How Baptists Are Built
The Baptist Way of Life, by Brooks Hays and John E. Steely (Prentice-Hall, 1963, 205 pp., $3.95), is reviewed by John J. Kiwiet, associate professor of church history, Northern Baptist Theological Seminary, Oakbrook, Illinois.
The authors have been working jointly on this book, which is part of the “Way of Life” series published by Prentice-Hall. It was prepared for the general reader rather than for the specialist in denominational history (p. xiii). The major trends in Baptist life, especially among Southern Baptists, are delineated in a clear and elucidating way.
The first section of this book is a survey of Baptist history. The great times of Baptist life are its beginnings on English and American soil during the seventeenth century, and also the period of frontier life in which Baptists played a significant role (c. 1675–c. 1950). The third great period of Baptist development, according to the authors, is the present day, which characterizes itself by rapid growth and by a bewildering scene of explosions in various areas of life.
The authors then proceed to take up the main Baptist teachings. They consider the following to be major points of agreement among Baptists: the emphasis on conversion and personal commitment; the centrality of preaching in worship; the symbolic understanding of the sacraments; and the unfulfilled challenge of social ethics in Baptist church life. It is sometimes not clear whether the authors describe present Baptist understandings or challenge the Baptists themselves to a renewed approach; this is particularly so in Chapter 4, where they criticize certain interpretations of the experience of conversion. In the matter of race relations the authors conclude: “We are advancing slowly; but we are advancing” (p. 87).
The third and largest section of this introduction to Baptist life is devoted to the topic, “How Baptists do their work.” We now enter the sanctuary of Baptist self-understanding, and we encounter their great principles of local church government; separation of church and state; participation of laymen and women in church life; evangelism and education—all of this under the observance of the New Testament pattern. The authors twice quote a statement that they believe accurately characterizes membership in a Baptist church: “It takes a strong constitution to be a good Baptist” (p. vi, p. 105). Large numbers of Baptists, however, live under prohibiting circumstances, e.g., the young churches on the mission field; churches under persecution; several of our own city churches. They cannot carry on an extensive evangelistic and educational program, but they too consider themselves as vital Baptist churches.
The book concludes with a section on Baptist contributions. The authors make no secret about the weak emphasis on theology and hymnology among Baptists. Although they have their great theologians and hymn writers, Baptists have relied for a large part on general Protestant theology and hymns. The closing chapter on religious liberty shows that Baptists still are in the midst of their search for freedom of religion for all men.
With this well-written and very informative book the authors succeed in introducing us to genuine Baptist life. We discover, too, that Baptists do not feel they have “arrived” yet, and that they still have to exert themselves to meet a wide range of problems and challenges—from the minor ones at the local level, to the far-reaching national and international issues of our day.
JOHN J. KIWIET
Journalistic Diversion
The Church of England, by Paul Ferris (Macmillan, 1963, 224 pp., $4.95), is reviewed by J. D. Douglas, British editorial director, CHRISTIANITY TODAY.
A 34-year-old secular journalist gives here a well-written, selective, and superficial impression of various facets of the Established Church. His grasp of the true nature of the Church of Jesus Christ is perhaps understandably tenuous, but when it comes to recounting ecclesiastical scandals and controversies, he doesn’t miss a trick. Atheists-in-heaven, Lady Chatterley and the Bishop of Woolwich, the Balham defrocking case, London slums owned by the Church Commissioners, the Provost of Guildford row, Harry Williams’s unorthodox views on fornication—they’re all here.
It is not an altogether objective picture, for Ferris has his prejudices and journalism will out. Thus, speaking of the single evangelical college he visited, he says, “Everyone has his ‘personal testimony,’ which he will give at the least provocation, describing how a man, a book, or a random thought began a process that (in most accounts) passes through a state of prolonged prayer, kneeling on a hard floor, before the truth of Christ became apparent” (p. 27). Seeing that this college’s principal had a photograph of Billy Graham on his desk, Ferris comments: “Many Anglican clergymen, particularly Anglo-Catholics, wince at the sight of those big lapels and blazing eyes.…” There are coat-trailing references to “thoroughgoing fundamentalism” and “the gimlet eyes of Conservative Evangelicals.” Anglo-Catholics, on the other hand, are for the most part treated with marked sympathy.
