The Heart Of Christian Ethics
Theological Ethics, Volume I: Foundations, by Helmut Thielicke, edited by William H. Lazareth (Fortress, 1966, 697 pp., $12.50), is reviewed by Ellis W. Hollon, Jr., associate professor of philosophy, Middle Tennessee State University, Murfreesboro, Tennessee.
In this book, Helmut Thielicke, professor of theology at the University of Hamburg, does three valuable things:
First, he makes justification central to ethics. Thielicke will not acquiesce to Barth’s conclusion that the Law is only the form of the Gospel, whose content is grace. This shatters the key position of justification, that miracle of God which must be placed at the heart of any Christian ethics. Thielicke makes the radical distinction between Law and Gospel the criterion by which to test the legitimacy of a theology, since only such a strict distinction can maintain the historicity of revelation: “The monistic teaching in Barth’s theology … finds expression in his obliteration of the antithesis between Law and Gospel, leads to timelessness, the elimination of salvation history, and hence a philosophical world view.”
Thielicke sees as his own task the “declining” of “the doctrine of justification through all the case forms in which it appears within the grammar of our existence.” He says that his basic concern is “to formulate an evangelical ethic for which the fact of justification is decisive.” This means that evangelical ethics is completely different from all philosophical ethics: “Evangelical ethics … takes as its starting point not the goal but the presupposition of the ethical act. It proceeds from the fact of justification as accomplished and given.…”
This “gift,” justification, makes us Christians; yet we are also, in sanctification, called upon to produce good fruits. How can this seeming contradiction between the indicative and the imperative be resolved? Thielicke says:
The automatism of works must be seen in relation to an act which needs constantly to be repeated, namely, that personal … act of decision in virtue of which I turn either to the flesh or to the Spirit, in order to receive the orientation of my existence from either the flesh or the Spirit.
Thielicke feels that this close interrelation of person and work touches on the basic concern of an evangelical ethics grounded in justification and that it “marks the decisive boundary which separates evangelical ethics from all philosophical ethics.”
Second, Thielicke establishes a challenging dialogue with Roman Catholicism. This is done primarily in connection with the imago Dei doctrine. He believes that Roman Catholicism’s interpretation of the “image of God” is ontological rather than personal, since it holds that the imago corresponds to the natural endowment of man (“free reason”), and since it separates this “neutral” thing from the similitudo, the “likeness,” which depends on man’s voluntarily seizing and actualizing his final destiny. This means that “man is capable of co-operating in the work of salvation.”
But Thielicke will have none of this. To think personalistically instead of ontologically “is to see all the realities of human life exclusively in terms of the personal relatedness of God and man, or more precisely, in terms of the fellowship between man and God given in Christ.” The imago Dei is neither an immanent quality nor the relic of such a quality; rather, “the command of God the creator and the corresponding obedience of man his creature together describe the fellowship with God which we call the divine likeness.” After the Fall, this image is “really present,” but only in the “negative mode which implies negation of the original fellowship with God.…” Since it is rather a “relation to God” than an ontic quality, “it can attain to the positive mode only in the one who is ‘our peace,’ i.e., the prototype of our unfallen position: only ‘in Christ.’ ”
Third, Thielicke offers illuminating “models” of Christian behavior. The two “situational” models he examines are “compromise” and the “borderline situation,” with the models of compromise perhaps being more important. “Compromise” involves especially the problem of the white lie.
“White lies” can arise either in an unjust situation or in a situation of agreement. In the former, such as in the interrogation procedures of a totalitarian state, the “enemy” has lost all claim to truth; thus, a “compromise” cannot in that case be called “unchristian,” because there “it is possible that an individual or a group has forfeited its claim to truth.”
In the latter situation is found the problem of the truthfulness of a physician in dealing with a person having a fatal illness. Thielicke holds that the patient must be gradually led to realize that he, himself, as a person is to die, so that he is not dehumanized at the end of his life. Yet this kind of procedure only once again reveals that the physician himself, like his patient, is a fallen man living in a fallen world: “In the depths of every human situation we discover evidence of the fact that our world is a fallen world still awaiting its redemption.”
By way of criticism, I would point out that Thielicke’s outspoken opposition to any philosophical Weltanschauung does not prevent him from using philosophical perspectives himself if the occasion seems to demand them. For instance, he says that “the specifically ‘Christian’ element in ethics is … to be sought explicitly and exclusively in the motivation of the action,” but surely this is not incompatible with the Kantian insight concerning the Categorical Imperative.
