One of the crucial problems that confronts the Church today and always is the relationship between theology and Church. Theology has always had a profound influence upon the Church. From the lecturn of the academy by way of the pulpit of the Church, all sorts of theological ideas have shaped the life of congregations. Religious liberalism arose first in theology and then by way of the preachers entered the life stream of the family of God. I recall the case of a Dutch professor who became convinced that the universe was shut up in a cause-effect system of natural law which was unbreakable. In such a world, he insisted, miracles were impossible. Hence, he told his students that, if they were to be honest men, they would frankly tell the congregations they served that Jesus Christ did not arise from the dead. Theology and Church.…

It is understandable, then, that we encounter the notion here and there that theology in the scientific sense can only be a hindrance to the faith of the Church. Theology is a subtle stumbling block, it is said, to the simple believer. Besides, theology always threatens to rule over the Church. Germany, as we all know, is the scene of much discussion about the demythologizing program spurred by Rudolph Bultmann. The New Testament, claims Bultmann, is dominated by a mythical view of the world in which the stories of the incarnation, the ascension, the resurrection, and the return of Jesus Christ are at home. But even as we all reject the mythical world view of the Bible, we must reject these stories that go with it. Who cannot see that this discussion is far more than an academic game. The heart of God’s Church is involved here.

Once again, then, is not scientific theology a danger which the Church would do well to avoid?

If we concluded that the Church would be well served to set itself apart from theology we would be making a great error. There is an undeniable and perhaps unavoidable relationship between the Church and scientific theological work. Consider, for, example, the fact that we have the Bible available to all only because scientific theologians have been busy translating it from original languages. In the light of only this single instance, the Church has reason to thank God for theology.

But, one may ask, does not theology make the matters of faith needlessly difficult and complicated? Is not the heavy theological discussion of our day in conflict with the words of Jesus: “I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent and hast revealed them unto babes” (Matt. 11:25)? The New English Bible has it: “for hiding these things from the learned and wise and revealing them to the simple.”

Well, is theology a threat to the simplicity of faith? Is it the aim of theology to discover a deeper knowledge than simple faith? We must be careful at this point, for if this is so, theology runs the risk of pretension and pride. It would then apparently know more than the simple faith and stand closer to the Kingdom than faith stands. Theologians would be the elite, and simple Christians would be second-class citizens of the Kingdom. Happily this notion of theology’s task is a false one.

Theology’s task is not to reason out the mysteries of faith. True, there have been theologians who have gone this way and have created a kind of special gnostic elite for their kind who then stood a rung above the mass of simple believers. But there is another path for theology. It is the path of service. Theology does not stand above simple faith; it only seeks seriously to study the Word of God in order to serve the congregation.

In service lies the only right relationship for theology to sustain the Church. Theology was never meant to rule the mind of the Church. It was always meant to serve it. For my way of thinking, theology never seeks a knowledge of the things of faith that transcends the faith of the common people. Theology never seeks to unravel mysteries. The Gospel does not become a matter of science for the theologians while it remains a matter of simple belief for others.

There are scholars who devote their entire lives to the Scriptures only to criticize them. The scientific knowledge of such scholars has, of course, nothing to do with simple faith. But genuine Christian theology is always occupied with the task of bringing the treasures of the message of God’s Word to light. One need only look casually at the Great Bible Word Book edited by G. Kittel to see that such a work is the fruit only of enormous theological study. Of this scientific activity, great good has come. For the work here mentioned has to do with the meaning of the words of the New Testament, and from it the message of the Bible can be made cleaerer. This can only serve the Church.

He who supposes that study is not essential will fall sooner or later—and sooner than he realizes—into mere repetition. And when the preacher merely repeats, he has stopped getting at the depths of the Word in his preaching. A great and pious theologian once said: the preacher who does not study is not converted. What he meant was that the preacher has got to keep listening to the Word and one listens well only through persistent and intensive study.

The need for theological study stems from the nature of the Word of God. The Word comes indeed as the Vox Dei, but it comes only through the Vox humana. Hence, it beckons the preacher and the theologian to constant study so that these words which came as the Word in human languages now very ancient can become meaningful and fresh in the present. Thus, we must be critical of every theology which does not really listen humbly to the Scriptures and which sets itself a step higher than the people in the pew. But we ought to be thankful for every theology that has not stopped listening and that seeks, through its listening, to serve the Church.

This theology will have great respect for the mysteries of the faith. Just as thousands of humble men have labored in faith so that the words of the Bible could be translated into the languages of the world, so the theologians of the Church will seek in their way to serve. Theology stands beside the Church to serve it by keeping the true light shining and deflecting the false shadows that have fallen and that shall fall over the Church in the form of faith-crippling heresies.

The Church must prize theology and not reject it. But theology must deserve its place of humble service by keeping its relations with the Church correct. Both theology and Church must listen to the Word and pray to the Lord as theology serves the Church and the Church serves the world.

Education Within The Religious Community

Christian Nurture and the Church, by Randolph Crump Miller (Scribner’s, 1961, 208 pp., $3.50), is reviewed by C. Adrian Heaton, President, California Baptist Theological Seminary, Covina, California.

Three convictions underlie the latest book by Randolph Crump Miller. First, religious instruction carried on outside the vital fellowship of the Church is often “both useless and dangerous.” Second, the church must engage in a clearly-formulated program of teaching its members to be the Church. Third, all activities of the Church have important educational implications.

