More On New-Morality Debate
Norm and Context in Christian Ethics, edited by Gene H. Outka and Paul Ramsey (Scribner, 1969, 415 pp., $7.95), and Christ and The Moral Life, by James M. Gustafson (Harper & Row, 1968, 273 pp., $8), are reviewed by Stuart Barton Babbage, president, Conwell School of Theology, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Joseph Fletcher, in a concluding postscript to the symposium Norm and Context in Christian Ethics, suggests that there is a New Reformation taking place (the phrase is Bishop Robinson’s), and that it has three main aspects: (a) the new theology, (b) the new evangelism, and (c) the new morality. The new theology, he explains, covers a wide spectrum “from orthodoxy to heterodoxy to multidoxy to minidoxy to nondoxy”; the new evangelism marks “a shift from verbal to actual behavioral mission” (“This,” he adds, “is the basic difference between a Billy Graham and a Harvey Cox”); and the new morality, “a shift away from moral law and prescriptive rules and ontologically grounded values to situational particularities and to a commitment to plans rather than principles.”
The new morality, it appears, does not stand alone; it can be rightly understood only in the context of a new theology and a new evangelism. The question, however, is whether what we are being so confidently offered is a new gospel or another gospel.
Edward Leroy Long, Jr., in a major contribution on the three traditional uses of the law, raises this question:
We may not yet have become fully aware of the extent to which the new morality transforms the presuppositions of the gospel message. There is more at work here than a declaration of freedom from the law. There is a covert transformation of the entire conception of man’s relationship to God, perhaps even the repudiation of the significance and importance of such a relationship.
Norm and Context in Christian Ethics is an important contribution to the continuing debate over the new morality. It represents a variety of points of view by scholars of international renown, ranging from enthusiastic approbation to critical rejection. “No effort,” the editors write, “has been made to suppress the various kinds of discourse which do in fact characterize the present discussion at large.” Students will find this volume an invaluable introduction to some of the deeper questions in the debate. Part One, “Virtue, Principles and Rules,” attempts the difficult task of definition and explication; Part Two is entitled “Natural Law: A Reassessment of the Tradition”; Part Three concentrates on “Reformation Themes: The Uses of the Law”; and Part Four, Situation Ethics: Defense and Critique,” has contributions by Joseph Fletcher, Basil Mitchell, and Donald Evans.
James M. Gustafson, one of the contributors to the above symposium, has also written Christ and the Moral Life. Here he seeks to answer the question: What claims for the significance of Christ for the moral life do theologians explicitly make or apparently assume? Under the headings of “Jesus Christ, the Lord who is Creator and Redeemer,” “Jesus Christ, the Sanctifier,” “Jesus Christ, the Justifier,” “Jesus Christ, the Pattern,” and “Jesus Christ, the Teacher,” Gustafson discusses questions of the good, the moral self, and the criteria for judgment. He examines, with careful precision, the work of various theologians in relation to these questions and offers a balanced assessment of their adequacy. The work inevitably suggests a comparison with Richard Niebuhr’s pioneering study, Christ and Culture. Like Niebuhr’s magisterial work, it is an urbane and polished production.
Gold Mine For Collegians
A His Reader: Essays on Love, Prayer and Guidance, by Walter Trobisch and others (Inter-Varsity, 1968, 313 pp., $4.50), is reviewed by Janet Rohler, editorial assistant, CHRISTIANITY TODAY.
Generations of Christian college students have pondered questions of life, love, and faith. And many of them have found thoughtful advice and challenges in Inter-Varsity Christian Fellowship.
Now there is A His Reader, three paperbacks attractively designed and boxed, packed with the best from nearly thirty years of Inter-Varsity’s His magazine. From this gold mine young people can chip nuggets to help them through daily trials and to bank for spiritual rainy days.
One subject perennial from generation to generation is love. The Reader’s Essays on Love speak frankly about collegians’ confrontations with singleness, petting, premarital sex, and homosexuality. Wise counsel from a biblical perspective is distilled through the minds and experiences of people like Vernon Grounds, Walter Trobisch, and Ellen Weldon.
Finding time for prayer is another generation-spanning problem for which Essays on Prayer suggest realistic solutions. Kenneth Taylor, A. W. Tozer, and L. D. Weatherhead are among those who speak briefly but pointedly of things like worshiping through prayer, wandering minds, a why-bother-if-God-is-sovereign feeling, asking and receiving.
Because much of a college student’s prayer time is a decision-making search, the Essays on Guidance offer answers from people like Joseph Bayly, Eugene Nida, and Kenneth Pike for those plaguing questions, How do I find God’s will?, and What if I miss it?
With such timeless subject matter, the Reader may seem deficient in speaking to this generation’s specific questions. But an anthology is not necessarily a commentary on current events. That His editors are aware of contemporary problems is reflected in the monthly magazine.
Not unexpectedly, there is some repetition within and among the Reader’s volumes. Yet varied writing styles and appropriate art work make even extended reading enjoyable. Perhaps the Reader’s greatest value lies in challenges and inspiration to be mined from random excursions into it. Such an experience need not be limited to collegians.
In Defense Of Creationism
Man’s Origin, Man’s Destiny, by A. E. Wilder Smith (Shaw, 1968, 320 pp., $5.95), is reviewed by Paul A. Zimmerman, president, Concordia Lutheran Junior College, Ann Arbor, Michigan.
