‘Where Is His Voice?’
The Representative, by Rolf Hochhuth (Methuen, 1963, 331 pp., 16s), is reviewed by J. D. Douglas, British editorial director, CHRISTIANITY TODAY.
Because of the furor this play has caused in Europe, it is advisable at the outset to get straight certain historical facts. Between four and six million Jews (no one knows the precise figure) were massacred by the Nazis during World War II. Pope Pius XII avoided specific condemnation of the massacres. So much for the facts. Was Pius wrong in not speaking up? It is this problem of choice that Hochhuth deals with in his play, which has been widely misunderstood. The 31-year-old German publisher’s reader, himself neither Roman Catholic nor Jew, does not accuse the Vatican of anti-Semitism, does not say that papal intervention would have saved the Jews, and does not fail to give specific examples of Pius’ concern for them. Nor is this a German attempt to shift some of the responsibility for the national guilt—careful perusal of the play will reveal, indeed, that Hochhuth deals ruthlessly with his fellow countrymen.
Much of the dialogue is concerned with a young Jesuit father’s indignation about the pope’s silence. Though he displays at times a naïveté one does not normally associate with the Society of Jesus, one exchange which the priest has with his father, a Vatican official, puts the whole thing in a nutshell. “How you simplify …,” says Count Fontana; “can you believe the Pope can see without pain the hunger and suffering of a single person? His heart is with the victims.” Replies Father Riccardo: “And his voice? Where is his voice?”
Says the Christian S.S. officer (an almost incredible character) to the cardinal; “For sixteen months now Rome has known what Hitler is doing to Poland: why does the Pope say not one word about it? There where the towers of his churches stand, stand also Hitler’s smoking chimneys. Where the bells ring on Sundays, the ovens burn on weekdays: that is the look of the Christian West today.” Pius himself said that he had limited his condemnation against Nazism “to avoid greater evils” (ad maiora mala vitanda).
Because he can do nothing to save the victims, Riccardo joins a consignment of Italian Jewish captives and ends up in Auschwitz. Here the play concludes with a debate between Riccardo and the camp doctor, himself a renegade priest (based on a real-life character) who has given himself to wholesale slaughter with the professed reason of provoking God to reveal himself. Now he taunts Riccardo: “It was your Church first showed that one could burn a man like coke. In Spain, alone, and without crematoria, you incinerated three hundred and fifty thousand, and nearly all alive.…” The young priest confesses his share in the great collective guilt of humanity—just as we must do whatever conclusion we draw from Hochhuth’s work.
J. D. DOUGLAS
A Valuable Study
The Basis of Religious Liberty, by A. F. Carrillo de Albornoz (Association, 1963, 182 pp., $3.73), is reviewed by S. Richey Kamm, professor of social science, Wheaton College, Wheaton, Illinois.
This book, issued under a directive from the Delhi Assembly of the World Council of Churches, sets forth the thinking of the WCC assemblies and committees on religious freedom. Written by the current head of the Secretariat for Religious Liberty of the World Council, it endeavors to bring together in organized form the content of pronouncements and discussions on such topics as: “What is Religious Liberty?,” “Why Christians Demand Religious Liberty,” and “How Religious Freedom Can Be Exercised.”
The volume concludes with a statement of issues on which there is now a common agreement within the ecumenical community, and of issues on which there is majority agreement or little consensus. The Appendix includes materials that will be useful to any group that takes up the challenge of studying the whole question of religious liberty in the modern world.
As an organized summation of thought on this subject within the ecumenical movement, this volume is very useful. One finds a clear distinction between “freedom of conscience” as personal, and “freedom of worship” as corporate or social in its dimensions. The author accurately delineates the various understandings of religious freedom which prevail throughout today’s world. The theological justifications for individual religious freedom are clearly set forth, in contrast to the justifications employed by political societies which recognize only group or corporate freedom. Rational arguments for religious freedom in all societies are stated with thoroughness.
Conspicuous by absence from these discussions is a clear statement of a biblical basis for religious freedom. Even though the author affirms that the World Council members hold a Christian view of man and the world, it is quite evident that much of their argument is based upon sociological or humanistic presuppositions. Perhaps the clearest expression of the council’s perspective is to be found in this climactic contention: “Religious liberty is a fundamental human right … having its roots in the human race as such” (pp. 34, 35).
