Pacifists fight back

All Curled Up

There has come to my hands, as too often happens, a church bulletin. I understand that men in the active pastorate like to get these things from each other just for the sake of ideas, but they do nothing for me.

This particular bulletin, which came out in December, is an extended one that includes a newsletter and a list of recommended books. Wouldn’t you know it, the list of books has the usual covey of Christmas cuties, the kinds of books publishing houses get out for the seasonal trade with the misguided assumption that around Christmas and Easter, when people are rushed to death, they will be wanting to read special little books of religious poetry, religious art, somebody’s self-conscious prayers (for publication), and the customs surrounding holidays in “other lands.”

But after the usual fare, this particular minister suggested, to show that he is “in,” that his parishioners read Camus, Bonhoeffer, Salinger, Faulkner, and Hemingway (but not quite Henry Miller). It is no feather in my cap to recall that I have already read the books listed; but this does not prevent me from wondering why authors like this get into book lists in church bulletins.

More to the point, such authors are always included on the book lists sent out by colleges for the freshmen to read as a kind of orientation before they start their studies. Who is trying to kid whom, and just what do the compilers of these lists have in mind? I have no particular objection to these authors’ being read; what hurts me is that this kind of stuff is being read when a lot of other stuff is not.

It is one of the strange quirks of our education today that we want everybody to think about calculus before they have learned arithmetic. Unless most people learn pretty soon what the simple Gospel is—sin, salvation, newness of life, and eternal hope—there isn’t much use in our discussing the subtle variations.

EUTYCHUS II

War And Peace

Your analysis of our involvement in Viet Nam (“Where Do We Go from Here?,” Jan. 7 issue) was penetrating and prophetic. This is the kind of solid Christian guidance we need. I’m going to start praying my prayers for peace instead of wishing them.

Deerfield, Ill.

LEROY BIRNEY

With [General William K. Harrison’s] military logic, I cannot quarrel (“Is the United States Right in Bombing North Viet Nam?,” Jan. 7 issue). But his employment of the questionable dogma of the Second Coming to afford his view a religious sanction was, to say the least, reprehensible.… He chides the pacifists and peace-mongers for their vain efforts.

I cannot imagine that the God we have known in Jesus Christ would be adverse to our attempts, however futile, to become “peacemakers.” Besides, it would be utter abdication of elemental human responsibility not to work for peace—or is the United Nations a massive exercise in futility?…

But if the Second Advent, as the General says, is the sole source of lasting peace, then instead of manufacturing and detonating bombs, Christians ought to be praying, “Even so, come, Lord Jesus.” Pentwater, Mich.

HARRY T. COOK, II

One of the most confused and confusing articles I have ever read on Viet Nam is the one by General Harrison.… He … dismisses pacifism as being irrelevant.…

DONALD K. BLACKIE

Calvary Reformed Church

Grand Rapids, Mich.

Statistical Static

Re “Seminaries Hold the Line” (News, Jan. 7 issue); You quoted the AATS figures concerning the percentage of students preparing for the ministry, mentioned the United Presbyterians and the Anglican Church of Canada, and then added, “All other large denominations declined.” This is strictly false, as a not even very careful reading of those figures shows. The United Church of Christ, for example, had a percentage increase of over 30 per cent. A number of other major denominations also did not decline.…

HAROLD H. WILKE

Executive Director

Council for Church and Ministry

United Church of Christ

New York, N. Y.

• The article compared 1965 enrollments with those of the previous year, but not “percentage.” A “not even very careful reading” of staff report Number 8, Volume IX, from the American Association of Theological Schools shows the U.C.C. seminaries had 773 students in 1965 and 777 the previous year. Other major denominations with lower numbers in 1965 were the United Church of Canada, American and Southern Baptists, Disciples, Methodists, Southern Presbyterians, and Episcopalians. Mr. Wilke’s 30 per cent increase is probably a comparison between 1956 and 1965.—ED.

‘Dangerously Extremist’

I am shocked at the full-page ad (Jan. 7 issue) of the Conservative Book Club. The Conservative Club, as we know in our area, is a front for the John Birch Society, a dangerously extremist organization.… Kinston, N. C.

D. W. CHARLTON

I am “a politically conservative Christian who supported politically conservative politicians out of a lively fear of socialism through expanding federal controls and the welfare implications of projected government programs” (“Will 1966 Signal a Breakthrough?,” Jan. 7 issue). However, I was extremely offended by the advertisement of the Conservative Book Club.… Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio

JOHN COCHRANE

Dr. Poling Replies

I certainly appreciate that generous and heartwarming editorial on page 32 of your January 7 issue. Thank you.…

Also this letter gives me the opportunity to express my appreciation for CHRISTIANITY TODAY. That same issue of January 7 is chuck-full of important, timely, vital material. Particularly I have read with appreciation “Will 1966 Signal a Breakthrough,” “Is Protestant Christianity Being Sabotaged from Within?,” and “The Future of Evangelism.” And also, let me add, the article and editorial on Viet Nam.

DANIEL A. POLING

Chairman and Editor

Christian Herald Association

New York, N. Y.

The Nature Of Crucifixion

The reference to mandrake juice and the Crucifixion (“Did Jesus Die on Calvary?,” Dec. 17 issue) fails to note, first, that Hugh J. Schonfield incorporated Horner’s theory about the crucifixion of Christ into his recent book, The Passover Plot, and, second, that the theory that Jesus did not die on the cross, but took a narcotic drug that fooled the Romans, is patently incompatible with the most rudimentary consideration of the nature of crucifixion. The spread arms and pendant body raise the rib cage and drop the diaphragm maximally. The victim can breathe only by raising the body, an action which requires the use of the large muscles of the legs if it is to be maintained for any length of time. This is why the legs of those crucified were broken to hasten death: death by suffocation would ensue within minutes. Therefore, if Christ had taken a drug in sufficient quantity to induce unconsciousness while hanging on the cross, it would not have taken a spear thrust to hasten his death. He would have been dead before his friends could have taken him down. The plot so elaborately spun out by Schonfield necessarily falls apart because of its inconsistency with this one elementary fact. Indeed, if Jesus reappeared physically after the crucifixion, this recent theory requires the identical miracle of resurrection which Schonfield and Horner are at pains to avoid.

Unfortunately, this error will continue its devastation, for it satisfies the desire of man to avoid the claims of Scripture. The unloved correction can only plod slowly behind the flying falsehood. Upland, Calif.

DAVID F. SIEMENS. JR.

Send Me More

Many of us were overjoyed to receive the essay on “Revealed Religion” by Gordon H. Clark (Dec. 17 issue).… Would you send me twelve copies of this essay, that I might distribute them to [a] class (and thus also be assured that no one walks off with mine, which is being loaned-to-death!).

Concordia Theological Seminary

Springfield, Ill.

DALE W. NESS

Delightfully I noted that our history of philosophy text was none other than Gordon H. Clark’s Selections from Hellenistic Philosophy. With this opening I was able to put your wonderful pamphlet into the professor’s hands; an interesting discussion ensued.…

Portland, Ore.

DALE SANDERS

Soul-Winning Chaplain

In re “Is the Chaplaincy a Quasi-Religious Business?” (Dec. 17 issue): Why is it that the evangelicals often question the motives of their ministering brethren who serve in the military chaplaincy?… It has been my privilege to win somewhat over 3,000 men and women to Jesus Christ since I have become a Navy chaplain.… I have given opportunity for decisions again and again in public services. I have gone so far as to give old-fashioned altar calls in Marine and Navy chapels, all done in good taste and order. I have never been called in question by the command about my methods and principles.…

Chaplain Corps

United States Navy

STANFORD E. LINZEY, JR.

Commander

A Jesuit Joins Us

Please enter me for a subscription to your magazine.…

Thank you … for giving us a distinctly diverse and consistent approach to the great religious themes of today … so that we outside your fold can learn to appreciate better the conscientious positions of Christians in many churches.

DAVID J. BOWMAN,

S. J. Chicago, Ill.

Loyola University

The Christian Is Witness

The Witness: Message, Method, Motivation, by Urie A. Bender (Herald, 1965, 159 pp., $3), is reviewed by Herman J. Ridder, president, Western Theological Seminary, Holland, Michigan.

Although he makes no reference to it, D. T. Niles’s famous definition of witness fits Bender’s description: “Evangelism is one beggar telling another beggar where to get bread.”

Because he sees the Christian as a witness whether or not he wants to be one, the author begins his treatment with some of the key hindrances to witnessing. The reader sees himself implicated in a variety of ways. The hindrances are real.

Describing witness, Bender says: “To witness is to report; to present the evidence growing out of personal experience. That is all” (p. 54). “Every aspect of personality expressed outwardly in any form projects an image and carries a message” (p. 65). Or again, “Witnessing is being oneself before others, the new self in Christ Jesus …” (p. 66). And this is the burden of his presentation throughout the book. He is anxious to convey the impression that witness is not some special activity engaged in under certain structured conditions but is rather the natural expression of the Christian in any kind of situation.

Bender has his eyes open to the world. He sincerely wants to let the world “write the agenda” as the Church seeks to relate the Gospel of Christ to the world’s need. He sees witness as what it indeed is: hard, exacting labor. One sometimes tires of the approach that suggests that evangelism can be “made easy.” There are no easy ways of discipleship, which involves the bearing of a cross.

Bender is so concerned about the naturalness of witness that he is led into a fatal overemphasis on it, thereby neglecting the other side of the coin. Repeatedly he disparages organization as it relates to evangelistic efforts. “… mission boards have been organized, outreach programs have been set up, and individuals have been sent great distances to fulfill a mission whose major resource lies untouched” (p. 76). He sees little value in “special calls, appointments, and assignments” (p. 77). In fact, he suggests that “even friendship and visitation evangelism, so-called, are inherently dangerous.… The real problem with organized activities is that they are organized. This results too often in a stiff formality, a job to be done and gone, and the report for the record” (pp. 88, 89).

Obviously, there is a kind of organization that is stultifying and lifeless. There are methods of evangelism that have lived far beyond the period of history for which they have been created. And the church that assumes it is doing evangelism just because it is busy going through the motions, even if they have no effect, obviously needs to take a long look at itself and allow the Spirit to breathe new life into its witness. But to say that witness suffers when a congregation carries out an aggressive and attractive program of evangelism that leads its members into an increasingly natural participation is to deal harshly with the facts. For many, naturalness in expression comes by way of a program, such as visitation evangelism, that places them in a situation where a positive witness is required. When they find God’s Spirit powerful in that situation, they later find the confidence to trust him in all of life’s relationships.

And that’s all Bender really wants. With that I couldn’t agree more. His style is refreshing and his presentation clear. The book lends itself to individual or group study.

Next witness!

HERMAN J. RIDDER

Was Hemingway Right?

Sin, Sex and Self-Control, by Norman Vincent Peale (Doubleday, 1965, 207 pp., $4.50), is reviewed by Peter Van Tuinen, minister, Trinity Christian Reformed Church, Artesia, California.

This hook, the latest from the facile pen of Dr. Peale, is directed to the moral challenges of our time. Considering the twilight of honesty, the breakdown of sexual morality, and the instability of the family, the author applies his well-known methods of “positive thinking” to meet these challenges.

He proceeds from the observation that our present moral decay results from the breaking down of outer controls. Authority is questioned. The sanctions of the Bible are no longer accepted. What is needed is that people develop inner controls to replace the outer ones. This book is intended to furnish the confidence and the incentive necessary to gain inner control.

In this attempt, the author gives some good counsel, fortified by the usual illustrations from his experience in personal counseling and from other biographical material. He illustrates the troubling consequences of dishonesty and points up the fallacies in the reasoning of those who argue for sexual freedom. In his discussion of the family, he gives some sound advice for parents on the responsibility of training children toward self-discipline and maturity. In all his counsel, he indicates that self-discipline in the light of proper standards is the only satisfying way of life.

One appreciates Dr. Peale’s forthright stand for high moral standards and self-discipline and his emphasis on individual responsibility. His book may well lead some readers to pause and reflect on their pattern of living. If it does, these readers will find some simple and practical techniques for evaluation and correction of their habits of thought and life.

But if Peale were not so well known, his readers would be surprised to learn that he is a minister of the Gospel. His use of Scripture is not that of one who is a student of the Word but of one who adapts familiar quotations from it to suit his point. Moreover, neither his premises nor his goals are in line with the teachings of Scripture.

His whole approach presupposes “a tremendous amount of confidence in the individual,” a confidence Peale justifies on the grounds that Jesus had this, too (pp. 13,205). What about Jesus’ declaration that one cannot see the Kingdom of God unless he is born again? Hasn’t Peale read that? Yes, he has. “Replacing self with selflessness [is] so difficult that the Bible compares it to being born again. There is no easy prescription. There is only one rule that applies in virtually every case: control yourself. That is the secret: control, control, control” (p. 108). Religion can make the necessary change in a person; but “it can happen without religion too” (pp. 194, 195), only it is much harder that way. This is a flat contradiction of the teaching of Jesus, one that comes to focus in Peale’s assertion that “he [Jesus] put no limitation on the power of the human spirit to lift itself above itself” (p. 205).

Peale’s basic premise is unbiblical. He finds cause for optimism in a theory that mankind is actually evolving a higher morality. External authority is breaking down, but man will develop the inner control to take its place. We are now in the interim period in which people are misusing their new freedom from outer controls. Every person who follows Peale’s advice will become a moral force in the world to help the evolution along (pp. 12, 41, 204). Incidentally, Peale doesn’t stay consistently with his theory. Having set it forth, he forgetfully attributes the twilight of honesty to the fact that “inner restraints have been weakened” (p. 14).

This book is really a book on mental health rather than on Christian morality. Peale refers to Hemingway’s flippant judgment that “what is moral is what you feel good after and what is immoral is what you feel bad after” as “nonsense,” but most of the book appears to be a demonstration that Hemingway is right.

Sin, Sex and Self-Control is easy reading. It is a store of practical suggestions for gaining self-esteem. It is a book that would fit well in the Moral Rearmament library. But it is not Christianity.

PETER VAN TUINEN

Two Worlds Are Ours

Sacred and Secular: A Study in the Other-Worldly and This-Worldly Aspects of Christianity, by Arthur Michael Ramsey (Harper and Row, 1965, 83 pp., $3), is reviewed by James Daane, assistant editor,CHRISTIANITY TODAY.

The subtitle of this book indicates exactly what this book is: “A study in the other-worldly and this-worldly aspects of Christianity.” Anyone who has been troubled of late by reading about a secularized, wholly this-worldly, religionless Christianity will find this book reassuring and stabilizing. And, for that matter, any Christian who has compartmentalized his secular and religious life, or who has so spiritualized his life that the fun and pleasure of the good earth seem alien to his spiritual interests, could find this book, with its incarnational approach to the understanding of Christianity, a healthful corrective experience.

Against those who would wholly secularize and naturalize Christianity, Dr. Ramsey, Archbishop of Canterbury, says bluntly that we would be “hindered and not helped if we were to slip into treating words such as ‘other-worldly’ and ‘supernatural’ as bad words.” In Christianity, says Ramsey, earth and heaven bespeak a duality but not a dualism; “Christianity came into history passionately other-worldly in spirit, and this characteristic did not hinder but rather enhanced its impact upon the world.”

The archbishop is right, and they who urge Christianity’s greater secularization for greater impact on the modern world are confronted with the historic fact that it was an understanding of Christianity that had a distinct “other-worldly” dimension that profoundly shaped the Western world. As Ramsey asserts, “the concept of religionless Christianity is very vulnerable to criticism and probably meaningless,” though he rightly recognizes that “like many misleading conceptions it has behind it a truth which is often forgotten and urgently calls for attention.” For there are indeed versions of Christianity so “spiritual” that they eschew the very world into which Christ came and the very flesh in which he became incarnate.

The author explicitly disowns a notion that can within the Christian Church be regarded only as ridiculous, the notion that Christianity must accommodate itself to what the modern man of the scientific twentieth century is able to believe. “Learn what we can from the modern world about the new understanding of our faith, that faith may, when presented well no less than when presented ill, incur rejection by many. We dare not forget the words of St. Paul: ‘We preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumbling block and unto Gentiles foolishness.’ ” Some clever but superficial adherents of a new hermeneutic could ponder the claim of Kierkegaard (who was also clever but never superficial) that where there is no possibility of offense, there is also no possibility of faith.

