We Here Read Augustine
The Word of God According to St. Augustine, by A. D. R. Polman (Eerdmans, 1962, 242 pp., $5), is reviewed by Addison H. Leitch, professor of philosophy and religion, Tarkio College, Tarkio, Missouri.
Not since the days of MacKinnon in his volumes on Luther and Calvin have I run into the mastery of mass material which is to be found in Polman’s book. He assures us in his introductory remarks that whatever else we read in the book, we will read Augustine, and this we do. But, in addition to long quotations, we also have Polman’s artistry by which great portions of Augustine are paraphrased or digested. The impact of direct quotation and paraphrase is very impressive.
The Word of God According to St. Augustine is the first volume in Polman’s major work on the theology of St. Augustine and gives us great promise of riches ahead. Other volumes in the proposed series are on the doctrine of God, Christology, and Church and sacrament. Each volume, moreover, is to be complete in its own right; this is certainly true of the present volume.
Augustine’s theology is not systematic (“Augustine frequently corrected his out bursts of zeal,” p. 101), and thus far no one has made a systematic study of his doctrine of Scripture from his unsystematic material. “Significantly enough, though the Word of God took so important a place in St. Augustine’s life and thoughts, no comprehensive study on this subject has been published.… We shall make a point of letting St. Augustine speak for himself” (p. 11). Both of these things the author has done very well. The book is also a rich source of material on some of Augustine’s opponents, the argument with Faustus being a classic portion of this volume.
The strongest chapter is “The Word of God as Proclamation.” This is refreshingly new material, not only on the Protestant position but on the usual discussion of the Roman Catholic position. The most disappointing is “The Word of God in Holy Scripture”—possibly because we are looking in Augustine for more than he is giving us on the conservative view of Scripture. One is impressed again with Augustine’s strangeness of allegory. Impressive also are the differences of emphasis in the Church of Augustine’s day as against what we think is important today.
The author sums up the last chapter in a climax of profound devotional material from Augustine himself.
ADDISON H. LEITCH
Treason Yet
Apologetics and Evangelism, by J. V. Langmead Casserley (Westminster, 1962, 186 pp., $4), is reviewed by C. Gregg Singer, professor of history, Catawba College, Salisbury, North Carolina.
In its concern for the mutual relevance of the sociological, philosophical, and theological disciplines, this study, by the professor of philosophical theology at Sea-bury-Western Theological Seminary (Evanston, Ill.), is a far cry from the usual evangelical approach to Christian apologetics. Although the author, an Episcopal clergyman, emphasizes the mutual relevance of these three disciplines, his main thrust is in the direction of a sociological apologetic. Thus for his basic thesis he adopts the sociological dictum that in a given society, the “consecrated elite will serve the mass culture and the mass life loyally because it knows that this mass life is its inevitable and proper context” (p. 16). He then assumes that what is true for society at large is also true for the Church, and thus “the main task of elite thought … is to understand and express the virtues of mass thought, with a view to rending culture and society sufficiently conscious of them to be able to defend and preserve them” (p. 23).
Proceeding on the basis of this assumption, Casserley indicts the Reformation because it failed to realize this sociological duty of theology; he says that the Reformers “had not sufficient understanding of the characteristic excellencies of the church’s traditions to succeed in such a venture … namely to help the church where it has been right so that it may continue to be right with greater integrity than in the past” (p. 37). He also accuses CHRISTIANITY TODAY of the same kind of treason to mass culture.
Although he shows a certain sympathy with Bultmann, and admits that there are myths in the Scriptures, he nevertheless holds that liberalism has sinned against God, the Bible, the historic faith, and reason.
What solution, then, does he offer to the problem of formulating a meaningful apologetics for the masses in contemporary society? He finds the answer in a return to the system of Thomas Aquinas because he represented the “elite mind achieving not only a mastery of its own proper elite material, but also a sympathetic understanding of the implicit mass thought underlying the whole structure of the mass life” (p. 37).