The attempt to seek a “philosophical principle” is not in itself necessarily unevangelical. The very fact that the two parts of the Bible are called “testaments” signifies that they “testify” to something that demands meditative reflection to be fully understood. Thielicke says that any philosophical principle will always, for the evangelical thinker, have at hand “a corrective drawn from the history of salvation”; but I would suggest that this very process of inference (“drawing from”) involves the use of philosophical principles—such as the principle that “the nature of a thing is always to be ‘defined’ in terms of its telos or goal.”
Thielicke is also guilty of some inconsistency in theological language. He says in one place that, contra Brunner, “there is no such thing as a capacity for hearing that corresponds to the fact that man is addressed.” Yet in a later passage he declares that “even in the negative mode man still remains responsible.” Does not the word “responsible” connote “an ability to respond,” as Brunner maintains? Thielicke himself later admits that “surely Emil Brunner must ultimately be right in some way in his unwearying insistence that the Gospel does not address itself to sticks and stones, to oxen and asses, but to men.”
These two criticisms do not invalidate the valuable contributions made by this book. May I suggest that Thielicke’s three important achievements in the realm of theological ethics make this book a must for every minister as well as a viable option for teachers interested in the problems of ethics?
Don’T Underestimate The Ancients
Archaeology and Our Old Testament Contemporaries, by James L. Kelso (Zondervan, 1966, 192 pp., $4.95), is reviewed by Earl S. Kalland, professor of Old Testament, Conservative Baptist Theological Seminary, Denver, Colorado.
In an age egotistically proud of its scientific gadgetry, this little work ought to jolt one into a better view of man as he really is. The author’s claim that “to underestimate the God of the Old Testament” and “to underestimate its finest people” are “two common mistakes in Old Testament interpretation today” gets ample support in his fourteen short chapters. Although Kelso doesn’t say so, overestimation of the brilliance and ability of twentieth-century man produces this underestimation of ancient man. Any correction of our failure to give proper value to the character and abilities of ancient man will prove salutary.
Kelso’s fetching chapter titles overpopularize his main theme of the contemporaneity of the Old Testament people. His thesis is nonetheless correct. Of course, the Israelite judges were not exactly like the leaders of today’s new nations, nor did Solomon acquire even one Ph.D. Yet these analogies (and a dozen others) have a basic truthfulness and show the relevance of the Old Testament to our times.
Kelso’s simple and lucid style should make the book attractive to the average Christian reader. Yet the work is no less authoritative because it is easy to read. The wealth of Kelso’s knowledge of archaeology is evident as he describes the persons and times of famous Old Testament leaders from Abraham’s day to the inter-testamental period. The lessons taught are well worth learning.
The book is evangelically biblical. It warms the heart of one whose high view of Scripture is coupled with a fondness for its truth. Not bibliolatry but a biblically centered faith in the God of the Bible as the true God is evidenced on every page. Though not a book of doctrine, it nevertheless imparts evangelical doctrine.
This informative volume should be in the library of every Christian teacher and minister.
Pentecostal Panorama
Pentecostalism, by John Thomas Nichol (Harper & Row, 1966, 264 pp., $5.95), is reviewed by John E. Dahlin, professor emeritus of history and political science, Northwestern College, Minneapolis, Minnesota.
This is a major contribution in the treatment of the history of the Pentecostal movement from its origin at the turn of the century to the present. To write such a history is no small task, for this movement has expanded into nearly all areas of the earth. The volume shows comprehensive research, and the documentation is excellent.
Nichol brings forward many important personalities of the movement. One is Charles Fox Parham, the leader of the “Full Gospel” emphasis in the United States at the beginning period. Parham strongly advocated healing, baptism with the Holy Spirit, and speaking in tongues, three points of doctrine that have been emphasized throughout the history of Pentecostalism. Then there are certain unusual personalities in American Pentecostalism, including Aimee Semple McPherson, Tommy Hicks, and Oral Roberts. Nichol also considers prominent Pentecostal leaders in many other lands, such as Lewi Petrus of Sweden and T. A. Barratt of Norway. The reader is impressed by the magnitude of the Pentecostal movement.
The author’s Pentecostal background does not color his work; he is sympathetic but not biased. The book was written, he says, not to defend Pentecostalism, but to provide a comprehensive history of it. He has avoided controversy by omitting a theological interpretation of Pentecostalism. Such an interpretation, or a serious evaluation of the strengths and weaknesses of the movement, would have been welcome.