Though this book gets in several shrewd digs at officialdom, it makes some curious judgments—the editors of Prism will be intrigued to find themselves labeled as “a High Church ginger group”—and quotes even more curious statements, like that of the Church Commission executive who explained about part of that body’s $900 million resources: “We try to keep our hands clean, only it’s pretty obvious nowadays that if you’re investing in equities you can’t keep clear of armaments.” The reader is alternately entertained and depressed, grateful for the diversion but thankful that this is only journalism after all.
J. D. DOUGLAS
Good Or Bad?
Constructive Aspects of Anxiety, edited by Seward Hiltner and Karl Menninger (Abingdon, 1963, 173 pp., $3.50), is reviewed by James Forrester, president, Gordon College and Gordon Divinity School, Wenham, Massachusetts.
This book is the record of a frank interdisciplinary exchange between clergymen of various denominations and psychiatrists of various schools of thought focused productively upon the question of anxiety. Some of the “work papers” form the content of the book.
Ishak Ramzy points out that the position first taken by Freud that “no forces other than the physical, chemical ones are active within the organism” proved to be too penurious for the clinical data. Freud, after three decades, emerged with the psychological observation that anxiety is the reproduction of early experiences of denial of protection or love. Ramzy suggests that if the emphasis is on the “signal” function of anxiety, it can have no positive use.
Hiltner expands upon Freud’s emerging ideas of anxiety and affect and his “continuum” toward pathology. The second of Hiltner’s papers is a perceptive approach to anxiety in the theological terminology of Kierkegaard, Reinhold Niebuhr, and Tillich. When man senses his freedom as a potentiality, he must accept responsibility for what he does with his freedom. His freedom is the precondition of his sin, and his subjective response to this awareness is anxiety. Whether anxiety is to be construed as constructive or destructive “depends upon the response made and executed by ego, self, or person.” Freud, Kierkegaard, and Niebuhr are seen as in some agreement regarding the “normative function of the total process of which anxiety is a part” (p. 61). Tillich relates anxiety in an ontological context to the “existential awareness of non-being.” Hiltner suggests that the others “all agree, against Tillich, that what makes confrontation possible is not the message of anxiety itself but … strength of ego or freedom of the self” (p. 65).
Fred Berthold suggests that anxiety seen only in clinical perspectives appears to be “disteleological” and restrictive of productivity. He attempts to make the case for anxiety as an aspect of the creativity of man. Viewed in the Christian context, the “anxiety of guilt” has a creative element intrinsic to it. It drives us to seek a cure and “to resume our quest for the image of God” (p. 84).
Albert C. Outler discusses anxiety and grace in the perspectives of Augustine. He establishes a helpful differentiation between anxiety as “cognition” and anxiety as “emotion.” He sees the constructive aspects of anxiety as related to cognition. He sees anxiety through the prism of a theological existentialism. On the “constructive” side anxiety “may serve the function of posing the problem of selfhood in its ultimate dimensions” (p. 100).
Charles A. Curran sees two impulses making for positive outcomes from anxiety in the Judeo-Christian tradition. These are an “anxious striving” toward maturity and an “anxious longing” for lasting identification with God. It is possible, in the Christian understanding, for anxiety “to come full circle from striving and longing to fulfillment” (p. 118).
Paul W. Pruyser sees the clinical approaches to anxiety as putting the emphasis upon affect and appraises its role as potentially pathogenic. In theological perspectives he denies that anxiety necessarily produces cognitive awareness of finitude. Paradoxically, for the study of the subjective side of anxiety one needs the live experience of anxiety; but the anxious person is the least able to make a “phenomenological study of anxiety” (p. 137). Pruyser’s paper suggests that the theological approaches tend to seek constructive functions for anxiety but the empiricists insist upon specific identifiable causes.
Dr. Hiltner has made a significant attempt to bring psychology and theology into a common area of discourse and to present a unified definition of anxiety (p. 154). The impression hopefully emerges that anxiety is not to be seen as wholly malignant, but may be seen in some dimensions of existence as a provision of the grace of God for the preservation of the integrity of the totality of the human being. Theology is concerned with “some kinds” of “danger and challenge” in terms of how they can be met. The clinician may still need to be convinced that anxiety is a value to be exploited rather than a syndrome to be removed. His method may be too parsimonious to accommodate the spiritual need of man.