Despite these weaknesses the book merits serious study. The present curbs on religious expression in the United States, the tensions which exist in Roman Catholicism and Judaism over religious liberty, the growing policy within the Muslim republics to insist upon religious uniformity, and the Communist effort to thwart the further extension of any religious thought within the orbit of their power, all make religious liberty one of the burning issues of the mid-twentieth century. American Protestants with a biblical commitment will do well to extend their studies of church-state relations in the United States to the broader perspective of religious liberty throughout the world. The questions raised in the study under review would form an excellent “green” from which to “tee off” into such an effort.
S. RICHEY KAMM
Between The Shabby Curtains
The Shoes of the Fisherman, by Morris L. West (Morrow, 1963, 373 pp., $4.95), and Letters from Vatican City, by Xavier Rynne (Farrar, Straus, 1963, 289 pp., $3.95), are reviewed by David E. Kucharsky, news editor, CHRISTIANITY TODAY.
These books, one of which became a best seller overnight, peer between the shabby curtains of secrecy which envelop the Vatican with decreasing effectiveness nowadays.
West sees the Vatican through the eyes of a novel. It reflects his experience as a young apprentice of the Christian Brothers, an Australian teaching order, plus later years as Vatican correspondent for the London Daily Mail. He made his debut in fiction with The Devil’s Advocate.
The Shoes of the Fisherman is a tantalizing tale of a Ukrainian political prisoner who is elected to the papacy as the world totters on the brink of nuclear war. His former jailer is now the Soviet ruler, and the pope is obliged to become an international intermediary. Enriching the plot is an assortment of problems on the home front ranging from heresy to adultery. Through it all the reader gets insights into the workings of the Roman Catholic Church at the highest level.
For particular insights, however, Letters from Vatican City is hard to beat. The book is an expansion of essays which originally appeared in The New Yorker under the pseudonym Xavier Rynne. Actual identity of the author (s) is the most intriguing mystery in ecclesiastical circles today.
The “letters” provide an interpretative running account of the first session of Vatican Council seasoned with anti-Curia, anti-old-guard judgments. They seem to add up to a major achievement in religious journalism, although there is no easy way to determine accuracy.
DAVID E. KUCHARSKY
Step-Children Of The Reformation
The Anabaptist Story, by W. R. Estep (Broadman, 1963, 238 pp., $4.50), is reviewed by Leonard Verduin, pastor emeritus of Campus Chapel, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan.
“At long last these step-children of the Reformation have had their history-making moment, in the New World; here the end of the medieval idea of culture was achieved and in the place of the coercive culture of the State-Church combination came the beginning of modern culture separate from the Church.” So wrote Ernst Troeltsch concerning the Anabaptists. Another German historian expressed it this way; “To a modification of the original Protestant idea of the State, a modification that aided the cause of toleration, the Anabaptists have compelled the Protestant proponents of the State Church; and in so doing they have in much suffering and travail rendered a mighty service, one for which they have not as yet received the thanks which before the bar of history is their due.”
Estep’s present book will help toward the payment of a bill long past due. As we read on the dust jacket, “Perhaps there is no group in history that has been judged as unfairly as the Anabaptists of the sixteenth century. Theirs has been the lot of the widely misunderstood, deliberately misrepresented, or completely ignored.”
Professor Estep, who teaches church history at Southwestern Seminary, tells the story of a band of people who knew four centuries too early that “Christendom” is a myth—that there is not and cannot be such a thing as “Christian culture,” and that the Church of Christ must by definition stand in tension with the culture in the midst of which she lies, that the Church must be loyal first of all to her Lord rather than live in bondage to cultural pressures or to the great ones who rule in the affairs of men. Estep deals with pioneers of the insight that the Church must “instead of pretending to be coextensive with the world around her, confess herself to be the Church of a minority, accept a position of conscious antagonism with the World; then she will, in return, gain in some measure her former coherence.”
The Anabaptist Story is authoritative, well-written, easy to read. Each chapter has some forty or fifty valuable footnotes. There is an excellent and up-to-date bibliography on things Anabaptist, eight pages long. Also, an index—of persons; one on subjects would have increased the book’s usefulness. This book is perhaps as good as any for the busy man who, knowing that here is an area in which his sights need to be adjusted, looks for a readable and dependable account. Estep’s contribution, in which we move from “The Rise” to the “Spread” to the “Theology” to the “Continuing Influence” of Anabaptism, gives, in as brief a compass as the story permits, the story of the “step-children of the Reformation.” One comes away from this book with the feeling that his mind and soul have had a bath.
