When To Pad The Expense Account
Ethics in Business, by Thomas M. Garrett, S. J. (Sheed & Ward, 1963, 190 pp., S3.95), is reviewed by Clarence Bauman, assistant professor of theology and ethics, Mennonite Biblical Seminary, Elkhart, Indiana.
This book is written on the assumption that in principle everyone favors business ethics. Its purpose is to inform those who know most about ethics of the realities of business, and to assist those in the business world in developing moral principles that are rationally valid and realistic.
The author introduces the dilemma of business ethics by a descriptive analysis of the conformist whose failure to assume personal responsibility is ascribed to the popularized Freudianism and behaviorism characterizing our age of the “buck-passer.” Moral failure is blamed on either the environment, irresistible impulses, or complex unconscious drives, while social adjustment and conformism are proclaimed as the new gospel of the American way of life. Consequently, for the company man ethics and morals are reduced to an uncritical acceptance of the social standards and mores of his firm, which soothes the conscience of its employees with the comforts and security of the corporation setup. In so doing the corporation cultivates a pseudo-scientific contempt for free will and moral obligations by a scrupulous avoidance of any form of suffering, sacrifice, or self-discipline. To compensate for this personal demoralization, corporations provide medical plans, model homes, and even neckties bearing the corporate insignia, to provide a pseudo self-respect for one’s identification and a feeling of social community.
The flight from personal responsibility is accelerated by the mechanization, rationalization, and automation of management decision and by the absence of public consensus on moral issues. To avoid undue conflict with either reformers, liberals, or conservatives, business enterprise assumes as little social responsibility as possible, and for the rest does what is profitable. To temper this indictment of corporation enterprise, the author finds comfort in the fact that the Harvard Business Review at least pays lip service to higher ideals, even if only as a result of enlightened self-interest.
The author devotes a chapter to man, business, and society, and their centrality in determining notions of responsibility. He concludes with the observation that a corporation best serves the public welfare when it serves its own long-range interests.
Perhaps the most theologically rewarding chapter is the one on the meaning of work. We are told that work is not a penal activity nor a means of human perfection, though in itself it is not an obstacle to holiness. Apart from being a means of earning a living, work is seen as collaboration of man with the Creator to restore the world to harmony. On this assumption the author grapples with the problem of how to transpose the discontent, drudgery, frustration, and meaninglessness of much of labor—such as advertising cosmetics, selling toy balloons, or peddling whisky—into the ideal; how to convince man of the cosmic significance of his work when he realizes the futility of the values for which he labors.
The reader is overwhelmed with the enormity and difficulty of inspiring some degree of moral discernment relevant to business practices when price-fixing, bribery, and cheating are so common that an honest man of the old-fashioned sort seems a rarity in a moral atmosphere “in which honesty itself has largely become a question of convenience, expediency or social conformity, rather than a matter of principle” (p. 64). Not infrequently the author endorses broad mental reservation in preference to outright falsehood, as in the case of the junior executive who plays cards rather well but is instructed by his superior to lose so as to gain a client’s good will. Father Garrett advises that when the expense is for the benefit of the company one’s conscience need not be disturbed over “padding” the business expense account.
The book opens up numerous other areas of moral ambiguity, such as (a) the problem of psychic privacy in a nontherapeutic situation in which the corporation for motives of profit violates the personal dignity of the employee by psychological tests that force him to reveal the inner secrets of his personality as the price for being hired; (b) the widespread use of the computer, operated on the assumption that the ultimate goals of men can be expressed mathematically; (c) the awesome success of economic brainwashing by persuasive advertising techniques; and (d) the problem of waste and planned built-in obsolescence essential to an economy whose growth depends on increase in consumption.
In all this the author points to the need for a professional code of business ethics so as to encourage internal checks and balances in preference to government control. He himself has provided in the appendix two such tests to rate one’s integrity quotient.
In conclusion, Father Garrett directs attention to the religious dimension on the grounds that “enlightened self-interest and purely rational considerations are often not enough to move men to virtue.… In short the certitudes of faith are needed to complete the work of ethics” (p. 174). Charity is advocated as “the antidote for a spirit of calculating obedience,” as “the force that breathes life and holiness into the decisions of mere men” (p. 175).
