Late last year Pope Paul VI made papal history by undertaking the longest journey ever made by a pope. He visited Manila (where he survived an assassination attempt) and flew on to Samoa. Then he spent four days in Australia and returned home via Indonesia, Hong Kong, and Ceylon. It was a long and exhausting journey for a seventy-three-year-old man.

Just how large the crowds were that greeted him in Australia is not easy to say. As one journalist put it, there was a funny sort of numbers game. Tour organizers, police, and the press gave divergent estimates of the numbers at most functions. They agreed that about 5,000 were waiting at the airport when the Pope arrived (50,000 had been predicted). But at a Mass held on the Randwick racecourse one estimate put the attendance at 250,000, another at 200,000 and yet another at 150,000. Whatever the number actually present at any function, however, hundreds of thousands more watched on television. There is no doubt that very many Australians took a deep interest in the visit.

Pope Paul made some notable pronouncements. He rebuked Australia for self-centeredness and materialism: “the temptation to be satisfied when the material means are fulfilled is one that confronts society when it reaches your standard of living.” He spoke up for the rights of our aboriginal people. He warned against isolationism.

He seemed sympathetic to the protests of modern youth, but for a reason most people would not have anticipated, namely, its criticism of the “permissive society.” But the Pope thought youth’s rejection of the commercialized and aggressive society something like a “ray of light.”

The visit was clearly meant to be a friendly one, and there was no attempt at polemics. On the contrary, one of the highlights was an ecumenical service in the Sydney Town Hall. The Pope and Anglican Bishop Garnsey gave short addresses, and parts were taken in the simple service of Bible reading and prayer by representatives of the

Churches of Christ, the Presbyterian, and the Orthodox Churches as well as Roman Catholics and Anglicans. Such a service had never previously been held in Australia, nor probably anywhere else.

Both speakers sounded the note of unity, and both referred to John 17. Bishop Garnsey spoke of the “earnest and honest conversation” between the Roman Catholic Church and the Australian Council of Churches, adding, “We believe that it is the Holy Spirit that is leading, sometimes driving us into this cooperation. It is not because we seek safety in a hostile world, not because it is nice and comfortable to be together. It is rather a search for truth, a search for renewal, a search for obedience, that will lead us out into costly service.”

The Pope also spoke of the cost. “History cannot be written overnight,” he said, “and the honest hesitations of sensitive consciences always demand our respect and understanding. There is no easy way. The reconciling work of our Lord was achieved through suffering and the Cross. The unity which the ecumenical movement strives to serve has to be bought at a similar price.”

This was a most impressive service. It formed a landmark in relations between Roman Catholics and the Protestants. It certainly gave heart to those working for the reunion of the sundered denominations.

But it may not be too much to say that most comment referred not to anything done at the service but to some who were absent. The Most Reverend Marcus Loane, Anglican archbishop of Sydney, announced some weeks before the service that he could not in conscience attend. His decision was received with understanding and sympathy by Roman Catholics and by Christian leaders generally. But it was harshly criticized by many members of the general public. The Baptist Church joined Archbishop Loane in refusing to attend.

Marcus Loane gave his reasons for staying away. “The Roman Catholic Church,” he wrote in his diocesan paper, “continues to adhere to certain dogmas which are totally alien to the whole character of the New Testament. It still holds that the Pope is the Vicegerent of Christ and the infallible Head of the Church on earth; that Tradition is of equal authority with Scripture as the guide and rule of faith; that Transubstantiation takes place when the priest offers the prayer of Consecration so that the bread and wine become the body and blood, the soul and divinity, of Christ; that the Mass is a sacrifice for the sins of the living and the dead; that the Virgin Mary is a mediatrix whose intercession is necessary in order to procure God’s favour; and that justification before God depends on the works that we do as well as on our faith in what Christ has done. These are doctrines which still create lines of cleavage which it is impossible to ignore. They are radically inconsistent with the New Testament as the sovereign rule of faith as well as with the Reformation Settlement of the Church of England in the reign of Elizabeth I. And they are all summed up in the office which is held by the Pope.

“It is for this reason that one cannot pretend that the barriers have all disappeared. These are questions of truth which must be resolved before we can share in common worship or in unfettered fellowship.”

In the vigorous discussion provoked by these happenings, most of those interested in promoting ecumenism feel it a pity that the onward march to unity has thus been hindered. But very few seem to have faced the issues the archbishop raised.

Perhaps people think it is unwise to do anything to disturb the friendliness that increasingly marks relations between the churches. To have sectarian bitterness replaced by a cordial willingness to talk and even to pray together is certainly a great gain. But Christian unity cannot be built on nothing more than friendliness, as leaders in all the denominations know well enough.

No good purpose can be served by glossing over the issues Marcus Loane has raised. It may be possible to have another opinion about the wisdom of attending the ecumenical service. But there is no getting past the fact that the archbishop has drawn attention to big and important issues.

Sooner or later, someone must say to our Roman Catholic friends in all kindness: “Have you changed your opinion on any of the matters Archbishop Loane raised? If so, which and how? If not, where do we go from here?”

Niagara Falls, “honeymoon capital of North America,” was the site for the national meetings of Canada’s two largest non-Catholic denominations. Although the courtship between the United Church and the Anglican Church¹Another party to the church-union talks is the smaller Christian Church (Disciples of Christ). It entered the talks in 1969. had not reached the honeymoon stage, church-union enthusiasts were obviously hopeful that simultaneous meetings in the same city might facilitate the work of the ecclesiastical cupid.

The Brock and the Foxhead, adjoining hotels on the Canadian side of the falls, were taken over by the churches from January 25 to February 2—the first time in history the two had met at the same time and in the same city.

In addition to attending their separate programs, delegates came together for interdenominational functions: two services of intercommunion, discussion of the proposed new hymnal, an important meeting to hear and discuss the first draft of the plan of union, and an afternoon of small study groups on union. Despite optimistic official statements at the close of the gatherings, many observers felt the two were no closer to union than when the much heralded meetings opened.

Pro-unionists had their hopes elevated when the churches elected their new heads during the first days. The Anglican choice of Bishop Edward (Ted) W. Scott seemed to be a victory for unionists. The 51-year-old bishop of Kootenay, elected on the third ballot as primate of the Anglican Church of Canada, is the youngest Canadian primate ever elected.

The United Church’s choice for moderator, elected on the second ballot, was Dr. Arthur B. B. Moore, former president of Victoria University in Toronto and current president of the Canadian Council of Churches. Moore, 64, is unreservedly committed to church union.

The United Church, itself the product of a 1925 merger of Presbyterian, Methodist, and Congregational churches, maintained its understandably consistent commitment to union with the Anglicans. The Anglicans, however, appeared to have little enthusiasm. The most favorable interpretation is that years of foot-dragging lie ahead.

Anglican hesitance to the marriage stemmed from various quarters: high Anglicans, evangelicals, and those who feel that church union itself is an outdated exercise in an age that is wary of all institutions.

High Anglican opposition was spotlighted by the announcement that Dr. Carmino de Catanzaro had resigned from the commission that was formulating the doctrinal stance of the new church. And Dr. Eugene Fairweather of Trinity College in Toronto expressed his objections to the symptoms of doctrinal indifference.

Evangelical Anglican layman Dr. Donald C. Masters of Guelph University objected on grounds that the proposed union was a new embodiment of liberal religion.

Probably, though, indifference—as much as opposition—motivated much of the opposition. “I am not for union. But I’m not entirely against union. I just don’t have time for it—for playing at church. For me it is totally a non-issue,” shrugged Archdeacon C. R. Elliott.

A straw vote among ten Anglican youth delegates probably reflected that church’s fractured stand: five were against union, four were pro-union, and one was undecided.

Where does that leave church-union negotiations? Archbishop Scott, at the conclusion of the Anglican General Synod meeting and his first week as primate, stated he was not disturbed at what seemed to be his church’s hesitance. He added that neither would he be disturbed if the two churches stopped short of some monolithic structure. Earlier in the week, the newly elected moderator and the primate (personal friends of long standing) had agreed that church union might become a reality within ten years.

Merger talk put in the shadows other major issues that ordinarily would have been headlines. Prominent among them were reports of sharp declines in attendance, Sunday-school enrollment and finances.

Dr. Harold L. Arnup of the United Church’s finance department told the General Council that revenues were down $485,000 from the previous year—the first time in thirty years that a decline had been registered. But he hastened to reassure his fellow churchmen: “We are not broke. We have the resources to adjust to changing situations without going into debt.” Other statistical indicators were more critical, he warned. Average attendance of members declined seriously and Sunday-school attendance dropped 185,000 between 1965 and 1969 (30 per cent in five years). “The average age of our membership is increasing, and the indication is that this trend will continue,” Arnup said.

