One of the most disturbing facets of our theological age arises from our encounter with relativism. Is the Church with its theology affected by the relativity that characterizes almost everything else? Do we have a stable point from which we can resist the corroding influence of a relativism which threatens the very heart of the Gospel and the Christian faith? Are we faced with the threat of relativity in such areas as the relationship between Christianity and the religions of the world (a relativism that takes the name of syncretism), the authority of Holy Scripture, and the confessions of the Church?

Sometimes one could suspect we are confusing the simple truth by making horribly complicated what is revealed to and known by children. Have the many questions that intrigue the theologians slowly created a doubting generation of churchmen? When Calvin was writing on the resurrection, he remarked that he felt ashamed at having to use so many words to discuss so clear a matter. Could we be making matters which have always been hard and fast in our convictions now suddenly problematic? Do we still know what orthodoxy means? Is not the struggle against all the new forms of disbelief not exactly the same as that against the old modernism? Such questions could imply a sharp criticism of today’s theologians.

When Roman Catholicism was engaged in its own fight against modernism, there was a rash of cries against relativism and modernism as these were discovered in almost every corner. A Roman Catholic brand of “heresy hunting” took place out of a deep fear of relativism within the bulwark of Roman orthodoxy. The hunt was over ere long, and it was then admitted that many problems remained for the orthodox, from which even they could not retreat. In short, a reduction of fear against the threat of relativism did not for long hide the fact that real problems did exist for which there was no quick and simple solution.

When we become aware of the many problematic issues that are being discussed today, we ought not to be too quick to run from them under the cover of the threat of relativism. Engagement with problems does not mean that a theologian is throwing over the certainties of faith. We could, by declining to enter into the problematics of our day, only confuse the issue for a future generation.

When we think about relativism and its dangers, we must keep alert on two fronts. First, we must be keenly aware of the dangers that are implicit in the problems. We must not overestimate ourselves: “Let him who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall.” In many of the theological problems that engage our study, there is a power to set us on a series of consequences for our own thought. First, we may study them objectively, without their even touching our faith. We know, supposedly, that children alone truly understand the things that are hidden from the wise. But gradually, one problem leads to another. They multiply and draw ever closer to the center of things. Then there arises a kind of uncertainty, even doubt, and one finally feels inward restlessness and tension. Finally, one can be led to a personal divorce from the traditional faith. All of life can then become surrounded by question marks. By this time, relativism has infected the whole man.

It is, then, necessary to remember that we ought not to play with problems in theology. What begins with intellectual sport can end in a most serious encounter with unbelief. Sometimes we do not have hold of problems, but problems have hold of us. I feel that in our day with its flood of complex problems, theologians and simple Christians must be warned. In the face of our encounter with the problematic issues, the perseverance of the saints takes on a new and important reality.

But there is another side to the matter of problems. We are not only to be alert to their danger. It is just as important that we be not afraid of problems. The Christian perspective has never been at home with the ostrich’s posture. In the cultural situation of our time, we must—in faith and in answer to our calling—accept in full the challenge of all the new problems that face the Church and its theology. Moreover, we must take care that we do not level the charge of relativism too quickly at those who are honestly and responsibly facing the problems that exist. One must not begin talking about apostasy the moment he observes someone truly involved with problems. The danger of apostasy is always real. But let us remember that the apostles themselves were accused of apostasy (Acts 21:21). When we point a finger at apostasy, let us be sure that the Gospel is really endangered. For as surely as apostasy has been a reality in the Church, so have men used traditionalism and confessionalism to resist the power of the Gospel as it led the Church into new times and new ways.

With care for both of these fronts, the Church can walk its way into new situations with courage and faith. In its continual study of the Bible, it will discover new truths and new slants to old truths, aware that all the light of the Gospel has not once and for all been captured in the past. I have in mind the profound reflection given these days to the doctrine of election, to the doctrine of the last things, to the doctrine of Holy Scripture, and to the problem of hermeneutics. Theology has a special calling here. And believers ought not to be afraid of having theologians occupied with new questions. Faith is indeed child-like. But this must not mean that we need be afraid of renewed Bible study. Now more than ever, we must break with the anxieties and angst of our modern world and act, as believers, in faith. Ours must be a faith that does not fear and therefore is able to face problems in complete honesty and realism. Here too, perhaps especially here, we must remember the prayer of our Lord: “I do not pray that Thou wilt take them out of the world, but that Thou wilt protect them from the Evil One.” This world of ours with all its problems!

Fear not: for am I in the place of God? As for you, ye thought evil against me, but God meant it unto good, … as it is this day, to save much people alive (Gen. 50:12, 20; read vv. 15–21).

This passage lends itself admirably to a sermon about “particular providence,” or about forgiveness of wrongs. Preach one or the other. Never two sermons at the same time! God’s providence here means his way of watching out for each of his children as well as though he had only one. A case study. A fascinating truth!

I. The Meaning of Individual Providence (pro-video). A. God has a plan for every man’s life. This plan he unfolds a part at a time. B. In carrying out his plan, God may employ strange agents and methods, as he did with Joseph. C. Sooner or later God will complete his plan. (See part of Browning’s “Rabbi Ben Ezra.”)

II. The Value of This Bible Teaching. What practical difference does it make to a believer now? A. This teaching gives the Christian a sense of stability and assurance. “How firm a foundation, ye saints of the Lord!” Such a man’s faith rests in God. B. The teaching should lead to magnanimity. Why did this man treat his older brothers in a way pleasing to God? C. The teaching also imparts a feeling of hope. Here see Bryant’s poem, “To a Waterfowl.” As in all these passages, keep to the singular. God has a plan for every man’s life.

In order that he may qualify for living on this basis, lead the hearer now to become a Christian. Later from the pulpit guide him in knowing how to learn and follow the will of God. “He that willeth to do his will shall know.”

Probing Outer Space

ROAMING THE PLANETS—The problem of mankind’s spiritual mandate to leave the earth and roam through outer space, exploring and perhaps ultimately populating other planets, is a difficult question. It involves the relationship of the natural to the spiritual world, the meaning of creation, and perhaps the purpose of life itself. Here history will be of little use to us as we have no record of man having previously ventured beyond the earth.

I have the conviction that, taken as a whole, the Bible presents no general principle opposed to an exploration of the universe. I feel that the instruction in Genesis 1 and Psalm 8 bears out this view, although I may be wrong.

I see no spiritual conflict resulting from interplanetary space travel. We would still be within the material realm even for the deepest space penetration.

This is not to say that man is not in for some surprises. It is hard to believe that God’s material revelation to man is complete. This really is part of the excitement, and I would suggest, also man’s moral obligation: namely, to know God and his universe more fully. For centuries man has observed the universe with optical telescopes and in more recent times has probed even deeper into space using radio telescopes. It would be hard to justify a position opposing manned space flight but upholding a right to eavesdrop and peek. While I visualize no philosophical conflict in space exploration, man may feel some within himself. This can result if he adheres too firmly to fixed ideas concerning God’s universe, such as there being no life except on the earth, the impossibility of the existence of relativistic time and anti-matter, as well as other fixations concerning his interpretation of the physical environment. In the final analysis I have always felt that this kind of intellectual rigidity is really an attempt to limit God to man’s image. It always seems to me to be closer to sin than to enlightenment.

Probably the most urgent present reason for pushing ahead in the space program is that of national survival. There are at least three facets to this: (1) national security, (2) national prestige, and (3) the future economic and spiritual development of our nation. It would be my opinion that any one of these would justify the present space effort.—Professor JOHN A. CLARK, Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, in a lecture on “Outer Space: A New Frontier of Challenge and Promise,” to the Christian Reformed Minister’s Institute, Grand Rapids, Michigan.

COMMENT ON TELSTAR—The achievement of the communications satellite, while only a prelude, already throws open to us the vision of an era of international communications.… There is no more important field at the present time than communications and we must grasp the advantages presented to us by the communications satellite to use this medium wisely and effectively to insure greater understanding among the peoples of the world.—President John F. Kennedy.

LEARNING FOR THE FUTURE—What we are learning today may lead to the development of a world-wide communications network.—Newton Minow, Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission.

ONLY A BEGINNING—Global television is on the way. The spectacular success scored by the Telstar experiment is proof of this. But it won’t arrive tomorrow. As President Kennedy has noted, this is “only a prelude.”—William McGaffin, The Philadelphia Inquirer.

UNDERSTANDING FOR THE ILLITERATE—It is a major step toward perfection of a global network of television satellites which, in a world where almost half the people are either illiterate or semi-literate, could breed greater peace and understanding among the diverse nations of the earth.—The Washington Daily News.

PORTENT FOR THE FUTURE-The unexpectedly complete success of the Telstar satellite, on its first day of operation, is more than an occasion for a celebration. It is a portent. We are confronted with one of the most important improvements in communications in a generation.—The Washington Post and Times-Herald.

A STARRY SYMBOL—Telstar is important not only in itself but as a starry symbol of the decisions that may do much to shape the future—in space and on earth.—The Wall Street Journal.

SYMBOL OF GOOD WORKS—The Telstar is a symbol of U.S. good works at their best. It is up to Congress, the Administration and the representatives of private industry involved to see to it that the project lives up fully—both for the present and the long run—to that proud standard.—The Philadelphia Inquirer.

SQUABBLE FROM EUROPE—What seemed more certain was that satellite television—now coming in loud and clear in both Britain and France—was producing more static on the ground than in the air.—The Baltimore Sun.

BRITAIN VERSUS FRANCE—“Pirates in Space,” London Daily Express; “France steals the TV space show,” London Herald; “Stealing a march on Britain,” London Daily Telegraph; “Gallic One-upmanship,” London Daily Mail. “Far from excellent. The reason was that their antenna was not guided with the same precision as ours, with two radars,” Paris’ Aurore. Comments on the British and French transmissions.

A DOUBTFUL ACCOMPLISHMENT—We are learning to communicate less and less better and better.—Howard K. Smith, news analyst, quoted by The Washington Daily News.

ARE WE REALLY COMMUNICATING?—I have an uneasy feeling that, in these times, our major problem is to be liked, rather than heard. Maybe we are using this new magic to tackle the wrong end of the problem. Shouldn’t our first goal be communicating; not communications? What’s so great about making it possible for the whole world to view “The Untouchables”?—George Dixon, The Washington Post and Times-Herald.

Surely the Lord is in this place, and I knew it not (Gen. 28:16).

Many a man while young thinks of God in terms of his parents. What happens when he himself discovers God? A case of the sort appears in Genesis.

I. A Strong Man Meets with God at Bethel, a place he may have considered God-forsaken. His vision at night had four stages. A. Behold the ladder, or rather, “steps unto heaven.” Some way of contact between earth and heaven. B. Behold the angels—messengers of God to a man. C. Behold the Lord—the One to whom the steps lead up, to whom the angels report, and from whom they come down with the blessings of God. D. A promise of personal blessings from God. Some such experience every man ought to have whenever he comes to church.