JAMES FORRESTER
A Good Missionary Story
Bill Wallace of China, by Jesse C. Fletcher (Broadman, 1963, 157 pp., $2.95), is reviewed by L. Nelson Bell, executive editor, CHRISTIANITY TODAY, and former medical missionary in China.
This is the story of a missionary whose name and skill as a surgeon became a legend in South China. With a dedication equaled by few, he set his mind to one task, “the best of medicine” and a clear witness for his Lord, regardless of danger.
Here is a story of a dedicated life, exceptional professional ability, and the adventure and tensions of working during the war-torn years of the Sino-Japanese conflict, and later of the take-over by the Communists. It is the kind of story young people will revel in; they will catch a new vision of the meaning of Christian dedication.
The final chapters tell of the coming of the Communists to Wuchow, first with fair words, then with severe restrictions, and finally with imprisonment and death.
Here is a picture of the raw hatred communism has for Christianity. When Dr. Wallace was arrested on trumped-up charges, the Chinese of Wuchow, Christians and non-Christians alike, refused to participate in the “trial”; and when he died in prison because of tortures inflicted on him, the local Christians defied the Communists in order to erect a monument over his grave—an enduring witness to his faithfulness even unto death.
There are too few good missionary books. This, by a writer with an unusual gift, is an inspiring exception.
L. NELSON BELL
Responsible To What?
The Responsible Self, by H. Richard Niebuhr (Harper & Row, 1963, 183 pp., $3.50), is reviewed by Bernard Ramm, professor of systematic theology, California Baptist Theological Seminary, Covina, California.
This volume is H. Richard Niebuhr’s basic ethical theory. It is not an easy book to read, for Niebuhr is interested not in specific ethical principles nor in specific ethical cases but in the so-called phenomenology of morality. He bypasses traditional ethical theories and contemporary theological ethics in an effort to present that which he feels is the very core of ethical action.
That core seems to be the concept of a responsible self (responsible to the self, to God, and to society) who in a given situation or context chooses that act which is fitting. Thus Niebuhr carries on a continual diatribe against teleological or deontological ethics as they represent an act in isolation from the ethical agent. Only the responsible self (which includes responsibility before God and his actions, p. 86) is the true ethical agent. Again, it is wrong to discuss ethical theory apart from philosophical, psychological, and sociological considerations. Only from the latter can we ever decide what the fitting action is.
Niebuhr admits that he is not writing a theological or a biblical ethics, and that his orientation is more philosophical and phenomenological. However, he hopes that his ethics is biblically informed (p. 46).
I found three things disturbing me as I read a book which is no doubt a profound effort to get to bedrock in ethics. First, I do not believe one can write an ethics and be so removed from the concrete biblical data itself. If the Bible is “dependable, reliable, honest, truthful” in its witness of the life of men before God (p. 23, the words of editor Gustafson), why keep it at such arm’s length? Second, there is no light given on specific cases, and this Niebuhr considered a virtue (cf. p. 13). But it seems to me that it would require a person of extraordinary sophistication to proceed from Niebuhr’s basic theses to specific cases. I carry with me a continuous dissatisfaction with philosophers and ethicists who forever refuse to show concretely what their theories involve. Third, I am unhappy over the concept of fitting. This seems to me to bypass the great theological issue of the command of God. Certainly that which is fitting is the command of God. By bypassing a detailed analysis of this concept, Niebuhr has left this theological flank completely exposed.
BERNARD RAMM
Generally Sound View
Can I Trust My Bible?: Important Questions Often Asked About the Bible … With Some Answers by Eight Evangelical Scholars (Moody, 1963, 190 pp., $3.30), is reviewed by John H. Gerstner, professor of church history, Pittsburgh Theological Seminary, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
Five of the chapters of Can I Trust My Bible? are concerned particularly with the canon and text of Old and New Testaments. Dr. R. Laird Harris rests the case for canonicity on miraculous attestation of authors as he does in his book Inspiration and Canonicity of the Bible, which should be consulted for his more “apologetic” handling of the argument. Professor Meredith G. Kline argues interestingly for the traditional dating of Deuteronomy (p. 150) and charges surviving Wellhausenists with “obscurantism.” Wheaton’s A. Berkeley Mickelsen is content to provide a somewhat statistical and informative lecture on manuscripts plus a table of criteria for ascertaining genuineness of texts. Robert H. Mounce concentrates on Luke’s historical reliability (pp. 180 f.) and also indicates the difficulty of proving biblical error (p. 177), while the University of Idaho’s professor of physics. Edson R. Peck, argues for the harmony of science and Scripture.
