The Basis For Belief
Subjectivity and Religious Belief, by C. Stephen Evans (Eerdmans, 225 pp., $5.95 pb), is reviewed by Robert C. Roberts, associate professor of philosophy and religion, Western Kentucky University, Bowling Green, Kentucky.
This is a clear and convincing examination of a certain kind of argument in favor of religious beliefs. Purely “theoretical” or “objective” arguments for religious faith build their case solely upon considerations like the logical character of such concepts as “cause” and “God,” the design which seems to be evident in the natural order, the difference between the physical and the mental, and the reliability of certain historical testimonies. “Subjective” justifications, by way of contrast, take into consideration human needs such as are generated when a person takes it upon himself to live a moral life, or to become human in a fully satisfying way.
Evans expounds in careful detail Kant’s, Kierkegaard’s, and William James’s subjective arguments for a religious understanding of the universe. He then compares and evaluates these arguments. While recognizing some significant differences between these thinkers, Evans discerns a structure common to their defenses of religious belief.
The first step is to establish, by an examination of theoretical arguments such as the traditional proofs of God’s existence, that though we cannot hereby have knowledge that God exists, the assertion that he exists is plausible. Kant shows that the traditional proofs will not work, yet he acknowledges that they reflect natural ways of thinking, and even ones that are inevitable for rational beings like ourselves. A little-recognized fact about Kierkegaard is that although he thinks the traditional proofs commit the fallacy of begging the question, he holds that there is an innate, nontheoretical knowledge of God hidden in the bosom of every person. James finds the indisputably salutary effects of many religious conversions to be evidence in favor of a religious world view, while admitting that these data will bear other nontheological interpretations.
The second step is to show that the question about God’s existence or about the identity of Jesus is one about which it is not reasonable for us to remain neutral, because of “subjective” considerations. Kant argues, for example, that the moral life does not ultimately make sense unless we believe in God. Kierkegaard gives a kind of psychological argument that the project of becoming religious (which is necessary if we are to become fully human) runs into an inescapable snag if we do not accept the grace of God in Jesus Christ. James argues that our having a “unified self” and a moral interpretation of the universe depends on the belief in God. Thus all three of these thinkers, according to Evans, conclude that since the religious beliefs in question are not unreasonable on theoretical grounds, and since we are, in practical ways, better off if we believe them, then it is positively reasonable to believe them.
For those of us who find the arguments of natural theology suggestive but far from satisfying, and yet insist that if religious belief is to be reasonable we must be able to give some kinds of grounds for preferring it to its alternatives, the kinds of arguments that Evans examines here are very attractive. His book also has the virtue of heading off some standard misinterpretations of the philosophers under examination: that Kant was a destroyer of religion and that Kierkegaard and James advocate that we abandon reasonableness and the concern for truth. The book is written about as simply as it could be, given its subject matter. It should be of considerable interest to anyone occupied with apologetics or the relation of faith and reason.
Meet A Good Writer
Walker Percy: An American Search, by Robert Coles (Little, Brown, 250 pp., $12.95), is reviewed by Alan Beasley, pastor, Lincoln Park Presbyterian Church, San Francisco, California.
The first thing to know about Walker Percy, if he is new to you, is that he writes very interesting novels. When I read Percy’s first novel, The Moviegoer (published in 1961), the sheer delight of it made me run out and get The Last Gentleman (1966), then later Love in the Ruins (1971), and finally Lancelot (1977). Walker Percy has many valuable things to say, but what made me go to him and listen were the humor, the excellent writing, the characters that were as real as the people I see every day, and the settings that seemed genuine whether he was writing about his native South, or about New York, Chicago, or Santa Fe.