There is in this book no real apologetical system worthy of the name, and there is even less evangelism. In fact, apart from the title, evangelism is hardly mentioned. This reviewer is at a loss to understand how a press bearing the name “Westminster” can publish a book which presents Calvin and Luther as sincere but grossly mistaken in their theology, and then offers, in place of their Reformation theology, an apologetical system which is the bulwark of the Roman Catholic system of thought. It seems almost as if the presses of the major Protestant denominations are engaged in some kind of a crusade, or even conspiracy, to destroy our Reformation heritage in a vain effort to find some kind of ecumenical substitute which lacks both the content and authenticity of the historic faith once delivered to the saints.
C. GREGG SINGER
It Opens Windows
Before the Bible, by Cyrus H. Gordon (Harper and Row, 1963, 319 pp., $6, or 35s.), is reviewed by K. A. Kitchen, lecturer in Egyptian and Coptic, Liverpool University, Liverpool, England.
In this book the professor of Near Eastern studies at Brandeis University seeks to demonstrate that the “Greek and Hebrew civilizations are parallel structures built upon the same East Mediterranean foundations” (pp. 9, 302) of the second millennium B.C.—that, in other words, the peoples of the Aegean and of Syria-Palestine shared an appreciable number of social and religious attitudes and conventions, and characteristic forms and topics in epic (or epic-like) literature at that period.
This shows up when a comparison is made of data from the Homeric epics (reflecting the world of the Mycenaean/Achaean Greeks), from the Old Testament record down to David’s time, and from the North-Canaanite literature from Ugarit in Phoenicia. Many of the parallels drawn by Gordon between these three sources seem to reflect a common stock of attitudes and usages which cannot normally be shown (so far) to have been borrowed from any one source by the other cultures. Various parallels are probably the result of “convergence,” i.e., the human mind’s arriving at the same result in similar circumstances. Then some items probably are cases of cultural “transference” or borrowing. But Gordon’s comparisons reach beyond the Aegean and the Levant, out into Mesopotamia, Egypt, and Asia Minor (Hittites) for parallels. Very often, the Mesopotamian and Egyptian sources used are older than our Aegean or Hebrew material, and cultural diffusion from the older to later is either likely or certain.
Gordon’s book is an organic treatment of his theme. After the Introduction, in which the thesis is stated and illustrated, comes “Channels of Transmissions,” an important chapter that rightly emphasizes the multiplicity of contacts (trade, conquests, migrations, “colonies,” traveling “professionals,” and so on) that facilitated fruitful intercourse between the peoples of the Ancient Near East at various social levels. Then in successive chapters Gordon adduces his parallels from the literatures of Mesopotamia and the Hittites, of Egypt, and especially of Ugarit, in each case giving brief notes on the historical setting. In Chapter VI, he introduces the ancient scripts of Crete together with his decipherment of the Linear A script as containing a Northwest Semitic language. In the two final chapters, he gives further parallels between Homer and the Orient and between the Old Testament and early Greek data, ending with a postscript on his Semitic decipherment of the Eteocretan inscriptions.
The whole is eminently readable, fascinates from start to finish, and helps to open one’s mind to all manner of new possibilities. Orientalist Gordon’s emphasis (p. 20) is rightly on the primary source-material from antiquity itself—and not on the futile citation of others’ subjective opinions that so largely blights Old Testament scholarship. His brief remarks on attitudes acquired in learning are salutary (pp. 11, 12, 127).
Gordon’s main thesis of a large measure of common cultural background for the Aegean and Levant in the second millennium B.C. may safely be conceded; both here and in his Homer and Bible (1955) he gives in outline enough weight of varied comparative data to amply justify his point. The only overall objection one can voice is that his treatment is so much in outline only; a fuller collection and more detailed weighing of data is desirable in order to see more clearly just how much is established. Gordon’s parallels are not all of equal scope or weight. In the Introduction, the triads-of-heroes parallel is valuable; the chapters on channels of transmission and Egypt contain many good points, as does the literary part of chapter III. In the long chapter on Ugarit, comparisons with the KRT-text are often very useful; the same can be said for much of chapter VII (Homer and Orient) and parts of VIII. It would be easy to add to, and reinforce, not a few of Gordon’s items.
Reading for prespective
CHRISTIANITY TODAY’S REVIEW EDITORS CALL ATTENTION TO THESE NEW TITLES:
★ The Church and Its Ministry, by David Belgum (Prentice-Hall, $6.60). A solid study of the ministry of the Church in the wide areas of its pastoral concerns.
