Norway

The Evangelical-Lutheran Church is the national Church of Norway, is administered by the State’s Church department, and represents some 96 per cent (3.6 million) Norwegians. The remainder include 30,000 Pentecostalists, 17,000 Free Church Lutherans, 12, 000 Methodists, 9,000 Baptists, and 5,000 Roman Catholics. Most of the dissenters sprang originally from Reformed groups in the United States or in Great Britain.

For generations there have always been some convinced nonbelievers in the State Church, and during the last decade a few skeptical intellectuals of the older age group have demonstratively left the Church in favor of a bare “human ethical way of life.” Many talented young students, on the other hand, are showing great interest in the thorny problems of human thought and life, and not a few are eagerly seeking religious solutions. Most notable in the last 40 years is the great expansion of Studentlaget (Christian Student Association) which has won a dominating influence in academic circles. Its marked emphasis on the preaching of the Gospel has resulted in college and university students becoming warm adherents to the Christian faith and to evangelical Lutheran confession. This student work is now associated with the Inter-Varsity Fellowship.

The life, activities and opinion of Norwegian Church members are usually assumed to be very individualistic compared with those in Sweden and Denmark, and criticism has arisen from their unwillingness to cooperate if their Christian conviction argues against it. Certainly internal theological controversy has been more of a burning issue in the Church of Norway than in most other parts of the evangelical world. Large numbers of church people were involved in these periodically blazing battles fought out in journals and newspapers. As a result of controversies at the beginning of this century the Independent Faculty of Theology (Det teologiske Menighetsfakudtet) in Oslo came into existence in 1908. After it gained university status, this faculty became responsible for training a majority of the Norwegian clergy (the figure over the past few years is estimated at 80 per cent).

Christian activity has clearly increased in Norway over the last half century during which it has been found necessary to increase the number of dioceses from six to nine. Most significant, however, is the growing concern in the ranks of the free Christian organizations for missionary ends; the great and comprehensive work of these organizations is a characteristic trait of Christian life in Norway. All of them are wholly independent of the state church, and all are motivated by the firm resolve of pastors and people alike to live and act wholly for the Gospel of Jesus Christ. One result of this has been that missionary organizations, with their 850 missionaries throughout the world, have all enlarged their incomes and added to their commitments in an almost sensational way. Yearly contributions to missionary work, which amounted to rather less than two million kroner in 1911, now amount to more than 20 million kroner (about $2,800,000).

Within the ordinary working groups of the Church a new spirit of initiative has appeared, inspired to some extent by the encouraging example of the stewardship-adjustment in the evangelical churches of the United States. Conspicuous representatives of this new movement are the Institute of Christian Education (Instituttet for Kristen oppseding, IKO), the Institute of Congregational and Parish Work (Menighetsinstituttet), and the Egede Institute of Missionary Study and Research (Oslo).

JOHN NOME

[John Nome is Professor of Systematic Theology and Dean of the Free Faculty at Oslo.]

Sweden

Toward the end of the nineteenth century a radical view of life based on materialistic and socialistic foundations became more and more common in Sweden. In 1882 Uppsala University students founded a society to work for a “modern” outlook on life; early Laborites, influenced by Marx, had generally a critical or hostile attitude to the Church; in literature and among the intelligentsia there were increasing signs of a negative or indifferent attitude to Christianity. Such a view was justified by reference to the advance and implications of scientific discoveries.

The Swedish Church (Evangelical-Lutheran) about the turn of the century was weakened also by sectarian separatism, but then there appeared a series of church leaders who succeeded in rekindling the dying enthusiasm. One of these was Archbishop Nathan Söderblom, whose great passion was the ecumenical movement. In 1925 his efforts were rewarded with the opening in Stockholm of the “Ecumenical Conference on Life and Work” attended by representatives from most Protestant and Greek Orthodox bodies. (It must be added, however, that in 1962 only the national church and the Mission Covenant Church among Swedish bodies are members of the WCC.)

The liberal theology which at the end of last century gained ground at Uppsala allied itself to the Young Church Movement, and thus acquired a stronger influence within the Church, but from the 1920’s there can be traced an organized opposition to modern biblical criticism, originating from “low-church” and “old-church” circles. Here the Evangelical National Missionary Society, a body formed in 1856 by Lutheran groups loyal to the Church of Sweden, took the lead. In addition, there has arisen, chiefly influenced by the Anglican Church, a high-church movement which since the 1940’s has spread to many clergymen and divinity students. These attach great importance to the external form of divine worship: robes, the sign of the cross, genuflection, and so on.

In Sweden the Freedom of Religion Law (1951) makes it possible for anyone to leave the Church without becoming a member of another religious body, but only about 30,000 persons (less than 0.5 per cent of the population) have taken advantage of this. The latest statistics show that 85.52 per cent of children are baptized in the Church, and 86.65 per cent are confirmed. Of marriages, 91.35 per cent are solemnized by a church ceremony; of burials, 96.11 per cent are church-performed. National church members total over 95 per cent of Swedes.

These figures alone do not measure the intensity of religious life, but they evidence the strong grip which the church has on the life of the nation. The most important Free churches are: Swedish Baptist (32, 000), Methodist (11,000), Mission Covenant (96, 000), Salvation Army (41,000), and Pentecostal (92, 000).

In spite of all secularization the kingdom of God is steadily developing. The high standard of life is not enough to satisfy the soul’s yearning for eternal truths. To some extent the young generations appears to have lost all contact with the Christian faith and Christian norms, but at the same time it is obvious that just here there is an unquenchable thirst for spiritual values. The Gospel still shows that it is the “power of God unto salvation.” The irresistible power of the love of Christ appears particularly in the strong interest of Swedish Christians in the propagation of the Gospel in many missionary fields, and in the extensive and specialist work maintained in the so-called underdeveloped countries.

NILS RODEN

[Nils Rodén is lector at the Secondary School of Västervik. Sweden. An ordained minister in the Church of Sweden, he received the Th.D. degree in 1941.]

Denmark

Fifty years ago the spiritual life of Denmark was characterized by a certain calm. True, the development towards secularization was under way, and people were led both by their optimistic faith in civilization and by their confidence in a “good, safe world” to conclude that they could do without God. The atheism of Georg Brandes was affecting many of the intellectuals. Yet the population for the most part wished to retain the externals of traditional Christianity, and worried little about what the minister had to say. In the churches by and large a true Gospel was being preached, but there, too, optimism was becoming noticeable: nobody was being made to feel uncomfortable! This imperturbable, superficial attitude to the grave questions of damnation and eternal salvation was naturally a cause of constant concern to true believers. “Watchman’s cries” of warning came particularly from groups such as the Home Mission and Lutheran Mission, but they were little heeded outside their own circles.

Then the First World War dealt a grave blow to men’s trust in civilization, and a definite, albeit only temporary, improvement was evident. But post-war prosperity brought a desire to enjoy life without any restraints from tradition or Church. This is where a true, powerful word of God was needed, but at this very time liberalism began to exercise its crippling effect by usurping the university teaching posts. Believing parents could not but be greatly concerned when their children chose to read theology; and soon young priests and teachers were bringing the poison of liberalism out to the people as well. Barth’s theology brought an improvement, but the situation is still far from satisfactory. Perhaps today nobody wants to be labeled “liberal,” but generally speaking the Divine authority of the Bible is not recognized.

Also as a result of the development of the last 20–30 years the so-called “pietistic” circles, i.e., those who have joined themselves together in groups such as the Home Mission, the “Grundtvigians” (followers of the evangelical Bishop Grundtvig) and the Lutheran Mission, are despised as being behind the times, philistine and pharisaical. Harshest in its criticism is the thirty-year-old “New Era” movement. Many young theologians are counted among its adherents, and it exercises a regrettable influence under the leadership of Professor Lindhardt of Aarhus. Lindhardt calls any form of piety pharisaical subjectivism, and undermines trust in the Bible in such a shameless fashion that one wonders that he still desires to remain a minister in the Danish Church.

Thus the battle for the truth in Denmark has increased in intensity. The Lutheran Church still comprises 95 per cent of the population, but her teaching is far removed from the confessions of faith of her Reformers. But God has preserved a remnant of true believers, and recently even increased its numbers among students also, grounding it still more firmly on the heritage of the Lutheran confession.

O. BÖRLÖS JENSEN

[O. B. Jensen is a teacher in Holte, on the Danish island of Sjaelland.]

Finland

Last year a poll on religious views was taken at the Military Academy for Reserve Officers at Hamina in Finland. Only 7.4 per cent of the men answered “no” to the question, Do you believe in the forgiveness of sins through Jesus Christ? In Finland by government order four days are set aside each year for national prayer, on which occasions all public entertainments are forbidden. This would suggest an essentially religious country.

In a population of just under 4½ million, about 94 per cent belong to the Evangelical Lutheran Church, 1.7 per cent to the Orthodox Church, while no other church has more than 8,000 members. Finland’s turbulent history and intense nationalism are such that people and church are virtually inseparable. Thus the birth of Finnish literature stemmed from the Reformation; and those pietistic revivalist movements, which in other countries broke away from the church, did not do so in Finland, and remain the real characteristic of the indigenous church there. Though persecuted as recently as last century, the pietistic movement is found today in many key ecclesiastical posts, and its summer conferences attract large numbers. The movement is not obscurantist, and its main emphasis is on the claims of Jesus Christ and the necessity for decision.

During the first half of this century some social groups became estranged from Christianity, but recently there has been a sharp drop in the number of critics (apart from those on the extreme left) belonging to the educated classes. Church attendance is naturally highest where revivalist movements are strongest, but the church is continually seeking new ways of taking the old Gospel to those who are farthest away from it.

A characteristic feature of Finnish Christianity is its stress on personal spiritual experience, explicable in terms not only of pietism, but of the introspective, meditative nature of the people. Like other Western churches the Church of Finland is challenged by industrialization and urbanization, bringing a sense of boredom and life futility. Ties with the West are close, and American Lutheran churches and American Friends after World War II gave much appreciated assistance toward the reconstruction of war-destroyed churches and rectories in Northern Finland. Finnish Christians are eagerly looking forward to the summer of 1963 when they will be hosts to the Fourth Assembly of the Lutheran World Federation, the theme of which is CHRIST TODAY.

J. D. DOUGLAS

[The report on Finland was compiled by CHRISTIANITY TODAY’S British Editorial Director, who has spent an extended summer in Northern Finland.]

One of the chief characteristics of the ancient world, according to Edwyn Bevan, was fear—fear of life, but even more of death. To bring deliverance from that bondage, Christ came in the fullness of time with the universal Gospel. His teaching cut right across vested interests. To the Roman Empire, with its pagan rites, its protecting gods, and its emperor cult, Christianity was both a crime and an enigma. It demanded absolute and exclusive obedience, disregarded ties of blood and race and class, regarded all conflicting loyalties as human devices to lure men away from divine ends, and looked for the imminent coming of the Kingdom of God in great glory.

Yet, incred`ibly, it prospered. Christians spread to every Roman province, and by A.D. 110 Ignatius referred to bishops settled in the ends of the known world. By the end of the second century we hear of martyrdoms in various parts of Europe (Gaul, Lyons, Vienne), and of churches in Germany and elsewhere. Speaking only of Europe, Harnack estimates that at the outbreak of the Diocletian persecution in 303 the Christian population accounted for a considerable minority in Rome and Lower Italy, Spain, Greece and Southern Gaul; for a small and scattered minority in Northern Italy; and for a negligible number in Northern Gaul, Germany and Belgium. Diocletian saw Christianity as a threat, and persecuted it. Constantine, wiser in his generation, embraced it as a potential prop for his empire. Such official sanction proved to be no unmixed blessing.

With paganism absorbed rather than destroyed, Christianity was no longer criminal, but fashionable. Apostolic simplicity and missionary persuasion were replaced by official grandeur and compulsion. Heresy became a capital offense.

Now that Christ and Caesar had come to terms, Constantine tried to impose a unity of creed and practice, and Christianity was made to some degree the justification for imperial tyranny and divine right. Orthodoxy came to be the chief mark of the Church; deviationism or individual searching after the truth was banned. Where the Empire had begun by officially permitting its subjects to be Christian, it later required them to be such.