In this volume, Dr. Miller, professor of Christian Education at Yale Divinity School, gives the content and shares the spirit of much of the best contemporary writing about the Church—the place of the laity, her ministry in the world, and the bipolarity of her “gathered” and “scattered” life. His writing sparkles with lively quotations and churchly slogans. Although his writing may sometimes lack integration and depth, it affords a good review of contemporary thought concerning the Church.

At a deeper level, the author keeps coming back to his central convictions. God is at work in the Church; there is an important ministry of both the laity and the apostolate; education must be carried on “with theology in the background and the grace-faith relationship in the foreground;” words and symbols are important when there is sufficient community and genuine experience to give them meaning and significance; although the life of the Church usually centers in the local congregation, one must always be aware of the total eccumenical relations which the Church must maintain.

One of the finest contributions of the book is Dr. Miller’s careful distinction between “religious instruction” and “Christian nurture.” He points out that in England and West Germany there are very carefully worked-out and well-taught systems of religious instruction. Pupils who go through these programs of study are “better informed than young Christians in any other country. But there is a universal report that there is practically no transfer to Church loyalty” (p. 2). The reason for such disappointing results is that the instruction is not carried on in the midst of the religious community which practices the truths taught. Only education in and by the whole church congregation will do the central task of Christian education which he defines as “helping the individual, by God’s grace, to become a believing and committed member of the community of the Holy Spirit, obedient to Christ as his Lord and Master, and living as a Christian to the best of his ability in all his relationships” (p. 4). “The Church’s task is to lead him to the point where he can make a commitment on his own and maintain it in the face of all the obstacles which life may place before him” (p. 4). Later on, Dr. Miller makes it clear that the crucial matter of “decision” does not rest primarily on information. It rests rather on meaning and discernment. “When we have discerned God’s claim on us, we are enabled freely to make a commitment, if we will” (p. 61). It is out of the matrix of the total Church community that one can gather the meaning and discernment for such commitment.

A few of the limitations of the book may be listed. First, the jacket of the book states that it contains “a practical program for effective Christian education.” No very adequate outline of such a program is given. Second, the author has a completely uncritical view of the use of symbolism with children. Third, such slogans as “quality begets quantity” (p. 110) lead to more misunderstanding than understanding. Four, although most of the book is ecumenical theology, his treatment of the sacraments is Episcopalian: “Baptism is incorporation into the body of Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit” (pp. 110–111). Of course, he advocates infant baptism although he admits it was not practiced until the second century (p. 24) and he cites Karl Barth and Emil Brunner against it (p. 110). When he discusses the Lord’s Supper, he insists that children must have full instruction and Confirmation before full participation. He goes on to describe the status of the children who are “ready for the Lord’s Supper before they are old enough to undertake the kind of discipline necessary for Confirmation” (p. 116). “From the standpoint of worship and education, children can best be prepared to participate in the Lord’s Supper by partial participation. In those churches which bring communicants to the Altar rail, at family service the entire family comes forward. Those who are not yet admitted to Holy Communion place their arms behind them and they receive a prayer of blessing (with laying on of hands) instead of the bread and wine. Just as we don’t keep children away from the table because there are some foods they cannot eat, so we do not keep them away from the Lord’s presence, even if they do not partake of the elements” (p. 116). No doubt many Christians will question such practices.

The reviewer feels the book is worthy and ought to receive wide reading and consideration.

C. ADRIAN HEATON

By The Works Of The Law

Freedom and the Law, by Bruno Leoni (D. Van Nostrand Co., 1961, 190 pp., $6), is reviewed by John Feikens, Federal Judge, Michigan Southeast District.

To make a long (but interesting) story short, Professor Leoni’s thesis is this:

Freedom of the individual, now so severely restricted, will be restored when the enveloping tendency to inflated legislation (i.e. too many laws passed by temporarily in-office legislative majorities at the expense of and to the detriment of minorities) is retarded, and such nongroup law which is needed in a well-ordered society is “discovered” through the judicial process by judges who recognize the continued need of its development and who with the aid of the doctrine of precedents apply such law only to the litigants before them.

This is necessary simplification of a well-reasoned theme repeatedly kept from being doctrinaire by the author’s excelling ability to analyze in a practical way one of the great problems of government.

So much of today’s “thinking” in government and politics is stultified by labels—that easy method of voicing opinion reached through glandular process. Leoni’s hard reasoning lobs many an effective shell into the lightly-fought-for positions of our present day do-gooder newspaper columnists and TV commentators who believe that all problems are capable of solution through the enactment of legislation.

This book is not easy to read but then that is just my point: it does set out effectively the guideposts for reducing the burden of smothering legislation. It attempts no outline of specific application of the thesis between the areas of legislation and the common law. One might argue that it is at just this point when the book becomes exceptionally interesting that the author should attempt application, but this he artfully declines. Ingenuously he responds, to our disappointment, by saying that such application would itself be the writing of a code and therefore more proposed legislation.

I suggest that this would be a good place to begin a second book, for if the goal that Professor Leoni seeks is to be attained, the application will have to be made.

JOHN FEIKENS

Talking It Over

Catholic Theology in Dialogue, by Gustave Weigel, S.J. (Harper, 1961, 126 pp., $2.75), is reviewed by James Daane, Editorial Associate, CHRISTIANITY TODAY.