★ Man in the Struggle for Peace, by Charles Malik (Har per & Row, $5). Prominent Christian statesman lays strategy for a distinctively Western revolution which will prepare the world for peace as well as for war.
★ Things Most Surely Believed, edited by Clarence S. Roddy (Revell, $3.95). The faculty of Fuller Theological Seminary in a fifteen-voice symposium declares its understanding of and commitment to the great affirmations of the Christian faith.
The reviewer is as averse to needless emendation as anyone, but Gordon’s ex planation of First Samuel 13:1 is too forced for its context (pp. 228, 229); the suggestion about Psalm 23:5 (p. 187) will raise with most of us simply a laugh or a gasp, but not conviction in context. Two points on the patriarchs are very dubious. The evidence for Ur of the Chaldees being Ur of the Sumerians (rather than in North) and the sheer unreality of Abraham’s ever having been a state-controlled tamkarum-merchant of the Hittite realm have been clearly shown by H. W. F. Saggs in Iraq (22 [1960], pp. 200–209).
The space-limits of this review exclude any real comment here on the lively debate about the validity of Professor Gordon’s Semitic decipherments of Minoan Linear A and Eteocretan (chapters VI and VIII, end). His solution is very attractive, and if true would certainly strengthen the main line of this book.
Here is a real contribution to study of the Ancient Near Eastern background of the Old Testament; some points will fall by the wayside, but many others are worthy of more detailed study. Professor Gordon is ever an independent investigator of the original Oriental source-data, and the reviewer, for one, always learns something of value from his publications.
K. A. KITCHEN
Testament Of Life
A Private and Public Faith, by William Stringfellow (Eerdmans, 1962, 93 pp., $3), is reviewed by John Feikens, attorney, Detroit, Michigan.
This is a personal testament. Its author is a practicing lawyer, thirty-five years of age, a member of a New York City law firm.
Lawyers customarily draft testaments for others. This lawyer has made one for himself. Testaments drawn for others contemplate the passing at death of the testator’s personal property to others. This testament speaks of life—what it means from a Christian’s viewpoint and how it may be shared.
Because it is a testament, it is subjective, a personal testimony. But this subjectiveness does give one a feeling that it is too much a spontaneous outpouring. A lawyer might say—too much conclusion and not enough fact.
I think Mr. Stringfellow is at his best in the too few instances in which he relates conclusions he bases on his own concrete experiences. He has a wealth of background for this, practicing as he does in New York City. Had the private faith of this lawyer, already a prominent Episcopal layman, been demonstrated in terms of his multiple actual experiences as a lawyer-layman, the book would have had greater depth. While Mr. Stringfellow has a solid capacity for exegesis, one would like to read more about his Christian faith in actual practice.
As we work out God’s will in our own time, we need strong direction both from the pulpit and from informed laymen. Because of Mr. Stringfellow’s conviction and dedication we will undoubtedly hear more from him, and it will probably be in this area. For this is the goal to which I sense he is moving, and his insight into the central issues of Christianity will cause its realization.
JOHN FEIKENS
Bishop, Make Room
The Christian in Society, by Jeremiah Newman (Helicon, 1962, 208 pp., $4.50), is reviewed by Earle E. Cairns, chairman of the Department of History and Political Science, Wheaton College, Wheaton, Illinois.
The role of the Christian in society and its theological rationalization are occupying Protestantism increasingly. This Roman Catholic writer faces the added problem of controlling social action by the hierarchy. Thus the book involves discussion of the role of the laity in the church as well as in civil society.
History is canvassed in a scholarly fashion to show how healthy lay participation in the Apostolic and the Old Catholic Churches gave way in the medieval institutional church to a clerical reaction against lay intrusion into clerical concerns. This intrusion and monasticism led to an unhealthy bifurcation of clergy and laity and to the opposite evil of clerical domination of the laity. This in turn brought about the democratic reaction of conciliarism and, according to Newman, the democratic Reformation. The author seeks to restore the laity to its proper place in his church.
Theology is next enlisted to justify an apostolate of the laity. This is done by a distinction between the powers of the hierarchy in the institutional church and the laity as an essential part of the Church conceived as the community of Christians in the world. The lay apostolate is conferred in Baptism and Confirmation as a unified rite of initiation into prophetic service. This lay apostolate of witness in the Church and to the world and the “Christianizing” of social institutions must always be united with, and sub ordinate to, the hierarchial apostolate (pp. 71, 106). The writer pleads for more consideration of the Church as Community.