As the reader can notice, this symposium tries to prove that the Bible can be trusted as historically reliable; but it may be asked whether the Bible can be trusted as the Word of God. For the most part the authors seem to assume an affirmative answer to that vital query. Three of the essays examine this matter more particularly. Frank Green states that Christians have “a completely adequate and entirely logical basis for believing in miracles …” (p. 46), while Robert Culver, in “Were the Old Testament Prophecies Really Prophetic?,” maintains that the Resurrection is “proof” of Christianity and argues that prophecy of the Resurrection is also evidence; or, rather, that the cumulative effect of prophecies is evidence. Still he says that “any one of these alone might be explained away” (p. 110). Gordon H. Clark, the only professional philosopher writing here, tries to show that conviction of the Bible’s inspiration cannot be based on argument but must be “produced by the Holy Spirit” (p. 32).
Putting the picture together, Can I Trust My Bible? contends that we may, as far as historical accuracy is concerned. However, the inspiration of the Bible is not similarly grounded but appears to be the work of the Holy Spirit directly (without “proof”) persuading the Christian soul. Many other basic problems are untouched or touched lightly; yet on the whole this is a salutary volume, taking a generally sound view and expressing it clearly.
JOHN H. GERSTNER
Still Unintegrated
The Pastoral Care of the Mentally Ill, by Norman Autton (S.P.C.K., 1963, 223 pp., 23s.), is reviewed by Paul D. Fairweather, associate professor of pastoral counseling and psychology, Fuller Theological Seminary, Pasadena, California.
In this book of eight chapters the author defines the role of the pastor and gives practical guidance for ministering to the mentally ill. The pastoral ministry to the mentally ill is described as primarily one of prevention and after-care. The need for cooperation between the psychiatric and ministerial professions is emphasized, and the roles are differentiated in terms of possible interrelation. In addition, the values of religious worship, of administration of sacraments, of prayer, and of Bible reading are described. The appendices include accounts of pastoral clinical training with outlines of courses for the clergy, a new terminology for mental health, a glossary of psychiatric concepts and terms useful for ministers, and an index of scriptural references.
The author emphasizes that the cure of souls is passing more and more out of the minister’s hands. Pastoral counseling in its most unique sense as a spiritual ministry, however, is not clearly articulated. Rather, it is defined in terms of psychological counseling and psychotherapeutic approaches to the person. Knowledge of emotional disorders is recommended. However, the importance of this “knowledge” seems to be that the pastor will thus be able to refer difficult cases to other professional groups. Cautions about not counseling neurotic and emotionally disturbed persons take precedence over a definition of the minister’s contribution as a counseling pastor to such persons. The pastor is warned not to fall into stereotyped ways of dealing with people, but little integration of theological and psychological concepts is attempted. The ultimate therapeutic recommendation is to “be” a Christian with the person. Dogmatic statements and clichés abound throughout. The pastor ought to “love” the neurotic and be “unshocked.” The author points to the necessity of self-knowledge for resolution of neurotic conflict, but does not indicate how the minister is to achieve this. The chapter on psychosomatic disorders is helpful, but of little value to the minister in understanding how persons can be helped in their faith when they are symptomatizing organically. It is believed that the approach to persons, if they are to be helped, will involve something more than “infinite patience,” namely, an ability to understand the psychic conflicts in terms of Christian theology.
The reader is struck by the author’s use of dogmatic adverbs such as “always” and “never” in describing the minister’s role; for example, “the door of his study should always be open to the troubled parishioner.”
This book does abound with practical suggestions for the pastor in his contacts with the mentally ill. But it lacks the theoretical articulation necessary to help the minister find the integration of psychological and theological concepts that must occur in the therapeutic effort.