Nichol designates Pentecostalism as a “third force” in Christianity. This seems unwarranted, since the movement has, according to him, not more than 8,000,000 adherents. Moreover, there has been continuous fragmentation during its history, as Nichol admits.
To cover the entire history of Pentecostalism in one medium-sized volume is impossible. Some of Nichol’s discussions are meager. Yet his work will be exceedingly useful as a competent and objective survey of this important movement within Protestantism.
Reading for Perspective
CHRISTIANITY TODAY’S REVIEW EDITORS CALL ATTENTION TO THESE NEW TITLES:
• Ancient Orient and Old Testament, by K. A. Kitchen (Inter-Varsity, $3.95). A British scholar applies ancient Near East data to problems of Old Testament chronology, history, and literary criticism and calls for a critical reassessment of widely held liberal theories and methods.
• Valiant for the Truth: A Treasury of Evangelical Writings, compiled and edited by David Otis Fuller (Lippincott, $5.95). Stirring selections by thirty-three great Christian leaders from the first to the twentieth centuries; excellent biographical sketches written by Henry Coray.
• Religion: Origins and Ideas, by Robert Brow (Inter-Varsity, $3.50). Religion in the life of man: original monotheism, development and degeneration of priestcraft, revealed Christianity compared with other religions.
Meet The Great Ones
How I Changed My Mind, by Karl Barth, edited by John D. Godsey (John Knox, 1966, 96 pp., $3) and I Knew Dietrich Bonhoeffer: Reminiscences of His Friends, edited by Wolf-Dieter Zimmerman (Harper & Row, 1967, 238 pp., $4.95), are reviewed by Geoffrey W. Bromiley, professor of church history and historical theology, Fuller Theological Seminary, Pasadena, California.
These two small and attractive works merit attention, not for any great contribution they make to theology or church life, but for the insight they offer into two notable figures of our age.
The Barth book has as its core the three essays on the theme “How I Changed My Mind” that Barth wrote for the Christian Century. These refer to the decades 1928–1938, 1938–1948, and 1948–1958. To them the editor has added an introduction on Barth up to 1928, an appendix on his life after 1958, an epilogue on a recent visit to Barth, and some photographs of Barth at various ages from twenty-three to seventy-nine. A useful biography is given also.
The essays should not mislead us, for they are mostly about matters other than theological. Perhaps the most illuminating points are the reference to the final abandonment of a philosophical basis and method and the depiction of Bultmann’s theology as a “resumption of the theme and method of the type of theology fostered by Schleiermacher.” Barth also attempts an apologia of his attitude toward East-West relations.
The work as a whole is clearly not of any serious importance. Nevertheless, those who want a readable, almost chatty introduction to Barth, with some insights into the man as well as the teaching, will welcome this book.
Although it was composed in a different way, the book about Bonhoeffer accomplishes something of the same end. It contains, not material by Bonhoeffer himself, but information and impressions contributed by a whole group ranging from his twin sister Sabine to men like Reinhold Niebuhr and Bishop G. Bell. These impressions are arranged chronologically so as to give us portraits of Bonhoeffer from his childhood to his imprisonment and execution. The essays vary greatly in size, nature, and content, according to the length and depth of acquaintance. All reflect in some degree the greatness of the man, though the ones that verge on hagiography are the least helpful.
In view of the way Bonhoeffer is often portrayed today, the combination of deep and simple piety with his theological endowment and activity is particularly worth noting. So, too, is his serenity through all the trials and adversities of the Hitler period. The book also gives us many sayings that acquire an added dimension in the light of Bonhoeffer’s destiny. Whether or not one wishes to follow Bonhoeffer in his theology, or even in the political decisions that led to his death, the stature of his by no means religionless Christianity comes out strongly in this well-arranged and very readable collection.
Operation Ignition
The Incendiary Fellowship, by D. Elton Trueblood (Harper & Row, 1967, 121 pp., $2.50), is reviewed by Ilion T. Jones, professor emeritus of practical theology, San Francisco Theological Seminary, San Anselmo, California.
This latest of Dr. Trueblood’s many books reaches the level of the others in quality, value, and relevance. The “fellowship” is the Christian Church. The adjective is suggested by a number of New Testament passages that contain the word “fire,” especially these two: “I came to cast fire upon the earth; and would that it were already kindled!” (Luke 12:49); and, “There appeared to them tongues as of fire, distributed and resting on each one of them” (Acts 2:3).
