DOCTRINE Relatively few books of 1975 sought to present systematically one or more of the doctrines revealed by God in Scripture. Systematics by F. Leroy Forlines (Randall House) expounds on God, man, and salvation. The author teaches at Free Will Baptist Bible College. Retired Baptist pastor Herschel Hobbs presents in brief, alphabetical entries A Layman’s Handbook of Christian Doctrine (Broadman), an admirable work. Truths That Transform by noted Presbyterian pastor D. James Kennedy (Revell) focuses on salvation.
Two notable reprints were Fundamentals of the Faith edited by Carl F. H. Henry (Baker), thirteen essays that first appeared in CHRISTIANITY TODAY in the mid-sixties, and The Protestant Faith by George Forell (Fortress), first issued in 1960. In his new preface, Forell, a professor at the University of Iowa School of Religion, tells us, “I have ignored the so-called radical developments in theology since 1960 because they appear to be as evanescent as the pop songs of yesterday.”
Although it properly belongs in the area of biblical theology, handled elsewhere in this issue, Paul: An Outline of His Theology by Herman Ridderbos (Eerdmans) deserves notice here as well. It is an outstanding work. Much more popularly aimed presentations are What Did Jesus Say About That? by Stanley Baldwin (Victor) and Mystery Doctrines of the New Testament by T. Ernest Wilson (Loizeaux).
Three of the twelve essays in The Evangelicals edited by David Wells and John Woodbridge (Abingdon) deal with evangelical theology. Excerpts from the numerous writings of two prominent evangelicals are arranged topically in Blow, Wind of God! Spirited Messages From the Writings of Billy Graham (Baker) and The Meditations of Elton Trueblood (Harper & Row).
A rather large number of books appeared treating the range of Christian doctrine from one or another Roman Catholic perspective. (There is no longer One Catholic stance, if indeed there ever really was.) Encyclopedia of Theology edited by Karl Rahner (Seabury) is a massive reference work for those who do not have access to the six-volume Sacramentum Mundi of which it is an abridgment. An American Catholic Catechism edited by George Dyer (Seabury) and The Catholic Catechism by John Hardon (Doubleday) are major attempts to restate doctrine in the wake of Vatican II. Although not in catechetical format, several books are concerned with explaining Catholic teaching to (probably confused) laymen: Positioning: Belief in the Mid-Seventies by William Bausch (Fies), An Introduction to the Faith of Catholics by Richard Chilson (Paulist), Searching For Sense: The Logic of Catholic Belief by Frank De Siano (Paulist), and Focus on Doctrine by James Gaffney (Paulist).
The widely publicized Common Cathechism edited by Johannes Feiner and Lukas Vischer (Seabury) is a joint Catholic-Protestant effort and covers the whole range of doctrine, including areas of dispute. However, lay persons, to whom it is addressed, will be sorely misled if they think it represents anything close to orthodox Catholic or Protestant doctrine.
SCRIPTURE By far the most noteworthy book in this area is Holy Scripture by G. C. Berkouwer (Eerdmans), the thirteenth volume to appear in his Studies in Dogmatics series. No Final Conflict: The Bible Without Error in all That It Affirms by Francis Schaeffer (InterVarsity) brings together four brief studies of the subject. More Evidence That Demands a Verdict by Josh McDowell (Campus Crusade), a sequel to his bestseller, presents competent evangelical rebuttals to the documentary hypothesis of the Pentateuch and form criticism of the Gospels.
A very important kind of study is The Uses of Scripture in Recent Theology by David Kelsey (Fortress). Case studies of the way scriptural authority was invoked by seven theologians, including Barth, Bultmann, and Warfield, show that there was no common concept of “Scripture” or of “authority.” More of this kind of inductive study of what is done, not just what is claimed, can be profitably undertaken over a wide range of topics on which Christians disagree. In this same area the widely known religious writer William Barclay asks By What Authority? (Judson).
