral declension of a type of education that takes seriously the moral and spiritual imperatives of the Word of God and that seeks nothing less than the development of Christlike character, and the sound emphasis on practical Christian work that distinguishes these schools. Some of the facts presented are little known. How many educators realize, for example, that correspondence-school education in America was originated at Moody Bible Institute when it first offered its Class Study Programs? And how many, even in the Bible colleges, realize that the Bible institute movement has European roots, as in the Gossner Mission in 1842 and The East London Institute for Home and Foreign Missions in 1872?
Measured against the millions in other areas of education, the 248 Bible institute-colleges in the United States and Canada with their total enrollment of about 25,000 students do not bulk large. Yet no one reading this book can fail to see that their influence is out of all proportion to their size. And it is a growing influence. These schools are here to stay. Therefore, the answer to the question “Is the Bible college necessary?” is simply this: “As long as the Bible is necessary.”
This, then, is a definitive book, essential for a full understanding of education in America. No department of religious education in college or seminary can afford to ignore the information it contains. Dr. Witmer’s presentation is fair and objective. While he writes at times with warmth and persuasiveness, the impression is never that of special pleading. Quite otherwise, there are passages of needed criticism of Bible-college education. Dr. Witmer was too disciplined a thinker to indulge in overstatement. The restraint and accuracy of his presentation lend authority to this volume, which in its field will stand as a landmark.
FRANK E. GAEBELEIN
It’S Just Possible
The Church College in Today’s Culture, by W. O. Doescher (Augsburg, 1963, 127 pp., $2.50), is reviewed by C. Gregg Singer, Professor of History, Catawba College, Salisbury, North Carolina.
The theme of this book—that the church college has a role to play in the shaping of contemporary culture—finds wide support among Christian people. Very few, if any, are disposed to dispute the intimate relationship which should exist between the Christian college and the cultural life of the American people. But the author of this book, a professor of philosophy and dean of the faculty at Capital University in Columbus, Ohio, fails to deal with this theme in the manner it both deserves and demands in such a time as ours. This failure results in part from his describing the task of the Christian college in terms of the contemporary technological revolution, which leads him to evaluate the predicament of modern man from the point of view of a kind of Christian existentialism. (He specifically disavows the existentialist philosophy of Jean Paul Sartre.) Nowhere does he openly state his own reliance upon a Christian existentialism, but this reviewer feels that such an outlook lies at the heart of his argument. He talks of estrangement and the frustrations of modern man and admits that he lives under a sense of guilt, but this estrangement, frustration, and sense of guilt which characterize his life are the result of man’s creatureliness rather than of man’s sinful nature and rebellion against a righteous and holy God.
But an even more fatal weakness in this book is its denial of the supreme and exclusive nature of the biblical revelation. This becomes very evident in the author’s insistence that the Christian is obliged “to hear every word that God speaks and so he must necessarily listen to the word of God spoken in creation”; he takes this line of reasoning to the conclusion that “in the tremendous discoveries of modern science God has granted new insights to this generation which a faithful church must incorporate into her theology” (p. 64). It would thus seem that the evangelical church must listen to science as well as to the Scriptures in the formulation of its creeds. But how long will a church which equates science and the Bible remain evangelical?
Reading for Perspective
CHRISTIANITY TODAY’S REVIEW EDITORS CALL ATTENTION TO THESE NEW TITLES:
★ Triumphant in Trouble, by Paul S. Rees (Revell, $3). A sensitive but ringing proclamation of the promises, the peace, and the encouragement of the Christian Gospel.
★ Evangelical Theology: An Introduction, by Karl Barth (Holt, Rinehart and Winston, $4). Popular lectures, including the five given in the United States, showing the task, place, and wonder of theology, and Barth’s hope that America will develop a theology of freedom.
★ Hurdles to Heaven, by Brian Whitlow (Harper & Row, $3). A dissection of the traditional seven sins and prescriptions for developing the contrary virtues. Done astutely, and with literary brilliance.
This departure from Luther’s insistence on the Scriptures as the sole source of authority for the Church affects the author’s whole outlook on the role of the Christian college in cultural relationships. This shows itself clearly in his assertion that Christian theism is one of the hypotheses that can be held concerning the nature of the universe but “shares its status with many alternatives such as Marxism, Platonism, Evolutionary Naturalism, Pragmatism, Hegelianism” (p. 98). If that Christian theism which must be the frame of reference for Christian educational activity is only one among several possible frames of reference, how can the Church speak with authority to any age? Dr. Doescher is willing to assert the overwhelming balance of probability inherent in the theistic world view of Christianity (p. 99), but this is apparently as far as he will go.