For American readers the last section will be especially welcome; in it Estep examines the bridges by which the Anabaptist vision reached the shores of the New World, where it has in almost every respect become the accepted one.
The Anabaptist Story is so good that it deserves better proofreading than it has received. One is asked to go along with “odius” (p. 1), “saguinary” (p. 107), “discernable” (p. 128). More disturbing are such as the following: “decided” for “decide” (p. 11), “wrecked havoc” for “wreaked havoc” (p. 100), “formally” for “formerly” (p. 157), “immortality of the day” for “immorality of the day” (p. 169).
Like most of the writers of today Professor Estep has little use for the thesis than Anabaptism has long roots, roots that reach far back in time, more than a millennium. At this point a chapter in the total story of Anabaptism remains to be written.
Altogether we have here an excellent introduction to a most intriguing chapter in church history. To read it is an absolute must for all who would divest themselves of fables that have been handed down anent the step-children of the Reformation, fables that have for too long a time been told and re-told in seminaries and classrooms.
LEONARD VERDUIN
The Strides Are Long
Christianity on the March, edited by Henry P. Van Dusen (Harper & Row, 1963, 176 pp., $4), is reviewed by Dirk W. Jellema, professor of history, Calvin College, Grand Rapids, Michigan.
This collection of seven short essays by various scholars makes available a set of lectures given at Union Seminary to an audience of church women. The essays deal with some problems Christianity has faced and does face, and with the hope for continued vitality which the ecumenical movement gives. The subject matter is wide-ranging and the essays by necessity highly condensed. They have the virtue of being readable by the average layman.
Cyril Richardson leads off with a lucid discussion of some of the problems faced by the early Church (the rival “mystery religions,” opposition from the state, and the like). There is not, unfortunately, an essay on medieval Christianity. Wilhelm Pauck follows, discussing how the Reformation replaced ceremony and ritual with the Bible and faith. The treatment is sometimes somewhat simplistic; the Reformers, for example, are presented as being surprised that there could be disagreement on interpretation of texts.
From the Reformation, we jump to the nineteenth century. Robert Handy stresses the advance of technology (in somewhat rosy fashion; it meant sweatshops as well as faster communication), and Henry Van Dusen discusses (again, in glowing terms) the achievements of overseas missions. Both stress the value of the ecumenical movement, growing out of the nineteenth-century background.
Three essays on contemporary rivals of Christianity complete the book. John C. Bennett attacks “secularistic humanism” (not clearly defined; often used for a kind of rationalism rarely encountered in our current age of faiths). R. B. Manikam rapidly surveys the main opponents in Asia; he names “Religious Nationalism” as one of them, in a few noteworthy paragraphs. Tom Driver concludes with a provocative essay on existentialism, which he sees as moving towards a sort of Neo-Stoicism.
The faults of the book—lack of focus, frequent superficiality—are outweighed by its virtues. It is interesting, readable, understandable, and admirably suited for use by a discussion group. The evangelical reader should be provoked to consider, in the case of each essay, how and to what extent the evangelical viewpoint makes a difference.
DIRK W. JELLEMA
English Symposium
Vox Evangelica II, edited by Ralph P. Martin (Epworth Press, 1963, 80 pp., 6s.), is reviewed by Geoffrey S. R. Cox, curate, Christchurch, Bromley, Kent, England.
This second collection of “Biblical and Historical Essays by Members of The Faculty of the London Bible College” maintains the high academic standard set by the first (1962) symposium.
The editor, Ralph P. Martin, gives twenty-six of the seventy-four pages to “Aspects of Worship in the New Testament Church.” Concentrating mainly on the use of hymns, he shows conclusively that the “psalms and hymns and spiritual songs” of Ephesians 5:19 and Colossians 3:16 can by no means be interpreted to mean only the Psalms of the Old Testament.
In an equally scholarly manner and at almost equal length, Donald Guthrie surveys “Recent Literature on the Acts of the Apostles,” covering the last nine to fifteen years. While he gives fair consideration to various exegetical studies, commentaries, and works on composition, speeches, sources, text, and theology of Acts, he does not hesitate to point out those which give Scripture its rightful position and value in relation to the Holy Spirit.
