Luther Sans Lutheranism
Faith Victorious: An Introduction to Luther’s Theology, by Lennart Pinomaa, translated by Walter J. Kukkonen (Fortress, 1963, 216 pp., $4.75), is reviewed by Herman C. Waetjen, assistant professor of New Testament, San Francisco Theological Seminary, San Anselmo, California.
During the past eighty years the quadricentennial of the Reformation as well as of Martin Luther’s birth and death have been celebrated. These three celebrations have provoked and stimulated a great Luther renaissance whose beginnings can be fixed by the publication in 1883 of the first of the now one hundred volumes of the authoritative, critical Weimar Edition of Luther’s works. With the aid of the exacting application of the historical-critical method, Luther scholarship has effected an entirely new appreciation and understanding of the German Reformer’s thought and work. Until very recently American Lutheran denominations have remained aloof of this movement and have preferred to understand Luther through their own tradition, which, as is now evident, involved an almost complete misunderstanding and misrepresentation of Luther’s theology in terms of seventeenth-century Lutheran scholasticism.
Gradually American Lutheranism has been yielding to this Luther renaissance, and the result has been a resurgence of theological vitality and activity. This is immediately evident in the fifty-five-volume American edition of Luther’s writings now being published jointly by the Fortress Press and Concordia Publishing House. It is also manifest in the scores of books about Luther and his theology by Americans as well as translations of German and Scandinavian works on the same subject that are rolling off the presses every year.
Faith Victorious is one of these books belonging to the Luther renaissance and presenting a critical introduction to Luther’s theology. It is a European contribution written by Lennart Pinomaa, a Finnish professor of theology at the University of Helsinki, and consists of lectures the author gave on an American tour at various Lutheran seminaries under the auspices of the Lutheran World Federation.
Faith Victorious is an enthusiastic book about Luther’s thought by a Lutheran. At the same time, however, it does not present Luther as a Lutheran but rather as a Christian theologian who answered questions asked by life itself and drew those answers from the Bible. Pinomaa unfolds the richness, profundity, and complexity of Luther’s theology, and he does so in a precise, compact, concentrated manner. Each chapter deals with a part of the Reformer’s thought, relating it at the same time to the whole.
Especially worthwhile are the chapters entitled “Justification and Sanctification” and “The Spirit and the Word.” In the former, Pinomaa uses Luther’s own writings—as he always does in this book—to refute clearly the oft-repeated charge that Luther taught only justification and not sanctification and that Luther’s emphasis on justification leads to antinomianism. The author also demonstrates how Luther differentiated between the Word of God and the Word of God. For Luther the former is the outward Word, the Bible; it is an instrument of the Spirit, indeed, an incarnation of the Spirit. The latter Word of God is Christ. Through the Spirit’s influence Christ is in the external Word; “the Bible is the spiritual body of Christ” (p. 105).
American Lutheranism would do well to read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest this fine book. As a matter of fact, every Christian would benefit by reading it; for from the very beginning he is assured of a fine analysis and presentation of Luther’s thought, which is still remarkably relevant for Christian life and reflection in the twentieth century.
HERMAN C. WAETJEN
How They Buried Eschatology
The Last Judgment, by James P. Martin (Eerdmans, 1963, 214 pp., $4), is reviewed by Andrew J. Bandstra, assistant professor of New Testament, Calvin Seminary, Grand Rapids, Michigan.
While this book concludes with the consideration of A. Ritschl’s rejection of judgment and eschatology, investigation on this subject, as the author states, actually started at this point. How was it possible for Ritschl, who sought to return to the New Testament as the sole source of theology, to virtually eliminate eschatology and the last judgment from his theology when these figure so largely in the New Testament? The answer to that question, contends the author, lies in the exegesis employed by Ritschl. It is the burden of this book to show that exegesis takes place not above history, but in history, and is therefore influenced by philosophical, theological, and cultural factors. In this work, Martin, professor of New Testament at Union Theological Seminary in Richmond, Virginia, seeks to expose those presuppositions—presuppositions of which exegetes may be unaware—in order to expose their influence in the exegesis of the biblical teaching of eschatology.
