Christians And Foreign Policy
Foreign Policy in Christian Perspective, by John Coleman Bennett (Scribners, 1966, 160 pp., $3.50), is reviewed by Earle E. Cairns, chairman, Department of History and Political Science, Wheaton College, Wheaton, Illinois.
Does the Church have an obligation to influence foreign policy? John C. Bennett, president of Union Theological Seminary in New York, thinks it does. He seeks in this book to indicate what should be the relation between Christian idealism and national interest and power in a world of sovereign nationstates, if there is to be a just and humane American foreign policy.
While Bennett approves the stopping of Hitler and the containment of Stalin in Russia after 1947, he warns Christians against self-righteous individual patriotism or nationalism. Christians should be cautious about involvement in civil disobedience but should support moral restraint in the use of means to support national power. The right to criticize policies and strategies of foreign relations and to communicate with fellow Christians across national boundaries should be upheld in a world that lacks legal or collective systems of international security.
Bennett feels that pacifism in foreign relations is not a viable alternative, because of the need for power against nuclear attack, invasion, or political oppression. Military power is essential but still a problem for many Christians.
The author ably presents biblical principles that Christians should use in thinking about foreign policy (pp. 36–49). Although the sovereign nationstate is the primary force in international relations, Bennett points out that Christians should have concern for the rights of a nation and for a nation’s responsibility to protect its people by the use of national power, which may be used for moral or immoral ends.
Three basic problems for the Christian are the cold war, nuclear power, and international order. Although the West has rightfully resisted Communist expansion in Europe and Asia, Christians should not let their opposition lead to a holy war against a supposedly absolutist system. Polycentrism, rivalry between Moscow and Peking, and signs of humanization and open-endedness of Communism indicate the possible lessening of a unified threat to world order. Bennett advocates the opening of lines of communication between East and West.
In dealing with the problem of nuclear power, the author rejects nuclear pacifism in favor of the maintenance of nuclear power as a deterrent; but this must never be used for a first strike. The Christian should support ways to eliminate nuclear weapons and the destruction of population in war. Bennett would not try to create a supranational world organization but supports the United Nations, whose contributions he ably enumerates (pp. 138–142).
In all of this, members of the Church, an international body, should have relations with fellow Christians across boundaries through missions and conferences. They may sometimes have to oppose national policy, as did some German Christians in World War II. In each country the Church can uphold biblical principles for the conduct of foreign policy and promote a Christian consensus to influence policy.
Bennett is not an idealistic exponent of unilateral nuclear disarmament. He wisely rejects such a policy because of the need for nuclear deterrence in this world of sovereign nation-states—a world becoming more politically fragmented by the Afro-Asian explosion of new nations. He wisely points out that our opposition to Communism is not to Communism per se but to international aggressive totalitarianism per se. While Communism is still aggressive in Asia, in Europe it is less aggressive than it has been.
One can be thankful that conquest of Europe by Russia was not feasible because of America’s post-World War II policies. The possibility of evolution to coexistence because of polycentrism, national Communism (as in Yugoslavia), and humanization must be considered. But whatever develops in the future, the Church faces the problem of the role of the Christian in relation to the foreign policy of his nation. The Christian might well echo Bennett’s desire for a more flexible foreign policy, the use of force with restraint where necessary, and the use of the United Nations when possible.
This reviewer, however, questions whether the Church as the Church should act. Rather Christian ministers might proclaim, as did the Old Testament prophets, biblical principles in relation to national policy. Individual Christians as citizens could then seek to influence their government’s policy by criticism and suggestions. In all of this, due care should be given to the proper separation of church and state, which Bennett seems to ignore.
This book deserves thoughtful reading by evangelicals because of its realism and its sound suggestions for action by Christians in the area of foreign policy. Inspired by biblical principles, Christians acting as informed citizens might well have a good impact on the formation of foreign policy.
EARLE E. CAIRNS
This Side Idolatry
Billy Graham: The Authorized Biography, by John Pollock (McGraw-Hill, 1966, 277 pp. $4.95), is reviewed by David H. C. Read, minister, Madison Avenue Presbyterian Church, New York, New York.
Biography of living personalities is a hazardous art. Admirers are apt to complain that this is not really the man they know. Opponents are ready to pounce, since disliking the book is a new and more acceptable way of attacking the man.