II. A Strong Man Begins to Bargain. A. Because of an awakened conscience, he feels afraid of God. B. He goes through forms of worship. C. He makes with God a “half-way covenant.” Jacob begins to bargain with the word “if.” He seems to mean that if God will bless Jacob through the years, then some time Jacob will stand up for God. A shabby way to deal with the Most High!

Note the refusal to make a complete surrender. What should Jacob have done? Surely what he did 20 years later. Why did he tarry so long, with only enough religion of his own to make him feel wretched for years?

Perhaps because Jacob knew that in order to get right with God he would have to get right with the brother whom Jacob had defrauded, with the aged father whom he had wronged, and with the partner whom he had later out-cheated.

My young friend, how is it with you? Here in this Beth-El you have seen the steps into heaven, the angels going up to heaven, and best of all, the Lord. You have heard his words of assurance and hope. What is your answer? Surely this: “The Lord, he is my God. Him only shall I serve all the days of my life, through the Christ of the Cross.” Abridged from The Upper Room Pulpit, Nashville, Tennessee.

I do set my how in the cloud (Gen. 9:13a).

The stress here falls, not on the creation of the rainbow, but on the message it has for us today. Sometimes it takes a flood to open our eyes to see God. Now he wishes you to carry home the poetry and prophecy of the rainbow. The Gospel!

I. What We Most Dread, God Can Illuminate. To Noah the one thing full of terror was the cloud. Then he saw the flood. Yet it was there that the Almighty set his bow. Our God is always doing that. We thought that a cloud would be unbearable. Then came the rainbow with its hope.

Was there ever anything more dreaded than the Cross, the last indignity cast upon a slave? And yet Christ has illuminated that thing of terror, the hope for sinful men, the model of the holy life.

II. In the Most Changeful Times There is the Unchanging Purpose of God. In all nature scarcely anything is so changeful as a cloud. What a strange tablet for the pen of God! What a queer parchment to serve as the symbol of his unchanging Covenant! “Write it on marble,” we might say. But God says, “My unchanging Covenant with men is to be written on ever-changing cloud.”

Through all of earth’s change and recasting runs the eternal purpose of God. Through the endless resettings of this life, with its shifting lights and shadows, runs the unchanging purpose of God, which far away in eternity he willed for you. Happy is the man who cherishes such a faith!

III. In the Mystery of Life There is Meaning. Both the youngest child and the oldest poet sense the mystery in the cloud. Would that everyone could also see the rainbow! I am like a traveler among the hills. There is a chasm, where many another has perished, but I cannot see my peril. Then God lights up his rainbow. The ends are here on earth, and the crown is lifted up to heaven. So I feel that God is with me in the gloom. For me there is meaning in life’s mystery.

I trace the rainbow through the rain,

And feel the promise is not vain

That morn shall tearless he.

IV. At the Background of Joy Lies Sorrow. Underneath earth’s gladness there is unrest. If the deepest secret of life were merriment, how could the Cross interpret life? If laughter were the undertone of life, how could the Man of Sorrows be the Ideal of men? I see the rainbow on the cloud, and the Saviour on his Cross. Then I know that back of gladness there is agony, and that the richest joy is born of grief.

V. Over the Portals of God’s Dwelling There is Mercy. In Scripture the clouds are God’s pavilion. “Clouds and darkness are about his throne.” There God set his bow, a token of mercy to the world. In this early dawn the poet-prophet had the mind of Christ and saw great mercy written on God’s dwelling-place.

Have you seen that, my brother? Have you heard that, my sister? It is the sweetest syllable that ever fell from heaven into the bosom of a guilty world. The heart of God is full of mercy. Who will go out into the crowded streets under the stars tonight, crying out for the first time in years, “God be merciful to me, a sinner”? Will You?

The Bible doctrine of God in nature throws much light on our duty.

I. Our Study of the World Around Us. Nature’s face is like a page in a book, all written by the finger of God and meant of God for us to read. Those who believe that God has written this book should he most eager to read it. But this is not the case. Often those who are absorbed in religion are indifferent to science, and those devoted to science are indifferent to religion.

Why have religious people suspected science? Why has science sometimes proclaimed war on religion? In the main, because they have misunderstood each other and God. If religious people had always done their part in reverent study of God’s works, and if scientific folk had always remembered that every separate truth becomes incomplete when cut off from relation to truth as a whole—that is, to the mind of God—we might have been spared much misunderstanding and strife. This reconciliation has yet to be accomplished. The key to it lies in the very first sentence of Genesis.

II. Our Active Relation to the World. Without professing to solve the problem of evil, we must acknowledge that nature is what we have made it. In us nature casts a deforming shadow over what in itself was perfect, and thus puts the world out of joint. So every inch of morality has to be won by incessant and resolute fight. Until our last breath we must fight the good fight against evil.

But we must not excommunicate the good nature that is the work of God. The world as God made it—the world in which we were born, in which we strike our roots—is the world in which we have to live a spiritual life. When we feel the strain of the conflict, it is natural to think that the sure way to victory is to renounce the world and cultivate goodness that owes nothing to the world God made.

All experience proves that course to be disastrous. The virtue that does not articulate itself in the life of the world, and rejoice in God’s presence there, is destitute of redemptive power. Our morality rests upon this basis, not on that which abstains from marriage and from meats. The kingdom of God is to be established in the world God has made.

When we have passed all these things in review we cannot keep from our minds the comparative insignificance of nature. Without God nature is nothing. To learn this is one of the greatest truths of religion. In the world God is ever with us. All creation attests his presence. No worship is complete that has not in in it an “Amen” to the voice of the seraphim: “Holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory.” Abridged from The Way Everlasting, pp. 74–87.

In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth (Gen. 1:1).

The Bible begins with God. It never attempts to prove that he exists, or that we ought to rise through nature up to God. The Bible doctrine of creation implies spiritual law in the natural world. Here let us deal with two religious aspects of creation.

I. An Inspiration to Worship. The contemplation of heaven and earth fills the mind with adoring thoughts of God. Such inspiration to worship is needful now, when many live in cities and seldom see the sky.

Also, our religion is one of redemption, and we often concentrate it on ourselves. A man with a bad conscience may imagine that God exists to minister to him, and that he, not God, is the center of spiritual concern in the universe.

“What must I do to be saved?” is a question apart from which there can be no Christianity. (Quote Isa. 40:12). These also are religious questions. It is a poor religion that does not ask them, and thus find new incentives to worship.

The New Testament is not to be cut off from the Old. Many churches would enrich their worship if they abridged their hymnals, in which “personal religion” has run wild, and praised God in Psalms such as the 19th and 29th.

II. An Incentive to Trust God. This is what the Bible stresses most. The doctrine of creation reassures those whose faith is being most severely tried. In our minds heaven and earth should become pictures of God’s omnipotence. Because creation is an index of God’s resources, it teaches us not to despair if we come to an end of our own resources.

Nature is also a revelation of God’s faithfulness. True to his Word, we can count on seedtime and harvest. In times of despondency stay your faith by lifting up your eyes to the hills, to find God.

If God is faithful there, he will be faithful here. He will prove true to every hope he inspires, to every promise he implants, to every trust he invokes. Trust in the “faithful Creator.”

SERMONS ABRIDGED BY DR. ANDREW W. BLACKWOOD

JAMES DENNY’SThe Bible Teaching About Creation (Parts I and II)

GEORGE H. MORRISON’SThe Gospel Message of the Rainbow

Outlines of Dr. Blackwood’s Own Sermons:

When a Strong Man Discovers God and

God’s Providence in a Good Man’s Life

In autumn make a new beginning. Be-forehand make ready to guide laymen in reading Genesis. Commentary, H. C. Leupold. Opening message (1:1). Topic as above. Seeing God—in the Home—with its Sin—and the Covenant. In Genesis, as now, the home, not state or church, the most important place on earth. Interpret parts of Genesis in light of the New Covenant (New Testament).

“The Creation in God’s Likeness” (1:27). For headings often use sentences: In the beginning God made his children like himself in goodness. By sin they lost perfect likeness. By grace he now waits to restore such likeness.

“The Meaning of a Man’s Religion” (5:24). In a passage not for public reading, a word picture! Here and now, a Deepening Friendship with God. Hereafter, an Endless Fellowship with God. Ideally, God teaches us to think of goodness in terms of home and its friendship.

“The Gospel in the Rainbow” (9:13). After the direst disaster, due to sin, a symbol: “The Goodness of Our God”; “The Nearness of Our Neighbors”; “The Worthwhileness of Our Work”; “The Heavenliness of Our Hopes.” “The Gospel, the Gift of God to the Imagination!” Learn to see!

“The Meaning of a Man’s Faith” (Heb. 11:8). In a practical sense, faith means courage to Start Doing the Will of God; Perseverance to Keep On at Any Cost; Willingness to Make a Supreme Sacrifice for God. Before this, one needs saving faith.

“The Ideals of a Godly Father” (18:19). This means to be like God in the Home; show Godlikeness in Training Children; receive God’s Blessing as Their Father. Ideally, such a home, earth’s nearest approach to heaven. Actually so by faith.

“With God on His Proving Ground” (22:1, RSV). On a proving ground men test a new auto, hoping it will come through with triumph. For the best of men God has his proving ground. There he subjects a man to grueling tests. To a good man he gives power to meet every test. Then he makes a good man a blessing to others.

“A Marriage Made in Heaven” (24:67). God sets up lofty ideals about marriage, the normal state of a man and a woman. He intends them for each other, brings them together, waits to bless the union. But every marriage has to be carried out on earth by two persons far from angelic. A message about putting God first.

“The God of an Average Man” (Ex. 3:6). Preach at times about a man like the one in the pew. Isaac was always second to somebody else: father, mother, wife, son. But God Loves this Average Man—Selects Him—Blesses Him—Makes Him an Agent of Blessing. A “good and faithful servant,” not great and famous. What a message for a man who feels inferior!

“The Meaning of a Man’s Worship” (Gen. 28:12, 13). In a place that seems God-forsaken, a worldling learns about worship. Behold the Steps unto Heaven—some way of access to God. The Angels Ascending and Descending—bearing human aspirations and bringing God’s blessing. The Lord, to whom all worship goes; from whom all blessings flow. Or else, “When a Strong Man Discovers God.” Imagination!

“The Conversion in Middle Age” (Gen. 32:28). In present tenses, a man of middle age Comes Face to Face with God’s Angel; Resists All Night; Submits with the Rising Sun; Becomes a New Man, with a new name. “Ye chosen seed of Israel’s race!”

“The God of a Worldly Man” (Ex. 3:6). As with Jacob, God often Chooses a Young Worldling; Blesses Him for Twenty Years; Transforms Him when No Longer Young; then Uses Him as an Agent of Mercy. What a God!

“The Way to Deal with Temptation” (Gen. 39:9c). To a young man far from home temptation comes in a bewitching guise. He meets it by Loyalty to God—the Other Person—and Self. Also by Prudence: keeping away from a certain Place—Person—Peril. What a message to one obsessed with sex!

