The Trouble Is The Pulpit
The Trouble with the Church: A Call for Renewal, by Helmut Thielicke, translated and edited by John W. Doberstein (Harper and Row, 1965, 136 pp., $3.50), is reviewed by Carl Kromminga, professor of practical theology and director of field education, Calvin Theological Seminary, Grand Rapids, Michigan.
This book is a translation of Helmut Thielicke’s Leiden an der Kirche. In it Thielicke applies his skill as a theologian and writer to diagnosing the trouble with the Church. The result is not just another jeremiad on the contemporary impotence of the Church, for Thielicke’s diagnosis and prescription are responsible as well as brilliant.
Thielicke locates the trouble primarily in preaching. Because he is a master preacher himself, his criticism certainly merits a careful hearing. Yet he is not out to exalt the gifted and “successful” preacher at the expense of the earnest and somewhat pedestrian one. His aim is to disclose the fatal flaw in Protestant preaching and to challenge preachers to correct it. Although this book was originally addressed to the German Protestant situation, it includes references to circumstances in American Protestantism with which Thielicke is acquainted through firsthand experience.
“Does the preacher himself drink what he hands out in the pulpit? This is the question that is being asked by the child of our time who has been burned by publicity and advertising” (p. 3). This quotation discloses what, in Thielicke’s view, is really wrong with the Church. Preaching lacks authenticity. The preacher’s unreal tone, strange words, and intolerable abstractness raise the question whether he really “exists” in the dogmas he proclaims. Does the preacher really bring his daily experiences, his study of modern literature, his humor—in short, the whole range of his life—into this house of dogma? The author testifies that many German preachers who passed through harrowing experiences in World War II can converse about those experiences with animation while their preaching remains general and colorless. This is why many of their hearers suspect that they are not really living in the house of the dogmas they proclaim.
Thielicke contends that people today are asking, not “Where shall I learn to believe?” but rather, “Where can I find credible witnesses?” The central problem is credibility, and the problem of credibility ultimately comes down to the question whether the witness really lives by the faith he proclaims. It is this concern for authentic witness that governs the further development of the book. Thielicke writes with deep feeling on the causes of pulpit jargon, the necessity of limiting the scope and purpose of each sermon, the need for textual-thematic preaching, the problem of addressing real rather than abstract man, and the preacher’s temptation to retreat into “busywork and liturgical artcraft.” No summary can do justice to his discussion; it must be read to be appreciated.
The writer observes that Protestantism stands before a “rubhish heap of dead words.” On the other hand, Roman Catholicism seems to be moving toward a rediscovery of the vitality of the word. This prompts him to ask whether Protestantism really has a right to separate existence.
As useful steps toward the revival of preaching Thielicke suggests that we pay close attention to life situations that call for answers from the Gospel, organize parent discussion groups in which we can hear genuine questions being raised, and postpone confirmation until it can be an act of individual decision. Although this part of the book is particularly suited to the German situation, it has a message for the “establishment” in America as well.
Has Thielicke really uncovered the basic cause of the uncertainty that robs so much of Protestant preaching of genuineness? It appears that his analysis has not penetrated far enough. In an excellent translator’s note, John W. Doberstein cites as one of the causes for the discouragement of preaching the current preoccupation in theological education with the problems of exegesis. He agrees with Thielicke that this preoccupation has made preaching sterile. Although he does not depreciate exegesis, he is concerned about the paralyzing effect on preaching of recent debates on the “hermeneutic question.”
It is precisely at this point, however, that the basic cause of many a modern preacher’s uncertainty shows itself. Until this cause has been eradicated, preaching will never become authentic as the proclamation of the Word of God. The hermeneutic question is simply this: “How can I hear the Word of God in the text of Scripture?” Basic to this question is that of inspiration. The right answer to the question of inspiration will not automatically eliminate all problems of exegetical detail. Unless that answer is found, however, the preacher will feel deep down that his affirmations lack a clear foundation in ultimate divine authority. And this uncertainty will inevitably inject a note of debilitating relativism into his preaching.