It would have been fatally easy to produce a bad biography of Billy Graham; but, to the relief of his friends and the despair of his critics, John Pollock has done a thorough and masterly job. This is not a rapid piece of journalism, filled with gush and gossip. The author has gone to immense trouble to ascertain the facts, to avoid exaggeration, and to correct widespread misconceptions. Like many other readers, this reviewer was eager to check on the portions of the story where he could say, “I was there,” and he is happy to say that he found accurate reporting and balanced interpretation. The most he could fault was an initial in someone’s name. This is important in a book dealing with numerous highly publicized crusades over many years, where the temptation to idealize, to use hindsight, and to indulge in myth-making must be very strong.
This is not to say that the book is merely factual reporting. The admiration and affection of the author for his subject shines through every chapter. Yet he has on the whole prevented this from clouding his judgment and causing him to play down mistakes and failures or brush off serious criticisms. He keeps his devotion well “this side idolatry.” If he did not, the book would completely betray its subject. For the Billy Graham who emerges from the pages is the one whose remarkable modesty and passionate devotion to his Lord have earned him the respect and affection of an astonishing variety of Christians—and non-Christians too.
In telling the story of the campaigns and crusades over some twenty years, Pollock highlights certain crucial factors: (1) Graham’s remarkable capacity for learning and for growth: in spite of his rise to world celebrity he has retained the humility that knows how to listen; (2) his unyielding loyalty to the churches, in spite of constant temptation to form his own “movement”; (3) his ecumenical spirit, not always relished by his followers, which has led him to cooperate with all who honor his Lord and has kept him from what he calls “negative fundamentalism”; (4) his clear-eyed acceptance of his call to proclaim Christ crucified and risen, and his refusal to be diverted by social or political pressures; and (5) his determination not to become the captive of the organization he has created.
Those who want answers to the most frequent criticisms that are made of the crusades will find much ammunition here, even though certain queries may remain.
In spite of the author’s caution, we sometimes get the impression of being bull-dozed by staggering statistics and inevitably catch a whiff of the “success-story.” But I heartily commend the book, not only to friends and supporters, and not only to the many ill-informed critics, but to all who would enjoy a well-written, accurate, and lively biography of one of the few world-figures of our day.
DAVID H. C. READ
Rewarding
The Bible in Modern Scholarship, edited by J. Philip Hyatt (Abingdon, 1965, 400 pp., $7.50), is reviewed by John H. Skilton, professor of New Testament language and literature, Westminster Theological Seminary, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
This volume contains papers read at the 100th meeting of the Society of Biblical Literature and at the American Textual Criticism Seminar, both in 1964. The more than twenty-five contributors come from a considerable variety of backgrounds, geographical and ecclesiastical. Included are Jewish and Roman Catholic scholars.
As a result of the careful planning of the 100th SBL meeting and the assignment of topics to the participants, the work before us is more than a collection of miscellaneous studies, for it achieves a measure of logical development and coherence. Yet it does not justify the expectations its ambitious title might encourage. Some important areas of biblical study receive little if any attention, and others are handled in a far from comprehensive way. The freedom granted to the contributors in developing their topics has helped to produce variety, but it has also made for unevenness of treatment and limitations in coverage. The editor informs us: “Some participants chose to survey research of the past with a statement of the problems as they now appear to stand; others preferred to treat one or two detailed subjects in depth; some attempted to anticipate the course of study in the biblical field in the years lying ahead. Readers will see that the papers do not conform to fixed patterns laid down in advance …” (p. 10).
The careful and discerning student will find more than a little that is useful in this volume, and a number of the contributions will strike him as especially substantial and rewarding. He will seldom, however, find the presentations really moving or exciting.
Too much biblical scholarship in the post-enlightenment period has been uncritical of its philosophical assumptions, lacking in clear perspective and theological aptitude, and entangled in problems of its own making. Regrettably, this work is not wholly free from these defects.
JOHN H. SKILTON
An Uncertain Sound
What About Tongue-Speaking?, by Anthony A. Hoekema (Eerdmans, 1966, 161 pp., $3.50), is reviewed by Harold Lindsell, associate editor,CHRISTIANITY TODAY.