“The Forgiveness of Deadly Wrongs” (45:5). A case from life. The Meaning of Deadly Wrongs: serious offenses between man and man. Forgiveness, like God’s dealing with sin confessed. Secret—love for God, for parent, for brothers. Preach often hard duty and high privilege!

“The Tokens of God’s Loving Care” (45:27). A thanksgiving message, with reference to your church this year. Visible signs of his invisible grace. Single out a few, and bid God’s people rejoice.

“The Wonders of God’s Providence” (50:20). Stress here either doctrine or duty. Doctrine: as with Joseph, God has a plan for each of his children; in the end God overrules evil deeds of men, like “the sins that crucified Jesus.” Surely “the wrath of man shall praise thee” (Ps. 76:10a).

Dedicated, to assisting the clergy in the preparation of sermons, the feature titled The Minister’s Workshop will appear in the first issue of each month. The section’s introductory essay will be contributed alternately by Dr. Andrew W. Blackwood and by Dr. Paul S. Rees. In addition, the feature will include Dr. Blackwood’s abridgments of expository-topical sermons, outlines of significant messages by great preachers of the past, or of messages by expository preachers of our own time.—ED.

Function Of Literature

Perspective on Man: Literature and the Christian Tradition, by Ronald Mushat Frye (Westminster, 1961, 207 pp., $4.50), is reviewed by D. Bruce Lockerbie, Chairman, English Department, Stony Brook School, Stony Brook, New York.

The premise upon which Roland M. Frye, Professor of English at Emory University, bases his book is a quotation from a letter written by Luther in 1523: “I am persuaded that without knowledge of literature pure theology cannot at all endure.… Therefore … urge your young people to be diligent in the study of poetry and rhetoric.” Proceeding from this exhortation, Professor Frye suggests, is “the perspective of Christian humanism.” This he defines to be “a consciously Christian approach to literature, philosophy, and other humanistic disciplines.”

Perspective on Man comprises the Stone Lectures delivered at Princeton Seminary in 1959 and is divided into three parts. First, consideration is given to the effect of myth and symbol as literary forms on Scripture and its interpretation. Frye observes that fundamentalism and mythologizing are linked together by their common failure to recognize and distinguish between fact and symbol in the Bible. “Neither seems able to accept literary symbols as such, and they insist upon reducing the literary either to the literal or to the ideational.” As alternatives to these two sides of the same coin, the author proposes a resurgent acceptance of “the doctrine of accommodation” and “a willing suspension of disbelief,” from which will evolve “a distinctive kind of validity.”

The second section is devoted to showing literature’s concern with man’s desperate struggles for identity and against misery, failure, guilt, and death. Extensive citations from King Lear and Oedipus Rex lend support to Professor Frye’s contention that “great literature may not be Jacob’s ladder by which we can climb to heaven, but it provides an invaluable staff with which to walk the earth.” Parenthetically, it is interesting to note the conflict between Presbyterians over this point—Robert McAfee Brown’s article, “Salinger, Steinbeck & Company,” in Presbyterian Life being attacked by the editor of the Southern Presbyterian Journal.

The final portion of the book presents the wide scope of popular Christianity in a modern literary setting—a faith that is superficial in what is essentially a superficial age. Explications of plays by T. S. Eliot, Christopher Fry, and Bernard Shaw lead to the author’s assessment of Christianity’s deeper significance: “Only God could provide a denouement to man’s complexity, and in Christ, God did provide it.” From Piers Plowman, The Pilgrim’s Progress, and Samson Agonistes Frye gleans examples of faith in action and pursues his examination of the individual and of the community in quest of the City of God.

Perspective on Man is readable and scholarly without being either abstruse or pedantic, qualities that seem to fix themselves to studies of this kind. Professor Frye has made a substantial contribution to an area often under scrutiny but more frequently speculated upon than clarified.

D. BRUCE LOCKERBIE

Worth An Evening

Christ and Crisis, by Charles Malik (Eerdmans, 1962, 101 pp., $3), is reviewed by Carl F. H. Henry, Editor, CHRISTIANITY TODAY.

Publication of seven of Dr. Malik’s addresses in revised (and sometimes enlarged) form supplies a leisurely exposure to some profound convictions of one of the keenest lay thinkers of our day. The former president of the U. N. General Assembly ranges the wasteland of a world under the judgment of Christ. A Greek Orthodox layman, Dr. Malik seeks the ecumenical restoration of Christian unity which he thinks prevailed until the Great Schism of 1054. Many of Dr. Malik’s comments Protestant readers will heartily endorse; some they will question (“There is no better guide in matters theological than Saint Thomas,” p. xiv); but they will find all worthy of respectful hearing. Among many valuable insights are those into the Christian approach to war and peace, and into the battle for truth in our times. Put aside an evening for reading and contemplation with these revised addresses in hand.

CARL F. H. HENRY

Surmount The Temptation

Grace and the Searching of Our Heart, by Charles R. Stinnette, Jr. (Association, 1962, 192 pp., $4), is reviewed by John Warwick Montgomery, Chairman, Department of History, Waterloo Lutheran University, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada.

Reading for Perspective

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

* The New Bible Dictionary, edited by J. D. Douglas (Eerdmans, $12.95). First entirely new Bible dictionary since Hastings’. Its 2,300 new articles show loyalty to the Scriptures and carry the gains of recent advances in biblical studies. Illustrated.

* World Christian Handbook 1962, edited by H. Wakelin Coxill and Sir Kenneth Grubb (World Dominion Press, $7.50; 27s. 6d.). Statistical picture of all churches throughout the world. Invaluable reference work.

* Christian Thought from Erasmus to Berdyaev, by Matthew Spinka (Prentice-Hall, $6.60). Spinka unravels the Renaissance experiment in humanism to show how it turned into its opposite: an anti-human secularism.

The most popular religious literature in our present “age of analysis” most certainly consists of subjectivistic, navelorientated peace-of-mind books. Dr. Stinnette, professor of pastoral theology in the psychiatry and religious program of Union Theological Seminary (New York), has recognized the genuine concern that motivates laymen to read such publications, and has provided, from a thoroughgoing Christian viewpoint, the best literary witness to the contemporary educated layman who realizes “that the meaning of life is constantly getting lost in the routine of the ‘8:15’.” Notwithstanding his psychological specialty, the author avoids the twin pitfalls of existentially de-historicizing and subjectively de-theologizing the Christian message; the solidity of his approach is evident from such a moving assertion as, “The same Lord who knew no sin and yet became sin for us, enters into our gracelessness and becomes grace in us,” and from the remarkable fact that he devotes a full one-fourth of his book to “The Trinity and the Roots of Our Identity.” Pastors should purchase the volume in quantity for their questing laymen of college background—if, that is, they can surmount the temptation to use the book as a major source of sermonic material! With a multitude of penetrating quotations from Chesterton, Robert Frost, Donne, Browning, Gerard Manley Hopkins, Camus, Tennessee Williams, F. D. Maurice, Charles Williams—to name only a few—the book is perfect for the preacher who suffers from Spurgeon’s disease (“I am the biggest thief in England but I defy any man to catch me at it!”).

JOHN WARWICK MONTGOMERY

Black, White, Dutch

Let My People Go, by Albert Luthuli (McGraw-Hill, 1962, 256 pp., $5.50), is reviewed by Tunis Romein, Professor of Philosophy, Erskine College, Due West, South Carolina.

Recent Nobel Peace Prize winner Albert Luthuli is the grandson of a Zulu chief, leader of the African National Congress, and presently a semi-prisoner of the South African Government. Simply and impassionately he tells his story—an account of the tragic and complicated struggle of his people against injustices and discriminations in South Africa.

One must keep in mind that this book is a thoroughgoing nonwhite version of the troubled South African situation. In the light of so many reports of social imbalances in South Africa, however, Mr. Luthuli’s account deserves a careful hearing. This report affords the white man an opportunity to see himself as the colored man sees him in matters of race. Mr. Luthuli seems always the man of reason in spite of the emotional overtones which almost unavoidably appear in a review describing the predicament of one’s own people. He speaks favorably now and then of one white group or another, and is even somewhat broadminded in his critique of Communists. His dispassionate mien shows some telltale strains, however, when he occasionally refers to the Dutch Reformed Church in South Africa.

TUNIS ROMEIN

Blurred Image

They Called Him Mr. Moody, by Richard K. Curtis (Doubleday, 1962, 378 pp., $4.95), is reviewed by William G. Reitzer, editorial department, CHRISTIANITY TODAY.

Some called the great evangelist “Mr. Moody,” and others “crazy Moody” or “brother Moody.” The author of this biography calls him at one place “a despot, albeit a benevolent one,” at another place “the man who walked with God and came to know Him as few preachers since Paul.”

Dr. Curtis, who recently resigned from the faculty of Bethel College in St. Paul to pastor the Immanuel Baptist Church in Kansas City, Kansas, has laboriously researched together a giant-sized volume chock-full of anecdotes. It portrays (in three near-equal parts) Moody as apprentice, preacher-evangelist, and educator, with a well-documented view of life in nineteenth century America for a backdrop. At the end of the book appears an excellent bibliography—albeit several biographies catalogued by the Library of Congress are not included. The reader would have been rendered a valuable service if sources had been appraised. Is it not helpful intelligence to know that biographer Gamaliel Bradford was an agnostic, that biographer Paul D. Moody (a son) was an out-and-out liberal, and that biographer William R. Moody (another son) was somewhat less fervent and evangelical than his father?

One finds throughout these pages a strange commingling of that which leaves a favorable and of that which leaves an unfavorable impression of Moody and the Gospel. Whereas the back cover illustration highlights the New Birth, the front cover illustration too readily lends itself to an interpretation of Moody as a grimacing, arm-flailing haranguelist. Whereas an apposite verse of Scripture heads the chapters, lurking in their interstices are such staggering remarks as: “There was … little logic … in most of Moody’s preaching” (p. 193); “Moody’s sermons today [are] usually dull fare” (p. 200); “Moody was about to popularize and commercialize religion as it had not been done in this nation” (p. 234).

A light mood is the book’s leitmotiv. At times there is even a flirting with flippancy. Moody’s taking of a collection is described in these words: “he lifted more than $7,000” (p. 263), and Moody’s anticipation of great spiritual results in these: “For Moody there was no question that God was going to uncork a revival” (p. 275).

Curtis manifests an objectivity unusual in biographers. Curiously, on almost every occasion, he disassociates himself from Moody’s message and ministry. He prefers to say not that people are converted to Christ or to the Saviour, but to “Moody’s” Christ or to “his” Saviour (pp. 85, 93, 115, 147, 169, 215, 275, 278, 331).

An adequate understanding of Moody would necessitate a perusal of his many sermons, a source this volume has grossly slighted. These, concentrating as they do on salvation from, sanctification through, and service to Christ Jesus, reveal much about the heart, mind, strength and soul of their originator. In spite of the foregoing criticisms, this book will move many readers to be more urgent in holding forth the Word of Life and more zealous in performing good works.

WILLIAM G. REITZER

Function Versus Origin

Biblical Words For Time, by James Barr (SCM, 1962, 174 pp., 13s. 6d.), is reviewed by Martin H. Cressey, Minister of St. Columba’s Presbyterian Church, Coventry, England.