Those who say that Christianity must be reinterpreted to become something the modern non-Christian is able and willing to believe, are themselves either unable or unwilling to recognize that they have lost all contact with the Gospel. They surely fail to see that a “this-world” which has no relationship to an “other-world” is thereby itself devaluated; not only does all the greatest art and drama possess its greatness through its transcendent reference, but even a blood-curdling curse is pallid without such a reference. A wholly secularized Christianity provides no basis for either great good or great evil; it reduces both to the significance of a sneeze or a backscratch.

In developing his theme that “two worlds are ours” and that there is therefore an authentic Christian humanism, Ramsey gives special attention to some other historical forms of synthesis developed in the history of the Christian Church. He closes with a chapter on what Christianity can learn about itself and the presence of its God in the world through a study of the state, the conscience, the sciences, secularism, humanism, and Christian civilization—phenomena that in some religious traditions fall within, or very near, the category of common grace.

These few brief lectures, written with grace and clarity, speak to a perennial problem particularly acute in our time.

JAMES DAANE

Earnest And Sober

I Believe in the Holy Ghost, by Maynard James (Bethany Fellowship, 1965, 167 pp., $2.97), is reviewed by Norman Shepherd, instructor in systematic theology, Westminster Theological Seminary, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

This book breathes the earnestness of a gospel minister calling upon preacher and people alike to repent of the sin of neglecting the Holy Spirit. His appeal is grounded in the infallible Word of the Spirit speaking in Scripture, reinforced by the word of fellow Christians testifying to the powerful operation of the Spirit in their own ministries.

This dual motif is characteristic of the volume as a whole. Regenerating power awaits the call of “ruined men” (p. 24); the pearl of great price must be supplemented by “the pearl of greatest price,” entire sanctification (p. 126); the once-for-all outpouring of the Spirit must be followed by a “personal Pentecost” (p. 76). There is truth in all of this, but the reader must continually ask whether the author has not unintentionally contributed to the neglect of the Spirit through insufficient attention to the sovereign efficacy of his operations.

In view of the current interest in glossalalia, the brief and superficial attention given to the phenomenon is disappointing. Perhaps it is just the brevity that gives rise to M. Lloyd-Jones’s comment reproduced on the dust jacket commending the excellence of this section. More likely, it is the fact that James does not insist that every believer must have the gift and grants that not every manifestation of tongues is of the Holy Spirit.

We can applaud the sobriety, but we regret that the author does not treat the question many of his readers doubtless have: whether the Church today ought to expect in its midst gifts of prophecy, tongues, and healing in the sense in which Paul thought of them. The answer to that question lies, in part, in an appreciation of the role played by these gifts in the unfolding revelation of the redemptive work of Jesus Christ as a whole; but unfortunately James does not illuminate this topic.

NORMAN SHEPHERD

On Growing Old

The Psychology of Aging, by James E. Birren (Prentice-Hall, 1964, 303 pp., $6.93), is reviewed by Melvin D. Hugen, pastor, Eastern Avenue Christian Reformed Church, Grand Rapids, Michigan.

On the bookshelf marked “Psychology” may be found everything from handbooks on how to live with a neurotic wife to esoteric research reports wholly unintelligible to the uninitiated. This book falls about 80 per cent up the scale between these two extremes. Written primarily for students of psychology, it treats the biological, social, and psychological changes and influences operative in the second half of man’s life-span. Dr. Birren has organized research information to present an integrated and specific picture of the continuing transformation of man through aging.

Old age is a strange and usually hostile world whose ways and weapons outsiders often do not understand. In view of the rapid increase in life expectancy, the development of such an understanding is increasingly important for the Church and the rest of society.

Aging is not a simple process. Birren suggests that it is useful to think of three types: biological, psychological, and social. He effectively destroys some of the stereotypes of biological aging, e.g., that elderly people are usually senile.

One of the more interesting findings about psychological aging is that the “attitudes of older persons reflect more a concern with the conditions of living than a fear of death” (p. 247). Discussing the great amount of time and energy the older person spends reviewing his past, Birren suggests that this is not just garrulous story-telling or reminiscences but rather an attempt to organize or reorganize his attitudes toward his life. There seems to be a need to arrive at an “acceptable image of himself and of the influences he will leave behind” (p. 275).

The chapter on the social age of the individual brings out problems arising from the fact that “in urban areas, there are few functions … an aging individual can meaningfully perform for himself or his family.” The resulting sense of uselessness is aggravated by the family’s being “better able to provide for the social and psychological dependency of the children than for that of older adults” (cf. pp. 35 ff.). These and other social factors require the Church to rethink her ministry to the elderly.

MELVIN D. HUGEN

Chaos

The Kingdom of the Cults, by Waller R. Marlin (Zondervan, 1965, 443 pp., $5.95), is reviewed by Wilbur M. Smith, professor emeritus of English Bible, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. Deerfield, Illinois.

The author of this encyclopedic work (about 240,000 words of text, excluding the indexes) has devoted the last twenty years to an exhaustive study of the major cults of our country and has written six volumes and numerous pamphlets on the subject. This is no doubt his major work. Twelve cults are discussed: Jehovah’s Witnesses, Christian Science, Mormonism, Spiritism, Father Divine, Theosophy, Zen Buddhism, The Church of the New Jerusalem, Bahaism, the Black Muslims. Unity, and Anglo-Israelistn, including the teachings of Herbert W. Armstrong (when I was last in Westminster Chapel, London, half the questions asked me related to the teachings of Armstrong, whose radio ministry and publications are very influential in Great Britain).

The author also gives us three introductory chapters, one of which is on the “Psychological Structure of Cultism,” and four concluding chapters on such matters as cults on the mission fields and cult evangelism. In the appendix are brief discussions of the Unitarians and Rosicrucians and a long chapter on Seventh-day Adventism, in which Martin contends that the Adventists are to be considered within the pale of evangelical Christianity.

The author gives a threefold consideration to each of these cults. First, he provides a historical background, sometimes, as with Mary Baker Eddy and Pastor Russell, going into great detail on such matters as sources and court documents. He then gives a careful statement, with quotations from official publications, of the cult’s teachings, especially as they relate to great Christian truths. Finally, he points out how these various teachings are contrary to the Word of God. Here he is at his best, showing himself a careful student of the original languages of the Scriptures. An excellent illustration is his marshaling of evidence to contradict the meaning Jehovah’s Witnesses give the verb analusis, “depart” (pp. 68, 69).

I think one might say that most cults are characterized by four things. First, they pretend to give a more accurate interpretation of the Scriptures than has the Christian Church, and thus claim to exalt the Scriptures. The title of Mary Baker Eddy’s book is Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures and of Pastor Russell’s works Studies in the Scriptures, while the Book of Mormon cites thousands of verses from the Bible (King James Version). Unity uses Christian terminology throughout its literature. In reading this material one is continually reminded of the word of our Lord, “Ye do err, not knowing the Scriptures, nor the power of God” (Matt. 22:29). (I was amazed to note in the definition of Christian Science in the American College Dictionary this statement: “a system of religious teaching based on the Scriptures.”) Second, the leaders of these cults believe, or at least pretend to believe, that they are especially anointed prophets for a new day, with a revelation from God, and they even go so far as to say that their peculiar ministry is the fulfillment of biblical prophecy. Third, the cults are unequivocably wrong in their interpretation of the person and work of Jesus Christ, denying his vicarious atonement, bodily resurrection, and true deity. All are to be judged by the very question that Jesus himself asked of the Pharisees, “What think ye of Christ? whose son is he?” (Matt. 22:42). Fourth, practically all these cults seem to hate the Church. Thus, for instance, in the literature of Jehovah’s Witnesses it is said that the clergy are “willingly or unwillingly the instruments of the hands of Satan.” Armstrong goes so far as to say that for 18½ centuries the Gospel was not preached, and the world was deceived into believing a false Gospel!

It is to be hoped that in a new printing someone will correct the book’s many typographical errors.

For years to come, this volume will be widely recognized as the outstanding work on the history, teaching, and tragic errors of the cults of our age.

WILBUR M. SMITH

Call To Action

Nothing to Win but the World: Missions at the Crossroad, by Clay Cooper (Zondervan, 1965, 152 pp. $2.95), is reviewed by Harold Lindsell, associate editor,CHRISTIANITY TODAY.

The author is founder-president of Vision. Incorporated, which assists foreign missionary societies in matters of recruitment, financial assistance, and interpretive reporting. The book has twenty-seven chapters of three to five pages each, covering diverse topics relating to missionary endeavor. Included are such subjects as prayer, use of money, divine love, service, recruitment, and the number of women missionaries as compared to men. The book contains many illustrative anecdotes, is epigrammatic, and has a certain attractive flair. Written for the average lay person, it is intended to push him into action—to get him to do something constructive with his life, his prayers, and his money.

In the opening chapter, the author inveighs against Christian jitters and fears of Communism which he calls “redphobia,” and which he discounts only to demonstrate his own “redphobia” by numerous and repeated references to the enemy we need not fear. He has also fallen into an old propaganda trap about the disproportion of women to men on the mission field. “Perhaps not more than twenty thousand Protestant missionaries are actually at their foreign posts at any one time. The male head count among these is so disproportionate as to be absurd.” Prior to this he cites instances of twenty-six single women to three single men, forty-one American women with no male representation, and others. The actual figures for North American missionaries show approximately fifteen women to every ten men. This ratio can hardly be called “absurd.”

In a desire to paint a sweeping word picture, the author at least once ends up advocating some bad theology. “The fate of humanity trembles on the brink. Hope hangs by a tenuous thread. One thing frightens the godless forces bent on enslaving the earth. It is the prospect that Christians might wake up and start acting their beliefs. Love in action would soon rivet the attention of the world upon Christ, and bring every eye to rest in adoration upon Him.”

HAROLD LINDSELL

Book Briefs

The Roots of Ghana Methodism, by F. L. Bartels (Cambridge, 1965, 368 pp., $9.50). The story of the growth of the Methodist Church in Ghana.

Deutero-Isaiah: A Theological Commentary on Isaiah 40–55, by George A. F. Knight (Abingdon, 1965, 283 pp., $5.50). Another valuable plowing of a well-plowed field.

Monks, Nuns, and Monasteries, by Sacheverell Sitwell (Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1965, 205 pp., $12.50). A good writer and wide traveler presents in words and pictures the art and architecture of Europe’s monasteries and churches, all touched with beauty, human interest stories, and religious feeling.

Toward Understanding Thessalonians, by Boyce W. Blackwelder (Warner, 1965, 160 pp., $3.95). A popular, Arminianistic commentary.

The Word God Sent, by Paul Scherer (Harper and Row, 1965, 272 pp., $4.95). Sermons by a master preacher with companion essays on the art of sermon-building.

Vatican Imperialism in the Twentieth Century, by Avro Manhattan (Zondervan, 1965, 414 pp., $5.95). A critique of “the greatest engine of spiritual aggrandizement in existence.”

We’re Never Alone: A Modern Woman Looks at Her World, by Eileen Guder (Zondervan, 1965, 148 pp., $2.95). The author, member of the Hollywood Presbyterian Church, discusses the things women worry about. Perceptive and well written.

Who Is Man?, by Abraham J. Heschel (Stanford University Press, 1965, 119 pp., $3.95). A great Jewish scholar argues that man is “a being in travail with God’s dreams and designs, with God’s dream of a world redeemed,” through social action and concern.

Morality and the Muses: Christian Faith and Art Forms, by Johan B. Hygen (Augsburg, 1965, 113 pp., $3). An attempt to understand art in the total human context.

Slavery and Methodism: A Chapter in American Morality, 1780–1845, by Donald G. Mathews (Princeton, 1965, 340 pp., $7.50). Of particular interest, since Methodism became the largest U. S. Protestant group and the one most evenly spread throughout the United States.

The Untold Story of Qumran, by John C. Trever (Revell, 1965, 214 pp., $8.95). The adventure and intrigue that followed the discovery of the most valuable archaeological documents of our time, by the first American to see, examine, and photograph the Dead Sea Scrolls.

The Popes and the Jews in the Middle Ages, by Edward A. Synan (Macmillan, 1965, 246 pp., $5.95). An exploration of the responses to the Jews made by popes of the fifth to fifteenth centuries; by a Roman Catholic.

The Church Secretary: Her Calling and Her Work, by Katie Lea Myers (Seabury, 1965, 128 pp., $3.50). Much good advice about a demanding position.

If I Could Pray Again, by David A. Redding (Revell, 1965, 119 pp., $2.50). Prayers uttered in the uncommon and untutored language of the heart.

The Guilt of Sin, by Charles G. Finney (Kregel, 1965, 124 pp., $2.50). Sermons on sin and guilt by the famous attorney-turned-evangelist.

The Rock and the River, by Martin Thornton (Morehouse-Barlow, 1965, 158 pp., $3.75). A timely, scholarly, hard-hitting book by an author who is not awed into jelly by the pretentious claims of much of modern theological scholarship.

Using and Maintaining Church Property, by Allen W. Graves (Prentice-Hall, 1965, 186 pp., $3.95). Practical advice useful to any church.

The Zondervan Pastor’s Annual for 1966, by William Austin (Zondervan, 1965, 384 pp., $3.95). Fifty-two morning services, fifty-two evening services, sermon outlines and illustrations, mid-week meditations and programs, services for special days, funeral meditations and Scriptures, communion thoughts and themes, wedding ceremonies. Evangelical, Baptistically orientated, and frequently superficial.

Acquiring and Developing Church Real Estate, by Joseph Stiles (Prentice-Hall, 1965, 189 pp., $3.95). Much practical light and wisdom for an area where mistakes outnumber pews.

So Great Salvation, by Charles G. Finney (Kregel, 1965, 128 pp., $2.50). Sermons dealing specifically with salvation.

Depth Perspectives in Pastoral Work, by Thomas W. Klink (Prentice-Hall, 1965, 144 pp., $2.95).

Paperbacks

The Bible and Social Ethics, by Hendrik Kraemer (Fortress, 1965, 38 pp., $.75). The author seeks a “purely biblical social ethic,” one that begins with the Church rather than the regenerated individual Christian. Worth careful study and appraisal.

The Puzzles of Job, by Ord L. Morrow (Back to the Bible, 1965, 123 pp., $.39). Radio speeches of the “Back to the Bible” Broadcast.

Multiple Ministries: Staffing the Local Church, by Martin Anderson (Augsburg, 1965, 104 pp., $2.50).

What Is the World Coming To?: A Study for Laymen of the Last Things, by Nelson B. Baker (Westminster, 1965, 157 pp., $2.25). An evangelical discussion of the end-of-time events as announced in the Bible.

The Lord’s Prayer and the Lord’s Passion, by Paul G. Lessmann (Concordia, 1965, 109 pp., $1.75). Orthodox and prosaic.

The Indians of the Western Great Lakes: 1615–1760, by Vernon Kinietz (University of Michigan, 1965, 427 pp., $2.95). Their customs, ways of life, and religious beliefs and practices.

Forms of Extremity in the Modern Novel, edited by Nathan A. Scott. Jr. (John Knox, 1965, 96 pp., $1). For those who like to see theological backgrounds behind literary writings.

Fatigue in Modern Society: Psychological, Medical, Biblical Insights, edited by Paul Tournier, translated by James H. Farley (John Knox, 1965, 79 pp., $1).

The Cruciality of the Cross, by P. T. Forsyth (Eerdmans, 1965, 104 pp., $1.45). A discussion of the Atonement that reflects Forsyth’s peculiar view of God’s holiness and love.

Son of Man, Son of God, by E. G. Jay (McGill University, 1965, 116 pp., $2.50). A provocative study with some questionable conclusions.

Awkward Questions on Christian Love, by Hugh Montefiore (Westminster, 1965, 125 pp., $1.45). Perceptive essays on God, the sinlessness of Jesus, atonement and personality, and the Church as an “in” or “out” group.

The Soul of Prayer, by P. T. Forsyth (Eerdmans, 1965, 92 pp., $1.45). A good discussion for laymen by a line theologian.

His Witnesses, by John H. Piet (Book World, 1965, 166 pp., $1.25). An objective study of the Acts of the Apostles, Galatians, First Thessalonians, Philippians, Ephesians, and Romans chapters 1 through 8.

By What Authority?, by Bruce Shelley (Eerdmans, 1965, 166 pp., $1.95). The author looks at the positions of the second-century church fathers on the question of authority in religion and church.