PAUL D. FAIRWEATHER
Toward A Christian Couch
The Christian and the Couch, by Donald F. Tweedie, Jr. (Baker, 1963, 240 pp., $3.93), is reviewed by Gelmer A. Van Noord, M.D., superintendent, Pine Rest Christian Hospital, Grand Rapids, Michigan.
Dr. Donald Tweedie, professor of psychology at Gordon College, has written a sequel to his earlier book, Logotherapy and the Christian Faith (1961), in which he analyzed and evaluated the existential psychiatry of Dr. Viktor Frankl of Vienna. In The Christian and the Couch Tweedie makes a special plea for making the Christian faith central and dynamic to the psychotherapeutic process. He also sees the distressing tensions in mental health research as being clustered about a “lack of an adequate anthropology, and objective axiology, or value system, a distinct therapeutic direction and a governing goal.”
The author courageously attacks a controversial issue in discussing the relation of Christianity and psychotherapy. He discusses the “anti” group, those Christians who “are negative to any inroad of psychological science into the area of dealing with personal problems” (p. 22). Next he considers the views of Christians who “believe that psychological means should be sought out in the alleviation of human suffering, just as food, clothing, shelter, and medicine” (p. 25). He describes as neutralists “those who hold that the Christian faith is neutral to psychotherapy” (p. 28). And he makes a special plea for a Christian psychotherapy grounded in biblical presuppositions (p. 33).
Undoubtedly all Christian psychotherapists will agree that “the Christian has a basic presupposition as he approaches the concept of personality for he believes that the Bible presents significant truths regarding man” (p. 50). However, there may not be universal agreement as to the specific manner in which a Christian psychiatrist will function psychotherapeutically. Dr. Tweedie uses the Bible and prayer as techniques in his psychotherapeutic sessions (pp. 175–79). Although he allows for special circumstances when their use may not be judicious, to the reviewer there seems to be some arbitrariness in the implication that the specific use of the Bible and prayer is necessary inherent in a Christian psychotherapy. Could not a statement of Christian doctrine or a suggestion embodying the law of love be equally Christian and something more therapeutic? Inadequate attention is given to the non-verbal Christian witness (e.g., Christ-like compassionate acceptance and understanding) that is most essential for every Christian psychotherapist who is committed to Christ and to service to God’s, creatures.
In Chapter II, “Man,” Tweedie provides a convenient synopsis of a section of his earlier book. Chapter III on “Mental Illness” presents elementary material which will be of help to those unacquainted with the psychiatric and psychological literature, and the same generalization may be made about the convenient glossary (pp. 229–38).
Chapter IV, “Psychotherapy or Christ; To Whom Shall We Go?” contains an analysis of the psychotherapeutic practices of several Christian psychotherapists: Dr. Paul Tournier of Geneva, Dr. Ernest White of London, and Dr. Orville Walters of Urbana, Illinois.
Chapter V on “The Christian Therapist” provides information on the counseling process and interview techniques. The latter are reflected in several descriptions of psychotherapeutic sessions found in Chapter VI, “The Transformation of Personality.”
Dr. Tweedie exhibits great enthusiasm for the techniques of dream analysis and hypnosis. He also recommends two therapeutic techniques that have grown out of the existential psychiatry of Viktor Frankl: “paradoxical intention,” in which man’s ability to transcend himself and rise above his circumstances and symptoms is challenged (p. 173), and “de-reflection,” which is the turning of the client’s attention away from his symptoms to positive goals (p. 174).
In The Christian and the Couch, Dr. Tweedie has performed a service to and for the Christian community (and hopefully for others also) by significantly focusing on an important modern problem: the scholarly and devout integration of Christianity and psychiatry. He has utilized sources that were not previously brought to the attention of all interested in this integration. (I refer to the writings of many authors who are members of the American Scientific Affiliation and the Christian Association for Psychological Studies.) Careful reading of this book will challenge all Christians engaged in psychotherapy to rethink their psychotherapeutic theory and practice. And Dr. Tweedie’s strong stand for a distinctive Christian psychotherapy will probably encourage profitable discussion. Both would please Dr. Tweedie, because he would like to be convinced if he has not been convincing, and he would be happy to make a pilgrimage in depth with others who have a common commitment to Jesus Christ.