This book is a far cry from that loyalty to the Scriptures which characterized Luther, and its weakness at this point blunts its evangelical thrust to such a degree that it fails to present the role which Christian colleges must play and also fails to offer a sufficiently vigorous Christian theism to support them in their cultural mission. Nothing less than the whole counsel of God is sufficient as a frame of reference for Christian educational activity.
C. GREGG SINGER
A Critical Look
Missions In Crisis, by Eric S. Fife and Arthur F. Glasser (Inter-Varsity Press, 1961, 269 pp., $3.75; paper $2.25), is reviewed by Wade T. Coggins, Assistant Executive Secretary, Evangelical Foreign Missions Association, Washington, D. C.
In Missions In Crisis two young evangelical leaders in missions’ thinking take a hard look at the vital questions facing the Church’s missionary endeavor today. They wrestle with the nature of revolution and its effect on the world in which the Great Commission must be carried out.
The first half of the book is given to a study of pressing external and internal problems confronting the Church. This study is not overly pessimistic but rather is realistic in setting the stage for matters of strategy to be discussed in the second half of the book.
The external forces which challenge the Church are summed up under the title “The Church On The Defensive,” which perhaps sounds more defeatist than the content warrants. Included in this part of the book is a serious study on the nature of nationalism, which is so often mentioned as a problem in missionary work. The authors do not label it “good” or “bad,” but classify at least three types of nationalism in an effort to understand underlying philosophies. They see the terms “self-expressive nationalism,” “self-satisfied nationalism,” and “self-assertive nationalism” as summing up the basic types.
In looking at Communism as a challenger of the Church, the authors insist that to reach the world that is being wooed by Communism “the missionary today must know the communist movement thoroughly. What is the true nature of communism? What is its basic philosophy? What are its attractions? What is its great strength?” (p. 63). They ask further: “But where is communist dogma weak? Like all man-made systems it has glaring inadequacies. What are they?” (p. 64).
A penetrating study of the lessons the Church should learn from the China exodus brings to concrete terms the problems of missions and Communism. The authors feel that “prominent in the postexilic writings of former China missionaries is their profound realization that the deepest lessons learned from God concerned faith and not service” (p. 74).
The reader will be left with some hard questions for which he must seek his own answers, since the authors do not offer any. Here is an example (growing out of the discussion of the China exodus): “Was the whole of God’s purpose confined to that which took place within the walls of local churches or in evangelistic efforts among the unsaved? Did He really endorse the terrible passivity of Christians toward social problems? Was their withdrawal from the harsh realities of the suffering world outside the church walls His good, acceptable, and perfect will?” (pp. 78, 79).
The authors do not overlook the internal tensions of Christendom as reflected in recent writings on missionary strategy. They discuss the development and direction of the ecumenical movement and the concerns expressed by many for its effect on missions.
In the area of strategy considerable emphasis is placed upon reaching the great city populations and the students of the world. Any attempt to set up priorities of those to whom the Gospel should go first has insurmountable problems, but Fife and Glasser make a strong case for the importance of the above-mentioned segments of society.
In this discussion of strategy the closing chapters of the book review some of the strategic programs currently being used in proclaiming the Message effectively.
The book has a modest but well-chosen bibliography.
WADE T. COGGINS
Barth In Focus
Portrait of Karl Barth, by Georges Casalis, translated and introduced by Robert McAfee Brown (Doubleday, 1963, 136 pp., $3.50), is reviewed by James Daane, Editorial Associate, CHRISTIANITY TODAY.
People rarely like their own portraits, but Barth likes this one drawn by Georges Casalis. Closing his ears to “overabundant praises,” Barth credits the author with having “understood my thought” and having “discovered to my joy the same intent which is at the foundation of my own life and work.”
Since Barth recognizes himself and his thought in the book, and since the book makes no attempt to be critical of Barth’s thought, the book is insured against any substantial criticism. Indeed, would it not be highly impolite to criticize a portrait which its subject finds satisfactory?