He then discusses a positive approach to a theology of social action to counter the humanism of nineteenth-century democratic liberalism and the Industrial Revolution. The consequent withdrawal of the Church to preach only transcendent personal salvation must give way to a social theology which deals with present life.
This involves the juridical question of a legal framework in canon law for such a lay apostolate in which the bishop might set apart laymen for spiritual and social service. Thus the Catholic Social Movement in Christian Democratic parties would be given sound juridical, theological, and historical foundations.
EARLE E. CAIRNS
Magnum Opus
New Testament Introduction: Hebrews to Revelation, by Donald Guthrie (Inter-Varsity, 1962, 320 pp., $4.95), is reviewed by Ronald A. Ward, professor of New Testament, Wycliffe College, Toronto, Canada.
Thirty years ago the students of a conservative evangelical seminary approached their principal with objections to the study of A. S. Peake’s Critical Introduction to the New Testament. They were told, sympathetically but firmly, that until evangelicals bestirred themselves and wrote the books there was no alternative. In those days it was, almost, Peake or nothing.
Times have changed, and Dr. Guthrie’s work is a massive indication of this fact. The companion volume on The Pauline Epistles was published in 1961, and we eagerly await the final one on the Gospels and Acts. Already this magnum opus is being compared with similar products of Zahn and Moffatt. The author deals comprehensively and exhaustively with questions of date and destination, author ship and purpose. Problems which many had thought to be settled are found to be still unsettled; “closed” questions are found to be wide open. Dr. Guthrie’s learning is immense, as a study of the footnotes and the bibliographies will prove. Discussion is detailed, courteous, and fair. The author gives both sides of disputed matters—yet it is not the complete objectivity of an F. C. Baur, with no trace of personal needs. Scrupulously fair, Dr. Guthrie is a believer with a conservative sympathy and an evangelical experience. (“Spiritual quality is not a matter of skill, but of inspiration.”)
It is not given to every scholar to avoid mental indigestion, but the author has assimilated his reading well; his knowledge is a unity. Has the more polished Greek of Jude been marred in Second Peter? It is the opposite with Mark and Matthew: it is generally thought that Matthew polished Mark. A man immersed in writing twenty-five pages of concentrated scholarship on Jude’s epistle might be forgiven for forgetting even the existence of the synoptics.
Dr. Guthrie is an authority on pseudonymity, and his mastery in this field is apparent though not obtrusive. He challenges the current view which holds the pseudonym to be a harmless device and an accepted literary convention. In con sequence of this—and of the book as a whole—we can hold fast to many a traditional view with academic integrity. There is a useful analysis of the “contents” of each New Testament book considered. The format is excellent and the misprints few.
The author is to be congratulated—and thanked. This will be a standard work for a generation.
RONALD A. WARD
Around And Back
Full Circle, by Grace Lumpkin (Western Islands [395 Concord Ave., Belmont 78, Mass.], 1962, 312 pp., $4), is reviewed by Bastian Kruithof, associate professor of Bible, Hope College, Holland, Michigan.
If truth is stranger than fiction, good fiction can present truth. In this novel Grace Lumpkin has done that very thing. Her story is a challenging one, all the more so because it is in large part her own.
A mother and her daughter, left stranded by a clergyman husband and father, dedicate themselves to the Communist cause. Years of cell meetings and planning go by with dedication there to the nth degree. But one day the daughter is ousted from the party. The blow affects her to the extent of shattering her mind. In quiet Bethel, far away from New York, the mother devotes herself to nursing her child back to normal life. She is disturbed by the thought that her daughter had been found on the steps of a church by a policeman. A Christian Negress and a converted Jew slowly but certainly influence the mother to surrender to the Christian faith. In the end the derelict husband and father returns as a sodden alcoholic. The daughter revives and reaches out her hand to her father and the reunion takes place. At least two lives have come full circle, with the promise of a third.
Grace Lumpkin writes well. In past years one of her novels won the Maxim Gorky Award for the best proletarian novel. Full Circle should win her another award in the hearts and minds of Christians and of those who are reaching for the light. It is an exposé of the ruthless ness and hopelessness of Communism and a firm presentation of the Christian faith with all its implications. For it is love, not hatred and violence, that is still the greatest of these.