GELMER A. VAN NOORD
A One-Volume Library
Masterpieces of Christian Literature in Summary Form: The Central Ideas of 300 Influential Works on Which Protestant Christianity Is Grounded, edited by Frank N. Magill; associate editor, Ian P. McGreal (Harper & Row, 1963, 1193 pp., $9.95), is reviewed by James Daane, editorial associate, CHRISTIANITY TODAY.
This is the kind of book that any Protestant minister and any Roman Catholic priest would like to have in his study. The only exceptions would be those who have none because they don’t.
The book is a small library. It contains 300 essay-reviews on the writings of almost as many men. About 30 per cent of the titles presented are pre-Reformation—beginning with the First Epistle of Clement to the Corinthians, and including works by Abelard, Aquinas, and St. Augustine.
Some essays include a bit of biographical material; others none at all. For the most part the essays are “book reviews” of the most important writing of a given writer prominent in the thought of the Christian Church.
Sub titles are usually composed for a double purpose; to give a fuller explanation of the title, and to provide an inducement to buy the book. This one does both; vet it needs further explanation. It claims to present the central ideas of 300 influential writings, and does so admirably. But it also claims that Protestant Christianity is “grounded” on these. This is true if it is understood that “Protestant Christianity” is defined historically, rather than biblically. From the historical point of view, Hegel, Renan, Rousseau, Wieman, A. Schweitzer, Kant, and others are justifiably included, for they did influence Protestantism. One may question, however, whether Mary Baker Eddy, W. T. State, and some few others have even seriously influenced Protestant Christianity.
But if the editors were induced by the poll they conducted to be a bit too generous, they have by the same poll been induced to fairness. They have included in their book writings of very conservative men, such as Machen, Dooyeweerd, Charles Hodge, Abraham Kuyper, and C. S. Lewis, and have chosen some very evangelical, conservative men for review work.
The stance of the editors is quite neutral. This points up that no survey of Protestant Christianity can ignore evangelical Protestants or their writings. It also indicates that the book is eminently worth buying for its intrinsic value and practical usefulness.
Every essay-review read by this reviewer is expertly done. If you want a competent, though uncritical, review of Barth’s Dogmatics, Cullmann’s Christ and Time, Nygren’s Agape and Eros, Dooyeweerd’s New Critique of Theoretical Thought, Barth’s Epistle to the Romans, Brunner’s Dogmatics, Calvin’s Necessity of Reforming the Church, or his Institutes. Warfield’s Plan of Salvation, to mention but a few, then this is your book, for a price that gives you your money’s worth.
JAMES DAANE
Book Briefs
Religion and Freedom in the Modern World, by Herbert J. Miller (University of Chicago, 1963, 129 pp., $3.95). A professor of the University of Indiana probes the period of 1800 to the present to discover how Christianity fostered and opposed freedom. Even the dissenting reader will read this with profit.
The Cambridge Movement: The Ecclesiologists and the Gothic Revival, by James F. White (Cambridge, 1962, 272 pp., $6). The story of how the Cambridge Movement revived medieval architecture, vestments, and ceremonial in English churches in the nineteenth century.
Amos and His Message: An Expository Commentary, by Roy Lee Honeycutt (Broadman. 1963, 182 pp., $3.75). An interpretative analysis by an author convinced that the divine message of Amos is bitingly relevant for the modern world. The lion roars again.
Preface to Old Testament Theology, by Robert. C. Dentan (Seabury, 1963, 146 pp., $3). A revised edition of a work first published in 1950. For scholars only.
Lutheran Elementary Schools in Action, edited by Victor C. Krause (Concordia, 1963, 414 pp., $6.50). A detailed explanation of what Lutheran schools are, and of how, and for what purpose, they are run.
Your Child from Birth to Rebirth, by-Anna B. Mow (Zondervan, 1963, 152 pp., $2.95). Essays which contain many truths, but often ramble and frequently have little to do with book or chapter title.
That I May Live in His Kingdom, by Louis E. Ulrich, Jr. (Augsburg, 1963, 233 pp., $3.50). Devotions based on the new translation of Luther’s small catechism.
The Negro Protest, by James Baldwin, Malcolm X, Martin Luther King, and Kenneth B. Clark (Beacon Press, 1963, 56 pp., $2.50). The transcript of interesting (one unrehearsed), rather angry interviews from tapes made for TV broadcast.