Christian Deviations: The Challenge of the New Spiritual Movements, by Horton Davies (Westminster, 1965, 144 pp., $1.45). A revised edition of The Challenge of the Sects, this is a discussion of substance of such groups as the Mormons, Pentecostals, Jehovah’s Witnesses, and many others.

The general deterioration of the World situation, the population explosion without a corresponding acceleration in the world’s spiritual birthrate, and the seeming loss of spiritual power to he noted among Christians and in the corporate church is causing deep searching of heart by thoughtful Christians. There is a feeling that something must happen to bring a change in the situation.

Some would have the Church become “involved” in the world to such an extent that no distinction would be made between a believer and a non-believer. These feel that Christianity is no longer a force to be reckoned with because it is not relevant to the contemporary world scene. Because the gospel message had its origin in the first century and this is the twentieth, and because the Bible stresses an other-worldly orientation for the Christian that seems unrealistic for our times, there are those who feel the historic, biblically based Christianity of our forefathers is no longer applicable.

On the other hand, many sincere Christians are deeply troubled because the phrase, “the post-Christian era,” has a ring of reality that disturbs the soul and shakes confidence in present methods to reach an unbelieving world that is in desperate need.

In considering the theories of those who would reject the present validity of historic Christianity, let us ask a few questions: Are the basic needs of men different now from what they were 2,000 years ago? Or has God’s provision for those needs changed? Despite the sophistication of our age and the almost unbelievable advances in science, is man basically different from what he was in the time of Christ?

The human heart was deceitful then and is deceitful today. The lusts of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life continue to grip each new generation. Sophisticated, scientifically advanced, modern in outlook, man is still a sinful creature estranged from God and desperately in need of forgiveness, cleansing, and a new heart.

It was to meet this need that the Son of God came into this world, died, and arose again from the dead. The world has not outgrown its need, nor has the Gospel of God’s redemption in Jesus Christ lost its power.

Why then this lapse in effectiveness by the Church and by many Christians? It is unfortunately true that in an age of sophistication, affluence, and a growing understanding and use of scientific discoveries, many now try to convince themselves that they are self-sufficient and do not need God or his Christ.

But men’s hearts still yearn for something higher than material things. Strip off the veneer of our civilization and there remains a desperate loneliness, a sense of frustration, a void that remains empty unless it is filled with the living Christ.

We must keep clearly in mind the message of the Church and also the tools of missions and evangelism that God has given us for spreading that message.

To the Church has been given the message of a higher destiny, of a renewed fellowship with God through faith in his Son, of a new life where companionship replaces loneliness and purpose replaces frustration.

One look at this chaotic world and we are ready to throw up our hands in hopelessness. How, we ask ourselves, can the Gospel become a living force in a world so obviously alienated from God? What is needed to recapture the power and the glory of the Gospel for this generation?

Here is where we need to take a new look at the tools God has provided. (We use the term “tools” reverently to refer to certain things that God has placed at our disposal, to be used for his glory.)

If we think our world is chaotic and hopeless, what kind of a world did the disciples face in the first century? On every hand there was the entrenched evil of paganism. But apparently the disciples ignored the obstacles because of the tremendous message and the marvelous tools they had. By God’s work through them, the message became effective in the lives of men and women in every walk of life, so that in a few short years the then-known world had heard of Jesus Christ, his death, and his resurrection, and enough had believed to change the whole course of history.

This handful of uneducated, ordinary men had irresistible tools, and God worked a miracle. The same tools are available today, but they are too often neglected. In their place men use man-made devices that perish with their makers and those on whom they are used.

The early disciples had been with Jesus, and this personal experience with the risen Lord had transformed them into fervent evangelists. But God never intended that they alone should know Christ as Saviour and Lord. To all of us is given the same privilege, and without it we are useless. It is hardly possible for someone to win men to Jesus Christ who does not know him through personal experience. We all need to have a deep, personal experience of the saving power of Jesus Christ in our hearts and lives.

The early disciples also were imbued with the power of the Holy Spirit. They had been emptied of self, and the Holy Spirit possessed them to the point where God was doing the work and they were simply instruments. Today similar power is waiting for those who give the Holy Spirit his rightful place in their lives and in their work.

The early disciples were also men of prayer. They believed in divine intervention in their problems. They believed that prayer released God’s almighty power on behalf of his own and their work for him. When confronted with danger, opposition, and humanly insoluble situations, they turned to God in prayer and he heard and answered.

The early disciples used the Old Testament Scriptures to confirm their preaching. In every case they recognized the Scriptures as finally authoritative. Today we have not only the Old but also the New Testament to use as the invincible Sword of the Spirit.

The early disciples had a message—repentance, forgiveness of sins, and salvation through faith in the risen Lord. This simple and direct message penetrated to the heart of man’s need, the same need men have today.

Finally, the early disciples had no money. Can it be that part of their success stemmed from their utter dependence on God, rather than on material assets?

Through these men the early Church came into being. Although they lacked much of what we prize most highly, such as education and financial security, they succeeded.

We have the same tools. If we use them faithfully, the world can again be turned upside down for Jesus Christ.

Does the uneasy relationship between evangelicals and ecumenists presage a split?

In plotting the future of Protestantism, some churchmen increasingly focus on the uneasy relation between “the ecumenicals and the evangelicals.” Ecumenical and denominational leaders, religion editors, and even some students of religious journalism ask: Will the gap between conservatives and inclusivists be bridged or broadened? Is a split inevitable between evangelicals and ecumenists? In ecumenical dialogue—whether sponsored by Geneva or by Rome—why do evangelicals always seem to be on the outer edge? Do conservatives have any basis for feeling that ecumenists solicit their participation only on a “divide-and-conquer” basis? Why has ecumenism failed to produce or even promote real rapport with evangelicals? Is a tragic major breach inevitable in the very century when many churchmen are working intensely for the unification of Christendom, and when the Christian religion is already disadvantaged by embarrassing divisions?

Few evangelicals speak of ecclesiastical trends as historically inevitable, though some churchmen on both the far left and the far right seem to view them in that way. Conservatives may underestimate socio-historical processes, but they contemplate the must of history rather in a context of God’s sovereign purpose and of man’s responsible decision. (“Thus it must be fulfilled.…” “Ye must be born again.…”) They question ecclesiastical deference to the supposed “inevitabilities” of social revolution and expanding government controls, which the churches are now asked to welcome, no less than the ecumenical leadership’s “certainty” of a coming great world church.

As evangelicals see it, a deterministic approach to religious events reflects a non-Christian more than a Christian idiom; its main flaw is its neglect of transcendent spiritual powers. Whatever events (if any) impersonal historical forces may shape, Christ above all else has the redeemed Church in his grasp. No conclave of modern churchmen can establish with finality the character of Christ’s Church. The events of the first-century apostolic Church, of the sixteenth-century Reformation, and of the eighteenth-century Evangelical Awakening remain illuminating and instructive chapters in church history. If present cleavages widen, if another reformation occurs, or whatever else, it will not be inevitable, any more than would a Protestant Counter-Reformation.

If evangelicals consider the accommodation to inevitability as harmful, they regard the growing discussion of “deepening divisions” as adversely weighted also. The term is bandied about by those who publicly launch the concept of one church into an orbit that imposes expectations of conformity upon evangelicals, while non-evangelicals dismember confessional commitments and distort historic doctrines. Deplorable as divisiveness is, “split” is a color-term too readily applied to those who sincerely question the prevalent notion of ecclesiastical reconstruction. It attaches needless odium to those who stand firmly on the very biblical commitments that the Protestant Reformation churches held in common. Many Protestant mainline seminaries today promulgate neither the formal nor the material principles of the Reformation; they compromise the Reformers’ doctrines of “Scripture alone” and “justification by faith alone.” And in some respects the Orthodox (Greek and Eastern) Churches and the Roman Catholic Church stand more firmly attached to the doctrines of the truly ecumenical (Apostles’, Nicene, and Athanasian) creeds of the early centuries than do some Protestant bodies today, while evangelical Protestants stand firmly with the historic Christian claim of divinely revealed doctrines.

Some ecumenists now point a reproachful finger at Billy Graham because they consider him a hindrance to ecumenical inclusivism. One ecumenical weekly would have its readers believe that Graham is really a radical politician in pious evangelical garb. (As if evangelicals rather than ecumenists were distorting evangelism into political action!) Other ecumenical gossips downgrade Graham as virtually “another denomination” alongside “denomination-transcending” ecumenism. Since the objective seems to be to stigmatize Graham as divisive, it little retards them that six of the seven largest American denominations survive in the NCC, or that the WCC is itself provoking a new wave of competitive church confessionalism.

Similarly, an accusing finger is pointed at CHRISTIANITY TODAY. Now that it can no longer be lampooned as “Christianity yesterday” (since ecumenical seminaries now have to regard even Barthianism and Bultmannism as dated), it is caricatured as the echo of capitalistic supporters, right-wing extremists, and fundamentalist independents. (After all, isn’t the theology of the Barthians and the Bultmannians preferable to that of the Birchers?) One can readily understand why anyone who views Communism in a benevolent light, revolution as inevitable, socialism as virtuous, and religious orthodoxy as a blight might want his constituents to ignore biblically oriented publications. Yet we marvel at any mentality that could suppose we have substituted congressional pressures for Christian priorities, or ecclesiastical engineering for the evangel. If anyone truly doubts whether it is the evangelical or the ecumenical movement within the Church that is scripturally controlled, he need only ask which espouses biblical truths and supernatural dynamisms and which promotes theological novelties and political pronouncements.

Southern Baptists are now also becoming a special target. Since this largest American denomination remains willfully outside the National Council of Churches, other groups uneasy over ecumenical commitments are cautioned against the influence of Christians lacking sensitivity for the universal church. Who, it is asked, would prefer the fellowship of Southern Baptists to a church that strives for catholicity? It is remarkable that any ecumenist can entertain a concept of Christian unity from which ten million Christians are so complacently excluded.

All this points up the fact that the main tension within the Church in twentieth-century Christianity is that between those concerned mainly with institutional or organizational alignment and those concerned mainly with spiritual and theological commitment. To some churchmen, what matters most is devotion to the coming world church; to other churchmen, what matters most in the context of church loyalties is devotion to the faith already given. To the former, church unity is wider than theological fidelity; ecumenism has room for death-of-God theologians, linguistic theologians, and existential liberals, as well as for evangelicals—ordinarily, that is.

In less than a century, the ecumenical development has undergone a sweeping change from its initial stance, in which it embraced various denominations bound by common evangelical goals, to its present view of the rising evangelical interest in transdenominational cooperation as competitive and even hostile. Yet this continuing evangelical concern is no departure from historic Protestantism but a continuation of it. In its Reformation beginnings, Protestantism was nothing if not evangelical. Evangelical Christianity is no deviation either from the religion of the apostles or the Reformers, or from the original orientation of the ecumenical ideal in earlier days.

In twentieth-century Protestantism, therefore, the deviant and divisive factor within the Church is theological liberalism, which has gradually swung the ideal of Christian unity into the orbit of its own inclusivist and extra-evangelical preferences. The disruptive cleavage introduced by modernism exists within all mainstream denominations, dividing clergy from clergy and laymen from laymen. The debate over the definition of Christian authority, the content of the Gospel, and the nature and task of the Church reduces to a conflict over evangelical and non-evangelical perspectives.

On two extremes, the far left and the far right, there is noteworthy evidence of sharpening hostility. If ecclesiastical extremism on the far right announces the apostasy of all churchmen affiliated with NCC-related denominations, on the far left it issues pontifical pronouncements that denominational distinctiveness is inherently sinful. If Carl McIntire seems like a one-man arbiter of ecumenical destinies in holding the American Council of Christian Churches to be the sole authentically biblical alternative to the NCC, Eugene Carson Blake also appeals to a singular leading of the Holy Spirit in propounding the Blake-Pike plan as an ideal divine antithesis to American denominationalism.

Swimming against a rising non-evangelical tide in the ecumenical movement in the Church has become increasingly difficult for evangelicals. Ecumenical pressures tend to force an inclusive theology on seminaries. In theological dialogue evangelicals are counterbalanced, outweighed, and treated as a minority. United Presbyterians, won over to merger with the Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A. by the argument that they would exert a theologically conservative influence, soon found this expectation without warrant. The United Presbyterian Church lost its own evangelically oriented seminary and was unable to halt the drift of other Presbyterian U. S. A. seminaries, and the merged church is now struggling with a proposed new confession. Across the Atlantic the Archbishop of Canterbury, Michael Ramsey, who speaks out frequently on political matters, has not hesitated also to disparage evangelical initiative publicly. In the United Church Observer, organ of the United Church of Canada, the Rev. A. C. Forrest attacks Billy Graham’s revival of biblical supernaturalism as disruptive and urges liberal churchmen not to cooperate with his crusades.

It is doubtless true that Billy Graham’s emphasis on the New Testament message has helped to condition laymen to favor biblical orientation and evangelistic concern in their churches, and to look askance at a heavy concentration on social and political issues to the neglect of scriptural priorities. As some liberal churchmen have hardened in their opposition to evangelism and have identified themselves with social reform as an alternative to personal repentance, lay disaffection has mounted.

The deepest cleft within the Church is the one separating evangelicals, who glory in the divine gift of repentance and regeneration, from those ecumenists who are repelled by the offense of the Cross; those who believe in the authority of the Word of God from those whose beliefs change according to the fashion of the times. As liberal leaders in high church posts use an ecumenical platform to repress evangelical witness and to press for conformity to their own positions, they only promote unrest among churchmen who lament and challenge departures from the New Testament norm. The primary cause of tension at this level is a matter of proclamation, not of personality; the message itself is really what divides. Whether Christianity is made relevant to our world is always discussable, as evangelicals see it; but the essential content of the Christian religion is never negotiable. When a Los Angeles church spokesman charged Billy Graham with setting contemporary theology back fifty years, the evangelist replied that he intended to take it back two thousand years, to coincide with the apostolic faith.

Intolerance of evangelical positions is all the more remarkable now that the theological bankruptcy of liberalism is apparent. In some circles, the advocacy of ecumenism above doctrinal fidelity may betray a devotion to ecclesiastical unity grounded in theological skepticism. Whatever basis existed in the forepart of this century for viewing fundamentalism as obscurantist (and it sometimes was), few will doubt that recent modernist theology (whether Ritschlian, dialectical, existential, or linguistic) is consciously anti-intellectual, while evangelical theology pointedly affirms the ontological significance of reason and the rational nature of revelation. Amid the modernist flux, evangelical theology has steadily won respect as the truly coherent option, even from some ministers whose seminary training bypassed the conservative view completely or at best looked at it in the poorest light and aimed to supplant it. Among the periodic editorial rewards at CHRISTIANITY TODAY is a message from some mainstream minister who has come to cherish a theological commitment he was once taught to despise.

Many who lost an evangelical faith through the liberal domination of church colleges and seminaries have grown increasingly nostalgic with the ceaseless revision of the modernist alternatives. Only those who have been lifelong liberals, and who know conservative Christianity only in terms of “the fundys, holy-rollers, and snake-handlers,” adamantly refuse to consider the evangelical option. Others who recall the vitality of an earlier biblical faith are aware that their colleagues in the ministry now include evangelical churchmen whose personal faith has been renewed and who have found a warm fellowship in their restoration to evangelical religion. And the evangelical strength in mainline denominations is more extensive than a liberal leadership implies. Some ministers who have forsaken liberal rationalism for revealed theology assert that, were it not for restrictions imposed by ecumenical leaders upon evangelical participation, the present situation might erupt into a tidal wave of evangelical renewal within the historic denominations.

Yet no one can say that the evangelical witness is wholly excluded in the ecumenical context, for evangelicals have made some noteworthy gains. Despite the hostility of some leaders intolerant of evangelical perspectives, the Graham crusades and CHRISTIANITY TODAY have received more support in ecumenical circles than in some independent circles. This support, in fact, accounts for the complaint of some fundamentalist spokesmen that these efforts hurt the evangelical cause. It is curious that churchmen on the far right and on the far left alike suspect others of cooperating with influential evangelical church efforts only as a matter of desperation. The interest in evangelical dynamisms runs deeper than they dream. And evangelicals themselves need to be reminded that many Roman Catholics also are seeking deeper spiritual realities in these days of ecumenical openness.