Put Full Circle next to To Kill A Mockingbird. It ranges above it in positive Christian conviction.
BASTIAN KRUITHOF
Book Briefs
Strength to Love, by Martin Luther King, Jr. (Harper & Row, 1963, 146 pp., $3.50). Sermons whose background is the evils of war and of economic and racial injustice. Each sermon has been preached in the pulpit; three written from Georgia jails.
Evangelism in the Early Church, by Stan ley C. Brown (Eerdmans, 1963, 73 pp., $2). A handbook for individual or group study of evangelism in the light of Acts.
Neurotics in the Church, by Robert James St. Clair (Revell, 1963, 251 pp., $4.50). The author deals with the neurotic church and church member and shows that the clergyman is often a distressing element to the neurotic personality. The book hits hard, though it is sometimes hard to see just what it is trying to hit.
The Bible and the Church, by Samuel Terrien (Westminster, 1963, 95 pp., $1.50). An approach to the Bible which predetermines its significance in a manner that will set many theological teeth on edge. But for all of that, highly readable and highly revelatory of modern views concerning Scripture.
Biblical Archaeology, by G. Ernest Wright (Westminster, 1963, 291 pp., $10.95). Re vised and expanded by the demands of recent excavational discoveries. With drawings, photographs, reconstructions, and maps. A book of fine craftsmanship.
New Testament Aprocrypha, Vol. I: Gospels and Related Writings, edited by Wilhelm Schneemelcher, English translation by R. McL. Wilson (Westminster, 1963, 531 pp., $7.50). Collection of the gospels of Truth, of Mary, of The Twelve, of Philip, of Thomas, of Judas, and a host of others: with a general discussion of the subject, and guidance on using the book.
Christian Priorities, by Donald Coggan (Harper & Row, 1963, 172 pp., $3.50). Twenty short essays deal lucidly and forcefully with Christian truths which should be given priority of thought and action in the world of today.
The Asians, by Thomas Welty (Lippincott, 1963, 344 pp., $4.95). Introducing the people of Asia: their religions, their women, their family and social life, their politics and economics. Clear, informative.
Creeds and Confessions, by Erik Routley (Westminster, 1963, 159 pp., $3.50; Duck worth, 1962, 15s.). Seven of its ten chapters treat some but not all of the classic confessions of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The author, with an eye on ecumenics, provides a background of inter-confessional relationships for a better understanding of present interchurch relations.
Called to Teach, by Charles D. Spotts (United Church Press, 1963, 111 pp., $2.50). A book which urges the delights, satisfactions, demands, temptations, and opportunities of those who teach in the educational department of the church. Excel lent for teachers.
A Nation Needs to Pray, by Robert B. Anderson (Thomas Nelson, 1963, 112 pp., $3.95). An artistic production; more than 90 striking photographs combine with written text to spell out the reasons America should be a nation that prays.
The Psychology of Christian Experience, by W. Curry Mavis (Zondervan, 1963, 155 pp., $3). A book which says many interesting things but establishes little more than a surface relationship between psychology and the Christian faith.
The Lord’s Prayer: An Interpretation, by Charles L. Allen (Revell, 1963, 64 pp., $2). Originally included in the author’s God’s Psychiatry, it now appears as a special class edition, with some fine art work. A nice gift.
The Heretics, by Walter Nigg (Knopf, 1962, 422 pp., $6.95). The stories and struggles of heretics, such as Pascal, Luther, Hus, Origen, Abelard, and many others. “Young Turks” will find this interesting reading, and dull conformists will find it also disturbing.
The Pastor’s Counseling Handbook, by James L. Christensen (Revell, 1963, 181 pp., $3.95). A concise, practical, popular presentation.
Life Is Forever, by Glenn Alty Crafts (Abingdon, 1963, 93 pp., $2). A no-quarter-asked-or-given discussion from the Christian perspective of life and death.
Sermons on Bible Characters, by John A. Redhead (Abingdon, 1963, 144 pp., $2.75). Short, practical, evangelical.
Sermonic Studies: The Standard Epistles, Volume II, The Trinity Season (Concordia, 1963, 616 pp., $7.50). Thirty-one sermons, preceded by their outlines and by the study and reflection which went into their making.