Meanwhile, the Anglicans were hearing that if the church continued to dip into its reserve funds, they would be depleted in a few years.

The gloomy statistical report, coupled with the stalling on church union, prompted some irreverence from United Church youth delegates. A suggested new stanza for “Onward Christian Soldiers” was circulated:

Joining hands in brotherhood

Far too good to last,

One the whole world over,

Even in Belfast.

We are not “United,”

One great church are we,

Almost one in doctrine,

One in bankruptcy.

Another area of concern at the national assemblies was the churches’ stand on abortion. Both denominations were confronted with resolutions on the subject, but if they had adopted the resolutions as presented, the two denominations would have come down on opposite sides of the question.

An Anglican resolution, proposed by the Reverend P. R. Ellis of British Columbia, called for an end to “the indiscriminate slaughter of unborn children by abortion.” The General Synod reacted with the time-tested device of appointing a task force to investigate the question of defining human life.

The United Church General Council debated the abortion question and finally decided that it was primarily a private matter between a woman and her doctor and that abortion was not matter for the Criminal Code.

The 1974 meetings of the two churches now assume new significance: the 1971 meetings failed to produce clear sense of direction on church union. If Anglican consensus is not realized by 1974, and if unionists are determined to press for decision, Canada could witness a repetition of the 1925 church-union division when 30 per cent of the Presbyterians refused to join the United Church of Canada and elected to maintain a continuing Presbyterian Church.

Not a pleasing prospect—and one that would cause second thoughts to Anglican primate Ted Scott, who probably wouldn’t press for merger at the risk of a major rupture in his church.

Singing The Faith

Two Canadian denominations, in the process of church-union talks, have approved a new hymnbook and will proceed to print 200,000 copies. The action comes after nine years of work by a joint hymnbook committee of the United Church of Canada and the Anglican Church of Canada.

Described by its enthusiastic boosters as the “finest English-language selection in the world of hymnody today,” the publication will reflect the poles and tensions inherent in the Canadian church-union discussions. Traditionalists are assured that two-thirds of the hymns appeared in either or both of the previous denominational hymnaries.

Former Methodists or Presbyterians in the United Church might be startled to come across a hymn in the section, “Festivals of the Virgin Mary”:

Glorious Mother, now rewarded

With a crown at Jesus’ hand,

Age to age thy name recorded

Shall be blest in every land.

Then, for contemporary tastes, there are hymns such as “The Lord of the Dance”:

I danced on a Friday when the sky turned black

It’s hard to dance with the devil on your back;

They buried my body and they thought I’d gone—

But I am the dance and I still go on.

Another hymn of thanks raised some eyebrows:

Vitality and zest,

For strength to meet the day’s demands,

The urge to give our best,

For all our body’s appetites

Which can fulfillment find,

And for the sacrament of sex

That recreates our kind.

A new Christmas hymn that came in for special praise from the committee was “Every Star Shall Sing a Carol.” Evangelicals who regard the birth of Christ as a once-for-all event will be startled to hear:

Who can tell what other cradle

High above the milky way,

Still may rock the king of heaven

On another Christmas day?

God above, Man below,

Holy is the name I know.

In explaining the philosophy behind the overall selection, the Reverend Richard Davidson, vice-chairman of the committee, stated, “If you stick to the old jargon in hymns, the best has been said. What we had to do was to take old concepts and put them in a new way.”

The attempt to delete “old jargon” resulted in some casualties—missionary hymns that the committee felt were patronizing, those that were “overly sentimental,” and sawdust-trail gospel types.

One United Church delegate wryly pointed out that the committee had dropped “Amazing Grace” and that during the week in which the hymnbook vote was being taken, a contemporary rendition of “Amazing Grace” was on the top-ten list of popular hits! Apparently, he added, the “old jargon” was not entirely incomprehensible to modern youth.

LESLIE K. TARR

Alcoholism Analyzed

To what extent is alcoholism a disease of the body or mind?

Medical investigators reported their latest findings last month at the second annual School on Alcohol and Narcotics studies in Eustis, Florida. They said alcoholism is a physiological disease that damages the brain and can be cured only by giving the victim a motivation strong enough to overcome the effects of the injured tissue.

More than a dozen former alcoholics and drug addicts, many in their early twenties, gave testimonials that such spiritual strength can come only through a moving religious experience, involving a commitment so deep that physical craving induced by a damaged mind can be resisted.

Dr. Jorge Valles, who heads a large alcoholic rehabilitation center at the Houston Veterans Hospital, feels that alcohol damages the hypothalamus, an area at the base of the brain that is believed to contain the centers of hunger and thirst. This damage, he feels, is what creates the insatiable appetite for alcohol.

Valles, a Spanish-born psychiatrist who is on the Baylor University medical faculty, says the only cure for alcoholism is to get the victim to abstain. To accomplish this he uses “psychodrama.” He indicated that a religious experience of conversion is a valid form of psychodrama in which the individual comes to grips with the force that is trying to destroy him and conquers it.

Some 175 ministers, educators, and law-enforcement officials attended the three-day school sponsored by United Christian Action, an interdenominational service agency working in the field of alcohol and narcotics education.

Dr. Gerhard Freund, youthful medical professor at the University of Florida, reported on studies made with white rats fed small amounts of alcohol with their water (laboratory animals consistently refuse to drink strong alcoholic beverages). These rats, Freund said, cannot perform memory tests as well as matched litter-mates fed only sugar water. More important, they never regain pre-alcoholic proficiency even though they are taken off alcohol.

Dr. Melvin Knisely, professor of anatomy at the Medical College of South Carolina, presented new evidence that brain damage results from impairment of blood circulation by the presence of alcohol in the bloodstream, causing a lack of oxygen in the brain’s nerve cells. Knisely, who has researched the phenomenon for some thirty years, warns that every drinking bout causes permanent damage.

GLENN D. EVERETT

Dull Sword

The Sword of the Lord may be quick and powerful, but it doesn’t seem to have much cutting edge at Moody Bible Institute in Chicago. The Sword’s editor, Dr. John R. Rice, was invited to speak at Moody’s annual Founder’s Week this month. He accepted but was subsequently “uninvited” by Moody president Dr. William Culbertson after a small group of students called to his attention Rice’s published stand on race.

In an article last March in the Sword, Rice defended Bob Jones University’s policy of barring Negro students and opposing interracial marriage. The offending Rice article said, in part: “The university would not intentionally take any student, of any race, who is certain to bring strife and disrupt the work of the school. That is one reason why they do not seek Negro students.”

Sources close to the Moody student body said Culbertson, having been shown the article, decided to cancel Rice’s appearance at Moody and had a letter so stating read in the Moody chapel assembly. There reportedly was “rousing applause” after the reading, though Rice contended that some students walked out in protest.

Culbertson, asked to comment on the matter, did not immediately respond. The Founder’s Week featured a score of prominent Bible speakers including keynoter Dr. Robert A. Cook of King’s College, New York. The theme was, “Thou hast magnified thy word above all thy name” (Ps. 138:2). Rice was to have been on a panel discussion on why the fundamentals of the faith are important.

National Prayer Breakfast: Powerful Audience

“There’s a great deal of moral fiber and strength left in this country, and that’s what really matters,” said President Nixon to 3,000 VIPs, including all his Cabinet members and half of the U. S. Congress, at the annual National Prayer Breakfast in the nation’s capital this month.

Referring to Solomon’s request of God not for wealth or power but for an understanding heart, the chief executive then challenged the crowd: “Let that be our prayer … If we can have that on the 200th birthday [of the nation] we will be very rich and very strong, but more important, we will be a good country in the truest sense …”

Nixon’s brief remarks followed a twenty-five minute homily on the Twenty-Third Psalm by Chief Justice Warren E. Burger, the main speaker. Some felt his remarks, primarily devotional, did not sufficiently challenge the host of prominent government officials, religious leaders, and diplomats from more than 100 countries who assembled for the breakfast.

Nixon, who noted that the audience was “four times” the size of the one on hand to hear his State of the Union address a few days before, seemed impressed with its potential. “It might be impossible to find an audience anywhere in America where more power could be assembled than here,” he said.

The breakfast is sponsored by the Senate and House Prayer Breakfast groups. Since its beginning in 1953, governors in all fifty states and mayors in more than 1,000 cities have held similar prayer breakfasts locally. The U. S. Senate and House prayer groups meet regularly each week while Congress is in session.

Representative G. V. Montgomery (D.-Miss.) said one benefit of the groups is contact with other persons of good will around the world. “We know we are better individuals and congressmen as a result of these groups,” he said, adding: “It’s also the best source of jokes suitable for telling at home.”

The only two clergymen seated at the head tables were Dr. Richard C. Halverson, pastor of Fourth Presbyterian Church, Washington, long associated with International Christian Leadership and the prayer breakfast movement, and Dr. Billy Graham.