Once the question of biblical authority is properly answered, however, the preacher must pay close attention to what Thielicke has to say. The preacher’s convictions must be expressed in a way that clearly shows he is alert to the needs of men in his time. This alertness can be acquired only if the preacher is willing to participate fully in life in his time, both through the medium of significant current literature and through ongoing vital contact with the members of his congregation in their daily concerns.
The translator’s note is a fitting introduction to the book. Doberstein has served us well with a vigorous reaction to current laments that the pulpit is dead. He grants that we have made the preacher into a “pastoral director” and that this remodeling job has led to the degeneration of preaching. But he refuses to concede that the devitalized preaching of “directors” is proof that preaching is useless. Ministers who really believe this should be forbidden to preach. The congregation should not be required to listen to what these “slovenly defeatists” hand out as a “weekly chore.”
Thielicke and his translator have presented the case for vital preaching in the conviction that right preaching is still God’s way of powerfully confronting men with the Gospel of his Son.
CARL KROMMINGA
A Real Tonic
A History of Christian Missions (Volume IV in “The Pelican History of the Church”), by Stephen Neill (Eerdmans, 1965, 622 pp., $7.50), is reviewed by Herman J. Ridder, president, Western Theological Seminary, Holland, Michigan.
Bishop Stephen Neill was indeed the man to write this book. A wide knowledge of missions, the careful work of a scholar, and the zeal of a man long identified with world missions are reflected on every page. In a day when we have read much about the demise of the institutional church, it is a real tonic to read this volume.
Among the more interesting positions taken by Bishop Neill is his challenge of the idea that William Carey is the father of modern missions (p. 261). The exhaustive treatment he gives to the years preceding Carey is evidence enough that Carey was not the father but part of a great succession, the heir of many pioneers. Neill defends without apology the slogan of the Student Christian Federation in the 1880s and 1890s: “The Evangelization of the World in This Generation.” Believing that some have confused evangelization with conversion, and therefore have rejected the phrase, Neill defends the slogan on the basis that it is an “unexceptionable theological principle—that each generation of Christians bears responsibility for the contemporary generation of non-Christians in the world …” (p. 394).
This history, which concludes with an invaluable twenty-two-page bibliography on missions, meets the needs of both-missions scholar and concerned Christian. After reading the book one can sing “like a mighty army” without ambivalent feelings, proud to be a soldier in an army that fought this hard and accomplished so much in the name of Jesus Christ.
HERMAN J. RIDDER
For Beginners
The New Testament: Its History and Message, by W. C. van Unnik (Harper and Row, 1964, 192 pp., $3.95), is reviewed by William L. Lane, associate professor of New Testament, Gordon Divinity School, Wenham, Massachusetts.
This introduction to the New Testament, first published in Dutch in 1962. is intended for readers who are just beginning to study the Bible. It is very simply written, and there are no footnotes. It is, nevertheless, an adequate and interesting treatment of its subject, and it introduces the reader to some of the background and foreground of the New Testament.
Approximately three-fourths of the volume is concerned with the New Testament itself. Background information begins with the Roman period, and while the statements on the Stoics and the Cynics are helpful, those on the Epicureans, Skeptics, and Eclectics are too brief to be satisfying. New terms that should be known are italicized, e.g., “sanhedrin (a loan-word from the Greek meaning a council or court of law).” In his treatment of the New Testament, Professor van Unnik shows a high regard for the essential integrity of the record. He speaks openly of God’s intervention in history. There is an almost “chatty” approach, as when he writes. “You can find plenty of examples for yourself by reading through the Gospels.” From time to time there is sounded a distinctively evangelical note; on page 13, for instance, he defines what it means to believe on Jesus, and on page 38 he notes. “Then as now the encounter with Jesus Christ called for a decision: to receive or reject him.”