This book is an elaboration of the theme “that ideals must be aided by prudence lest good will destroy itself” (p. 22). But there is no mention of the more radical question whether being in Christ actually means accepting our involvement in the sinfulness of the economic order as our destiny; whether the real task of Christian ethics is merely to console ourselves with the inevitability of compromise as a prerequisite to human existence and civilization. There is nowhere a hint as to the spiritual significance of the poverty of Christ for those whom he instructs not to fear the threats (including economic threats) of this world, nor to be tempted by its wealth. The voluntary poverty of Jesus and Paul might inspire Christians to subordinate the material aspects of life to the spiritual. But when the Church is caught up in a society in which acquisition of wealth is the chief criterion of success, this is not likely to happen. And treatises on business “ethics” that assume the dissociation of economic interests from kingdom presuppositions are part of this moral ambiguity.
CLARENCE BAUMAN
True Story
Angel at Her Shoulder, by Kenneth L. Wilson (Harper & Row, 1964, 256 pp., $3.95), is reviewed by E. H. Hamilton, missionary, Presbyterian Church in the U. S., Taipei, Taiwan, Free China.
Although this story reads like fiction, it is certainly true. The reviewer has for nearly twelve years worked in Formosa alongside that little “ball of fire” Lillian Dickson and her equally remarkable husband Jim Dickson. And although the reviewer has made frequent trips into the high mountains and to the leprosarium and other places with the Dicksons, this book reveals many things about this intrepid couple that even he did not know.
It is almost unbelievable what God has done through these two dedicated lives to “preach good news to the poor, to proclaim release to the captives.” Of Lillian and Jim Dickson, as of King Solomon’s court, it might be said, “The half has not been told!” But Kenneth Wilson has told a fascinating story. This book will certainly become a best-seller in the religious field.
E. H. HAMILTON
Shocking Nonconformist
Laughter in Heaven, by Henry C. Whitley (Revell, 1964, 189 pp., $3.50), is reviewed by J. D. Douglas, British editorial director, CHRISTIANITY TODAY.
It was generally considered an extraordinary choice when ten years ago Harry Whitley went to St. Giles’, Edinburgh. Brought up in the Catholic Apostolic Church (he wrote a biography of Edward Irving), he engaged in pioneer youth work in the Edinburgh slums, then entered the ministry after coming under the spell of George MacLeod.
Whitley’s first parish was in industrial Port Glasgow, and much of his book is concerned with the fifteen years he spent there. The location is Scotland, but the account of a minister’s dealings with his people is for all places and times. He writes with humor and pathos, discernment and compassion. He quotes an old gate-man’s comment that is not irrelevant to the present decline of the Clyde shipyards: “Once iron men came in here to build wooden ships, today wooden men come to build iron ships. Once men came here to build ships, now they come to collect pay pokes [i.e., envelopes].”
After a short ministry in Partick, where he scandalized the fashionable by dirtying his hands painting dreary tenements and consorting with the poor, he was selected for John Knox’s pulpit in Scotland’s mother church. It has not tamed him. “It is now my solemn conviction,” he announced on one memorable occasion, “that there can be no renewal of Christ’s Church in Scotland until the powers of the Woman’s Guild are considerably curtailed, and their purpose and existence severely scrutinized and criticized.” The resultant furor could be paralleled only if some Republican pundit attacked the raison d’être of the DAR.
The continuing pressure on him to conform must be tremendous—he said himself that at St. Giles’ there were temptations to sell his soul that honors might come—but he is still the fearless crusader. There is something of the showman about him, and he displays no small conceit of Harry Whitley on occasion; but readers of this entertaining biography will love the man. His criticism of the current talks with Roman Catholics in Scotland carry the greater weight because in his first parish he had the local priest as a close friend. Dr. Whitley is, moreover, that rare bird: a critic in high places who realizes that a verification of one’s references is a necessary condition of the luxury of outspokenness.
J. D. DOUGLAS
To Write A Better Bible
Reason in Religion, by Nels F. S. Ferré (Nelson, 1963, 336 pp., $7.75), is reviewed by David H. Freeman, chairman, Department of Philosophy, University of Rhode Island, Providence.