The modification—and the possibility for further modification—of biblical eschatology had its beginning in the theology of the Protestant Orthodoxy of the seventeenth century, as represented, for example, in J. Gerhard and F. Turretin. While these men held to the divine authority of Scripture, their view of the actual authority of the content of Scripture was weakened by their assuming the equivalence of the message of Scripture with tradition and confessions. They did not use this formal principle as the starting point for a fresh consideration of the biblical teaching of eschatology and, consequently, did not make it an integral part of the redemptive message.
This neglect of eschatology as an integral part of the message of salvation opened the door for an invasion of rationalistic individualism, which, indeed, came about in Later Orthodoxy as well as in Puritanism and Pietism. In various ways natural theology was assumed to be a necessary foundation and complement to revealed theology, and thus “Reason” began to dictate that which was necessary, important, and useful to know. In this respect eschatology fared badly, since Reason could “establish” the need for the immortality of the soul but had little use for the rest of eschatology as revealed in Scripture. While formal acceptance of Scripture as the norm for theology and Christian living staved off complete rejection of biblical eschatology, the last judgment became less and less an essential part of the understanding of the message of salvation.
In the third chapter, the author investigates the impact of rationalism and its concomitant, subjectivism, on such items as man, God and the world, and history.
The nineteenth century, while it contains also a reaction toward confessionalism and attempts at biblical theology and realism which reassert the importance of eschatology to some degree, exhibits the impact of rationalism and the failure to come to the New Testament view of eschatology. Indeed, this century exhibits most clearly the extreme reduction and virtual elimination of the last judgment in the positions of Schleiermacher, the Hegelian theologians. and A. Ritschl. Martin demonstrates this to be the result of the theological and philosophical presuppositions which governed their exegesis.
This is an important book. It is an important warning against an exegesis controlled by dogmatical presuppositions as well as an appeal, be it indirectly, for allowing the New Testament first of all to speak for itself and with its own categories. It might have been better had the author included in brief compass—perhaps an impossible task—the salient features of the New Testament eschatology to which he frequently alludes and in terms of which he assesses the exegetical results of the various periods.
It is not a book for laymen, but as the Foreword, furnished by T. F. Torrance, states, it “cannot be ignored by anyone who professes to engage in scientific work in the fields of biblical interpretation or systematic theology.”
ANDREW J. BANDSTRA
He Didn’T Say
The Reality of the Resurrection, by Merrill C. Tenney (Harper & Row, 1963, 221 pp., $4), is reviewed by Robert H. Gundry, assistant professor of biblical studies, Westmont College, Santa Barbara, California.
In the first half of this book the doctrine of the resurrection is historically surveyed from pre-Christian concepts, through the Old Testament, and on through the New Testament and church history. The author’s prevailing method is to list passages from various sections of the Bible and to comment briefly on them. At times the resurrection in general is in view, at other times the resurrection of Jesus in particular. The latter half of the book contains apologetic and theological material.
There is a certain amount of sermonic padding on topics not closely related to the resurrection. This reviewer also felt a lack of careful exegesis and a failure to consider or even mention other, perhaps more probable interpretations. For example, David’s cry over his son, “I shall go to him, but he will not return to me,” may express despair over a common destiny in the grave rather than yearning for immortality. Jacob’s statement, “I will go down to Sheol to my son mourning,” may be similarly understood. Psalm 16:10 probably voices confidence that God will deliver the righteous sufferer from death before it occurs, not after.
Jesus’ argument for the resurrection from Exodus 3:6 is passed over in a cursory manner. There is no discussion of Job 19:25–27, of the questions surrounding 2 Corinthians 5:1–9, of the chronological problems created by the “three days and three nights” of Matthew 12:39, 40, nor of the exact nature of “the sign of Jonah,” which has caused so much comment. The discussion of Jesus’ predictions about his death and resurrection ignores form-critical studies which would claim that Christians read their post-Easter faith back into Jesus’ mouth. The treatment of the resurrection accounts does not consider alleged contradictions which are used by some to destroy reliability and by others to establish the main features of the accounts inasmuch as the “contradictions” disprove collusion. One must avoid criticizing the book for not being what it was not intended to be. Yet the Preface states an intention to be relevant which would require more interaction with contemporary scholarship.
