Evangelicals published more than a thousand new books last year treating religious topics or aspects. In addition there were hundreds of new editions, reprints, and translations, most notably of the whole Bible. Elsewhere in these pages and in the next two issues, we are discussing many of them, along with significant non-evangelical works, in a series of six survey articles.
Here we want to call special attention to fifty nonfiction titles. (See the survey articles and past and future book-review sections for more information on most of the titles.) These works are (1) new (we will mention some choice reprints next issue), (2) by evangelicals (some of whom prefer the designation “orthodox”), and (3) for the general reader (rather than the specialist). We do not claim that our choices are the “best” books meeting these criteria, but we deem them worthy of your consideration. Almost all these titles should be in every congregation’s library, and individuals should have many of them for reading, reference, and lending. We hope publishers will make even more of them available in inexpensive paperback editions than they already have.
Before looking at topics, we honor five titles that deserve an especially wide audience. In this election year, it is fitting to take note of three of the many good books on the relation of the Christian to society. In Conflict and Conscience (Word), Senator Mark Hatfield has collected many of his recent speeches and writings. He is not defending his Senate votes on particular issues, for which he claims no infallibility, but rather is dealing with broader principles applicable to all Christians. The second is by theologian-ethicist Carl F. H. Henry, CHRISTIANITY TODAY’S editor-at-large, who has collected some of his recent essays under the title of one of them, A Plea for Evangelical Demonstration (Baker). The title of another essay indicates the kind of demonstration he urges: “Personal Evangelism and Social Justice.” The most practical book is by Winnie Christensen, a housewife, who though she cannot devote full-time to social issues wants to do something. Avoid Caught With My Hands Full: Opportunity in My Community (Harold Shaw) if you want to be at ease with your inaction.
In addition to the pressures of modern life that afflict all men, most Christians bear the added stress of believing erroneously that they have no excuse for being tense. You may not be troubled, but we all know those who are, and so we all should read what a practicing psychiatrist and fervent evangelical, Quentin Hyder, has to say in The Christian’s Handbook of Psychiatry (Revell).
If it seems odd to you that a book with chapters on “Interior Decoration,” “Food,” and “Clothing” should be considered religious, all you need to do is dip into a few pages to see why Hidden Art (Tyndale) by Edith (Mrs. Francis) Schaeffer belongs in every Christian home. Giving numerous imitable examples, she convincingly shows that concern for beauty in every dimension of life, even the most commonplace, should be a characteristic of the children of God.
The setting for the primitive Church and the course of its first forty years are ably presented by F. F. Bruce in New Testament History (Doubleday). Other aids for particular Bible books are Luke: Historian and Theologian (Zondervan) by I. Howard Marshall, Commentary on the Gospel of John (Eerdmans), a definitive work by Leon Morris, and Philippians: An Expositional Commentary (Zondervan), preaching at its best by James M. Boice. Able reflections on the doctrine of Scripture are presented by Clark Pinnock in Biblical Revelation (Moody) and by Kenneth Hamilton in Words and the Word (Eerdmans). Tradition is not just a category of Catholic thought; its effect on the formation and interpretation of Scripture is splendidly elaborated by F. F. Bruce in Tradition: Old and New (Zondervan). To round off books on the Bible, we heartily commend two guides that should motivate more group Bible study: Creative Bible Study (Zondervan) by Lawrence Richards and It’s Alive: The Dynamics of Small Group Bible Study (Harold Shaw) by Gladys Hunt.
The study of the history of Christianity receives a tremendous boost by the publication of The Emergence of the Catholic Tradition (100–600) (University of Chicago) by Missouri Lutheran scholar Jaroslav Pelikan. A brief introductory survey, From Christ to Constantine (Inter-Varsity) by M. A. Smith, and a survey by countries of more recent times, A Global View of Christian Missions (Baker), by J. Herbert Kane, both meet needs. Two narrowly focused studies are White Sects and Black Men in the Recent South (Vanderbilt) by David Harrell, Jr., and A Foreign Devil in China (Zondervan), John Pollock’s biography of our executive editor, L. Nelson Bell, chiefly on his missionary days.
Particular doctrines of theology are discussed at length by G. C. Berkouwer in Sin (Eerdmans), Paul Jewett in The Lord’s Day (Eerdmans), six Baptists in Tongues (Le Roi) edited by Luther Dyer, and twenty-two speakers at the Jerusalem Conference on Biblical Prophecy in Prophecy in the Making (Creation House) edited by Carl F. H. Henry. Prospects for various areas of scholarly endeavor are considered by eleven professors in Toward a Theology for the Future (Creation House) edited by Clark Pinnock and David Wells. Philosophy is represented by Arthur Holmes in Faith Seeks Understanding: A Christian Approach to Knowledge (Eerdmans) and in Jerusalem and Athens: Critical Discussions on the Philosophy and Apologetics of Cornelius Van Til (Presbyterian and Reformed) edited by E. R. Geehan, which has among its twenty-five contributors such evangelical luminaries as Dooyeweerd, Berkouwer, Packer, Jewett, Montgomery, and Holmes.