Graham didn’t speak at the breakfast but addressed some 500 leaders at a private luncheon following morning seminars. The evangelist had said at a press conference the day before that he would be in Washington for several weeks to meet with government leaders on an informal basis to talk about the “need for spiritual renewal in the country … and moral leadership.”

When asked by a newsman whether his personal friendship with Nixon interfered with his ability to speak prophetically, Graham traced the development of his friendship with Nixon and pointed out that he has been friends with previous presidents, too. “I really do try, desperately, to stay out of politics,” he declared. He noted that Nixon had “told me time after time to stay out of politics. He has told me that my ministry is too important to get involved in politics.”

And speaking about the current wave of spiritual revolution among young people, especially on the West Coast, the deeply tanned (from a short vacation in the Virgin Islands) evangelist observed: “We’re in the midst of possibly the greatest revival of young people ever in our nation.… A tremendous thing is taking place.”

RUSSELL CHANDLER

One Mayor’S Breakfast

A unique Mayor’s Youth Prayer Breakfast in Modesto, California, is packing in young people by the hundreds. The annual event was so successful this month that 600 high-school and college students turned out from 7 to 9 A.M.

Lee Davies, mayor of the city of 60,000 in the central San Joaquin Valley, originated the youth breakfast three years ago. He says he believes it is the only such project in the nation. Davies, who invites all guests by personal letter, said he sees a widespread “return to the teachings of Christ” replacing a period of drug use, pornography, permissiveness, and violence.

A series of short talks and Bible readings (no sermons) were handled mostly by area student-body officers from thirty public and private schools. Not all are Christians or attend church.

Frank Roberts, featured in the film High on the Campus, told of his teenage turn from drug use and arrest for selling narcotics to peace in Christ. Bob Kranning, high-school activities director at Forest Home Conference Ground near Redlands in southern California, declared God “was no ogre” who said, “Okay, you guys, no more fun!” Instead, Kranning explained, “Christ added a new dimension to my life.”

All but forty-four students filled out comment cards at the breakfast. Examples: “I felt a closeness to God.” “I need a Bible.” “It really started me thinking.” “I need to find someone to talk to about God.” “Pray for me.” One card simply said: “I need a true friend.”

At next year’s breakfast (in larger quarters) a report is planned on results of Bible-study and fellowship groups meeting in area schools as an outgrowth of one mayor’s vision for God.

LEE RODDY

Africa’S Dangerous Precedent: Sentencing Catholic Bishops

Bowing to pressure, President Ahamadou Ahidjo of the Cameroun last month commuted the death sentences of a Roman Catholic bishop and two other men—convicted of plotting to assassinate him—to life imprisonment. But Africa’s churchmen can breathe only a very nervous sigh of relief. The bishop’s conviction has set a most dangerous precedent for Africa, especially because the evidence that he led a serious coup was very flimsy.

The bishop, Monsignor Albert Ndongmo, is a flashy, brilliant intellectual. He is known to oppose President Ahidjo, who, he contended, neglected the development of his own English-speaking western region of the Cameroun.

The bishop was also known to be a friend of a rebel tribe, the Bamileke; on trips out of the country, including one to Algeria, he sought to gain support for the rebels. Although the Bamileke revolt died a long time ago, the leaders went into hiding, and the Cameroun, like many of its neighboring republics, has been enjoying only a surface stability.

The Bamileke spirit seems to have been dying out, and presumably the government decided to act against the rebels to demonstrate once and for all their impotence. The government might also have wanted to act against Ndongmo because he appeared to be out of favor with the Vatican and his fellow bishops.

Ndongmo had taken church money to start a series of secular businesses that raised eyebrows: a plastics factory, a printing press, and a small “magazin” (department store). Because of his financial problems, the Vatican had appointed an administrator over his diocese and had called him to Rome to explain. As soon as he returned he was arrested and charged with “complicity with a rebellion.”

The arrest rallied the other bishops and the West African press behind Ndongmo. There has been speculation in the African press as to whether the bishop was really guilty, and whether the facts were as trivial as they appeared to be. The affair is being hotly discussed, especially in the French-speaking states.

The real issue is whether or not church leaders should get involved in politics. The trend obviously is for leaders of the new independent African states to stifle opposition from any quarter.

Meanwhile in Rome, the arrest, conviction, and life sentencing to hard labor of Guinea’s Catholic archbishop Raymond-Marie Tchidimbo brought an explosive outburst from Pope Paul. In a Sunday speech from his window over St. Peter’s Square, the pontiff said the bishop was innocent of the charges.

The prelate, bishop of Conarky, had been accused, along with many others, of plotting against the Guinean regime. A right-wing Rome newspaper that came out before Radio Conakry announced the sentences said the bishop and other defendants in the invasion affair faced “possible immersion in boiling oil, or burial alive.”

Ninety-two persons were condemned to death for their part in last November’s invasion, thirty-four in their absence. Tchidimbo was among another seventy-two sentenced to forced labor for life.

Three years ago President Sekou Toure of Guinea openly launched a campaign against the Catholic Church, expelling all non-native clergy and closing all Catholic schools and other institutions.

In an appeal over Vatican Radio, Maurice Cardinal Roy of Quebec, primate of Canada, pleaded for Guinean authorities to grant clemency to those condemned to death.

ODHIAMBO OKITE

Lutheran Fellowship

The inability of Lutherans in the United States to achieve fellowship with one another is hampering interdenominational dialogue. That was the message given to representatives of the nation’s three major Lutheran bodies last month by the head of theological studies for the Lutheran Council in the U.S.A.

At the annual council meeting in New York, Dr. Frederick W. Meuser made his remarks in a report on current Lutheran-Episcopal doctrinal talks and on plans to resume Lutheran-Reformed discussions, possibly late this year. “Serious consideration of close relationships with other confessions must inevitably await the achievement of full intra-Lutheran fellowship,” he said.

Two studies now in process are aimed at overcoming tensions within Lutheranism, Meuser pointed out. One deals with membership in non-Christian organizations, the other with modern-day interpretation of the Lutheran Confessions.

Dr. C. Thomas Spitz, Jr., LCUSA general secretary, told the session that centralized programming and administration are being displaced everywhere by decentralization. “The inhibiting force of tradition has lessened as experimentation has become more acceptable. Authoritarianism is increasingly rejected as participation and self-expression are demanded. Executive control is being discarded in favor of group control,” Spitz reported.

At the council’s closing dinner session, council president Oswald C. J. Hoffmann and Lutheran Church in America president Robert J. Marshall reported on their recent tours of Viet Nam and the war zone. Both praised the efforts of military chaplains there. Hoffmann and the other major officeholders were re-elected to their LCUSA posts. Membership in the council encompasses about 95 per cent of the nation’s nine million Lutherans.

Preus On Concordia: ‘No Progress Reports’

There will be no statement now on Concordia Seminary, according to Dr. Jacob A. O. Preus, president of the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod and middleman in the giant liberal-conservative tug-of-war now threatening to tear apart the 2.8-million-member denomination.

Preus was presented with a petition last month signed by about 1,400 pastors, teachers, and laymen of the church. It asked for an end to internal strife in the Missouri Synod and charged that conservatives are creating a “climate of suspicion, fear, and discouragement.” The furor stems from an investigation, headed by Preus, regarding the doctrinal orthodoxy of some professors at Concordia Seminary, St. Louis (see August 21 issue, page 40). The statement handed to Preus, called a Declaration of Determination, was also to be presented to the Synod’s board of directors this month, according to one of the declaration’s sponsors.

Earlier, a majority of Concordia faculty said they would participate in the investigation of their theological positions “only under protest.” A five-man “fact-finding committee” began the probe last October. Some professors have labeled the investigation “heresy hunting.”

Preus, remaining mum, told a reporter privately during an appearance in Washington, D. C., this month: “I don’t want to issue progress reports.” He believes he is complying with his church’s constitution and is fighting for the position imposed upon him by the Lutheran Confessions. Conservatives within the Synod backing the probe hold to an inerrant Bible and say the professors under fire teach destructive theories of liberal biblical criticism contrary to the standards of the church. Preus reportedly has said letters he has received on the subject run 90 per cent in favor of present handling of the investigation.

The drafter of the petition to Preus was the Reverend Bertwin Frey, a former president of the Synod’s English District. “We deplore the suggestion that our pastors and teachers should be required to teach in harmony with every resolution to our synodical conventions,” says one of the declaration’s seven points. Another declares that the signers will inform delegates to the Synod’s July, 1971, biennial convention in Milwaukee of “our position and stance.…”

The impasse may be settled there; more likely it will spill over to the 1973 convention and an all-out struggle between factions for control of the church. There is almost certain to be a strong challenge to Dr. Preus’s leadership. Christian Herald magazine, in a two-part analysis of “The Missouri-Synod Lutheran Civil War” (January and February issues), calls the story “one of the most important we have ever published.”