The Empire acquired a dualistic character. Constantine’s continual interventions in ecclesiastical questions posed the perennial and still unsolved problem of the true relation between the Christian Church and the ostensibly Christian state. One unhappy outcome of this was that the best Christian minds, convinced that the Church existed not to reform the Empire but to save souls, washed their hands of public life, and many of them embraced the monastic way, leaving in the hands of career diplomats the government of an imperfectly converted Empire in which politics and religion were increasingly intermingled.

The Dark Ages

A new danger threatened when the Empire’s resistance to the barbarian hordes from the East finally crumbled. In the fifth century the Goths sacked the Eternal City; Visigoths established themselves in Southern Gaul and Spain; Franks in Northern Gaul and on the banks of the Rhine; Lombards in Northern Italy. Though Christianity had some effect on the invaders, the so-called Apostle of the Goths, Ulphilas, displayed Arian tendencies, and these were conveyed by his followers to Italy, Spain and Africa. A particularly diluted form of Christianity filtered through to the Franks.

During this time North Africa was lost to the Christian cause (and has never been won back), and Spain became for centuries an Islamic stronghold—and heir, it may be added, to the unique learning and science of the Arab world from which Western Europe has immeasurably benefited. Despite setbacks, orthodox Christians throughout the Dark Ages strove for the conversion of the heathen peoples, for a high standard of personal holiness (generally in terms of monasticism), and for freedom from secular interference in ecclesiastical matters.

Movements And Reforms

In the eleventh century a significant trend was seen in the attempt by Gregory VII (Hildebrand) to divert power from the Emperor to the Pope—in which policy he was partially successful, but only partially, for later in the century Urban VI saw the necessity for recouping the flagging fortunes of the Papacy. On the principle that nothing unites men so much as a common antagonism, he launched the Crusades. “The Welshman left his hunting; the Scot his fellowship with lice; the Dane his drinking party; the Norwegian his raw fish.” The idea of the Holy War caught the European imagination, and whole cities migrated, “hungering and thirsting only after Jerusalem.” It was a magnificent failure which both enhanced and corrupted the Papacy. It began with the Christian invasion of the Holy Land; it ended with the Ottoman Turk empire established along the shores of the Danube.

The Papacy survived a period of internal dissension and emerged triumphant over conciliar attempts to limit its power, only to encounter its greatest ordeal of all time. The Reformation was nothing less than a revolution—from works to faith, from tradition to scripture, from a whole system of intermediaries and sacerdotalism to the universal priesthood of believers. It was, in fact, a rediscovery of the true nature of the Gospel which split both Germany and Switzerland in two, completely captured England, Scotland and the Scandinavian countries, and created sizeable minorities in countries once considered immovably Catholic. In other lands, however, it made little or no impression, and merely served to effect a closing of the Catholic ranks, notably in Spain where Protestants now constitute only a tiny minority.

Post Reformation Europe

Reaction set in, so that by the eighteenth century in Luther’s Germany the deficiencies of Pietism, which deprecated reason and even common sense, contributed to a rationalism which in deistic trappings came from England.

The latter imported also to France a brand of rationalism which led to the French Revolution. The interests of monarchy and Church were identified, and Diderot fairly reflected the current philosophy when he said that the world’s salvation would come only when the last king was strangled with the entrails of the last priest.

In Italy, home of the Vatican, we see during this period an increasing secularism unparalleled in any other country in Western Europe, and soon to make it a fruitful breeding-ground for a godless philosophy which during the latter nineteenth century was being planned by Marx and Engels in Christian England.

Yet, paradoxically, the Vatican which for centuries had looked beyond the Italian States and across the Alps to Germany for support (a fact fraught with historical significance) not only maintained but consolidated its power. Pius IX (d. 1878) offset the loss of some temporal possessions by assuming autocratic powers, particularly in the dogma of Papal infallibility, which would have impressed even Hildebrand or Boniface VIII, and which resulted in the Old Catholic schism and the Kulturkampf in Germany.

The nineteenth century closed with Protestants and Roman Catholics moving further away from each other, despite the efforts of Pius’ enlightened successor, Leo XIII, and with church-state relations in precarious plight in Italy and France.

In nineteen centuries Christianity had come a long way. In the process the message had become blurred in parts—but the vested interests which opposed it were oddly unchanged.

In this issue CHRISTIANITY TODAY deals particularly with the Christian Church in countries of Western Europe, but there is universal significance in their problems and needs, their temptations and triumphs. Many of these on close examination are found to center around that relationship between church and state which Leopold von Ranke called the content of history. The period covered in the following articles is roughly the last 50 years, a period which has seen two world wars and unparalleled changes on the map of Europe.

Benito Mussolini called this the century of the State; Otto Dibelius calls it the century of the Church. It is an age in which newly-discovered wonders bear eloquent testimony to the Infinite Workman who fashioned it all “in the beginning,” yet one in which men’s imaginations have been fixed on godless ideologies. It is an age in which people need security so desperately that they have committed their destinies to strong-arm men; yet an age in which a famous Swiss theologian repudiates “that false certainty of faith which knows God’s Will in every condition of life as accurately as if man, Bible in hand, had sat with Him in the heavenly councils.” It is an age in which many people no longer ask “Is Christianity true?,” but rather “What is Christianity?” During this half-century the worldly wisdom which whispers compromise with a materially successful state has often prevailed in a church which should have known its history better: between Tertullian’s resolve to have no truck with “black error” and the futile concordats of Pius XI is a gulf immeasurably greater than eighteen centuries.

Oswald Spengler forty years ago in The Decline of the West predicted the triumph of the secular state. The wheel would then have gone full circle back to the Roman Empire, days when men were mortally afraid of the unknown, before Christ came. Who knows but that the universal fear abroad in the world today is the harbinger of his return.

It is, i think, worthy of remark that meetings between the pope and the heads of Protestant churches are always the result of a one-way traffic, for this fact is symptomatic of the shape of things to come should reunion with Rome ever become a reality. The pope sits in the Vatican and waits for others to make their way to him: so too in the wider sphere of the ecumenical movement Roman Catholicism ever speaks in terms of a return to the papal fold. It conceives of a movement in one direction only. This at least is comprehensible in view of the insistence of the Roman church on the irreversibility of her position, in accordance with which it is Protestants who are outside the one true church, being guilty of schism and heresy. At the same time we should remember the claim of the Reformers that it was they who were returning to the apostolic standard of truth from which the papal church had departed, and that it was the unwillingness of the latter to reform herself once her errors had been pointed out to her which was the cause of the disruption of the sixteenth century.

By the creation of a Secretariat for Unity and the convoking of a Vatican Council for the latter part of this year the pope and his church have in a manner of speaking entered into the ecumenical arena. What may be expected from these new developments? Not any significant change of direction on Rome’s part. The January issue of the Roman Catholic periodical The Month contains an article by Cardinal Bea, who has become well known through his appointment as head of the Secretariat, on “The Council and the Protestants: Possible Contributions to Church Unity,” in which he significantly speaks of Protestants as “our separated brethren, cut off from the Church for several centuries past,” and advocates, as a legitimate ecumenical activity, “fraternal collaboration with our separated brethren in any work that does not directly involve Catholic doctrine.” It is constantly apparent that Rome is under no circumstances prepared to entertain the possibility of reform of her doctrine. Thus Cardinal Bea approvingly observes that “the most authoritative modern historian of the Council of Trent”—a reference to Professor Hubert Jedin of Bonn—“notes very well that its teaching requires not reformation but completion.”

This is confirmed by Professor Jedin in an article on “The Council of Trent and Reunion” in the January number of The Heythrop journal. On the ground that the definitions of that council are “the official Catholic answer to Protestantism” he declares that “after the Council of Trent Catholics knew exactly what to believe and teach on Scripture and tradition, original sin and justification, the sacraments and the veneration of saints. Trent, which is accepted by Rome as one of the authoritative General Councils, condemned with its anathemas the distinctive doctrines of the Reformation. Affirming that there is “an unbridgeable gulf” between Roman Catholics and Protestants “in their views on Council and Church,” Professor Jedin will not countenance “revision of Trent” as a “possible way towards rapprochement and reunion.”

So, too, Professor Hans Küng of Tübingen, in his book The Council and Reunion, is emphatic that Roman Catholics “cannot speak of any ‘deformation’ in the Church’s dogma,” and therefore that, although in one sense there is such a thing as a development of dogma, “dogmatic definitions express the truth with infallible accuracy and are in this sense unalterable.” Diagnosing that “the Petrine office” is “the great stone of stumbling,” he asserts that “the question ‘Do we need a Pope?’ is the key question for reunion.” He freely admits that it is a “gigantic claim” of the popes to be the vicars of Christ; but this is the core of the papal system. Maintaining, however, that the utterance of the pope is “the voice of Christ through the voice of him who during the time of His absence is to shepherd the flock,” he concludes that “what is needed … is for Protestants to hear the voice of the Good Shepherd”—that is to say, by submitting themselves to the papal rule.

It is evident, then, that Rome does not intend to budge in any consequential manner. So far as she is concerned, the traffic will be in one direction only. Professor Küng, it is true, addresses himself to Protestants in the most amiable and conciliatory tones. To be able to speak to each other frankly and respectfully is all to the good. But all alone it is plain that Protestant and Roman Catholic conceptions of what it means to be reformed differ fundamentally from each other. Thus, despite the official condemnation of the Reformation by the Council of Trent, Dr. Küng contends that the council “became an epoch-making, universal expression of the Church’s reform of herself from within.”

The reforms which he calls for in his own church at the present time—for example, services in the vernacular, worship that is congregational, communion in both kinds, the abolition of the index—would indeed afford points of contact, for Protestantism reformed herself in these and other respects long since. But they affect the branches rather than the roots. On it is the radical reformation of Roman Catholicism which Protestants should demand as the sine qua non for reunion. This is the only realistic alternative to the absorption which Rome requires, and which is implicit in her kindly talk about a “homecoming.” We must not allow ourselves to be blinded to the fact that truth is truth and error is error in the twentieth no less than in the sixteenth century. At the same time, however, we should do all that we can to encourage movements of reform within the ranks of Roman Catholicism, and especially the setting of an open Bible before the people; for the Word of God is ever the principle of genuine reformation within the church. And we must not cease to pray that God in his sovereignty and grace will perform a mighty reviving work in our day, not only amongst Roman Catholics but also amongst Protestants, so that multitudes may be blessed and enabled to rejoice in His goodness.

Here am I; send me (Isa. 6:8c; read 6:1–8).

Everyone here today feels much concern about the so-called young people’s problem. From the Bible learn to think of it all as an opportunity. Here in Isaiah look at a case. Deal with it as it concerns one young man, all in the present tense, giving the first place to God. Whenever a young man comes to our church, he should:

I. Behold His God. What else is our church for? Think of the setting for the worship of God: the sweet light of painted windows, the quiet music from the organ, and the hush of needy hearts. Also the opening words: the call to prayer—the song of adoration to God as holy—the invocation of his Presence.

II. Respond to God. With words humbly confess sins: sins of self and sins of the people, mayhap in a time of prosperity. As with the man chosen to become God’s prophet, the confession may chiefly concern the past use of the lips.

III. Get Right with God, purely through his grace. As with Isaiah, pardon, cleansing, and peace come only through the shedding of innocent blood. The coal that touched the lips came from the altar of burnt offering. The burning coal teaches that cleansing may come through pain when appointed and blessed of God.

IV. Volunteer for God, in life service. After a personal experience of redeeming grace, a young man now present ought to hear the inner call of God. And then, in view of the world’s dire need today, resolve to invest his life where it will bring most glory to his God, and most largely meet the needs of human beings, one by one.

Minister of the Lord, is this the way you plan for an hour of worship? In choosing the morning hymns, do you inwardly follow some such order? Whatever the pattern, whenever you make ready to lead in the public worship of God, bring every young hearer, and older one, too, face to face with God through Christ and his Cross. Then move the listener to accept him, here and now, as Saviour and King.

The Great Cosmic Turning Point

THE ONLY SAVIOUR—“How can man be saved from himself?” Can science help man save him from himself? Is this a scientific problem? How would you scientifically go about even beginning to tackle that problem? There is no way science can get at it. You can’t even begin to formulate it in a way tractable to any kind of scientific investigation.

Don’t think the threat to humanity isn’t just as big a threat to communist man as it is to free-world man. This is a threat to all humanity. The threat is to human civilization. Both the free world and the communist world would go under in nuclear war. The threat is to humanity, to the planet, not to any given nation or system or scheme of national government.