Evangelical interest in the arts is awakening from its slumber, and those who have long lamented our aesthetic poverty note the stirrings with joy. The previously mentioned Hidden Art is joined by a study of Rouault: A Vision of Suffering and Salvation (Eerdmans) by William Dyrness, a splendid collection entitled Adam Among the Television Trees: An Anthology of Verse by Contemporary Christian Poets (Word) edited by Virginia Mollenkott, and the unprecedented Imagination and the Spirit: Essays in Literature and the Christian Faith Presented to Clyde S. Kilby (Eerdmans) edited by Charles Huttar. A youthful philosopher, Stephen Evans, has shown how modern literature can be used creatively for an evangelistic presentation in Despair: A Moment or a Way of Life? (Inter-Varsity).
Not only has there been a resurgence of helpful writing on the arts; the long evangelical neglect of ethics, especially as it relates to society, is at an end also. Besides the three books mentioned at first, we welcome two systematic approaches: that by Norman Geisler of Trinity in Ethics: Alternatives and Issues (Zondervan), and a too brief work by Bernard Ramm, The Right, the Good, and the Happy (Word). The Scot William Barclay continues his amazing literary output with Ethics in a Permissive Society (Harper & Row). Two books on social issues are Vernon Grounds’s Revolution and the Christian Faith (Holman) and Our Society in Turmoil (Creation House), sixteen essays on such subjects as space, computers, crime, drugs, poverty, and race, edited by Gary Collins.
Christians can have severe problems, and so there is a need for the previously mentioned Christian Handbook of Psychiatry; but counseling for normal living is needed also. Man in Transition (Creation House) by Gary Collins is an introduction to the psychology of normal development of children, youth, and adults. God, Sex, and You (Holman) by M. O. Vincent, The Paradox of Pain (Harold Shaw) by A. E. Wilder Smith, and The Christian Way of Death (Zondervan) by Gladys Hunt are top books on their topics.
By now our readers are no doubt well aware of the “Jesus revival,” especially among youth. See our assistant editor Edward Plowman’s The Jesus Movement in America (David C. Cook) and Roger Palms’s The Jesus Kids (Judson) for reports on the movement. For more understanding of youth today, read Ted Ward’s Memo For the Underground (Creation House) and David and Don Wilkerson’s The Untapped Generation (Zondervan). Billy Graham’s sermons to The Jesus Generation (Zondervan) are selling briskly. Finally, many Bible translators modestly describe their efforts as paraphrasing. To see a real paraphrase, dip into the argot of the youth culture as found in Letters to Street Christians (Zondervan) by Jack Sparks and Paul Raudebusch, identified as “Two Brothers from Berkeley.” It won’t sound like Paul, but it is his doctrine.
Zeal need not be confined to youth. Interest in missions and evangelism among all evangelicals remains higher, along with the prerequisite need for continual congregational revitalization. The vast outpouring of books on “church renewal” over the past decade is helpfully excerpted in The Stirring Giant: Renewal Forces at Work in the Modern Church (Word) edited by Bob Patterson. Some of the implications of the changing world scene politically are explored in The Third World and Mission (Word) by Dennis Clark. The stirring and informative messages at the giant Urbana missionary convention at the end of 1970 were published under the title Christ the Liberator (Inter-Varsity). Richard Peace offers an up-to-date book with an old-fashioned-length title: Witness: A Manual for Use by Small Groups of Christians Who Are Serious in Their Desire to Learn How to Share Their Faith (Zondervan).
Once you’ve read these books, you will have your appetite whetted for more. For that purpose obtain Encounter With Books: A Guide to Christian Reading (Inter-Varsity) edited by Harish Merchant, an annotated bibliography on a wide range of topics.
All Christians owe a debt of gratitude to their brethren who have written these books. Although the books reflect the diversity of interests and views in the body of Christ, in various ways they can help God’s people to glorify him more. But to accomplish this these books must be read, thought about, and translated into and through our thoughts and actions.
We close with a word of appreciation to the publishers of these fifty books, many of whom have year after year placed several titles among our choices. Keep it up! Special commendation is due to Creation House and Harold Shaw, which are very young, yet together have eight titles among our fifty choices. Perhaps some other now little-known houses will rise up this year and do likewise.