Evangelicals within and beyond the Lutheran communion are watching with great interest to see what happens at Concordia.

RUSSELL CHANDLER

A Life For Laos

Like Viet Nam, little Laos is known primarily as the focus of a lingering struggle for political control. But long before the present military conflict attracted outsiders, there were those who went to Laos to do battle on the spiritual level. The most noteworthy is scholarly G. Edward Roffe, who probably knows more about Laos than any other American.

Despite the intermittent bloody strife in recent years, Roffe has been able to oversee the work of translating the New Testament into Lao, the national language spoken by nearly three million people. Final typescripts are now being prepared. Roffe reached retirement age last year but secured an extension from the Christian and Missionary Alliance. “I want to remain in order to see this through the printing stage,” he says.

Roffe, son of a Toronto clergyman, graduated from McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, and Nyack (New York) Missionary College. In 1928 he became the first resident American missionary in what is now Laos.²The only other Protestant missionary work in Laos was begun in 1902 in the south by “Open” Plymouth Brethten from Switzerland. These were joined later by Brethren from other countries and by the Overseas Missionary Fellowship. There are now more than eighty Protestant churches in the country, three-fourths of them in the north, where the CMA works. His college sweetheart, from Orlando, Florida, joined him the following year and they were married there. While on furlough Roffe did graduate study in linguistics at Cornell.

The first full text of the New Testament in Lao had been published in 1926, but missionaries and national Christian leaders felt the need of a new and better translation. An inter-church, inter-mission committee worked for ten years, finishing in 1965. The four Gospels and Acts were already off the press when there were second thoughts. Says Roffe:

“As new insights were gained … it was decided to undertake an in-depth revision of the already approved text, and to engage the services of a stylist. This amounted to a retranslation of what had already been completed and approved for printing.”

Serious work on the revision did not begin until 1968. But even though the translators worked only half-time, they were able to accomplish the task in three years. The new publication will include paragraph headings, appropriate references for parallel passages, a regular reference system, a glossary, and an index.

A translation team of younger persons has begun work on the Old Testament.

DAVID KUCHARSKY

Shifts For Survey, Motive

After more than three years’ rapidly falling circulation for the Presbyterian Survey, official journal of the Presbyterian Church, U. S., the magazine’s board of directors this month discharged Ben Hartley, editor, and Miss Frances Furlow, associate editor.

The magazine has skidded from more than 250,000 circulation in the early 1960s to a present 140,000. No replacements were named for Hartley and Miss Furlow, and they will be allowed to remain at the Survey until Dr. E. A. Dean, the board’s executive director, replaces them. Hartley said he would not comment on the firing. He submitted a resignation three years ago, saying then that he lacked the board’s support and editorial freedom. The board refused to accept the resignation.

The magazine has shifted in emphasis in recent years, reflecting denominational concerns and news of the church’s boards and agencies. Hartley is known to have favored a more prophetic form of newsmagazine journalism.

Meanwhile, the controversial United Methodist publication, motive, will become independent July 1, according to the Methodist Board of Education. For thirty years motive, aimed at college and university communities, has been under the Methodist wing. In 1969—following an uproar over an issue that contained four-letter words—the board voted to support motive for three years. A study committee is to make recommendations on future denominational ties for the 13,000 circulation, eight-times-a-year publication.

Personalia

Evangelist Billy Graham underwent surgery this month for removal of a swollen salivary gland. He canceled several engagements to recuperate, but doctors said they expected no adverse effects. The gland has been troubling Graham for several months.

Decision editor Sherwood E. Wirt, marking his tenth anniversary with the magazine, is participating in a nine-week tour of the Pacific rim. He and his wife are leading Christian writing schools in Sydney, Jakarta, Singapore, Taipei, Tokyo, and Manila. He will return to his office April 19.

United Presbyterian-related Macalester College in St. Paul is losing its chief benefactor and its president. DeWitt Wallace, founder of Reader’s Digest, has given $37 million to his alma mater in the past forty years, but the largess will all but end this year. President Arthur Flemming, a former National Council of Churches president, will retire by August 31.

Dr. Raymond I. Lindquist, 63, for eighteen years pastor of huge Hollywood, California, Presbyterian Church, has announced his resignation in order to head a new foundation that will award grants for religious endeavors.

Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod president Jacob A. O. Preus preached on the power of prayer in the space age this month at a White House Sunday service attended by the President and Billy Graham.

Religion In Transit

A microfilm packet containing Genesis 1:1 in sixteen languages and a complete RSV Bible were deposited on the moon February 5 by Apollo 14 LEM commander Edgar Mitchell.

St. Stephen and the Incarnation Episcopal Church in Washington, D. C., has bought out all the seats at the National Theater for a Washington preview of the hippie musical “Hair” on March 11. Proceeds from $7, $15, and $25 tickets will help meet the church’s commitment to the black community.

New York’s Riverside Church will spend $100,000 this year for its security program—more than the entire budget of most smaller churches—because of the growing crime problem.

Yale Divinity School and its smaller neighbor, Berkeley Divinity School (Episcopal), will merge this spring to establish a theological training program stressing field community work instead of traditional academic studies.

The U. S. Supreme Court has been asked to modify its ban on prayer in public schools to allow voluntary prayer services before school. The Netcong, New Jersey, school board brought the issue before the court.… The New York State Assembly approved a bill that would permit the same beforeschool exercises.

World Scene

The Far East Broadcasting Company has launched the Open Door Project to China, a radio endeavor to reach all of Red China with the Gospel. The million-dollar project, scheduled for completion next year, includes a station on Cheju Island in Korea and one on Luzon in the Philippines. Both will be powered by 250,000 watts.

More money ($2.36 million) was given to the United Methodist Committee for Overseas Relief (UMCOR) in 1970 than in any other year in the three-decade history of the organization.

Because United Methodists in Rhodesia refused to make up a 5 per cent cut by the government in teachers’ salaries, some of the denomination’s 200 schools have had to close.

The World Council of Churches’ special fund to combat racism has now received more than $123,500 in addition to the $200,000 allocated from WCC reserves.

NEWS

Three thousand teen-agers and young adults plunked down two dollars each and filed into the Hollywood Palladium one Sunday afternoon last month to hear sixteen music groups cut loose with rock, folk, and soul tunes for five hours. The turned-up amplifiers and the beat were at times reminiscent of Woodstock and Altamont, but the theme was pure Jesus.

It was the second such “Jesus People’s Festival of Christian Music” within a month at the Palladium. Both were sponsored by the Hollywood Free Paper, a Christian underground-type newspaper with more than 150,000 circulation. Publisher Duane Pederson billed such headliners as Pat Boone and his family and street evangelist Arthur Blessitt at the first festival. More than one hundred youths received Christ at the two events, said Pederson, and donations covered all expenses with enough left over to publish another edition of the Free Paper.

For several years young Christians have showed up at the big secular rock concerts to witness about Christ among drug-dazed revelers. Christian doctors and medical students linked up with street worker David Hoyt and his converted hippie friends to operate treatment centers at the 1969 Atlanta International Pop Festival, which attracted

250,000. Christians handed out free food, manned counseling tents, and even got on the program at the West Palm Beach festival; nearly half of the 50,000 attendants gathered to hear evangelist Blessitt, and hundreds reportedly received Christ (see December 19, 1969, issue, page 34).

But last year evangelicals began holding their own festivals, minus the God-empty songs, drugs, and shady promotion practices. The first one was probably the Youth for Christ-sponsored two-day Faith Festival in an Evansville, Indiana, stadium in March, attended by 14,000, Folk singer Gene Cotton, black soul songster Jim Bolden, and Pat Boone and family headed an array of performers. Five months later San Francisco Bay area street Christians and young people of the Peninsula Bible Church in Palo Alto held a five-hour “Sweet Jesus Roll Away the Stone (Or Rock) Concert” for 3,000—mostly street types—at a Stanford University amphitheater. Numerous conversions were reported, half the police force stationed nearby went home early, and nobody required medical aid.

More festivals are coming, says Pederson, and attendance will soar as word gets around.

Word is already getting around in recording and broadcasting circles that revival is in the air. Both Billboard and Variety predicted that the drug and sex themes of the sixties would be replaced this decade by religion—especially songs about Jesus—as the dominant chord in the nation’s music scene. Current and recent “Top 40” song ratings reflect this trend. In 1969 the Edwin Hawkins Singers—black evangelicals based in Oakland, California—rode to the very top on both rock and soul stations with “Oh Happy Day.” Last year Norman Greenbaum’s “Spirit in the Sky” led the list; some of its lyrics were strikingly evangelistic.