ANGELS Of the large number of works dealing with holy and wicked spirit beings we mention three: Angels: God’s Secret Agents by Billy Graham (Doubleday), Angels, Elect and Evil by C. Fred Dickason (Moody), and The Real Satan by James Kallas (Augsburg).
CHRIST AND SALVATION Limited atonement—the view that Christ died only for Christians rather than for all—is one of the key distinctives of the Calvinist theology that has long been a major force within evangelicalism and is currently receiving renewed emphasis, especially through conferences and book reprints. In defense of the view that Christ died for all Clark Pinnock has gathered thirteen essays under the title Grace Unlimited (Bethany Fellowship). Some of the contributors part from Calvin chiefly on this point; others disagree on other matters such as the perseverance of the saints. A brief defense of the latter point is Once Saved, Always Saved by Perry Lassiter (Broadman). A major challenge to this doctrine is posed in a comprehensive exegetical study by I. Howard Marshall, Kept By the Power of God: A Study of Perseverance and Falling Away (Bethany Fellowship).
Other books in this area that appeared last year were chiefly popular presentations of common evangelical teaching. Among them are Studies in the Person and Work of Jesus Christ and Regeneration and Conversion, both by W. E. Best (Baker), The Word Made Flesh by John Bisagno (Word), A Day That Changed the World by Gordon Bridger (InterVarsity), Yes, Virginia, There Is a Hell by Harold Bryson (Broadman), Free For the Taking: The Life-changing Power of Grace by Joseph Cooke (Revell), He Has Come! Messages Proclaiming the Birth of Christ edited by W. Glyn Evans (Broadman), The Messianic Hope: A Divine Solution for the Human Problem by Arthur Kac (Baker), I Believe in the Resurrection of Jesus by George Eldon Ladd (Eerdmans), and Jesus: The Man Who Lives by Malcolm Muggeridge (Harper & Row).
More technical and controversial is Sacrifice and the Death of Christ by Frances Young (London: SPCK).
THE HOLY SPIRIT Books on the Spirit pour forth in a seemingly endless stream; they are rivaled in number only by those on the return of Christ. By far the most significant to appear last year is a major work of scholarship, Jesus and the Spirit: A Study of the Religious and Charismatic Experience of Jesus andthe First Christians as Reflected in the New Testament by James Dunn (Westminster). Noteworthy popular titles include: Speaking in Tongues: Seven Crucial Questions by Joseph Dillow (Zondervan), The Person and Work of the Holy Spirit in the Life of the Believer by George Duncan (John Knox), Help! I Believe in Tongues by K. Neill Foster (Bethany Fellowship), I Believe in the Holy Spirit by Michael Green (Eerdmans), and Touched by the Spirit by Richard Jensen (Augsburg). I prefer not to say which authors are for “tongues” and which are against; on this kind of controversy among Bible-believers it is best to read books that take a variety of positions.
Two other books not only are on the Spirit but theologize on behalf of the emerging groups within Christianity that lay special claim to charismatic enduement. A New Pentecost? (Seabury) is by Leon Joseph Cardinal Suenens, the best-known Catholic charismatic. The Spirit and the World (Hawthorn) is by James W Jones, a charismatic Episcopal minister who teaches in a state university religion department.
THE CHURCH The numerous practical studies of congregations and how to improve them usually have some exegetical basis even though that is not the emphasis. Three that are primarily practical but whose authors seek repeatedly to tie their contents to Scripture are Life in His Body by Gary Inrig (Harold Shaw), The Growing Local Church by Donald MacNair (Baker), and The Problem of Wineskins: Church Structure in a Technological Age by Howard Snyder (InterVarsity). The authors are from three distinct denominational traditions. It might interest the vast majority of our readers who are not in the widely publicized maxi-congregations to know that none of these authors is, either.