Principal Kevan criticizes Emil Brunner for confusing a wrong “legalism” with a right respect for the Law of God, and then condemning both.
Dermot McDonald attempts an impossible task—in twelve pages to answer the question “What is religious experience?” The country man’s sermon criticism seems apposite: “He should have used less nails and hit them in harder.”
It is difficult to say whether one’s vague dissatisfaction at John Savage’s review-article on a recent Student Christian Movement symposium, The Theology of the Christian Mission, is due to the article or to the book reviewed. (Perhaps this is because reviews of symposia are always cumbersome and uneven!)
The collection will no doubt advertise the academic qualities of the staff at L.B.C., and may even do something to prove that evangelical scholarship is becoming intellectually respectable; but it is difficult to view it as anything but another theological journal.
GEOFFREY S. R. Cox
Splendor Through The Seams
The Enterprising Americans; A Business History of the United States, by John Chamberlain (Harper & Row, 1963, 282 pp., $5.95), is reviewed by Melvin D. Barger, editor, The Flying A, company magazine of Aeroquip Corporation, Jackson, Michigan.
The complete story of how a once badly underdeveloped nation took its own economic destiny by the horns and competed itself to greatness has long deserved better treatment than it has usually received from historians, journalists, and novelists. The old game of exposing the perfidy and ruthlessness of American businessmen has continued almost unchecked since the days of Ida Tarbell and Upton Sinclair, and it finally resulted in the creation of a widespread anti (big)-business bias that persists to this day. Scorned by the intellectuals, frequently set upon by legislators, and distrusted by the multitudes, businessmen have spent the last several decades in storm cellars, feeling terribly hurt that they aren’t always liked in places like Harvard and Washington.
But there are signs that the sun may be coming up again. Any businessman who tries to defend the free enterprise of our present day by making exaggerated apologies for its past ought first to read this book by John Chamberlain. Here is a revisionist work that definitely rescues the American business tradition from the lopsided “robber baron” image it has been forced to endure these many decades. Chamberlain brings off this long overdue attempt extremely well because of his own inherent fairness and his ability to sort through the debris of the past in order to find the relevant issues.
By picking up the thread of business history in colonial times and following it unbrokenly down to the present moment, Chamberlain keeps the reader conscious of seemingly unrelated events that were to be of critical importance to one another in the shaping of the nation and even in the winning of our wars. In the Civil War, for example, it was the McCormick reaper and the iron foundries which gave the North an insuperable advantage. Much later, and in a changed political climate that left him often discouraged and restrained, the American businessman of the 1930s placed his bets on certain new and developing technologies (such as aviation and chemicals) that so greatly helped the United States to emerge as victor in World War II.
As a shrewd and resourceful trader in the near-barter system of the colonial period, the American enterpriser always operated with a shortage of real capital. But he made the best of the natural industries, such as shipping and fishing in early Massachusetts, and moved swiftly to develop manufacturing industries as the young republic moved away from dependence on European goods. An aggressive merchant fleet grew up after the War of Independence and built up investment capital just in time to finance the earliest beginnings of the Industrial Revolution.
After that, it’s just one fabulous development after another. There is Paul Revere, whose great contribution to the republic was not his nocturnal horsemanship but his discovery of methods of rolling copper sheathing for ship hulls, an innovation that gave the United States Navy a parity with England’s. Eli Whitney comes on stage, and it is noted that besides the cotton gin he was to introduce the use of jigs, fixtures, and other production aids, such as interchangeability of standard parts. The river steamboat appears, and is belatedly acknowledged as the key tool in the country’s early westward expansion during the pre-railroad era.
The relevant issues continue to stand out as Chamberlain moves forward in history to encounter those entrepreneurs whom we have previously known as arch-scoundrels. We are reminded that John Jacob Astor, ruthless though he may have been, clothed the city people of two continents for thirty years against wintry weather. And of Cornelius Vanderbilt, who made the New York Central a model of efficiency and cut the travel time on the New York-Chicago run from fifty hours to twenty-four, Chamberlain observes that if he “was a robber baron, the country needed more like him.” We meet John D. Rockefeller, and learn that he was indeed a monopoly-minded man, but that he also brought order and improvement to the chaotic oil business. And we learn something else that apparently eluded the muckrakers who were to make careers of denouncing the Standard Oil monopoly: despite his best efforts, John D. was never able to get the complete monopoly he craved, and any hope for it was lost forever when the fabulous Spindle-top well came in (1901), bringing on the scene more powerful competitors in addition to those already challenging his leadership.