The strengths of this work are that it freshly states traditional orthodox arguments, shows that the doctrine does not stem from pagan sources, and emphasizes Jesus’ resurrection as an event “as truly historical as Cornwallis’ surrender at York-town” (against Bultmann’s de-objectivizing). Tenney also makes a good point that the resurrection was not so essential a part of Jewish theology generally, much less of Messianism, that Christians would have felt a necessity to fabricate the Easter story.
ROBERT H. GUNDRY
Scholarly And Fair
American Christianity, Volume II: 1820–1960, edited by H. Shelton Smith, Robert T. Handy, and Lefferts A. Loetscher (Scribner’s, 1963, 634 pp., $10), is reviewed by C. Gregg Singer, professor of history, Catawba College, Salisbury, North Carolina.
The second volume of this comprehensive work picks up the story of American Christianity in 1820 and brings the account up to the events and movements of 1960. These two volumes form a monumental collection of documents dealing with nearly every aspect of the history of the organized church in this country from its early days up to the questions which are agitating Christian people at this very hour. Together they are an invaluable collection of documents, not only for a serious study of American church history but for any study of American history which involves, even remotely, the thinking of Christian people on social, economic, and political issues throughout the history of this country. In this second volume the authors have furnished very adequate introductions to the documents they present as illustrations of the trends in American Christianity.
Reading for Perspective
CHRISTIANITY TODAY’S REVIEW EDITORS CALL ATTENTION TO THESE NEW TITLES:
★ The Holy Spirit, by Wick Broomall (Baker, $2.95). Author sketches the person and work of the Holy Spirit from the Old and New Testaments, presenting a sharply etched picture.
★ The Challenge of the World Religions, by Georg F. Vicedom (Fortress, $3.50). Author stirs the Church’s sense of mission because he believes that Christianity’s future will be decided as it confronts the religions of Asia.
★ Tradition in the Early Church, by R. P. C. Hanson (Westminster, $5.75). A careful study of the abundant literature comprising the tradition of the first three centuries. Author attributes more “inspiration” to some rejected letters than to some canonical books.
The authors are to be commended for the broad sweep of their material and for their willingness to include pertinent documents dealing with fundamentalism as a movement and with such great conservative leaders as the late J. Gresham Machen. Equally gratifying is the treatment accorded to the founding fathers of the Southern Presbyterian Church: Thornwell, Dabney, and Palmer. They have made available large sections from pertinent Roman Catholic material, particularly from papal encyclicals which have a direct and important bearing on the life and place of the Roman Catholic Church in this country, many of which are not always easily available to Protestant students. The attention which they pay to the rise of neoorthodoxy and the development of the ecumenical movement is not out of proportion to the importance of these movements in contemporary Protestantism in this country. However, this reviewer regrets a tendency to dismiss historic orthodoxy as something from which Protestantism has, and should have, departed. Although this is certainly not the author’s dominant theme, at times traces of this kind of thinking are visible. On the whole, the work is characterized by scholarly thoroughness and a genuine fairness as to both the documents included and the accompanying remarks. No important movement has been omitted, and no group has been neglected.
The average minister, whatever his theological position, should have this work, for it is an invaluable collection of source material which he would have great difficulty in obtaining on his own.
C. GREGG SINGER
Not For Reading?
The Church’s Use of the Bible: Past and Present, edited by D. E. Nineham (S.P.C.K., 1963, 174 pp., 21s.), is reviewed by Geoffrey W. Bromiley, professor of church history and historical theology, Fuller Theological Seminary, Pasadena, California.
It was a happy idea, on the occasion of the reconstruction of the theology department at London University, to arrange a series of public lectures on the Church’s use of Scripture. With one or two changes due to unexpected circumstances, the essays in the present volume are the lectures delivered in this series. Seven authors contribute historical studies relating to the successive stages from the New Testament world and the Greek and Latin fathers, through the Middle Ages and the Reformation, to the eighteenth century and the modern period. The editor, Professor Nineham, then winds up the series with lessons for the present day.
