Defining American Values
The Future of the American Past, by Earl H. Brill (Seabury, 1974, 96 pp., $2.95 pb), and Defining America, by Robert Benne and Philip Hefner (Fortress, 1974, 150 pp., $3.75 pb), are reviewed by John A. Tinkham, graduate student in politics and religion,. Catholic University, Washington, D.C.
As the nation approaches its bicentennial and searches for the meaning of the disturbances of the 1960s, Americans are seeking to redefine American values in a way that will provide goals for the future. This offers a challenge to Christians to come forward and repair the foundation for these goals and values. Two recent efforts to accept this challenge are The Future of The American Past, by an Episcopalian, and Defining America, by two Lutherans. In the belief that something has gone wrong with the American dream, these authors attempt to redefine just what the American dream was and is, find out where it went wrong, and suggest what Christians can do to get America back on the right track.
The Future of the American Past was written as a text for a church study course. It is intended to help church members draw on the resources of their religion in order to become better citizens. It confronts some difficult questions and should provoke interesting group discussions. These questions are how church and state are related, whether Americans still have the sense of pilgrimage that the early colonists experienced, whether there still is an American mission, what Americans mean by freedom and equality, and finally whether there is still hope for the future of America.
In facing the question of church-state relations, Brill goes deeper to examine the relation between religion and culture. He borrows from Richard Nieburhr’s book Christ and Culture, which offers five ways in which the two may be related, each of which has some truth in the American tradition and situation. Should the Christian be in the world, of the world, leading and transforming the world? Or withdrawn from and against it? Whatever the answer is, there is no doubt that Christianity has played an important part in shaping American society and therefore must take blame as well as credit for current conditions in the nation.
Brill sees as the original American pilgrimage the Pilgrims’ setting out to build the “Kingdom of God” or “new Israel” in the new world; but as the colonies became established, this religious motive was gradually replaced by economic motives. He overlooks the great revivals that periodically restored the religious spirit of the colonies and later of the nation. Prosperity is not evil in itself, but only when it is the main motive. As Americans today, disillusioned with affluence, look uncertainly to the future, that uncertainty is like a new frontier, offering Americans a new challenge to resume their pilgrimage.
The American sense of mission carries the idea of pilgrimage further, as Americans have traditionally sought to create a better world. The mission has had many forms, starting with the westward movement to possess the land and convert the Indians; it has taken the forms of opposing godless Communism and of bringing American democracy to developing nations. Just as the American pilgrimage soured in materialism, so the American mission seems to have fallen flat in Viet Nam. The mission can be restored by making America an example, a “city set on a hill,” rather than by imposing our will on other nations by force.
Freedom and equality, American traditional values, are ambiguous, and Brill explains how the meanings have changed through American history. Conservatives stress free enterprise but find it necessary to impose moral restraints on individual freedom. Liberals stress freedom from these restraints in the name of rights but would impose restraints on business. There is also a difference between negative freedom from oppression and positive freedom to act, and a conflict between individual and group rights. The concept of equality also has its ambiguities. Does it mean equality of condition or of opportunity? Is everyone equal, or are women, slaves, Indians, and certain others excluded? Does equality also require uniformity? The author does not attempt to give definitive answers but leaves the questions for discussion groups and for the political process to decide.
Brill is disturbed by Americans’ failure to achieve American traditional values, and observes that most of our national sins have been committed in the name of these values. This means, not that we should reject the values, but rather that we should use them as a basis for deciding what kind of future we want for America. A more Christian approach would put more emphasis on finding the Christian basis for these values and on seeking God’s will rather than our own. At any rate, Brill advises that if we work for these new goals, we can trust God for an optimistic future for America.
There is a similar theme in Benne and Hefner’s Defining America. However, the authors of this book are more pessimistic about the moral condition of America, and therefore see an even greater challenge for Christians to lead the way in restoring pride in their nation. The purpose is to define American values, revive them, and decide what Christians should do to meet this challenge.
In this book, the three primary American values are freedom, initiative, and opportunity. The authors find a religious basis for these values in the “Adamic myth,” a concept borrowed from R. W. B. Lewis—that the original America was a new land, just as Adam was a new man, with no tradition to restrain it from developing toward a future where the Kingdom of God would be built. Expressed in secular terms, the myth is that America was a land where the people would “shake free of the limiting past in a struggling ascent toward the realization of promise in a gracious future.” But America fell away from its pure ideal, as Adam did, and succumbed to evil. The nation and its values were tested by the programs for social and economic reforms of the 1960s and by the Viet Nam War. The authors believe that these programs and the war failed, and conclude that American values are no longer adequate.