The next thing to know about him is that he is a believer. In this excellent book, Robert Coles quotes him as saying, “I am a Christian, and I don’t think anything I write is unrelated to that fact.” This is worth emphasizing because Percy’s faith is a large factor in his novels—in my opinion even larger than Coles, who is himself a Christian. He holds that the biggest contribution to Percy’s thinking comes from the insights of the existentialists. It is true that Percy has been doing rigorous and systematic reading in philosophy, particularly existentialism, for almost 40 years and that his purpose in starting to write novels was to express more concretely what he had learned. Yet Coles’s own analysis seems to show that it is Kierkegaard and especially Marcel to whom Percy is closest and in my opinion, what they are really talking about is Christian salvation. Frederick Copleston says in his Contemporary Philosophy, “… Marcel is concerned … to show how one ‘becomes’ a person by transcending one’s self-enclosedness in love for other persons and in the free acceptance of a personal relationship to God.” I think this very sentence could also serve as a summary of Percy’s concern, and given a goal like that, the faith of neither of them should be seen as subordinate to their philosophy.
It seems to me that Percy has chosen very well in what he has appropriated from the existentialists. I am not knowledgeable enough to say that he has taken their best ideas for his own use, but he has at least avoided the worst of them. In spite of the benefit he has derived from Kierkegaard, for instance, he has refused to go to the extreme with him on his idea of “truth as subjectivity” and the unfortunate belief that faith has nothing to do with knowledge. In Philosophical Fragments, Kierkegaard, applying this idea to the Incarnation, says, “No knowledge can have for its object the absurdity that the eternal is the historical.” Percy’s response to this, as Coles summarizes it, is that “the very use of the word absurd on Kierkegaard’s part was a needless bow to the Hegelian, or in our time, the ‘scientific’ view of things.” One of the fruits of Percy’s extensive background in the natural sciences and the various branches of philosophy is a good, sane view of both the value and the limitations of reason.
Moving back to the novels for a moment, I must issue a warning about Lancelot, lest someone, reading it unprepared, conclude that I have gone crazy for recommending Percy at all. This is the only novel of his that offended me; I think most of us “straight” Christians would be disturbed by the vile language and the truly repugnant ideas that Lance expresses. At his worst, this character sounds like nothing quite so much as a combination of Nietzche, Henry Miller, and a Southern version of John Brown warming up for Harpers Ferry. This is made all the more unnerving by Percy’s tendency in each of his novels to make us love the main character. That is fine in a book like The Last Gentleman because the protagonist, Will Barrett, is lovable; but it is rather disconcerting in Lancelot because Lance deserves to be hanged. The fact that Percy doesn’t keep the proper distance from this multiple murderer means that our horror at Lance carries over into doubt about the novelist. If, however, you read the novels in the order in which they were written, you will probably give Percy the trust he deserves. You will be more likely to read the novel all the way through and thus understand what he is really getting at.
Coles’s book consists mainly of three sections: (1) a 50-page introduction to the thinkers that have influenced Percy; (2) 85 pages of biographical material, combined with a running exposition of the most important of his philosophical essays; and (3) 100 pages of commentary on the novels.
Robert Coles obviously feels a debt of gratitude to Percy. He indicates many times that he has not only been entertained and instructed by him, but he has been edified as well. I would say the same thing, and I think many of you who read him will also.
The Bible On The Church
What the Church Is All About, by Earl Radmacher (Moody, 441 pp., $5.95 pb), is reviewed by Frederic Howe, assistant professor of systematic theology, Dallas Theological Seminary, Dallas, Texas.
Church renewal continues to challenge American evangelical Christians, and a solid theological basis is imperative in the search for biblical vitality and integrity in church life. Unfortunately, some of the appeals made for renewal shift the basis of this search for reality away from the truth of Scripture to the test of experiential response. The president of Western Conservative Baptist Seminary gives readers of this work a strong foundation upon which to build the structure of vital church life. This book is a revision of an earlier work, The Nature of the Church.
Approaching the subject matter in the classical manner of thorough research in primary source documents, Radmacher develops first the history of the doctrine of the church. Actually, the book is an entire theological study in the realm of ecclesiology, and the historical foundation laid, grounded as it is upon these primary source materials, provides a valuable study tool. Historical backgrounds of church life are traced from the patristic period through American Christianity in the post-World War II era. The groundwork is laid here for one of Radmacher’s major emphases: a careful and discerning correlation between the universal church and the local church.