The threat lies solely within man. Apart from man there wouldn’t be any threat. There we face the great dilemma of our time.

Modern man cries out for a savior. A Saviour has been given and yet nobody will accept this. Man desperately seeks for some other kind of savior, for science, or sociology or psychology, for wise political statesmen, for wise negotiators, for a ban or some scheme or anything to save us.

They simply can’t believe the great astounding truth, the great central event in the whole history of this planet, the great cosmic turning point: that at a particular moment in this history, about 2,000 years ago, He became man, and lived to the full a human life among us—Him by Whom the whole Milky Way, by Whom the hundred-billion hydrogen bombs came into existence, by Whom all space and time and matter, by Whom all these vast energies were brought into being in the physical universe, Him by Whom all things were made, things visible and invisible, everything that is, and apart from Whom nothing that exists entered upon any kind of existence. Everything that is owes its existence to Him and He came to this little earth. God carries out a vast rescue operation on our behalf. Once one knows Him and knows the vast significance of this central act in history, one knows the saving power and grace of it, and the strength of it. There is the only Saviour man has ever been given. Our Saviour, the incarnate Son of God Himself came to us and died a horrible death for us men, for our salvation, and is risen and lives and ascended and is a central power. The living Lord, the living Christ is there. By Him all of these energies owe their existence. In Him is to be found the source of all being, of all matter, of all energy, of all power, and the source of our existence and life, and the Saviour for us, too, the Saviour to eternity. And this is the key.

Now I don’t expect modern man to receive it. He thinks it’s old, it’s passé, it’s irrelevant. But whatever modern man thinks about it, however universally it’s disclaimed, it remains the central truth of human history and of the history of the universe. This saying act of God on man’s behalf in Christ. And there isn’t any other power capable of saving man from himself, of liberating man from the threat to humanity which man alone poses.—DR. WILLIAM G. POLLARD, Executive Director of Oak Ridge Institute of Nuclear Studies, in an address at Keuka College, Keuka Park, New York.

SCIENCE AND ATHEISM—Science and Religion, one of the top Soviet anti-religious organs, warned readers that many professional people in Russia are not only baptized Christians, but openly practice religion. It claimed that most of them were … in the ranks of the Baptists, which makes this denomination—from the point of view of atheistic propagandists—the “most dangerous” of any religious group in the U.S.S.R.

The publication did not give statistics on the percentage of believers with higher education.…

It published an article by N. Barykin, who drew particular attention to a physician in Kuibyshev … an “ardent Baptist” and very active in the local church. Barykin conceded that … “it is difficult to reproach him for any professional blunders,” but he asked, in indignant vein, “How is it possible to cure people in the daytime and go to church in the evening?”

He noted that any person who fails the philosophy examination is dismissed from the university or institute in which he is a student, and “that is why all people with higher education in the Soviet Union are supposed and expected to be atheists”.… He accused professors of being negligent about educating students in “a really atheistic way.”—Religious News Service from Moscow, May 3, 1962.

LATEST BULLETIN—Much has happened in this area of science [anthropology] since 1955.… In the book [The Epic of Man by the editors of Life Magazine and Lincoln Barnett], earliest recognized man (Zinjanthropus) is still given an antiquity of only 600,000 years (the new figure is 1,750,000 years), whereas the modern variety of man is said to go back nearly half that far (the evidence is very poor). Also, Neanderthal man, who lived until 45,000 years ago, is pictured as a bull-necked, bent-kneed creature, a concept certainly no longer held by many of the authorities.…—THOMAS DALE STEWART, Department of Anthropology, United States National Museum, in Science, February 9, 1962, issue.

WORLD POPULATION GROWTH—We are able to quote the following from an article by William Fuchs, “Über die Zahl der Menschen die Bisher Gelebt Haben” (Number of People Who Ever Lived on Earth Up to the Present Time), Zeitschrift für die Gesamte Staat S. Wissenschaft (Government Sciences Journal, Volume 117, No. 3, 1951). Fuchs reported that according to his calculations between 60.7 and 80.4 billion persons have been born since 1 Million B. C., and that these numbers represent between 20 and 35 times the total world population today. According to other estimates prepared by Wellemeyer and Lorimer, births have totaled 77 billion, and today’s population of approximately three billion is about 4.0 per cent of that number. The latter estimates appear in Population Bidletin, Volume XVIII, No. 1, February 1962, published by the Population Reference Bureau, Inc., 1507 M Street, N.W., Washington, D. C. A copy of the bulletin may be obtained for 50 cents from that organization. The Bureau of the Census has made no attempt to verify the numbers quoted above or to take any independent estimates.—Letter from the Chief of the Population Division, Bureau of the Census, United States Department of Commerce, in reply to an inquiry about the relative growth of world population.

The grace of God which bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men (Tit. 2:11; quote 2:11–14).

Such an occasion calls for a royal text. This you will find in the creed of the Apostle Paul. Here he addresses a young man as dear to Paul’s heart as his own son. The text shows the substance of what a young man should proclaim and the hearers believe. The creed of the Apostle Paul

I. Begins with the Mercy of God in the Past. With his orderly mind the apostle here puts the first thing first. In our holy faith everything flows from the attractive goodness of God. He has shown all men how they can be saved from sin and death and hell. Saved to holiness and abundant life, all to issue in heaven’s glory.

II. Includes the Duties of Believers Today. Here is Christian “truth in order to goodness.” The doctrine calls for daily self-denial, and that with joy. Also, for godly living, so as ever to be right with God, with others, and with self, after the likeness of our Lord.

III. Leads up to the Return of Our Lord in the Future. Among all the hopes of believing hearts the most wondrous have to do with the Final Return. In the Early Church the saints rejoiced in His Final Appearing more than in all things else to come. And so today the glory of the Christian faith lies chiefly beyond the grave.

IV. Centers in the Death of Our Redeemer, Once for All. What an unexpected order! What a queer climax! Evidently, guided by the Holy Spirit, the apostle would have everyone today center both thinking and hope in Christ and the cross.

He died that we might be forgiven,

He died to make us good,

That we might go at last to heaven,

Saved by His precious blood.

Young friend, God has called you to the highest, the holiest, the hardest, and the happiest work in the world. He wishes you to proclaim the creed of the Apostle Paul, preferably with one aspect in a sermon. If you lead the lay friends, one by one, to accept this truth and adorn this doctrine, God will send a blessed revival soon.

Thy kingdom come (Matt. 6:10a; read 6:5–15).

Our Lord teaches us to pray that the Kingdom come, not that it be created. What does this mean to us who pray? The twofold reply concerns the Kingdom here and now.

I. The Extent of the Kingdom.

A. The material realm. Here the interpreter voices truth for our “atomic age.”

B. The mental realm. All the powers of thought under His control. All poetry and all other arts to be under His divine direction. What an ideal!

C. The moral realm. He alone to rule the world and us in matters of right and wrong, such as war.

D. The spiritual realm. Ideally, Ruler over all that concerns men’s souls, now and ever.

II. The Expression of the Kingdom. So far, the ideal; now, the facts.

A. Actual, though largely unseen, Christ rules now.

B. Active. He reigns in believing souls, among merchant princes, and in men of science, though not yet in all.

C. Acknowledged. By the Church through her spiritual leaders. Largely what the Church is for.

D. Accepted by the individual. What else does it mean to be a Christian?

“How far are we exhibiting to the world the Kingship of Christ, and so revealing the King Himself?… Let every man or woman at this hour by solemn affirmation and solemn oaths surrender to the King, saying: ‘Here, O King, is my life. Rule over it; be its Master. Realize Thy purpose therein. Take the territory and subdue it to Thy perfect will. Through it show my children … and all the people I meet what is the meaning of Thy great Kingdom.’ ”

The Westminster Pulpit, Revell, n.d. Vol. V, pp. 260–273.

We are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ’s stead, be ye reconciled to God (2 Cor. 5:20).

While waiting for the certain end of life, this Wesleyan divine assembled 17 sermons. This one deals with the privileges and the responsibilities of Christ’s ambassadors.

I. An Ambassador Represents His Country in an Alien Land. The ambassador serves as the personal representative of his ruler, and his embassy belongs to the country from which he comes. This is a high office. Are you really an ambassador of Jesus Christ? Is your home an embassy of heaven? Do his rules and customs and laws alone prevail within its walls?

II. An Ambassador Has Direct Access to His Ruler. The problem of the ambassador is ever to hold true to his prime allegiance. How can one keep from being “denationalized”? By being often in the sanctuary, and in the midweek fellowship of prayer. Also, by jealously guarding the periods for daily devotions.

III. An Ambassador Goes on a Special Mission. Do you know the craft of skill in personal evangelism? Can you without embarrassment tell the unbeliever: “I am from God. The King whom I represent wants a reconciliation with you. Whatever the barriers, they are all in you. If you want to be right with him, you can. Accept the Atonement of God’s only-begotten Son. He has pardon for you. Receive his pardon. Be reconciled to God.” Remember, too, that sooner or later—

IV. Every Ambassador is Relieved of His Post. He is called home. God does not intend that the Christian ambassador should dwell forever in an alien land. Some day the call will come. May it find us fulfilling our ambassadorial duties. Will it be like that with you? When he calls you home, can you say: “I have finished the work thou didst give me to do.”

Can I Know God? by W. E. Sangster. Copyright 1960 by Abingdon Press.

Sermons Abridged By Dr. Andrew W. Blackwood

W. E. SANGSTER,Ambassadors for Christ;G. CAMPBELL MORGAN,The Kingdom for Which We Pray; and two of Dr. Blackwood’s own sermons, The Apostle’s Creed for Today and When a Young Man Comes to Church.

What we admire we tend to absorb. We are not likely to emulate what we lightly esteem.

Let me here plead for that excellence in preaching which becomes evident only where preaching is highly assessed. If the rejoinder be heard that the higher the assessment the more impossible the achievement of satisfaction, then let it be so. Recall Browning’s lines in “A Grammarian’s Funeral”:

That low man seeks a little thing to do, Sees it and does it:

This high man, with a great thing to pursue,

Dies ere he knows it.

In his Preaching In a Scientific Age A. C. Craig of Glasgow starts off by telling of a day when, as a ministerial neophyte, he was walking Princes Street in Edinburgh and met Principal Alexander Martin. “Well,” asked Martin, “how’s the preaching going?” When Craig answered that he was finding it “very difficult,” the principal exclaimed, “Preaching’s not difficult, man: it’s impossible!”

So be it! It is to this very impossibility that the kind, enabling God has called us. After all, as I once heard that towering Anglican evangelical, J. Stuart Holden, say, “Christianity lives by the supernatural to achieve the impossible.”

For one thing, let’s put greater store by the incomparables of preaching. Let demogogues harangue, and side-show barkers yawp, and lawyers argue, and lecturers instruct, and reformers moralize, but let preachers announce the matchless tidings that “God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself.” Incomparably great is the preacher’s theme: “what we preach is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord” (2 Cor. 4:5). Incomparably great is the preacher’s text: “Preach the word”.… “For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword” (2 Tim. 4:2; Heb. 4:12). Incomparably great is the preacher’s objective: a faithful representation of “God our Savior, who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth” (1 Tim. 2:3, 4).

For another thing, let’s put greater store by the indispensables of preaching. For example, there is the sense of a commission. Can we dispense with that? Dr. G. Campbell Morgan is reported to have said to his sons, “Don’t preach if you can help it!” Did he intend the downgrading of the ministry? Quite the opposite. So regal and demanding is it that a man better not touch it unless he can be sure that he is under the King’s orders!

Or, there is the summons to holy disciplines. Can we dispense with that? “As he who called you is holy, be holy yourselves in all your conduct” (1 Peter 1:15). “Pray constantly” (1 Thess. 5:17). “Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a workman who has no need to be ashamed” (2 Tim. 2:15). This is not reckless “proof-texting.” These are legitimate samplings from wealthy mineral lodes that fairly vein and seam the subsoil of the New Testament. Preaching is the business neither of worldlings and dilettantes nor of sanctimonious prigs and plaster saints. It is the calling and passion of redeemed sinners who, knowing themselves forever unworthy, are forever thankful that they are “in Christ” and under bonds of gratitude to let him show through them his luminous likeness.