In a day when many theologians tend to subordinate faith to science, it is refreshing to find still another scientist witnessing to his faith in the Bible and offering a critique of evolutionary theory on scientific grounds. A. E. Wilder Smith is professor of pharmacology at the University of Illinois Medical Center. This volume is a translation and revision of a book published in German in 1966.
Dr. Wilder Smith effectively presents the evidence for creation based on design in nature and demonstrates the tremendous odds against the possibility that life evolved by chance. He analyzes the classical arguments in support of evolution.
An intriguing topic of discussion is the “human” footprints found in extremely ancient rocks. In the mind of the reviewer, the evidence for the authenticity of these footprints is not yet conclusive. If confirmed, the evidence of the presence of man in the Carboniferous and Cretaceous ages would indeed be the absolute death knell to evolution.
Granted, a writer cannot deal adequately with all areas of a topic as broad as evolution. However, it should be noted that Wilder Smith’s treatment of the evolution of man is incomplete. Moreover, this analysis of geological dating gives only scant attention to long-range methods.
The author finds the beliefs of theistic evolutionists inconsistent with the Bible’s picture of God. He states, “Natural selection, involving the merciless extinction of the weak and the meek or unfitted at the expense of the strong, fit and selfish, does not seem to point to a merciful and meek Creator.” Like most creationists, he accepts microevolution or “variation leading to changes in varieties and near species.” He rejects macroevolution—that is, large-scale evolution of higher forms from lower ones.
The last chapter of the book is an excursus into what happens after death. Wilder Smith finds in nature “hints and rumors that bodily death is not the end of individual existence.” He believes that life after death will follow nature’s pattern of metamorphosis. This leads him into considerable speculation and an attempt to demonstrate that the concept of a resurrected body does not violate rational thought.
He rejects universalism, the belief that all men will be saved. He asserts, however, that those who have never heard the Gospel and thus had no chance to accept it will be saved. This would seem to eliminate any real need for mission work.
In summary, this volume provides an interesting profile of one scientist’s evaluation of the questions of man’s origin and man’s destiny. It demonstrates that the creationist need not retreat in shame before the onslaught of evolution. Rather, he may well point to the folly of materialism as he holds firm to the truths of the Bible.
Centrality Of The Covenant
The Covenant, by Jacob Jocz (Eerdmans, 1968, 320 pp., $6.95), is reviewed by Robert Strong, pastor, Trinity Presbyterian Church, Montgomery, Alabama.
Jacob Jocz, professor of systematic theology in Wycliffe College of the University of Toronto, maintains that the covenant is the unifying idea of the Bible. His presupposition that the God of the Bible really speaks to men therefore requires him to disavow “scientific detachment” and to stand squarely within the context of faith. The chaotic state of biblical studies makes all the more necessary the treatment of the Bible as first and foremost a “theological document.” He writes as a partisan.
This is a welcome point of view. One can only regret that the author takes seriously the documentary hypothesis (JEPD) and a second Isaiah, that he seems to accept evolution as fact, and that he lends encouragement to the notion of universal salvation.
Professor Jocz views the covenant as God’s condescension to man. Rather than being a restatement of traditional covenant theology, the book is a defense of special revelation and supernatural redemption. Yet there is also appreciation of such thinkers as Cocceius, whose treatment of the covenant of works is singled out as notable in the development of federal theology.
A major point of interest in this book is the problem of sin. Metaphysical issues are extensively discussed. In this connection much attention is given to the classical theologians, still more to the moderns Barth, Brunner, and Tillich. The author is widely read and discerning.
The high point to this reviewer was the defense of Christ’s atonement as objective. Without this, talk of the covenant would be idle. Dr. Jocz certainly does not waste our time.
Book Briefs
Alexander III and the Twelfth Century, by Marshall W. Baldwin (Newman, 1968, 228 pp., $6.50). Traces the career of this medieval pope as it appears in the light of recent research.
The Prayers of the New Testament, by Donald Coggan (Corpus, 1969, 190 pp., $4.50). A careful devotional study of each prayer in the New Testament offers many rich insights.
Responsibility in Modern Religious Ethics, by Albert R. Jonsen (Corpus, 1969, 249 pp., $6.95). Sees the idea of human responsibility as the new unifying principle in today’s Christian ethical thinking.
Bless This Mess and Other Prayers, by Jo Carr and Imogene Sorley (Abingdon, 1969, 112 pp., $2.50). In this collection of prayers, written in everyday language, two homemakers express their deepest feelings about the problems and joys of day-to-day living.
Can’t You Hear Me Calling?, by Lawrence Carter (Seabury, 1969, 146 pp., $4.95). A vivid description of the frustrations and victories of the St. John’s Parish in the blighted Hoover-Adams section of Los Angeles.
The Supper of the Lamb, by Robert Farrar Capon (Doubleday, 1969, 271 pp., $5.95). Mix theology, philosophy, and a variety of recipes—shake, bake, and take with a grain of salt.
The End of Conventional Christianity, by W. H. van de Pol (Newman, 1968, 297 pp., $7.95). A Roman Catholic priest and professor of the theology in the Netherlands, contends that Christianity as it has been understood and practiced for centuries by ordinary Christians has come to a definitive end.
Icon and Pulpit: The Protestant-Orthodox Encounter, by Carnegie Samuel Calian (Westminster, 1968, 220 pp., $6.50). Reviews past dialogue between Protestants and Eastern Orthodox and points the way to further discussion in the twenty-first century.