Perhaps a reason why the authors are disillusioned with the American dream is that they give it too narrow an interpretation. While some Americans are engaged in a “struggling ascent,” others are more interested in holding on to the achievements of the past. No nation in the world holds its constitution with such reverence. Brill shows that American values are a combination of liberal and conservative versions. The two-party system ensures that both versions continue in some kind of balance.
This pessimism of the authors is typical of an American trait of unwillingness to accept failure, part of the religious crusading spirit with which Americans go about pursuing their goals. Perhaps the reason that the problems are still so evident to the authors is that less fortunate Americans learned during the 1960s to make themselves heard, by speech, voting, and television. The experience was shocking for Americans of all classes, but certainly there were some successes, too.
The authors go on to say that heretofore Americans have been unwilling to acknowledge evil in their history, but that the time has come when it can no longer be avoided. Consequently, they would begin by asking for a realistic view of American history, which they believe has been too glorified to show us where the nation went wrong. Their greatest concern is that America has lost its vision of a “gracious future,” that fear of “future shock” has replaced the optimistic “struggling ascent.” Furthermore, as Americans have charged onward with freedom, initiative, and opportunity, they have lost their sense of belonging. Benne and Hefner recognize that freedom is not an absolute value but is balanced by “belonging.” The concept was expressed by the covenant of the Puritan colony, and until recently has brought the people together as a nation. We voluntarily give up a part of our freedom when we choose to belong to the political state, social groups, and the culture.
The situation is a challenge for Christians to create a new dream with a new vision of the future. This new dream should include God and humanitarian belongingness, and be such that all Americans, including non-Christians, will accept and sacrifice for it.
The authors believe that “we,” presumably all Americans, are suffering from guilt over the evils of American history, and especially the failures of the 1960s. They attempt to answer the difficult question of what a nation can do about its collective guilt. As Christians, they might say that Jesus died for the sins of nations as well as of individuals. They reject this solution, suggesting that the Christian vision of redemption is “not relevant to the national myth.”
The Christian solution would then seem to be for the American people to accept Christ’s redemption for their individual sins, but Benne and Hefner discard this as insufficient when they say that Billy Graham seems “utterly punchless when the prophetic judgment inherent in civil religion is called for.” Their solution is personal sacrifice to avoid God’s wrath on the nation, as though Jesus’ death were not sufficient sacrifice: this seems to be patterned more on Old Testament Judaism than on Christianity. They argue that the Christian basis for this view is given by Romans 12:1 and Mark 8:34, admonitions to sacrifice ourselves and to take up our crosses. This problem of national sin and redemption is a most difficult and important question for the nation. While evangelical Christians may not agree with the answer given in this book, as Americans they should at least consider the challenge offered to rebuild the American dream.
Although the authors of these two books have somewhat different concepts of the problems of the American past, present, and future, all agree that the future of the nation will depend on whether Christians accept the challenge to provide the moral leadership that the nation needs.
Pornography In Context
The Politics of Pornography, by Rousas J. Rushdoony (Arlington House, 1974, 160 pp., $6.95), is reviewed by Perry C. Cotham, assistant professor of speech, David Lipscomb College, Nashville, Tennessee.
There has been no lack of comment from the Christian camp in the continuing discussion of pornography and obscenity. Then why another book on the subject? The answer may be that we are not approaching the problem from the proper, or at least the full, perspective. R. J. Rushdoony’s approach is not to give a history and description of pornography, to review legal arguments and plea for more censorship, or to provide a selection of prooftexts for purity. In fact, he seems less concerned about pornography as such than about interpersonal relations. His book, actually a series of essays, is an effort to discover the foundations of a problem of which the proliferation of pornography is just one symptom.
Rushdoony’s central theme is that a new pornography crusades as a religion for a new freedom and wars against God and his law. The chief inspiration for the new pornography is Marquis de Sade, who reasoned that the Christian God, if he existed, should be murdered and his law-order destroyed. There is no fall of man; hence no sin, crime, or offense can be charged to man. Nature becomes normative, and no one has a right to criticize anything in the world of nature. Once the legitimacy of all “passions” is granted, then every sexual urge has sovereign rights over every other consideration. For Sade, the purpose of life is pleasure, and there is no law beyond man.
Such a philosophy exalts primitivism with its widespread faith that truly primitive man was beyond law and beyond good and evil; sin and evil are not in man but in his environment, in his institutions, or, for traditional nudists, in his clothes. Taking his cue from fertility-cult festivals, modern man believes that chaos is regenerative. The author surveys the ideas of Hegel, Darwin, and Freud, among others, for their ideological reinforcement of this doctrine. He does not limit his discussion of pornography to sex but contends also that Sade’s justification of violence is gaining wide and alarming acceptance.