There are. naturally, positions open to challenge. Van Unnik appears to accept the authenticity of certain non-canonical agrapha (pp. 15 I.): he argues, on the basis of Colossians 4:16, that Paul wrote several letters that have not been preserved (p. 16); he feels that an eclipse of the sun accounts for the darkness at Jesus’ crucifixion (p. 90). The treatment of Second Peter is limited to a single, non-committal paragraph under the heading and treatment of Jude; First Peter alone is discussed under “Peter.” There are also instances where brevity of treatment, together with a momentary forgetfulness of the type of reader for whom the volume is intended, creates problems. Is it sufficient to say, without further explanation, to one beginning his study of the New Testament, “Also certain things were added as time went on: as with Matt. 6:13 and 1 John 5:7” (p. 21)? And the beginner may be pardoned if he is quite puzzled when he reads, “We must not forget, however, that as the New Testament record makes clear, the resurrection of Jesus means, not that he comes back into our world but that he goes forth into God’s” (p. 93). At such points brevity is not a virtue, and the beginner will need more help than Van Unnik has given him.
This is the kind of book to use with high school students or lay people who are becoming alert to the New Testament for the first time. But they must be encouraged to raise questions that Van Unnik raises or provokes and fails to answer, so that the conversation initiated by the author may be carried forward.
WILLIAM L. LANE
A Book To Read
What’s the Difference?: A Comparison of the Faiths Men Live By, by Louis Cassels (Doubleday, 1965, 221 pp., $4.50), is reviewed by fames Daane, assistant editor,CHRISTIANITY TODAY.
Not only are newspapers giving religion far better coverage than formerly; religious news editors of the secular press are writing religious books. One of the finest comes from Louis Cassels, twenty-year reporter for United Press International. Without becoming theologically ponderous, he presents with high adequacy the positions of the various religious faiths. The presentation is lucid, succinct, and a model of clarity. Perhaps the average minister would achieve something of this crisp, uncluttered style if his words had to be conveyed over a wire service. When words cost money, it is surprising how thrifty and concise language becomes!
Cassels writes with a purpose. He wants to show the differences among the various forms of Protestantism, Catholicism, Orthodoxy, various sects, and the non-Christian religions. The last two categories he merely touches, but the others he sketches amazingly well in very brief compass. Occasionally his thumbnail sketches are flawed by theological imprecision or faulty theology. But there are also times when he shows very shrewd theological insight.
He writes to show the differences because the question be has been asked most during his many years as a religious reporter is: “What’s the difference …?” His deeper reason is his belief that the differences do make a difference; his concluding section shows why “Christians cannot compromise.”
Cassels writes out of personal religious conviction and gives fair warning, “This is not an ‘objective’ book.… I do not see how it is possible for anyone to be truly neutral about religion.… So I think you are entitled to know that I write as a committed Christian, who has been nourished in the Protestant tradition.…” He adds that he has been “trained, during more than twenty years as a wire-service reporter, to be as fair and accurate as humanly possible in presenting the other fellow’s point of view. Even if UPI had not pounded this maxim into my head, I hope that my own conscience would not permit me to malign or misrepresent any person’s religious faith.”
I know of no other book that carries such a tight cargo of information about the various religious faiths. I would suggest that it is a valuable reference book, but this would obscure the fact that the book’s style is clean, touched with humor, and highly readable.
JAMES DAANE
Static
An Introduction to Communism, by Henlee H. Barnette (Baker, 1964, 117 pp., $1.95), is reviewed by Arthur F. Glasser, home director, Overseas Missionary Fellowship, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
This book was written by a member of the faculty of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky, to provide future church leaders with a balanced introduction to an acute contemporary problem. In the preface one finds Barnette confessing his awareness of the seriousness of his task. He speaks of intense personal effort to be “objective and dispassionate” as well as “theological” in his treatment. Obviously, a review of his work should be devoid of the superficial.