In this book, Ferré seeks to determine the relation between reason, primarily conceived of as man’s ability to order and direct experience, and religion, understood as the conviction that there are harmful or beneficial powers beyond ordinary experience.
The four main sections of the book deal with reason as related to God, to man, to history and nature, and to the world religions. Reason enables faith, as the distinctive function of religion, to avoid error and inconsistency. It teaches us that God stands out from all finite things as the ground, power, and purpose of the cosmic process of development. The nature of what is beyond ordinary experience is, however, best seen in human life and history, the highest manifestation of which is found in the life, teaching, death, and resurrection of Jesus, called the Christ. For although we cannot know how well Jesus knew God, and although the historic details of the Resurrection are confused and tangled, nevertheless, through Jesus, God came to be understood as unconditional, universal, eternal love.
God is the companion of persons and community. As an objectified realm, creation is in God; and yet it is also qualitatively external to God. It is grossly unfair to man and unworthy of God to believe that death settles man’s fate once and for all. It may be that every life that God has created will be perfected before any life can reach its destiny in God. In any case, however, the notion of an eternal hell is to be rejected; the nirvana of Buddhism is in fact closer to Christ than is the doctrine of eternal punishment.
To make room for its universal message of love Christianity must undergo a radical reformation of the faith. It may be possible to maintain a continuity of institution. However:
Certainly we should send to the slaughterhouse mythological Christianity, and dare to put the knife unshrinkingly even to our own ideological son of traditional Christianity. We must heed the Jewish and Muslim protest in the name of genuine monotheism and declare once for all that we do not worship Jesus of Nazareth [p. 313].
Dr. Ferré regards the New Testament as a “mixture of high and holy faith and truth, on the one hand, and uncritical mythology, on the other …” (p. 310).
The critical question remains, namely, how does Dr. Ferré know how to separate the mythological from what is true and holy? The spirit of Dr. Ferré may pant “to write better Scriptures for a new age” (p. 314), but the rejection of the work of the Holy Spirit results in a speculative cafeteria-style religion in which anyone is free to select whatever is regarded as of ultimate concern.
The God that Dr. Ferré would have us worship is not the God revealed in the New Testament but the product of his own imagination.
DAVID H. FREEMAN
Three Myths?
The Teaching of Contempt: Christian Roots of Anti-Semitism, by Jules Isaac (Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1964, 154 pp., $4), is reviewed by James Daane, editorial associate, CHRISTIANITY TODAY.
The strength of this book derives from the virtues of the author and the sins of the saints. The late Jules Isaac was an accomplished French historian, and his treatment of anti-Semitism carries the weight of his profession. But what makes the book even more uncomfortably forceful is the mass of Christian anti-Semitism that it adduces, and the telling way in which Isaac uses the admission of many Christians that the New Testament records are replete with contradictions and distortions. He further disturbs the Christian conscience by the reminder: “A true Christian cannot be an anti-Semite; he simply has no right to be one.”
Isaac sees three main roots of Christian anti-Semitism of which after careful historical research nothing remains, he says, except the perversity of the habit. Isaac admits that any decent theology must, in interpreting history, go beyond history. But he insists that the Christian theology which sustains the myths of anti-Semitism does not go beyond but rather violates the facts of history.
The first historical myth that fosters anti-Semitism is the Christian theological insistence that the Diaspora following the destruction of Jerusalem in A.D. 70 is a punishment of God upon the Jews for crucifying Christ. Isaac dismisses this by pointing out that the Diaspora had been going on for centuries before Christ and that as a matter of fact a considerable number of Jews remained in Palestine long after A.D. 70.
The second myth is the Christian theological contention that the religious life of the Jews during the time of Christ was in a degenerate state. Isaac insists that it was, on the contrary, marked by a high virility. He cites religious writings from the time and sees in the recently discovered information about the Essenes additional proof of spiritual virility.
The third myth is the theological contention of Christians that in crucifying Christ the Jews became guilty of deicide (killing God) and that they are therefore a people under a divine curse. The facts, says Isaac, are quite the opposite. Jesus never claimed to be God. He was crucified with the cooperation of a few renegade Jews, but chiefly by the decision of Romans who feared his messianic claims and who, unlike the Jews (who were eager for them), regarded them as a political crime. Further, it is “ridiculous and unintelligible” to charge Jews with deicide, he argues, for the unshakable foundation for belief in one God came from the bosom of the Jewish people. Nor could the illegalities of Jesus’ trial as recorded in the New Testament be true, for they are, says Isaac, simply contrary to Jewish procedure. Since illegalities are illegal, they cannot occur. This is as convincing as the assertion that six million Jews were not exterminated in Nazi Germany because that would be immoral.