Current favorites include the rock opera, Jesus Christ, Superstar (see December 4, 1970, issue, page 38); “My Sweet Lord,” sung by Beatle George Harrison; and “Amazing Grace” by Judy Collins. Bob Dylan in his album “New Morning” sings praise to the Creator and laments man’s disregard for the spiritual.

Several name performers have come out for Christ: Tiny Tim, Paul Stookey of Peter, Paul, and Mary, and Johnny Cash, as well as Boone and others.

Some disc jockeys openly plug Jesus between songs and commercials. Converted drug-user Scott Ross markets the Gospel in rock-oriented packages to dozens of secular stations (see January 12 issue, page 48). Young people of four Grand Rapids Christian Reformed churches raise $1,000 a month to place sixty-second gospel “spots” daily on the city’s three major rock stations; they say results are worth it.

Owners of most Christian radio stations, however, have banned from their turntables not only rock-type pieces but also sizable chunks of other contemporary gospel music being written by Christian composers. Debate raged at the National Religious Broadcasters convention last month; some owners claimed that the music was suggestive, desecrating, of the devil, and that it dwelled too much on personal experience rather than on doctrine.

Similar views keep many churches keyed to traditional sounds, but hundreds of other churches—notably on the West Coast—are joining the modern Jesus music movement. Evangelical composer Ralph Carmichael, at home writing symphonic passages for strings or thumping out rock choruses, says that last year alone he sold 200,000 copies (equivalent to 5,000 forty-voice choirs) of his folk musical, Tell It Like It Is. Robes and organs are out for hundreds of new youth choirs and ensembles; colorful titles and attire, amplified guitars, and even body sway are in.

The movement is gaining a wide hearing. The Certain Sounds of First Baptist Church in Van Nuys, California, sang their way through the Philippines and Japan with great response; other young people from the church went along to help with follow-up of the hundreds who professed Christ—including the principal of Manila’s largest high school. The New Sounds of suburban San Diego’s Skyline Wesleyan Methodist Church performed in South America before audiences of upper-society people and government leaders whom missionaries called “unreachables.”

The movement is not confined to the churches. At Detroit’s MacKenzie High School, a forty-voice gospel choir was formed by students, says director Dennis Walker, 17, when the Holy Spirit recently brought revival to the campus. It now outdraws the regular school choir at concerts. Pianist and co-founder Joyce Mouldon says it’s just a matter of “singing the songs God gives you from the heart, not singing for the world, but for him.” After receiving Christ, folksinger Bengie Killen felt led to keep her contract with a Washington, D. C., nightclub; her new Jesus songs evoked invitations to discuss the Gospel with several ambassadors and their families.

Students at John Brown University created the Sound Generation and spent the past two summers at Disneyland and Knott’s Berry Farm, where a million visitors heard their songs and testimonies. Campus Crusade’s New Folk continue to sing on hundreds of campuses. Inter-Varsity Christian Fellowship’s Eric Miller has a multi-media production he calls “Twentyone-hundred.” It employs slides, rock music, and flash-on grafitti to convey to college students: Jesus saves.

Part of the Christian music revolution is a by-product of the burgeoning spiritual awakening among young people. Entire rock groups, such as the Love Song in Southern California and the Wilson McKinley in Spokane, have forsaken drug circuits and dedicated their talents—and instruments—to Jesus. Their new songs have such recurring themes as the death of Christ, his sufficiency for life’s needs, his second coming; most are “message” pieces that challenge unbelievers to turn to Jesus. The groups and individual performers find receptive audiences at coffeehouses, street rallies, high-school assemblies, and some churches.

After the Love Song lured a staid Lutheran congregation into spirited participation, the pastor said the joyful hand-clapping was “the first we’ve ever had in this church.” Southern Baptist pastor Barry Wood of Beverly Hills First Baptist Church has summer-night rock concerts at the church to reach Sunset Strip drifters for Christ. He plans to hold a training clinic next month for youth ministers and lay workers on how to use rock.

“Rock” is a catch-all term that many Christian performers dislike. There are hard or acid rock (Jimi Hendrix style) and soft rock (later Beatles variety), plus folk, soul, and country modes. Most Christian groups eschew the hard-rock medium because, they say, it is too enmeshed with psychedelic overtones and too sexually suggestive. Chuck Girard of the Love Song prefers the “Contemporary Gospel” designation coined by Atlantic Records; it covers the field, he says, without raising the bad specter of acid rock.

The new music, while causing division in some ranks, is nevertheless a remarkable vehicle of Christian unity. The lilting choruses of Audrey Meier, a middle-aged song stylist, are heavy favorites among young people of all denominations. John Fischer, a Wheaton College graduate and staffer at Peninsula Bible Church who sings at evangelist Leighton Ford’s crusades, made business boom with his album “Cold Cathedral” at F.E.L.—a Los Angeles supplier of contemporary hymnals and records for Catholic churches. In fact, said spokesman Fran Farber, as a result of Fischer’s influence the company’s initials no longer stand for “Friends of the English Liturgy” but for “Faith, Evangelism, and Liturgy.” Nine of Fischer’s songs will appear in Volume Two of an F.E.L. hymnal that has hit the four-million mark in sales. F.E.L.’s chorus, “They’ll Know We Are Christians By Our Love,” is sung by Christians throughout the world.

Popular street-Christian singer Larry Norman (album: “Street Level”) says: “A spiritual renaissance is taking place today. The Holy Spirit is at the root of it … and kids are expressing their deep happiness through rock music.”

EDITORIALS

From the thousands of religious books published in this country during 1970, we have selected for special mention forty-six titles on subjects that are of broad interest. While these books are written from a perspective that accepts the Bible as normative, naturally the editors of CHRISTIANITY TODAY do not agree with everything said in them. Nevertheless, we feel they merit consideration. Scores of other commendable books are discussed in the three survey articles in this issue.

During the past year a number of new books showed solid evangelical reflection upon some of the problems confronting our society. One that every Christian should read is Your God Is Too White. Columbus Salley, who is black, and Ronald Behm, who is white, have provided a compact yet solid biblical and historical basis for understanding and doing something about racial tensions. Moreover, non-Christians, black and white, are confronted with the God who is not to be confused with his very fallible children. Two essentially sermonic books by black evangelist Tom Skinner, Words of Revolution and How Black Is the Gospel?, can also be read with profit.

Social problems provide approaches to the root of all man’s problems, his alienation from God. Yet this does not mean Christians are excused from doing something about the various problems of society and can confine their efforts to this common root cause. To do so is contrary to the clear teaching of Christ and the apostles that we are to love our fellow men in ways that meet their physical needs. The Meaning of the City by Jacques Ellul is a widely heralded book that says much of value about the problems caused by urbanization. In a related area, Francis Schaeffer offers a Christian perspective on environmental problems in Pollution and the Death of Man. More discussions of these matters are needed, especially on the practical level.

A crucial problem for the Christian is his relation to an imperfect government. Congressman John Anderson, practicing politician and evangelical, offers his reflections in Between Two Worlds. James Adams studies the politics of the “mainstream” denominations in The Growing Church Lobby in Washington, while Richard Pierard regrets the ultra-conservative politics of many of his brethren in The Unequal Yoke. Evangelist

Leighton Ford offers an approach to social issues that is different from either of these in One Way to Change the World.

As if these areas of race, urbanization, pollution, and government did not provide problems enough, our society is confronted with a growing crisis of the family. A book that all parents and parents-to-be should read is Promises to Peter by Charles Shedd. If what Shedd says on raising children were practiced even half the time, there would be much less need for parents to read High on the Campus, by Gordon McLean and Haskell Bowen, the best evangelical statement on drug abuse.

Christians who desire to speak to the problems of our time are confronted by the growing indifference among men from all walks of life toward what the Word of God has to say. Two outstanding books merit the attention of those grappling with the varieties of opposition to divine revelation. The Bible and Modern Doubt by Mack Stokes may well become a classic as a discussion- and reflection-starter (it aims to be no more) on an amazingly wide variety of perennial questions about the teachings of the Bible. “Secular Christianity” and God Who Acts by Robert Blaikie focuses on the leading religious thinkers (including many evangelicals) and decisively rebukes the attempt of nonevangelicals to confuse their readers by using biblical and historic theological terminology in a framework radically different from what the Scriptures intend to teach. One need not agree with all of Blaikie’s own understanding of the Bible to profit from his undertaking. On a more evangelistic level, My God Is Real by David Watson is a brief but compelling presentation of the Gospel with an awareness of the objections non-Christians have to it. Essays on the question of biblical authority are collected in Interpreting God’s Word Today, edited by Simon Kistemaker.