Mahalia Jackson
The authentic Christian note, Mahalia Jackson once said, is joy. During her life, which ended January 27, she faithfully sang this truth.
Born in a shanty sixty years ago, Miss Jackson became known as the world’s greatest gospel singer. She never sang in nightclubs or shows and consistently resisted the efforts of such men as Louis Armstrong to turn her into a blues singer. “Blues,” she said, “are the songs of despair. Gospel songs are the songs are hope. When you sing gospel you have the feeling there is a cure for what’s wrong, but when you are through with the blues, you’ve got nothing to rest on.”
Throughout her career, the gospel singer performed in store-front churches, revival tents, and some of the most famous concert halls in the world. Before each performance she spent time in prayer and Bible reading “to give me inner strength,” Miss Jackson said.
She also frequently sang for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. Mahalia Jackson hoped “that my singing will break down some of the hate and fear that divide the white and black people in this country.”
Miss Jackson’s life was not easy. She was born in poverty and knew the anguish of black people. Both her marriages ended in divorce. Yet she was happy, not bitter. She worked for freedom and refused to despair. The words from “I Can Put My Trust in Jesus,” which in 1952 won her an award from the French Academy of Music, explain why she lived as she did:
When my burden gets so heavy
And it seems I can’t go on,
And my pathway gets so dreary
I can’t tell the right from wrong,
Jesus’ voice I hear within me
Whispering, “Child, rely on me.”
She did; her faith recorded in song is her legacy.
Viet Nam: No Way?
Despite recurring reports of Hanoi’s plans for new military buildups and offensives, there is reason to think that the Communist Vietnamese are running out of military leverage. The South Vietnamese are showing admirable military capabilities. And the Red strategists in Southeast Asia must have a somewhat uneasy feeling about the talks between the United States and Communist China. They perhaps are a bit more dubious now about how quickly Communist China would come to the rescue in the event of a showdown.
Given that situation, the only leverage left to the Communist Vietnamese is the American prisoners of war they are holding. Without them, a rapid disengagement might well be possible.
The Communists seem determined not to release the prisoners. Could it be they feel that they can use the prisoners to get at the Paris peace talks what they could not get on the battlefield?
If so, this leaves the United States with little room to move. President Nixon has vowed not “to join our enemy to overthrow our ally. If the enemy wants peace, it will have to recognize the important difference between settlement and surrender.” This position suggests indirectly that the prisoners may be the price we have to pay. Christians must hope and pray for another way.
It may be providential and not merely coincidental that President Nixon has prepared to leave for China right at the beginning of Lent. If ever the Christian world should be in a spiritual mood, this is the time.
Consumers And Creativity
This year many Americans will have the chance to see a magnificent display of arts and crafts from the Soviet Union. There are nearly 1,500 objects, both ancient and modern, in the exhibit. It opened in Washington last month and now moves on to Los Angeles, Minnesota, Chicago, Boston, and New York.
Somewhat surprisingly, the show includes a generous sampling of Christian creativity from bygone days. The opiate of the people seems to have produced something worthwhile after all.
The most spectacular piece is a fourteenth-century icon depicting Elijah and the fiery chariot in brilliant red coloring (egg tempera). It is a flat wooden panel measuring about four by four feet that has been hanging on the wall of a Soviet museum. The icon is one of several of similar size that Soviet officials, strangely enough, saw fit to include in the American exhibition; other panels show St. Demetrius of Thessalonica and the Archangel Michael. St. Nicholas is prominent also.
Also displayed prominently are two exquisitely decorated books that arc labeled “Gospels” but are in all likelihood complete Bibles. One measuring about ten by sixteen by four inches has covers of gilded silver with a filigree of precious stones. It dates back to the sixteenth century. The other, larger and made of wood, velvet, and chased silver, is said to have been bound in 1683.
The exhibit is part of a cultural-exchange program that has been going on between the Soviet Union and the United States since 1959. The counterpart American show, which was to have opened in Tbilisi on January 24, is billed as “Research and Development, U.S.A.” It is reported to reflect the American “consumer economy” by presenting such items as a Princess telephone, a fiberglass canoe, a Lincoln Continental, a copying machine, a computer system, a home hair dryer, a snowmobile, and an electric toothbrush. Frank Shakespeare, director of the U. S. Information Agency, said that “what we are attempting to do is reflect the fact that much of the production of the United States is oriented to the needs of the consumer, and that we are a consumer-oriented people.” He might have said more accurately that the orientation is to the wants of Americans.
To compare the two exhibits is disheartening. What good is served by showing off our gadgetry? Why do not Christians in places of responsibility use their influence to make American exhibits in the Soviet Union reflect something of this nation’s biblical heritage?