The book is in fact a valuable portrayal of Barth’s background, his participation in the world in which he lived, and the processes in which his life and thought developed. Here is a concise record of what Barth wrote and how, when, and why, as well as a calendar of his whole authorship defined in reference to the history of his times. For those who have read or intend to read Barth, the book is very helpful in that it puts Barth’s life and writings in their historical perspective. This is no small service for the life of a man who has both lived and written so long and so much. The author himself calls his book a “guidebook.” It is indeed a kind of Barthian Baedeker for the reader who wishes to visit the times and places traversed by Barth’s life and thought.
If I dared venture any criticism it would be that the portrait could have given more of Barth the man, and not so exclusively Barth the theologian. But even such criticism could be countered by the reminder that theology for Barth is so comprehensively sweeping that the whole Barth is Barth the theologian.
Robert McAfee Brown, who translated the book from the French, provides a superbly written introduction, whose literary eloquence more equals the demands of the book’s subject than does the more prosaic style of the book itself.
JAMES DAANE
The First Twenty-Five
Called Unto Holiness, The Story of the Nazarenes: The Formative Years, by Timothy L. Smith (Nazarene Publishing House, 1962, 413 pp., $4.95), is reviewed by Ralph Earle, Professor of New Testament, Nazarene Theological Seminary, Kansas City, Missouri.
The Church of the Nazarene is one of the younger denominations. Born at Pilot Point, Texas, on October 13, 1908, it now numbers over a third of a million members in the United States and Canada, in addition to a large constituency in more than 40 foreign fields. This volume covers the first 25 years of its history.
The author, associate professor of history and education at the University of Minnesota, spent many months in full-time research before beginning to write. He visited every section of the nation in order to get firsthand information from living pioneers and to examine all available archives. The thorough research, extensive documentation (50 pages of notes), and excellent literary style all contribute to the value of the book.
The story begins with the holiness revival of 1858–88. The first of these years is famous for the large daily prayer meetings which “broke out almost spontaneously in New York, Philadelphia, Chicago, and nearly every city and town in the northern states” (p. 11). In the same year William E. Boardman published The Higher Christian Life, which sold some 200,000 copies in the United States and England. Also in that year the leading Baptist evangelist, Dr. A. B. Earle, began to profess and preach “the rest of faith,” as he called it.
It is often assumed that the Church of the Nazarene is a “split-off” from The Methodist Church, because of its strong emphasis on the Wesleyan doctrine of Christian perfection. But Smith points out that among the early leaders—several of whom became general superintendents of the new denomination—were Baptists, Presbyterians, Congregationalists, Friends, and members of other prominent groups.
The author does not gloss over the difficulties faced in molding these many types into a single denomination. Obviously there were critical questions of church order and standards, to say nothing of exact doctrinal formularies. But associations from various parts of the country finally amalgamated.
The first main merger took place in Chicago in 1907, when representatives from New York and New England met with delegates from the Church of the Nazarene in California. The next year the large southern constituency joined, making it a national denomination. In subsequent years other groups in the United States, Canada, and the British Isles became Nazarene.
Dr. Smith (who received the Ph.D. in history from Harvard in 1955) not only presents a wealth of factual data, but also interprets it, with a keen historian’s insight into trends and influences. Probably no previous writer had achieved such a clear perspective of the varying fortunes and misfortunes of the holiness movement of the past 100 years. His work will be welcomed as an important contribution to the understanding of this significant chapter in American church history.
RALPH EARLE
Eternal Greatness
The Greatness of Christ, by John H. Patterson (Victory, 1962, 121 pp., 10s. 6d.), is reviewed by A. R. Millard, Temporary Assistant Keeper, Department of Western Asiatic Antiquities, The British Museum.
Fashions are almost as changeable in theology as in clothes, but some themes are immutable; the cardinal topic treated in this book is as eternal as its Subject. From a description in the first chapter of the meaning of the Fall both to God and to man and the requirements for any reconciliation, the author passes to four different considerations of the great Reconciler. Three evidences of Christ’s greatness are shown in the remaining chapters: the authority of the Kingdom, the confidence of the House of God, and the unity of the Holy City.
The author is lecturer in geography at the University of St. Andrews. His style is simple and lucid, the result of mature experiencing of what he writes. This book should evoke from all who read it the humble and joyful exclamation, “How great Thou art!”