The French word “temps” is sometimes translated “time” and sometimes “weather.” What would you think of someone who talked about a French “temps concept” which includes both time and weather and is an essential element in the Frenchman’s world outlook? Yet this, says Professor Barr, is akin to what has been done by several recent writers on the biblical understanding of time.

Anxious to compare and contrast biblical “concepts” with those of Greek philosophy over the whole range of the latter, theologians have filled the lack of explicit biblical statements about time and eternity by basing a theological structure on the vocabulary which the Bible uses to refer to time, in particular on the Greek words kairos and chronos. Barr examines in some detail books by Cullmann, Marsh, and J. A. T. Robinson and exposes the errors into which such a method has led them. It is not his purpose to criticize or deny their major theological ideas; he simply wishes to show that at some points they have based their arguments on false linguistic premises; … “biblical interpretation in theology must work from the things said in the Bible, and not from the lexical resources used in saying them” (p. 161). This view implies, incidentally, that “the fundamental points of biblical assertion will normally be visible to those who do not know the original languages—an important conclusion for “lay” use of the Bible.

Barr shows how recent theology has stressed etymology and neglected usage whereas in linguistic study it is recognized that “only within their syntactical environment do words function” (p. 154). The particular discussion of time has been further hampered by an overemphasis on comparison between Hebrew and Greek to the neglect of comparison between Hebrew and other languages and by an undue attention to classical and philosophical sources for Greek usage rather than to well-known facts about Hellenistic developments.

This lucid, stimulating and very searching book, together with Barr’s more general work on The Semantics of Biblical Language is now required reading for all who wish to use the many recent biblical “word-studies” and “word-books” with proper discrimination.

MARTIN H. CRESSEY

On Christian Service

What Shall This Man Do?, by Watchman Nee (Victory Press, 1961, 198 pp., 12s. 6d.; Christian Literature Crusade, $3), is reviewed by Gordon F. Bridger, Minister, Holy Sepulchre Church, Cambridge, England.

Mr. Nee To-Sheng (commonly called Watchman Nee) was the founder of the “Little Flock” Movement, which is the name given to possibly the largest single group of Christians in China. During 1952 he was imprisoned on charges of being a counterrevolutionary, and is still serving a 15-year prison sentence in Shanghai.

In “What Shall This Man Do?” Mr. Nee illustrates from the lives of the apostles Peter, Paul and John the essential functions of Christian service—evangelism, edification and restoration. His treatment of the doctrine of the Church includes some helpful and practical teaching. But it fails to satisfy, when he criticizes the Reformed view with its distinction between the visible and invisible Church, and substitutes in its place an “ideal” view which, it seems to the reviewer, would almost certainly lead to a narrow exclusiveness in practice. However, as Mr. A. I. Kinniar in the preface to his book writes: “To some this book may appear to attempt too much, and to raise more questions than it answers.”

GORDON F. BRIDGER

Not That Dark!

The Growing Storm, by G. S. M. Walker, (Paternoster Press, 1961, 252 pp., 16s.; Eerdmans, $3.75) is reviewed by A. Skevington Wood, Minister, Southlands Methodist Church, York, England.

Evangelical historians commonly dismiss the Middle Ages as an unprofitable period in which little or no spiritual advance was made. The partisan is always tempted to exaggerate the darkness preceding his cherished dawn, and such bias has marred too many previous accounts of this era.

Dr. Walker, who lectures at Leeds University, avoids the pitfalls in a balanced, comprehensive, informative and withal fascinating survey of the Christian scene between 600 and 1350. His immense erudition is apparent on every page but it does not obscure his lucid style or halt the flow of his narrative. He elects to treat this complex period mainly by fixing on the prominent figures—Gregory the Great, Boniface, Alcuin, Anselm, Abelard, and others.

Various convictions—Catholic, evangelical and liberal—are shown to be represented throughout and often intermingling. As the storm gathered, the disengagement took place which led to the Protestant Reformation. We cannot rightly understand the significance of that outbreak apart from its antecedents. Dr. Walker is an admirable guide through the labyrinthine ways of medievalism in this addition to the seven-volume series of Paternoster Church History.

A. SKEVINGTON WOOD

Papal Pattern

The Spirit of Eastern Orthodoxy (Volume 135, Section XIV, of The Twentieth Century Encyclopedia of Catholicism), by M. J. Le Guillou, O.P., translated by Donald Attwater (Hawthorn, 1962, 144 pp., $3.50), is reviewed by C. Gregg Singer, Professor of History, Catawba College, Salisbury, North Carolina.

This book by one of the leading figures in the Roman Catholic “ecumenical” movement is of more than passing interest to both Protestant ecumenists and evangelicals. It sheds a great deal of light on both the methods which Rome is willing to use in order to bring about a reunion of Christendom, and the terms by which such a goal would be realized. Under the skillful touch of Father Le Guillou the many conflicts which have occurred between the Eastern and Roman Catholic churches are minimized to a degree which imperils historical accuracy. He then appeals to Eastern Orthodoxy to come back home to Rome because both Rome and the East “are brothers sharing the same mystery.” However, the reunion of the Eastern and Western churches means that Eastern Orthodoxy must accept the whole doctrine of papal supremacy. Thus Rome states its terms to the ecumenists; unity must be achieved according to the pattern laid down by the Papacy.

It is not unworthy of notice that in stating the case for unity Le Guillou, perhaps unwittingly, revealed the weakness of the arguments of those who insisted that the Greek and other Eastern churches should be admitted to the World Council of Churches, for Le Guillou, in unmistakable terms, sets forth the unevangelical character of Eastern theology.

C. GREGG SINGER

Buchman Appraised

Frank Buchman’s Secret, by Peter Howard (Doubleday, 1962, 142 pp., $2.75), is reviewed by Harold Lindsell, Vice-president, Fuller Theological Seminary, Pasadena, California.

This small book is fascinating reading, embracing as it does the work and ministry of Frank Buchman, founder of the Oxford Movement and Moral Re-Armament (MRA). The later dynamic of Buchman sprang basically from four crises in his life: his English Keswick experience after humiliating defeat in Philadelphia social-service work; his experience at State College in Pennsylvania shortly after the Keswick encounter; his 1912 Canadian illumination when he became convinced that Christians are powerless because they professed Christ with their lips but compromised him in their lives; his 1921 attendance at the Disarmament Conference when he was constrained to leave his teaching situation in Connecticut and go forth to change and transform the world.

Despite the title, which gives a promise it does not fulfill, the book deals mainly with the successful exploits of Buchman and the influence he exerted around the world. It is laudatory in the extreme, uncritical in its evaluation, and largely propaganda. Yet one cannot remain unimpressed by the scope of Buchman’s labors and influence, nor can his ministry be dismissed as that of a charlatan. When the wheat is sifted from the chaff, the Church can learn valuable lessons and find penetrating insights as it seeks to discharge its obligation to the world. The author writes well and maintains the interest of the reader to the finish.

HAROLD LINDSELL

Clerical Opinion

The Acts of The Convocations of Canterbury and York 1921–60 (SPCK, 1961, 194 pp., 17s. 6d.), is reviewed by Gervase E. Duffield, member of The National Assembly of the Church of England.

This book contains the resolutions of the two clerical synods of the Church of England since their reform in 1921. Subject matter ranges from sacramental doctrine to inter-church relations, from education to social issues. Pronouncements are recorded on such controversial items as Sunday observance, gambling, the use of contraceptives and atom bombs.

These Acts are not official Anglican teaching, since they have no statutory authority. They simply represent the views of the bishops, senior clergy and some elected clergy. The Church of England is governed by the Sovereign who is its head and by Parliament since it is the national church of the land. The present work is a handy reference book to Anglican clerical opinion in the last 40 years.

GERVASE E. DUFFIELD

An Excellent Study

Pulpit and Table, by Howard G. Hageman (John Knox, 1962, 139 pp., $3), is reviewed by Floyd Doud Shafer, Pastor, Salem Presbyterian Church, Salem, Indiana.

Our much-discussed problem of the relationship between preaching and worship originated with the Reformation. The pastor of the North Reformed Dutch Church, Newark, New Jersey, shows how the Zwinglian over-emphasis on the intellectual, the verbal, and the individual crowded out Calvin’s desire to unify the intellectual and liturgical, the individual and the corporate, the sermon and worship into a single heart, sustaining and propelling the body of Christ. The Zwinglian influence ran to excess in Puritanism and Pietism.

Worship began to rediscover its theological underpinnings in the latter half of the nineteenth century, and today we have an exciting liturgical renaissance which, far from depreciating preaching, is providing it with its most natural and favorable setting, seal, and implementation. Dr. Hageman illustrates how the revival of theology, the ecumenical movement, and brilliant biblical studies are helping us realize that salvation reaches us through the Word, preached from the pulpit and dramatically sealed at the table. Although we do not need uniformity in details, nevertheless it is the union of pulpit and table, sermon and liturgy, that involves worshipers in joyous experience of Christ’s lordship over all life. And this same union of pulpit and table impels and enables worshipers to bear the Gospel’s redemptive thrust in joy and gratitude to every facet of life.

This excellent historical and liturgical study is amply documented and liberally sprinkled with little-known incidents, wise deductions, and practical suggestions. Anyone interested in liturgics, especially those of the Reformed churches, will be enlightened and pleased by this study.

FLOYD DOUD SHAFER

Inner Wasteland

Beyond Our Selves, by Catherine Marshall (McGraw-Hill, 1961, 266 pp., $4.95), is reviewed by Mrs. Lucy D. Sullivan, Assistant Professor of English, Beirut College for Women, Beirut, Lebanon.

Beyond Our Selves is a combination of autobiography, penetrating insights into the plague of our age, and a suggested cure for it.

Asserting that both humanism and materialism have failed us, Catherine Marshall perceives the malady of our day to be that of inner, spiritual poverty. As the cure for this spiritual wasteland, she offers the revivifying rain of a personal encounter with Christ. She is careful to differentiate this fruitful encounter from an “inherited faith” which she found to be “not enough” when she finally recognized that “God has no grandsons.” Perhaps that which most distinguishes this book from others of its kind is the boldness with which the author treads on territory usually labeled “keep off” by many Christians. Out of profound experience and with genuine sincerity, the writer probes some of the prejudices and sins of Christians. She points up the necessity of that act of will by which we lay our insoluable problem of bitterness toward others in the hands of Christ. She offers for defeating self-originating effort, the thrilling experience of linking human helplessness to God’s power to effect real achievement. She affirms that physical healing is God’s response to out-reaching faith. And most significant of all, she underlines the imperative of recognizing the Holy Spirit as a Person rather than as a mere colorless influence. Indeed, it is in this recognition alone, she asserts, that we as Christians can pass “beyond our selves” into true freedom of personality and fullness of joy.

LUCY D. SULLIVAN

Some Help For Some

The Future Life, by René Pache, translated by Helen I. Needham (Moody, 1962, 376 pp., $4.95), is reviewed by J. Kenneth Grider, Associate Professor of Theology, Nazarene Theological Seminary, Kansas City, Missouri.