Isaac’s argument that the Romans were the chief promoters of the Crucifixion is also unconvincing, since he admits that Jesus hid his messianic claims. Moreover, it leaves the Crucifixion of Christ without motivation. The argument that the Romans bear chief responsibility for the Crucifixion of Christ is unconvincing as long as no adequate motivation can be found in the Romans for desiring the Crucifixion.
The author wields what many people will regard as a heavy argument when he urges that the sin of a few renegade Jews cannot be laid upon the Jewish people as a whole.
Isaac docs not succeed in eliminating all the historical factors on which he thinks anti-Semitism to rest. Hence in the end the matter turns on theological interpretation, specifically on how one thinks of Christ. If he is the Son of God, then the sin of killing the Son of God stands. If he is the Son of God, then the Jewish religion only revealed the degeneracy of its virility in crucifying Christ. If he is the Son of God, the One who can act for others and through whom God deals with all men, then the ground falls away from the insistence that the sin of a few Jews could not bring punishment upon a whole people and that the Diaspora could not be a divine punishment on the whole nation.
Little remains of the force of Isaac’s argument except that derived from the anti-Semitic sins of the saints—which is plenty. Indeed, Isaac is often right. It did take the extermination of 6,000,000 Jews, 1,800,000 of whom were children, to awaken the Christian conscience about anti-Semitism. And he often turns profound Christian beliefs against the Christian, as when he urges that Christians are not concerned with the sins of others (Jewish guilt for the Cross), and when he reminds us that Jesus prayed forgiveness for his slayers and that Jesus, according to Christians, died not only for Gentiles but for all men.
This book, written by Isaac when he was eighty-five and his first translated into English, should help quicken the Christian conscience about the evil of anti-Semitism. It will show Christians that after almost 2,000 years they have not yet made clear that Jews are under judgment, not for the Crucifixion, but for rejecting the crucified and living Christ who comes to them in the preaching of the Gospel. Readers of this book will find it hard not to listen sympathetically to this man, a man whose wife said to him as she and most of his family went to death at the hands of the German Nazis, “Save yourself for your work; the world is waiting for it.”
JAMES DAANE
Caught In The Middle
The United States and the Middle East, edited by Georgiana G. Stevens (Prentice-Hall, 1964, 184 pp., $3.95; also paper, $1.95), is reviewed by Francis Rue Steele, home secretary, North Africa Mission, Upper Darby, Pennsylvania.
“No policy is poor policy” might well serve as a candid description of the United States’ early approach to the problems of the post-war Middle East. That the situation needs correction and is undergoing change is the thesis of this book published by the American Assembly, Columbia University. The purpose of the assembly, as stated in the introduction of the book (p. 8), is to provide materials for discussion in order to “help an informed public make up its mind about American policy.” Seven volumes have already been issued, six in revised editions, on other aspects of American policy.
The present book opens with an introductory chapter by the editor. This is followed by six chapters entitled, “Middle East Background,” “Social Modernization: The New Man,” “Economic Modernization,” “Regional and International Politics in the Middle East,” “The Arab-Israeli Conflict Today,” and “United States Policy and the Middle East,” by such experience observers as William Sands, William R. Polk, A. J. Meyer, J. C. Hurewitz, Harry B. Ellis, and Richard H. Nolte respectively. This slender volume is a mine of pertinent facts clearly and simply presented. Benefiting from their vantage point in time, the writers set events over the past score of years in the Middle East in perspective alongside similar developments elsewhere around the world. Here too we find the breakdown of European control leading to the founding of many smaller political units often ill-prepared to manage their own affairs apart from outside advice and assistance. Inevitably these new countries are drawn into the conflict for control of man and markets engaging the West and East in what is known as the cold war.