Disturbed by the ecumenical orientation and evangelical dilution of hierarchy-approved literature, many churchmen now also encourage laymen and Sunday school leaders to read explicitly evangelical publications. American mission boards eager to fill their quotas have extended an increasing welcome to missionary candidates with Inter-Varsity Christian Fellowship backgrounds. In England, the growing evangelical wing of the Anglican church is attributed largely to the influence of British Inter-Varsity on university campuses. It is also noteworthy that many Anglican clergymen trace their conversions to the Harringay and Wembley crusades of a decade ago.

Even more significant, some leaders notably sympathetic to evangelical engagement have been elected to important ecumenical posts. One such leader, while not a conservative, pleaded for larger evangelical representation at the Central Committee meeting in Nigeria a year ago, though without clear success.

These men do not, however, define the temper of the ecumenical movement. The WCC’s choice of a general secretary to succeed Dr. W. A. Visser ’t Hooft will supply an important clue to ecumenical attitudes toward evangelicals. A strong-willed activist with overweening personal ambitions could propel the entire ecumenical situation into a new and precipitous era. Evangelicals are wearying of dialogue that engages them in good-natured conversation while non-evangelical objectives are energetically promoted. Ecumenical seminary faculties, faith-and-order dialogues, and other official conferences have left no doubt for a decade that Protestant ecumenical leaders pursue dialogue with Rome more ardently than they seek representation for evangelicals already in their own circles. In the current fad of confessional revision, evangelicals are often placed on the defensive and given the option of minority protest.

If the quest for Christian unity continues to manifest a pro-ecumenical anti-evangelical spirit, a sound alternative—transdenominational Christian unity on a biblical-evangelical base—will not be a matter of historical inevitability but will remain a spiritual ideal and logical consideration. Evangelical Christianity is a Bible-controlled movement, evangelistically concerned, and impatient over a compromise of priorities. That compromise has become almost obstinate on the part of some ecumenists—a point at which evangelical intolerance and liberal intolerance might well clash.

Of all tragedies of the modern world, none would be sadder in the closing third of our century than an ecclesiastical rift that would further divide the community of Christian faith. The concern for Christian unity is scriptural, and all believers in Christ who recognize the unqualified claim of the Bible ought to be reaching out toward one another across organizational lines and exploring the deeper realities of the Church of Christ as a supradenominational, supranational, supraracial fellowship. If evangelicals are to bear a dynamic witness for the Gospel in our confused generation, may they do so in a spectacular unity of devotion and mission with all their Christian brethren everywhere. While the Great Commission presupposes a firm stand for the revealed faith, it propels all Christ’s true followers into the world on a mission of mercy. Only a fellowship that fulfills both these expectations is worthy to be known as Christ’s Church.

If the terms “ecumenical” and “evangelical” are once more to become synonymous, ecumenism must manifest a lively indignation over its non-evangelical and anti-evangelical ingredients. If it prefers the inclusivist image, it may of course regard itself in some contexts as combining the ecumenical and the evangelical (as well as other) motifs. But the world will not long be deceived even if some churchmen are. For if the world hears some ecclesiastics insist that “God is dead” while others insist on “the living God,” if it hears some contend that supernaturalism is passé while others declare that the New Testament miracles are decisive for human destiny, if it hears some claim that Christ alone can save us while others insist that legislation is a superior dynamism or that the United Nations is the world’s best hope for peace, the world may agree privately that the Church bears a revelation, but of its own confusion, not of any authoritative Word. And that is the kind of confusion that evangelicals—who insist they bear an authentic Christian message to the world—cannot be counted on forever to support.

Millennium Tomorrow

Among industrial nations the United States took the lead in rate of economic growth. On Wall Street the stock market neared Dow 1000. On Main Street the minimum hourly wage was to go up to $1.50 as soon as Congress followed President Johnson’s proposal. New York was riding again as transit strikers pocketed a 15 per cent wage increase and substantial fringe benefits. On color television, viewers saw so much of Liz Taylor that there was little left to see. And air travel rates to Europe were soon to dip lower. It was a time for fast living.

There were disconcerting signs, to be sure. Four Nobel prizemen warned of depletion of world resources, starvation, and even cannibalism, if population growth continues unchecked. Mrs. Indira Gandhi (a Kashmiri Brahmin) in her new position as India’s prime minister was faced with a dissatisfied Pakistan and a threatening Communist China, and with an economic crisis and famine conditions in some areas as well. Red China alerted its army of 2.5 million, the world’s largest, to prepare for United States nuclear attack even to the point of “climbing a mountain of pointed swords and crossing an ocean of flames.”

In the United States the state of the union looked good—on paper. Americans were told that the Great Society would continue (hence it apparently has already arrived) and that the administration would avoid the risk the inflation. On both counts, however, politicians seemed to be holding a candle to the wind.

The President’s message to Congress included casual mention of a record administrative budget of $112.8 billion. After what may have been the briefest tax cut in history, excise reductions were to be revoked. The cost of living was edging up, as housewives paid more for bread and milk. The illegal New York transit strike ended in an inflationary settlement. For all the talk about holding down inflation, many European bankers had come to consider it a world-wide inevitability. There were doubts at home about the fiscal solvency of the social security program, viewed long-range. And the White House, alongside full support for civil rights, somewhat inconsistently supported legislation to destroy state right-to-work laws.

But by far the biggest United States headache was Viet Nam, where more than 190,000 American GI’s still were fighting in an undeclared war. Some 1,000 tons of Christmas parcels gathered by civic organizations for delivery to servicemen 8,200 miles from home were discovered in mid-January stored in a General Services Administration supply center in Utah. Meanwhile, American forces in Asia stood as a barrier to further Communist aggression in Asia. The first missionary fell to a Viet Cong machine gunman. Neither the President nor the Pope had made evident progress with peace proposals. There was thanksgiving that casualties were lighter, but Hanoi remained silent, some South Vietnamese feared a sell-out, and even some Americans had doubts.

Did administration suggestions of withdrawal on condition of free elections imply a retreat from the commitment to independence and freedom? What American victory is needed to guarantee free elections and to prevent full Communist takeover while Communists terrorize a third of the population?

The war that Americans once were told would be over by Christmas looked at times as if it might drag on forever—with respite for Asian holidays. “I believe that we can continue the Great Society while we fight in Viet Nam,” said the President. It was a typically modern credo, full of ambiguity and vulnerability.

Meanwhile, politically aggressive clergymen were shaping their own program for peace on earth. The Interchurch Center at 475 Riverside Drive in New York assigned Office 560 to a national committee of liberal churchmen opposed to renewal of the bombing of North Viet Nam. The interfaith committee includes Dr. Eugene Carson Blake and Rabbi Jacob Weinstein. Across the nation their telephone crusade is coordinating 150 groups to rally a growing feeling against the Viet Nam war and to urge propagandizing of the peace offensive (see News, p. 49).

The churches must indeed continually urge elected leaders to fulfill their responsibilities with a sense of moral integrity and divine answerability. But some churchmen seem suddenly to have acquired omniscience in political and military decisions, despite their lack of strategic information available only to the highest elected public officials. When they presume to stipulate the details of public policy, some of us wonder where these churchmen have suddenly found their hot-line to heaven. What they leave unanswered is how the peace everybody presumably wants can be arrived at without a commitment to justice.

Most American churchgoers still retain unhappy memories of proposals made at the Cleveland World Order Conference of the National Council of Churches. At that time two of the nation’s top figures were devout Presbyterians with a sense both of public responsibility and of spiritual stewardship. It was the shared conviction of President Eisenhower and Secretary of State Dulles that admission of Red China would be against the best interests of both the United States and the United Nations. Yet NCC spokesmen publicly championed admission.

Sometimes we wonder whether politically oriented churchmen have not grown so skeptical of both spiritual dynamisms and democratic processes that they entertain a delusion that if the world were suddenly run by their committees, the millennium would come tomorrow.

All of us want peace; undoubtedly not a reader of CHRISTIANITY TODAY prefers war. Above all others, the man of God is a man of peace. But the Bible connects wars and fightings with man’s inner passions, his craving of what belongs to others. A former chairman of the United Nations, Charles Malik, warned that Marxism-Leninism was the vanguard of forces that today seek destruction of the accumulated values we have inherited from Graeco-Roman-Christian civilization. Any quest for peace that views Communism as benevolent is nothing short of a sell-out. If peace is to be genuine, it must not whet the appetite of greedy totalitarian tyrants of any stripe but must stand in the presence of God, truth, and righteousness. Any legitimate message on a hot-line from heaven is likely to read not “Seek ye peace …” but “Seek ye first …,” and it is likely also to bear a zip code number that includes both sides of the globe.

Try The Other Book

“Numerous books, most of them scholarly, some of them objective, practically all of them sophisticated, are being published these days discussing the ‘existence of God.’ ” So writes the editor of the Durham, North Carolina, Morning Herald. The remark reminds us of what the Preacher said: “Of making many books there is no end.” Doubtless there will be many more books about the “death of God” before the well runs dry.

We just hope that while the fad lasts men will not overlook the source literature on the subject of God. We refer, of course, to the Bible. It has a word to say about God—who he is and what he is doing. Surely we are not overly bold if we suggest that in the beginning God had the first word and in the end he will have the last. In the interim, men had better listen to what he says and act on what he commands. For it may be that sooner than we think, the judgments of men on God will be subjected to the judgment of God on men.

How is it possible to produce two new sermons week after week, year after year?

Thanks to a course given by Dr. Andrew W. Blackwood when I was a student at Princeton Theological Seminary, preaching has been a growing pleasure and challenge through the years. The course, called “A Year’s Preaching,” taught the value of planning ahead and gave suggestions and structures for organizing the preparation of sermons. This course, together with Dr. Blackwood’s practical concept of the “homiletical garden” in which one plants sermonic seeds and allows them to grow without interference but with proper nourishment, liberated me from a fearful question that beset me in seminary—namely, how is it possible to produce two new sermons every week year after year together with Bible studies for mid-week services and occasional special talks? Actually, it has turned out as Dr. Blackwood predicted; the problem is not having something to preach but having opportunity enough to preach the messages that demand expression.

I divide the year into two periods, nine months and three months, for purposes of planning not only my preaching but also the entire program of the church. The period of nine months is divided into three quarters—October through December, January through March, April through June. Planning begins with an overall theme for the year for the whole life of the church. This theme may be expressed as an apparent need, such as “Consolidation,” ‘Implementation,” or “Evaluation.” It may come in the form of a challenge: “Every Member an Evangelist,” “Total Involvement,” “Mature Christianity,” “Our Worldwide Mission,” “The Witnessing Church.” Or it may come in the words of Scripture or in a familiar slogan, such as “To Know Christ and to Make Him Known,” “Christ Preeminent,” “Abiding in Christ,” “To Live Is Christ.”

My plan for a year’s preaching loosely follows the church year for Sunday morning: the anticipation of Christ’s advent in the fall quarter (October to Christmas): the life of Christ in the winter quarter (January to Easter); and the Church in the spring quarter (Easter through June). The summer quarter, except for vacation, is reserved for special series or topical messages, which are needed to create a balanced spiritual diet for the congregation. I make a deliberate effort not to overemphasize certain portions of Scripture to the neglect of others, and to preach from every book in the Bible at some time during a period of three to five years. Sunday evening messages are generally book-by-book or verse-by-verse studies. Most of my messages are expository, with the theme, content, outline, and topic coming from the Scripture passage under consideration.

All this means that I am generally preaching from the Old Testament in the fall quarter, the Gospels in the winter quarter, and the Acts or the Epistles in the spring quarter. Old Testament sermons may be biographical, like the series on “The Patriarchs and the Prophets,” in which whole sermons were devoted to major Old Testament characters. Another series was entitled “Christ in the Old Testament,” and another. “Famous Psalms.” One year I preached through Luke in the winter quarter; another year I gave a series on “Great Events in the Life of Our Lord.” Still another series was “The Person and Work of Christ.” One year, with some difficulty, I labored through a semblance of “A Harmony of the Gospels.” There were also sermons on “The Disciples of Jesus” and on “People Jesus Helped.” Occasionally I have used the spring quarter to preach on “Outline of Reformed Doctrine,” “The Apostles’ Creed,” or “The Westminster Confession of Faith.”

A Sunday evening series was devoted to the minor prophets, taking one book each week. On Sunday evenings in the past six years I have gone through Mark, James, First Peter, Ephesians, First John, and some of Revelation. One of the most interesting evening series was entitled “Exploits of Faith”; I took one by one the men and women whose faith is commended in Hebrews 11, relating the incident mentioned in that chapter to its full record in the Old Testament. Another very fruitful series dealt with “The Ethics of the Apostles.” One of the surprising and satisfying facts in my experience through the years has been the way sermons, though not planned to apply to current situations, have almost miraculously fit the week. It has been my custom, based on the example of my own pastor and others I have admired and on the careful instruction of Dr. Blackwood, to draw my sermons from the Scriptures rather than to attempt to contrive relevance by addressing myself to current issues. In the providence of God, rarely does a message, planned months before, fail to meet the people at the point of present need.

Generally by September I have a pretty clear idea of sermon themes, if not topics, together with Scripture sources, for every Sunday, morning and evening, October through June. By the end of May, the preaching schedule for the three summer months is usually settled. A common daily record book, one page per day, is reserved for sermonic data and related materials. Sermon themes or topics, with Scriptures, are entered under the proper Sunday, leaving six pages in the day book for related ideas, illustrations, hymns, cross-references, and the like. This is my “homiletical garden.” It is surprising how the garden grows. Often the sermons seem almost to prepare themselves.

If possible. I begin sermon preparation on Monday. Sometimes I may get a week or two ahead, though, and at other times the beginning of preparation must wait until Thursday. My first step is to read the Scripture source through as often as necessary, until I sense its general intent. Usually the passage outlines itself after a number of readings, and the topic crystallizes. I do not like to use sermon topics that are sensational, or misleading, or designed principally as attention-getters. Most of my topics are lifted verbatim from the Scripture being studied, or the theme is abbreviated. I was taught to strive to put my sermon into one topical sentence (college courses in journalism helped here). I try to compress the main theme into the topic. A little squib taken from the house organ of a large corporation many years ago has helped me realize the importance of getting one point across rather than leaving several up in the air. It went like this: “It’s better to bring one man home than to leave three men on bases.”

The next step in preparation is verse-by-verse analysis. Using legal-size lined paper. I write the verse number in the margin, copy the verse in the body of the paper, and enter my own commentary below it. This I follow, to the extent that I am capable of doing so, with exegetical study. My main reference work is W. Robertson Nicoll’s The Expositor’s Greek Testament. Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament, Archbishop Trench’s New Testament Synonyms, and A. T. Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament are all very helpful. With my limited facility in Hebrew and Greek, I find Strongs Concordance with its large Hebrew and Greek lexicons most helpful.

Usually I take rather extensive notes into the pulpit (four to seven sheets of 8½ by 5½ paper) for a twenty-live minute message. These notes are put in their final form Saturday afternoon or evening, sometimes early Sunday morning. I am most proficient in their use when they are as fresh as possible. Generally I type in full the introduction and the conclusion. Sensitive passages and key sentences are also typed verbatim and used that way. For many years I have taken special care in the choice of words. To this end I make constant use of Roget’s Thesaurus and continually try to improve expression for the sake of communication. There is no use having something important to say if you fail to transmit it so that the hearer understands. I am not bound by the notes and enjoy liberty to alter the message while preaching. In fact, believing as I do that the presence of the people of God makes a difference however thoroughly one has prepared in his study, I expect to be ministered to by the congregation and feel that often the message I deliver has come, in part at least, from them on the spot. This introduces an immediacy and spontaneity into the sermon that indicates a dynamic rather than sterile situation and real “dialogue,” though the people remain silent.

Thanks to a faithful pastor, a dedicated homiletics professor, several brilliant colleagues who have challenged me to abhor mediocrity and reach for excellence by the Spirit of God, gentle and committed elders, and a congregation filled with love, preaching continues to be for me the most exciting and satisfying privilege in life.—

Fourth Presbyterian Church, Washington, D. C.

Here is a list of the religious books to be published between now and next September—organized in 20 subject categories

Modern existentialist theologians insist that revelation can occur only in a moment of personal encounter, and they therefore have trouble maintaining the value of the Book. Since the value of books depends ultimately on the character of the Book, the existentialist position carries a devaluation of books. For if books convey only impersonal ideas so that in reading minds meet only in an abstract encounter, the value of books is accordingly depreciated. If indeed God cannot in any real sense meet man in the Book, neither can men meet men in books. Books, in such a view, lose their essential human character and interest.