Often the men whom evangelicals consider to be outstanding scholars do not enjoy the same recognition from their academic peers. This is not true of George Mavrodes, who has contributed to philosophical dialogue of the first rank with Belief in God: A Study in the Epistemology of Religion. Two other aspects of modern existence rarely dealt with by evangelicals were confronted in 1970: H. R. Rookmaaker presented Modern Art and the Death of a Culture and J. N. D. Anderson offered Christianity and Comparative Religion. The latter is especially timely in view of the surge of Western interest in Oriental religion.

Yet the Christian knows that no amount of ethical and apologetical concern is of real value apart from the right relationship, positionally and practically, to the triune God. Two exceptionally good exegetical studies of the biblical teaching on the Third Person of the Trinity, especially in light of the Pentecostal understandings of him, appeared last year. A Theology of the Holy Spirit by Dale Brunner and Baptism in the Holy Spirit by James Dunn should not be read by those who are unwilling to change their minds. Pentecostals will be challenged to do even better exegesis if they are to maintain that their teachings are biblical, but non-Pentecostals will find that their own doctrines of the Holy Spirit do not necessarily conform to Scripture either. A related doctrine is that of the believer’s union with Christ, and Lewis Smedes studies it admirably in All Things Made New. An excellent presentation of biblical piety is A Call to Christian Character by professors at Conservative Baptist Seminary, and a good up-to-date book designed for devotional reading is Keith Miller’s latest, Habitation of Dragons.

Another area of broad importance is the practice of the community of believers. In A New Face for the Church Lawrence Richards makes specific suggestions for renewal that demand consideration. Three other books that deal more with general principles are: Donald Bloesch, The Reform of the Church, Francis Schaeffer, The Church at the End of the Twentieth Century, and John Olthuis et al., Out of Concern for the Church.

Much has been written about the expansion of the Church, and four rather different approaches find places on our choice list. Michael Green studies Evangelism in the Early Church, emphasizing the New Testament data but bringing in relevant materials from the second and early third centuries. David Howard looks at the last two centuries in Student Power in World Evangelism. Donald McGavran, probably the leading evangelical missiologist, gives a fairly systematic expression of his thought in Understanding Church Growth. The speeches at the U. S. Congress on Evangelism in 1969 were published as Evangelism Now.

The Church is to grow not only in numbers but also in maturity. Despite all that has been written about it, Christian education is still a subject on which many well-meaning Sunday-school teachers are sadly uninformed. Creative Bible Teaching by Lawrence Richards offers general principles plus suggestions for each age group in highly readable fashion. Two good books for congregational leaders are Leadership for Church Education by Kenneth Gangel and Adult Education in the Church edited by Roy Zuck and Gene Getz.

The Top 46

ADAMS, JAMES L., The Growing Church Lobby in Washington, Eerdmans, 294 pp., $6.95.

ANDERSON, JOHN B., Between Two Worlds: A Congressman’s Choice, Zondervan, 163 pp., $3.95.

ANDERSON, J. N. D., Christianity and Comparative Religion, Inter-Varsity, 126 pp., $1.95.

BELL, L. NELSON, While Men Slept, Doubleday, 247 pp., $4.95.

BLAIKIE, ROBERT J., “Secular Christianity” and God Who Acts, Eerdmans, 256 pp., $2.95.

BLOESCH, DONALD G., The Reform of the Church, Eerdmans, 199 pp., $4.95.

BRUNER, FREDERICK DALE, A Theology of the Holy Spirit, Eerdmans, 390 pp., $8.95.

DUNN, JAMES D. G., Baptism in the Holy Spirit, Allenson, 248 pp., $5.75.

ELLUL, JACQUES, The Meaning of the City, Eerdmans, 209 pp., $5.95.

FORD, LEIGHTON, One Way to Change the World, Harper & Row, 119 pp., $3.95.

GANGEL, KENNETH O., Leadership for Church Education, Moody, 392 pp., $5.95.

GASQUE, W. WARD AND MARTIN, RALPH P. (eds.), Apostolic History and the Gospel, Eerdmans, 378 pp., $7.95.

GREEN, MICHAEL, Evangelism in the Early Church, Eerdmans, 349 pp., $6.95.

GUNDRY, ROBERT H., A Survey of the New Testament, Zondervan, 400 pp., $6.95.

GUTHRIE, DONALD, et al. (eds.), The New Bible Commentary: Revised, Eerdmans and Inter-Varsity, 1,310 pp., $12.95.

HARRISON, R. K., Old Testament Times, Eerdmans, 357 pp., $5.95.

HOWARD, DAVID M., Student Power in World Evangelism, Inter-Varsity, 129 pp., $1.25.

HOWLEY, G. C. D., (ed.) A New Testament Commentary, Zondervan, 666 pp., $7.95.

KISTEMAKER, SIMON (ed.), Interpreting God’s Word Today, Baker, 313 pp., $6.95.

LEWIS, C. S., God in the Dock, Eerdmans, 346 pp., $6.95.

MARSDEN, GEORGE M., The Evangelical Mind and the New School Presbyterian Experience, Yale, 278 pp., $10.

MAVRODES, GEORGE I., Belief in God: A Study in the Epistemology of Religion, Random House, 117 pp., $2.25.

MCLEAN, GORDON R., AND BOWEN, HASKELL, High on the Campus, Tyndale House, 132 pp., $2.95 and $1.45.

MCGAVRAN, DONALD A., Understanding Church Growth, Eerdmans, 382 pp., $7.95.

MILLER, KEITH, Habitation of Dragons, Word, 188 pp., $4.95.

MONTGOMERY, JOHN WARWICK, The Suicide of Christian Theology, Bethany Fellowship, 528 pp., $7.95.

OLTHUIS, JOHN A., et al., Out of Concern for the Church, Wedge, 125 pp., $2.50.

PAYNE, J. BARTON (ed.), New Perspectives on the Old Testament, Word, 305 pp., $6.95.

PIERARD, RICHARD V., The Unequal Yoke, Lippincott, 191 pp., $4.95 and $1.95.

PREUS, ROBERT D., The Theology of Post-Reformation Lutheranism, Concordia, 462 pp., $12.50.

RICHARDS, LAWRENCE O., Creative Bible Teaching, Moody, 288 pp., $4.95.

RICHARDS, LAWRENCE O., A New Face for the Church, Zondervan, 288 pp., $5.95.

ROOKMAAKER, H. R., Modern Art and the Death of a Culture, Inter-Varsity, 256 pp., $3.95.

SALLEY, COLUMBUS, and BEHM, RONALD, Your God Is Too White, Inter-Varsity, 114 pp., $1.95.

SCHAEFFER, FRANCIS A., The Church at the End of the Twentieth Century, Inter-Varsity, 153 pp., $3.95.

SCHAEFFER, FRANCIS A., Pollution and the Death of Man: The Christian View of Ecology, Tyndale House, 125 pp., $1.95.

SHEDD, CHARLES W., Promises to Peter, Word, 147 pp., $3.95.

SHELLEY, BRUCE (ed.), A Call to Christian Character, Zondervan, 186 pp., $4.95.

SKINNER, TOM, HOW Black Is the Gospel?, Lippincott, $4.95 and $1.95.

SKINNER, TOM, Words of Revolution, Zondervan, 171 pp., $3.95 and $1.95.

SMEDES, LEWIS B., All Things Made New: A Theology of Man’s Union with Christ, Eerdmans, 272 pp., $6.95.

STOKES, MACK B., The Bible and Modern Doubt, Revell, 286 pp., $5.95.

WATSON, DAVID C. K., My God Is Real, Seabury, 95 pp., $1.65.

WILSON, GEORGE M. (ed.), Evangelism Now, World Wide, 231 pp., $4.95.

WOOD, LEON J., A Survey of Israel’s History, Zondervan, 444 pp., $7.50.

ZUCK, ROY B., and GETZ, GENE A., Adult Education in the Church, Moody, 383 pp., $5.95.

The foundation of all ethical, apologetical, and practical concern should be a thorough knowledge of the Scriptures themselves. Two articles in this issue have called attention to scores of books that enhance Bible study. We single out seven general titles for mention again here. The New Bible Commentary: Revised and A New Testament Commentary are multiple-author reference works that many CHRISTIANITY TODAY readers will want to own. Old Testament Times by R. K. Harrison and A Survey of Israel’s History by Leon Wood will become the texts for many if not most college and seminary courses on the subject, while Robert Gundry’s Survey of the New Testament joins the ranks of elementary textbooks in that field. Two collections of scholarly essays are New Perspectives on the Old Testament and Apostolic History and the Gospel.

Three names well known to our readers appeared last year on collections of articles that were previously published in periodicals: C. S. Lewis, God in the Dock; John Montgomery, The Suicide of Christian Theology; and Nelson Bell, While Men Slept. Finally, we mention two scholarly and rather specialized titles that shed light on two sizable segments of contemporary evangelicalism, confessional Lutheranism and moderate Calvinism: Robert Preus’s The Theology of Post-Reformation Lutheranism and George Marsden’s The Evangelical Mind and the New School Presbyterian Experience.