From all over the United States and around the world have come reports of speaking in tongues. Glossolalia has invaded the old-line denominations, and those who wear their collars backward have been as much a part of the phenomenon as those who do not know a store from a surprice. A whole literature has been developed on the subject. This book comes as a welcome addition from one who is sympathetic and who writes well of the historical antecedents of the tongues movement but who is curiously ambivalent in his conclusions.
Dr. Hoekema, professor of systematic theology at Calvin Seminary, has analyzed tongue-speaking historically among the older and new Pentecostals. He shows that the Pentecostals are reappraising their theology of tongue-speaking, and that there are marked differences of opinion among them. Early Pentecostals generally regarded tongue-speaking as a necessary phenomenon indicating that the believer had received the gift of the Holy Spirit (although already converted). With tongue-speaking, they believed, came power for life and service. Tongue-speaking was definitely related to sanctification and was sometimes tied to sinless perfection. Thus it early became obvious that those who had not spoken in tongues were second-class citizens of the Kingdom. As a result, all sought eagerly for the gift—and some seemed to get it in spurious ways.
The author adequately argues that there is no biblical basis for this view. The quality of one’s life, his sanctification, and his power for life and service do not rest upon the ability to speak in tongues. Hoekema shows that some Pentecostals today are turning away from the idea that tongue-speaking is either a necessary phenomenon or one specifically related to the baptism of the Holy Spirit and his fullness.
Up to this point the author does well. But when he considers whether tongue-speaking can and does occur today, he wobbles all over the gridiron. What he concedes on the one hand, he takes back on the other. He cautiously says we cannot rule out tongue-speaking, and he will not suggest that it is impossible for the Holy Spirit to bestow the gift today. But then he turns around and concludes that “it is a moot question whether the gift … is still in the church today.” If he cannot make up his mind about this matter, others have. Although some of the so-called tongue-speaking is phony, there is too much evidence of bona fide occurrences to say that it is still a moot question.
We, and the author, have much to learn from Pentecostals. The first lesson is that the Holy Spirit can and does give this gift, but not to all. He distributes it as he wills. This is his sovereign prerogative.
HAROLD LINDSELL
Arouses Preachers
Ha! Ha! Among the Trumpets, by Martin H. Franzmann (Concordia, 1966, 109 pp., $2.95), is reviewed by Peter Y. De Jong, assistant professor of practical theology, Calvin Theological Seminary, Grand Rapids, Michigan.
A good teacher, someone has said, makes a good preacher. These fifteen sermons seem to bear this out.
Franzmann, by profession a New Testament exegete, within small compass not only provides solid substance for the believer’s meditation but also stirs preachers and prospective preachers to proclaim the grace of God in Christ Jesus without fear or favor.
Each message opens the Word, and in a pointed, practical, personal way. Although the scholarship is unobtrusive, the careful reader will soon discover that Franzmann has learned well his lessons in homiletics, exegesis, and biblical theology. All is skillfully woven into a compelling call to faith in the Church’s living Lord. Not a word is wasted, not a sentence superfluous. But learning and literary craftsmanship are made subservient to the high goal of preaching Christ.
All but two of these sermons were prepared for special days in the Christian and the academic year, yet one basic commitment pervades them all. In contrast to the many preachers of today whose sermons are almost wholly informational and quite impersonal, Franzmann knows the use of the interrogative and imperative moods. Never is the call to repentance and faith and holy service muted.
Since arresting phrases and sentences punctuate every page, a reviewer is sorely tempted to quote at length. Perhaps this one example will whet the reader’s appetite:
The cross marks the spot where the exegete ceases to be proud of his exegetical niceties, is shaken out of his scholarly serenity, and cries out for his life in terms of the first Beatitude. The cross marks the spot where the systematician sees his system as the instrument which focuses his failure; where the practical theologian realizes that there is only one practical thing to do, and that is to repent and abhor himself in dust and ashes; where the historian leaves his long and sanely balanced view of things and goes desperately mad. The cross marks the spot where we all become beggars—and God becomes King. Amen.
PETER Y. DE JONG
The Holy Tryst
Worship in the Reformed Tradition, by Frederick W. Schroeder (United Church Press, 1966, 157 pp., $3.50), is reviewed by James Daane, director, Pastoral Doctorate Program, Fuller Theological Seminary, Pasadena, California.