For our part, we will retain our evaluation of the Book, cling to our belief that a book is a window on a person, and proceed to inform our readers of the religious books to be published between now and next September that will reveal what is going on in the thought and life of the Church.

The following titles are selected from the materials kindly provided by many publishers. The categories will aid the reader in his attempt to keep abreast of a particular field of need and interest.

APOLOGETICS, PHILOSOPHY, SCIENCE: Abingdon will publish Readings in Christian Thought by H. T. Kerr; Eerdmans, The Church and Learning by Q. Breen and Creative Minds in Contemporary Theology by P. Hughes; Fortress, God and Man: In the Thought of Hamann by W. Leibrecht; Helicon, The Religious Self and Philosophy by L. Dupre and The Meaning of History by H. Marrou; Lippincott, God Beyond Doubt by G. MacGregor; McGraw-Hill, Summa Theologiae, Volumes 18. 42, 46, and 60, by St. Thomas Aquinas; David McKay, The Road to Believing by P. L. DuNouy; Moody, The Bible, Science and Creation by S. Maxwell and What the Cults Believe by I. Robertson; Prentice-Hall, Issues in Science and Religion by I. G. Barbour; Revell, Creation Revealed by F. A. Filby; Scribners, Christianity in World History by A. T. van Leeuwen; Sheed and Ward, God in Creation and Evolution by A. Hulsbosch and A Jew in Christian America by Rabbi A. Gilbert; and University of Notre Dame, Jacques Maritain: Challenges and Renewals by Ward and Evans.

ARCHAEOLOGY: Doubleday will print The Worship of Ancient Israel by W. Harrelson; Prentice-Hall, An Introduction to American Archaeology, Volume I: North and Middle America by G. R. Willey; and Zondervan, Archaeology and Our Old Testament Contemporaries by J. Kelso.

ART AND ARCHITECTURE: From World will come Structures of the Modern World by N. Ponente, The Treasures of Spain by A. Cirici-Pellicer, and Foundations of a New Humanism by G. Duby.

BIBLE COMMENTARIES AND DICTIONARIES: Baker will issue The Minor Prophets by J. Lewis; Beacon Hill. Beacon Bible Commentary, Volumes V and IX; Eerdmans, Wesleyan Bible Commentary, Volume VI. and Theological Dictionary of the New Testament, Volume III. by G. Kittel; Light and Life Press, Arnold’s Commentary for 1967 edited by L. E. Williams; Moody, Unger’s Bible Handbook by M. F. Unger; and Nelson, Commentary on the Prophets, Volumes I and II, by E. Kraeling.

BIBLICAL STUDIES: Baker will present Praying with Paul by R. L. Brandt, The Land and the Book by W. Thompson, and Studies in the Life and Teachings of Our Lord by R. A. Torrey; Beacon Hill, ABC’s of the Parables by G. K. Bowers; Broad-man. This Way to the Cross by C. A. Roberts and These Ten Words by R. L. Honeycutt; Concordia, Children in the Bible by A. DeVries; Harvard University, Biblical Motifs: Origins and Transformations edited by A. Altmann; Helicon, The Witness of John the Baptist by J. Daniélou and The Last Discourse of Jesus by G.-M. Behler; Judson, You Can Understand the Bible by J. R. Link; John Knox, Time and History: A Study on the Revelation by M. Rissi; McGraw-Hill, The Bible Story by S. Andres; Moody, The Revelation of Jesus Christ by J. F. Walvoord and Gleanings from Paul by A. W. Pink; Oxford, The History and Religion of Israel by G. W. Anderson; and Revell, Cities of the New Testament by E. M. Blaiklock.

BIOGRAPHY: Abingdon will produce John Wesley: His Puritan Heritage by R. C. Monk; Broadman, Ten Who Overcame by P. L. Dishman; Concordia, In the Footsteps of Martin Luther by M. A. Kleeberg and G. Leema and Hugo Distler and His Church Music by L. Palmer; Herald, There Have To Be Six by A. Mueller; Lippincott, Four Champions by R. Hitt; McGraw-Hill, Billy Graham: Man of Decision by J. C. Pollock; David McKay, View from the Sixties by G. Oppenheimer; Moody, Aflame for God: Biography of Fredrik Franson by D. B. Woodward and Charles Haddon Spurgeon by W. Y. Fullerton; Scribners, On the Boundary by P. Tillich and Dag Hammarskjold: A Spiritual Portrait by Stolpe; and Zondervan, Portraits of Christ in Genesis by M. R. DeHaan.

CHURCH HISTORY: In this field Baker announces Creeds of Christendom, Volume III, by P. Schaff; Doubleday, The Congregational Way by M. L. Starkey; Eerdmans, The Register of the Company of Pastors of Geneva in the Time of John Calvin edited and translated by P. Hughes and Studies in John Calvin (“Courtney Reformation Series”) edited by G. E. Duffield; Fortress, A History of Christian Thought, Volume II, by O. W. Heick, The Quest Through the Centuries by H. K. McArthur, and Israelite Religion by H. Ringgren; Harvard University, The Russian Religious Mind, Volume II: The Middle Ages edited by John Meyendorff; Helicon, Change and the Catholic Church by J. Newman; Herder and Herder, The Teachings of the Church Fathers by J. R. Willis; Holt, Rinehart and Winston, Forerunners of the Reformation (a major source book for late medieval thought) edited by H. A. Oberman; Macmillan, The Historian and the Believer by V. A. Harvey and Names and Titles of Jesus Christ by L. Sabouria; Nelson, Apostolic Fathers, Volume IV, by R. Grant; Princeton University, John Hus’ Conceptof the Church by M. Spinka; Oxford. The Victorian Church, Part I: 1829–1860 by O. Chadwick and Essays in Modern English Church History: In Memory of Norman Sykes edited by G. V. Bennett and J. D. Walsh; Scribners, Christians in the U.S.S.R. by Struve; Sheed and Ward, Mary, a History of Doctrine and Devotion, Volume II, by H. Graef and Monastic Spirituality by C. Peifer; University of Notre Dame, The Press and Vatican II by E. Heston; and Westminster, Protestantism in America by J. C. Brauer and Reformed Confessions of the 16th Century by A. C. Cochrane.

DEVOTIONAL: Eerdmans will be coming out with Prayers by H. E. Kohn and A Serious Call to a Devout and Holy Life by W. Law; John Knox, On Bended Knee by N. W. Thomas; and Upper Room, The Serviceman at Prayer by L. P. Fitzgerald.

DRAMA. POETRY, FICTION: Augsburg will be publishing Call Back the Years by M. E. Shank; Doubleday. Happiness Can Be a Habit by J. D. Freeman; Eerdmans, They Were There by W. Hager and The Mark of Cain by S. Babbage; Norton, Josie Con Amore by M. Logan. The Janus Lovers by M. Pomeroy, and A Private Mythology by M. Sarton; and World, Bring My Sons from Far by R. L. Lowenstein, Gods’ Man by L. Ward, and Rulers of Darkness by F. J. Lipp.

ECUMENICS: Bethany Press promises The Breaking of the Bread by K. Watkins; Doubleday, Church Cooperation: Dead-End Street or Highway to Unity by F. L. Knapp; Fortress, Foundations of Ecumenical Social Thought edited by J. H. Oldham; Judson, Baptism and Christian Unity by A. Gilmore; McGraw-Hill, American Bishop at the Vatican Council by R. E. Tracy; United Church Press. Vatican Diary 1965: A Protestant Observes the Fourth Session of Vatican Council II by D. Horton; and Westminster, Rome: Opponent or Partner by R. J. Ehrlich.

ETHICAL AND SOCIAL STUDIES: Abingdon will offer The Ghetto of Indifference by T. J. Mullen; Beacon Hill, This Adventure Called Marriage by M. L. Arnold, More Like the Master by P. T. Culbertson, and Get Up and Go by P. Martin; Broadman, Why God Gave Children Parents by D. and V. Edens. Through Discipline to Joy by L. J. Thompson, The Great Sex Swindle by J. W. Drakeford, and Alcohol—In and Out of the Church by W. E. Oates; Doubleday, The Man-Made Order by W. H. Marnell; Eerdmans, Personal Religious Disciplines by J. Gardner, Convictions to Live By by L. N. Bell, and Christian Perspectivesby F. E. Gaebelein; Fortress, S.R.O.: Overpopulation and You by M. L. Bracher and Religions of Mankind: Yesterday and Today by H. Ringgren and A. V. Strom; Harvard, Religion and the American Mind: From the Great Awakening to the Revolution by A. Heimert; Holt, Rinehart and Winston, Dissenter in a Great Society by W. Stringfellow; Macmillan, The Ways of Friendship by I. Lepp, Theological Ethics by J. Sellers, A Short History of Ethics by A. MacIntyre, and Christian Ethics and Contemporary Philosophy by I. Ramsey; McGraw-Hill, That They May Overcome (the story of American Protestantism’s awakening to the race problem) by J. M. Pratt; David McKay, This Kind of Peace by T. R. Fehrenbacb; Moody, Pattern for Maturity by J. D. Pentecost; Oxford, The Social Gospel in America: Gladden, Ely, and Rauschenbusch edited by R. T. Handy; Scribners, Man’s Quest for God by A. J. Heschel; Sheed and Ward, God in Education (the first book-length study of the “teaching about religion” clauses of the recent Supreme Court decisions on religion in the schools) by N. C. Nielson. Jr.; Westminster, Toward A Theology of Involvement by B. J. Reist, The Quest for an Authentic Piety by E. Farley, and More than a Man Can Take by W. Baker; World, All to the Good: A Layman’s Guide to Christian Ethics by R. B. McLaren and H. D. McLaren, Biblical Ethics by T. B. Maston, Sex and the Person Today by P. A. Bcrtocci, and Beyond Civil Rights by J. Selby; and Zondervan, Magic in Marriage by J. Jauncey, Works Count Too by C. N. Pickell, Communicating Love through Prayer by R. Rinker, and How to Make a Habit of Succeeding by M. R. Douglas.

LITURGY: Abingdon will be putting out Arise and Go in Peace by F. F. Moore; Augsburg, Oremus: Collects, Devotions, Litanies from Ancient and Modern Sources edited by P. Z. Strodach; Fortress, Divine Service: Liturgy in Perspective by O. Herrlin; Herder and Herder, Our Pastoral Ministry: The Easter Mystery in Parish Life by H. Oster; Macmillan, A Calendar of the Faith by A. M. Roguet; Sliced and Ward, The Religion of Israel by H. Renckens; United Church Press, Worship in the Reformed Tradition by F. W. Schroeder; and Westminster, The Lord’s Supper by S. McCormick, Jr.

MISSIONS (EVANGELISM): Among Abingdon’s titles will be Circles of Faith by D. G. Bradley, The Message and Us Messengers by D. T. Niles, and A Ringing Call to Missions by A. Walker; Broadman, By Love Compelled by J. B. Underwood; Concordia, The Children’s Bridge by H. Lorch, Mission in the American Outdoors by E. W. Mueller and G. C. Ekola, and Faces of Poverty by A. R. Simon; Eerdmans, The World of Mission by B. Sundkler, The Light of the Nations by J. E. Orr, Pioneers in Mission by R. P. Beaver, and History of Evangelism by P. Scharpll; Inter-Varsity, So You Want to Witness by P. E. Little; McGraw-Hill, Joy to My Heart by G. Gleason; Moody, The Missionary Wife and Her Work by J. T. Tuggy; and Zondervan, Congo Crisis by J. Bayly, I Was a Communist Prisoner by H. Popoff, and Realities by M. B. Schlink.

NEW TESTAMENT: Abingdon will print Luke and the Gnostics by C. H. Talbert and Studies in Luke-Acts by L. E. Keck and J. L. Martyn; Eerdmans, The Work of Christ by G. C. Berkouwer and The New Testament and Criticism by G. E. Ladd; Helicon, Follow Me: Be Human by G. H. Sallaway; Herder and Herder, Parables and Instructions in the Gospels by H. Kahlefekl; Scribners, The Eucharistic Words of Jesus by J. Jeremias; Westminster, Eschatology of Paul in the Light of Modern Scholarship by H. M. Shires, Interpreting the Beatitudes by I. W. Batdorf, New Testament Apocrypha edited by E. Hennecke, W. Schneemaelcher, and R. M. Wilson, The Rule of Qumran and Its Meaning by A. R. C. Leaney, How to Interpret the New Testament by F. L. Fisher, and The Three Gospels by W. Barclay; and Zondervan, Plain Talk on Acts and Plain Talk on Matthew by M. G. Gutzke and The Gospel of John by R. L. Laurin.

OLD TESTAMENT: In this category Baker will offer Outline Studies of Job, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Solomon by R. C. Maddux and Israel and Judah by C. F. Pfeiffer; Broadman, Plumb Lines and Fruit Baskets by R. L. Murray and Studying the Book of Amos by D. W. Watts; Doubleday, Invitation to the Old Testament by J. M. Myers; Eerdmans, The Mysterious Numbers of the Hebrew Kings by E. R. Thiele; Fortress, The Old Testament World by M. Noth; Loizeaux Brothers, Living Patiently by J. A. Blair; McGraw-Hill, The Problem of the Hexateuch and Other Essays by G. von Rad; and Zondervan, The Book of Psalms by J. J. S. Perowne.

PASTORAL THEOLOGY (PREACHING, PSYCHOLOGY): Abingdon will be issuing God, Pain, and Evil by G. A. Buttrick and A Hard Rain and a Cross by H. DeWolf; Augsburg, The Dynamics of Sanctification by W. E. Hulme; Baker, A System of Biblical Psychology by F. Delitzsch; Beacon Hill, Dynamic Evangels by R. E. Price and How to Build Expository Sermons by T. M. Anderson and J. H. Greenlee; Doubleday, Your Pastor’s Problems by W. E. Hulme; Fortress, Preaching from the Gospels, Trinity: 1–9 by A. Voobus and H. G. Davis; Helicon, The Priest: Celibate or Married by P. Hermand and The Focus of Freedom by R. Guardini; John Knox, Healing for You by B. Martin and Preaching and Community by R. Bohren; Lippincott, The New Creation by A. Sanford; Sheed and Ward, Pastoral Counseling by R. Hostie; University of Notre Dame, Realization: The Anthropology of Pastoral Care by J. Goldbrunner; Westminster, Psychological and Theological Relationships in the Multiple Staff Ministry by K. Mitchel, The Forgiving Community by W. Klassen, The Meaning of the Body by J. Sarano, Kerygma and Counseling by T. C. Oden, and Religious Pathology and Christian Faith by J. E. Loder; and Zondervan, The Spirit of a Sound Mind by J. R. Cobb.

RELIGIOUS EDUCATION: Abingdon will publish An Introduction to Christian Education by M. J. Taylor; Augsburg, Those Most Important Years: Christian Training in Early Childhood by O. Ottersen and Puppets Can Teach Too: Using Puppetry in Religious Education by G. J. Myers; Beacon Hill, When You Need a Bible Story by E. B. Jones; Broadman, Leading Children’s Choirs by M. W. Sample and Your Christian Wedding by E. Swadley; Concordia, The Shared Time Strategy by A. F. Friedlander; Helicon, Catholics, Marriage and Contraception by J. Marshall; Herder and Herder, Themes in Catechetics by M. van Caster; and Judson, Songs in Our Bible by J. E. Moore.

SERMONS: Titles from Abingdon will be Sermons to Men of Other Faiths and Traditions by G. H. Anderson, How God Helps by G. Foote, Bible Sermon Outlines by I. Macpherson, Patterns for the Pilgrimage by D. H. Morgan, and Even So … Believe by C. A. Pennington; Augsburg, Looking God’s Way by R. K. Youngdahl; Baker, Revival Crusade Sermons by J. S. Trent, Chapel Messages by H. C. Brown and C. P. Johnson, and In Many Pulpits by C. I. Scofield; Beacon Hill, The Roads of God by J. W. May; Bethany Press, The Roads We Travel by F. Johnson Pippin; Broadman, Getting on Top of Your Troubles by C. A. Trentham; Concordia, Ha! Ha! Among the Trumpets by M. H. Franzmann; Helicon, The Priest by Pope Paul VI; Holt, Rinehart and Winston, Selected Sermons of St. Augustine edited by Q. Howe, Jr.; Revell, Good Morning Forever by W. H. Littleton; and Zondervan, The Holy Spirit for Today’s World by W. A. Criswell.