A. R. MILLARD
For ‘Lawmen’
Religion and the Law, Of Church and State and the Supreme Court, by Philip B. Kurland (Aldine, 1962, 127 pp., $3.95), is reviewed by John Feikens, attorney, Detroit, Michigan.
To the reviewer of this book, a lawyer by profession, and hopefully in thought process, it is disconcerting if not downright frustrating to note the many lay experts making uninformed observations on large issues of Constitutional law. Businessmen who would not depreciate a machine for tax purposes without consulting tax counsel are nonetheless readily, and without investigation, making vigorous pronouncements as to legal issues involved in the complex problems of the integration of Negro citizens. There are many who without batting an eye indulge themselves in conversational chest-beating that Chief Justice Warren should be impeached. Similarly, many sincere Christian people rush into the legal arena of church and state relations, apparently feeling that their faith will see them through, that dedication in matters spiritual gives them expertise in such complicated Constitutional questions, that they have “insight” mainly because the matter is, after all, one of religion.
Professor Kurland’s book will get such persons back on high ground and will teach them and all others who desire instruction what the state of the law of church and state and the United States Supreme Court really is.
This work (brief, really) is masterful. It combines superlative analogy and excellent scholarship. It is exhaustive but not tiring—a thorough analysis of fundamental legal principles evolving in this most sensitive area.
The book has wonderfully quotable quotes. For example: “It is the genius of the common law and thus of American Constitutional law that its growth and principles are measured in terms of concrete, factual situations, or at least, with regard to factual situations as concrete a the deficiencies of our adversary system permit them to be.” Again: “My own reading of the cases leads me to the conclusion that aid to parochial schools is non-unconstitutional so long as it takes a non-discriminatory form. I am at least equally convinced that the segregation of school children by religion is an unmitigated evil. As a judge I should have to sustain the constitutionality of such legislation; as a legislator, I should have to vote against its passage.”
His thesis is that “the proper construction of the religion clauses of the first amendment (of the United States Constitution) is that the freedom and separation clauses should be read as a single precept; that government cannot utilize religion as a standard for action or inaction because these clauses prohibit classification in terms of religion either to confer a benefit or to impose a burden,” and that the thesis offered “is meant to provide a starting point for solutions to problems brought before the Court, not a mechanical answer to them.”
Quoting Mr. Justice Brandeis, “We must be ever on guard lest we erect our prejudices into legal principles,” Kurland traces the significant cases decided by the United States Supreme Court so that the reader is enabled to make a judgment “as to what the law is likely to be if the problem of parochial school aid or a similar question comes to the court for decision.”
Thus parents interested in Christian schools and members of school boards and committees working on long-range plans for private religiously oriented education will find great benefit here.
Those in these groups who by social and political action will seek to attain accelerated evolution of the law in favor of their own positions will need this study to plan strategy.
Kurland, it must be said, gives them warning. He writes: “There has been no consistency in the judicial opinions of the court.… The method of weighing Constitutional objectives in order to choose among them affords no guidance for further action except on what Holmes called a ‘pots and pans’ basis.” Nonetheless, the evolving laws as rules are laid out here, and the tacticians, the strategists, and informed citizens must become acquainted with them.
JOHN FEIKENS
Dystopias
From Utopia to Nightmare, by Chad Walsh (Harper & Row, 1962, 191 pp., $4), is reviewed by Arthur F. Holmes, Associate Professor and Director of Philosophy, Wheaton College, Illinois.
From Chad Walsh’s pen has come another fascinating volume of interest and worth to evangelicals. The author presents the results of several years’ work on his theme with the same literary skill that has marked his other writings.
He traces the utopian ideal from Plato’s Republic onwards, and affords the reader a panoramic survey of Plato’s company: Thomas More, Francis Bacon, Campanella, Edward Bellamy, H. G. Wells, and others. But utopianism has waned in this century, and dystopias now take their place: Evelyn Waugh, E. M. Forster, Aldous Huxley, and George Orwell figure large. The author is not content to summarize others, however. He enumerates the recurrent themes of utopia and dystopia; he asks why the latter is now more in favor; he compares the two sets of ideas and adduces related Christian themes.