In this sequel to The Return of Jesus Christ, René Pache gives us a quite sustained treatment of questions that relate to death, spirits (angels, demons, Satan), the resurrection of the dead, the marriage feast of the Lamb, perdition, and heaven.

The author opposes Roman Catholicism (e.g., p. 86), is interested simply in what the Bible teaches, and anxious to communicate in plain language. He covers considerable territory, but does not slow up long enough to mention that other evangelicals at times see things differently than he does. An instance of this is his view that Isaiah 14 refers to Satan (pp. 121–122).

Although it is creative at points, as when it shows that immortality is “applied by Scripture only to the raised body, not to the soul” (p. 30), well-trained ministers may not find enough challenge in the book to keep them pursuing its pages. Ministers of moderate training will find it useful, as will laymen.

J. KENNETH GRIDER

Book Briefs

The Church at Worship, by Bernard Schalm (Baker, 1962, 108 pp., $1.95). Brief studies to aid the minister, church organist, and worshipper enrich the worship service by a greater understanding of its various elements.

Tomorrow’s Miracle, by Frank G. Slaughter (Doubleday, 1962, 306 pp., $3.95). A disgusting novel about a morally weak missionary whose love for another man’s wife becomes the vehicle for portraying him as a hero.

The Congregation at Work, by R. C. Rein (Concordia, 1962, 247 pp., $4). Appalled by the dissipation of undirected energies in the average congregation, the author shows how to marshall, organize, and channel this prodigious amount of energy into purpose and achievement.

A fortnightly report of developments in religion

For the vacationing Supreme Court it was a summer set aside for trips abroad (Chief Justice Warren), for the August convention of the American Bar Association (Justice White), or for merely puttering around the back yard (Justice Black). Meanwhile, the war of words set off by the court’s June 25 ruling on New York school prayers rankled in the U. S. religious community and even set churchmen at odds with each other.

Protestants were split over the ruling in which the court by a six-to-one majority declared unconstitutional the state of New York’s recommended use of a 22-word interfaith prayer composed by its Board of Regents. Baptist leaders generally applauded the decision, with the notable exception of Billy Graham, while a number of other denominational leaders came out strongly against it, including theologian Reinhold Niebuhr and Episcopal Bishop James A. Pike.

Evangelical opinions were mixed, their main agreement lying in expressed fear that the ruling indicates a trend toward secularization of society. Some were gratified that a blow had been struck at a least-common-denominator type of religion. As the days passed, however, support grew for the view that the position on church-state separation implicit in the Supreme Court action was—as CHRISTIANITY TODAY had editorialized (July 20, 1962)—both defensible and commendable.

But would the ruling be improperly exploited by irreligious secularists? What would the Supreme Court say about Bible reading and recitation of the Lord’s Prayer in public schools? Did the Constitution need an explanatory amendment on church-state matters?

These were some of the questions that provided fuel for the fire aroused by the June ruling.

Scores of politicians fanned the flames, assailing the court ruling and calling for a constitutional amendment. By mid-July 49 resolutions had been introduced in Congress for such an amendment.

Chances for passage were not as yet clear.

Roman Catholics initially seemed to be unanimous in their denunciation of the ruling. Subsequently, however, a few of their publications broke ranks. The newsweekly of the Portland (Maine) Diocese eventually endorsed the court’s action “heartily.” An article in Novena Notes, a weekly publication of the Servite Fathers of Chicago, also came to the court’s defense. The article, written by the Rev. James M. Dore, asserted that “only an alarmist would interpret the Supreme Court decision as a certain sign that the country is being sold into the bondage of atheism.”

Delegates to the Denver convention of the National Education Association, representing more than 800,000 teachers, turned down three attempts to state some degree of support for the decision.

What Churchmen Are Saying

The National Council of Churches was officially noncommittal. A joint personal statement was issued by President J. Irwin Miller and General Secretary Roy G. Ross noted that “no one can speak officially” for the council. Their statement did not indicate whether they approved of the Supreme Court’s action. However, Dr. Dean M. Kelley, director of the NCC Department of Religious Liberty, said “many Christians will welcome the decision.” He added that “it protects the religious rights of minorities and guards against the development of ‘public school religion,’ which is neither Christianity nor Judaism but something less than either.”

Dr. Reinhold Niebuhr, professor emeritus of Union Theological Seminary, said the court’s verdict was “the basis of a new suppression.” “The First Amendment was not opposed to, or in favor of (religion), but simply prohibited the establishment or suppression of it. This provision of the Constitution merely meant to prevent the establishment of a particular religion or the suppression of a particular religion, which is necessary in a pluralistic society and a basis for all religion.”

The Christian Century solicited approval of the following statement from a number of Protestant leaders: “We are in agreement with the Supreme Court that ‘It is neither sacrilegious nor antireligious to say that each separate government in this country should stay out of the business of writing or sanctioning official prayers and leave that purely religious function to the people themselves and to those the people choose to look to for religious guidance.’ We call upon the American people to study this decision prayerfully and without political emotion. We believe the court’s ruling against officially written and officially prescribed prayers protects the integrity of the religious conscience and the proper function of religious and governmental institutions.” The signatories included Hampton Adams, Theodore Adams, Roland H. Bainton, George C. Bonnell, Aubrey N. Brown, Jr., Mrs. Porter Brown, C. Emanuel Carlson, Edwin T. Dahlberg, Truman B. Douglass, Harold E. Fey, W. Barry Garrett, A. Raymond Grant, J. Wallace Hamilton, Kyle Haselden, Herschel H. Hobbs, Joseph H. Jackson, Frank E. Johnston, Charles D. Kean, Dwight E. Loder, John Wesley Lord, Malvin H. Lundeen, Carlyle Marney, Martin E. Marty, Edward O. Miller, Samuel Miller, W. Hubert Porter, Richard H. Raines, Mrs. J. Fount Tillman, Edwin Tuller, Cynthia Clark Wedel, and Frank II. Woyke.

Episcopal Bishop James A. Pike said the Supreme Court “has just deconsecrated the nation.” He called for a constitutional amendment to override the verdict. Pike is a member of the bar of the U. S. Supreme Court. For five years he taught in the field of church-state relationships at Columbia University.

The Very Rev. Francis B. Sayre, Jr., dean of Washington Cathedral, said the decision “appears to have broken further the spiritual bond between the Christian faith and our democracy.… I thought President Kennedy missed the point when he advised us to pray at home for this nourishes only our private lives as individuals, but what of our corporate life as a nation? If we cannot prayer together as a country then what will become of our common democracy?”

Protestants and Other Americans United for Separation of Church and State predicted that the case “will loom as a landmark of religious freedom. The decision strikes down a law under which public officials in New York state sought to use coercive processes of government to make a prayer of their own composing required for an important segment of the population.… The Court did not outlaw prayer; it merely made prayer free of political limitation and control.”

The National Association of Evangelicals issued a 1,295-word statement by its executive committee. The statement noted that Justice Black’s majority opinion “carefully avoided striking down the prayer on the simple grounds that it is a religious activity within a governmental institution. Instead the prayer in question was called unconstitutional because it was written and sanctioned by an official government body … We do not take issue with the point of law on which the majority of the Justices ruled. Indeed if this has served to uphold the constitutional stipulation that church and state must be kept separate we commend the Court for its sensitivities to the dangers involved in even the most minute intrusion upon religious freedom by any agency of the goverment.”

The statement added: “However, the trend toward secularism which is inherent in this decision gravely concerns us … That this (New York) prayer constitutes an ‘establishment of religion’ is certainly arguable.” The NAE urged its constituents to remain alert to future developments:

“Let us watch with prayerful interest the decisions which will come from the next term of the Supreme Court regarding Bible reading and the Lord’s Prayer in public schools. If these rulings do not dispel the confusion created by the current decisions then we should give our support to remedial legislation which will preserve the rights of the majority to maintain our great and vital school traditions.”

Methodist Bishop Fred Pierce Corson charged that the decision “makes secularism the national religion”.… World Outlook, a publication of the Methodist Board of Missions, said the court “erred badly”.… The Christian Advocate, official biweekly organ of The Methodist Church, defended the decision and said it “may well be a step forward wherein God can finally climb off the coins and into the hearts of the American people.”

The president of the Southern Baptist Convention, Dr. Herschel H. Hobbs, said that “what appeared to me to be a tragedy is now clear to me to be one of the greatest blessings that could come to those of us who believe in the absolute separation of church and state”.… National Association of Free Will Baptists called for a constitutional amendment that would permit voluntary, non-sectarian religious exercises in public schools.… The Baptist General Conference in America deferred action on similar proposals at its annual convention in Muskegon, Michigan.

New Cabinet Member

Anthony J. Celebrezze, nominated to succeed Abraham A. Ribicoff as U. S. Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare, will be the second Roman Catholic member of President Kennedy’s cabinet. Attorney General Robert Kennedy is the other.

Church-state observers in Washington have a special interest in HEW affairs. They will probably try to sound out Celebrezze, Democratic mayor of Cleveland, on his views toward federal aid to church-related schools.

Christmas Stamp

The proposed Christmas stamp to be issued by the U. S. Post Office Department probably will show a holly wreath on a door, according to Religious News Service. Franklin R. Bruns, Jr., former director of philately of the Post Office Department, was quoted as saying that there is a commercial motive behind issuance of the stamp. He said the stamp will be issued in either the four-cent or five-cent denomination, depending on whether a five-cent first class postage rate is approved: “Hundreds of thousands of greeting cards are sent unsealed at the printed matter rate of three cents, and the Post Office hopes mailers will want to use the Christmas stamp and, therefore, will send their cards at the first class rate.”

Bruns, who is now acting curator of the Cardinal Spellman Philatelic Museum at Regis College, Weston, Massachusetts, made the comment in a syndicated column on philately.

Plight Of A Book

The 55-member Southern Baptist Sunday School Board voted last month against publishing a second edition of Ralph Elliott’s controversial book, The Message of Genesis.

Elliott immediately charged that there had been a “breach of ethics.” He pointed out that the annual session of the Southern Baptist Convention in June in San Francisco had voted not to ban the book. He said he believed the “basic agreement not to reprint the book was made behind the scenes at San Francisco” in an attempt to avoid the bad publicity of banning the book and yet to achieve the same purpose.

The first printing, which amounted to nearly 5,000 copies, has been exhausted. A spokesman said there had been 1,000 additional back orders.

The book rights may revert to Elliott, in which case he will probably seek another publisher.

Worm’S Eye View

Russian cosmonaut Gherman Titov is fond of saying that he saw no God in space during his 17 orbits of the earth last year. “This,” says evangelist Billy Graham, “is like a little earthworm sticking his head a fraction of an inch out of the ground and saying, ‘I don’t see any Khrushchev, therefore there is no Khrushchev’.” The remark came during Graham’s appearance last month at the Seattle World’s Fair where he spoke to 20,000 persons.