THE RETURN OF CHRIST If you want to read only one of the numerous books that appeared last year on the second coming of Christ and related events, make it When Is Jesus Coming Again? (Creation House), which contains six brief essays by writers with differing understandings of the relevant Scriptures, such as Hal Lindsey, Robert Gundry, and J. Barton Payne. As a bonus there is an annotated bibliography of scores of books for those of a mind to read more on the subject. The views represented in the Scofield Reference Bible and The Late Great Planet Earth are conveyed in Jesus the King Is Coming edited by Charles Feinberg (Moody), which contains messages given at a 1973 congress on prophecy, Biography of a Great Planet by Stanley Ellisen (Tyndale), which covers Bible prophecy in general, and Next Year in Jerusalem by Walter Price (Moody), which is not a prediction but a study of the relation of the State of Israel to Messiah’s return.
Views different from the above on such matters as the Church during the Tribulation and the meaning of the Millennium are presented in The Approaching Advent of Christ by Alexander Reese (Kregel), which is a reprint of an often cited 1937 book, The Tribulation People by Arthur Katterjohn (Creation House), The Incredible Cover-Up: The True Story of the Pre-Trib Rapture by Dave MacPherson (Logos), which attempts to refute the view by tracing historical roots rather than countering the exegetical arguments by which the view is defended, What, Where, and When Is the Millennium? by R. Bradley Jones (Baker), and Waiting For His Coming by Lewis Neilson (Mack Publishing).
Meanwhile, a well-known pastor and writer on prophecy, W. A. Criswell, wisely tells us What to Do Until Jesus Comes Back (Broadman).
APOLOGETICS Defenses of more or less traditional Christian doctrine in the face of contemporary (as well as perennial) challenges, aimed at the general reader rather than the theological specialist, include The Battle For Your Faith by Willard Aldrich (Multnomah), God, I Don’t Understand by Kenneth Boa (Victor), Christianity on Trial by Colin Chapman (Tyndale), The Untamed God by George Cornell (Harper & Row), How Can I Find You, God? by Marjorie Holmes (Doubleday), Fallacies of Unbelief by Arlie Hoover (Biblical Research Press), The Law and Essence of Love by Philip Ney (Pioneer Publishing [1900 Richmond Ave., Victoria, B.C., Canada]), The Gospel in a Pagan Society by Kenneth Prior (InterVarsity), and Man in the Maelstrom of Modern Thought by Douglas Vickers (Presbyterian and Reformed). Chapman, a minister in Egypt, and Ney, a psychiatrist, are the most comprehensive. Prior offers very worthwhile reflections on today’s scene in the light of Paul’s address on Mars Hill.
Especially valuable are three serious but not technical defenses of Christianity over against the challenges of modern secularism and ancient, revived paganism. They deal not so much with specific objections to doctrines as with the overall climate. They are The New Demons by Jacques Ellul (Seabury), Picking Up the Pieces by W. Fred Graham (Eerdmans), and Our Savage God: The Perverse Use of Eastern Thought by R. C. Zaehner (Sheed and Ward).
Two notable technical works on the classical arguments for the existence of God in which the arguments emerge somewhat better than has been customary in academia are Experience, Inference and God by John Shepherd (Barnes and Noble) and The CosmologicalArgument by William Rowe (Princeton). Another perennial topic, suffering received treatment also in Suffering by Dorothee Soelle (Fortress) and, with a new twist, God Suffers For Us by Jung Young Lee (The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff). A related but popularly oriented book is Why Me? Why Mine? by Paul Andrus (Augsburg).
DENOMINATIONAL CONCERNS One of the hottest religious issues currently, focused in the denominations claiming apostolic succession for their leaders, is the role of women in the ministry. Two books of Episcopal origin but wider interest are The Ordination of Women: Pro and Con edited by Michael Hamilton and Nancy Montgomery (Morehouse-Barlow) and To Be a Priest: Perspectives on Vocation and Ordination edited by Robert Terwilliger and Urban Holmes III (Seabury).