With a series of this kind, it is natural that there should be great diversity of presentation. All the authors are scholars of repute, but they have different conceptions of their task and enjoy varying levels of success in achievement. Drs. Chadwick and Kelly tell us very little about the actual use of the Bible; they are more concerned with theological issues, and spoil the patristic reputation of Anglicanism by disliking the early understanding of Scripture. Miss Smalley seems to be leading us to a revolutionary view of medieval exegesis, but it turns out that the Renaissance and Reformation campaign for literal exposition was needed after all; again we learn very little of the common use of Scripture. Justifiably, perhaps, Canon Carpenter and Professor Lampe restrict their review of modern developments to the British scene, though it may be doubted whether we can attain to true understanding by national concentration. Perhaps the most uniformly successful contribution is that of Gordon Rupp, a Reformation scholar who shows a fine appreciation of the Bible in the Reformation age, and who is still convinced that the basic insights of the period were right.
The final essay by Professor Nineham is a disappointing conclusion. It is well written, and displays considerable reading and thought within a restricted sphere. Its starting point, however, is wholly within the liberal Protestant tradition. Hence it is not surprising that the argument moves in this circle, and that the tentative gropings after a solution of the biblical problem bear little relation to orthodoxy, whether in patristic. Reformation, or indeed biblical form. The ultimate conclusion as far as it concerns the use of the Bible is, in fact, both gloomy and sinister. Dr. Nineham apparently disapproves of the modern inculcation of individual Bible reading. Only scholars apparently can be trusted to read the Scriptures with understanding. The principle “who runs may read” is perhaps a passing one, linked to a passing understanding of Scripture. Even if some measure of understanding can be expected, how are ordinary men to relate these ancient things to modern issues?
Along the lines of this essay, we may indeed agree that little understanding will be possible and that the relevance to the modern age will remain obscure. For if one thing is certain, it is the fact that scholarship and human philosophising alone will not produce true exposition or application. Yet need we be so gloomy? Are not things hidden from the wise revealed to babes? Can not the Father in heaven make clear that which eludes flesh and blood? Is not the Holy Spirit the internal Master who breathes upon the page which he has given and brings its truth to light? In spite of Dr. Nineham, we hope that the modern rise of Bible reading, in Roman Catholic as well as Protestant circles, will continue and increase, for in prayer and seeking it is likely to contribute more to genuine knowledge and piety than the self-encircling antiquarianism or theorizing which does not truly begin with God, revealed and self-revealing.
GEOFFREY W. BROMILEY
Another Is Needed
The Reformation in England, Volume II, by J. H. Merle D’Aubigne (Banner of Truth Trust, 1963, 507 pp., 21s.), is reviewed by P. H. Buss, lay tutor, London College of Divinity, Northwood, Middlesex, England.
This second volume is as easy to read and as rich in illustration as the first, which appeared some months ago. The same flowing style whisks one from the court to the shop, from Rome to Canterbury, from the King to a humble subject. The reader almost takes part in the seesaw of power and contrasting influences in the critical years 1530–1547.
We read how authority was abolished and of the multiplication of the Word of God in English, yet how at the same time Roman Catholicism seemed as firmly entrenched as ever, with evangelicalism fighting for its very life. Papist and Protestant alike in these bewildering years fall to ax or flame. More gospel heroes, such as Bilney, Frith, and Tyndale, appear and disappear. Great men of state and church—More, Cromwell, and Fisher—topple. Queens are humiliated, divorced, and beheaded. Over them all looms Henry VIII, like some Tudor Herod: attractive and repellent, cultured and barbaric, with one hand gripping the heritage of medieval Catholicism and the other encouraging the progress of reformation. Throughout stands the enigmatic Cranmer, working for renewal, timid and bold, faithful and wavering, under the regimen of an authoritative Scripture and a sovereign liege at one and the same time. Slowly and painfully the Church of England edges towards reconstitution, and D’Aubigne charitably describes its position, so anomalous to some branches of Christendom.
Our generation is so fact-and-figure conscious that this classic history of the Reformation cannot be a standard textbook in the mid-sixties. A new D’Aubigne, with all his warmth, life, sympathy, and excellence, is needed for this task.
This volume contains the index to both volumes.
P. H. BUSS
Being As Revelation
The Later Heidegger and Theology, Volume I of “New Frontiers in Theology,” edited by James M. Robinson and John B. Cobb, Jr. (Harper & Row, 1963, 212 pp., $4.50), is reviewed by William Childs Robinson, professor of ecclesiastical history, church polity, and apologetics, Columbia Theological Seminary, Decatur, Georgia.