THEOLOGY: Abingdon will put out Prophetic Voices in Contemporary Theology by A. C. Portcous and Contemporary Continental Theologians by S. Paul Schilling; Baker, Reasons for Faith by J. Gerstner, Plain Papers on the Doctrines of the Holy Spirit by C. I. Scofield, and Mind and Heart: Studies in Christian Faith and Experience by R. A. Ward; Bethany Fellowship, If Ye Continue (a study of the conditional aspects of salvation) by G. Duty; Concordia, The Theology of the Resurrection by W. Runneth, The Lively Function of the Gospel edited by R. Bertram, and The Word That Can Never Die by O. Valen-Sendstad; Eerdmans. Theology in Reconstruction by T. F. Torrance, The Soul of the Symbols by J. R. Shultz, What About Tongue-Speaking? by A. Hoekema, and Jesus of Nazareth by C. F. H. Henry; Helicon, Theological investigations, Volume V, by K. Rahner and The Mystery of the Redemption by L. Richard; Herder and Herder, Jesus Christ by Y. Congar, Theology of Revelation by G. Moran, and Hearers of the Word by K. Rahner; Holt, Rinehart and Winston, The Secularization of Christianity (an analysis of the “new morality” as exemplified by John Robinson’s Honest to God and Paul van Buren’s The Secular Meaning of the Gospel) by E. L. Mascall; Macmillan, They Call Us Dead Men by D. Berrigan, Christian Faith in Our Time by F. Buri, A Theology Reader by R. W. Gleason, and Tradition and Traditions: An Historical Essay by Y. Congar; Moody. Hope Triumphant by W. K. Harrison; Oxford, Early Christian Thought and the Classical Tradition by H. Chadwick; Revell, Winds of Doctrine by A. H. Leitch; Sheed and Ward, Theology of Saint John by J. Crehan, Mary in Protestant and Catholic Theology by T. O’Meara, The Theology of Karl Rahner by D. L. Gelpi, Jewish and Catholic Theology, a symposium, and Freedom Today by H. Rung; University of Notre Dame, Toward a Christian Moral Theology by B. Haring; United Church Press, God, Man, and Time by R. E. Gibson; Westminster, The Satanward View by J. Rallas, The Meaning of Salvation by E. M. B. Green, and The Shape of Christology by J. McIntyre; World, Christian Faith and the Space Age by J. G. Williams, Faith, Peace, and Purpose by R. L. Evans, and The Shaping of Modern Christian Thought by W. F. Groff and D. E. Miller; and Zondervan, The Theology of Evangelism by A. S. Wood.

PAPERBACRS: Abingdon lists Come As You Are by O. H. Austin, Feminine Faces by C. G. Chappell, New Light from Old Lamps by R. L. Smith, and A Listener’s Guide to Preaching by W. D. Thompson; Augsburg, Exodus into the World by L. Halvorson, His Only Son Our Lord: Ideas About the Christ by R. S. Rnutson, and Pastor to Pastor: Conversations with Parish Ministers by R. A. Daehlin; Baker, Sir William Ramsay: Archaeologist and New Testament Scholar by W. Gasque, If You Talk to Teens: A Source Book for Youth Leaders by L. Caldwell, Why Scientists Accept Evolution by R. T. Clark and J. Bales, The Art of Christian Living by R. Heynen, Hitchcock’s Topical Bible by R. D. Hitchcock, 26 Story Sermons for Children by L. Cross, Preaching Poems by C. M. Pentz, Baccalaureate Messages by H. Reed, Malachi by P. Kelly, and Titus and Philemon by P. Johnson; Beacon Hill, Better Kindergarten Teaching by M. S. Edwards, Jungle Call by M. Epp, What I Will Tell My Children about God? by R. Vaughn, and A Plain Account of Christian Perfection by J. Wesley; Bethany Fellowship, The New Life by A. Murray; Bethany Press, The Breaking of Bread by K. Watkins; Broadman, Gift Wrap, Please (play) by E. W. Watson, The Slave Girl (play) by M. U. Glazener, and The Drama of Redemption by W. E. Ward; Concordia, To Mend the Broken by K. Lutze; Doubleday, The Prophetic Voice in Modern Fiction by W. R. Mueller, Buddhism or Communism: Which Holds the Future of Asia? by E. Benz, and The First Amendment by W. H. Marnell; Eerdmans, The Other Side of the Coin by J. Isaias, The Theology of Romantic Love by M. Schideler, Sermon Suggestions in Outline, Volume II, by R. E. O. White, The Church Between the Temple and the Mosque by J. H. Bavinck, Son of Tears by H. Coray, A Consistent World View by D. Dye, Revolt Against Heaven by K. Hamilton, Essays Presented to Charles Williams by C. S. Lewis, German Bibles Before Luther by R. Strand, Church Growth in Central and Southern Nigeria by R. Crimley, Christianity and African Education by R. P, Beaver, The Wrath of Heaven by C. R. Schoonhoven, Wildfire: Church Growth in Korea by R. Shearer, Minister’s Handbook of Contemporary Theology by B. Ramm, and The Grace of God by S. J. Mikolaski; Fortress, Unchanging Mission by D. Webster, O Sing Unto the Lord by H. E. Horn, The Old Testament in Modern Research by H. Hahn, Preaching on Pentecost and Christian Unity edited by A. M. Motter, Popular Christianity and the Early Theologians by H. J. Carpenter, Were Ancient Heresies Disguised Social Movements! by A. H. M. Jones, The Road to Peace by Bennett, Johnstone, et at., The Idea of a Natural Order by V. A. Demant, Kerygma, Eschatology and Social Ethics by A. N. Wilder, and The Divine Command by P. Althaus; Friendship. Need Is Our Neighborby B. L. Johnson, Wealth and Want in One World edited by M. S. Webb, Dignity of Their Own by W. H. Koch, Jr., Cooperation in Compassion by H. E. Fey, This Is the Puzzle of Poverty by J. Struchen, Next Move for the Migrants by W. E. Scholes, and Can’t We All Be Rich? by D. M. Graybeal; Herald, My Comforters by H. G. Brenneman, Alcohol and the Bible by H. Charles, and Middle Age: A Test of Time by C. A. Raber; Herder and Herder, The Meaning of Tradition by J. R. Geiselmann, Hominisation: The Evolutionary Origins of Man as a Theological Problem by K. Rahner, Towards a Theology of Religions by H. R. Schlette, and On Marriage, Sex and Virginity by L. M. Weber; Inter-Varsity, Nature of God by P. Steeves; Judson, Fractured Questions by W. Mild and Assurances of Life Eternal by M. E. Burton; John Knox, The Bible in Christian Teaching by H. Rolston, Forgiveness and Hope by R. Henderlite, If God Does Not Die by B. Martin, Paul Tillich by J. H. Thomas, Rudolf Bultmann by I. Henderson, How To Be a Christian by W. Pfendsack, Brief Outline on the Study of Theology by F. Schleiermacher, The ‘We Knows’ of the Apostle Paul by H. Rolston, and No Strings Attached: Insights into the Means of Grace by C. Culverhouse; Lippincott, The Restless Church by W. Kilboum; Macmillan, The Prison Meditations of Father Delp by the late Father A. Delp, The Secular City Debate by D. Callahan, Four Prophets by J. B. Phillips, The Popes and the Jews in the Middle Ages by E. Synan, and The Secular Meaning of the Gospel by P. van Buren; Moody, The Wondrous Cross by E. M. Clarkson, Frontiers in Modern Theology by C. F. H. Henry, Jeremiah, Prophet of Judgment by I. L. Jensen, Christian’s Guide to Church Membership by D. Winter, Patterns for Christian Youth by C. C. Ryrie, Christian’s Guide to the New Testament by A. Cole, Daily Assignment by J. Lockerbie, Joshua: Restland Won by I. L. Jensen, Jonah, Reluctant Prophet by W. L. Banks, and Christian’s Guide to the Old Testament by J. B. Taylor; Nelson, Youth Considers Life Goals by R. Snyder, Youth Considers Marriage by D. Mace, and Youth Considers Personal Moods by R. H. Howe; Oxford, Thomas Cranmer by J. Ridley; Prentice-Hall, Readings in Science and Spirit by C. D. Talafous; Regnery, The Living God by R. Guardini, The Theology of Work by Chenu, Thinking about Genesis by Monro, Historical Road of Eastern Orthodoxy by Schmemann, and Priest and Worker by Perrin; Revell, That Girl in Your Mirror by V. K. Van Dyke; Scribners, Foreign Policy in Christian Perspective by J. C. Bennett and Principles of Christian Theology by J. Macquarrie; University of Notre Dame, The Last Things by R. Guardini and Dimensions of Authority in the Religious Life by Schlitzer; United Church Press, Reform and Renewal by D. Horton et al. and Church Plays and How to Stage Them by A. Johnson; Upper Room, When a Man Prays by H. Rogers; Westminster, After Death by J. A. Motyer, The Church Inside Out by J. C. Hoekendijk and I. C. Rottenberg, Faith, Fact, and Fantasy by C. F. D. Moule, God and Mammon by K. F. W. Prior, God Speaks to Man by J. I. Packer, Guide to the Debate about God by D. Jenkins, Situaation Ethics by J. Fletcher, and God’s Chosen People by R. Morton and M. Gibbs; World, Natural Law and Modern Society by J. Cogley; Yale University, Freedom of the Will by J. Edwards, edited by P. Ramsey, and The Mormon Conflict, 1850–1859 by N. F. Furniss; and Zondervan, What Jesus Had to Say about Money by F. C. Laubach, Apostle to the Illiterates by D. Mason, The Gospel Blimp by J. Bayly, These My People by L. Dickson, Science Returns to God by J. H. Jauncey, Man to Man by R. Halverson, Say ‘Yes’ to Life by A. B. Mow, and Let My Heart Be Broken by R. Gehman.

The best of the year in the realm of evangelical literature

BARKMAN, PAUL F.: Man in Conflict (Zondervan, 189 pp., $3.95). An examination of man’s psychological conflicts and problems in the light of biblical teaching.

BECKER, RUSSELL J.: Family Pastoral Care (Prentice-Hall, 144 pp., $2.95). One of those rare books that take seriously the need for pastoral care of the family.

BENDER, URIE A.: The Witness: Message, Method, Motivation (Herald, 159 pp., $3). A perceptive probing of the nature, method, and resources of witness to the Gospel, and of matters that hinder such witness.

BERKOUWER, G. C.: The Second Vatican Council and the New Catholicism (Eerdmans, 320 pp., $5.95). A brilliant analysis of the religious spirit of our times by a charitable but confirmed Protestant.

BERKOUWER, G. C.: The Work of Christ (Eerdmans, 358 pp., $7.50). A solid biblical discussion of the meaning of Christ’s redemptive work. A companion volume to Berkouwer’s The Person of Christ.

CARNELL, EDWARD JOHN: The Burden of Sören Kierkegaard (Eerdmans, 174 pp., $3.50). The most lucid and critical presentation of the thought and intent of Kierkegaard extant.

DAVIES, J. G.: The Early Christian Church (Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 314 pp., $8.50). Fine scholarship combined with high readability produces an illuminating picture of the first five centuries of Christianity.

Ex Auditu Verbi: Theologische Opstellen Aangeboden Ann Prof. Dr. G. C. Berkouwer, a symposium (J. H. Kok, 342 pp., $000). Essays in Dutch, German, and English comment on theologian G. C. Berkouwer. A Festschrift.

FULLER, DANIEL P.: Easter Faith and History (Eerdmans, 279 pp., $4.95). A study that looks to the Bible to discover the relation of faith and history. Both scholarly and readable.

GRAHAM, BILLY: World Aflame (Doubleday, 267 pp., $3.95). A prophetic voice that judges the world in the name of the Gospel.

GUTHRIE, DONALD: New Testament Introduction: The Gospels and Acts (Inter-Varsity, 380 pp., $5.95). A scholarly treatment of critical problems that bids fair to become a standard work.

HITT, RUSSELL T.: Sensei: The Life Story of Irene Webster-Smith (Harper and Row, 240 pp., $3.95). An inspiring story of the first missionary invited by General MacArthur to return to Japan.

JARMAN, W. MAXEY: A Businessman Looks at the Bible (Revell, 159 pp., $2.95). A prominent businessman speaks his convictions about his faith and his Bible.

JEREMIAS, JOACHIM: The Central Message of the New Testament (Scribners, 95 pp., $2.95). A renowned scholar presents a frontal challenge to the Bultmann school.

LLOYD-JONES, D. MARTYN: Spiritual Depression: Its Causes and Cure (Eerdmans, 300 pp., $3.95). Sermons that accent Christian joy as being of the essence of Christianity and as the answer to spiritual depression.

LYALL, LESLIE T.: A Passion for the Impossible: The China Inland Mission, 1865–1965 (Moody, 208 pp., $3.50). The inspiring saga of a faith that brought the message of Christianity into the interior of China.

MARTIN, WALTER R.:The Kingdom of the Cults (Zondervan, 443 pp., $5.95). About the best there is on the cults; written with an eye on Christian missions.

MCGAVRAN, DONALD, editor: Church Growth and Christian Mission (Harper and Row, 252 pp., $5). An impressive study of the growth of the Church from the perspective of theology, sociology, methodology, and administration.

MORRIS, LEON: The Cross in the New Testament (Eerdmans, 454 pp., $6.95). An impressive exposition of the many faces of the Atonement in the New Testament, which for all its variety has substantial unity.

PAUL, ROBERT S.: Ministry (Eerdmans, 252 pp., $5). An astute portrayal of the meaning of the Church’s ministry as grounded in the person of Jesus Christ.

Philosophy and Christianity: Philosophical Essays Dedicated to Professor Dr. Herman Dooyeweerd, a symposium (J. H. Kok and North-Holland, 462 pp., $12). A Festschrift in honor of a distinguished Christian philosophical thinker.

PIPER, OTTO A.: Protestantism in an Ecumenical Age: Its Root—Its Right—Its Task (Fortress, 254 pp., $4.50). A sane, balanced assessment of the Protestant Reformation and of its future.

RYRIE, CHARLES CALDWELL: Dispensationalism Today (Moody, 221 pp., $3.95). A lucid plea for dispensationalism against the distinctives of convenantal theology.

TENNEY, MERRILL C.: New Testament Times (Eerdmans, 396 pp., $5.95). A reconstruction of the cultural milieu in which Christianity arose and developed.

TOURNIER, PAUL: The Adventure of Living (Harper and Row, 250 pp., $3.75). A penetrating analysis’ of man’s innate instinct for adventure as countered by his other innate instinct for repose.

Early in 1965 the second volume of G. W. Bromiley’s English translation of Kittel’s Theological Dictionary of the New Testament appeared (Eerdmans). This volume covers the letters Delta to Eta, and with its publication the enterprise is about one-fourth completed. From the house of Brockhaus in Wuppertal, Germany, comes the first installment of a lexicon of New Testament concepts rather than words: Theologisches Begriffslexikon zum Neuen Testament, edited by L. Coenen and others. This is not designed on such a massive scale as Kittel, and greater concessions are made to the non-specialist student; for example, Greek words are given in transliteration as well as in Greek type, and Hebrew words are given in transliteration only. But it is a work of first-class scholarship and promises to be a further valuable aid to New Testament study.

At the lower end of the Greek scale we welcome J. W. Wenham’s Elements of New Testament Greek and Key to the Elements of New Testament Greek (Cambridge University). Many generations of theological students in the English-speaking world (especially on the eastern side of the Atlantic) will recognize these titles, but hitherto they have associated them with the name of H. P. V. Nunn. In revising Nunn’s work for a new edition, Wenham found himself making so many radical changes that it was judged better that the two handbooks appear under his own name. Another elementary introduction to the same subject that has stood the test of thirty-five years has been reissued as a paperback: W. E. Vine’s New Testament Greek Grammar: A Course of Self-Help (Oliphants).