In a forthright, no-dodge ecumenical conversation Roman Catholic Gustave Weigel, S.J., discusses the religious differences separating Roman Catholic and Protestant churches. The book breathes the spirit of a fellow Christian explaining the Roman Catholic definition of the Christian faith within a context of sympathetic understanding of a Protestant’s sincere objections. Most Protestants would profit greatly by this little book. The profit is likely to be enlarged sympathy for the Roman Catholic position and a deeper objection to it.

Weigel wiggles out of nothing. Bible and Tradition, Sacrament and Symbol, Revelation, Dogma, papal infallibility, and the relationship of Church and State, are all met head on. The formative principle creating the differential in Roman Catholic and Protestant thought on all of these matters is the analogia entis (the analogy of being). For example, the Church, says Weigel, is the ontological extension of the Incarnation. This means, on the one hand, that the Church is not identical with the physical body of Christ. On the other, it does not mean that the Church is merely like or, similar to, the body of Christ. It is analogically the body of Christ, that is, it shares ontologically in the being of the physical body of Christ. Similarly, the Word of God is not in literal sense identical with the Bible; rather the Bible ontologically shares in the Word of God, and the dead letter of the written word comes to life in Tradition. Although, says Weigel, Karl Barth called the “analogy of being” an invention of Anti-Christ, it is a very godly concept.

Protestants will, I think dissent from Weigel’s declaration that “On the rock of the Incarnation all theologies must be tested.” The reality and nature of the Church is grounded specifically in the resurrected Lord and his outpouring of the Holy Spirit. The body of the Incarnation was put to death on the Cross. As a familiar hymn has it, the Church is God’s “new creation.” To make the Incarnation the definitive explanation of the Church, is like explaining the Christian man without definitive reference to the Cross, Resurrection, and Pentecost.

Theological conversation between Roman Catholic and Protestant thinkers should be encouraged. It will bring us personally closer together, and theologically farther apart. Since few Protestants adequately understand Roman thought, things will have to get worse, if ever they are to get better.

JAMES DAANH

I Think?—I Do?

Persons in Relation, by John Macmurray (Harper, 1961, 235 pp., $5), is reviewed by Gordon H. Clark, Professor of Philosophy, Butler University.

Macmurray’s Gifford Lectures of 1954 have been extravagantly praised as the subject of discussion for the next 100 years. Perhaps, however, less enthusiasm and more discrimination would be better.

Granted the author’s powerful case against understanding persons as organisms, and society as organic; granted his rejection of “social evolution” in favor of “history”; granted his most interesting points of distinction between a human infant and a baby animal; can one therefore conclude that human beings are distinguished from animals, not by thinking, but by doing? Shall I think be replaced by I do? A Facio without a prior Cogito?

The advantage Macmurray sees in I do over I think lies in the avoidance of solipsism. Now, solipsism may indeed be a reductio ad absurdum of any thesis which implies it (p. 17), but does this quite justify the author in prohibiting the question, How do we know that there are other persons (p. 77)? This criticism seems pertinent because the author admits that the “original knowledge of the Other, as the correlate of my own activity, is undiscriminated.”

By emphasizing I do above I think, the author is able to conclude that “The validity of a theological doctrine, for instance, cannot be determined merely by asking whether it is true.… Its validity depends also upon the valuation with which it is integrated in action” (pp. 173–174). Valuation, however, is aesthetic, and in religion aesthetics is primary—doctrine is secondary and negative.

Admittedly Macmurray qualifies this anti-intellectualism. In distinguishing physical happenings and animal action from human doing, he is forced to take account of thinking and knowing. The I do “necessarily includes the I think.… Thought presupposes knowledge and knowledge presupposes action and exists only in action.” (p. 209). Would it not seem, however, that knowledge presupposes thought and can occur without action? Of course, not without intellectual action, but without physical doing? There seems to be ambiguity in the words doing and action.

In general, the stress on the Other which includes oneself, with the conclusion that “The question whether the world is personal is the question whether God exists,” either implies pantheism (which the author denies, p. 223), or a pluralistic world of finite selves. It is hard to discover any aid to Christianity in the argument. GORDON H. CLARK

The Evidence Speaks

Archaeology and the Bible, by G. Frederick Owen (Revell, 1961, 384 pp., $4.95), is reviewed by Merrill F. Unger, Professor of Old Testament and Semitics, Dallas Theological Seminary.

This helpful and inspiring survey of archaeological research in Bible lands, despite its title, deals preponderatingly with Old Testament archaeological finds. It is, however, a lucid and reliable volume which the student, as well as the more popular reader, will find fascinating. The author’s treatment is remarkably balanced and restrained and in many ways will delight the reverent and constructive student of the Bible. An example of this spirit is the author’s summary of Garstang’s excavations at Jericho and his comparison of these in the light of the findings of the later expedition conducted by the British School of Archaeology and the American Schools of Oriental Research in Jerusalem under the direction of Kathleen Kenyon from 1952 on. “It now seems quite possible that further study of its (Jericho’s) Late Bronze ruins will be best made, not from the mound but from the records and remains of Garstang’s finds, which are preserved in the Archaeological Museum in Jerusalem” (p. 289).

The author’s treatment of the date of the Exodus likewise shows he favors an early date about 1446 B.C. This is all the more noteworthy in the face of the current popularity of later-date theories. The author’s observations on the excavations of Mme. Judith Marquet-Krause at Ai in 1934 and 1935 constitute another example of his judicious interpretation of the evidence and his fairness in refusing to jump at incomplete data to discredit the biblical narrative. This volume ought to have a salutary effect in a day when many archaeologists are more afraid of being accused of defending the Bible than they are fearful of interpreting evidence erroneously to cast aspersion upon its historical reliability.