Paperbacks
Church and State in Your Community, by Elwyn A. Smith (Westminster, 1963, 90 pp., $1.25). A rounded, non-technical study of church-state relations.
Studies in Church-State Relations (P.O. A.U., 1963, 71 pp., $1). Brief, popular series of studies on the American tradition of church-state relations, by Protestants and Other Americans United for Separation of Church and State.
Christian Responsibility in Society (Faith and Life Press, 1963, 18 pp., $.35). What is Christian responsibility beyond evangelism? Answer: Christ’s work of creation, redemption, and consummation is the “biblical-theological basis for a total ministry to the total man, individual and social.”
Jean-Paid Sartre: The Existentialist Ethic, by Norman N. Greene (University of Michigan, 1963, 214 pp., $1.75). A study of Sartre’s existentialism measured against Roman Catholicism, liberalism, and Marxism.
Catholicism, edited by George Brantl, Hinduism, edited by Louis Renou; Islam edited by John Alden Williams; Judaism, edited by Arthur Hertzberg; Protestantism, edited by J. Leslie Dunstan (Washington Square Press; 1963; 277, 226, 242, 261, 257 pp.; $.60 each). A well-organized compilation of definitive writings; with an objectivity sometimes purchased at the expense of depth. First printed in 1961.
Jonah, Jesus, and You, by Mariano Di Gangi (The Bible Study Hour [12 Spadina Road, Toronto 4], 1963, 66 pp., $.25). Eight short essays interpret the book of Jonah.
Our Faith, by Emil Brunner (Scribner’s, 1963, 153 pp., $1.25). A simple account of basic Christian truths in language crisp and clean. Written in 1936, and dedicated by Brunner to his sons.
The Cost of Discipleship, by Dietrich Bonhoeffer (Macmillan, 1963, 352 pp., $1.45). Revised edition of Bonhoeffer’s attack on “easy Christianity,” with some new material added. A heady treatment by the young German theologian martyred by the Nazis in 1945.
The School of Prayer, by Olive Wyon (Macmillan, 1963, 192 pp., $.95). A very substantial and perceptive study of Christian prayer; as helpful for the pastor in his sermonizing as for the layman in his practical religious life.
Hector Simul Justus, by Paul E. Schuessler (obtain from author: 1935 St. Clair Ave., St. Paul 5, Minn.; 1963; 24 pp.; $.25). The doctrine of justification by faith explained with few words and numerous cartoons.
Christian Perspectives 1962 (Guardian Publishing Co. [Hamilton, Ontario], 1962, 258cpp., $2). Scripturally oriented critical lectures on evolution, philosophy, and politics. Not for amateurs.
The Baptismal Encounter, by Gabriel J. Fackre, and An Estimate of the Reformation, by Bard Thompson (Lancaster Theo logical Seminary, 1962, 52 pp., $1). The first essay attempts to overcome “thingification” of baptism by a personal “existential” understanding of it. The second analyzes the Reformation, contrasts Lutheran and Reformed traditions, and warns us not to idolize the Reformation. Both are worth reading.
Der Sonntag, by Willy Rordorf (Zwingli Verlag [Stuttgart, Germany], 1962, 336 pp., 26 German Marks). An interesting and informative historical investigation of the Christian day of rest and worship from its earliest beginnings to the time of Constantine the Great, with one eye on the relevance of this history for the place of the Sabbath in the modern world.
Zwingli: A Reformed Theologian, by Jaques Courvoisier (John Knox, 1963, 101 pp., $1.75). The Annie Kinkead Warfield lectures delivered at Princeton Theological Seminary in 1961. A very lucid and quite Christological presentation of Zwingli’s theology.
The Old Testament in the New Testament, by R. V. G. Tasker (Eerdmans, 1963, 160 pp., $1.45). A substantial study, clear, informed, and informative. First published in 1946; revised in 1954.
Religion, Interviews by Donald McDonald with Robert E. Fitch, John J. Wright, and Louis Finkelstein (Fund for the Re public [Box 4068, Santa Barbara, Calif.], 1962, 79 pp., free). Highly interesting and informative interviews with a Protestant, a Roman Catholic, and a Jew on the role of their religions in American life.