Among the topics conspicuously absent from this list are war, the economy, contemporary music, women’s liberation, and abortion. Still, it was a good year for evangelical books. Beginnings were made in bringing the Scriptures to bear on some important topics that evangelicals have neglected, particularly in ethics and apologetics, and familiar topics were treated in fresh ways. Let’s make use of these products of writers who are exercising the gifts God has entrusted to them for building up his Church.

The Los Angeles Earthquake

The most obvious consolation in the otherwise sorrowful Los Angeles earthquake is that it occurred early in the morning. In another hour or so the freeways would have been jammed, and the death toll might have been in the hundreds or thousands. Interestingly enough, most of California’s earthquakes have hit at the safer night or early morning hours.

Only days before the February 9 tremor, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration issued a report warning of the growing danger to buildings on the West Coast. The report quoted an expert who said that building codes have not kept pace with construction practices, so that it is now possible to design extremely hazardous structures that meet legal requirements.

An even more basic hazard, one that our society seems loathe to confront, is urban crowding itself. Earthquakes take a heavy toll in areas where there are too many people too close together. A host of other major problems also result from our great concentrations of population. Reason and a sense of Christian stewardship demand that we think more seriously of spreading ourselves out.

Gospel Rock

Shakespeare speculated on the meaning of music: “If music be the food of love, play on,” said the king in Twelfth Night. A point of controversy among evangelicals now is whether “rock” music can feed love—Christ’s love—to young people.

A number of the most popular songs on today’s secular market have religious themes. Some are even old church songs, like “Amazing Grace” (see News, page. 32), and this troubles some Christians. They wonder whether contemporary idioms such as rock are a legitimate channel for the Gospel. But musical appetites change with the years. The kind of music represented in our common gospel songs, and even that of Bach’s St. Matthew Passion, was considered too avant-garde by previous generations of Christians.

To some, the medium of rock (hard, soft, or folk) depreciates the message. But to most young people today it apparently enhances the message. That being the case, the witnessing potential of new sounds in music is no myth. As hungry young people search for the true bread, these new sounds can provide good soul food if tied in with the authentic Gospel.

Where Giving Is Going

Experts in church finance say that overall giving to religious causes is holding up rather well. This may seem to contradict reports that American denominations are suffering serious financial setbacks. Actually, there is no paradox. Churchgoers are not putting less in the offering plate. They are merely redirecting their dollars.

More and more gifts are being designated for specific causes. They are also being channeled into local and regional programs in place of those that are geographically remote. This trend may imply some distrust of those who have distributed funds in the past, but it also represents commendably careful stewardship. And it is a healthy step that church people are getting more interested in the needs they find at their own doorsteps.

Pow Crusade

Dr. Jacob A. O. Preus, president of the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod, issued a five-point appeal this month for a modern “crusade” to Southeast Asia on behalf of American prisoners of war and those missing in action. In the press conference announcing the program, Preus said he would try to secure support from other church leaders for a concerted day of prayer for the POWs, and would recruit churchmen to visit North Viet Nam and other war zones “in order that we can bring an unbiased account to the American people and the world of the conditions that exist in these camps.”

Dr. Preus said he felt that “these Communist leaders would be hard pressed to deny permission for a visit from a group of religious leaders with completely altruistic motives.” Several days later, in New York, the Lutheran Council in the U.S.A., representing 95 per cent of the nation’s nine million Lutherans, broadened Preus’s appeal to include a Day of Prayer for those “who minister to the military in the name of the Lord and the innocents who suffer the consequences of war.”

By mid-month, key religious leaders were strangely silent about the Preus proposal. Dr. Arnold T. Olson, president of the Evangelical Free Church of America, gave unqualified support to the March 14 Day of Prayer called for, and Dr. Norman Vincent Peale was reported to have written Preus of his “full support.” Evangelist Billy Graham, in a press conference the same day Preus announced the five-point program, gave qualified endorsement. “I’m for anything that will get these prisoners out of Viet Nam,” he said. “I’m hoping there will be some kind of settlement or exchange this year. World public opinion has a great impact.”

We think all men of Christian conviction should rally behind this drive to seek earliest possible release of POWs, MIAs, and missionaries and other civilians who are captives of the Communist regime. Church leaders should speak out now—forcefully. And if the prayers of first-century Christians effected the release of Peter from jail (Acts 12:5), why shouldn’t we pray “without ceasing” for the freedom of those incarcerated in Southeast Asia?

Jerusalem: Stop The Bulldozer!

Jerusalem: an urban sprawl of ticky-tacky housing from Bethlehem to Ramallah? Unthinkable! A horror to anyone who has seen the Holy City, shimmering golden in the early morning sun—Jerusalem, sacred to three world religions and the site of yet unspoiled biblical landscapes that cradled Christianity.

Mercifully—and doubtless providentially—Jerusalem has been spared such a blight, at least for now. Pending further aesthetic and urban-development study, Jerusalem mayor Teddy Kolleck postponed a controversial new Israeli high-rise housing project on the city’s rocky hillside perimeter. The plan will probably go through, but not, it is hoped, until a committee of international architects can excise its worst features. The project is part of a huge development program (the Peres Plan) that would eventually swell the city’s present population of 275,000 (about 60,000 are Arabs) to 900,000. The built-up area would then swallow up the Arab towns of Bethlehem, five miles to the south, and Ramallah, ten miles to the north.

Those who cherish the historic city should not let the bulldozer pulverize Jerusalem’s priceless heritage and push its unique skyline off the map. Jerusalem will grow, inevitably. But we hope a way will be found to preserve the best of the Old Jerusalem while making discreet room for the New. And we pray that restraining expansion into Arab sectors will soothe the volatile peace negotiations under way between the two protagonists.

Showing Compassion (Continued)

One of the characteristics of Christians is that they are (or are supposed to be) compassionate. The Gospels help us to understand what this means by identifying some of Christ’s deeds as being motivated by compassion (see December 4 issue, page 27, and January 15 issue, page 22). They also help by recording three parables of our Lord in which the compassion of one person for another plays a major role. The unsolicited but bountiful aid by a Samaritan to one who had been wronged was motivated by compassion (Luke 10:33). But compassion is not to be only for victims, for Jesus tells of a prodigal son who had done wrong, yet was given a splendid welcome home by a compassionate father (Luke 15:20).

Another parable illustrates an important dimension of divine compassion, that it is not an end in itself. Its purpose is to bring us into fellowship with God and send us forth as those who are compassionate to others. A wealthy ruler was moved by compassion to cancel an enormous debt (Matt. 18:27). But the forgiven debtor immediately proved unwilling to allow a little more time for repayment by someone who owed him only a trivial amount. When the ruler learned of this, he retracted his earlier compassionate act, and his wrath was upon the unforgiving man.

Our Lord tells us that his heavenly Father is like this. We as humans do not have the authority and should not have the desire to withdraw compassion, but we do have the obligation to warn men that if the) reject or ignore the great compassion of God by which Christ died for us, one day God’s judgment will fall. Likewise we must proclaim that those who have truly responded to the compassion of God will find the desire (though they do not always act upon it) to be compassionate to their fellow men. We are amazed at a man like the one in the parable who could be forgiven a tremendous debt and yet be unwilling to delay—not to mention cancel—a paltry sum owed to him. Yet how many of us, having been forgiven all our innumerable sins by God, are unwilling to forgive others the relatively few offenses they commit against us?

“Our fight is not against any physical enemy: it is against organizations and powers that are spiritual. We are up against the unseen power that controls this dark world, and spiritual agents from the very headquarters of evil.”

This is how J. B. Phillips translates Ephesians 6:12, and it brings a chill to the heart while at the same time it raises questions and offers explanations few of us have been willing to face.

Limited in outlook, bound by tradition and convention, and more or less trained to believe only what we can demonstrate on the drawing board or in the test tube, we blithely go our way, oblivious to the scriptural affirmations about the forces of evil that surround us.

We live in a time when many people deny the existence of Satan, despite the evidences of his malignant influence on every hand. Strange that so many should doubt the reality of this enemy of our souls! Or is it strange? Has he not succeeded in blinding the minds of many so that they neither recognize him nor turn from him to the marvelous light of the Gospel?

For evidence of his evil presence, one has but to pick up the morning newspaper and read of the lives he has marred. Moreover, the indifference, unconcern, self-satisfaction, and inertia of many “good” people are more than mere personality deficiencies, for often they reflect the deadening influence of the enemy of souls upon the hearts and minds of unsuspecting victims.