We meet Edison and Carnegie, and finally the great Pierpont Morgan, who is seen giving discipline and direction to the growing money powers and behaving with a far greater sense of public responsibility than he seems to have had in the Frederick Lewis Allen accounts. By 1906 the country may be in the grip of giant trusts, but the reader suddenly remembers a relevant fact stated in the Introduction: the United States is already the world’s leading producer!
The subsequent periods are covered with superb skill, and Chamberlain brings us to see that the 1920s, far from being the pointless gin-and-jazz age of its stereotypes, was actually a period of solid economic growth, culminating with the production of 4½ million cars in 1929. And the 1930s, surprisingly enough, was far from a period of total stagnation brightened only by the tip of F.D.R.’s cigarette.
Telstar is in orbit and the 1962 steel price rise has been aborted when Chamberlain leaves us with some sobering observations on the expanded role of government in private economy. One closes the book with the feeling that the author has told a remarkable story very well, and that America owes a lot of strength to the traders and inventors and manufacturers who “matched her mountains.”
One might also feel that The Enterprising Americans could be extremely valuable to the emerging nations of Africa and the retarded economies of Latin America. As these countries set out on socialistic programs designed to bring about forced economic growth, Chamberlain’s book could be offered as an alternate solution, a kind of “here’s-how-it-worked-for-us” approach. It is just possible that it might get some attention three, four, or five years from now when the Marxist programs fail to “deliver the goods.” For the heroes of The Enterprising Americans knew how to deliver the goods. And while Chamberlain admits that his enterprisers were not morally perfect, what they did is neither all sordid nor without greatness. As he says, “Despite all the seaminess, splendor was there.”
MELVIN D. BARGER
Strong Within Limits
People of the Covenant: An Introduction to the Old Testament, by Henry Jackson Flanders, Jr., Robert Wilson Crapps, and David Anthony Smith (Ronald, 1963, 479 pp., $6), is reviewed by J. Hardee Kennedy, dean of the School of Theology, New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary, New Orleans, Louisiana.
Three college professors, all in the Department of Religion at Furman University, have joined their knowledge and insights in the preparation of this new general introduction to the Old Testament. The work is designed for use as a textbook in beginning courses of study and is written against the background of considerable classroom experience.
According to the Preface, “three objectives have guided the authors in their writing: (1) the provision of a foundation of understanding upon which the serious student can reliably build a life of biblical study, (2) the stimulation of an intense interest in the subject which will spur him far beyond these beginnings, and (3) the intensification of the student’s regard for the scriptures—their nature, message, origin, and relevance to human existence.” The result is a treatment which combines heavy emphasis on the major historical and literary factors of the Old Testament with very broad thematic interpretations of the life and thought of Israel, especially the exodus event and the covenant motif.
The book is developed according to a general historical perspective and embraces ten chapters, with headings as follows: Setting the Stage, In the Beginning, The Patriarchs, The Exodus, Conquest and Amphictyony, The United Kingdom, Israel’s Decree of Divorce, The Divided Kingdom: Judah, Restructuring the Nation, and The Emergence of Judaism. With studied adaptation to the intended reading audience, the clear and expressive literary style succeeds admirably in achieving freedom from complex theological concepts and technical language.
Many points of strength mark this introduction. Chief among them are an evident awareness of the major problems in contemporary Old Testament study; a stimulating reflection of wide reading in the more influential literature in the field, including works in German; and a variety of study aids adapted to the needs of beginning students, especially charts of chronology, archaeological sidelights, a glossary, and a selective bibliography.