With the appearance of Gospels and Acts, Donald Guthrie has completed his trilogy on New Testament Introduction (Inter-Varsity; Tyndale). Teachers of New Testament, from university to Bible college level, will find this trilogy the right work to recommend to students who desire a survey of the main trends of contemporary research. While Dr. Guthrie’s own conclusions are uniformly conservative, his account of other men’s work is admirably objective. Guthrie is one of the contributors to a symposium on The Authorship and Integrity of the New Testament (SPCK “Theological Collections”); his essay deals with the development of the idea of canonical pseudepigrapha in the New Testament. Among other contributions is one defending the unity of Second Corinthians, by A. M. G. Stephenson, and one viewing the same document as a collection of several letters, by G. Bornkamm. The New Testament in Historical and Contemporary Perspective (Blackwell, Oxford), a volume in memory of G. H. C. Macgregor, contains eleven essays by his former pupils and colleagues and was edited by H. Anderson and W. Barclay.

To Hutchinson’s “University Library” R. M. Grant has contributed a readable little book on The Formation of the New Testament (also published by Harper and Row), which deals, not (like the Old Testament volume in the same series) with special introduction, but with the growth of the canon. The same scholar has given us a new edition of his Short History of the Interpretation of the Bible (Macmillan; A. and C. Black). A. T. Hanson’s Jesus Christ in the Old Testament (SPCK) is a study of the New Testament writers’ interpretation of the Old Testament, in which he argues that their normative approach is not that of typology but of what he calls “real presence”—the view that Jesus was personally active in the great events of Old Testament history. God in the New Testament, by A. W. Argyle (Lippincott; Hodder and Stoughton), a volume in the “Knowing Christianity” series, is an introduction to New Testament theology for the layman. Jesus, Paul and Judaism, by L. Goppelt (Nelson), subtitled “An Introduction to New Testament Theology,” approaches the subject from a historical point of view, and in particular examines the rise and progress of Christianity in the light of its relation to Judaism. But the finest contribution to New Testament theology in 1965 has, in my opinion, been Leon Morris’s The Cross in the New Testament (Eerdmans; Paternoster), which goes far towards doing for the present day what James Denney’s The Death of Christ did two generations ago. Mission in the New Testament, by F. Hahn (Allenson; SCM), the latest addition to “Studies in Biblical Theology,” deals with the New Testament understanding of the Church’s mission to the world. The Central Message of the New Testament, by J. Jeremias (Scribners; SCM), deals with four crucial themes: “Abba,” the sacrificial death, justification by faith, and the revealing Word. For Hodder and Stoughton’s “Christian’s Guide” paperbacks, Alan Cole has written A Christian’s Guide to the New Testament. Miss O. J. Lace has edited Understanding the New Testament, an introductory volume to the “Cambridge Bible Commentary on the New English Bible”; in addition to contributions by Miss Lace, it includes chapters on the New Testament canon and text by C. F. D. Moule and J. N. Birdsall respectively.

New Testament Times, by M. C. Tenney (Eerdmans), is a well-written and well-illustrated history of the three centuries between the Maccabaean and Bar-kokhba revolts within which the rise of Christianity took place. An even more detailed account (unillustrated) is F. V. Filson’s New Testament History (Westminster; SCM); in his introduction the writer raises the important question of how far the committed Christian can approach the history of Christian origins with scholarly objectivity. One phase of New Testament history is dealt with by E. M. Blaiklock in Cities of the New Testament (Pickering and Inglis).

William Neil, editor of the “Knowing Christianity” series, has himself contributed to it The Life and Teaching of Jesus (Lippincott; Hodder and Stoughton). J. F. Peter’s Finding the Historical Jesus (Collins) criticizes the extreme skepticism with which the quest is widely approached today and helps to restore the true balance between the Jesus of history and the Christ of faith. The English translation of H. E. Tödt’s The Son of Man in the Synoptic Tradition (Westminster; SCM) takes account of work done in this field after the publication of the German original, particularly A. J. B. Higgins’s work, reviewed in last year’s survey. Ernst Lohmeyer’s The Lord’s Prayer, which was first published in Germany in 1952, six years after the author’s presumed death in Russia, has now appeared in an English translation, with a foreword by R. Gregor Smith (Collins).

The veteran Augustin Cardinal Bea has written a short work on The Study of the Synoptic Gospels (Harper and Row; Chapman) that shows how much a thing of the past is the tension between Catholic exegesis and biblical scholarship. Much of what he says about “new approaches and outlooks” will find a responsive echo in the minds of conservative Protestants who read his book.

An important full-length study of The Gospel of Mark from a new point of view has been given us by J. Bowman; it is published in Brill’s “Studia Post-Biblica” and interprets the Gospel as a “new Christian Jewish Passover Haggadah.” For the new “Cambridge Bible Commentary on the New English Bible,” the volume on The Gospel According to Mark has been written by C. F. D. Moule; though this series is intended to be elementary, the more advanced student will read this volume with profit. The Temptation and the Passion, by E. Best (Cambridge University), is a study in Mark’s soteriology published in the new monograph series of the Society for New Testament Studies. E. J. Tinsley has written on The Gospel According to Luke for the “Cambridge Bible Commentary,” and A. M. Hunter on The Gospel According to John. Professor Tinsley sees the rejection of Christ as the theme of Luke’s Gospel; Professor Hunter takes account of the increased respect for historical tradition in John’s Gospel and of the implications of the Qumran discoveries for its study. The World of St. John, by E. Earle Ellis (Abingdon), introduces the Johannine Gospel and Epistles to readers of “Bible Guides.”

The latest volume in the new translation of Calvin’s New Testament commentaries is The Acts of the Apostles, 1–13, finely turned into English by J. W. Fraser and W. J. G. McDonald (Oliver and Boyd). A welcome reprint is that missionary classic in its own right, The Acts of the Apostles, by Thomas Walker (of Tinnevelly), with a new introduction by Wilbur M. Smith (Moody). A major contribution to the criticism of Acts is The Semitisms of Acts, by M. Wilcox (Oxford), a book which carries this important aspect of the study of Acts well beyond the point to which other scholars had previously brought it.

Paul and James, by W. Schmithals (Allenson; SCM), argues that Paul’s chief opponents were not Judaizers as commonly understood but Jews and Jewish Christians of Gnostic outlook. The central message of Romans and Galatians is expounded by B. S. Mackay in The Freedom of the Christian (Abingdon, “Bible Guides” series). The latest title in “Scottish Journal of Theology Occasional Papers” is A Commentary on Romans 12–13, by C. E. B. Cranfield (Oliver and Boyd); in the preface to this study we are told that Cranfield has undertaken to write a full-scale commentary on Romans (to replace Sanday and Headlam’s) for the new series of the “International Critical Commentary.” That a new series of the ICC is on its way is exciting news. In the present study, Romans 12 and 13 are expounded in greater detail and with greater attention to the work of previous commentators from patristic times to our own day than will be possible in the ICC volume.

Two major works of introduction to First Corinthians are The Origin of I Corinthians, by John C. Hurd, Jr. (Seabury; SPCK), and A Companion to I Corinthians, by G. Deluz (Darton, Longman and Todd). Hurd’s volume (which shows the influence of his teacher, C. H. Buck, Jr.) is of quite exceptional importance; would that we had something comparable on the even more complicated question of the origin of Second Corinthians! The commentary on I and II Corinthians in the “Cambridge Bible Commentary” has been written by Margaret E. Thrall and is marked throughout by her accurate but unobtrusive scholarship. Readers of an earlier work by Dr. Thrall will recognize the development of her thinking on the exegesis of the opening verses of Second Corinthians 5.

The volume on Galatians in the “Tyndale New Testament Commentaries,” which was to have been written by the late N. B. Stonehouse, has now been written by A. Cole (Tyndale Press). Dr. Cole describes this epistle as spiritual dynamite that cannot be handled without risk of explosions; he shows its relevance to present-day controversies, not only in regard to the way of salvation, but also as a passionate appeal for intercommunion and mutual recognition of ministries.

The Epistles to Timothy and Titus were given a fresh look in the Manson Memorial Lecture for 1964, The Problem of the Pastoral Epistles: A Reappraisal, by C. F. D. Moule (Rylands Library, Manchester). Professor Moule finds himself driven to a theory of free composition (in the case of First Timothy, very free composition) during the Apostle’s lifetime by his amanuensis, identified as Luke, who wrote the three epistles “at Paul’s behest, and, in part (but only in part), at Paul’s dictation.”

To the “Bible Guides” series W. Barclay has contributed Epistle to the Hebrews (Abingdon). He quotes his late chief and predecessor G. H. C. Macgregor as saying that either you found this epistle “one of the supreme books of the New Testament, or you found that it had little to say to you at all.” While Macgregor belonged to the latter category, Dr. Barclay belongs to the former: “for me,” he says, “the Letter to the Hebrews was always one of the great products of the Christian faith, and the longer I studied it the more I loved it, and the greater it seemed to me.” He therefore expounds it con amore. The General Epistles in the same series are treated by G. R. Beasley-Murray; his exposition of the message of James is particularly helpful. In the “Cambridge Bible Commentary,” R. R. Williams, Bishop of Leicester, writes on The Letters of John and James. While John’s first epistle is chiefly concerned to refute Gnostic teaching, in the course of his refutation the writer “throws out many terse summaries of important Christian truths”; it is for these, rather than for a refutation of Gnosticism, that Christians have read this letter for nineteen centuries and continue to read it. But that First John is valuable today for more than just its “terse summaries” is shown by R. E. O. White, who has given us a devotional and homiletical commentary on the epistle under the up-to-date title, An Open Letter to Evangelicals (Eerdmans; Paternoster). The commentary proper is followed by a series of “contemporary reflections” in which the message of the epistle is applied to such areas of evangelical concern as authority, spiritual experience, ethics, ecumenicity, and the Cross.

The editors of the “Cambridge Bible Commentary” wisely entrusted the volume on The Revelation of John to T. F. Glasson, who has for long made a special study of New Testament apocalyptic. While this book cannot be understood apart from the situation that called it forth, yet, when it has been understood in the light of that situation, the permanent validity of its essential message can be better appreciated. Dr. Glasson suggests that John in the Revelation follows a framework too similar to Ezekiel’s for us to put down the similarity to coincidence; he has, in addition, been greatly influenced by Ezekiel’s language. A fresh and independent study of Revelation is The Lamb and the Book, by G. R. Crow (Gospel Literature Service, Bombay); it is generally futurist (thus “the things which must be hereafter” are “things that come to pass after the professing church has reached its full development”), but does not follow too closely any one futurist school of interpretation. An important French study, Le Christ dans l’Apocalypse, by J. Comblin (Desclée, Paris), examines against their appropriate backgrounds the various figures under which Christ is portrayed in the Revelation.

‘OF MAN’s FIRST DISOBEDIENCE AND THE FRUIT …’

Firm-winged, the gulls, this shining afternoon

Glide past my window. Glide alone, in threes.

Glide without effort. Curve and turn and rise.

Enthralled, I watch. No strain, no struggle in

Firm-sinewed wings; no crashes in mid-air.

No suicidal anguish pulls apart

The rhythm of their wing-beats. For such flight

Gull wings were made. Gull wing-bones.

Feathers, too.

So ought the soul to be; it, too, was made

To soar in upper regions undismayed,

Yet hobbles, hobbles, hobbles over stones,

Wing-broken, feathers draggled. Thing of groans.

ELVA McALLASTER

From the standpoint of conservative scholarship, the new volumes appearing during 1965 have perhaps been sparser than in the preceding year; the great majority have emanated from liberal scholarship and reflect for the most part the attitudes and methods that have prevailed in such circles for the last several decades. Perhaps the most noteworthy development of the year has been the production of further volumes in the “Anchor Bible” series, under the general editorship of W. F. Albright of Johns Hopkins and David Noel Freedman of San Francisco Seminary.

The following works reflect a consistently conservative viewpoint:

1. The first unit of the Old Testament series in Eerdmans’s “New International Commentary” has appeared as a product of the scholarship of the general editor of the series, Edward J. Young of Westminster Seminary. In this first volume of his Commentary on the Book of Isaiah, which covers chapters 1–18, Young has produced a masterful analysis and discussion of these chapters and defended their authenticity against negative higher criticism. Combining a learned but lucid explanation of the prophet’s message with earnest homiletical application, he makes the impact of Isaiah con temporary for the reader. Young’s amillennial perspective is not especially noticeable in these chapters. His treatment of “Immanuel” in chapter 7 does not allow any typical relationship for the son born to Isaiah in chapter 8.

2. In The Ark of the Covenant from Conquest to Kingship (Presbyterian and Reformed), Marten H. Woudstra traces the history of the interpretation of the meaning of the Ark from the Middle Ages to the present century and describes the conflicting views now current in liberal circles. Then after discussing the various Hebrew terms for the Ark, he shows—by careful analysis and by rebuttal of scholarly efforts to show changing concepts of the sacred chest in the Old Testament period—that its basic character as a symbol of God’s presence and redeeming grace, containing the tables of the Law as a testimony to the Covenant, never substantially varied. Woudstra shows a thorough acquaintance with the relevant literature; his defect is a too matter-of-fact style.

3. Ezekiel: Prophecy of Hope (Baker), by Andrew W. Blackwood, Jr., is a running exposition of the entire text of Ezekiel. In an eminently readable style, the author discusses all the elements necessary to an understanding of the prophet’s message: explanation, allusion to other parallel passages, illustration, the suggestions of modern critics, and brief homiletical application. The difficult later chapters of Ezekiel (38–48) the author tends to interpret as broad, general symbolism, with a vaguely futuristic reference, rather than as a literal description of the millennial state of affairs. Always he maintains a reverent and appreciative attitude towards the text, even when he deplores the too-vivid phraseology that seems a bit “nauseating” to Occidental sensibilities. Too many concessions to higher criticism are made here and there, and the treatment of the last eleven chapters may not be altogether adequate for pre-millennial readers; but on the whole this is an exemplary piece of work, showing what can be achieved by a well-read, scholarly pastor.

4. Harry N. Huxhold, university pastor at the University of Minnesota, gives us a series of textual sermons in Messages of Hope from the Old Testament, Advent to Pentecost (Concordia). The messages, strongly Christological, draw widely upon literature, drama, history, liturgy, and, of course, the writings of Luther.

The following works represent a mediating viewpoint; their authors take the Bible seriously as revelation but tend to accept the results of rationalistic higher criticism regarding authorship and date of composition:

1. The Old Testament—C.C.D. Version (Guild Press), edited by Joseph A. Grispino, S. M. This text is all from the C.C.D. except for Kings through Esther and First and Second Maccabees, which are from the Douay. But the C.C.D. cross-references have been omitted in order to make more room for notes. The introductions and notes are all written by Grispino, with the avowed purpose of incorporating the “latest findings in literary criticism, history and archeology.” In introducing Genesis he briefly explains the documentary hypothesis and also discusses some difficulties in science and history that appear to contradict the Bible. Defense of the Scriptures is especially noticeable in his commentary on the Pentateuch. Not all his explanations are convincing (e.g., in connection with Genesis 12: “At that time lying and adultery were justified to save the life of a husband, since God had not yet revealed that these were wrong”), and there are occasionally awkward or infelicitous turns of expression. His notes on Psalms are perhaps the best part of his commentary.

2. Prophecy and Covenant (Number 43 of Allenson’s “Studies in Biblical Theology”), by Ronald E. Clements. Dr. Clements, of New College, Edinburgh, offers a very stimulating study of the role of the writing prophets of the Old Testament as interpreters of a pre-existing Law of Moses, and as enforcers of its authority upon the consciences of their countrymen. Clements accepts many of the higher critical verdicts—on dates of composition of “Deutero-Isaiah” and Daniel, for example—but he insists, contrary to Wellhausenian doctrine, that the prophets in no sense created the Pentateuch but were rather the faithful custodians of a tradition going authentically back to Moses. They criticized the cultic practices as a reliance on mere formalism and a basic departure from the true imperative of the national covenant with Jehovah.

3. The City of the Gods: A Study in Myth and Mortality (Macmillan), by John S. Dunne, C. S. C. The author surveys the varying answers to the mystery of death furnished by successive cultures and schools of thought, from Sumerian times to the twentieth century: Mesopotamia, Egypt, Archaic and Classical Greece, Rome, the Middle Ages, Kant, Hegel, Nietzsche, and Heidegger. He draws an interesting analogy between the Egyptian ideal of “becoming Osiris” and the late Hellenistic or Gnostic effort to “become Eon.” Analyzing their treatment of the problems of life and death in mythic and cultural representations (earlier theories of eternal return or rejuvenation or perpetual growth giving way to later concepts of immortality and finally to the present-day notion of “the death of God”), the author exposes the intrinsic inadequacy of men’s solutions and thus implies the indispensability of the biblical answer given by divine revelation. Yet he does not actually discuss the Bible as such, except in connection with the Genesis account of the tree of life.