In the Middle East three main factors—American inexperience, the anomaly of Israel, and the tension of Arab versus Muslim loyalty—have made resolving American interests with local aspirations exceedingly difficult. For some years American policy seemed characterized by inexpert attempts to “line up” followers from among the newly emerged countries by threats and bribes. Ignorance and inexperience were perhaps largely responsible for such actions as the United States moved into the power vacuum created by the withdrawal of British and French influence. As often as not, well-intentioned plans produced enemies rather than friends. Certainly a vacillating policy could produce only confusion, even among friends. It would appear, then, that further illumination from an outside source might indeed be helpful. (Mr. Polk alone of the contributors is in government service, and he only since 1961.)
The conclusion that is reached by the writers is that, first of all, a plain, positive policy must be developed which is farsighted and feasible. Then it must be applied with firmness and understanding by men of stature and skill. It is encouraging to discover that these writers find significant improvement in the conduct of American foreign policy.
For reasons of political, economic, and even missionary concern on the part of America’s evangelical Christians, this book should be studied carefully as an aid in interpreting present and future developments in one of the world’s most crucial spots—the Middle East.
FRANCIS RUE STEELE
The Latter-Day Saints Today
The Latter-day Saints in the Modern Day World: An Account of Contemporary Mormonism, by William J. Whalen (John Day, 1964, 319 pp., $5.95), is reviewed by J. K. Van Baalen, author of The Chaos of Cults.
Behold the latest—and by that token in many respects the best—book on the Latter-day Saints. It is free from passion, ridicule, calumny. The early history of the “Saints” was such that many of the older books, both pro and con, contained much of all this. Like Christian Scientists and Jehovah’s Witnesses, the Saints of today prefer to ignore most of their early history, which certainly gave occasion to firm opposition though not always to the manner in which the opposition was manifested. Quite objectively the author relates the main facts of the Saints’ history. The bulk of the book, however, describes the Saints as they are and operate today. (Incidentally, the name Mormon is now accepted by the Utah Saints but is rejected by the other followers of Joseph Smith, who are dealt with in a brief chapter. As to the original “scholarship” of the movement, Smith interpreted the word “Mormon” as meaning “more good” and claimed that it was a combination of English and Egyptian.)
The Mormons have a president whose “power rivals that of the Pope” (the reviewer thinks excels would be the better word, since the president is free to announce an infallible “revelation” at any time and all by himself—a power that neither the Pope nor the president of the Witnesses possesses). They have twelve apostles, a council of seventy, a patriarch, presiding bishops, “stake” presidents, ward bishops (i.e., non-salaried pastors), and a two-fold priesthood. They are, in short “probably the most elaborately organized and disciplined religious structure of modern times.”
In this fantastic and huge organization Dr. Whalen sees both the strength and the weakness of the Mormons—their strength because it affords an unequaled hold upon the membership and because every Mormon’s ego is flattered with an ecclesiastical office and resounding title: a boy (only!) becomes a deacon at the age of twelve, an elder (lowest rank in the lower or Aaronic priesthood) at eighteen or nineteen. There are an unlimited number of priests, and the ideal of every loyal Mormon is to become a high priest—and to become a “god” in the hereafter.
The earlier Adam-God doctrine is no longer held; but that our God was a man upon some other planet before coming to this earth is now held and taught. The heresy of a Trinity consisting of a flesh-and-bones God the Father, a similar God the Son, and a Holy Spirit who is “a personage of spirit” is still taught today, as the thousands who hear the free lectures on Temple Square know.
A strong point of the Mormon organization is that it is virtually impossible to get anywhere in Mormonism without a recommendation from the local bishop, and that once this has been obtained, the president himself makes the appointment to the office.
The leading Mormons are immensely rich (there are 300 millionaires) and have controlling interests in the stock of huge business corporations owned by the church. The income of the church is well over a million dollars per day.
Other strong points of the Saints are their solidarity, their truly unequaled sacrifices for the church, their high standards of morality and ideal concept of family life (in spite of the fact that polygamy, now not mentioned, remains an essential point of doctrine), and their welfare program. And they are growing in political influence.
Dr. Whalen’s book gives the first (so far as this reviewer knows) authentic description of the secret rites in the twelve temples: 47,745 “ordinary” baptisms plus 2,566,476 ordinances for the dead in 1962! It also describes the six lessons whereby converts are made.