On the other hand, the book is limited somewhat by an inadequate acknowledgment, in footnotes or otherwise, of the complex and problematical nature of certain issues in current scholarly studies, together with the considerable uncertainties and divergent opinions. The most conspicuous example is the handling of the JEDP literary framework (pp. 8 ff.). The beginning student is given ample and appropriate opportunity for acquaintance with this interpretative scheme, but ample provision is not made for an awareness of the tenuous nature of numerous aspects of the analysis. Perhaps multiple authorship is the basic explanation, for, curiously enough, a contrasting critical forthrightness is reflected in summary statements concerning the Kenite theory (pp. 133, 134), the New Year’s enthronement festival in Israel (p. 152), and many other difficult matters. In any case, the problem is regrettable, since the book contemplates the needs of the student who is least able to evaluate interpretative orientation and perspective.
J. HARDEE KENNEDY
Book Briefs
How to Found Your Own Religion, and Other Stories, by Francis J. Phelan, C.S.C. (Helicon, 1963, 119 pp., $2.95). A Roman Catholic father, with a satirical and sprightly style in the C. S. Lewis tradition, exposes the cloven-hoofed diabolical character hiding beneath the robes of many of society’s most cherished idols. Delightful reading.
The Layman’s Role Today, by Frederick K. Wentz (Doubleday, 1963, 229 pp., $4.95). A call for Christian behavior in everyday life.
The Christian Person, by Arthur A. Vogel (Seabury, 1963, 124 pp., $3.50). Within the context of classical Christian thought and modern psychological insights, the author writes perceptive and readable essays on the meaning and reality of the Christian person.
Documents of The Christian Church, selected and edited by Henry Bettenson (Oxford, 1963, 489 pp., $3). First published in 1943, this second edition includes additional documents on the Independents (1658), Roman Catholic social policy (1891, 1931, 1961), the Church of South India, and World Council of Churches. The book is about as valuable as this type of book can be, but no more, since it can be no more than a sampler.
At Wit’s End, by Jack Finegan (John Knox, 1963, 125 pp., $2.75). Written for people who feel they are at their wit’s end. To such people the author gives much good advice, yet his answers are more remarkable for what they omit than for what they include.
“But God Hath Chosen …”: The Story of John and Mary Dyck, by Margaret Epp (Mennonite Press, 1963, 176 pp., $2.50). The story of Mennonite Brethren missionaries’ success along the San Juan River in Colombia.
William Temple: Twentieth-Century Christian, by Joseph Fletcher (Seabury, 1963, 372 pp., $3.50). The life, and the shape and impact of the thought of the former Archbishop of Canterbury. For the non-professional reader.
The Essential Lippmann, edited by Clinton Rossiter and James Lare (Random House, 1963,552 pp., $7.50). A comprehensive selection from the always astute writings of Walter Lippman, penetrating political pundit. Richly rewarding.
Prophecy in the Space Age, by A. Skevington Wood (Zondervan, 1963, 159 pp., $2.50). A provocative discussion of biblical prophecy with special probing into such matters as the rejection of Israel, the fate of the Gentile nations, the rapture of the saints, and the future judgments and return of Christ.
Reason and Analysis, by Brand Blanshard (Open Court, 1962, 505 pp., $8). A vigorous defense of rationalism against the criticisms of the analytic philosophers.
Four Prophets: Amos, Hosea, Micah, Isaiah, translated by J. B. Phillips (Macmillan, 1963, 161 pp., $3.95). Phillips’ first translation from the Old Testament. The Isaiah of the title is “First Isaiah” only, that is, the first thirty-five chapters. A fresh and exciting translation.
Paperbacks
From Luther to Kierkegaard, by Jaroslav Pelikan (Concordia, 1963, 171 pp., $1.75). The story of Lutheranism’s struggle with philosophy from the days of Luther until the emergence of Kierkegaard, in whom, the author contends, Lutheranism produced a philosopher who both brought on a revolution in theology and philosophy, and made possible the recovery of Luther’s deep evangelical insights. First published in 1950.
The Americanist Heresy in Roman Catholicism, 1895–1900, by Thomas T. McAvoy, C. S. C. (University of Notre Dame, 1963, 322 pp., $1.95). At the turn of the century the Roman Catholic Church in America went through a crisis that turned on Americanization of Roman Catholic practices imported from the old world. This is its story of conflict and of the final resolution by papal intervention.
The Moral Life and The Ethical Life, by Eliseo Vivas (Regnery, 1963, 292 pp., $1.95). The story of the author’s search and argument for an ethical position. Forsaking naturalism, he now posits the objective reality of values and urges that the highest value is the ethical man. Author makes no pretense of working from a Christian basis, nor does he think it necessary. Yet his probings are interesting to the student of ethics and morals. First printed in 1950.