Those interested in Roman Catholicism will welcome Documents of Vatican II edited by Austin Flannery (Eerdmans and four other publishers), which contains not only the sixteen council documents but also some fifty related post-conciliar pronouncements. Christian Truth by John Coventry (Paulist) and Why We Need the Pope by Karl-Heinz Ohlig (Abbey) are brief treatments of authority for Catholics. The Priesthood of Christ and His Ministers by Andre Feuillet (Doubleday) is an exegetical defense of a priestly class distinct from the priesthood of all believers.
The Basic Ideas of Calvinism by H. Henry Meeter (Baker), first issued in 1939, is now back in print. Meanwhile, writing from a different, putatively Reformed stance, John Fry bemoans The Trivilization of the United Presbyterian Church (Harper & Row). Another tradition is reflected upon in Theology in the Wesleyan Spirit by Albert Outler (Tidings).
Concern for Christian unity is evidenced in a treatment of one long-divisive issue, Baptism: A Pastoral Perspective by Eugene Brand (Augsburg), and in a prominent Anglican theologian’s considerable concessions to Rome, Christian Unity and Christian Diversity by John Macquarrie (Westminster).
ETHICS Of widest interest in this category in Living by Grace by William Hordern (Westminster), who contends that Protestants preach justification by grace through faith but in practice they live otherwise. The following books are for those with some knowledge of ethical theory: The Radical Imperative: From Theology to Social Ethics by John C. Bennett (Westminster), Can Ethics Be Christian? by James Gustafson (University of Chicago), Character and the Christian Life: A Study in Theological Ethics by Stanley Hauerwas (Trinity University), Love and Society: Essays in the Ethics of Paul Ramsey, edited by James Johnson and David Smith (Scholars Press), Honest to Man by Margaret Knight (Prometheus), Becoming Human: An Invitation to Christian Ethics by William E. May (Pflaum), and Gift and Call: Towards a Christian Theology of Morality by Enda McDonagh (Abbey).
A collection of essays to honor Henry Stob, longtime professor at Calvin Seminary, includes studies on topics in a variety of areas. Among the fifteen contributions by leading evangelical thinkers to God and the Good edited by Clifton Orlebeke and Lewis Smedes (Eerdmans) are studies of Pauline ethics, natural law, private property, evil, and robots.
MARRIAGE AND FAMILY This large area of ethics always brings forth numerous books. Especially noteworthy ones written by evangelicals for general readership are: I Pledge You My Troth: A Christian View of Marriage, Family, Friendship by James Olthuis (Harper & Row), What Is a Family? by Edith Schaeffer (Revell), and The Right To Remarry by Dwight Hervey Small (Revell). All three break ground in reflecting upon the current difficulties in families, and they offer practical suggestions. Olthuis stresses mutual trust, Schaeffer primarily considers parent-child relationships and the joyful effort to make them work, and Small emphasizes the need for reading Scripture in terms of grace as well as law.
Some conservative colleges may wish to adopt the text, Creating a Successful Christian Marriage by Cleveland McDonald (Baker), but indicative of his rigidity is his seeming endorsement of the view that divorce is never permissible.
More than marriage is in view in Paul Jewett’s controversial study, Man as Male and Female (Eerdmans). His arguments are worth considering even by those who cannot accept his conclusions or methodology.
SOCIAL AND POLITICAL ETHICS Three notable books by evangelicals are Toward a Biblical View of Civil Government by Robert Culver (Moody), which is a major study of all the pertinent biblical teachings and examples; The Unraveling of America by Stephen Monsma (InterVarsity), a professor at Calvin College and member of his state’s legislature; and Vision and Betrayal in America by John B. Anderson (Word), a prominent member of the nation’s legislature. Anderson acknowledges considerable assistance from Paul Henry, a colleague of Monsma’s at Calvin and the author of the 1974 book Politics For Evangelicals (Judson). These non-technical books are much more worth reading than the many pouring off the presses specifically aimed at the Bicentennial market.