The evangelist proceeded to California for an eight-day crusade in Fresno. Deploring the world-wide Communist infiltration he warned, “We need not fear their philosophy, or the danger that they will make war, but we need to fear their dedication.… One of the things needed is a change in human nature. I think we cannot have moral regeneration without spiritual revival.”

The crusade was supported by some 500 churches in the San Joaquin valley and drew an aggregate attendance estimated at 160,000.

Missionary Statistics

Contributions to Protestant foreign missionary endeavors totaled more than $170,000,000 last year, according to a comprehensive survey published by the Interdenominational Foreign Mission Association.

The survey, results of which are disclosed in IFMA’s Missions Annual—1962, shows a total of more than 28,000 foreign missionaries now in service, as reported by missionary boards. Among individual agencies listed, the Southern Baptist Convention shows the largest number of foreign missionaries—1,468.

Next are Seventh-day Adventists with 1,450; Sudan Interior Mission, 1,299; United Presbyterians, 1,269; Methodists, 1,146; and the Christian and Missionary Alliance, 860.

The figures cited above exclude home staff and home missionaries.

Here is a breakdown by associational groupings:

Protestant Panorama

• Representatives of four major Protestant bodies contemplating merger will hold their second meeting in Oberlin, Ohio, March 19–21, 1963. The site was selected by the Executive Committee of the Consultation on Church Union, formed as a continuing organization by the denominational delegates at their first meeting in April at Washington, D. C.

• The Presbytery of Philadelphia will deny accredited church support to Presbyterian Children’s Village of suburban Rosemont because the 84-year-old orphanage will not adopt an integration policy.

• Some 300 members of the Bellevue Baptist Church of Memphis, Tennessee, are holding separate services at a downtown theater because they are miffed at Pastor Ramsey Pollard, former Southern Baptist Convention president, according to a Baptist Press report.

• The Wesleyan Methodist Church of America is marking the 100th anniversary of its Home and Foreign Missionary Society with special services in the United States and abroad.

• The Japan Council of Evangelical Missions voted to merge with the Evangelical Missionary Association of Japan. The merger must still be approved by the missionary association.

• Trans World Radio plans to establish a powerful new short-wave missionary station on the Caribbean island of Curacao.

• An evangelistic campaign in Reykjavik, Iceland, led by Dr. Oswald J. Smith, was described as the largest ever held in the country. Smith spoke through an interpreter. The interdenominational meeting was held in the largest Lutheran church on the island.

• Arizona Bible Institute will merge with the Bible Institute of Los Angeles and will be operated as an affiliate school.

Convention Circuit

Rotterdam, Holland—A leading denominational churchman denounced the World Council of Churches’ overemphasis on organization at a meeting of the International Congregational Council.

Dr. Russell Henry Stafford, who has been president of the ICC since 1958, hailed the “growing orderliness of mutual regard and cooperation” within the World Council, but declared that “none of us wants a Geneva Vatican.”

Stafford cited the danger of “confusing uniformity with unity.” He said that uniformity was “a matter of organization” while unity, being spiritual, does not involve “any mechanism of constitution and by-laws.”

He suggested abandoning the word “church” in ecumenical fellowship and substituting a phrase like “the world Christian movement.”

In its eagerness to draw “as many Christian divisions” as possible into one world organization the council may set up barriers for its own “safeguarding” that will bar small groups “Christian in spirit yet unable conscientiously to assent to the standards thus established,” Stafford observed.

Stafford was succeeded as ICC president by Dr. Norman Goodall, associate general secretary of the WCC.

The 550 delegates subsequently adopted a resolution urging world confessional church bodies to subordinate their activities to those of ecumenical organizations such as the WCC. In other action during the nine-day assembly the delegates turned down a membership application from the National Association of Congregational Christian Churches in the United States. The group is made up of about 200 Congregational churches that did not join the merger with the Evangelical and Reformed Church.

Calgary, Alberta—“The world will lose the battle to save the underdevedoped countries unless Christians come to the rescue.”

The speaker was the Prime Minister of Canada, John Diefenbaker. The occasion was the sixth triennial assembly of the Baptist Federation of Canada.

“Christian faith and ideals are the best weapons against communism in the contest for men’s souls,” said Diefenbaker, a Baptist layman. “This is a big challenge, but it must be met before communism ruins it.”

Some 500 delegates were on hand for the assembly, representing 1,170 churches with 137,000 members in the dominion.

One report asserted paradoxically that in Canada “Baptists outnumber Baptists approximately three to one.” It was a way of stressing the fact that while Baptists make up nearly four per cent of the Canadian population, membership figures of Baptist churches in Canada show little more than one per cent. One of the chief concerns expressed in the assembly was that of trying to reach the large group of “unaffiliated Baptists.”

The assembly coincided with the celebration of the 50th anniversary of the founding of the Canadian Baptist Foreign Mission Board, which carries on work in India, Bolivia, and Angola.

Delegates adopted a resolution giving encouragement to a more thorough study of religious liberty in the provincial and federal jurisdictions in Canada. Another resolution declared that “one of the basic tenets of our Christian heritage (is) that all men are equal in the sight of God” and reaffirmed belief “in such fundamentals of democracy as freedom of speech, freedom of the press, freedom of assembly … without discrimination by reason of race, national origin, color, religion, or sex.”

The assembly also looked into relations with Southern Baptists and some observers even thought the topic a grim reminder that positive “freedom” can easily degenerate into irresponsible “license.” Bad feeling reportedly has been created by certain “missionary activities” of the Baptist General Convention of Oregon-Washington (Southern Baptist). As a result, a number of churches have been planted in Western Canada which are allied with the convention. Satisfaction was expressed, however, over the attitude of Southern Baptist leadership. Delegates of the “Southern” churches in Canada have not been seated at Southern Baptist Convention sessions.

Delegates appealed to labor and management leaders to keep Sunday work at a minimum. They criticized proposals to create legal lotteries.

The year 1963 will mark the bicentennary of organized Baptist work in Canada. The first Baptist church was founded in 1763 near Sackville, New Brunswick, by the Rev. Nathan Mason and 12 fellow Baptists who moved from Swansea, Massachusetts.

Anderson, Indiana—Dedication services for two new buildings were features of the 73rd annual International Convention of the Church of God. One is the 7,500-seat Warner Auditorium, which replaces a frame structure destroyed in a storm two years ago. The other is the $500,000 Anderson College Graduate School of Theology building.

The Church of God with headquarters in Anderson now has more than 200,000 members in 3,200 churches and mission stations throughout the world.

The Rev. R. Eugene Stener, director of the Division of Church Services, emphasized the church’s “vertical fellowship with God” in address to the assembly.

“The church does not exist for itself but for the glory of God,” he said.

“If we lose the vertical dimension,” he warned, “the church is merely an organization; it becomes only a human agency. The church needs to be saved from helpless humanism.”

Winona Lake, Indiana—Delegates to the 78th annual conference of the Evangelical Free Church of America were advised that their denomination has experienced a 10 per cent growth in membership during the past year and that per capita giving jumped from $209.54 to $223.51.

President Arnold T. Olson also announced that the church’s new $400,000 international headquarters building in Minneapolis will be dedicated this fall.

Lexington, Kentucky—Delegates to the North American Christian Convention were told that their church must give up some of its “complacent” attitudes and participate more fully in the movement toward Christian unity. The Rev. Fred Thompson, Jr., minister of the First Christian Church of Chicago, spoke to some 7,000 delegates representing the evangelical wing of the Christian Churches (Disciples of Christ).

He said that although the Disciples have an “historic commitment to unity” they have often failed to put it into practice successfully.

Thompson urged local churches to join the National Association of Evangelicals and to affiliate with local federations of churches “where such participation allows us to remain true to our commitments.”

Warm Beach, Washington—“Science directs us to a better way of living, but Christianity directs us to a better life,” says Dr. Edwin K. Gedney, president of the Advent Christian Church. Gedney made the observation during the 37th biennial meeting of the denomination’s General Conference. He added;

“Science is giving us the greatest knowledge the world has ever known, but the genuine wisdom is found in religion.”

Executive Secretary J. Howard Shaw reported that the denomination now comprises 435 congregations with a membership of 31,000.

Seattle, Washington—Dr. Karl A. Olsson, president of Chicago’s North Park College, called for more conversations between clergy and laymen in a speech before the 77th annual General Conference of the Evangelical Covenant Church of America.

“We must break down the wall between the ‘professional’ piety of the clergy and the ‘amateur’ piety of the laity,” he declared, “if we would not wish to create and sustain a Christian ghetto while the world boils outside its walls.”

Conference sessions were attended by some 1,000 delegates and visitors. The denomination has some 60,000 members.

Among actions of the delegates was a resolution endorsing an extensive study of Christianity and communism. Another resolution reaffirmed the denomination’s “forthright stand against racial prejudice in every form.”

Nashville, Tennessee—An appeal to a dissident state convention was made at the 26th annual meeting of the National Association of Free Will Baptists. Delegates voted unanimously to “seek a cordial Christian relationship” with the North Carolina Free Will Baptist Convention, oldest and formerly the largest of Free Will Baptist state conventions. The North Carolina convention withdrew from the national association last March, taking with it about half the state’s 45,000 Free Will Baptists. The other half has formed an association of its own and was officially received into membership by the national body.

Some 2,000 delegates and visitors attended the three-day convention. The Free Will Baptist denomination, which dates back to 1727, now has some 225,000 members in 31 states, with the heaviest concentration in the South.

The current squabble had its origin in the Edgemont Free Will Baptist Church of Durham, North Carolina, where the pastor, the Rev. Ronald W. Creech, was ousted by the state convention’s Western Conference. A minority group backed by the state convention filed suit against the congregation’s majority led by Creech.

The national association stood behind the congregation’s majority group on grounds that a majority of the local church members have a right to run the church’s affairs. The state Superior Court ruled in favor of the majority group of the church, said to be the state’s largest Free Will Baptist church.

The national association favors a congregational form of church government and contends that disagreement over polity is the basic issue in the dispute. The state convention, which supports a more connectional polity, maintains that the controversy involves additional factors, including theological differences on the security of the believer. The controversy over Creech entailed his criticism of Mount Olive (North Carolina) Junior College, a regionally-accredited school operated by the state convention. Creech feels that Mount Olive’s policies on separated Christian living have been too liberal. College officials say the real issue is Bible school curriculum versus Christian liberal arts.

Painesville, Ohio—Another Lutheran merger was virtually assured when the annual convention of the National Evangelical Lutheran Church unanimously pledged “whole-hearted support” of proposed union with the Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod. Organized in 1898 by Finnish immigrants who broke off from the Finnish Evangelical Lutheran Church (Suomi Synod), the NELC has been in pulpit and altar fellowship with the Missouri Synod since 1923. According to conditions which the 12,000-member NELC set up for the merger, a permanent “Board for Finnish Affairs” will be maintained even after the merger. The board will oversee recruitment and training of Finnish students, publication of Finnish religious literature, and establishment and maintenance of church work where the Finnish language is used.