This volume, edited by two professors in the Southern California School of Theology at Claremont, is the first of a series on “New Frontiers in Theology.” Projected in the same series are discussions of The New Hermeneutic centering in the theology of G. Ebeling and E. Fuchs of the Bultmannian School and of Theology as History revolving around W. Pannenberg’s emphasis on the mighty acts of God in Christ Jesus. The series aims to remove the time lag between German and American theological thought and to bring American scholars into the maelstrom of Continental discussions.
This first volume in the series concerns itself with a study on systematic theology by Heinrich Ott, the young successor to Karl Barth in Basel. Bultmann used the earlier Heidegger to support his theological program; Ott now claims that the turn in Heidegger’s thought, which gives beingstrict priority, makes his philosophy more relevant to Barthian and to Bultmannian theology.
Modern philosophy since Descartes and Kant has been subjectivistic. This led Barth to reject the analogia entis on the ground that it meant subsuming God under man’s highest generalization, being, and thereby gaining control over God. God became a concept at man’s disposal. But now for Heidegger, being is not a general concept at our disposal. Rather, being is an occurrence of unveiling, so that to speak of God’s being and to speak of his freedom in self-revelation are congruous formulations. “The being of God signifies, in terms of the way we have understood ‘being’ thus far, an occurrence of unveiling, that God unveils Himself to thought as he who is!” (Exod. 3:14). Accordingly, as philosophical thinking is related to being when being speaks to thinking, so faith’s thinking is related to God when God is revealed in his Word. And Heidegger’s primal thinking, as gratitude for the favor of being, becomes thanking, and so is congruent with theology’s reverent awareness that one’s being is God’s creation.
This book is not easy reading. We suggest a second study of the opening discussion, after a perusal of the whole book. And readers will, no doubt, agree with parts and differ in other places, as do the sundry writers themselves.
WILLIAM CHILDS ROBINSON
What Is Truth?
Truth and the Person in Christian Theology, by Hugh Vernon White (Oxford, 1963, 240 pp., $6), is reviewed by Samuel J. Mikolaski, professor of theology, New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary, New Orleans, Louisiana.
Many fine things can be said about this book, which is a shortened systematic theology developed around the concept of the person. Dr. White evinces a devout spirit attuned to the issue of salvation: “The heart of the matter is the heart of man, the man himself; the creature made in the image of God; the sinner who needs to be reconciled to God, and to his neighbour, and to himself” (p. 202). He stresses the person as a free, spiritual being created by God, the subject of experiences, not just a bundle of motor-affective responses, who must live in other spiritual selves to be himself (pp. 58–68). He is convinced that only the creatio ex nihilo can adequately account for the world (p. 96); that we must interpret its meaning teleologically, by the will of God; and that the categories of idealism and rationalism are inadequate to the Christian revelation. As an example of the latter, Dr. White cites the work of Dr. Tillich for criticism several times (e.g., pp. 7, 16, 217), paralleling therefore a growing body of literature critical of Dr. Tillich’s philosophical theology.
Essaying to criticize the orthodox doctrine of revelation, Dr. White, who is emeritus professor of Christian theology and world Christianity at Pacific School of Religion, contends that “the revelation is never the communication of truths or doctrines; it is always God making himself known” (p. 45), then proceeds to compound many equally dogmatic and unvindicated utterances. For example: “The immediate knowledge of God is faith itself” (p. 9); “God … reveals himself. He does not produce miraculously a book containing the truth he wants men to believe” (p. 93); justice is the “imposition of an impersonal rule upon the acts and relations of persons” (p. 116); concerning Jesus’ ministry, “it was wholly practical teaching …” (p. 124); “the Reformers were more aware of the inner testimony of the Holy Spirit than were their scholastic successors” (p. 216—but what of the post-Reformation studies of the Holy Spirit, including such English works also as Oman’s early seventeenth-century essay?); “there is no metaphysical knowledge of God” (p. 221). To say that “nature is a ‘whole,’ a complete reality about which universally valid formulas can be made” (p. 33) seems a venture of faith into scientific certainty (which the author is scarcely willing to advance for the Christian revelation) which the scientists of today might wish to call into question. This is not to say ipso facto that the language of Christian faith is more certain, but simply to suggest that perhaps the stance of science is neither so certain (for the content of the statistical method scientists look for a trend or systematic difference which is often blurred by chance or random fluctuation) nor the data of revelation so uncertain (“words … which the Holy Ghost teacheth,” 1 Cor. 2:13) as the author suggests.