The Sunday School Story, by Martin A. Haendschke (Lutheran Education Association, 1963, 137 pp., $2). The story of the Sunday school in the Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod: how it was opposed because it brought in the English language, how it became for some a substitute for the parish school, and how and why it finally was accepted. An interesting history, often repeated in other immigrant churches.
Miracles, A Preliminary Study, by C. S. Lewis (Macmillan, 1963, 192 pp., $.95). A popular, lucid defense of miracles in the style and brilliance for which the author is famous. First published in 1947.
The Lost Books of the Bible and the Forgotten Books of Eden (World, 1963, 565 pp., $2.25). All the writings attributed by one or another to Christ or his followers during the first four centuries. How can “lost” books be published? Both the titles and the prefaces serve to blur the distinction between scriptural and non-canonical writings.
William Carey: Father of Modern Missions, by Walter Bruce Davis (Moody, 1963, 160 pp., $.59). A brief story of the life of Carey, one of the world’s greatest missionaries, and his work in Bengal and Serampore.
Love and the Law, by C. Ellis Nelson (John Knox, 1963, 93 pp., $1.50). Although he leaves his Christology somewhat in doubt, Nelson approaches the Ten Commandments from a soundly biblical theological perspective. His treatment will be helpful for people long past their teens, though it appears to have been written for the latter.
Speaking in Tongues, by H. J. Stolee (Augsburg, 1963, 142 pp., $1.95). Reprint of a 1936 work entitled Pentecostalism. In a day of glossolalic resurgence, this volume is yet useful in presenting ably a Protestant case against Pentecostalist teaching.
Naught for Your Comfort, by Trevor Huddleston (Macmillan, 1963, 188 pp., $1.45). A book about one priest’s battle with “apartheid” in South Africa. First published in 1956.
The Supreme Court and Prayer in the Public School, by J. Marcellus Kik (Presbyterian and Reformed, 1963, 40 pp., $.75). Author argues against the court’s decision on the New York Regents’ prayer. He stresses that the intent of the framers of the First Amendment was not to exclude religion from public life but rather to prohibit the establishment of one church over another. If historical circumstances have changed, a change of the Constitution may be called for. But the court’s decision in this case stems from the justices’ minds, he urges, not from an application of the Constitution. The author weakens his argument by overstating his case and understating the problems. More recent decisions of the court have already contradicted his claims that the public school teacher cannot now “mention Almighty God” and that “the public domain is out of bounds for God.”
A Layman’s Guide to Protestant Worship, by Homer J. R. Elford (Abingdon, 1963, 64 pp., $.75). A primer for those interested in understanding the processes of worship in evangelical Protestant churches. The author discusses the order of worship and such matters as the current return of the Communion table to its earlier position at the focal center.
You Have a Ministry, by R. Eugene Sterner (Warner, 1963, 110 pp., $1.50). A Church of God minister calls on laymen to share in the ministry of the Church.
Christian Discipline in Child Training, by William A. Kramer (Concordia, 1963, 15 pp., $.15). A short discussion of the nature, purpose, techniques, and proper attitudes toward child discipline; written from a Christian perspective.
Communism and the Christian Faith, by Robert Scharlemann (Concordia, 1963, 38 pp., $.35). Stimulating, provocative, high caliber.
The Authority of the New Testament Scriptures, by H. N. Ridderbos (Presbyterian and Reformed, 1963, 93 pp., $2.50). A conservative theologian presents an exceptionally solid and clear discussion of the canonical and authoritative character of Scripture. Much clear light is thrown on the concept kerygma, which plays so great a role in modern theological thought.
Where in the World?, by Colin W. Williams (National Council of Churches, 1963,116 pp., $.75). Material designed to stimulate study of whether the present form of the Church, particularly that of local congregation, is a hindrance to evangelism. A study authorized by the World Council of Churches at New Delhi.
When Children Worship, a symposium (Judson, 1963, 63 pp., $1). A very fine discussion of how to lead a child into the attitude and act of worship. For both parents and Sunday school teachers.
Essays on the Death Penalty, edited by T. Robert Ingram (St. Thomas. 1963, 138 pp., $1.95). Essays which do not deal exclusively with, but are heavily weighted in favor of, capital punishment.