MERRILL F. UNGER

Gentleman Or Christian?

Forgiveness and Hope, by Rachel Henderlite (John Knox Press, 1961, 127 pp., $2.75), is reviewed by John Pott, Minister, Third Christian Reformed Church of Roseland, Chicago.

The introduction and the four chapters which comprise this book were originally delivered in 1959 as the George McNutt Lectures to the faculty and students of the Louisville Theological Seminary.

The thesis underlying these lectures is that Christian education must first produce Christians before there can be any question of further, distinctive education. One becomes a Christian only by responding in faith to God’s gracious offer of love in Christ (justification by faith), not by any human attempt, however noble, to win God’s favor. One gets to know this offer of divine love through the Bible, which is not a textbook about God, but an “eternally contemporary vehicle for the Living Christ.” As such, the Bible speaks Christ’s Word right now. An acceptance of that Word in faith makes one a Christian. God, of course, knows man is a sinner. That He will nonetheless accept him is precisely what makes this a loving offer of grace. The resulting new life in Christ reconciles two contradictory elements in man’s make-up: his utter misery and his grandeur. This “reconciliation” brings about a new freedom. Henceforth, life for the Christian turns around a new center. Although now led by the Spirit, the Christian must engage in an agonizing struggle to live out his Father’s purpose with him. This is done, the author continues, not merely in private, but in the fellowship of the church, which “is composed of forgiven men and entrusted with the stewardship of God’s grace.” Finally, the church, aware of the fact that it is a new creation, must be on the march, for God is on the march in her and through her. God is moving forward, irresistibly and triumphantly, until the final goal—“an eternal community of all men everywhere”—is reached.

This book is a refreshing re-emphasis of what Christian education was always meant to be. In an era when becoming a gentleman was often taught to mean the same thing as becoming a Christian, a book such as the above was long overdue. Theologically, the author raises some questions in the mind of the reviewer—in regard to the nature of the Bible as well as to the purpose of God to save all—questions which might have been answered more satisfactorily by utter fidelity to the whole Bible. May this excellent book enjoy a wide reading.

JOHN POTT

Liturgics Limited

Christian Worship, by T. S. Garrett (Oxford, 1961, 190 pp., $3.50), is reviewed by Floyd Doud Shafer, Minister, Salem Presbyterian Church, Salem, Indiana.

There are many superior, introductory works on the history and meaning of worship, but this is not one of them, unless we are prepared to believe that developments in the Church of South India set the norms of interpretations and progress in liturgies. Mr. Garrett is a pastor in that church and is understandably enthusiastic with it. His 10 chapters are good in that they present many interesting explanations, discuss aspects of worship related to ecumenics, quote numerous ancient documents, and rely considerably on Dix, Jungman, Maxwell, and Brilioth. They are poor in that they presuppose broad knowledge of the terms and history of worship, attempt to cover too much ground (all the West and some of the East) in far too brief a space and, consequently, are quite jerky and lacking in continuity. The slight attention given to the work of Luther and Calvin and the excessive space allotted Anglican developments give an inaccurate view of the historical picture.

FLOYD DOUD SHAFER

Groundless Assumption

Man, God, and Magic, by Ivar Lissner (G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1961, 344 pp., $5.95), is reviewed by Francis R. Steele, Home Secretary, North Africa Mission.

The two most tantalizing questions concerning early man are, “whence did he come?” and “what was he like?” Popular answers suggest that man was the final stage in a long evolutionary development from fish through amphibians, reptiles, mammals, and primates and that the earliest hominids were extremely primitive savages. Lissner argues strongly against this and insists that the earliest forms of man known to science were spiritually-minded beings of complex moral concepts and sophisticated cultural relationships.

He contends that there are parallels between the beliefs and practicing of little-known peoples still living at the extreme tip of South America and remote northeast Siberia on the one hand and the fossil men of past ages on the other. Both, he believes, were highly-intelligent monotheists. Chief evidence adduced in support of this theory comes from alleged connections between present-day animal sacrifices—especially of bear and reindeer—and shamanism with the animal bones and paintings discovered in caves utilized by men of long ago.

Lissner flatly rejects a popular assumption when he states, “There is absolutely no reason to conclude that, because their tools were simple, peoples’ customs were gross, their language undeveloped or their religion primitive” (p. 74, cf. also p. 303) and then he raises a pertinent question, “Why do we prefer to look for our origins in the animal rather than in God?” (p. 303).

If the author is a religious man he is certainly not a conservative Christian as many of his statements indicate (e.g. pp. 105, 111, 175, 203 and 309). But that makes his case stronger in the eyes of the scientist if, at the same time, weaker to the theologian. This book merits careful reading by all those seriously interested in the problem of human origins.

LRANCIS R. STEELE

Pulpit Chopper

The Ecology of Faith: The New Situation in Preaching, by Joseph Sittler (Muhlenberg, 1961, 104 pp., $2.25), is reviewed by Andrew W. Blackwood, Professor Emeritus, Princeton Theological Seminary.

A scholarly Lutheran neo-orthodox professor of theology writes about preaching in terms of “the mutual relationship between organisms and their environment.” The first four chapters set up lofty ideals about the way preaching now ought to meet the swiftly changing needs of our time and still hold true to the Gospel with its high spiritual quality and strong ethical demands.