Such pronouncements may be true, but they require argument and vindication on more clearly defined grounds. There is a curiously uneven use of Scripture in this book. At times frequent appeals to Scripture are made as authority. Why? In the treatment of certain other subjects—for example the Incarnation, Trinity, and Atonement, not much Scripture is used. Some justification of method seems needed.
Certain tantalizing questions occur to me. If the ultimate nature of the resurrection is to be found in the faith of believers, was it a reportable event (p. 47)? Are there three kinds of truth: historical, scientific, and theological (pp. 74, 75)? If the New Testament and orthodox theologians contend for the just judgment of sin (also in the Atonement), does this mean that justice is the imposition of an impersonal rule upon things and persons (p. 116)—for if relations are personal, can they be less than moral? Is the Incarnation interpreted in adoptionist terms by Dr. White (p. 95)—for do the words “the Word became flesh in Jesus Christ” (p. 219) mean that Jesus Christ is the Word made flesh? Further, with so much valuable stress laid on the person as subject, is it really true that the fourth-century Fathers did not have an advanced conception of the person? And, if personal language in the pronoun usages and forms of address for Father, Son, and Holy Spirit is employed in Scripture, can it sustain the apparently modal interpretation of the Trinity that the author suggests (pp. 139–142)? What, then, is the Ascension? What does it mean to say that “man’s essential lostness is sin; sin is against God”? Why not a more concrete definition of sin as rebellion, failure, impiety, pride (to mention but a few realities)? What does universalism do to morality?
My comments may suggest more of criticism than appreciation, yet I have enjoyed this book and profited from it. The nature of the person is delicately and usefully discussed, but the development of the central issue of truth and the person is disappointing, primarily because the voluminous recent discussions of semantics, semiotics, and the truth functions of statements for revelation are not taken into account. Truth seems to be of several kinds involving in certain ways facts and history, yet transcending them as a sort of transcendental, nouminous, non-rational thing. Truth conveyed by language, the truth of factual assertions, seems to be peripheral to Dr. White’s exposition for the doctrine of revelation. Is religion at all important if its statements are not true in the ordinary sense of what is actually the case? This is all the more regrettable because he raises the question of how persons communicate. Beyond physical contact and observable emotional responses, he points out, language is the vital medium for personal communication. What a higher level of immediacy may be in the light of his stress on such a sentence as “the language of personal relations” (p. 83) remains, to me, obscure. What is this language? Can we avoid the basis in fact of faith and the role of language (among other finite factors) for revelation, if our religion is to remain biblical, historical, and graspable?
SAMUEL J. MIKOLASKI
Better On Attack
The Freedom of the Christian Man, by Helmut Thielicke, translated by John W. Doberstein (Harper & Row, 1963, 222 pp., $4.50), is reviewed by John H. Gerstner, professor of church history, Pittsburgh Theological Seminary, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
This volume contains an assortment of lectures, essays, and sermons by the distinguished rector of Hamburg University and pastor of St. Michaelis. The first chapter shows that the author is sometimes thinking of liberty to act rather than freedom to will, while in the next chapter he argues that ideals, if regarded as other than “pen-ultimate” (Bonhoeffer), can be the enemy of the freedom which is only in Christ. Of great interest is Thielicke’s discussion of the question “What Will We Say to the Young Communist on X-Day?” (pp. 109 ff.), in which Western materialism is shown to be no more acceptable than the welfare state of the East. When the Iron Curtain comes down, only the freedom which is in Christ will be worth presenting.