He next traces the biblical data, giving as foundational an exhaustive study of the usage of the term ekklẽsia in secular and biblical literature. This segment of the work offers a corrective to lexical studies that oversimplify the dynamic concepts involved in the term. Radmacher concludes his linguistic studies with this idea: the term ekklẽsia stressed a physical meeting, an entity thriving in and of itself for any purpose. The word had largely lost its connection with the formal Greek assembly of free citizens by the time the New Testament writers used it, and it simply meant meeting or assembly. The New Testament writers used the word to reveal the massive truth of a new people of God, called into being through his sovereign grace, and united around the person of Christ. The word is shown to have an important strand of usages that are clearly metaphorical.
The reader is offered detailed study in the figures of speech that are used in the Bible to define and clarify the life of the church. Such figures as the body, bride, building, priesthood, flock, and vine are studied thoroughly and biblically. It is at this point that the author makes his vital contribution to contemporary church renewal efforts. Any revitalization must be closely built upon the outworking of the dynamic truths of these biblical figures in the crucible of church life on a daily basis.
In sum, the author attempts to show a close correlation between the universal and local aspects of the church and appeals for a biblical model of vibrant church life stressing growing maturity, involvement, and outreach on the part of the members. This is what church renewal seems to be all about.
The Great State Of Lewisiana
There has been an explosion of literature on C.S. Lewis and his friends recently. Some of these titles have been or will be more fully reviewed in these pages, but others can only be mentioned briefly. The Taste for the Other by Gilbert Meilaender (Eerdmans), and C.S. Lewis on Scripture by Michael Christensen (Word), look competently at what Lewis thought of society and ethics, the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Scriptures.
Images of Salvation in the Fiction of C.S. Lewis by Clyde Kilby (Harold Shaw) is a helpful summary of the seven Narnia tales plus seven other works of fiction. The Longing for a Form, edited by Peter Schakel (Baker), and Shadows of Imagination, edited by Mark Hillegas (Southern Illinois University), are reprints of collections of scholarly essays on Lewis’s fiction. The latter volume also looks at Tolkien and Williams and adds an essay on The Silmarillion to the original 1969 edition.
A collective biography of Lewis, Tolkien, Williams, and close friends is The Inklings by Humphrey Carpenter (Houghton Mifflin). One of the Inklings is the subject of 14 memorial essays edited by Mary Salu and Robert Farrell: J.R.R. Tolkien: Scholar and Storyteller (Cornell).
Another of Lewis’s friends was a famous writer of detective fiction, Christian apologetics, and much else, Dorothy Sayers. She has not been as seriously studied as has been warranted, but that is beginning to change. A Bibliography of the Works of Dorothy L. Sayers by Colleen Gilbert (Archon) is a carefully done, thorough compilation. Dorothy L. Sayers: A Literary Biography by Ralph Hone (Kent State University) relates her writings both to her private and public lives. As Her Whimsey Took Her, edited by Margaret Hannay (Kent State University), contains 15 scholarly essays that examine her writings themselves with special emphasis on religious themes. The book also contains a detailed list of her manuscripts and letters that are accessible in the United States, the largest portion being at Wheaton College. Sayers’s 1941 classic, The Mind of the Maker, was recently published in paperback from Harper & Row.
But interest in his friends has not diverted attention from Lewis. Indeed, 22 of the less well-known friends have contributed to a most interesting volume, C. S. Lewis at the Breakfast Table and Other Reminiscences, edited by James Como (Macmillan). Titles of some of the chapters: “Orator,” “A Chance Meeting,” and “Jack on Holiday.” Also a welcome inclusion: a needed updating by Walter Hooper of his bibliography of Lewis’s writings. Also from Macmillan comes They Stand Together, edited by Walter Hooper, a collection of 50 years of letters (1914–1963) from C. S. Lewis to Arthur Greeves. These letters are a major addition to our knowledge of Lewis’s life and thought.
In 1949 Chad Walsh wrote the first book on Lewis. Thirty years later we have from his pen The Literary Legacy of C. S. Lewis (Harcourt Brace Jovanovich), a major evaluation, particularly from the aesthetic dimension.