Barnette’s development follows a rather irregular sequence. He begins with the aims and advance of Communism, and follows with sketches of its leading personalities to the fall of Khrushchev. Then he backtracks to describe what he terms “Communism’s basic ideas,” which he amplifies with two chapters on some general pros and cons. Next, for a theological critique, he summarizes a spread of opinions on Communism from several contemporary theologians but fails badly by including no evangelical among them. The book concludes with suggested guidelines for “Christian action” that are rather unrelated to a truly biblical orientation.
Obviously Barnette is a conscientious man, diligent in his documentation and outspoken in his convictions. He is widely read in his subject. But he does not really seem to attain his purpose. Indeed, his book is more a compilation of facts and opinions than a creative work. Perhaps that is what makes the style somewhat diffuse, often repetitive, and even pedestrian. Paragraphs are bundles of affirmations loosely tied together. Ideas do not flow smoothly. Some of the conclusions are unconvincing. This is unfortunate, in view of the good subject material Barnette has marshalled to his assistance.
But how shall the book be evaluated? The theological professor who seeks to introduce the subject of Communism to his students is tackling a formidable problem. Communism is at once a rather complex materialistic philosophy of life, an involved economic theory, a multi-sided political program, and a worldwide international problem. Furthermore, it is in great flux and change. Cold civil wars rage between its Moscow and Peking ideological poles. Much invective screams back and forth between Marx’s rigidly orthodox devotees and his liberalizing revisionists. Moreover, the Communist world is emotionally divided over the issues of race and nationalism. It is hardly the political monolith some evangelical Americans have allowed their fears to create. Not that this makes it less of a menace to the stability of the world; if anything, these tensions and divisions pose a greater threat to world peace than ever before.
In the face of Communism’s changing patterns of internal turmoil and exported subversion, one finds it a bit disturbing to come upon a book like this that presents the movement in rigid, static, editorialized categories. This sort of introduction is both out of date and inadequate. Indeed, a solid evangelical approach to this subject has yet to be written. And it is urgently needed. Just listen as today’s seminarians discuss Communism and you’ll discover why.
The greatest value of Barnette’s work lies in his abundance of documented sources and in his extensive bibliography.
ARTHUR F. GLASSER
The Gospel In The City
Mission in Metropolis, by Jesse Jai McNeil (Eerdmans, 1965, 148 pp., $3.50), is reviewed by Donald H. De Young, pastor, Elmendorf Reformed Church, New York, New York.
Mission in Metropolis is well named, well written, and well worth reading. Readers whose attitudes are neatly polarized around restrictive loyalties to brand labels on truth may come away disturbed, since the stance of the author defies pigeon-holing. To me it was an evangelical witness turned out toward the world. The thesis is not a systematized document designed to refute any popular or unpopular persuasions. Rather, it comes as a warm and courageous response of biblical faith to the needs of the world. “To be on mission in the world,” Mr. McNeil says, “is to be involved in positive and ultimately constructive programs of action which are inspired by ideal social ends, sustained by an evangelistic purpose, and given distinctively Christian content by the gospel of Jesus Christ” (p. 93). “To be sure, the redeeming love of God in Christ can save a man’s sold in the worst surrounding conditions. But is not the gospel call also to a man’s life—to the full-orbed, socially responsible life which is possible here and now?” (p. 70).
This train of thought can be traced through the book. McNeil relies heavily on the “let the world set the agenda” school. Feuerbach, Buber, and Jaspers are seen as thinkers who provide a necessary corrective for the narrow and self-centered pietism of many contemporary believers. Some statements may seem extreme, as they appear to place the verities of the faith at the disposal of the world. The author would assure us of the privilege to do so based on a vital reliance upon Christ to lead and guide the affairs of his Church. “The kerygma which was proclaimed by Paul and the other apostles must be faithfully and forcefully proclaimed today.” The Church centered on him who declared, “For I am the Ford; I change not” (Mal. 3:6), may boldly (even though at present she may not “see the solution to many of the problems that somehow must be solved”) face the “awesome task of giving direction to a changing urban and technological society.” The dynamic relation of faith and social responsibility is seen throughout the book in a steadfast resistance to the gravitational pull toward the myopic visionaries who dwell in camps and on sides.