In “Freedom and Love of One’s Neighbor” Thielecke argues that Christian virtue consists not so much in feeling and acting differently as in seeing men differently. This means seeing them as fellow men which, ironically enough, the modern emphasis on “human relations” quite overlooks. The following statement shows not only the substance of Chapter VIII’s analysis of the meaning of history but much more: “Just as I cannot reason a posteriori from the creation to the Creator—as if it were really true that ‘all things corruptible are but a parable’—but can only know the secret of creation if I know the Creator and his heart, so I know that secret of judgment only if I know the Judge” (p. 173). The chapter on preaching presents the best-known Thielecke; that is, the learned professor who loves to defend the “kitsch” or corny. Perhaps a quotation from the last chapter summarizes Christian morality as seen through the eyes of the scholarly author of Theologische Ethik: “When I act in this way (retaliation) I am not free at all; then I am merely a function of my opponent.… [The Christian] does not simply ‘react’; he seizes a creative initiative and thus becomes free” (pp. 216, 217).
Like so many other present-day Christian thinkers Thielecke is better at attacking the enemy than he is at advancing the standard. The reason is that in the attack all the recognized weapons of intellectual warfare are used, but when the Christian proclamation goes forth its paradoxical form makes all these weapons suddenly obsolete, just as the enemy begins to counterattack. This is apologetics according to the rule “heads I win, tails you lose.” We Christians like this game—but can we blame the opposition for not wanting to play? But that this book could be better should not obscure the fact that it is a good book, unless we wish the best to be the enemy of the good.
JOHN H. GERSTNER
Think!
The Christian Mind, by Harry Blamires (Seabury, 1963, 181 pp., $3.50), is reviewed by Lloyd F. Dean, pastor, East Glenville Community Church, Scotia, New York.
Not another C. S. Lewis, but strongly reminiscent of him, is this long-time instructor in an Anglican church training college in England. The burden of this provocative volume is that a Christian mind must be developed “in contradistinction to the secular mind” (p. ix). No such “collectively accepted set of notions and attitudes exist.… No vital Christian mind plays fruitfully, as a coherent and recognizable influence, upon our social, political, or cultural life” (p. ix).
In other words, the Christian mind of earlier periods “has succumbed to the secular drift with a degree of weakness and nervelessness unmatched in Christian history” (p. 3). The pragmatists and utilitarians are in power both within the Church and without.
To reconstitute the Christian mind, it will be necessary “to reestablish the status of objective truth as distinct from personal opinions” (p. 38). The data of secular controversy must be handled “within a framework of reference which is constructed of Christian presuppositions” (p. 40). The Christian mind will, of necessity, view all of this life in the perspective of eternity, while “secularism is so rooted in this world that it does not allow for the existence of any other” (p. 64). There can thus be no easy coexistence between the Christian and the secular mind.
Through a series of incisive analyses of attitudes characteristic of the world and far too prevalent in the Church, Blamires portrays the desperate need for Christians today to think “Christianly.” Only on this basis can Christian evaluations of the most important areas of life and culture be understood and applied.
To the reviewer, it seems that Blamires is pleading (though it is not stated specifically) for Christian schools, kindergarten to university, that will establish a Christian mind and put this mind in both pulpit and pew.
LLOYD F. DEAN
Book Briefs
The Handbook of Africa, edited by Violaine I. Junod (New York University Press, 1963, 471 pp., $10). A valuable compendium of factual information on the fifty-odd political units of Africa. Gives data on geography, history, government, education, population, industry, and the like.
Philosophy of Education, by Leo Ward (Regnery, 1963, 311 pp., $6). A definitive statement of the character and purpose of education with special application to problems of our time; by a Roman Catholic member of the philosophy department of Notre Dame.
The Deed, by Gerold Frank (Simon and Schuster, 1963, 317 pp., $4.95). The story of the tangled passions and idealism of two Jewish boys who murdered a member of Churchill’s war cabinet on the belief that the act of assassination would change the course of history—and were hanged for their deed.
A Reasoned Faith, by John Baillie (Scribner’s, 1963, 180 pp., $3.50). A collection of selected essays written through the years and heretofore unpublished; simple language shows the relevance of the Christian faith for the problems of personal and social life.
The Dilemma of Modern Belief, by Samuel H. Miller (Harper & Row, 1963, 113 pp., $3). An analysis by a facile pen of the secularity of our world and a probing for a solution to our dilemma. Concedes everything resembling the historic affirmations of Christian faith on the ground that they are idols of our vanity, and worthless in today’s changed world.