The contents of the book may be summarized as follows:
The early Church was “created” by the fire that was kindled by Christ’s public ministry, his death and resurrection, the coming of the Holy Spirit, and the evangelistic and missionary zeal of the early Christians. These Christians were “on fire” with a faith to which they were wholly committed. That faith was not a “vague religiosity”; it survived largely because it was specific and definite. “They believed that God really is, that He is wholly personal, that He is like Christ, that He has a particular interest in each individual of the human race, that Christ was telling the truth when he said ‘No one can come to the Father but by me,’ and that God’s purpose involves moral distinctions.”
Our world today desperately needs that kind of redemptive fellowship centered in Jesus Christ as the antidote to the evils of civilization and as the solution to its problems. To be effective, perhaps even to survive, the Church must be renewed by the same faith, the same zeal, that characterized the New Testament fellowship.
How can this renewal be accomplished? The conditions are costly. Renewal “cannot be brought about either by a new set of gadgets or by the rearrangement of the lives of uncommitted people.” The Church must have a definite faith in God as a reality, as a Person, as a living Spirit in the hearts of men. “There is no possibility of renewal unless we are always living on the spiritual frontier.” A new order will not be established by social engineering per se; rather, it will be established by changed men who recognize the “intrinsic necessity of Christian evangelism,” who are willing to be regarded as “quiet fanatics,” but who also realize that all their efforts must be “rational” and that they must be “disciplined followers and disciplined minds.” Hence they must be continuously engaged in “hard thinking”; they must devise new ways of putting their faith to work in every profession and in every area of the world, new ways of preparing laymen to become ministers, scholars, and evangelists for these purposes. In short, the Church “is intended to be an incendiary fellowship and nothing else.” It must be always engaged in “Operation Ignition.”
This, then, is Dr. Trueblood’s message in this book. Anyone who concludes that he is seeking to make the modern Church a mere duplicate of the New Testament Church misunderstands this message. What he is saying, rather, is that a modern Church that is dominated by the faith, equipped with the spiritual resources, and fired with the zeal of the New Testament fellowship can and ought to be a creative, constructive force in our day. Dr. Trueblood suggests a number of significant changes essential to these ends and challenges church leaders to outthink the philosophers, scientists, sociologists, and social engineers of the day.
Rightly understood, this book is directed, not to either liberals or conservatives, but to all who call themselves evangelicals. “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches” through this modern prophet of God.
What Does It Mean?
Meaningful Nonsense, by Charles J. Ping (Westminster, 1966, 143 pp., $2.25), and Language, Hermeneutic and Word of God, by Robert W. Funk (Harper & Row, 1966, 317 pp., $7.50), are reviewed by Lawrence E. Yates, professor of philosophy and Greek, Whitworth College, Spokane, Washington.
Both these books deal with the language of faith. In Meaningful Nonsense, Ping convincingly demonstrates that when words are given to faith, they are meaningful. He begins by a via negativa, showing that the philosophical method of linguistic analysis indicates that the facts of faith are unverifiable and therefore meaningless. Even though rationally nonsensical, however, this nonsense is meaningful, because it is the expression in faith of an encounter with a response to a living God. Therefore, the mode of expression must necessarily be always symbols and analogies.
Can the language of encounter be verified? Assuredly, says the author, not in static experiment but in the dynamic experience of the one who has been overcome by God’s love revealed in a historic person, Jesus of Nazareth.
This book is thoughtfully written and will well repay a careful reading. It is not a theological treatise. The style is engaging and non-technical.
In contrast, Language, Hermeneutic and Word of God is a technical work. James M. Robinson on the dust jacket describes it as “the beginning of a new kind of theology in America.”
The Barthian methodology, says the author, sees the biblical text as human language and hence culturally conditioned. As interpretation of God’s word, it points beyond itself to the divine word, which, because divine, is beyond the reach of the interpreter; that is, the Word is within the word. Ernst Fuchs and Gerhard Ebeling, Continental theologians who are former students of Bultmann, reverse the direction. By focusing the salvation event in language itself, they see the text as divine language wherein Jesus Christ interprets man, who in faith responds in terms of confession. In thus stressing the historical Jesus they differ from Bultmann.