Leaving the “pie in the sky by and by” social-adjustment theory, he presents a fine chapter of “A Realizable Faith.” The rapid changes in metropolis, in the Church, and in various perspectives on ministry have by this time already been focused in the book (along with, I might add, exceptionally well-defined and helpful summaries of the argument in each chapter). Then, having insisted on the Church’s involvement in realizable goals—practicing the Gospel now as well as proclaiming it—he lifts this involvement away from the clutches of humanistic hands bringing in the Kingdom of God on earth. “The doctrines of divine-providence and redemption through Christ Jesus are alien to their exclusively this-worldly, self-sufficient faith. What lies beyond does not matter. Consequently they cannot deal effectively with all the disappointments and anxieties, the frustrations and failure, the ambiguities and contradictions peculiar to our historical existence. The power to deal with such experiences does not lie within human resources and genius. It lies beyond what men can do, beyond even their best and most prodigious effort. It must come as the Christian faith declares it must come—from God in Christ” (p. 99).
The late Rev. Mr. McNeil brings to this book the insights gained from fourteen years as pastor of the Tabernacle Baptist Church in metropolitan Detroit. Dr. Martin Luther King said of the author that he “shows with unerring skill the Power of God’s word as a plumbline in giving balance to disordered lives.” It may be that the genius of the Negro leader and congregation in this day of revolution will be found in their providing deliverance for their white brothers who find it so easy to give up faith for activities of fear.
The love, determination, and dedication of faith at work may yet extricate the intimidated regiments of God’s army toward a new burst of biblically realistic idealism, the kind that so many young people seem eager to find. The end result of the thinking and challenge of this book will certainly bring something far nobler, richer, and truer to Christ than the ghettoized spiritual clubs of race and clan we have known till now.
DONALD H. DE YOUNG
Book Briefs
Dear Papa, by Thyra Ferré Bjorn (Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1963, 191 pp„ $3.50). A delightful story, humorous and wise, of a minister’s family. The book is a sequel to the equally delightful Mama’s Way and Papa’s Daughter, and their author is a sister of Nels F. S. Ferre.
Mesopotamia, by Jean-Claude Marguéron (World, 1965, 212 pp., $12.50). First in a series (Arehaeologia Mundi) designed to cover arehaeological research around the world in laymen’s language. It does not concentrate directly on contributions of Mesopotamian archaeology to biblical studies but provides a useful and reliable background. The text, though carelessly printed, is good, and the 130 page-size illustrations (many in color) are superb.
War and Revolution, by Nicholas S. Timasheff (Sheed and Ward, 1965, 339 pp., $6.50). In the interest of showing that wars are not, as some suppose, inevitable, Timasheff analyzes the French, American, and Russian revolutions and the two World Wars to find the factors that make for war and for its cessation.
Paperbacks
The Baby Born in a Stable, by Janice Kramer, illustrated by Dorse Lampher; The Boy with a Sling: The Story of David and Goliath, by Mary Warren, illustrated by Sally Mathews; Jon and the Little Lost Lamb: The Parable of the Good Shepherd, by Jane Latourette, illustrated by Betty Wind; The Little Boat That Almost Sank, by Mary Warren, illustrated by Kveta Rada; The Story of Noah’s Ark, by Jane Latourette, illustrated by Sally Mathews; and The World God Made: The Story of Creation, by Alyce Bergey, illustrated by Obata Studio (Concordia, 1965, 32 pp. each, $.35 each or $2 per set). Bible stories for children; true to the Scriptures, with very attractive artwork.
Psalm 139: A Devotional and Expository Study, by Edward J. Young (Banner of Truth Trust, 1965, 117 pp., $.75).