Weaknesses of Mormonism are said to lie in their antagonistic attitude toward Negroes; in their flimsy training of missionaries; in their insistence that they are “the only Church” (in a more and more ecumenically minded age); and in the incongruity between their tremendous drive toward college and university education and their simultaneous insistence upon the impossible myths that underlie the system.
Here, then, is an important and excellent volume. The author of The Chaos of Cults humbly and gratefully admits that he has learned much from Whalen’s book.
One or two minor flaws in this superb book are that the author is so objective that he remains totally silent on the unethical methods whereby the Mormon hierarchy acquires farms and the like in states where they are numerically strong, and that he is also silent about First Corinthians 15:24, upon which the farce of “baptism for the dead” is based and of which Professor Jean Cadier has proposed a simple and (to the reviewer) satisfactory exegesis.
But what are these amid so much that is good? Every church library should have at least one copy of this book and keep it circulating among its membership.
J. K. VAN BAALEN
Hazardous Occupation
The Pastor’s Wife and the Church, by Dorothy Harrison Pentecost (Moody, 1964, 316 pp., $3.95), is reviewed by Thea B. Van Halsema, author of Glorious Heretic and This Was John Calvin.
The girl who marries a minister finds her “full-time job in the work of the church … the most hazardous and dangerous occupation a woman can have.… Only the best adjusted … and thick-skinned will ever come through the experience emotionally and mentally unscarred.” But “I feel sorry for anyone who is not a pastor’s wife.”
Running the gamut of these feelings, Mrs. Pentecost shares her own twenty-five-year experience and covers in practical fashion everything from one’s calling and training to children, counseling, clothes, and calories. The book is intended also for congregations, but its greater value would seem to be for young women facing life in a parsonage or still in the first years of this experience. Seasoned pastors’ wives may find it interesting to compare their experiences and convictions with those of Mrs. Pentecost, as well as to re-evaluate their goals and the use of their time.
No two congregations are alike, nor are any two ladies of the manse. It remains for each pastor’s wife, novice or experienced, to chart her own course prayerfully so that her service to her family and her church will be as effective and enduring as she can make it.
The basic things, fortunately, do not vary. “The greatest reward that a minister’s wife can have is to know that she is needed, trusted, and looked up to as a godly woman who knows the Word and has power with the Lord in prayer.”
THEA B. VAN HALSEMA
Paperbacks
Council Speeches of Vatican II, edited by Hans Küng, Yves Congar, O. P., and Daniel O’Hanlon. S. J. (Paulist Press, 1964, 288 pp., $1.25). The only primary documentation now available from the Second Vatican Council; contains key speeches of considerable interest.
The New Group Therapy, by O. Hobart Mowrer; The Roots of Consciousness, by David C. McClelland (Van Nostrand, 1964, 262 pp., 219 pp., $1.95 each). Though the titles might suggest something else, these are extremely interesting books.
The Significance of the Synoptic Miracles, by James Kallas (Seabury, 1961, 118 pp. $3). The author strives for a theology of miracles and protests modern attempts to “demyth” them. He believes the New Testament must be understood on its own terms, and he writes in the no-nonsense fashion of a man who has miles to go before he sleeps.
Nuclear Disaster, by Tom Stonier (World, 1964, 226 pp., $2.45). A scientist writes on the “unthinkable”: what would happen if a twenty-mega ton bomb fell on a great American city. His sobering answer to this terrifying question describes the attack, the aftermath, and the legacy of nuclear attack.
Reformation Europe 1517–1559, by G. R. Elton (World, 1963, 349 pp., $2.95). A quite readable account of the religious and theological history of the Reformation by an author the book identifies but little.
Christ’s Preaching—and Ours, by Michel Philibert (John Knox, 1964, 55 pp., $1). A study of the difference and similarity between preaching and teaching in the “preaching” of Jesus. Translated from the French.
Handbook for Church Weddings, by Edward Thomas Dell, Jr. (Morehouse-Barlow, 1964, 64 pp., $1.50). Much practical advice by an author who regards weddings as a kind of worship service.
Marx and Engels on Religion, introduction by Reinhold Niebuhr (Schocken Books, 1964, 382 pp., $1.95). First printed in 1957.
The Holy Bible (World, 1964, 1021 pp., $1.95). The King James Version in a quality paperback.