The author of this book is president emeritus of Eden Theological Seminary in Webster Groves, Missouri, where he taught public worship. He was also pastor of the Tabor Evangelical and Reformed Church in Chicago for twenty-three years. This very readable book, the ripe fruit of his long pulpit and academic career, contains much truth and good sense about the public worship of the Church. Schroeder’s position is essentially biblical, though it suffers at points, in my judgment, from his commitment to the free-church tradition. Most ministers in the United States could greatly profit from the book.
The author rightly recognizes that any church in which the members in any way participate in worship has a liturgy, whether it knows it or not. This is clear from the Greek word for liturgy, leitourgia, meaning “the work of the people.” Schroeder notes that the New Testament uses “worship” and “service” of God with meanings that overlap.
The current renewal of worship in the United States is seen by Schroeder as a reaction to the informality of the early American frontier, with its high degree of emotionalism and subjectivism, and as a product of the closer contacts with the ecumenical movement. Things have already changed so much, he contends, that often one can hardly tell from the liturgy whether he is worshiping in one denomination or another.
Throughout the author’s discussion of worship and its theocentric nature and theological presuppositions, of the Eucharist, and of the sanctuary and altar runs the repeated insistance that worship must be determined by theology and not by tradition or utilitarian considerations. He warns against a thoughtless take-over of traditional liturgical elements whose theological implications may violate the commitment of the church. Theology, he roars in a quiet way, must determine liturgy, not vice versa; for the manner in which we respond to God must be determined by what we as Christians believe about God and what he has done. He fears that many churches, in their eagerness to improve an impoverished liturgy, are unwittingly bringing in through the newly opened liturgical door what they believe to be theological heresy. He feels that many Protestant churches are moving toward what a renewed Roman Catholicism is moving from. And while he recognizes that God does not exist—and therefore cannot be worshiped—apart from human need and God’s fulfillment of it, he also recognizes that the ultimate thrust of worship is objective and that its validity is not measured primarily by whether the service makes the worshiper “feel good.”
The New Testament provides binding liturgical principles but no specific details of form. Therefore, asserts Schroeder, it is as fruitless to go to the New Testament to find the biblical form of liturgy as it is to go to the New Testament to find the one form of biblical ecclesiology. The proper liturgy for any church does not depend on the recapture of New Testament liturgy. Not only does the New Testament contain no liturgy, but any proper liturgy must arise out of, and express the given Christian community.
This book is full of shrewd, knowing observations, pointed comments, and pithy assertions that combine deep theological insight with simplicity of expression. Examples: worship is “recognition of worth”; and the righteousness of God is derived “from God’s dealings with mankind” and is thus far “broader” than that righteousness of Job, who (according to Job 1:1) “turned away from evil.” The author also makes the observation that although liturgy is more than a sermon, the whole of worship suffers when the sermon is bad.
Schroeder has the sensitivity to recognize that worship, like prayer, loses some of its beauty and sacredness when subjected to critical analysis. But he also knows that unreflective worship can be much less beautiful and sacred to both God and man than the worshiping man or church realizes. Since God is first in worship, Schroeder dares to be critical of the Church’s worship. I am glad for his daring.
JAMES DAANE
Quaker Portrait
The People Called Quakers, by D. Elton Trueblood (Harper & Row, 1966, 298 pp., $4.95), is reviewed by Arthur O. Roberts, chairman, Division of Religion, George Fox College, Newberg, Oregon, and editor, “Concern.”
Elton Trueblood is a well-known writer whose volumes on Christian philosophy and commitment, lectures, retreats, and Yokefellow leadership have extended his ministry far beyond the campus of Earlham College, from which he retired in June.
This book consists of essays about the men and ideas coming out of that seventeenth-century movement of Christian renewal known as Quakerism. Trueblood presents Quaker insights into the Christian faith as live options. A critical but sympathetic apologist, he narrates views on Christian experience, worship, the sacramental view of life, shared ministry, pacifism, and the sense of Christian vocation. Biographical sketches delineate these insights, the most winsome concerning John Woolman, whose search for the “wisdom of Christ” in social concern powerfully quickened Christian conscience about slavery.
As expected, the author maintains a high standard of writing through effective generalization and illustrative detail.