These chapters give countless evidences of wide reading and original thinking, both about the preacher’s message from God and about the kaleidoscopic changes in our time. From the Scriptures, from other literature of a high order, and from liturgical practices of the Church, the author draws support for his thesis. Often he writes well, but still the first four chapters prove difficult to read partly because they differ from anything else in print.

The fifth chapter, “Maceration of the Minister,” moves on a level more easily accessible. To macerate means “to chop into small pieces.” Here the author’s intent becomes clearer, his discussion more practical, and his conclusions more nearly devastating. Months ago when this chapter alone appeared in print, it brought from pastors letters of sharp dissent and strong protest. Many of us, however, still feel that the figure of the chopper sets forth strikingly the facts about many a pastor today. (Here I do not deal with the able appendix, “The Shape of the Church’s Response in Worship.”)

At Yale and elsewhere scholars have given the book high praise. If the original student hearers of these Lyman Beecher Lectures immediately understood the first four chapters, and saw clearly how they led up to the fifth, then those young men have unusual intellectual powers, with rare synthesizing ability. But such seminary lectures, as a rule, are directed toward the professors and the alumni, not the undergraduate students.

If any pastor wishes to broaden his intellectual horizon, and appraise the relevancy of his pulpit work, as well as his leadership in other parts of worship he can find thought-provoking discussions here of the vast gulf between the changeless Gospel as men ought to preach it today and the swiftly shifting conditions of our day. As evangelicals we may not always agree with the author, but like Benjamin B. Warfield in other times we can often gain most from works with which we do not wholly agree.

ANDREW W. BLACKWOOD

‘Height’ Psychology

The Search for Meaning, by A. J. Ungersma (Westminster, 1961, 188 pp., $4.75), is reviewed by Orville S. Walters, Director of Health Services and Lecturer in Psychiatry, University of Illinois.

Three schools of Viennese psychotherapy mirror the development of the individual from childhood to adulthood: (1) The Freudian “will to pleasure” describes the view of the small child; (2) The Adlerian “will to superiority” is a picture of the adolescent, whose aggressive tendencies hide anxiety that he may not become a full-grown man; (3) The Frankl “will to meaning” portrays the mature adult who seeks growth and development.

This hierarchy of psychotherapies reflects the viewpoint of the author, a seminary teacher and clinical psychologist who wrote this book after a year of study with Psychiatrist Viktor Frankl in Vienna on a fellowship awarded by the American Association of Theological Schools. The volume is primarily an interpretation of Frankl’s logotherapy and its applicability to pastoral counseling.

Although subtitled “A New Approach in Psychotherapy and Pastoral Psychology,” the author quotes Frankl as saying that “every good doctor always has performed logotherapy without necessarily knowing it.” The Frankl system emphasizes the concepts of existence, freedom and responsibility which lead to concerns with meaning and value.

Quoting Kierkegaard that “we live forward but we understand backward,” Frankl takes sharp issue with “unmasking psychology” because back of the unmasking process is the hidden tendency to depreciate spiritual values. There are many crises of personality that are not traceable to unconscious processes. Since man is always deciding what he will become, the realization of his latent capacity is at least as important as the probing of his past. Depth psychology must be complemented by a “height” psychology that relates the future to the present. Psychoanalysis has helped us to “understand backward,” but religion helps men to “live forward.”

Frankl believes that a spiritual malaise is at the core of many of modern man’s problems. A feeling of meaninglessness arises from intellectual problems, moral concerns, ethical conflicts. To help the patient, logotherapy stimulates his capacity for responsibility and helps him become aware of the full spectrum of possibilities for personal meaning and values. Primarily a secular discipline, logotherapy refers and defers to the specialist in religion, the minister or priest, when necessary.

The growing prominence of Frankl’s teachings and its affinity for articulating with Christian theology makes Ungersma’s exposition timely and useful. The author’s acquaintance with both psychotherapy and theology qualifies him well for an interpretation of logotherapy as it bears upon pastoral counseling. At times, the originality of logotherapy seems threatened by its acknowledged overlap with Kierkegaard and other existentialists. Many facets of Frankl’s concepts were earlier enunciated by Jung, All-port, and Carl Rogers. However, what logotherapy may lack in originality is more than offset by its value as a wholesome corrective to the counterclockwise preoccupation in most contemporary psychotherapy.

ORVILLE S. WALTERS

Seven Claims Tested

Religious Knowledge, by Paul Schmidt (Free Press, 1961, 147 pp., $4), is reviewed by Lawrence Yates.

The author attempts to test the claims of knowledge of seven world religions—Hinduism, Buddhism, Confusianism, Taoism, Judaism, Christianity and Mohammedanism, by the criteria of contemporary kinds of knowledge. Finding that none fit he redefines religion as a group of statements whose purpose “is to express attitudes that lead to a way of life.” These attitudes can no longer be taught by stories, fables, myths and miracles. But “if the attitudes taught are to accord with rational beliefs belonging to the different types of knowledge,” the solution is to communicate these rational beliefs. Hence “myths and miracles as substitutions for facts will have to be dropped. They lead to intellectual confusion in a world where science is prominent.”

This is a very clearly written book. The reader is never in doubt as to what the author is trying to say. Christianity, however, differs from Buddhism, Taoism, etc., in kind, not in degree. As God’s revelation to man it cannot be measured by the yardstick of man’s reason.

LAWRENCE YATES

Typical Cases

The Context of Pastoral Counseling, by Seward Hiltner and Lowell G. Colston (Abingdon, 1961, 272 pp., $4.50), is reviewed by Walter Vail Watson, Minister, The Lancaster Presbyterian Church.