Rushdoony argues that the Sadean philosophy is incorporated, both wittingly and unwittingly, into most levels of contemporary life. “The Supreme Court in effect has said that he [writer or film-maker] must fulfill his calling” no matter how much he glorifies perversion, murder, rape, and other forms of violence. The rise of violent crime is rooted in man’s desire to play God. While man cannot create life, he can destroy and limit it; after all, pornography is closely linked with the manipulation of people who are reduced to genital organs and may be used sexually.
Contemporary man has exalted humanistic experientialism—the quest for some new, revelatory experience to top previous ones. “Experience has become the new test and standard of life, and it denies the right of God and man to sit in judgment on it.” In the religious realm, this quest spawns occult and charismatic movements (the author chides CHRISTIANITY TODAY as a voice of evangelical Protestantism that “has in recent years become the voice of neo-Pentecostalism and its hostility to Refrormation theology is marked”). In interpersonal relations, the quest leads to singles-only apartments, mate-swapping, incest, and other forms of perversion. The arts, with what Rushdoony calls “will to fiction,” reflect culture’s loss of a sense of reality and search for refuge in various forms of escapism that lead to pornography; life as fiction means life can be lived in terms of one’s imagination. Finally, the sciences with their effort to control and manipulate life (e.g, through abortion, euthanasia, fetal experimentation) depersonalize man, thus providing further philosophical justification for toleration of hard-core pornography.
Rushdoony’s theological approach is sound. To him, the biblical view (theism) is hostile to dialecticism, monism, and dualism. Citing Proverbs 23:7, he notes an essential unity of thought and action. Sin is in man, not in his environment, and involves his total being. Man’s freedom cannot be total, for only God is totally free. But man possesses civil liberty, and this means he must treat others as his equal.
The book is a valuable contribution to the literature dealing with the problems of pornography and distorted interpersonal relations. Few studies delve as deeply into the psychological and philosophical roots of the problem, and the reader needs to bring to the book some understanding of psychology and philosophy if his interest is to be sustained. The author has done extensive reading in the literature of the “new” culture and draws freely from modern novelists (especially Henry Miller), the underground press, and popular pornographic sources. There is occasional dry humor, and there is some redundancy in the continual restatement of Sadean philosophy.
To this critic, the volume has two central weaknesses. First, most readers will find no reason for optimism about the future of our society. One may ask if we have really gone that far in rejection of objective norms, insensitivity to other people, and perverted sexual behavior. (One problem is that neither perversion nor pornography is clearly defined.) Chief evidence in support of the decadent society include unsigned letters to such magazines as Penthouse—letters that seem atypical at best and “put-ons” at worse. Only once (on the last page) is there an effort at statistical support of generalizations; the central argument needs to be buttressed by more hard evidence. Second, in complete opposition to the atmosphere of the entire exposition, Rushdoony asserts in his epilogue “a new power elite will appear” and “the pornographers will soon be dead and gone.” But when, and how, will this occur? If Christians choose to join themselves to this new elite, what must they do? Unfortunately, Rushdoony does not tell us.
Despite these weaknesses, the book is recommended reading for those who want much more than a superficial understanding of the persistent problem of pornography. Its analysis provides much to stimulate a Christian’s thinking.
NEWLY PUBLISHED
The Christian Use of Emotional Power, by Norman Wright (Revell, 159 pp., $4.95). Constructive, biblical examination of how to cope with anxiety, fear, depression, and anger. By a professor at Talbot Seminary. Recommended.
The Encyclopedia of Bible Stories, by Jenny Robertson (Holman, 272 pp., $9.95), Tales of Human Frailty and the Gentleness of God, by Kenneth Phifer (John Knox, 127 pp., $3.95 pb), and The Twelve Apostles, by Ronald Brownrigg (Macmillan, 248 pp., $12.95). Tales of biblical personalities have universal appeal. Robertson presents a colorfully illustrated collection of 119 stories about more than twenty persons. Jesus naturally figures prominently. Phifer offers lessons and specific applications of God’s dealings in the lives of thirteen Old Testament leaders. Brownrigg combines biblical accounts, historical traditions, and artists’ interpretations of the lives of the apostles.
Five Cries of Youth, by Merton Strommer (Harper & Row, 155 pp., $6.95). From extensive questionnaires of young people comes an attentive response to their most urgent needs. Excellent aid for parents and church youth workers.