He shares the view of contemporary church historians and Quaker scholars that early Friends are best understood within the context of radical Puritanism rather than as an expression of corporate mysticism—in the now discredited Rufus M. Jones interpretation. The evangelical character of early Quakerism has been effectively established by scholars in recent years, but many popular misconceptions remain. This book will rebuke those who seek in Quakerism some kind of “religion-in-general,” and especially humanists and syncretists. Trueblood quotes approvingly Gurney’s definition of Quakerism: “the religion of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, without diminution, without addition, and without compromise.”
Trueblood’s oft-repeated views of the universal and specialized ministries are well-stated in an excellent chapter, “Alternative to Clergy and Laity.” Today the Church may rightly listen to the Quaker effort to take seriously the implications of the priesthood of all believers.
Trueblood reflects at some length on pacifism, settling for an inevitable tension between the personal call to Christian peace-making and the realities of a society not yet ready. He accepts neo-orthodoxy’s demolition of the idealistic basis for pacifism. Some Quakers will reject his views because they are convinced non-violence will “work” apart from Christian motivation, others because he seems to restrict the work of the Holy Spirit; but many will echo his sentiments.
Because this book will be a guide for persons casually acquainted with Quakers, I wish Trueblood had treated certain issues more fully. A serious omission is the neglect of contemporary aspects of evangelical renewal among Friends: not a word about the Association of Evangelical Friends, the Evangelical Friends Alliance, or the Quaker Theological Discussion Group. Coverage of missions is inadequate and there is no reflection upon how antithetical concepts of service and missions and other aspects of doctrinal division have muted the Quaker call to discipleship. The author might have related holiness more clearly to the baptism with the Holy Spirit; and he certainly did not do justice to the early Quaker view of the unity of revelation: inward authority of the Spirit, outward authority of the Scriptures.
Despite these weaknesses (and a few unfortunate errors such as omitting Friends Bible College, Haviland, Kansas, from a listing and spelling the first name of his esteemed colleague “Huge Barbour), the book is a valuable contribution to the field. Trueblood is certainly right that Quakerism “cannot be faithful to its vision and to its consequent task unless it is truly evangelical.… Quakers are not likely to recover and maintain vitality unless they are both Christ-centered in religious experience and evangelistic in religious practice” (pp. 267–77).
The same can be said for all other segments of the Church of Christ.
ARTHUR O. ROBERTS
Priority Issues
The God Who Shows Himself, by Carl F. H. Henry (Word, 1966, 138 pp., $3.50), is reviewed by Harold B. Kuhn, professor of philosophy of religion, Asbury Theological Seminary, Wilmore, Kentucky.
In a time when God is often thought to be hidden (if indeed in existence at all!), it is refreshing to read a well-structured presentation of the thesis that the Living God is visibly at work in our common life. The volume takes its title from the opening essay and develops the proposition that “the God of the Bible is the revelation of omnipotent righteousness and of moral supremacy” (p. 11), operating vitally through the structures of individual and societal life.
From this position the author seeks to sketch the implications of Christians’ mandate to be followers of God as his children. Central to the obligations that fall upon the Christian man and woman is the concern for persons rather than for the abstract needs, problems, and frustrations of groups or classes. That persons have basic survival-needs is clear; what is too frequently forgotten is their need for the love that takes the risks always involved in the redemptive task.
Dr. Henry structures his approach to the Christian’s involvement in the problems of contemporary life around the following propositions: (1) The primary task of the Church is the evangelization of a lost world—the proclamation of Good News; (2) the Evangel involves the proclamation of the whole word of Truth, including God’s purpose of securing justice for men through government; (3) the organized church has neither authority nor competence to equate specific parties or programs with the will and purposes of God; and (4) individual Christians ought to be involved, as Christians, in the social and political order. These propositions are integral to the stewardship of life under God.
The volume stresses the manner in which evangelicals have historically evidenced social passion and at the same time observes in a penetrating way the basic weakness of a “non-evangelical agape” and of the substitution by modern ecumenism of sociological and political force for spiritual dynamic. This raises, of course, the crucial question of the real nature and character of the Kingdom, since this is finally determinative for the means to be used for its realization.
The position of the author is that the Kingdom, whatever be its visible form, rests ultimately upon the shaping presence of men and women into whom a new dimension of life has come—who are under the loving sway of One who is sovereign and redemptive love. This position is, of course, challenged by the spirit of our age, and with special force by the major trends in today’s education.