It is likely that most of the rising and future generations will be introduced to Lewis through seven stories about a certain country. Martha Sammons gives us A Guide Through Narnia (Harold Shaw). The geography, history, government, and characters of the land are presented as well as the key concepts of the tales and an index of names from Narnia. Much of this ground is also covered in Past Watchful Dragons by Walter Hooper (Macmillan). Soon Narnia will issue postage stamps and be admitted to the U.N. Meanwhile, the American reader can marvel in the addition to our union of the state of Lewisiana.
DONALD TINDER
The Chicago Call To Evangelicals
The Orthodox Evangelicals, edited by Robert Webber and Donald Bloesch (Nelson, 239 pp., $4.95 pb), is reviewed by Charles Twombly, teacher of language arts, Tennille School, Tennille, Georgia.
The burden of the heralded “Chicago Call” (see issues of June 3, 1977, and June 17, 1977) was to remind evangelicalism of the glories of its own past and to point it toward the best features of the wider Christian tradition, past and present. The appeal was based on the conviction that evangelicalism has largely lost its sense of history and, in so doing, has sacrificed much of its former fullness and depth.
The thinking underlying the “Call” is already beginning to bear fruit. The Call’s chairman, Robert Webber, led the way with his Common Roots: A Call to Evangelical Maturity (Zondervan). Now, he has joined forces with Donald Bloesch and ten other contributors to give an expanded discussion of each major item in the Call’s agenda.
Webber introduces the symposium with an interesting account of how the Chicago gathering came about. He also gives some insightful reflections on his own theological evolution from a rather ahistorical evangelicalism to one grounded in the enduring central heritage of the church. One guesses similar stories could be repeated by many of the participants.
The next eight essayists address themselves specifically to the contents of the Call. Richard Lovelace’s discussion of historical roots and continuity abounds in incisive insights into the forces at work in Christian history. Several fresh lines of investigation are suggested here. A more conventional, though characteristically lucid, discussion of biblical authority is provided by Roger Nicole. Many good things are said, but a deeper probe into how the perspicuity of Scripture relates to the divergencies of interpretation embodied in various theological traditions would have been helpful. Some assistance in this direction is offered by Morris Inch in his remarks on creeds and confessions. He recognizes the limitations of confessional statements, but makes a compelling case for their necessity. The issue of whether some creeds, such as the Nicene, might have a claim to be normative, isn’t raised.
Much theological wisdom is to be found in Lane Dennis’s analysis of holistic salvation. I was temporarily put off by “holistic,” an overused catchword often hung on newer platitudes. What Dennis gives, however, is anything but platitudinous. Along with insightfully relating the spiritual and temporal in the realm of salvation, he sketches a brilliant picture of the impact of the dualistic tendency in Western thought on theology. Thomas Howard carries this thinking forward into the area of sacramental integrity. The sensitivity and literary power of his essay set it apart artistically from the other contributions. Also to be set apart is Jon Braun’s ringing appeal for biblical standards in the exercise of church authority. The sermonic tone puts it in quite a different key from the more academic approach of the others.
Donald Bloesch views the issue of spirituality with his accustomed penetration. Classical Protestant models, drawn from the Reformers, Puritanism, and Pietism, provide his main inspiration; but he values the “evangelical” tendencies of many others outside Protestantism, and points the way to an evangelical catholic spirituality strongly grounded in the key doctrines of the Reformation. His appreciation of the Christian past is shared by F. Burton Nelson, who traces the efforts of Protestants, from the Reformation onwards, to achieve real church unity. Nelson exposes some of the areas where reorientation of evangelical thinking is most drastically called for.
Two essays reacting to the Call and an annotated bibliography conclude the book. David Wells was a participant at the meeting but was left with serious reservations about its worth. Unfortunately, his remarks are not directed toward the contributions in this volume. As for the Call itself and the discussion that surrounded it, Wells was dissatisfied with the positions taken on Scripture, the sacraments, and salvation. Space doesn’t permit elaboration, but, in one way or another, views derived from Roman Catholic, Anglo-Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, and Liberation theology were felt to have been given too much credence. Wells has some telling criticisms, but I think this volume goes a long way toward answering his objections. His own views might be open to some criticism as well. His understanding of salvation, for instance, seems to fall prey to the very dualism that Dennis capably shows to be alien to the biblical view.