For a third thing, let’s put more store by the indestructibles of preaching. To be sure, there are moods and tempers that characterize this age of that. The externalities of culture are a flux, not a fixture. Fashions in popular philosophy are no less observable than fashions in women’s hats. The sensitive and sensible preacher will not be numb to all of this. Tact is the biggest syllable in contact. Relevance is never to be neglected.

But saying this is saying much less than all. Forsythe warned us that men obsessed with speaking to the age are in danger of speaking the age. Where then is the ageless?

The preacher who is not in commerce with the imperishable has nothing with which to address the perishable—and the perishing. His true traffic, let him know, is in the indestructibilities. The Christ he proclaims is indestructible. The Bible he expounds is indestructible. The truth he handles is indestructible. The Church, in the midst of whose life and worship he stands, is indestructible.

To think meanly of preaching is a form of treason. No man deserves to be its agent who does not behold it in the frame of the magnificent. Then, and only then, will he make his own contribution, under God, to the development—so devoutly to be wished—of which H. H. Farmer speaks when he says, “If one were asked to indicate in the briefest possible way the most central and distinctive trend in contemporary theology, one would be tempted to answer ‘the rediscovery of the significance of preaching.’ ”

The Cleric Of Clericalism

The Cardinal Spellman Story, by Robert I. Gannon, S.J. (Doubleday, 1962, 477 pp., $5.95), is reviewed by John A. Mackay, President Emeritus, Princeton Theological Seminary, Princeton, New Jersey.

Few literary tasks are more difficult for a biographer than to write the life of a public figure who is still alive. Few experiences, moreover, can or should be more embarrassing for a man than to peruse pages regarding his own career for which he himself has provided the facts, and their interpretation. Let a person write his autobiography, if he feels it important to do so, accepting responsibility at the same time for what he says by way of self-interpretation. The rest let him leave to other pens after he has passed into history or oblivion.

The distinguished biographer of Cardinal Spellman could have done a finer job, both from a literary and historical point of view, had he been less dependent upon the material provided personally by the great Roman Catholic churchman whose life and significance he seeks to portray in this book. One has in mind the quite excessive proportion of very subjective diary material which he utilized. This, in the judgment of the reviewer, has made it difficult for the author to set the “Spellman Story” in due perspective, both as regards the relationship of this story to the events of American and world history, and to the growth of Roman Catholic significance and power in the United States.

There is no doubt, however, that although there is much to criticize in this biography as a literary achievement, we have here a book of genuine importance. The reader is confronted with the profile, activities and ideals of the man whose name will be associated forever with the emergence of Roman Catholic clericalism in the United States. Here is a man who in early life chose the priesthood as a profession, and who from the moment of his choice devoted himself, by every means in his power, to ascend the ecclesiastical ladder. The dedicated zeal and cherished ambition of the young priest, Francis Spellman, helped him to overcome early attacks made upon him for his alleged “arrogance” as well as endeavors to engage him in positions of minor responsibility.

But circumstances favored his ever soaring desire for position, the success complex by which his spirit was mastered. Three of these circumstances are dealt with at length in the volume under review. These were Spellman’s education in Rome, linked to the favorable impression he made on Vatican authorities; his long and intimate friendship with the churchman who became Papal Secretary of State and afterwards Pope Pius XII; his subsequent close association with President Franklin D. Roosevelt for whom Spellman became the chief link with the Vatican, as well as a special presidential emissary who was employed on mysterious missions in many lands.

The man who became successively Auxiliary Bishop of Boston, Archbishop of New York and a Cardinal of the Roman See, opened a new era in the prestige and status of the Roman Catholic Church in the United States. To read reflectively, and in the perspective of American history, the chronicle of events and sentiments which “The Cardinal Spellman Story” provides, is to be confronted with the churchman who will belong to history as the abiding symbol of nascent Roman clericalism in the United States. Clericalism, which this reviewer has elsewhere defined as “the pursuit of power, especially political power, by a religious hierarchy, carried on by secular methods and for the purposes of social domination,” began to appear in this country in the thirties of the present century and became incarnate in the person and work of the subject of this biography.

We follow in these pages the steps of a sincere, able and ambitious man who lives to make his church the controlling force in national and international affairs. In one of the great crises of history, the close friend and confidante of Pope Pius XII, who, because of this relationship became a private emissary of President Roosevelt and traveled around the world in “an aura of mystery,” gave the church to which he belonged a fresh status in American history.

Following Roosevelt’s death, the Cardinal’s effort to secure state funds for Roman Catholic education brought him into constitutional conflict with the First Amendment. It subsequently led him into a dramatic conflict with America’s greatest woman, a widow called Eleanor Roosevelt. Most fascinating is the account of this episode, which is very fairly documented by our biographer. Here is a twentieth-century Canossa, but a Canossa in reverse, in which a Cardinal, chastened and under the pressure of public opinion, pays a visit to the woman he had accused of taking a position “unworthy of an American mother.”

The man who is soul and symbol of the new clericalism had lost this battle. Twelve years later, however, running counter to fresh, liberal breezes in his own church, and against the will of a Roman Catholic layman who is President of the United States, Cardinal Francis Spellman, because of his anti-constitutional attitude on Church-State relations is stymieing the possibility of Federal aid to American public schools.

JOHN A. MACKAY

Fear And Force

The History of Apartheid, by L. E. Neame (Barrie and Rockliffe, 1962, 194 pp., 22s. 6d.), is reviewed by Timothy E. C. Hoare, member of the Conservative Party, Bow Research Group, London.

Mr. Neame, formerly editor of the Rand Daily Mail and Cape Argus has written a full account of the racial history of South Africa. He dislikes the present policy of apartheid, but is realistic enough to allow some degree of racial separation. The problem is unique; in the words of Lord Balfour “a White nation has established itself in a Black continent, and that is something that has never before presented itself in the history of mankind.” Yet to read the ill-informed attacks from some opponents, we might imagine that we simply have a case of one race dominating another with Nazi-like lack of principle. Unfortunately many of these critics of apartheid wear a Christian label, but Mr. Neame’s balanced account of the facts will dispel their sentimental prejudice.

Though written as factual history and couched in a journalistic format, the author allows us to taste the emotions that have been let loose. In spite of the Dutch Reformed Church’s good defense of apartheid, it seems likely that a neurotic fear of “natives” will overpower Scriptural and rational arguments. This is Mr. Neame’s conclusion in his final chapter. Fear has driven the Europeans into a Laager mentality which allows no concessions. Their almost medieval crusading zeal is unlikely to be moved except by force, and force may one day he forthcoming. For despite the real material action the government is taking to improve the physical lot of the Bantu, Mr. Neame points out that material comfort, far from lessening discontent only increases it where spiritual values are concerned. “Many can bear adversity, few can bear contempt.”

TIMOTHY E. C. HOARE

A Great Gulf

The Maze of Mormonism, by Walter R. Martin (Zondervan, 1962, 186 pp., $2.95), is reviewed by John R. Richardson, Pastor, Westminster Presbyterian Church, Atlanta, Georgia.

The Mormons have come to lay much stress upon public relations and are careful to make certain that they do not use language which might reveal the true nature of their theological deviations. Due to this fact, Dr. Martin shows how the Mormon religion utilizes biblical terms and phrases and even adopts Christian doctrines in order to claim allegiance to the Christian faith. Since many of the additions to the Mormon church come out of Protestant denominations, it is imperative that Protestants understand the nature and dangers of Mormonism.

This volume may be characterized as a concise handbook on Mormon history, and also as a theology for Christian workers who need an adequate knowledge of the historic Christian faith to meet the propaganda of Mormonism.

Dr. Martin offers us a thoroughly documented, historical, theological, and apologetic survey of the Mormon religion. There is every evidence that the author has endeavored to be accurate. The careful reader will observe the great gulf that exists between Christianity and the religion of Joseph Smith and Brigham Young.

JOHN R. RICHARDSON

Reading for Perspective

CHRISTIANITY TODAY’S REVIEW EDITORS CALL ATTENTION TO THESE NEW TITLES:

* The Role of the Minister’s Wife, by Wallace Denton (Westminster, $3.50). One for the lady of the manse, the “little minister” without calling, portfolio, or salary, often lonely in her fish bowl existence.

* Question 7, by Robert E. A. Lee (Eerdmans, $2.95). An exciting novel of conflict and cruelty in Communist East Germany; adapted and illustrated from the powerful, award-winning motion picture Question 7.

* Christ and Crisis, by Charles Malik (Eerdmans, $3). Seven addresses by the former president of the United Nations, a Greek Orthodox layman whose insights into the culture crisis merit a hearing.

Conscience And War

Nuclear Weapons and the Conflict of Conscience, edited by John C. Bennett (Scribner’s, 1962, 191 pp., $3.95), is reviewed by Harold B. Kuhn, Professor of The Philosophy of Religion, Asbury Theological Seminary, Wilmore, Kentucky.

There are three attitudes which are usually taken in our day toward the question of a war which would involve the use of thermonuclear devices. Two extreme attitudes are, respectively, that of the pragmatist who will suggest that the same general principles govern war in 1962 as governed it a century ago, and that of the nuclear pacifist. In between is the attitude that the possibility of nuclear conflict poses problems of the most difficult nature for the conscience, so that some definite and rugged thinking is needed during a time of nonconflict, particularly at the point of the just war.

This volume seeks to cultivate the area which is marked out by the third attitude. The doctrine of a “just war,” coming down from the time of Thomas Aquinas, contains two provisos: war must be fought for a just cause, and it must be fought by permissable means. This panel of writers includes the editor and contributor of one chapter, Professor John C. Bennett. Other writers include a former employee of OSS and our State Department, a former scientist of Los Alamos, and a professor of religion at Princeton University. They seek to explore the moral implications of the possession of, the threatened use of, and an international policy based upon the existence of a supply of weapons which are basically genocidal.

The writers have few illusions concerning the attitude toward a possible nuclear conflict which the policy makers of the U.S.S.R. now take, and would take in the event they decide to launch an all-out war. Nor do they have any illusions concerning the degree to which moral scruples and considerations for truth would deter the men of the Kremlin if they felt they could win such a war.

Resumption of atmospheric tests of bombs up to 60 megatons of capability after the most solemn pledges that they would never be the first to do so has ended optimism concerning the idealism of the Red masters.

This volume does not profess to have final answers for our consciences. It does, however, raise questions which every sensitive Christian should ponder. The realism with which the capabilities of modern warfare should be regarded is spelled out in rugged detail. The work of this group of men deserves the most serious consideration of those who would try to think their way through the dilemma with which mankind’s new technological achievements confront it.

HAROLD B. KUHN

Rebel Against Reason?

Grace and Reason: A Study in the Theology of Luther, by B. A. Gerrish (Oxford University Press, 1962, 188 pp., $6.75 or 30s.), is reviewed by Paul M. Bretscher, Professor of New Testament, Concordia Seminary, St. Louis, Missouri.

Mr. Gerrish investigates the charge often leveled against Luther, that he was given to “irrationalism” and championed a revolt against reason. On the strength of much evidence from Luther’s writings, the author concludes that to understand Luther’s attitude toward reason one must bear in mind that Luther distinguishes between “1. natural reason ruling within its own proper domain in worldly matters (a ‘practical reason’ approaching at times the notion of ‘common sense’); 2. natural reason illegitimately carrying over into the domain of spiritual matters certain presuppositions derived from ‘the world’; 3. regenerate reason working legitimately within the domain of spiritual matters by humbly adopting presuppositions derived solely from ‘the Word’ ” (p. 170). The author also reminds us that Luther’s profound appreciation of the sola gratia compelled him to expose and reject every form of opinio legis (within and outside the church) which sought status before God alongside of gratia.

The author states his findings with persuasive forthrightness and cautious restraint. As a result of his magnificent achievement there is now available in the English tongue a thorough and comprehensive analysis of the meaning of ratio in Luther’s theology. The author’s study ought also to prove an exemplary guide for the investigation of other problems in Luther’s thought. We encourage the reader: Tolle et lege, and do not shy away from the copious but always exciting footnotes.

PAUL M. BRETSCHER

Entertaining Diversion

Hear the Word! A Novel about Elijah and Elisha, by Heinrich Zador, translated by Robert W. Fenn (S.C.M., 1962, 286 pp., 21s.; McGraw-Hill, $4.95), is reviewed by Calvin D. Linton, Professor of English Literature and Dean of Columbian College, George Washington University, Washington, D. C.