This volume contains résumés of useful case studies in pastoral counseling done at Bryn Mawr Community Church, Chicago, and the University of Chicago Counseling Center under the direction of Seward Hiltner by Lowell G. Colston, assistant professor of pastoral care at Christian Theological Seminary.

The minister experienced in counseling will find these case histories typical of the kinds of problems facing people whom he meets continually, and such a minister will profit most from the succinct summaries that show abundant evidence of work meticulously done according to accepted standards in psychological counseling. Unusual success was attained in getting the counselees to talk effectively.

Possibly any pastor interested in this important field will find this addition to his library of practical value. The importance of counseling in a churchly environment is validated to some extent.

WALTER VAIL WATSON

Calvin Story

The Man God Mastered, by Jean Cadier, translated from the French by O. R. Johnston (Eerdmans, 1961, 187 pp., $3), is reviewed by Thea B. Van Halsema, Author of Glorious Heretic and This Was John Calvin.

It is not easy to write a “brief biography” of John Calvin that is both comprehensive in scope and colorful in detail. This Professor Cadier has accomplished in a recent book about his famous countryman. Few know Calvin better than Jean Cadier, who is dean of the faculty of Protestant theology in the University of Montpelier and president of the Calvinist Society of France, and his book will be a welcomed and incisive summary of the Reformer’s life and theology. Professor Cadier weaves his discussion of Cabin’s thought and method into the chronological narrative, but closes his book with a chapter on Calvin’s piety. “Calvin removed the usual center of piety which was the soul of man, its needs, and its outpourings and restored to piety its true centre—God.” Emphasizing the “living relationship with Christ” which characterized Calvin’s piety, Cadier points to such God-glorifying piety as the only source of unshakeable strength and certainty “in the dramatic situation of the twentieth century.”

THEA B. VAN HALSEMA

Help For Advent

The Story of the Christ Child, by Leon Morris (Eerdmans, 1960, 128 pp., $2.50), is reviewed by Charles B. Cousar, Assistant Professor of New Testament, Columbia Theological Seminary.

The nativity narratives in Matthew and Luke have always held a fascination for the student of the New Testament. Not only do they relate the mighty miracle of Christmas, but they also record the beautiful New Testament hymns, the Magnificat, the Benedictus, the Nunc Dimittis. In this small volume, containing a series of addresses originally delivered In St. Paul’s Cathedral, Melbourne, Dr. Morris offers a useful commentary on the first two chapters of the gospels of Matthew and Luke. He seeks to tell the story in such language as to unveil for the non-Greek reader some of the riches of the original record. For example, he explains, when helpful, the significance of an aorist tense, and comments on the shepherds as a despised class of people, and in general clarifies the English translation.

One might have supposed that the devotional character of the study, which is subtitled “A Devotional Study on the Nativity Stories in St. Luke and St. Matthew” would have devoted more time and space for both the contemporary implications and personal applications of the passages. However, with few exceptions (pp. 93–94), Dr. Morris limits himself to textual comments. The book should prove helpful to any minister or layman preparing for the Christmas season.

CHARLES B. COUSAR

Poor And Worse

God and the Rich Society, by D. L. Munby (Oxford, London, 1961, 209 pp., $5.50), is reviewed by Irving E. Howard, Assistant Editor, Christian Freedom Foundation, Inc.

Professor D. L. Munby, Fellow of Nuffield College, Oxford, is a professional economist and is also somewhat knowledgeable in theology. However, his economics is not of the free-market variety and his theology would not fit into the “Evangelical movement” for which he expresses mild scorn.

This English scholar develops John Kenneth Galbraith’s thesis that the people of the West spend too much in the “private sector” and neglect the “public sector” of the economy. Consequently, poverty is no longer the problem in “the highly industrialized countries,” but rather “the quality of living.” So, to raise the “quality of living” in the industrialized countries and to eliminate poverty elsewhere, this author recommends government taxing, borrowing, spending, and planning on a world-wide scale. Of course, the end result would be a regimented economy. The title of one chapter is the question: “Can We Control the Economic System?” which Munby answers in the affirmative. This author does not seem to foresee the destruction of human liberty which is an inevitable part of such a controlled economy.

If Professor Munby’s economics is questionable, his exegesis is worse. Since the book is “A Study of Christians in a World of Abundance,” he makes some passing references to the Bible. The parable of the laborers in the vineyard furnishes an example of his “exegesis.” He says that this parable “offends our moral principles” (p. 71) and later (p. 86) explains that the parable teaches two lessons. “The first lesson of this parable may well be that the Kingdom of Heaven is not like the economic arrangements that are necessary in this world where men are paid according to their contribution by the piece.” Is this the meaning, or does this parable teach that men should be content with the wages they bargain for?

Munby continues: “But the second lesson may be to make us look again at the overwhelming bountifulness of God in showering on us the wealth of an abundant world.” While this statement is true, it is not the point of this parable. Instead, the parable stresses the right to private property—a right in which Munby shows little interest.

Dr. Munby never considers the real point of the parable in verse 16.

God and the Rich Society is a good example of poor economics and worse theology.

IRVING E. HOWARD

Book Briefs

Monday Morning Religion, by Luther Joe Thompson (Broadman, 1961, 96 pp., $1.95). A cry to put Sunday religion into practice on Monday because every day is God’s day.