A useful selection of writings representing a variety of so-called theologies (hope, revolution, development, liberation, black) concerned with the poor was compiled by Alistair Kee for A Reader in Political Theology (Westminster). For advanced students, specific positions are advocated in books such as Post-Theistic Thinking: The Marxist-Christian Dialogue in Radical Perspective by Thomas Dean (Temple University), which argues that only an atheistic understanding of Christianity can really interact with Marxism. Why Dean wants to call a view that leaves out God “Christian” is perplexing, but the book can be used by theists to show the futility of dialogue with Marxists. Also of interest are The Transfiguration of Politics by Paul Lehmann (Harper & Row), Liberation, Revolution, and Freedom: Theological Perspectives edited by Thomas McFadden (Seabury), and Theology in Red, White, and Black by Benjamin Reist (Westminster), the “red” representing native Americans rather than Marxists.
On the more immediate, less political need for helping the poor, see, among others, Bread For the World by Arthur Simon (Eerdmans or Paulist) and What Do You Say to a Hungry World? by W. Stanley Mooneyham of World Vision (Word).
Although the important book Contours of a Christian Philosophy: An Introduction to Herman Dooyeweerd’s Thought by L. Kalsbeek (Wedge) could be mentioned in a number of categories, Dooyeweerdism is probably having its greatest impact among North American Christians in the area of political and economic philosphy, especially through a number of organizations based in Toronto.
A major aspect of social relations is law, yet surprisingly little has been written from a Christian perspective on legal philosophy or ethics. A brief work that whets the appetite for more is The Law Above the Law by polymath John Warwick Montgomery (Bethany Fellowship). Christian lawyers, let us hear from you!
One has come to expect almost anything from Catholic priests. Polygamy Reconsidered by Eugene Hillman (Orbis) challenges historic Christian teaching especially with reference to African practice. Binding With Briars by Richard Ginder (Prentice-Hall) is by one who claims to be an orthodox Catholic and who edited a major periodical for his fellow priests for twenty-four years. However, on virtually all matters sexual he parts company with biblical teaching as customarily understood.
From another perspective, psychiatrist Charles Socarides, without appealing to dogma, finds much to fault in the current public alteration of longstanding sexual norms in Beyond Sexual Freedom (Quadrangle).
MEDICAL ETHICS This burgeoning field was highlighted by the publication of Bibliography of Bioethics: Volume One edited by LeRoy Walters (Gale Research Co.) with 800 entries for items that first appeared in one year, 1973. Publication is to be annual. Abortion and the Sanctity of Human Life: A Philosophical View by Baruch Brody (MIT Press) is probably the most significant recent contribution on that controversial topic. Paul Ramsey examines The Ethics of Fetal Research (Yale) and John Dedek gives a textbook overview of Contemporary Medical Ethics (Sheed and Ward).
WAR AND PEACE The extreme political activity of war always calls forth some books. From last year’s offerings consider War and Christian Ethics, a collection of readings covering the whole period of Christian history and even before, edited by Arthur Holmes (Baker); Perfect Love and War: A Dialogue on Christian Holiness and the Issues of War and Peace edited by Paul Hostetler (Evangel Press) and reflecting the differences on this question within the Holiness family; Peace: On Not Leaving It to the Pacifists edited by Gerald Pedersen (Fortress); and No King But Caesar? A Catholic Lawyer Looks at Christian Violence by William Durland (Herald Press).
BUSINESS ETHICS Recent revelations of wickedness in high corporate places should stir more examinations of this long neglected area. Not only top officials but low-level employees need to grapple with ethical and unethical decision (or their knowledge of them), and preachers and teachers have traditionally given very little help to Christians in business. For a starter see Ethics For Executives by Samuel Southard (Nelson).