Expository Sermons on Revelation, Vol. 2, by W. A. Criswell (Zondervan, 1963, 184 pp., $2.95). Sound, relevant sermons on the seven churches of Asia Minor, churches checkered with the same shade and sunshine as fall over the Church today.
The Crucible of Love: A Study of the Mysticism of St. Teresa, of Jesus and St. John of the Cross, by E. W. Trueman Dicken (Sheed & Ward, 1963, 548 pp„ $8.50).
A Harmony of the Gospels: in the Knox Translation, edited by Leonard Johnston and Aidan Pickering (Sheed & Ward, 1963, 252 pp., $6).
Unity: A History and Some Reflections, by Maurice Villain, translated by J. R. Foster (Helicon, 1963, 384 pp., $5.95). A fine-spirited attempt by a Roman Catholic to understand the Protestant churches and the Protestant ecumenical movement, which he traces from Edinburgh (1910) to the Second Vatican Council. A genuine contribution to the “Big Dialogue.”
Christian Education and Evangelism, by Donald Gordon Stewart (Westminster, 1963, 176 pp., $3.50). The author takes a serious look at how the educational arm of the Church relates to the voice of the pulpit, that special office and “means of grace.” The book is really a call to the Church to understand what it is doing.
Man in the New Testament, by Werner Georg Kümmel (Westminster, 1963, 96 pp., $2.95). A very theologically modern discussion of the nature of man by a prominent German theologian. First published in German in 1948, now brought up to date by new footnotes. A scholarly treatise.
Paperbacks
Words on Target, by Sue Nichols (John Knox, 1963, 90 pp., $1.50). Best little book available on Christian communication. Full of good examples for ministers in the jet set.
A Short History of the Interpretation of the Bible, by Robert M. Grant (Macmillan, 1963, 224 pp., $1.45). Although it shows the author’s personal position and his own sitz im leben, this is a very valuable and readable introduction to the various methods employed throughout history to interpret Scripture. Originally published as The Bible in the Church, it now appears with a new title, revisions, and a new introduction. Fine collateral reading for students of hermeneutics.
The Lord’s Prayer, by C. F. Evans (Seabury, 1963, 103 pp., $1.25). An explanation of the Lord’s Prayer; brief, but with substance.
The Future of Mankind, by Karl Jaspers (University of Chicago, 1963, 346 pp., $1.95). One of the world’s greatest existentialists speaks on many things social and political, and chiefly on man’s ability to stand up to the grim threat of nuclear war.
William James, from the “Modern Thinkers Series,” by Gordon H. Clark (Presbyterian and Reformed, 1963, 47 pp., $1.25). A critical evaluation of the pragmatism of James.
Philosophers Speak of God, edited by Charles Hartshorne and William L. Reese (University of Chicago, 1963, 535 pp., $2.95). Readings in philosophical theology and analyses of theistic ideas.
Creator Spirit, by Stephan Hopkinson (Seabury, 1963, 102 pp., $1.25). A study of the biblical doctrine of the Holy Spirit, and of his relation to art and science and to the modern idea of society.
The New English Bible, the New Testament of 1961: A Comparative Study, by Oswald T. Allis (Presbyterian and Reformed, 1963, 71 pp., $1.50). A critical discussion of the diction of the New English Bible, and of the method used by its translators.
The Basis of Christian Unity: An Exposition of John 17 and Ephesians 4, by D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones (Eerdmans, 1963, 64 pp., $.50).
The University and Its Basis, by Hendrik Van Riessen; Facts and Values: A Christian Approach to Sociology, by Remkes Kooistra; A Christian Critique of Art, by-Calvin Seerveld; from the “Christian Perspective Series 1963” (Association for Re formed Scientific Studies; 1963; 72, 63, 63 pp.; $1 each). Lectures of substance and stimulation.
The Hidden God, by Cleanth Brooks (Yale University Press, 1963, 136 pp., $1.45). Delightful reading for literati who are also interested in problems of Christian literature.
The God That Failed, edited by Richard Crossman (Harper & Row, 1963, 275 pp., $1.60). Ex-Communists show their disenchantment with Communism. A kind of classic; first published in 1949.
The All-Sufficient Christ: Studies in Paul’s Letter to the Colossians, by William Barclay (Westminster, 1963, 128 pp., $1.45).