Professor Funk, who follows Fuchs and Ebeling, applies this method to the parables. In the parable of the Good Samaritan, “language event” is the wordless action of the Samaritan who acts in love. Thus the language event “which grounds the Samaritan’s action precedes the language event which the parable may become for its hearers.” Hence the parable interprets man.
Funk further examines Paul’s discussion of sophia (wisdom) in First Corinthians. Christ as sophia has been partially or totally eclipsed in and by the language of the Corinthians, who see sophia as “free floating speculation.” Paul uses their language but from his personal experience of the living Christ as language event “seeks to shatter the word determined by sophia on the word of the cross” (the true sophia), as Jesus in the parable strove to shatter the whole legal tradition on himself as the Word.
This new approach is highly commendable. The positive proclamation of the living God is sorely needed today, for the question is, as Funk observes, “whether the words spoken from the pulpit and in the counseling chamber carry with them the reality of God’s redeeming grace.” If this new hermeneutic can help to achieve this end it will be most welcome. Specialists will particularly appreciate the grasp and discussion of the positions of Van Buren, Ott, Ogden, and Bultmann.
Does It Merit A Prize?
Believing and Knowing, by Emerson Shideler (Iowa State University, 1966, 196 pp., $4.95), is reviewed by Charles C. Ryrie, dean of the Graduate School, Dallas Theological Seminary, Dallas, Texas.
Although this was a prize-winning book (“most significant new book by an Iowa author in 1965”), it will not be a winner to many evangelicals. Its subject matter and many of its insights do make it a significant work, but its conclusions leave something to be desired for anyone who looks to the written Word for authority.
Essentially, this book is another attempt to deal with the apparent struggle between religion and science. The author, who teaches philosophy and religion at Iowa State, flatly rejects the idea that liberalism’s accommodation to science has provided the answer. His reason is simple: The resurgence of biblical theology has put to flight the old liberalism and reopened the question. By “biblical theology” the author does not mean Bultmannian demythologizing or fundamentalist identification of the words of the Bible as the words of God, but rather the view of a personal revelation of God that demands response from man but is not dependent on an accurate, non-mythological Bible.
Working from this conception of biblical theology, Professor Shideler goes on to delineate the areas of religious and scientific knowledge. He says that the religious question (“Who?”) is answered by a meeting of persons (God and man), while the scientific question (“What?”) is answered in neutral terms identical for all persons. The religious answer of personal encounter is not without its objectifying elements, however, the firmest being the resurrection of Christ. Yet it does not necessitate propositional revelation. Here, of course, is where the evangelical will disagree with the author. On the other hand. Shideler says that the scientific answer, though usually considered to be wholly objective, also involves subjective interaction with other scientists and with the purpose of the investigation. Thus religion and science do not operate within mutually exclusive frameworks. The limitations the author places on science are well reasoned and worthy of careful reading. But the limitations he places on religion are directly related to his unsatisfactory view of the Bible.
The conclusion is that man must look at religion and science at the same time and learn from both. This is fine—except for the important fact that the view of religion the author points us to is not entirely biblical. Herein is the key to solving the problem this book raises. Divorce biblical theology from the highest view of Scripture, as Shideler does, and one has to conclude that man must live in this dialectic tension. But let the Scripture reveal both personal and propositional truth and stand as judge of all truth, from whatever source, and the ambiguity of the human situation (which is all this author can leave his reader with) disappears.
Book Briefs
Everyone in the Bible, by William P. Barker (Revell, 1966, 370 pp., $6.95). Ever wonder who Abagtha, Nekoda, and Zizah were? You will meet them along with 3,000 others in this complete biblical Who’s Who.
You Shall Be as Gods, by Erich Fromm (Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1966, 240 pp., $4.95). A radical interpretation of the Old Testament by a psychoanalyst who believes that the concept “God” is one of many poetic expressions of the highest value in humanism.
The Creative Edge of American Protestantism, by Earl H. Brill (Seabury, 1966, 248 pp., $5.95). A competent history of Protestant activism and an uneven discussion of several social issues, with trenchant material on Christian education and refreshingly balanced comments on our nation’s racial sins. By the Episcopal chaplain at American University.
The Cross in the Marketplace, by Foy Valentine (Word, 1966, 122 pp., $3.50). To an age that has “limited vision of poverty but unlimited poverty of vision,” Valentine offers Christian insights on the race question, the Communist threat, the new morality, and Christian social action.