Sparks on the Wind, poems by Morton D. Prouty, Jr. (John Knox Press, 1961, 47 pp., $2). These well-written lyrics show warm sensitivity to nature and to life’s experiences. Awareness of God’s reality, power, and purpose lends special depth and value to these selections.

Lambeth, Unity and Truth, by T. Robert Ingram (St. Thomas Press, 1959, 52 pp., cloth $2.95, paperback $1.50). Author objects to contents of pastoral letter from Protestant Episcopal House of Bishops on principle their decisions have no authority until they have first been consented to by the Church.

More Little Visits With God, by Allan Hart Jahsmann and Martin P. Simon (Concordia, 1961, 325 pp., $3). Excellent short devotionals, simple, interesting, well written; especially appropriate for families with small children.

Looking Unto Him, by Frank E. Gaebelein (Zondervan, 1961, 208 pp., $3). A message for each day of the year; comments on biblical passages (first published in 1941).

The Christian Answer to Communism, by Thomas O. Kay (Zondervan, 1961, 125 pp., cloth $1.95, paperback $1). In sum: know Communism and know and practice Christianity. Written especially for laymen.

Meditations for College Students, by Donald Deffner, W. J. Fields, Ronald Goerss, Edward Wessling (Concordia, 1961, 152 pp., $2.75). Meditations which have grown out of experiences of college chaplains with students. A fine going-away gut for the college student.

Always In Christ, Poems by Marie C. Turk (Concordia, 1961, 104 pp., $2). Although not written for the ages, the ageless truth and radiancy of Christ shine through warm and clear.

The Real Christmas, by Pat Boone (Revell, 1961, 62 pp., $1.50). Pat Boone pleads that we discover the real Christmas, the Christ, behind the symbols of mistletoe, tree, and gifts. Pat also tells us what gift he would like to put under our trees.

A Flame of Fire, by J. H. Hunter (Sudan Interior Mission, 1961, 320 pp., $3.50). An informative and readable account of the life and work of Rowland Bingham, founder of the Sudan Interior Mission.

Norlie’s Simplified New Testament, by Olaf M. Norlie (Zondervan, 1961, 763 pp., $4.95). A new plain English translation done specially to make the New Testament understandable to young people.

The Shepherd of Bethlehem, by Gordon Powell (Revell, 1961, 32 pp., $1.50). Luke uncovers why the shepherds kept their Christmas Eve experience so long secret.

Meat for Men, by Leonard Ravenhill (Bethany Fellowship, 1961, 129 pp., $2). A hard-punching attack upon sin, carnalty, and easy undisciplined Christian living.

Service Book for Ministers, by Joseph E. McCabe (McGraw-Hill, 1961, 226 pp., $3.95). New service book for ministers especially adapted for services on all kinds of occasions.

Bought With a Price, by Arthur E. Graf (Faith Publications, 1961, 140 pp., $3). Lenten and other sermons for various occasions.

He Is Not Gone, by Bernard Brunsting (Exposition, 1961, 139 pp., $3). A heart-warming story of a father watching the death of his son.

I Saw the Light, by H. J. Hegger (Presbyterian & Reformed, 1961, 171 pp., $3.75). Biography of Roman Catholic Dutchman’s conversion to Protestantism now made available in English.

The Soon Coming of Our Lord, by Dale Crowley (Loizeaux, 1961, 176 pp., $2.50). Sunday afternoon messages of a popular Washington, D. C., radio minister.

They Lived Their Faith, by Fred Field Goodsell (American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, 1961, 486 pp., cloth $5.50, paperback $2.50). An almanac of faith, hope, and love based on 150 years history of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions.

Paperbacks

The Knowledge of Ourselves and of God, a fifteenth century florilegium edited by James Walsh and Eric Colledge (Mowbrays, 1961, 68 pp., 7s. 6d.). Reproductions from medieval English mystical writers Walter Hilton and Julian of Norwich; devotional expositions with an introduction.

The Unchanging Commission, by David H. Adeny (IVF, 1961, 92 pp., 4s.). A reappraisal of foreign missions and the Christian’s responsibility. (Originally published by IVCF in America in 1955).

Redemption Accomplished and Applied, by John Murray (Banner of Truth, 1961, 192 pp., 3s.). A British edition of Professor Murray’s work on the atonement.

The Sovereignty of God, by A. W. Pink (Banner of Truth, 1961, 160 pp., 2s. 6d.). A revision of a work previously published in the U.S.A.

The Work of the Holy Spirit, by Octavius Winslaw (Banner of Truth, 1961, 223 pp., 3s.). A reprint of an earlier Banner publication when the title was Personal Declension and Revival of Religion in the Soul.

Robert Bruce, by D. C. MacNichol (Banner of Truth, 1961, 221 pp., 2s. 6d.). A reprinted life of a sixteenth century Scottish minister of whom Livingstone said “No man since the apostles’ time spake with such power.”

Sacrifice, by Howard Guiness (IVF, 1961, 62 pp., 2s.). A revision of a devotional booklet, mainly for teenagers.

Evangelical Belief, (IVF, 1961, 64 pp., 2s.). A revision of the official interpretation of the IMF basis of faith.

The Life of God in The Soul of Man, by Henry Scrougal (IVF, 1961, 80 pp., 2s.). A seventeenth century semi-mystical tract which influenced the Wesleys and John Newton.

A Guild to Christian Reading, by A. F. Walls (IVF, 1961, 157 pp., 6s. 6d.). A total revision of an earlier work; it now lists over 1500 books with notes and index. Evangelical standpoint mainly, though other works also listed.