Of particular interest are the dystopian’s demurrers regarding the goodness of man, his awareness of the tension between material satisfaction and creative individuality, and his pessimism regarding technological societies. For one’s view of society, be it optimistic or pessimistic, rests on one’s view of man, and the redemption of society can hardly be accomplished by any happiness-engineering that fails to restore to man the dignity of God’s children. For a readable survey of literature’s commentary on human optimism and pessimism, this would be hard to excel.
ARTHUR F. HOLMES
Best In Fifty Years
The Greatness That Was Babylon, by H. W. F. Saggs (Hawthorn, 1962, 562 pp., $9.95), is reviewed by Francis Rue Steele, Home Secretary of North Africa Mission, Upper Darby, Pennsylvania.
The Bible is virtually unique among the world’s great religious books in that it records not only ideas about God but also the acts of God in history, acts which affected the lives of real people who lived long ago. In this sense the Revelation of God is closely related to history. It treats of real events that occurred at specific places at definite points of time. For this reason the Bible student has a special interest in the reconstruction of ancient history in Bible lands. Such information throws welcome light on the historic background of the unfolding plan of redemption set forth in Scripture. Mr. Saggs has performed a much needed service in this field for biblical studies; no comparable volume has been published in English during the past half century. Every serious Bible student must have this book in his library.
Here we have a survey of the history of Mesopotamia (the title “Babylon” is misleading) from the first appearance of human cultural remains to the conquest of the Neo-Babylonian Empire by the Persians. And not only political history—frequently described mainly in terms of military campaigns—but economic and cultural history as well are sketched in a style calculated to appeal to the educated non-specialist. Sixty-six plates and fourteen cuts admirably illustrate the text.
Writing a history of Mesopotamia is a formidable task. The very abundance of data, welcome as it is, complicates analysis of the problems resulting from conflicting evidence. We should be all the more grateful to Saggs for his courage and industry. The chapter on the relationship between our present civilization and ancient Mesopotamia based on such items as metrology, mathematics, and law is especially valuable. Research over the past century has pushed back our cultural horizon beyond Greece another thousand years to Mesopotamia. It is helpful to collect this evidence and place it in proper perspective. Conservative Bible scholars will not find all of Sagg’s identifications and explanations acceptable since he is unduly favorable to liberal criticism.
The rather extensive bibliographical notices with which the volume closes will facilitate further study of items of special interest to the reader. But it is to be regretted that footnotes to identify special citations and factual statements are absent. One further glaring omission must be noted; there is only one map in the text (a line cut), and the sketch maps inside the boards are limited in scope. A series of maps depicting the geographical and political development would greatly enhance the usefulness of the book. This oversight should be corrected in a subsequent edition.
FRANCIS RUE STEELE
Paperbacks
Preaching and Congregation, by Jean-Jacques Von Allmen (John Knox, 1962, 67 pp., $1.50). A substantial study of such matters as the miracle of preaching and its place in worship, together with a consideration of preaching as the Reformed contribution to the ecumenical movement.
Saints, Signs and Symbols, by W. Ellwood Post (Morehouse-Barlow, 1962, 80 pp., $.85). Sketches and terse descriptions of religious symbols used in the Church.
The Ministry of the Spirit, Selected Writings of Roland Allen, ed. by David M. Paton (Eerdmans, 1962, 208 pp., $1.65). A very competent discussion of the role of the Holy Spirit in the missionary enterprise, by a man whose stature continues to grow. First American edition.
The Religious Factor, by Gerhard Lenski (Doubleday, 1963, 421 pp., $1.45). A sociological study of the influence of religion on the political, economic, and family life of Protestants, Jews, and Roman Catholics in the city of Detroit. Revised; first printed in 1961.
Anselm: Fides Quaerens Intellectum (Faith in Search of Understanding), by Karl Barth (World, 1962, 173 pp., $1.35). Barth takes the measure of Anselm’s celebrated argument for the existence of God. Important for an understanding of both Anselm and Barth—particularly for the latter’s theological method. For scholars only.
Ploughing in Hope, by Kathleen Callow (Victory Press, 1962, 96 pp., 4s. 6d.). An account in unusual spiritual depth vividly pointing up the problems and rewards of two Wyclilfe Bible translators working among the Indians in Brazil.
The Christian Idea of History, by Donald C. Masters (Waterloo Lutheran University, Waterloo, Ontario, 1962, 37 pp., $1). Brief discussion of many facets of a Christian philosophy of history; delivered as a lecture at Waterloo Lutheran University.