CHRISTIANITY AND LITERATURE Some titles that not only theologians but also lovers of literature should know about are The Dark Interval: Towards a Theology of Story by John Dominic Crossan (Argus), The Drama of Salvation by Rosemary Haughton (Seabury), Narrative Elements and Religious Meaning by Wesley Kort (Fortress), Passion and the Passion: Sex and Religion in Modern Literature by Francis Kunkel (Westminster), Speaking in Parables by Sallie TeSelle (Fortress), and Religion as Story edited by James Wiggins (Harper & Row).
Slightly different is an analysis of the scripts (literature of a sort) of one of the most popular television shows, God, Man, and Archie Bunker by Spencer Marsh (Harper & Row).
CHRISTIANITY AND HISTORY Nine Christian historians, six of them professors at Calvin College, reflect on the Christian approach to history, both in theory and as it has been practiced, in a major collection of essays, A Christian View of History? edited by George Marsden and Frank Roberts (Eerdmans). Also, Bethany Fellowship has reprinted John Warwick Montgomery’s The Shape of the Past: A Christian Response to Secular Philosophies of History.
CHRISTIANITY AND PSYCHOLOGY The numerous books on practical aspects of psychological counseling at least implicitly deal with the theological issues of the relations and conflicts between the Bible and psychology. Two books by evangelicals that treat the question on a non-specialist level are Faith, Psychology, and Christian Maturity by Millard Sall (Zondervan) and Basic Principles of Biblical Counseling by Lawrence Crabb, Jr. (Zondervan). A different approach is used by Vernon Grant in a work reflecting upon religious issues from the perspective of a psychiatrist, The Roots of Religious Doubt and the Search for Security (Seabury).
CHRISTIANITY AND SCIENCE There is a sustained apologetic literature aimed at showing that prevailing theories regarding evolution do not adequately account for the facts of nature and that the Bible’s explanations, literally interpreted, are preferable. See for example Remember Thy Creator by C. Richard Culp (Baker), The Creation Explanation: A Scientific Alternative to Evolution (Harold Shaw), and The Troubled Waters of Evolution by Henry Morris (Creation-Life). Also, eight technical articles are collected by Donald Patten for A Symposium on Creation, Volume Five (Baker).
MODERN THEOLOGY There is a tendency to confuse the study of theology with the study of theologians and theological schools. God, his nature, his relations with man, and how we find out about him—that is what theology is about. However, an acquaintance with differing theological approaches can sometimes help one wrestling with the questions of theology for oneself.
An introductory overview of a dozen competing theologies (such as neo-orthodoxy, process, and hope) that commendably includes “conservative theology” as one of the live options, something rarely done in such surveys, is The Happy Science by Ralph Chambers (United Church Observer [85 St. Clair Ave. E., Toronto, Ont. M4T 1M8]). The author is a prominent United Church of Canada theologian.
René Marlé briefly surveys a number of contemporary theologies and finds they are too quick to cut off Christianity from its historical roots in Identifying Christianity (Abbey).
A variety of theologians (including KĂĽng, Teilhard, and Moltmann) speak for themselves in a collection of essays edited by Michael Ryan, The Contemporary Explosion of Theology (Scarecrow). Testimonies from a diverse group of religious thinkers (Georgia Harkness, Frederick Sontag, Helmut Thielicke, and others) were gathered by Claude Frazier for What Faith Has Meant to Me (Westminster).
Studies of prominent theologies include A Dissent on Bonhoeffer by David Hopper (Westminster), which claims he has been misunderstood; What Is Process Theology? by Robert Mellert (Paulist), on Whitehead and his influence; and Mounier and Maritain: A French Catholic Understanding of the Modern World by Joseph Amato (University of Alabama).
COLLECTIONS A number of religious thinkers were honored by publishers who thought selections from their previous writings worth compiling. Since we now have Theological Investigations: Volume XIII consisting of articles by Karl Rahner (Seabury), we can be thankful for A Rahner Reader edited by Gerald McCool (Seabury) with topically arranged selections from the multivolume collection and from separately published books as well.