The New Morality, by Arnold Lunn and Garth Lean (Blanford Press [London], 1964, 154 pp., 5s.). A discussion in strength and depth of the nature and consequences of the current revolt against Christian morality. The authors contend that once the revolt is at full swing in a nation, the nation can last no longer than a generation.
Book Briefs
Temples, Tombs, and Hieroglyphs: The Story of Egyptology, by Barbara Mertz (Coward-McCann, 1964, 349 pp., $6.95). A chatty, popular story of Egypt chiefly in terms of archaeological research.
Focus on Prophecy, edited by Charles L. Feinberg (Revell, 1964, 256 pp., $3.95). A discussion of biblical prophecy as it relates to the Jews, to the Gentiles, and to the Church.
Luther’s Works, Vol. 27: Lectures on Galatians 1535, Chapters 5–6, 1519, Chapters 1–6, edited by Jaroslav Pelikan (Concordia, 1964, 441 pp., $6). In addition to chapters live and six of the lectures Luther delivered on Galatians in 1531, this volume contains all six chapters of the discourses he based on the same book of the New Testament almost fifteen years earlier.
Concise Dictionary of American Biography, Joseph G. E. Hopkins, managing editor (Scribner’s, 1964, 1,273 pp., $22.50). Each of the 14,870 articles of the original many-volumed Dictionary of American Biography is presented in concise form in this single volume. A very valuable and useful reference work, limited by the consideration that it includes no one who died since 1941.
The Art of Staying Happily Married, by Robert W. Burns (Prentice-Hall, 1963, 223 pp., $3.95). By the famous “Preacher of Peachtree Street” who has counseled thousands of couples on the art of marriage.
Evangelism in the Acts, by C. E. Autrey (Zondervan, 1964, 87 pp., $2.50).
The Child in the Glass Ball, by Karin Stensland Junker, translated by Gustaf Lannestock (Abingdon, 1964, 256 pp., $4). A courageous mother’s story of hope for retarded children.
Intermarriage: Interfaith, Interracial, Interethnic, by Albert I. Gordon (Beacon Press, 1964, 420 pp., $10). A very extensive survey of the problems of, possibilities of, and attitudes toward intermarriage in the United States.
Bernard of Clairvaux, by Henri Daniel-Rops, translated by Elizabeth Abbott (Hawthorn, 1964, 232 pp., $4.95). An interesting account of an interesting man.
Living with Myself, by William E. Hulme (Prentice-Hall, 1964, 160 pp., $2.95). Informative reading on how to get along with yourself.
The Elect Nation: The Meaning and Relevance of Foxe’s Book of Martyrs, by William Haller (Harper & Row, 1963, 259 pp., $5). The purpose of this book is to show how Foxe’s Book of Martyrs led the English to regard themselves as the Elect Nation on whom all history converged, and how it became the pivot for molding the future history of England and America. Scholarly and interesting.
Mary Mother of All Christians, by Max Thurian (Herder and Herder, 1964, 204 pp., $4.75). A Reformed Protestant monk discusses the biblical texts delated to the life of Mary and thus provides a book in which Protestants will learn what they have in common, and what they do not have in common, with Roman Catholic Mariology.
Reprints
Jesus the Master Teacher, by Herman Harrell Horne (Kregel, 1964, 212 pp., $3.50). The author, best known for his opposition to John Dewey’s progressive education, discusses not the content but the form of the teaching of Jesus. Foreword by Milford F. Henkel. Date of first printing not given.
In Christ: The Believer’s Union with His Lord and The Ministry of the Spirit, by A. J. Gordon (Baker, 1964, 209 pp., 225pp., $2.95 each). Evangelically sound, stylistically very good; by the man who gave his name to Gordon College and Gordon Divinity School. The first was published first in 1872, the second in 1894.
Man’s Most Dangerous Myth: The Fallacy of Race, by Ashley Montagu (World, 1964, 503 pp., $7.50). A scientific analysis and evaluation of race. First published in 1942.
The Spirit of Protestantism, by Robert McAfee Brown (Oxford, 1961, 264 pp., $5). The kind of writing that invites reading, elicits both approval and disapproval, and thus stabs the Protestant into self-discovery.