The cosmic conflict is that unending warfare between the forces of righteousness and the forces of evil, between God and his angels of light and Satan and his minions of darkness. This is not fanciful thinking if the biblical record is true, or if the evidences of our own day are to be interpreted correctly.

That Satan should intensify his warfare at times should be expected. That he will increase his efforts near the end of the age is one legitimate interpretation of Revelation 12:12: “Therefore rejoice, ye heavens, and ye that dwell in them. Woe to the inhabiters of the earth and of the sea! for the devil is come down unto you, having great wrath, because he knoweth that he hath but a short time.” Of this we can be sure: Satan and his hosts are exceedingly active today on every hand.

The comfort and hope of the Christian and the immediate hope of the world rest on the fact that this is not a one-sided engagement but a conflict involving God and all the forces of righteousness that proceed from him.

It is strange that, despite the wealth of references to Satan, his hosts, and his work in the Bible, we are often inclined to pass over the entire matter as something of a joke. Because it is the very antithesis of a joking matter, our indifference or ignorance is serious indeed.

Again and again our Lord refers to Satan and his works—to his position as “the prince of this world” and “the prince of devils.” The fact that Satan could with assurance offer the power and glory of this world to the Lord of Glory gives him a status we reject at our own peril. Paul refers to him as the “prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience”—showing something of the universality of his operations.

Both history and present-day conditions indicate that this conflict is felt in every area of life and every part of the world. Although it is a spiritual struggle it is very real and is carried on not only at the personal level but at national and international levels as well.

Satan, we are told, goes about as a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. He is described as our “adversary”—an enemy against whom we must maintain a vigilant defense.

The Apostle Paul was acutely aware of this great conflict. He suffered from the attacks and hindrances of the adversary as much as any man ever has. Writing to the Corinthian Christians, he warns against the satanic intrusion of bitterness and misunderstanding between Christians and adds, “For we are not ignorant of his devices.”

The enemy of souls is cunning to a degree none of us can imagine. He may appear first as an angel of light and then with all the sinister trappings of a fiend of hell. He will tempt Christians by a simulated success in their work, by the injection of pride that renders them useless in the work of the Lord, and by seemingly innocent diversions from legitimate work. He does this in any one of a thousand ways, and usually attacks at the weakest or least expected point.

Those who preach the Gospel find themselves caught up in this battle for the souls of men, because it is at this very point that the conflict is centered. As the seed of the Word is sown, Satan comes along to snatch it out of the hearts of the hearers. And at the same time he sows the tares of unbelief and indifference, so that the wheat of God’s redeemed ones is forced to grow along with the tares of the children of Satan.

Satan is the master propagandist. He is a liar and the father of lies. As the conflict rages—increasing in tempo and working to a climax—the lying propaganda of the devil is to be found on every hand. Only by the Spirit of God can men see with discernment. Only by his help can they be delivered from the blandishments and false concepts and philosophies that are a part of this warfare.

At no point is this conflict more clearly seen than in the satanic cleverness, persistence, and power of the growing Communist influence. Playing on legitimate longings engendered by human need, taking advantage of the animosities and hatreds of nations and races, exploiting all facets of the humanistic philosophy, and appealing to the materialistic desires of men everywhere, Communism offers the answer to all of these aspirations, with but one proviso: “Bow down and worship me.”

Once man capitulates to a world without God, he may indeed secure certain temporary advantages, but he does so at the price of his soul.

One has but to study the methods of this monstrous evil to see in it the works of Satan himself. Gladly will he give to the world the power and the glory that are his, provided the one fatal compromise is made. Gladly will he make man’s lot in this world more bearable—if he can keep the soul for eternity.

Nevertheless, this cosmic conflict in which all the world finds itself involved has a sure end. Christ will triumph and Satan will be vanquished.

The question for each of us is this: On whose side are we today? By whose strength are we living? Are we the sons of God through Christ’s redemptive work, or children of the devil by our failure to receive the Giver of Life?

Elton trueblood highlights a serious dilemma for ministers: “The totality of Christian witness is fractured today because of the emergence of opposing parties, one of which may be called activist and the other pietist.” Where should our emphasis lie: upon activism or pietism?

Perhaps a re-examination of the Puritan understanding of the ministry can help us in our struggle with this matter. The lives and works of such ministers as Richard Baxter, William Ames, and John Preston in England and Thomas Hooker, Thomas Shepard, and John Cotton in New England show a remarkable balance: they were simultaneously pietists and activists, holding the two emphases in creative tension.

Their piety centered in a dynamic devotional life. It was assumed that the minister would have an experiential knowledge of the Gospel he preached, knowledge initiated by a definite conversion experience and sustained by daily communion with God. Although intensely personal and mystical, this devotional experience did not lead to anti-intellectualism and the notion of absorption into Diety. “As therefore the Spirit leads us to the Word, so the Word leads us to the Spirit,” explained Thomas Shepard, “but never to a spirit without and beyond the Word.” This Word-related introspection was not an end in itself but had a goal: the preparation of a man for the high calling of ministry, especially the paramount function of proclamation of the Word.

Their piety was reflected in preaching. In the Puritans’ view, God used preaching to reach out in grace to mankind; their task was to summon all men to respond with serious commitment to God’s call. Hooker affirmed: “A plain and powerful ministry is the only ordinary means to prepare the heart soundly for Christ.”

The “plain style” structure of Puritan sermons had three segments: Doctrine, Reasons, Use. The initial task in the first division was to explain the meaning of scriptural doctrine, usually through exploration of the immediate context or by exegesis of key words. In this manner the Doctrine section meticulously “opened” the Scriptures to the people, and provided clarity of instruction from the outset. The second division, the Reasons, contained evidence to substantiate the doctrine; it generally looked to related texts for support. The final segment, the Use, sought to apply the doctrine set forth. It was the climax of the sermon, and it invariably exhorted men to make a decision.

The Puritans were convinced that if preaching did not influence the affections, it could not convey redemption to man, so they placed a heavy emphasis upon the Use of the sermon. True evangelists, they pressed for personal decisions with a persuasive appeal couched in simple, direct, and often compelling language with one dominant aim: eliciting individual response to the call of God.

Their piety permeated their writing. The Puritan ministers considered literary endeavors an integral part of their expression of pietism. Despite the prominence of preaching, they viewed writing as a valuable form of ministry. They wished to record the providence of God as they perceived it in their personal lives; hence the innumerable diaries, autobiographies, and histories of the period. They wrote not only to trace their own spiritual journeys but also to communicate God to persons who could not be reached by the spoken word.

The Puritan pastors were also activists. They were activists in ecclesiastical life. The gathered congregation bound together by a church covenant was one of the two focal points of their churchmanship. Ministers preached the Word, administered the sacraments, and exercised discipline. Exercising discipline included such duties as spiritual oversight and rule (along with elders), visiting the sick, catechizing the children, interpreting “cases of conscience,” and general counseling.

The other focal point of their ministry was their involvement in the larger church. Although many New England ministers abhorred the coercive power of large church councils, they nonetheless organized themselves into synods for the purposes of advice, consultation, fellowship, and common ministry. From their sense of church history, they professed association with the evangelical churches in England and Scotland and on the Continent, and their writings revealed an earnest desire for unity and fellowship with these churches. They differed among themselves on issues of theology and style of worship and on many points of church policy; yet they criticized one another as brethren. Their debates arose from a desire to reform the shape and structure of the church in accord with the Word of God.

They were activists in education. Samuel E. Morison estimated that, despite frontier conditions, between 1630 and 1650 no fewer than thirty-two Oxford graduates and one hundred Cambridge graduates lived in New England. Harvard College was founded in 1636 to provide an educated ministry and to perpetuate the scholarly tradition of English Puritanism. Ministers were expected to be well educated in the arts as well as in divinity; it was assumed they would know Hebrew, Greek, and Latin. While education was minimized and even depreciated by some later pietists on the Continent and on the American western frontier, it remained the ideal and common practice among the Puritan ministers.

They were activists in society. The Puritans were committed to a social covenant as well as to the church covenant and the covenant of grace. To them the magistrate and minister were equally co-workers in God’s kingdom. Society in general, as well as the church in particular, was to be subject to God’s rule.

Besides encouraging members of the congregation to participate as responsible citizens in the political commonwealth, the minister offered counsel and guidance through preaching. The so-called election sermons dealt not with a theological doctrine but with an analysis of the important political issues just prior to election days. Alice Baldwin and other scholars of American colonial history have underscored the often obscured political contribution of Puritan ministers, who enunciated basic principles of democratic government in their election sermons long before the American Revolution, and who influenced countless citizens who had never studied John Locke or other European political philosophers.

We need to reaffirm what our Puritan heritage tells us about the essential wholeness of the Christian ministry, a ministry characterized by both pietism and activism.—THE REV. RICHARD A. HASLER, United Presbyterian Church, Hornell, New York.