It is astonishingly difficult, seemingly, to write a really good novel on biblical subjects. Heinrich Zador has come commendably close, and in the process has written an interesting narrative, filled with three-dimensional characters and set in a land Mr. Zador knows at first hand (he has been a resident of Israel since 1939). But there is still the palpable difference (at least to one familiar with the Bible itself) between the matchless compression and dramatic power of the Old Testament stories in the King James Version, and the very best expanded, fictional account in modern English. Mr. Zador, indeed, suffers from a double handicap, since his novel was written in German (Die Erfüllung), and one cannot tell whether the translator has communicated the original quality.

To deal properly with titans like Elijah and Elisha obviously takes something close to epic style. They cannot be made familiar without being reduced in stature. Further to divest them of their miracles is to leave them looking like rather impressive but not awesome leaders of a modern California religious cult. As to the miracles, Mr. Zador is quite clear: “Gradually fantasy, desire and wish fulfillment crept into the stories … until the eventual form of the story was accepted as true, for that is how it ought to have happened.” Stature is lost, too, by such dialogue as that spoken when Elijah puts his robe on Elisha: “No! Do not make fun of me!” says Elisha. “I am not making fun,” replies Elijah. One yearns for the KJV.

The best part of the book ignores the prophets and concentrates on kings and princes, battles and alarms, court color and intrigue. Indeed, it might have been better to write a piece of historical fiction quite independently of the biblical narratives. Thus at least the awkwardness of the invented romance between Elisha and the Shunammite woman could have been avoided.

Despite these strictures, the novel is an entertaining diversion. It has pace, descriptive power, and unity. But it does not tell much about the real Elijah and Elisha.

CALVIN D. LINTON

Barth, Dooyeweerd, Runia

Karl Barth’s Doctrine of Holy Scripture, by Klaas Runia (Eerdmans, 1962, 225 pp., $4), is reviewed by Gordon H. Clark, Professor of Philosophy, Butler University, Indianapolis, Indiana.

This well-documented study with its valuable footnotes handles both exposition and criticism with easy clarity.

After explaining Barth’s view that the Bible is a witness to revelation but is not to be identified with revelation, the author goes to some length in showing that Barth accepts New Testament support for half his view but furnishes no New Testament evidence for the other half. In particular Dr. Runia points out that the biblical term witness and the Barthian term witness do not mean the same thing.

Again, in analyzing the concept saga, Dr. Runia uncovers the inconsistency between Barth’s expressed reliance on Scripture and his actual use of preconceived notions of what revelation must be. As before, the author shows that Barth pays no attention to what the Bible says about itself.

With respect to the charge that the Bible teaches ancient and outmoded world views, a charge for which Bultmann is better known than Barth, the author rejects the solution of Aalders and Grosheide that the Old Testament writers merely used everyday language to describe what they saw, and substitutes Dooyeweerd’s theory of law-spheres. Inasmuch as Dooyeweerd agrees with Barth in denying the inerrancy of Scripture, the precise intent of this substitution is hard to discern; and the later preference for plenary rather than verbalinspiration, as well as the apparent approval of John Mackay’s distinction between intellectual truth and “personal truth,” detract from the otherwise firm defense of biblical authority.

For a conclusion, and in opposition to those who say that Barth has changed his views, the author with adequate documentation shows that Barth has not changed in any important way with reference to revelation and the Scripture. And the recent lectures in Chicago confirm Dr. Runia’s conclusion.

GORDON H. CLARK

Grey Flannel For You

Telling the Good News: A Public Relations Handbook for Churches, by various authors (Concordia Publishing House, 1962, 202 pp., $2.50), is reviewed by Bruce A. Brough, Editorial Assistant, CHRISTIANITY TODAY.

Here is a collection of useful information in the vital (and neglected) field of church public relations. Although the term “public relations” conjures up mental images of a smooth, sophisticated pitchman in the proverbial grey flannel suit, this little handbook brings things back into perspective.

How about such things as the condition of the church lawn? On the local level, such a “minor” point may have more effect on the public’s impression of your church than a well-designed church advertisement or a clever news release.

These items as well as the pastor’s personal public relations, hints on meeting misfortune, presenting the Gospel via radio, television and other media, and many other important points are thoroughly yet briefly covered. The writers are individuals well qualified in their respective fields of communication.

Difficult technical points are adequately discussed in each chapter, giving the pastor a working knowledge of any media he chooses to engage as he and his church seek to communicate, with utmost effectiveness, the best news of all time.

BRUCE A. BROUGH

Vatican Agenda

The Second Vatican Council, by Henri Daniel-Rops, translated by Alastair Guinan (Hawthorn Books, 1962, 160 pp., $3.50) is reviewed by W. Stanford Reid, Professor of History, McGill University, Montreal, Canada.

In this relatively short work Mr. Daniel-Rops, who has made a considerable name for himself as a lay historian and apologist for the Roman Catholic Church, endeavors to give something of the background of Pope John XXIII’s forthcoming ecumenical council. The first part of the work discusses the history of (Roman Catholic) ecumenical councils down to the present day. The second part endeavors to analyze and define the nature and operation of an ecumenical council, and the third part deals specifically with that called by the present pope.

The author points out that, although most of the interest in the council outside the Church of Rome has arisen from the Pope’s ecumenical emphasis, much more is involved. There will be discussions on the whole problem of the Roman church’s life and work. While the tone of the book is very irenical, as one reads one soon becomes aware that Roman Catholic claims still remain the same, and that any church union will be an absorption into the Roman ecclesiastical organization.

W. STANFORD REID

Book Briefs

God in Modern Philosophy, by James Collins (Henry Regnery Company, 1959, 476 pp., $6.50). A Thomistic philosopher’s analysis and evaluation of agreements and disagreements among modern thinkers (from Nicholas of Cues through Heidegger and Whitehead) about the nature of God.

Neo-evangelicalism, by Robert Lightner (Dunham, 1962, 170 pp., $2). An evaluation of so-called neo-evangelicalism by the extreme right with conclusions that are valid upon its own premises.

Alcoholism and Society, by Morris E. Chafetz, M.D., and Harold W. Demone, Jr. (Oxford, 1962, 319 pp., $6.95). Authors reject all single factor explanations of the cause of alcoholism. They deny that morality has anything to do with it, and suggest that cause stems from a complex of psycho-physiological and socio-cultural disturbances.

The Audacity of Preaching, by Gene E. Bartlett (Harper, 1962, 159 pp., $3). An animated discussion of the task of preaching which is pleasant to read. Perceptive in what it treats; rendered superficial by what it omits. The Lyman Beecher lectures.

Guilt and Grace, by Paul Tournier (Harper, 1962, 224 pp., $3.75). A competent treatment by a physician who bores into the phenomena of guilt in the light of God’s grace.

The Silence of God, by Helmut Thielicke (Eerdmans, 1962, 92 pp., $2.50). Sermonettes with an existential slant; solid and somber, throwing light on the dark places of the agonies of our age.

The Glories of the Cross, by A. C. Dixon (Eerdmans, 1962, 253 pp., $3). Distillations of the riches of the Gospel by an outstanding preacher of the early twentieth century.

The Sole Sufficiency of Jesus Christ, by Herbert W. Cragg (Revell, 1961, 110 pp., $2.50; Marshall, Morgan & Scott, 10s. 6d.). Brief to sketchy comments on the Epistle to the Colossians.

Christ in You, by Herschel H. Hobbs (Baker, 1961, 128 pp., $2.50). Popular exposition of Colossians; first fruit of Evangelical Pulpit Library.

Holding Fast to Grace, by Roy L. Aldrich (Dunham, 1962, 94 pp., $2). A book about Law under a title about Grace.

In the Beginning: A Journey Through Genesis, by Jack Finegan (Harper, 1962, 159 pp., $3.50). Conversational, scholarly, informative.

Aristotle Dictionary, ed. by Thomas P. Kiernan (Philosophical Library, 1962, 524 pp., $7.50). Definitions of Aristotle’s basic terms as distilled from his writings; with a 155-page introduction to his writings.

The Epistles of John, by Neil Alexander (SCM, 1962, 173 pp., 12s. 6d). A simple commentary, generally along traditional lines of interpretation, useful for the nonspecialist. The author is a lecturer at Aberdeen University, and believes the New Testament is not artistic in purpose, but evangelical and hortatory.

The Royal Psalms, by Keith R. Crim (John Knox, 1962, 127 pp., $2.75). Introduces Americans to the German and Scandinavian research on the Messianic Psalms. Preceded by a discussion of the kingship idea in Israel. A valuable study.

Paperbacks

The World He Loves, by Douglas W. Thompson (Edinburgh House Press, 1962, 112 pp., 5s.). This is a presentation of the challenge of the World Missionary situation by a much traveled Methodist missionary statesman.

Tillich, by David H. Freeman (Baker, 1962, 42 pp., $1.25). Author concludes that Tillich’s thought is generally “unintelligible,” a “theological square-circle,” and “nonsense.”

The Shape of Faith, by G. Hugh Wamble (Broadman, 1962, 88 pp., $1). Brief historical sketches of the shape the Christian faith has taken in seven denominations: Presbyterian, strict authority; Baptist, Christian fellowship; Lutheran, pure doctrine; Episcopal, formal worship, and so on.

Call To a Divided City, by Otto Dibelius (Kreuz Verlag, Stuttgart, Germany, 1961, 66 pp., $.75). Addresses delivered by the bishop of Berlin to his severed diocese immediately after the erection of the Berlin wall.

Collectivism Challenges Christianity, by Verne Paul Kaub (Light and Life, 1961, 249 pp., $1). A cry for freedom against the encroachments of collectivism. First published in 1946.

The Rites of Christian Initiation, by C. E. Pocknee (Mowbrays, 1962, 46 pp., 6s.). A tendentious High Episcopalian case exalting confirmation at the expense of baptism; originally lectures at Seabury Seminary.

The Speeches of Peter in the Acts of the Apostles, by H. N. Ridderbos (Tyndale, 1962, 31 pp., 1s. 6d.). Originally the 1961 Tyndale New Testament lecture by a learned Dutch scholar.

Cities and Churches, ed. by Robert Lee (Westminster, 1962, 366 pp., $3.50). A comprehensive study of the multiple problems of the inner-city church created by the mass movement to suburbia.

The Atonement, by John Murray (Presbyterian and Reformed, 1962, 31 pp., $.75). Competent explication of the Atonement as a substitutionary act.

Election and Reprobation, by James Henly Thornwell (Presbyterian and Reformed, 1961, 97 pp., $1.50). Monograph on election and reprobation according to the Westminster Confession; first published in 1840 and republished on the occasion of the Centennial of Presbyterian Church, U.S.

Limited Inspiration, by Benjamin B. Warfield (Presbyterian and Reformed, 1962, 54 pp., $1.25). Originally published in 1894 under title Professor Henry Preserved Smith, on Inspiration.

Thoughts on the Prayer Book, by J. C. Ryle (Church Book Room Press, 1962, 15 pp., 9d.). Another paperback reprint by a nineteenth-century evangelical bishop.

The Narratives of the Passion, by the Archbishop of Canterbury (Mowbrays, 1962, 26 pp., 3s.). A lecture delivered to the International New Testament Congress at Oxford in 1961 stressing the different aspects of the Passion in each Gospel.

Barth’s Christology, by Cornelius Van Til (Presbyterian and Reformed, 1962, 29 pp., $.75). Author argues to conclusion that Barth’s Christ is a “meaningless mirage” and his theology a philosophy of “egress and regress.…”

Baptism Not For Infants, by T. E. Watson (obtainable from author: Ribchester, Lancashire, England; 1962, 108 pp., 3s. 6d.). A strict Baptist attack on Paedobaptism, but without reference to most modern works.

German-English Theological Word List, Revised Edition, by Carl Bangs (Carl Bangs, 5110 Cherry, Kansas City 10, Mo.; 1962, 16 pp., $1). Good for German reader who needs help with theological and philosophical terminology.

A fortnightly report of developments in religion

The long-awaited Second Vatican Council, which opens in Rome October 11, has already produced some marked effects upon thought and action throughout Christendom.