In a final chapter, Dr. Henry seeks to put into focus, in the light of his earlier survey of the purposes of God for and through the Church, contemporary movements toward church unity. His analysis of the problems with which ecumenism must contend is penetrating and should be of great interest to ecumenical leaders if they wish to understand the misgivings evangelicals have as they hear that in interconfessional dealings, the policy of “truth first” must be sacrificed to the quest for a unity based upon action. The book deals grippingly with high-priority issues.
HAROLD B. KUHN
Pioneering On Crete
Ugarit and Minoan Crete: The Bearing of their Texts on the Origins of Western Culture, by Cyrus H. Gordon (W. W. Norton, 1966, 166 pp., $7.50), is reviewed by Burton L. Goddard, director of the library, Gordon Divinity School, Wenham, Massachusetts.
This volume by the distinguished Brandeis University professor is designed to support the assertion “that until sometime after 1500 B.C., Greece, Ugarit, and Israel all belonged to the same cultural sphere, in which the most important linguistic and cultural element, in the varying and composite makeup of all three, was Phoenician” (p. 7). He suggests that guildsmen—traders, priests, warriors, potters—were responsible for the cross-cultural complex of art, religion, and literary approach.
Archaeological evidence suggests that the Minoans went to Crete from the Nile Delta. To Gordon, this is most important, for the Israelites had also lived in the Delta and “thus the forerunners of classical Greek and Hebrew cultures were kindred Delta folk” (p. 30). He argues that the Re cult of Egypt influenced both Hebrews and Minoans. In discussing Cretan syllabary, he selects examples to show that various words are the same as Semitic words. That they are not merely loan words, he says, is demonstrated by the fact that some of them are very common—including not only nouns but pronouns, verbs, and prepositions. His conclusion is that “Ugarit and Minoan Crete belonged to the same Northwest Semitic sphere linguistically, religiously, and culturally” (p. 39).
The bulk of the book is given over to an annotated translation in poetic form of Ugaritic poems, each introduced by a summary of content, with special reference to the points the author wishes to set forth in support of his thesis. Dr. Gordon here renders a distinct service.
Like other writings of the author in recent years, this volume suggests a whole new world of investigation into Greek-Semitic relationships in early times. As further artifacts come to light and literary materials are unearthed, the work in which Gordon has made a good start will provide a much clearer picture. For years, there will doubtless be much debate over the relevance and validity of the specific examples given; but the evidence is impressive and will have to be weighed carefully by historians and biblical scholars.
Gordon’s approach to the Bible, in this volume and elsewhere, is a refreshing contrast to that of extreme criticism. On the other hand, if the reviewer understands him correctly, the author regards the phenomenon of monotheism in a more or less naturalistic light. He seems to understand it as due in part to the influence of the Re cult of Egypt and other purely natural developments whereby the Jews purified some religious elements from surrounding pagan cultures and resisted other concepts and practices, thus evolving a lofty view of God and his relation to men.
In contrast, the Christian Church has ever affirmed that the transcendent God revealed himself to men and that many analogies between the one true religion described in the Bible and religions practiced in Egypt, Assyria, Ras Shamra, and Crete are due to a falling away in large measure from a supernatural religion supernaturally given, leaving some elements of fact and truth. We therefore question some of the writer’s interpretations of data related to the Hebrew Bible; nevertheless, we cannot but admire his pioneering efforts to evaluate the discoveries on the island of Crete.
BURTON L. GODDARD
Book Briefs
Human History and the Word of God: The Christian Meaning of History in Contemporary Thought, by James M. Connolly (Macmillan, 1965, 327 pp., $6.50). A massive analysis of the nature and character of history as reflected in the movement of philosophy to history, in Protestant and Roman Catholic philosophies.
Movies, Censorship, and the Law, by Ira H. Carmen (University of Michigan, 1966, 339 pp., $7.95). A look into the offices of movie censors and a consideration of the guidelines followed in censorship.
The Breaking of the Bread, by Keith Watkins (Bethany Press, 1966, 136 pp., $3.75). A consideration of the Disciples’ understanding and practice of communion in the context of today’s new liturgical interests.
Corot, by Jean Leymarie (World, 1966, 140 pp., $7.50). A biographical and critical study of painter Camille Corot. A lovely little book with many reproductions of his works.