The Price Of Water
“Pure water is the best of gifts that man to man can bring,” quoted the Spectator in 1920. Unfortunately, pure water is getting harder and harder to find. But Denmark and Greenland have come up with a promising idea that will make such a gift possible again.
The Danish government has begun marketing pure ice from Greenland’s ancient glaciers and icebergs, and samples were revealed last month in Washington, D. C., at the opening of a Smithsonian exhibition, “Greenland—Arctic Denmark.” Greenland’s ice is probably the last unpolluted water. Anders Georg, press consul for the Danish embassy, said that although the market for the million-year-old ice is still slight, his country hopes the need will rise—and it probably will. When it does, Denmark and Greenland will be ready to sell.
One day glacier water might become an expensive commodity. But its price will never approach that paid by Christ for the water he gave to a Samaritan woman in an encounter at a well.
Buying Our Way Out?
A plan to reimburse farmers in Turkey who agree to stop growing opium recalls some history from that part of the world. For several hundred years, the Eastern Roman (Byzantine) Empire was one of the most prosperous and advanced nations in the world, standing at the forefront of learning, commerce, and military science. The Byzantine currency, called the solidus, was the standard for international trade during many centuries, until successive devaluations made it unreliable.
Largely because of their wealth, the Byzantines never lacked foreign enemies—Russian and Asiatic barbarians to the north and east, highly civilized Arabs and Persians to the south and southeast, avaricious Italians and belligerent Franks on the west. For centuries the Byzantine armies were better organized and equipped than their rivals. But Constantinople was a commercially minded capital, and its leaders realized that it was more economical and less disturbing to the domestic scene to buy off the Empire’s enemies rather than fight them. Some barbarian peoples were hired to fight for Byzantium, others were bribed not to fight against her.
This “subsidy” or tribute system worked well enough for a time, but the barbarians kept raising the ante, until the Empire’s finances could no longer stand the strain. Increasing foreign expenditures with no corresponding increase in productivity led to the devaluation of the solidus. Rapidly increasing taxation still failed to produce the money to pay ever-increasing tribute subsidies. Then the barbarians came to collect by force. The imperial army, victim of decades of neglect, was unable to hold them off.
Among the many contributors to the fall of East Rome, which opened much of Europe to Muslim conquest, her practice of trying to buy herself out of difficulties instead of facing them is certainly prominent.
Given the current world situation, subsidies to Turkey for not growing opium may appear to be the most practical solution, particularly if some stringent means of enforcement are built in. But if it sees this as a long-term policy, the United States stands to lose.
The Christian And Good Works
In Acts 9:36 Tabitha (Dorcas) is described as a believer, as one who “was full of good works and acts of charity.” The Apostle Paul speaks of the need for “good deeds” on the part of believers. James says that Father Abraham’s faith was completed or made manifest by works.
No one is saved by his good deeds; salvation is by faith plus nothing. But saving faith, if it is genuine, produces good works. Some Christians who recognize the need for works that will show the world they are Christ’s own are not aware that effective service for Christ must rest on three pillars: regeneration, consecration, and motivation.
Works offered to God by those whose hearts have not been transformed are not acceptable because they are not based on a right relationship. Good works will therefore never save anyone. But for those who have been regenerated, a life without good works is an anachronism. Good works begin with the new birth.
The second pillar supporting a life of good works is consecration. Indeed, the first and the best good work is not something we do for somebody else but what we do with ourselves. A life of service will flourish and reach its highest potential when it has been preceded by the Christian’s commitment to Jesus Christ as the Lord of his life. Paul stresses this in Romans 12 when he beseeches believers to present their bodies as living sacrifices unto God. When the Christian does this, two things happen: he serves his own interests best, for by this commitment he does what God wants him to do in order to have the best kind of life; and by accepting the will of God for his life, he becomes the servant of men, able to minister to them in the most beneficial way.
The third pillar on which the life of good works rests is motivation. Many people do good deeds for wrong reasons. Why I do something is as important as what I do. From the biblical standpoint, good works should be motivated by love of God, which in turn causes me to love men. Loving both God and men, I do what I ought to do toward both God and men, whether or not it fits into my accepted pattern of likes and dislikes. Love is the right reason for a life of good works.
God rewards his people according to their good works. Although we are not saved by works, our reward in heaven will be based upon those works we do after we have been regenerated and justified. Paul declares that “every man’s work shall be manifest.… It shall be revealed by fire.… If any man’s work abide … he shall receive a reward” (1 Cor. 3:13, 14). And a man’s work will abide if it is built on the pillars of regeneration, consecration, and right motivation.