Speculation over what the council may do is only part of the picture. There is a new air of independency in some Roman Catholic circles which finds expression in many ways. The overall strategy still seems to be geared to creating a climate whereby the “separated brethren” might more easily return to the Church of Rome (see editorial, page 27). But some evangelical leaders feel that current trends are to be welcomed nonetheless.

Dr. Clyde W. Taylor, public affairs secretary of the National Association of Evangelicals, says Pope John XXIII’s call for the council is having a “beneficial” effect on Protestant-Catholic relations. He credited the present pontiff with having done much to bring about such an effect.

Taylor made the remarks to newsmen in Detroit last month where he delivered an address at the annual meeting of the Conservative Baptist Association of America.

He said that in the eyes of Protestants, “Pope Pius (XII) was a pugilist, but Pope John is a jolly, good-natured fellow.”

“Pressure has gone off of Protestants in Colombia and conditions changed remarkably,” Taylor added. “And things have even softened a little in Spain, and mild opposition (to Protestant missionaries) has been withdrawn in other countries.”

He said that a number of NAE pastors have asked the organization to send observers to the council, but that NAE officials turned down the idea.

As for Spain, there may be pressures from within Roman Catholicism for more tolerance toward Protestants.

The Danish Roman Catholic paper Katolsk Ugeblad, in a sharp criticism of the Spanish government policy, has said that “arguments intended to prove the freedom of the Protestants in Spain rebound upon the person advancing them. Compared with Danish conditions, they do not testify to tolerance, but rather to the contrary.”

Even Martin Luther seems to be gaining respect in the new climate. Catholic scholars no longer regard him as the villain they once did, according to a Jesuit professor of church history, the Rev. Edward D. McShane of Alma College, Los Gatos, California.

Vatican View Of Marilyn Monroe

Osservatore Romano, the Vatican City newspaper, asserted last month that American film producers passed the “last boundary” in directing actress Marilyn Monroe to appear nude in a motion picture scene.

The actress was subsequently discharged from the picture, “Something’s Got to Give,” for failure to appear for work. She claimed she was suffering from colds.

Osservatore noted that the film director had reproached Miss Monroe for catching cold while wearing a “five-ounce dress” during her appearance at a birthday celebration for President Kennedy in New York.

Said the newspaper: “The unbelievable part is that neither the directors nor the producers had the slightest suspicion that the sequence of colds may have been caused by the bath without even that five-ounce dress.”

In Boston, the archdiocesan newsweekly The Pilot also chided a public figure, but for different reasons. The target was former President Eisenhower, who, in defending a cabinet official said:

“They can kill me on a cross and drive the nails into my hands and the spear into my side if …”

The Pilot said that “the unconscious remark” contained “nearly blasphemous implications.”

“He appears more as a seeker for religious conviction who became in turn a catalytic agent for real reform within the church,” McShane said in an address to the American Society of Church History last month.

Another important development in American Catholicism has been the emergence of a more powerfully influential laity. This move has been taking definite shape and substance during the first six months of 1962, according to Religious News Service.

Msgr. John Tracy Ellis, prominent priest-historian at the Catholic University of America, believes that the trend is already so marked as to have created a theology of the lay movement. Theologians in recent years, he said in a commencement address at Carroll College, Helena, Montana, have refined this concept in a way which “suggests the revival of the part once played in the early Church by the deacon” in spreading Christian truths.

Ellis predicted that if the laity is going to assume a bigger role, care must be taken that the layman not overstep his bounds into realms which properly belong to the clergy, while at the same time the clergy must relax some of its accustomed control over the laity. He spoke of “symptoms that suggest an anticlerical sentiment hitherto unknown to American Catholics” and warned that this “virus” would spread unless clergymen ease some of their traditional control over the laity.

Another prominent Catholic professor, the Rev. John Walsh of Weston (Massachusetts) College has gone so far as to suggest a popularly-elected hierarchy for the church.

Perhaps the greatest stumbling block to better Protestant-Catholic relations in the United States is represented by church-state issues. Continued insistence upon public funds for parochial schools is a constant source of tension. Although they are rarely heard from, some leading Catholics do not want government aid, for they fear that such subsidy invites outside control or at least conformity.

Leading Catholic churchmen realize they must desegregate their schools, for instance, if they are ever to get federal funds. But the process is nevertheless slow. Desegregation has been ordered in New Orleans and Atlanta, although large parts of the South still have segregated parochial schools including the entire states of Alabama and Mississippi, the cities of Memphis and Chattanooga, Tennessee, and St. Augustine, Florida, and four of the seven dioceses in Texas.

How do current trends affect efforts to evangelize Roman Catholics?

Alert evangelicals feel that a more friendly climate will be advantageous to such efforts. Said one key evangelical observer a few days ago: “Good will is on our side.”

Reconsidering Taiwan

Church World Service has scrapped its plans for a gradual phaseout of its mass distribution program for U. S. surplus foods on Taiwan. Instead, the National Council of Churches overseas relief arm will continue the program until June 30, 1963, at which time a new system “that can be administered with integrity” is expected to go into effect. Disclosure of the change of plans came last month during a meeting of the policy-making NCC General Board.

CWS Director Hugh D. Farley said the decision to continue the mass feeding program had stemmed from previous commitments and the feeling that the program could not be reduced now in view of the need for food on the island. Lutheran World Relief, which cooperates with CWS on Taiwan, also announced that it would continue its part of the shipments.

On May 8 CWS and LWF announced they would discontinue mass food distribution and it was reported at that time that inequities and black market operations were factors in the decision (see “Problems with Food” on page 27 of the May 25 issue of CHRISTIANITY TODAY). The latest CWS statement said that “subsequently there was an unauthorized leakage to the press of some of the information that had led to this decision, with a consequent public misrepresentation that CWS was taking a hasty and unilateral action.”

Farley also made public during the General Board meeting in New York a telegram to legislators in Washington protesting the proposed termination of aid to Poland and Yugoslavia.

Among other business which came before the board was a proposed pronouncement on mass communication media. The board recommended that NCC President J. Irwin Miller appoint a special commission to redraft the proposed pronouncement. The commission will represent the NCC Divisions of Christian Education and Christian Life and Work as well as the Broadcasting and Film Commission.

The board also authorized a first-time national study conference on church-state relations to be held in February, 1964, in Chicago. The conference, made up of representatives from NCC-member bodies as well as non-member churches, will deal with a broad range of church-state questions, including federal aid to parochial schools, religious practices in public schools, and tax exemption for church property. The conference was proposed by the NCC’s Department of Religious Liberty and the Division of Christian Life and Work.

The board noted with “gratification increasing evidences of warmer relations with the Roman Catholic Church in many parts of the world.” The note was in a resolution passed unanimously without discussion.

A wide range of moral and ethical problems were considered at the board meeting, but no pronouncements were issued. A staff committee was reported to be developing a “position paper” which would “explore in thorough manner the philosophical and ethical issues involved in the confrontation of Christianity and communism.”

Wcc And The ‘New Society’

Five more Soviet bloc churches are applying for membership in the World Council of Churches, among them the Union of Evangelical Christian Baptists of the U.S.S.R. This denomination, which purports to embrace virtually all Protestants in Russia, claims a constituency of 545,000 members and upwards of 5000 pastors.

Other churches to apply are the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Latvia, the Armenian Apostolic Church, the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Estonia and the Georgian Orthodox Church. Three of these denominations, whose combined membership totals almost six million, were visited by Dr. W. A. Visser ’t Hooft, general secretary of the World Council of Churches, when he was in Russia in 1959.

Almost simultaneous with the WCC announcement a twelve-man delegation of the World Council arrived in Geneva after a two-week tour of the Soviet Union, remarking that the “spiritual strength of the (Russian) people was particularly impressive.” They had been invited to visit Russia as guests of the Russian Orthodox Church, itself accepted into WCC membership at last year’s New Delhi assembly.

“A number of points of historical, cultural and national interest were visited,” the churchmen reported, “and the delegation was impressed with the strenuous efforts of the Russian people to build a new society.” The statement also noted that theological questions and world peace had been discussed with Russian leaders.

On another front, the Communist-sponsored Christian Peace Conference noted “with joy and attention” a report about negotiations between representatives of the CPC and the World Council that took place in Geneva this March.

Pampering The Church

Methodist Bishop John Wesley Lord of Washington warns that the church must voluntarily assume a fair share of the tax burden if it is to avoid a growing wave of anti-clericalism and regain its stature in the American scene.

“How often the church accepts the dubious role of the pampered darling of a sinsick society,” the bishop noted in an address at the 178th annual meeting of the Baltimore Methodist Conference. “Far from seeking favors from the state, already overburdened with the need for a new and higher taxation, the church must recognize that it has a corresponding obligation to the state. It must cooperate with the forces of good government to provide the good life for all the citizens.”

Lord challenged the delegates to righteous action. “If the churches as institutions in our land will seek no favors, accept no tax exemptions on other than property used for worship, they may once again in this dark hour which is passing over our nation, exert a power which is not of man but of God, for righteousness and peace throughout the nation.”

In a seeming demonstration of the sub-tilties of church-state problems, however, the following week witnessed the dedication of the Methodists’ new Sibley Hospital in Washington, where Lord paid tribute to House Speaker John W. McCormack, a Roman Catholic, for his sponsorship of some key enabling legislation. Congress gave the Methodists a section of public park land on which to erect the $9,000,000, 340-bed hospital and a nursing school, in return for which the hospital turned over to the government its old building and other church-owned land.

A church tax controversy cropped up. meanwhile, in Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, where the Upper Merion Township Board of Education announced its intention to seek an annual tax of $174,000 on the newly-constructed headquarters of the American Baptist Convention which has been assessed at $3,000,000. The board contends that the convention’s Judson Press has been publishing books and periodicals for profit, and that the building, or a portion of it, is therefore taxable.

“The important thing to us in this case,” observed Dr. Edwin H. Tuller, ABC general secretary, “is the principle that religious organizations, under the law, are tax exempt for those properties and activities that are necessary to the function of the church.”

Tuller denied that the convention’s printing operations placed the Judson Press within a profit making category. “Certainly we sell books that are printed by our presses, but they are not sold for profit. We just meet expenses and needs.”

While hoping to settle the disagreement without litigation, Tuller nevertheless expressed a willingness to go to court if necessary.

Tensions In Spain

Serious tensions were developing this month between the Franco regime and Roman Catholic leaders in Spain. The tensions are a result of hierarchy support of mass strikes in Spain in recent weeks.

Generalissimo Francisco Franco charged that the wave of strikes had been fomented by Communists and liberals and that “lay organizations of the Church” had encouraged them.

At the same time, he insisted that “relations between Church and State are in perfect harmony because both know who their common foe is.”

He accused foreign propaganda of having “set against our regime the excess of some Basque separatist priests or the clerical errors of some other exalted priests, none of which means anything in the framework of the great spiritual renaissance of our nation.”

The tension was nonetheless apparent, Franco’s remarks notwithstanding. Use of Spain’s national radio network to broadcast masses from Roman Catholic churches was forbidden by the Spanish Ministry of Information, reportedly because of a broadcast sermon delivered by a Jesuit priest from a Barcelona church. The exact nature of the sermon was not disclosed, but it was understood to have dealt with “social problems” and controversial problems centering on labor-management relations as pointed up by striking mining and industrial workers in the northern part of the country.

Five Spanish Roman Catholic bishops subsequently denied reports appearing in the foreign press that they supported the strikes, according to information disclosed in New York City by Spain’s Permanent Mission to the United Nations.

Following release of this information originally in Madrid, similar announcements were made by Spanish overseas offices to offset a growing impression that the church—particularly some members of the hierarchy—and the Franco regime are split on the strikes.

In Madrid, six priests were suspended for supporting the strikers. At the same time, however, a leading Roman Catholic paper urged Spaniards to follow church principles in labor matters.

Miracle In The Congo

Tribes which have been at war since 1959 came together in a miraculous reunion at the spring synod meeting of the Presbyterian Church of Congo, meeting at Bulape, deep in the Kasai Province.

Here is one missionary’s description of the delegates’ journey to the meeting as reported by Ecumenical Press Service: “Members of opposing tribes, who had not spoken to each other for two years, found themselves sitting side by side in the car for several hours of travel over rugged roads. The silence was awkward; everyone in the car was quiet, for they didn’t have much to say to each other.” Difficult problems faced the delegates. Many small tribes wanted their own presbyteries. One large tribe wanted its own synod. Political problems and mission-church relationships added to the meeting’s complexity.