This Hebrew Lord, by John Spong (Seabury, 190 pp., $5.95), He Came From Galilee, by Parker Brown (Hawthorn, 164 pp., $6.95), Jesus Who Became Christ, by Peter De Rosa (Dimension, 365 pp., $8.95), and Jesus: Inspiring and Disturbing Presence, by Martinus de Jonge (Abingdon, 176 pp., $4.95 pb). Each author attempts to portray the “real” Jesus and his contemporary relevance, but each fails because of exaggeration of the differences between “Jesus’ ” time and our own. Spong stresses Jesus’ Jewish context, which is admittedly to often deemphasized. Brown also includes the Greco-Roman context. DeRosa focuses on various miracles, including the Resurrection, and how they can have meaning even if they didn’t happen. De Jonge offers various approaches to a non-supernatural Christology.
A Theology of the New Testament, by George Eldon Ladd (Eerdmans, 661 pp., $12.50). First-rate work by a leading evangelical scholar. The doctrinal emphases of the Synoptics, John, Acts, Paul, the other letters, and Revelation are presented in turn. Should be in the libraries of all ministers and advanced Bible teachers.
The Ethics of Smuggling, by Brother Andrew (Tyndale, 138 pp., $1.45 pb). Conversational apologia for violating a country’s laws, using biblical examples as well as illustrations from his own ministry. Andrew says he will not lie, but neither will he tell everything. In the wake of Viet Nam and Watergate, Christians need to do hard thinking on the Christian’s relationship to authority. This is at best a starter. For example, Andrew’s argument that while we are to love our enemies, we are not told to love God’s enemies does not deal with the ease most men have in equating them.
Making It on a Pastor’s Pay, by Manfred Hoick (Abingdon, 126 pp., $4.95), and Underground Manual For Ministers’ Wives, by Ruth Truman (Abingdon, 173 pp., $4.95). Practical and worthwhile tandem for the parsonage.
A Symposium on Biblical Hermeneutics, edited by Gordon M. Hyde (Review and Herald, 273 pp., n.p., pb). Fifteen essays by Seventh-day Adventists on the history and principles of interpreting the Scriptures.
Digging Up Jerusalem, by Kathleen Kenyon (Praeger, 288 pp., $12.50). The story of ancient Jerusalem as revealed by archaeological excavations, especially those led by the author in the sixties. More than 100 illustrations.
Enter at Your Own Risk, by Wallace Henley (Revell, 159 pp., $4.95). Challenging thoughts on whole-hearted Christian discipleship by a journalist who was a staff assistant to the President of the United States from 1970 to 1973.
Where Do You Draw the Line?, edited by Victor Cline (Brigham Young, 365 pp., $9.95, $6.95 pb). Examination of pornography, censorship, and violence in twenty essays, showing a need for more control and enforcement. Some interesting paths are used to reach this conclusion.
Shepherding God’s Flock: Volume One, by Jay Adams (Presbyterian and Reformed, 156 pp., $3.75 pb). The first of several proposed volumes by the well-known counselor focuses on the pastor’s personal life and his ministry of visitation.
The Guru, by Bob Larson (Bob Larson Ministries [P.O. Box 26438, Denver, Colo. 80226], 104 pp., $1.45 pb), The Hidden Story of Scientology, by Omar Garrison (Citadel, 232 pp., $8.50), Gautama the Buddha: An Essay in Religious Understanding, by Richard Drummond (Eerdmans, 239 pp., $3.95 pb), Zen and the Comic Spirit, by Conrad Hyers (Westminster, 193 pp., $3.95 pb), The Eagle and the Rising Sun: Americans and the New Religions of Japan, by Robert Ellwood (Westminster, 224 pp., $7.95), Transcendental Meditation: Maharishi Mahesh Yogi and the Science of Creative Intelligence, by Jack Forem (Dutton, 274 pp., $2.95 pb), The Baha’i Faith: Its History and Teachings, by William Miller (William Carey, 444 pp., $8.95 pb), Hare Krishna and the Counter-culture, by J. Stillson Judah (Wiley, 301 pp., $12.95), and Sri Aurobindo, by Satprem (Harper & Row, 381 pp., $3.95 pb). Religions of Asiatic origin (or, in the case of Scientology, affinity) have been making a considerable impact on many Americans who reject both the historic Gospel and the prevailing secularism (though one shouldn’t believe the exaggerated claims of numbers of adherents that publicists assert and media transmit). Larson offers an evangelical polemic against the teen-age Maharaj Ji. The other books are more or less scholarly presentations, by adherents, sympathizers, or observers. They are for mature Christians who need to know more about these rivals.