The Revelation of Jesus Christ: A Commentary, by John F. Walvoord (Moody, 1966, 347 pp., $5.95). A good commentary on Revelation by a premillennialist who says no other New Testament book “evokes the same fascination.”
English Reformers, edited by T. H. L. Parker (Westminster, 1966, 360 pp., $6.50). The main themes of the English Reformation as they appear in the writings of nine English Reformers.
God and Man in the Thought of Hamann, by Walter Leibrecht, translated by James H. Stam and Martin H. Bertram (Fortress, 1966, 216 pp., $5). The Hamann who drew the attention of both Hegel and Kierkegaard.
Lux in Lumine: Essays to Honor W. Norman Pittenger, edited by R. A. Norris, Jr. (Seabury, 1966, 186 pp., $4.50).
Best Loved Songs and Hymns, edited by James Morehead and Albert Morehead (World, 1965, 405 pp., $7.50). A delightful book of high quality; a fine gift to give or to receive.
The Anchor Bible, Volume 29: The Gospel According to John, I–XII, translation, introduction, and notes by Raymond E. Brown (Doubleday, 1966, 538 pp., $7). A fine commentary by a Roman Catholic New Testament scholar.
Who Cares, by A. Reuben Gomitzka (Revell, 1966, 160 pp., $3.50). Forty challenging essays written out of the shock of many incidents in which Americans saw people in real trouble and simply “watched them there.”
The Sky Is Red, by Geoffrey T. Bull (Moody, 1966, 254 pp., $3.95). The true story of a missionary who was imprisoned and subjected to Communist brainwashing.
The Great Philosophers, Volume II: The Original Thinkers, by Karl Jaspers, edited by Hannah Arendt, translated by Ralph Manheim (Harcourt, Brace and World, 1966, 447 pp., $8.95). In this second volume Jaspers presents the metaphysicians of West and East.
The Shared Time Strategy, by Anna Fay Friedlander (Concordia, 1966, 87 pp., $3.25). A summons to discuss the value of “shared time.”
The Young Negro in America: 1960–1980, by Samuel D. Proctor (Association, 1966, 160 pp., $3.95). Interesting and disturbing reading about matters that do not evaporate merely because one does not read about them.
The Plight of Man and the Power of God, by D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones (Eerdmans, 1966, 94 pp., $2.50). Theological essays by a renowned preacher and thinker.
God Is Not Dead, by Gordon H. Girod (Baker, 1966, 125 pp., $2.95). A conservative author exposes many of the defects and aberrations of the Church. His understanding of biblical orthodoxy is sometimes more verbal than substantive, and his critique of rival theologies is too rough-hewn to be very enlightening.
Baptism and Christian Unity, by A. Gilmore (Judson, 1966, 108 pp., $3.95). The author, a British Baptist, understands so little about Baptism that he can do anything with it: baptize “believers only,” baptize infants, and rebaptize grown-up baptized infants.
On the Boundary: An Autobiographical Sketch, by Paul Tillich (Scribners, 1966, 104 pp., $3.95). A short book of interest to those interested in Tillich. An edited version (Tillich’s last literary effort) of Part I of his The Interpretation of History (1936).
The God-Evaders, by Clyde Reid (Harper & Row, 1966, 118 pp., $3.50). A good, hard-biting book that would bite even harder if it stayed closer to biblical doctrine and church creed.
Faces of Poverty, by Arthur R. Simon (Concordia, 1966, 133 pp., $3.75). A Lutheran minister shows the faces of poverty as he sees them in his own parish on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. He suggests that maintaining poverty is even more costly than eliminating it.
Paperbacks
Son of Tears, by Henry W. Coray (Eerdmans, 1966, 316 pp., $1.95). Realistic, honest, and historically accurate; a good novel.
The Other Side of the Coin, by Juan M. Isaias (Eerdmans, 1966, 104 pp., $1.45). Reveals the personal tensions between missionaries and Latin American nationals.
A Strategy for the Protestant College, by Lloyd J. Averill (Westminster, 1966, 128 pp., $2.25).
Interpreting the Beatitudes, by Irvin W. Batdorf (Westminster, 1966, 160 pp., $2.25). Not so much an interpretation of the Beatitudes as a discussion of the problem of their interpretation in the light of current New Testament scholarship.
In debating methods for socialist revolution, both sides at WCC conference bury religion.