At Bulape, “as the meeting progressed, there were tense moments and heated tempers at times. Yet far-reaching decisions were made for better administrative organization of the church, a committee was set up to consider the establishment of a General Assembly, and many other matters were discussed.”

The climax came one afternoon. “After the minutes had been read and approved, Congolese pastors and elders got up, one after the other, and confessed the collective sins of their tribe and some personal sins. You could feel the presence of the Holy Spirit. This was a truly great religious experience for all who were there. What we had been trying to do for months, the Holy Spirit did within a few minutes. To close the meeting we had a communion service with a Lulua, a Mukete, and a Muluba leading.

“After the meeting I couldn’t tell a Muluba from a Muena Lulua or a Mukete, they all seemed to be so happy to be together again.”

When the delegates left, their reconciliation was spread in local villages. A missionary wrote later, “it was a thrill to see the way the people of the different tribes greeted each other … Last April, a year ago, they were fighting each other and burning the villages and killing each other. Now they are together in one presbytery … Since I have been at Luebo, a miracle has taken place.”

‘Osagyefo’ The Provider

Methodist, Presbyterian, and Anglican leaders in Ghana sent a carefully-worded memorandum to the Ministry of Education last month. They outlined in no uncertain terms their reasons for disallowing “Young Pioneer” groups to be formed in their church schools.

The memo was in response to the ruling Convention People’s Party decree that the Marxist youth movement must be represented in every school.

The Protestant leaders’ anxiety over such a development is apparent in view of the Young; Pioneer catechism, which has passages such as these:

“Who gives us our daily bread?”

“Answer—Osagyefo Dr. Nkrumah.”

“Who gives us our clothes?”

“Answer—Osagyefo Dr. Nkrumah. Osagyefo will never die.”

“Osagyefo” is a traditional title meaning “redeemer, messiah, saviour.”

“Dr. Nkrumah” is Ghana President Kwame Nkrumah.

Obstacle To Unity

Ecumencial Press Service reports that proposals for church mergers in North India, Pakistan, and Ceylon have been rejected by the Calcutta Diocesan Council of the Church of India, Pakistan, Burma, and Ceylon. The council is a diocese of one of the bodies involved in the plan. Its action is considered significant because the Bishop of Calcutta is also the metropolitan of the Anglican body. The entire church is expected to act on the proposals at its General Council in 1963.

The mergers would result in the formation of the United Churches of North India and Pakistan and the United Church of Lanka (Ceylon).

The North India and Pakistan plan would be a union of the Anglican body, Methodist Southern Asia Central Conference, British and Australian Methodist Conferences, Church of the Brethren, Disciples of Christ, Council of Baptist Churches, and the present United Church of Northern India. In Ceylon the Lanka Church would combine Anglicans, Baptists, Methodists, Presbyterians, and Congregationalists.

Convention Circuit

Buck Hill Falls, Pennsylvania—The oldest continuous denomination in America may soon lose its individual identity. The Reformed Church in America, convened last month for the 156th meeting of its General Synod, was confronted by 18 overtures pressing for merger with other churches. Thirteen came from the denomination’s classes and three from particular synods. Eight of the overtures sought possible union with the Presbyterian Church in the U. S. (Southern), eight others with the United Presbyterian Church in the U. S. A., one with the United Church of Christ, and one with the Christian Reformed Church.

The feeling of urgency for church union was apparent not only from the high number of overtures, but also in their edgy language. The overture from Classis Metropolitan Jersey declared, “If it be the policy of General Synod to continue aloof … the General Synod should clearly state that policy, enabling constituent congregations, ministers and members to plan accordingly.” The Classis of Ulster was even more plain-spoken: “If … a majority … prevent us again from merging in strength … why then should not (1) Synods …, (2) Classes … (3) Churches unite individually?”

The Standing Committee on Overtures reported that it had “grave doubts whether the ecumenical urge can again be thwarted with impunity.” The synod adopted a committee recommendation “to take steps looking toward merger” with the Presbyterian Church in the U. S. Earlier the Synod had adopted by a unanimous, standing vote a “Joint Resolution” that the two denominations explore 14 areas of common concern. The “Joint Resolution” had been drawn up by committees of the two churches, and had earlier been adopted by a unanimous, standing vote by the Southern Presbyterian General Assembly in May.

The synod also decided “to hold other union possibilities in abeyance.” It was felt that fruitful discussion could not be held at this time with United Presbyterians and the United Church of Christ since both are engaged in ecumenical discussion with three other churches.

Synod debates also had a historic flavor. Echoes of the 334-year-old denomination’s origin were heard as delegates spoke of King George I and the royal charter he had granted to the Collegiate Reformed Church of New York. Collegiate Church is part of the Reformed denomination but still operates under the British royal charter. Discussion centered on the charter’s provisions for the obtaining of ruling elders which conflict with the method prescribed by the denomination’s constitution as amended in 1960. Decision on this highly technical church-state issue was deferred for further study.

An overture from Classis of South Grand Rapids to withdraw from the World Council of Churches was rejected. The classis asserted that the theological position of the Orthodox churches was contrary to the faith of the World Council itself and to that of the Reformed Church, and that the Russian Orthodox Church admitted last year at New Delhi was “completely subservient” to Russian communism. The overtures committee countered that a completely subservient church would not still have its seminaries and churches closed and its bishops imprisoned, and that the admitted divergence of theological position was not such as to exclude such fellowship as obtains within the World Council of Churches.

The Rev. Herman J. Ridder presented a moving report on the denomination’s Preaching-Teaching-Reaching Mission. He declared, “Any evangelism that is not convicted of the fact that men are lost apart from Jesus Christ will die from lack of motivation.” Ridder informed the delegates that many ministers confessed that the impact of the church’s new PTR Mission had changed their view of their own ministry.

The General Synod urged “constant scrutiny” of right-to-work laws and affirmed “the necessity of preserving just collective bargaining.” It also voted “to stubbornly resist all attempts to deprive our children of the religious symbols of Bible reading and prayer in our public educational systems.”

In other action the synod declared that “adultery and desertion may be illustrative rather than definitive patterns through which the ‘one-flesh’ relationship is destroyed.” It urged study to discover whether modern life presents other such “involuntary breache(s) of the marriage ties.”

J.D.

Union Seminary And Accreditation

An emotional floor battle enlivened the twenty-third biennial meeting of the American Association of Theological Schools in Toronto last month.

The debate centered on 150-year-old Bangor (Maine) Theological Seminary, which has been unable to win complete accreditation because some 65 per cent of its students have no undergraduate degree.

An AATS Committee of Review sustained the decision of the Commission on Accrediting not to accredit the seminary.

Bangor President Frederick W. Whittaker appealed to the assembly for a reversal of the decision. The problem came into focus when it became apparent that proposed changes in the AATS constitution and standards of accreditation would make Bangor’s plight permanent.

Dr. Henry P. Van Dusen, president of New York’s Union Theological Seminary, fought vigorously for underdog Bangor. He declared on the floor that if the association adopted the provisions he dissented from he would ask the Union faculty to surrender its own accreditation in favor of an associate ATTS membership. He averred that he was in dead earnest.

Reactions to Van Dusen’s threat were mixed, but the adoption in principle of the proposed changes leaves a question as to whether he will make it good.

It was also announced at the AATS meeting that Meadville Seminary (Unitarian) has been placed on probation for two years following breakup of the Federal Faculty of the University of Chicago.

Toronto—A decision on whether to open formal conversations with the United Church of Canada was postponed for another year by the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in Canada.

The proposal from the Presbytery of Victoria for talks to “create better mutual understanding” between the two denominations was referred to a committee on inter-church relations which will report to next year’s assembly.

Both the United and Presbyterian churches in Canada are conducting exploratory conversations with Anglican theologians but not with each other.

Total giving for all purposes to the denomination last year amounted to a record $1,735,000, an increase of seven per cent over 1960. The denomination embraces about 200,000 members.

The assembly raised the basic minimum salary for some 400 ministers by $800 a year to $3, 900. This is in addition to a free manse and a small travel allowance.

In other action, the assembly referred a report on nuclear weapons for Canada to the Board of Evangelism and Social Concerns for study and presentation at next year’s meeting. The report said no nation has a right to resort to nuclear weapons.

Minneapolis—Delegates to the 66th annual conference of the Lutheran Free Church accepted terms of a proposed merger with the American Lutheran Church by a vote of 530 to 112.

The action climaxed several years of deliberation by the 90,250-member LFC on whether it should join the 2,365,000-member ALC, third largest unit of U. S. Lutheranism. It followed two hours of orderly debate in which 24 speakers were heard, 18 for the merger and six against. The opposition cited concern about administrative control over congregations in the ALC and charged modernist and neoorthodox inroads at the larger body’s Luther Seminary at St. Paul, Minnesota.

Augsburg College and Seminary of the LFC will be separated when the merger takes effect. The future of the seminary has not yet been determined.

The LFC originally took part in the planning and discussion that resulted in the formation of the ALC but withdrew from union negotiations after a congregational referendum in 1955 failed by 35 votes to gain a required three-fourths majority favoring the merger. A second referendum in 1957 lost by 15 votes. Approval of the merger finally came last fall when a third referendum resulted in a 32-vote surplus over a required two-thirds majority.

The LFC’s application for membership in the ALC will be presented to its general convention in Milwaukee in the fall. LFC President John Stensvaag said the certification of membership to the ALC will include all congregations, omitting only those that have taken definite action to sever their LFC connection.

Dr. Paul C. Empie, executive director of the National Lutheran Council, predicted that the Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod eventually will come into a new Lutheran cooperative association.

Hendersonville, North Carolina—A report condemning corruption in government and degeneration of private moral standards was adopted at the 158th meeting of the General Synod of the Associated Reformed Presbyterian Church.

A request for a study program on physical healing through prayer was referred to a committee for consideration. The committee is expected to report to next year’s synod.

The denomination has some 28,000 members in 147 churches.

Belfast—The General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland reaffirmed its membership in the World Council of Churches, although an amendment critical of the basis and policies of the WCC drew considerable support, particularly from younger ministers.

The assembly also reaffirmed a resolution passed last year which emphasizes the refusal to accept episcopal reordination in the interests of negotiations on union with other churches.

Dr. Austin A. Fulton, foreign mission convener, reported that the church has more missionary candidates for its work in India and Nyasaland than it has had in many years. A plentiful supply of ministerial students also was reported.

For the first time an official representative of the Irish Congregational Union was present at the sessions. Informal talks on church union between the Presbyterians and Congregationalists have been going on for some time. Other representatives at the assembly included top officials of the Church of Scotland, United Church of Canada, United Church of Northern India and the Presbyterian Churches in England and Wales.

At a foreign missions session the assembly received a report from the World Presbyterian Alliance urging that Presbyterian and Reformed churches “must undertake, or develop, discussions with the Roman Catholic Church.”

“The calling of the Second Vatican Council is an event which the Reformed churches cannot ignore,” the report declared. “Sympathetic and discerning theological study of the meaning of all these developments for Reformed churches, and for the ecumencial movement as a whole, is a responsibility which the Reformed churches must take seriously.”

Observing that ecumencial discussions are not limited to those churches within the movement, the report said:

“They should be pursued, in addition to the Roman Catholic Church, with those numerous groups, often very slightly organized in an ecclesiastical sense, which had undertaken an enormous amount of missionary work, and were extremely powerful in the countries where the younger churches were established.”

Recruiting Drive

The Church of England is lining up a full-time recruiting officer in a drive to enlist more men for the ministry. The Bishop of Guildford, Dr. George Reindorp, says local clergymen will be urged to preach on the need and that recruiting posters will be sent to every boys’ secondary school in the country.

The Faithful On File

The Roman Catholic Church in England and Wales is checking up on its 3,500,000 baptized members. A census conducted by the Newman Demographic Survey (officially recognized by the hierarchy) aims to cover every parish, and to get such details as educational standard, occupation, size of family and reading habits. Some 26 questions are asked in each interview. “Our inquiry is 100 per cent thorough,” said A. E. Spencer, director of the survey and a former Inland Revenue officer. “Every single household, whether it is known to be Catholic or not, is visited in the parish area. We even cover such places as lodging houses, hotels, and hospitals to be sure we miss no one.” There is a special five-question card for children.