The Church in the Thought of Bishop John Robinson, by Richard P. McBrien (Westminster, 1966, 160 pp., $3.95). A Roman Catholic scholar admits that J. A. T. Robinson is neither a professional theologian nor a systematiic ecclesiologist, then proceeds to answer a question no one has asked.
The Early Christian Doctrine of God, by Robert M. Grant (University Press of Virginia, 1966, 141 pp., $3.50). From the perspective of contemporary theology, Grant attempts to trace the development of the doctrine of the Trinity. He denies that such a trinitarian doctrine as that found in Athenagoras’ writings “always existed in the Christian subconscious.”
The New Smith’s Bible Dictionary, edited by Reuel G. Lemmons (Doubleday, 1966, 441 pp., $4.95). The first revision in twenty-five years of a well-known treasury of biblical information.
Man’s Search for Himself: Modern and Biblical Images, by Leo Scheffczyk (Sheed and Ward, 1966, 176 pp., $3.95). An intriguing discussion of the image of man seen in the Old and New Testaments and modern philosophy and literature. Scheffczyk writes, “the God-man proves to be the open sesame which opens for us the door to man.…”
The New Americanism and Other Speeches and Essays, by Robert Welch (Western Islands, 1966, 209 pp., $4.95). A collection of the major speeches and essays of the founder of the John Birch Society, all pointing to “less government, more responsibility, and a better world.”
Presbyterians and the Negro—A History, by Andrew E. Murray (Presbyterian Historical Society, 1966, 270 pp., $6). A candid discussion of American Presbyterians’ poor record in penetrating the Negro community during the past two hundred years.
Kierkegaard: An Introduction, by Hermann Diem, translated by David Green (John Knox, 1966, 124 pp., $3.50). A Tübingen professor presents a theological introduction to the great Dane and explains his influence.
Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander, by Thomas Merton (Doubleday, 1966, 328 pp., $4.95). A prolific monastic takes us on a tour of his personal reflections and meditations during the 1960s.
The Christian Funeral: Its Meaning, Its Purpose, and Its Modern Practice, by Edgar N. Jackson (Channel, 1966, 184 pp., $3.95). The Christian funeral is seen as an opportunity for worshiping God, meeting human needs, and affirming the faith. Includes twenty sample meditations.
Vatican II: An Interfaith Appraisal, edited by John H. Miller, C. S. C. (Association and University of Notre Dame, 1966, 656 pp., $12.50). Key participants in Vatican Council II relate the happenings and meaning of the historic conference.
The Rise of Moralism: The Gospel from Hooker to Baxter, by C. F. Allison (Seabury, 1966, 250 pp., $9). Allison argues that seventeenth-century moralistic theology corrupted Anglican orthodoxy and led to eighteenth-century deism and present-day secularism.
Voluntary Associations: A Study of Groups in Free Societies, edited by D. B. Robertson (John Knox, 1966, 448 pp., $9.75). Essays in honor of James Luther Adams that probe the theory and practice of voluntary associations, particularly religious groups.
Teaching about Sex—a Christian Approach, by John C. Howell (Broadman, 1966, 149 pp., $3.95). Discussing sex from an informed Christian perspective, Howell encourages participation by the church in sex education. Recommended.
Studies in Isaiah, by F. C. Jennings (Loizeaux, 1966, 784 pp., $5.95). A conservative commentary on Isaiah originally published in Our Hope a generaration ago.
Events and Their Afterlife, by A. C. Charity (Cambridge, 1966, 288 pp., $9.50). A Bultmannian approach to typology in the Bible and Dante’s Divine Comedy.
The Old Lighthouse, by James R. Adair (Moody, 1966, 157 pp. $2.95). An editor of Scripture Press relates the remarkable skid-row ministry of Chicago’s Pacific Garden Mission.
The Minister’s Manual (Doran’s), 1967 Edition, compiled and edited by M. K. W. Heicher (Harper & Row, 1966, 372 pp., $3.95).
The Douglass Sunday School Lessons, 1967, edited by Earl L. Douglass, assisted by Gordon L. Roberts (Macmillan, 1966, 386 pp., $3.95).
Which Way to Lutheran Unity?: A History of Efforts to Unite the Lutherans of America, by John H. Tietjen (Concordia, 1966, 176 pp., $4.95). A review of attempts at Lutheran union from colonial days to the present. An appeal for full fellowship among Lutherans today.