Benedict Viviano, a Dominican, responds as an “evangelical” Roman Catholic. He has tremendous regard for the Protestant emphasis on the proclamation of the Word and evident enthusiasm for joining hands with evangelicals approaching from the opposite end of the Word and sacrament poles. His grasp of the dynamics of both contemporary evangelicalism and his own communion holds a lot of promise.
Jan Dennis ends the book with a bibliography which will provide some helpful leads. One would hope that the various contributors to The Orthodox Evangelicals will continue to add to their own contributions found in that list.
Help For Youth Workers
Youth Education in the Church, edited by Roy B. Zuck and Warren S. Benson (Moody, 478 pp., $9.95), is reviewed by Greg Hullinger, pastor, Blueball Congregational Christian Church, Walton, Indiana.
Recognizing the great potential of youth today, yet keenly aware of the growing seriousness of the needs and problems young people face, over 30 leaders in the field of Christian education have contributed from their respective areas of specialty to produce this major resource work for youth leaders and other church workers.
The authors, “chosen because of their direct involvement and experience with youth,” are well known to the evangelical community. Lawrence O. Richards, Rex E. Johnson, David M. Howard, Gary Collins, H. Norman Wright, Jay Kesler, and Kenneth Gangel are included. This is actually the second edition of this helpful book. As the editors say of the first edition: “The world of youth has changed dramatically since that volume was published in 1968.” Even those who already have the first edition should obtain the second.
I especially appreciate the book’s emphasizing that the “major thrust of youth ministry should not be on problem solving but on helping youth to become aware of the possibilities found in a relationship with Jesus Christ.” This tone is set toward the beginning in Kenneth Gangel’s article where he declares that “an adequate program of youth work in the church must be based on a solid foundation of biblical theology.” Gangel rightly affirms that a church can have the best men, equipment, and materials but little of lasting value will result if the entire operation is not based on the Word of God.
The book has 33 chapters, only 10 of them essentially the same as in the first edition. Virtually every aspect of youth work is covered. There is bound to be some overlap, but generally the chapters complement one another. The first third of the book provides the perspective for youth education and the contemporary world of adolescence, while the remainder presents youth involvement in the local church and beyond as well as methods and materials for working with youth.
Several chapters I found especially helpful. Let me mention just a few. In “Objectives and Standards of Youth Work,” William M. Pinson, Jr., and Edwin J. Potts reveal their evangelical base in the statement that the primary challenge of youth leaders is “to lead youth to Christ for salvation and then into responsible spiritual maturity.” Warren Benson, in “Discipling of Youth,” gives nine helpful guidelines for the process of making disciples. Mark Senter, in an excellent chapter on “youth programs,” presents six models and makes the important point that “the needs of the young people must be adequately determined before any attempt is made to change a youth ministry.” He notes the key is people, not programs. Helpful materials on preparing youth for marriage can be found in H. Norman Wright’s chapter. He gives six resources designed to prepare youth for marriage. The final chapter, “Working with Parents of Youth,” stresses the concept that the youth worker is a bridge between parents and their teens. This chapter provides good material for parents and youth workers to read and discuss together.
The book is not without its shortcomings. Some chapters fall short of the high quality of others by rambling and providing little help for workers. According to the editors, this volume is designed to be for all youth leaders. However, the content of many of the chapters in the first third of the book seem to be geared only for the youth worker with special training.
PERIODICALS
Occasional Papers of the American Society for Reformation Research has been launched to provide another, much needed, outlet for scholarly articles in that field. The first issue appeared last year and contains 13 articles in its 204 pp. It is available for $9.50 from the Center for Reformation Research, 6477 San Bonita Ave., St. Louis, MO 63105.
Bulletin of the Evangelical Philosophical Society was launched late last year by an affiliate of the Evangelical Theological Society. The initial issue contains an article on Wittgenstein and inerrancy by William Young and a lengthy review by Norman Geisler of Stephen Davis’s book, The Debate about the Bible. Bible college and seminary libraries should be sure to subscribe. $4/year (2 issues). Stephen Clinton, International Christian Graduate University, San Bernardino, CA 92414.