When all the cards are completed for a parish they are sent to London for processing; then a copy is returned to the parish priest, who will pay anything from $200 to $550 for the data.

J. D. D.

An Invitation Declined

Some bellringers find the practice of their ancient art is thirsty work and take steps to remedy this—a fact which has been worrying the Anglican Bishop of Dunwich, the Right Rev. Thomas Cash-more.

Rededicating the bells at a service in Eye parish church, Suffolk, the bishop said: “In some churches bellringers enter the tower to ring the bells calling people to worship and then we see them leaving the church after proclaiming something of the Gospel through the bells. They slink off to the nearest pub to refresh themselves after their energetic action.”

The bishop felt this was like a clergyman who challenged people to come to church, but didn’t appear himself.

Suffolk bellringers, describing the remarks as “not true, uncharitable, unjust, and in rather bad taste,” added curiously: “A real attempt by the incumbent to reform these alcoholics or, alternatively, deny them the use of the bell, would at least indicate that some welcome interest was being taken in their activities.”

J. D. D.

Like A Mighty Army

The crowd at right is one of the largest ever assembled to hear the Gospel. It is a picture of Christendom united around the proclamation of the Word of God. The scene is Soldier Field, Chicago, on Sunday afternoon, June 17, at the final service of evangelist Billy Graham’s 19-day Greater Chicago Crusade. Stadium officials estimated the turnout at 116,000.

Under a cloudless sky the thermometer climbed to 95 at the gigantic stadium along Lake Michigan. The heat was tempered only by a 12-mile-an-hour breeze out of the southwest. Thousands sat under umbrellas, donned straw coolie hats or improvised newspaper headcovers.

Graham spoke twice during the two-hour service, first challenging church people to follow-up Chicago’s new spiritual opportunities, then evangelizing the multitudes. His sermon was based on King Agrippa’s poignant utterance to the Apostle Paul:

“Almost thou persuadest me to be a Christian” (Acts 26:28 KJV).

High over the north end of the stadium hung a scriptural inscription, traditional decor at Graham meetings. It blew in the breeze as the evangelist spoke. Ten-foot letters suspended between two poles some 80 yards apart spelled out the Christian definition:

“JESUS SAID: I AM THE WAY, THE TRUTH, AND THE LIFE.John 14:6.”

Graham drew a parallel between factors responsible for the downfall of the Roman Empire and conditions currently prevailing in America such as the sex binge, deficit government spending, lust for pleasure, reliance upon armaments, and the decay of religion into mere form.

The evangelist, described as “very tired” from having spoken as many as five times a day, recovered to exhibit a closing-day vigor which was unusual even for him. It was Father’s Day, but Graham, whose sermons ordinarily make a point of special occasions, ignored it in deference to the urgency of the hour.

Crowds began to arrive at 9 a.m. for the 3 p.m. service. Like a mighty army they filed into Soldier Field. They included sizeable delegations from as far away as Denver and Toronto. Halfway through the service stadium officials told the Rev. Walter H. Smyth, crusade director, that about 85,000 were then seated in the stands. Up to 5,000 were on the field. Other thousands, especially latecomers, chose to go under the stands instead of venturing into the end zone bleachers behind the platform where the only vacant seats were located. Some who set out for Soldier Field never got there because of traffic jams and lack of parking space.

Several hundred persons in the stands were overcome as a result of the heat. Only two, however, were hospitalized.

The audience at Soldier Field was the largest Graham has ever had in the Western Hemisphere. It eclipsed even his 1957 Yankee Stadium crowd which was estimated at 100,000. Only in England and Australia has he drawn attendances larger than the Chicago turnout (120,000 in London, 143,750 in Melbourne, and 150,000 in Sydney).

Graham’s crusade in Chicago produced an average attendance of 37,000 per service—another record—and an aggregate of 703,000.

The numerical success of the crusade was attributed to four major factors: “Operation Andrew,” a program under which persons interested in the crusade bring friends and neighbors (a spokesman estimated some 1,000,000 visitations in all); unprecedented press coverage; the facilities of McCormick Place, a strategically-located exposition hall the size of six football fields where all meetings but the last were held; and a great emphasis on prayer.

Of infinite more importance in crusade statistics are those who indicated a new commitment to Christ by walking to the platform at the close of a service. In Chicago there were 16,451 of these, including 1,729 who stepped forward at Soldier Field. They represented 2.34 per cent of the audience, compared with the 3.16 per cent average established in 260 weeks of crusades around the world.

The Chicago campaign was shorter than most conducted by Graham in major cities. It seems certain, nonetheless, that never before has a crusade had such an impact upon a metropolitan area. Virtually all sociological strata were penetrated. Teen-age gang members, for instance, attended by the score. The lone segment of the citizenry not significantly touched was the high-rise apartment dwellers, who are often sealed off from visitation efforts.

Among the converts were leading North Shore socialites, a beauty queen, and a youth gang leader. A divorced couple, neither having known the other was there, responded to the invitation at the same service. They plan to be remarried.

The teen-age son of a team member came forward to rededicate his life.

The converted gang leader, in acknowledging his new-found faith, handed over to his counselor a pistol, a knife, and a razor.

One boy met his probation officer in the counselling room.

Decisions were also being made outside the framework of crusade but as a direct result of it. The minister of a large Chicago church came to Graham with a confession that for years he had been preaching beyond his experience. He said he had been convicted of his shortcomings during the course of the crusade and that the Holy Spirit had made him “miserable.” Upon making a commitment he said he would face his congregation the following Sunday as a new man.

At a meeting with 1,400 ministers Graham had urged them to make it a point to preach evangelistically on the morning of the last day of the crusade and to extend an invitation at the close of the service. Some churches reportedly experienced their first such public invitation. At one church that morning a known gangster stepped to the altar and fell to his knees in repentance.

With its reputation as a capital of vice and graveyard of evangelism, Chicago’s spiritual heritage is meager. Little has been done in evangelism since Billy Sunday held his largest crusade there in 1918. The last attempt at a city-wide crusade was made in 1946 with a “Life Begins” campaign with Dr. Paul Rood, Dr. John R. Rice, and Dr. Bob Jones, Sr. The meetings attracted an average of 2,500 per night, with 9,000 present for the final service.

Theologically Chicago has been a center of liberal thought, whereas the city’s evangelical forces have been fragmented. Because of these and other factors, including the mass exodus to the suburbs and the changing population complex in recent years, some observers had been skeptical of a Graham crusade in the city proper.

There were other factors, however, which provided favorable conditions for the crusade. Moody Bible Institute and its radio station, WMBI, have long been champions of the evangelical cause in Chicago. Several other evangelical colleges and conservative seminaries also have been influential. Many evangelical leaders make their home in the Chicago area.

Opposition to Graham’s Chicago crusade came from right and left, although it was not so pronounced as during some crusades. Ministers of the General Association of Regular Baptists were the most aggressive in their opposition, sowing virulent attacks against the evangelist. Some Plymouth Brethren groups underscored a distaste for mass evangelism in general. Other evangelicals, dubious of contacts with liberals, were said to be “swallowing hard.”

In a few cases there was disagreement between laity and clergy over posture toward the crusade. One congregation reportedly demanded the resignation of its minister after he spoke against Graham.

The most outspoken liberal seminary professor was Dr. Gibson Winter of the University of Chicago Divinity School, who said the crusade had set back the church 50 years. Graham countered by saying that Winter had grossly understated Graham’s intentions, which were to carry modern theology back 19 centuries to that of Jesus and the Apostles.

A few liberal Baptist ministers seemed to be the only other vocal opponents although several denominational church groups had voted to stay aloof. Many ministers belonging to these groups cooperated with the crusade wholeheartedly.

The Church Federation of Greater Chicago, which had voted not to endorse the crusade, subsequently opened its offices to serve the effort.

Graham, often advised by physicians to adopt a lighter schedule, finds it hard to limit his speaking engagements to the nightly mass meetings of a crusade. He has more invitations than he can handle, but he is reluctant to turn them down because they frequently represent opportunities not normally available for the proclamation of the Gospel. The evangelist’s friends also make great demands on his time (“His friends,” says a source close to Graham, “are often his worst enemies”). In Chicago Graham appeared on college campuses, in prison compounds, at military installations, and before a variety of civic clubs and community centers. At times these activities are more productive of new spiritual awareness than the mass meetings. Two weeks after Graham spoke at the Chicago House of Correction, the chaplain was quoted as saying that 197 inmates and 7 wardens had come to him for counselling, while chapel attendance increased more than 25 per cent.

Perhaps the greatest impact of the Greater Chicago Crusade is yet to come. More than 167 television stations from coast to coast scheduled a series of five hour-long telecasts made at McCormick Place and Soldier Field. Each program closes with a plea by Graham for viewers to make decisions for Christ.

The scope of the Graham effort made a great impression on officials of the Church Federation of Greater Chicago. The Rev. Charles M. Crowe, a leading Methodist minister, hailed the crusade as having magnified the Protestant faith. He said Christ had been honored and the sordidness of sin held up in the clear light of the Word of God. He credited the Graham team with having demonstrated the meaning of genuine ecumenicity.

“Some of us of the ecumenical crowd,” said Crowe, “have been ecumenical to our own group only.”

Also enthusiastic was Dr. Edgar H. S. Chandler, executive vice president of the federation who as a consultant to the U. S. Information Agency is top religious affairs advisor in the Federal government.

Chandler said he had seen positive results of the Graham crusade around the world and that he had expected great things when the evangelist came to Chicago.

However, he said, the crusade had accomplished “even greater things than I had anticipated.”

It is up to the Chicago area churches to follow-up the personal commitments made during the crusade, he added.

Chandler cited the fact that Graham had “dealt so honestly and definitely with some of the basic social problems of our city and generation.”

He declared that he knew of a number of ministers who previously had been antagonistic or lukewarm toward Graham who had developed more positive attitudes after witnessing the crusade.

Chandler said flatly that if another Graham crusade were scheduled in Chicago he would urge the federation to endorse it officially.

Such an opportunity may indeed come. Herbert J. Taylor, general chairman of the crusade, said the executive committee and crusade supporters in some 1,200 churches will work and pray for a return of Graham and his team—perhaps in 1965.

People: Words And Events

Deaths:Dr. Russell J. Humbert, 57, president of DePauw University; at Traverse City, Michigan … Archbishop Teodors Grunbergs, 92, of the Latvian Church in Exile; at Essingen, Germany … Dr. William Edgar Gilroy, 86, former newspaper columnist and Congregationalist editor; at Newton Centre, Massachusetts … Dr. Frederick Ponsonby Wood, 77, cofounder of the National Young Life Campaign of Britain; in London.

Retirements: As minister-at-large for United Presbyterian Board of National Missions, Dr. Louis H. Evans, Sr.… as pastor of Delmar Baptist Church, St. Louis, Dr. Edwin T. Dahlberg, former president of the National Council of Churches … as president of the American Bible Society, Dr. Daniel Burke.

Elections: As president of the American Association of Theological Schools, Principal G. Johnston of Montreal United Theological Callege … as executive bishop of the General Church of the New Jerusalem (Swedenborgian), the Rt. Rev. Willard D. Pendleton … as moderator of the Orthodox Presbyterian Church, the Rev. Robert L. Atwell … as general secretary of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland, Dr. Andrew J. Gailey … as president of the Methodist Church in Ireland, the Rev. James Wisheart.

Appointments: As American counsul-general to the Federation of the Rhodesias and Nyasaland, Dr. Paul F. Green, noted Southern Baptist educator … as general director of United Church Men, Dr. Don L. Calame … as executive secretary of the Board of Higher Education of the United Lutheran Church in America, Dr. E. Theodore Bachmann … as executive director of the Church Federation of Los Angeles, the Rev. Harry A. McKnight.

George Burnham

George Ralph Burnham, 43, first news editor of CHRISTIANITY TODAY, died last month in a Chattanooga, Tennessee, hospital. Burnham, who suffered from ulcers, had undergone intestinal surgery and was expected to recover when complications set in.

Burnham left CHRISTIANITY TODAY at the end of 1957 to work with World Vision. He subsequently returned to the Chattanooga News-Free Press, where he had been a reporter for many years.

Burnham was author of two books on overseas evangelism, Billy Graham: Mission Accomplished and To the Far Corners. He also wrote Prison Is My Parish, a biography of Chaplain Park Tucker of the federal penitentiary in Atlanta.