Another leading Catholic theologian, Bernard Lonergan, now has A Second Collection (Westminster).
Other collections are The Restless Quest by Julian Hartt (Pilgrim Press), The Experiment Hope by JĂĽrgen Moltmann (Fortress), Canterbury Pilgrim by Michael Ramsey (Seabury), and Seeking a Faith For a New Age by Henry Nelson Weman (Sacrecrow).
PHILOSOPHICAL THEOLOGY Gone are the days when Protestants or secularists, whether traditional or innovative, could disregard Roman Catholic thought. It now shows considerable unpredictability. For theological libraries and for scholars interested in fundamental questions in the philosophy of religion and theology, the following volumes by Catholic thinkers are worth considering: Exercises in Religious Understanding by David Burrell (Notre Dame), The Winter Name of God by James Carroll (Sheed and Ward), A Processive World View For Pragmatic Christians by Joseph Culliton (Philosophical Library), Beyond the New Theism by Germain Grisez (Notre Dame), Darkness and Light: The Analysis of Doctrinal Statements by Garth Hallett (Paulist), Faith Under Scrutiny by Tibor Horvath (Fides), Understanding Religious Convictions by James McClendon, Jr., and James M. Smith (Notre Dame), The Way of the Word: The Beginning and Establishment of Christian Understanding by John Meagher (Seabury), Man Without Tears: Soundings for a Christian Anthropology by Christopher Mooney (Harper & Row), The Case Against Dogma by Gerald O’Collins (Paulist), Opportunities For Faith: Elements of a Modern Spirituality by Karl Rahner (Seabury), The Mystery of Man: An Anthropologic Study by Owen Sharkey (Franklin), and Blessed Rage For Order: The New Pluralism in Theology by David Tracy (Seabury). Meagher’s book will also be of special interest to New Testament scholars, since he examines the canonical writings to discern the beginnings of theologizing. The books by Grisez, McClendon and Smith, Rahner, and Tracy are also especially noteworthy.
Protestant (to use the word loosely) approaches to philosophical theology from the theological side include: The Foolishness of God by John Austin Baker (John Knox), Christ in a Pluralistic Age by John B. Cobb, Jr. (Westminster), Fantasy and the Human Spirit by John Charles Cooper (Seabury), Ecclesial Man: A Social Phenomenology of Faith and Reality by Edward Farley (Fortress), Mystery and Meaning: Personal Logic and the Language of Religion by Douglas Fox (Westminster), Ascending Flame, Descending Dove: An Essay on Creative Transcendence by Roger Hazelton (Westminster), To Speak of God by Urban Holmes, III (Seabury), The Search For God by Hans Schwarz (Augsburg), and Christ in Context: Divine Purpose and Human Possibility by Eugene TeSelle (Fortress).
From the more philosophical side of the philosophy of religion, the following books are worth noting, some of them by secularists: A Vast Bundle of Opportunities by Kenneth Barnes (Crane, Russak), Reason and Belief by Brand Blanshard (Yale), The Problem of Religious Language by M. J. Charlesworth (Prentice-Hall), The Logic of God: Theology and Verification edited by Malcolm Diamond and Thomas Litzenburg, Jr. (Bobbs-Merrril), Phenomenology and Religion by Henry Dumery (University of California), Truth and Method by Hans-Georg Gadamer (Seabury), Legitimation of Belief by Ernest Gellner (Cambridge), Meaning by Michael Polanyi and Harry Prosch (University of Chicago), and Logic and Transcendence by Frithjof Schuon (Harper & Row). Blanshard, Gadamer, Gellner, and Polanyi and Prosch are especially significant for Christian apologetics, both in raising questions and in suggesting, not always intentionally, ways in which the questions can be answered.