Cape May, New Jersey—Statements supporting the United Nations and opposing capital punishment were approved at the biennial Friends General Conference. The assembly, attended by some 3,000 Quakers, was held in a large tent. A convention hall which was to have been the meeting place was destroyed by last March’s ocean storm.

School Priorities

Which comes first in a Christian college: academic achievement or development of Christian character?

A report from the third quadrennial Convocation of Christian Colleges, held June 17–21 in Northfield, Minnesota, indicates that Christian educators differ sharply on that question.

A specific breakdown of opinions, however, was unavailable inasmuch as no attempt was made during the convocation to reach definite conclusions or to establish a consensus. Dr. James M. Godard, executive director of the Council of Protestant Colleges and Universities, said the group tried merely to “delineate and recognize” issues common to most of the 165 participating colleges.

In three featured lectures, Dr. John Dillenberger of San Francisco Theological Seminary presented a case for increased separation between church and university. The difference between the church and the university, he said, was that “to the church Christ is the truth while to the university, truth may be Christ.”

Dillenberger asserted that in the modern era “there can be a church-related college, but there can no longer be a Baptist or Methodist or Presbyterian college.” He asserted that there is no longer even a denominational theology and “differences are now greater within denominations than between them.”

The convocation was sponsored by the Council of Protestant Colleges and Universities with the cooperation of the Commission on Higher Education of the National Council of Churches.

Christian Depression

The number one health problem among Christians is depression, according to Dr. David F. Busby, a psychiatrist who treats missionaries and ministers.

Busby, of Niles, Illinois, told delegates to the North American Christian Convention that Christians in general tend to identify psychological problems with sin.

“Sin can be and is the main contributing factor in mental illness, but I do not believe that the Bible offers any guarantee by the Lord against breakdowns among his people,” he said.

Describing his experience with treating students at Moody Bible Institute in Chicago, Busby said that many felt their depression was caused by “something wrong in their spiritual lives.”

“The truth was that they were often going without adequate sleep, or food, or protection in bad weather,” he said. “They wanted God to take their depression away, but they were violating his natural health laws.”

Anglicans In Session

During the summer session of the Church Assembly at Westminster the Archbishop of Canterbury announced the resumption of conversations with Presbyterians, his own impending visit to the Patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church in Moscow, and the appointment of three Anglican observers to the Second Vatican Council in Rome. The assembly’s reaction ranged from cool silence through audible approval to overwhelming applause at the third announcement. Dr. Ramsey went on to name the Anglicans chosen: the Bishop of Ripon, Dr. J. R. H. Morman; Dr. Frederick Grant, formerly dean of Seabury-Western Theological Seminary; and the Venerable Charles de Soysa, Archdeacon of Colombo.

“The deep doctrinal differences between the Church of Rome and our own Church,” said the archbishop, “do not alter the call that comes to all Christians to pray for the forthcoming Vatican Council that it may by God’s blessing serve the cause of Christendom in truth and righteousness.”

Since the Reformation official contacts between Romans and Anglicans have been few and far between. Archbishop Laud in the seventeenth century records that he was offered a cardinal’s hat if he could reconcile the two—and replied that while Rome remained as she was he could not do so. At the first Vatican Council in 1870, an appeal from Pius IX to all separated Christians to return to Rome evoked some unfriendly comments from the rest of Christendom. During the present century, however, there has been an increasingly friendly exchange of views, climaxed by the former Archbishop of Canterbury’s 1960 papal visit.

The assembly discussed the use of a single lectionary for the whole church, in place of the several currently in use. Presenting an official report, the Bishop of Winchester, Dr. S. F. Allison, suggested that the employment of a uniform lectionary would foster daily home Bible reading. Many agreed with the principle, although one speaker deplored the “lust for uniformity.” Some raised strong objection to details in the proposed new lectionary. A layman pointed out that the Epistle to the Romans, which he described as “the key to the whole of the Scriptures,” was read in church on Sundays only three times in the course of the year if the new table were followed. This was in marked contrast to the many lessons from the Apocrypha.

An Oxford scholar criticized the new lectionary because it contained too much Old Testament typology, while a London professor complained that the Old and New Testament lessons for given days were totally unrelated. Finally, after going from the united assembly to the House of Clergy, the new lectionary was rejected.

Later in the week there was a long debate on intercommunion, when evangelicals fought their customary losing battle against those who hold that “the bishops are the guardians of the sacraments,” which sacraments are efficacious only “if the person has had episcopal hands laid on him.” Though Church of England practice varies towards non-Anglicans, the high church party’s bloc vote carried the day in the assembly in upholding an exclusiveness (except in exceptional circumstances) expressed in the catchword, “We don’t want a free-for-all.”

J. D. D.

Whose Table?

A flurry of protests in the Church of England greeted the Bishop of Leicester’s decision to invite all baptized delegates at a forthcoming ecumenical youth conference at Leicester to receive communion.

“This action,” complains the General Council of the Church Union, “offends and thereby exacerbates differences within the Anglican communion and is likely to impair both the work of the ecumenical youth conference and other efforts to promote Christian unity.” The Church Union, which represents a pronouncedly high church position, holds to the letter of the Prayer Book in stating that no one should take Holy Communion before or until they have been confirmed.

Said Dr. Arthur Kirby, a free church minister concerned with the conference arrangements: “The Church Union statement … is unreasonable. It claims that the joint communion service would offend the convictions of Anglicans, but what of the convictions of free church members? Refusal by the bishop would offend them.”

Said the bishop, Dr. Ronald Williams: “What I am doing is in line with general informed opinion in the Church of England as witnessed at the meeting of the World Council of Churches in New Delhi when the Archbishop of Canterbury took part in a similar service.”

Warm approval of Dr. Williams’ action is expressed in a statement from the the Council of the Church Society (i.e. the evangelical wing) which “welcomes this return to the historic Church of England practice of inviting baptised communicants of other denominations to the Lord’s Table.”

J. D. D.

Trying Again

At the college of the Venerable Bede, in the shadow of the ancient cathedral at Durham, private talks were resumed last month between representatives of the national churches of England and Scotland. It was the first official meeting since the Presbyterian General Assembly rejected a significant Anglican bishops’ report three years ago. Prior to this decision, various smoke screens had confused issues: an ill-informed press campaign which regarded the imposition of episcopacy of Scotland as the badge of national inferiority; sporadic sniping by high church Anglicans on both sides of the border; and a general misconception that the purpose and sole topic of the negotiations was the terms on which the Church of Scotland would accept bishops.

Conferees stress that they do not presently intend to undertake negotiations for reunion between the two churches, but to prepare the way for any future meetings. Conversations have been going on for some 30 years, but four problems still remain unresolved. These are: the meaning of unity as distinct from uniformity in church order; the meaning of “validity” as applied to ministerial order; the doctrine of Holy Communion; and the meaning of “the apostolic succession” in relation to all these matters.

Also taking part in the discussions at Durham were delegates from the Presbyterian Church of England and the Episcopal Church in Scotland.

J. D. D.

Canonical Sleepwear

“No Ecclesiastical Person shall wear any Coif or wrought Night-cap, but only plain Night-caps of black silk, satin, or velvet.”

The need for revising such passages of the Church of England Canons is only too apparent, but revision requires Parliamentary sanction, so the Archbishops of Canterbury and York have sent a letter to inform and enlist the support of members of the Houses of Lords and Commons. Their consent is necessary also for revision of the Book of Common Prayer, which has its 300th birthday this year.

“The thought which is being given to these problems in our own Church,” says the Archbishops’ letter, “is being matched in other parts of the Anglican communion and, indeed, throughout Christendom.” What is desired is not a complete alternative Prayer Book (request for which was refused by Parliament in 1927–28), but merely what the letter calls “experimental variations in public worship.”

J. D. D.

A Jewish Toll

Twenty-eight Jews were reported to have been among the 46 persons sentenced to death in the Soviet Union since last fall for so-called “economic offenses.”

A British Jewish leader charged last month that there is a growing conviction Soviet authorities are using Jews as scapegoats for economic ills in the Soviet Union.

Sir Barnett Janner, chairman of the Board of Deputies of British Jews, said Jews around the world are watching with increasing concern the mounting toll. He declared that in no other country in peacetime would such offenses merit such savage penalties.

Sir Barnett commented that the 28 death sentences among Jews represents not only “an inexplicably high proportion of the total, even after making full allowance for the fact that Jews are largely city dwellers, but the accounts of the court hearings—conducted often as show trials—reveal a distinct anti-Jewish bias.”

Parochial Protest

Roman Catholic parents and clergy are protesting the lack of government aid to church-related schools in Goulburn, Australia. To do so they have closed eight parochial schools, from primary grades through college, thereby flooding the public school system with an additional 2,200 pupils. Goulburn’s public schools have a normal enrollment of 2,900.

Catholic Archbishop Eris O’Brien of Canberra and Goulburn termed aid to the church-related schools “a sound business proposition.” He said that the schools had been closed “to draw attention to the extent of the dependence of the state upon the contribution which the Catholic schools make to education.” Protestant leaders generally condemned the action, though Anglican A. C. King, Dean of Goulburn, termed the decision “courageous.”

Bomb In The Basilica

A small time bomb was exploded in St. Peter’s Basilica last month. The blast came an hour and 20 minutes after the gigantic mother church of Roman Catholicism had been closed for the night and a patrol of Vatican police had just completed a routine inspection of the empty structure.

Vatican authorities requested the help of the Italian armed forces in finding the person responsible.

The explosion caused only slight damage. It splintered the ledge of a monument to Pope Clement X and shook up a nearby organ. Five days later another explosion rocked Italy’s Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Rome.

Indian Ecumenism

A commission representing five South Indian Lutheran churches and the Church of South India moved closer toward organic union in a spring meeting at Bangalore. It adopted and recommended a litany for immediate use in the churches and a statement of faith to be referred to the negotiating churches for acceptance. The statement was unanimously adopted by the commission although it represents various Lutheran traditions, among them the Missouri Synod. If accepted the statement will be included in the constitution of the united church.

Africa On The Bridge

New anti-Christian legislation will greatly hinder missionaries in the African Sudan where Christians number just four per cent of a predominantly Moslem population. The new regulations ban Christian social activities, except by permission of the Council of Ministers, and forbid missionary interference in the Sudan’s foreign relations—appeals by the missionary to his embassy and the release of reports for foreign publication. The legislation caps a decade of missionary persecution in which church schools have been confiscated, missionaries expelled and the contracts between nationals and missionaries curtailed.

Moslem-Christian relations also are an issue in Nigeria where the people of the south, largely pagan or Christian, denounced last month the proposal of Premier Ahmadu Bello to establish a commonwealth of Muslim nations.

At the other end of the Moslem-Christian scale, the two nations of strongly Christian Ruanda-Urundi were moving toward a difficult but so-far peaceful independence. Catholics number 2,000,000 and Protestants 200,000 in a total population of nearly 5,000,000.

Missionary Slayings

A Canadian Mennonite missionary to Somalia was stabbed to death last month by a Moslem who had charged that the Mennonites menaced his faith, which is the state religion of the Somali Republic.