Marital Counseling, by R. Lofton Hudson (Prentice-Hall. 1963, 138 pp., $2.95). A wealth of help and information for the pastor engaged in marital counseling. Author believes the cause of most sex problems is other than sexual; his notion of what is abnormal will jar the evangelically committed, and even some of the merely decent.
A Happy Married Life, by William S. Deal (Zondervan, 1963, 117 pp., $1.95). Homespun, sometimes perceptive essays on how to be both married and happy.
Outline Studies on I John, by R. A. Torrey (Zondervan, 1963, 84 pp., $1.95). Evangelical, easy-reading. “Outline Studies” means the material is organized, not that the studies are outlines of the content of I John.
Jesus: The Man, the Mission and the Message, by C. Milo Connick (Prentice-Hall, 1963, 462 pp., $9.25). A thorough work, clearly presented, excellently bound, by an author who constantly backs down from a clear affirmation of miracle, resurrection, and the like. A scholarship that neither possesses nor creates strong conviction or deep commitment.
Christian Worker’s New Testament—Psalms, edited by J. Gilchrist Lawson (Zondervan, 1963, 427 pp., $2.50 for “Regular Edition”). “All subjects connected with the theme of salvation” indexed and underlined in red. Small print, cheap cover, overpriced.
He Spoke to Them in Parables, by Harold A. Bosley (Harper & Row, 1963, 184 pp., $3.50). Very practical sermons whose ethics are far better than their theology. The sermons are too good not to read, and too poor to preach.
Beyond the Law, by James A. Pike (Doubleday, 1963, 102 pp., $2.95). The lawyer-turned-bishop looks back at the legal profession. Pike at his peak.
Religion and Contemporary Society, edited by Harold Stahmer (Macmillan, 1963, 282 pp., $4.95). Catholics, Protestants, and Jews assess the effect of religious pluralism in the U. S. Assessors include W. Pauck, R. Niebuhr, A. A. Cohen, and J. Wicklein.
Paperbacks
Puzzled Parents; Where Did I Come From?; Hour a Family Begins; The Start of a Family; Science and You; Sorting Things Out; and The Christian View of Sex, by Hugh C. Warner (Concordia; 1963; 33, 10, 17, 17, 31. 19, and 31 pp.; $.35 each). Sane, sound discussions of the physical and social functions of sex. For different age groups.
Ethics, Crime, and Redemption, edited by Stanley J. Rowland, Jr. (Westminster, 1963, 90 pp., $1.25). A theological approach to social morality and crime. The author is an editor and feature writer on the staff of the United Presbyterian Commission on Ecumenical Mission and Relations. The nature of his theological basis? “Creation was an act of faith by God.… God believed in us enough to make his love and redemptive will incarnate in a man as his son.… Christ embodied the Father in that he embodied God’s faith in man.…”
The Christian’s Approach to University Life, by Oliver R. Barclay (I.V.F., 1963, 63 pp., 2s.). A stimulating and scholarly treatment by the Graduates’ Secretary of British Inter-Varsity Fellowship.
Cigarette Smoking and Cancer (American Cancer Society [521 West 57th St., New York 19, N.Y.], 1963, 32 pp., free). The evidence which has led the American Cancer Society to conclude that “beyond reasonable doubt cigarette smoking is the major cause of the unprecedented increase in lung cancer.”
Christian Issues in Southern Asia, by P. D. Devanandan (Friendship, 1963, 174 pp., $1.75). A readable, informative discussion of the problems of the Church in changing India, Pakistan, Ceylon, and Nepal, by one who believed in the uniqueness of God’s revelation in Christ.
The Holy Spirit of God, by W. H. Griffith Thomas (Eerdmans, 1963, 303 pp., $1.95). One of the relatively few extant fine works on the Holy Spirit. The L. P. Stone Lectures of Princeton, 1913.
Jesus’ Teaching in Its Environment, by John Wick Bowman (John Knox, 1963, 120 pp., $1.75). The message of Jesus as it occurred within its environment. Sober, lucid, and informative, with reference to modern scholarship.
Chrysostom and His Message, selected and translated by Stephen Neill (Association, 1962. 80 pp., $1). A selection from the sermons of St. John Chrysostom.