4. Irony in the Old Testament (Westminster), by Edwin M. Good. In distinguishing irony from satire and sarcasm, Good says that irony implies understatement, taking its stance on a clear view of the truth from which it perceives the incongruity in the deviation involved. Finding irony in such books as Jonah, Genesis, Isaiah, Job, and Ecclesiastes, he construes all of these ironic passages as dealing with the surprise experienced by man when confronted with the stern demands of his relation with God, or with God’s constant love and loyalty towards those who scarcely deserve his favor. Irony in Ecclesiastes points to the misconception of those who try to make their own way through life apart from God’s saving message. In vain they attempt to derive from life the values they think it should have. Job presents a man who expects the Almighty to conform to finite human views of what is right and proper in God’s dealings with man. The discussion is well conducted and throws open new possibilities of interpretation for some of the difficult passages.

5. The Theology of the Samaritans (Westminster’s “New Testament Library”), by John MacDonald. This professor at the University of Leeds maintains that Samaritans are not properly regarded as a Jewish sect, but were rather a distinct development of the Israelite religious tradition going back to the time of Zerubbabel and Ezra. Greek philosophy exerted an important influence on this development, as did also some elements of Christian teaching in the early centuries of the Christian era. The Samaritans exalted Moses to the status of the Servant of God, the Son of His House, the Saviour, the Word of God, the Star, and the Restorer (Taheb). Eschatologically they looked forward to the eventual restoration of the people of God, the Day of Resurrection, and the Day of Recompense and Vengeance. MacDonald’s work may be recommended as a very competent study of this little-known offshoot of Old Testament Judaism.

6. Prophets and Wise Men (Number 44 of Allenson’s “Studies in Biblical Theology”), by William McKane. Professor McKane, of the University of Glasgow, has produced an interesting treatment of the dialectical clash between the empirical, worldly, international wisdom of the educated statesmen in Israel (analogous to the educated counselors and secretaries of state in Egypt and Mesopotamia)—called hakamim or “wise men”—and the newer Covenant-centered viewpoint of the prophets, such as Isaiah and Jeremiah, who charismatically possessed the debar Yahweh, “the word of the Lord,” and who insisted that the ultimate power governing the affairs of men and nations was the sovereign counsel of Jehovah. This interpretation unsettles the conclusions of most of the liberal scholars who have analyzed the rise and orientation of the class of “wise men” and the function of hokmah, or Wisdom-Literature. Moderately liberal in viewpoint, McKane accepts the usual higher critical dates for the composition of the books of the Old Testament and yet takes the biblical records seriously as history (e.g., the cultivation of the older Wisdom dates back to Solomon’s age).

The books listed below contain largely objective information and factual reports of archaeological or documentary data, in which the theological standpoint of the author plays a minor role.

1. Introduction to Hebrew (Prentice-Hall), by Moshe Greenberg. In line with many of the most recent elementary biblical language texts, this introduction emphasizes the acquiring of a mere reading knowledge, without the precision gained through exercises in Hebrew composition. All the reading exercises are followed by questions in Hebrew that are meant to be answered in Hebrew; but this falls short of the standard attainable through the discipline of written composition. Greenberg starts with the most frequent grammatical features and progresses to the less common, covering all the weak verbs except the double-’ayin class. For vocabulary, the book introduces the student to at least one-third of the words fifty times or more.

2. Amorite Personal Names in the Mari Texts (Johns Hopkins), by Herbert B. Huffmon. An Old Testament professor at Chicago Theological Seminary has here furnished a thorough and satisfying treatment of the large body of non-Akkadian, non-Hurrian names mentioned in the Mari Tablets, which because of their peculiar vocalization show themselves to be closely related to Canaanite or Arabic. Insofar as these names contain verbal and nominal inflections, they throw light upon the vocalization of the early Canaanite (or Proto-Hebrew) spoken by the patriarchs at the time of the Egyptian Sojourn. These names also furnish additional data on which to evaluate and interpret many of the names in the Old Testament whose etymology has been disputed. The names (about 900) are divided into systematic categories and listed in full. A complete glossary of all the verbs and nouns contained in the compound names is furnished, with cognates from other Semitic languages. This will be a useful reference work for many years to come.

3. Catalogue of Hebrew and Samaritan Manuscripts in the British Museum, Volumes I–III (British Museum Press), by G. Gargoliouth. These are valuable reprints of the original editions, which came out in 1899, 1905, and 1915 respectively. They contain a very detailed description of all the Hebrew manuscripts owned by the museum down to 1915. (No Samaritan manuscripts are included.) They are arranged in the following order: (1) biblical texts and commentaries; (2) midrashim and midrashic discourses, Talmuds, and liturgies; (3) Kabbala, and works on ethics, philosophy, poetry, philology, mathematics, astronomy, and medicine.

4. The Apocrypha of the Old Testament, Revised Standard Version (Oxford University Press), by Bruce M. Metzger. This very useful edition has brief but helpful introductions to each of the books. The various commentators appear to assume that the writings of the Apocrypha do not essentially differ in character or authority from the canonical books of the Old Testament, for they do not comment on passages that historically or doctrinally deviate from the Hebrew Scriptures.

5. Ancient Jewish Coins (Rubin Mass), by A. Reifenberg. Apparently a reprint of the 1947 second edition, this fourth edition therefore does not include the additional data emanating from Israeli numismatic researches of the last fifteen years. Nevertheless it is a most useful compendium of information, including 219 excellent photographs of coins that are fully described, with inscriptions given in Greek and Hebrew characters. There is also an adequate discussion of the successive periods of Jewish coinage from the Persian period to the Second Revolt. This will be a very useful reference work for the rapidly increasing number of collectors of biblical coins and will also be important for students of Intertestamental history.

6. Shechem: The Biography of a Biblical City (McGraw-Hill), by Ernest Wright. This is one of the finest archaeological reports intended for the general public to appear within the last decade. The distinguished Old Testament professor of Harvard Divinity School masterfully combines all the known historical data, biblical and extra-biblical, with the archaeological findings of the Drew-McCormick Expedition between 1956 and 1964. The treatment is well-balanced and satisfying, technical without being abstruse or uninteresting. A good case is made for the location of the temple of El-Berith (Judges 9:46) by the oak near which Abraham first offered sacrifices in Genesis 12:6—a site uncovered and examined by the expedition with painstaking care.

Now follows a list of the most significant products of liberal Old Testament scholarship that have appeared in the year just passed.

1. The Old Testament, An Introduction (Harper and Row), by Otto Eissfeldt. This translation of a long-accepted classic of higher criticism was made from the third German edition, which appeared last year. Eissfeldt, easily the most eminent liberal scholar in this field on the Continent, is a faithful adherent of the Graf-Wellhausen hypothesis, the three-Isaiah theory, and the Maccabean date for Daniel (although he concedes the possibility of third-century portions in chapters 2–6). In deference to form criticism he discusses at length the various literary types (Gattungen) that underlay the various Wellhausenian “documents” as well as Eissfeldt’s own “L” (which he dates ca. 900 B.C.); nevertheless, he tends to ignore the basic charge of the form critics and the Scandinavian school that the documentary hypothesis is an artificial Occidental “book-view” that does no justice to ancient Semitic psychology. He is aware of the existence of conservative scholars like Young and Aalders but does not seem to have studied their arguments, for he offers no relevant rebuttal to them. His discussions of the Qumran material are detailed enough to be very helpful. The bibliography is (thanks to Ackroyd’s supplements) very full and adequate, but unfortunately many of the excellent works cited (like Manley’s treatment of Deuteronomy) are not discussed in the text. Yet the fact remains that now that Eissfeldt has been translated into English, his Introduction will take a commanding position in liberal circles in the English-speaking world, doubtless displacing Pfeiffer and Driver altogether.

2. The Anchor Bible: II Chronicles (Doubleday), translation, introduction, and notes by Jacob M. Myers. Several more volumes of the “Anchor Bible” series have come out this year, continuing the same basically liberal approach as Speiser’s “Genesis” (which appeared last year). An effort is generally made to take stock of the findings of archaeology and the newer data emanating from Ugarit and Qumran, but the presuppositions that prevailed in the late nineteenth century are generally adhered to, despite the newer approaches of form criticism, the Scandinavian history-of-tradition school, and the followers of W. F. Albright.

This commentary shows an entirely different attitude towards the reliability and historical accuracy of Chronicles than that which prevailed a few decades ago in liberal circles. Instead of dismissing as garbled or fictitious whatever elements were lacking in the parallel section of Kings, or appeared to vary in any way, the commentator shows a new attitude of respect in his judicious weighing of all the factors of probability before condemning the Chronicles version as unhistorical. Frequent reference is made to relevant Egyptian, Mesopotamian, and Ugaritic parallels. The translation itself is vigorously modern and idiomatic and highly readable. A very helpful series of genealogical charts in the appendix clarifies the relationships detailed in the text. This is followed by a complete roster of all the place names and personal names mentioned in First and Second Chronicles, with citations of their appearances in other books of the Old Testament as well as Chronicles.

3. The Anchor Bible: Job (Doubleday), translation, introduction, and notes by M. H. Pope. Pope regards the dialogue between Job and his comforters as coming from the seventh century B.C., although its basic theme goes back to the second millennium (judging from Sumerian and Akkadian parallels). It is uncertain whether the author was an Israelite. Many of his expressions trace back to Ugaritic parallels, which furnish a basis for interpreting the “umpire” or “redeemer” figure in the light of the ancient Near Eastern concept of personal guardian deities. Pope sees no real movement in the argument; Job trusts that somehow justice must triumph in the end, leading to his own vindication. His comforters serve only to show how “wrongheaded traditional piety can be.” Faith alone can accept innocent suffering as something meaningful: “no extreme of suffering gives mere man license to question God’s wisdom or justice as Job had done” (p. lxxv). As for the prologue and epilogue, Pope understands them to be earlier than the dialogue itself. The speeches of Elihu are later still, and the Wisdom chapter (28) is an extraneous addition. The theories of an Aramaic or Arabic original are unconvincing; it was probably composed in Hebrew. Interesting analogies to Job are seen in Egyptian, Mesopotamian, and even Greek sources.

4. The Anchor Bible: Proverbs and Ecclesiastes (Doubleday), translation, introduction, and notes by R. B. Y. Scott. The Old Testament professor at Princeton University has made a careful study of the evolution of the concept of hokmah (“wisdom”) from its earliest appearance in pre-Solomonic literature of Mesopotamia, Egypt, and Canaan itself. Without attempting to specify very definitely what portions of Proverbs actually go back to Solomon’s reign, he indicates that Solomon’s close connection with Egyptian culture makes his interest in this literary type highly probable, even though the final editing of the canonical book may have taken place in the fourth century (p. xxxviii). The translation of the text is vigorously modern and indulges in occasional emendations to do away with difficulties or unknowns like King Lemuel (31:1). As for Ecclesiastes, Scott interprets Qoheleth as “Teacher” rather than “Preacher” and insists that Solomon could no more have written this work in the tenth century than Henry VIII of England could have composed a book on Marxism in modern English (p. 196). Yet he elsewhere acknowledges that a critical, skeptical type of hokmah appeared in Mesopotamian literature of the second millennium, and also concedes that there is no linguistic resemblance to Ooheleth in any other book in the Hebrew Scriptures. His date of composition in the early Hellenistic period is therefore largely based on evolutionary theory rather than objective data. Scott interprets the author’s stance as completely rationalistic and skeptical of divine revelation. This he does by ignoring the qualifying force of the frequent phrase “under the sun” and excising as interpolations all those passages that do recognize the authority of God’s revealed commands.

5. I and II Samuel: A Commentary (Westminster), by Hans W. Hertzberg. This is a translation of the second revised German edition (1960) of a commentary first produced by the professor of Old Testament at the University of Kiel. It therefore reflects the mood and approach of the 1920s rather than the more recent trends influenced by modern archaeological discovery. A thoroughgoing skepticism is evident in Hertzberg’s treatment of the literary sources of First Samuel, and he shows little interest in philological problems. Much attention is devoted to the earliest oral forms of traditions underlying these books, accompanied by an analysis of their adaptation and arrangement by the “Deuteronomist.” The commentator’s main stress falls upon the sovereign power of God in establishing the Davidic dynasty. There is perhaps a tendency to oversimplify the personalities portrayed in the Hebrew narrative and not to do justice to their complex motivation.

6. The Book of Genesis: A Jewish Interpretation (Schocken), by Julian Morgenstern. In this work, which was first published in 1919 and now reappears with a few minor changes, the author counteracts the fragmentary impression of Genesis produced by contemporary higher criticism and stresses its overall religious message. His frequent references to midrashic comments have a homiletical thrust; these are supplemented by numerous philological and exegetical notes of real value. He strongly implies that the prophetic movement of the eighth century had a profound influence upon the formation of Genesis.

7. Leviticus: A Commentary (SCM Press), by Martin Noth. As might be expected, this author devotes his principal attention to higher critical theory and engages in a reconstruction of the development and transmission of the text. Chapter 9 in its final written form he regards as the oldest “piece of original P” in Leviticus (p. 76), but most of the material dates from the fall of Jerusalem in 587 to the age of Haggai and Zechariah, ca. 519 B.C.

8. Archeology in Biblical Research (Abingdon), by Walter G. Williams. This is not a detailed or exhaustive survey but a general discussion of the terminology and methodology of present-day archaeologists in the Holy Land. Williams lists the major discoveries of recent times and assesses their importance in relation to biblical studies. Much of the material is treated from the standpoint of general topics of interest, such as “Accidental Discoveries, Established Traditions and Objective Evaluation” and “New Knowledge of Ancient Languages.” He earnestly censures the misuse of archaeology to support a particular point of view, such as “the verbal inspiration and literal accuracy of the Bible” (p. 44), but he says nothing about the misuse of archaeology to prove the inaccuracy of the Bible. Nor does he mention conservative works on archaeology such as those by Dr. Free of Wheaton or Dr. Unger of Dallas. He includes several helpful maps and drawings; the photographs are mostly of average quality.

9. The Creative Era: Between the Testaments (John Knox), by Carl G. Howie. This is a rather doctrinaire liberal treatment of the Intertestamental period, marked by confident date-setting (Ecclesiastes was composed in about 200 B.C.; Isaiah 26 around 250 B.C.; Daniel 168–165 B.C.). The concept of hell-fire was borrowed from Zoroastrianism; demon-possession was a passing superstition that enjoyed a kind of vogue. The Apocryphal and Pseudepigraphical writings are interpreted quite precisely in the light of contemporary political and cultural trends and foreign influences in Hellenistic, Hasmonean, and Herodian times.

10. Life and Death (Adam and Black’s “Bible Key Words” series from Kittel’s Theologisches Wörterbuch zum Neuen Testament; also published by Harper and Row in the volume Hope, Life and Death), by Rudolf Bultmann and others. For those who are unable to afford the new Bromiley translation of the entire Kittel, this little volume gives a very useful rendition by Professor Ackroyd of the long, scholarly articles by Bultmann, Gerhard von Rad, and G. Bertram on the entries zoe (“life”) and thanatos (“death”) appearing in the German edition of Kittel. The interpretation of the biblical treatment of these themes is, however, profoundly colored by the naturalistic presuppositions of the contributors, who view the Old Testament as the product of mutually conflicting and contradictory human authors uninfluenced by divine revelation and reflecting largely the cultural milieu of their own age. Thus the spiritual overtones of the scriptural pronouncements on life and death are quite generally overlooked. Nevertheless, the secular usage of these two terms in the perspective of the ancient Near Eastern world-view is helpfully indicated and serves as a corrective to the fallacy of interpreting them solely according to modern, Occidental usage.

BOOK REVIEW

A smutty book, he said

Too calmly

He has never lived among the wheat fields

Has never seen heads of grain

Puffed, bloated, deformed,

Macabre, vile

All their wheatness gone

Grime on the hands

Filthy black spores to stifle the lungs

Profit gone, too

(No matter how grim the mortgage)

Ugly, stinking, foul

No flour from this

Parasitic

Contagious; spreading

To other fields and grain

Smut

ELVA McALLASTER