Religious News Service identified the victim as Merlin Grove, whose wife was critically injured. Grove was acting director of the Somalia Mennonite Mission at Mogadishu.

He was attacked at his desk as he enrolled students for an English language class. His wife heard him cry out and ran from her home nearby, followed by the couple’s three children. An aide attempted to wave her back from the scene, but she fell to the ground and was stabbed in the abdomen by the Moslem.

Evangelical Press Service reported last month that a missionary from New Zealand, Graham Roy Orpin, 26, died May 19 in a hospital at Pitsanuloke, Laos, after he was robbed and shot by tribal bandits.

Orpin served with the Overseas Missionary Fellowship. Early in June his wife gave birth to a boy.

People: Words And Events

Deaths:Dr. H. Richard Niebuhr, 67, leading Protestant scholar and brother of noted theologian Reinhold Niebuhr; in Greenfield, Massachusetts. H. Richard Niebuhr was Sterling Professor of Theology and Christian Ethics at Yale University Divinity School. He was ordained in the Evangelical and Reformed Church … Miss Esther Ellinghusen, 66, who with Dr. Henrietta C. Mears founded Gospel Light Press; in Hollywood, California.

Elections: As president of the American Bible Society, Everett Smith … as national YMCA president, Judge Beach Vasey … as executive director of the Lord’s Day Alliance of the U.S., Dr. Harold E. Mayo … as president of the American Society for Church Architecture, William S. Clark … as president of the Baptist Federation of Canada, Dr. A. J. Langley … as moderator of the National Association of Free Will Baptists, the Rev. W. Stanley Mooneyham … as bishop of the Korean Methodist Church, the Rev. Hwan Shin Lee.

Appointment: As president of Hope College, Dr. Calvin Vunder Werf … as Protestant chaplain to American residents in Moscow, the Rev. Donald V. Roberts, Presbyterian minister. (The appointment of Roberts was announced by the National Council of Churches. An NCC official termed the post of “important ecumenical significance.”) Two men have confessed to the robbing and killing.

We are commemorating this month the tercentenary of the death of Blaise Pascal.

Pascal said in his Pensées that the last thing we discover when writing a book, is what to put first. After having devoted some 380 pages to the consideration of the emergence of Pascal’s genius (Pascal: The Emergence of Genius, with an appendix on recent research, Harper Torchbook No. 82, paperback), I came to the sudden realization that, with due respect for the scientific achievements of adolescence and youth, the great divide along the Pascalian quest for truth was marked by a unique experience at the Cross. Only after he had surrendered to that Love which, according to Dante, “moves the sun and the other stars,” did Blaise apprehend in its fullness the truth, the living truth, truth to be done. Only then did the landscape of God’s reality begin to make sense.

In order to secure a glimpse of understanding into this miracle—for a miracle it truly was—let us freely recall that before his ultimate surrender to the Crucified and Living Lord, this amazing genius had, within 15 years, completed the circle of human sciences. At the age of 16, he had produced a treatise on conic sections which had laid down the groundwork for projective geometry. At the age our young people become concerned about College entrance examinations, he had invented and constructed the calculating machine. Having then turned to physics, he had demonstrated the phenomena of atmospheric pressure, brought to naught one of the greatest errors of ancient physics, invented the barometer and the hydraulic press, and formulated with perfect rigor the essentials of scientific methodology. Soon thereafter, during his so-called wordly period, he had given full status to the intuitive function of the mind. Being taken to the gambling table by his new friends had provided him with the opportunity of originating the calculus of probabilities. And yet he remained at sea about the human situation, about what we commonly call the meaning of it all. Hence this uneasiness known as the anguish of Pascal.

What lends so much power to Pascal’s thoughts on what he called “the misery of man without God,” is that he himself experienced that misery during his worldly period. It was then that he confessed to being in “a great abandonment on the side of God.” The total impact of this experience was one of “fear and trembling,” as dramatically expressed in the anguished outcry, “The eternal silence of those infinite spaces frightens me,” perhaps the greatest free verse in world literature in the original French. What kind of a place was this universe? He then could only view it with quiet desperation. “For, I ask, what is man in nature? A nothing compared with the infinite, an all compared with nothing, a mean between nothing and all. Infinitely unable to grasp the extremes, the end of things and their principle are hopelessly hidden from him in an impenetrable secret; for he is equally incapable to see the nothing whence he springs, and the infinite in which he is swallowed up.” Worse yet, just as he is hemmed in between everything and nothing, his human infirmity condemns him to perceive but “the appearance of the middle of things, in an eternal despair of ever knowing either their principle or their end.” Indeed it is at this point that the misery of his pitiable state is laid bare, one of inconsistency, feebleness, corruption, malignity. He is at the mercy of the most deceptive powers, be they imagination, vanity, ennui, pride, self-love, sickness, or any form of blindness. A sense of futility attends his vain efforts at reading the script of his own life.

And yet, the paradox is that his is actually aware of his own misery. He thinks. He desires the good. He loves truth and he loves glory. The fact is, he cannot bear to be despised. Just as there is in him an agonizing anguish at the feeling of being thrown out in the midst of those dumb, and dark, and frightfully infinite spaces, there is an aching anguish of revolt against the unbearable implication of such a lot. A lump chokes his throat, and causes him to set his face against the baleful decree. All this notwithstanding, the measure of human anguish is not yet full. For at the very moment the man without God, weary of conjecture, gropes for some kind of stable certainty, he realizes that time is growing short. Death may be near. The wind of eternity strikes his face. What is the meaning of all this for him? Is there a meaning to it at all. Is there, anywhere, any ultimate sure foundation? Any sense to this striving which does not seem to achieve anything final? What kind of place, this universe? What is a man to do in the situation? These, our questions, are now asked in a minor key. In the words of Pascal:

“We sail over a vast expanse, ever uncertain, ever adrift, carried to and fro. Whatever point we think to fix and fasten ourselves to, shifts and leaves us; and if we pursue it, it escapes our grasp, slips away, fleeing in eternal flight. Nothing stays for us. This is our condition, natural, yet most contrary to our inclination; we have a burning desire to find a sure resting place, and a final fixed basis whereon to build a tower rising to the Infinite; but our whole foundation cracks, and the earth yawns to the abyss.”

The Light of the Bush

At this dark hour of his quest for truth, Pascal turned to the Bible. He opened it at the beginning of John 17 where Jesus is shown preparing himself for his sacrifice on the Cross. Having given up all inclination to struggle, or the slightest pretense to a power he might call his own, he groped for Jesus in order to watch with him. And all of a sudden, during the night of November 23, 1654, his room was flooded by the very light of the bush, that burned and did not burn out. A divine message came to him which he feverishly scribbled on a slip of paper. He afterwards copied the text of this revelation on a parchment which was discovered only after his death, sewn in the lining of his coat. The original slip of paper has been preserved among his manuscripts, at the National Library in Paris. This is the way it begins:

“In the year of grace, 1654, on Monday, 23rd of November.… From about half past ten in the evening until about half past twelve,

Fire

“God of Abraham, God of Isaac, God of Jacob, not of the philosophers and scholars.

“Certitude. Certitude. Feeling. Joy. Peace.

“God of Jesus Christ.… “Forgetfulness of the world and of everything, except God.

“He is to be found only by the ways taught in the Gospel.…

“Joy, joy, joy, tears of joy.…” Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony will not surpass such heights.

Soon after this heavenly vision, Pascal went for a retreat to Port Royal, an institution of a fundamentally biblical character. There, with his brethren in the faith, the Jansenists, he was invited to direct his thoughts towards the mystery of the death of our Lord. The moment, the hallowed moment, came, when he actually heard the Crucified speak to him:

“Console thyself; thou wouldst not be seeking me, had thou not already found me.

“I was thinking of thee in my agony; I have shed such and such drops of blood for thee.…”

Pascal then fell on his knees at the foot of the Cross with the words of utter commitment:

“Lord, I give thee all.”

Calvary the Great Divide

It is as fascinating as profoundly moving, to realize how Calvary marked the great Divide along the path of Pascal’s quest for truth. Henceforth, the genial penitent was given the power to see through the misery of man without God, as well as through the contradictions of the philosophers throughout the ages. His eye beheld the landscape of creation with singleness of purpose, as necessity was laid upon him to enter the lists against the Jesuits, in defense of the Jansenists. Thus his Provincial Letters written in a thoroughly biblical vein, have taken their place as one of the classics of Christian ethics. As a great work of art too. For what is a work of art, if not truth in a beautiful garb? Indeed the Provincial Letters turned out to be the first masterpiece of modern French prose. They moulded that genuine eloquence which makes light of eloquence, in this case, the noble language that Racine and Bossuet were to speak; they gave Molière the model for the most perfect form of wit, and to theologians the model for the most powerful reasoning. Again, the illumination of his mind made of him one of the first Christian laymen. In this capacity, his biblical approach to the cure of soul proved admirable. One immediate reason for this is not far to seek: we only know that which we are. By then, Pascal had become a saint! He practiced those everyday virtues which are the edification of genuine piety. The proud, haughty man of old, had become as humble and submissive as a child. Now a simple penitent, he knew that God owed him nothing but chastisement, and that the slightest good received from on high was by pure grace.

Not that his genius had lost any of its power. One night when he had a violent toothache, he solved the mathematics of the cycloid, which had defeated the specialists since the days of Galileo. Yet he refused to take credit for this achievement, having since the night of the Memorial given up the use of his name. Let us further mention another example of what utter commitment on Calvary can do to illuminate a man’s whole being—mind, soul, and spirit. Shortly before his death, Pascal was standing on his crutches at a street corner in Paris. They had a traffic problem in those days. As he watched people hurry by in all sorts of vehicles, Pascal asked: Why don’t people who go in the same direction travel together? To make a long story short, he “invented” the bus, and organized the first bus company. Whereupon he asked for an advance on his share to send the money to the poor of the Blois region who had suffered from a bitter winter. He loved the poor because Jesus loved them. He wanted to die among them. This privilege having been denied him, he opened his own home to a destitute family. The children of these needy people having been taken ill with smallpox, he refused to let them go. He turned over his house to that family, and went to die in the house of his brother-in-law (August 19, 1662). He was only 39.

The stray bits of paper on which he had scribbled notes in view of a vindication of Christianity, were found in his drawers after his death, with only a beginning of classification. All together, they constitute an unfinished symphony which pertains as much to God as to man. They are now available as one of the truly great books under the title, Pensées—Thoughts.

Once the Crucified and Living Lord has enabled a man to answer with a divine simplicity, his questions, “What kind of place am I in?”, and “What should I do in the situation?”, not only does this man’s mind become illuminated, but his whole being becomes Christ-like. Indeed the ultimate outcome of such a God-inspired quest for truth is the elaboration of character in the most beautiful meaning of the word—that of a Christ-like effigy deep within. And this is holiness. As the Protestant thinker, Alexandre Vinet, feelingly pointed out, it is good that such vocations, such souls as Pascal’s should exist; it is upon such over-abundance of spiritual life that the Christianity of us all is nourished.

EMILE CAILLIET

Princeton, New Jersey