The Activity of the Holy Spirit Within the Old Testament Period, by J. C. J. Waite (London Bible College, 1961, 23 pp., Is. 6d.). The production is poor, but the substance is good. Mr. Waite examines the neglected subject of the Spirit’s work among Old Testament saints.

Living With My Lord, by Elmer A. Kettner (Concordia, 1961, 76 pp., $1). A Christian Growth Study Guide.

Preaching the Nativity, edited by Alton M. Motter (Muhlenberg, 1961, 136 pp., $1.95). Nineteen sermons by nineteen ministers, such as James Pike, Gerald Kennedy, Ralph Sockman, Martin Marty.

1962 Daily Manna Calendar, edited by Professor Martin Monsma (Zondervan, 1961, $1.95). A devotional reading for each day of the year. Written by various evangelical ministers.

Christianity and Aesthetics, by Clyde S. Kilby (Inter-Varsity Press, 1961, 43 pp., $1.25). Brief but sharp probe into aesthetics from a Christian point of view.

The Roman Letter Today, by A. Leonard Griffith (Abingdon, 1961, 77 pp., $1). Good essays on great Roman texts (first published 1959).

Reprints

The Gospel According to St, John 11–21 and The First Epistle of John, by John Calvin, edited by David W. and Thomas F. Torrance (Eerdmans, 1961, 327 pp., $4.50). This is a volume in the completely new translation of Calvin’s New Testament Commentaries into modern (and excellent) English.

God’s Freedom, by Donald Grey Barn-house (Eerdmans, 1961, 260 pp., $4.50). Volume VI of Bamhouse’s exposition of the Epistle to the Romans.

Doctrinal Theology of the Evangelical Lutheran Church, by Heinrich Schmid (Augsburg. 1961, 692 pp., $4.75). Compilation of theological statements from prominent Lutheran theologians of 16th and 17th centuries.

Fundamentals for Today, edited by Charles L. Feinberg (Kregel, 1961, 657 pp., $5.95). From this statement of Christianity vs. modernism of 50 years ago, “Fundamentalists” derived their name.

A Protestant Primer on Roman Catholicism, by Angelo di Domenica (Osterhus, 1960, 168 pp., $2.50). Deals with problems of a mixed Roman Catholic-Protestant marriage. Revised edition; first published in 1949.

Human Development, Learning and Teaching, by Cornelius Jaarsma (Eerdmans, 1961, 301 pp., $6). A Christian approach to educational psychology. First edition 1959.

Basic Christian Beliefs, by Frederick C. Grant (The Macmillan Co., 1961, 126 pp., $2.95). Basic Christian truths discussed by long-time professor of New York’s Union Theological Seminary. First printed 1960.

Many Infallible Proofs, by Arthur T. Pierson (Revell, 1961, 317 pp., $3.75). Author, late nineteenth-century Presbyterian minister, had special concerns for Christian missions.

The Dartmouth Bible, by Roy B. Chamberlin and Herman Feldman (Houghton Mifflin, 1961, 1257 pp., $10). Contains historical background of Bible, section on Dead Sea Scrolls, and chapter on biblical interpretation through the Ages.

God’s Methods for Holy Living, by Donald Grey Barn-house (Eerdmans, 1961, 181 pp., $3). Practical lessons for holy living.

300 Sermon Sketches, by Jabez Bums (Kregel, 1961, 396 pp., $4.50). Sermon outlines for those having trouble in making their own.

The Religions of Tibet, by Helmut Hoffmann, translated by Edward Fitzgerald (Macmillan, 1961, 199 pp., $5). Translated from German edition of 1956.

Faith’s Venture, by Mrs. Howard Taylor (CIM, 1960, 160 pp., 6/6 paper and 8/6 cloth). A reprint of Hudson Taylor’s shorter biography designed to introduce the busy reader to the illustrious founder of the CIM.

Christ Is All: The Gospel in Genesis, by Henry Law (Banner of Truth, 1960, 188 pp., 2/6). Originally appearing in 1854, these sermons by an almost forgotten nineteenth-century Evangelical leader are clear, direct, and forceful, and show forth Christ in a popular and relevant way.

Robert Murray M’Cheyne, by A. Bonar (Banner of Truth, 1960, 192 pp., 2/6). Reproduces the Memoirs of Robert Murray M’Cheyne published in 1840, but without the notes and appendices of the 1892 edition. The toils of this saintly minister make most rewarding reading.

Justification, by James Buchanan (Banner of Truth Trust, 1961, 528 pp., 15/-). Discussion of justification by faith from perspective of classic covenant theology (first published 1867).

Moses the Law Giver (Baker, 1961, 482 pp., $2.95), and Joseph the Prime Minister (Baker, 1961, 241 pp., $2.95), by William T. Taylor. Biographical sermons by competent preacher and writer (died 1902).

Some 50 radio stations linked with the Mutual Broadcasting System added a 30-minute weekly broadcast this month featuring the voice of Dr. Billy James Hargis, founder-director of Christian Crusade, “largest anti-communist ministry in America.” Hargis was already being heard on 15-minute daily broadcasts carried by some 76 stations and on 30-minute weekly broadcasts heard over 66 stations. He also has a 15-minute weekly telecast seen in 12 U. S. cities and in the Virgin Islands. The added outreach for the 14-year-old Hargis organization takes advantage of a rightist revival now sweeping the United States. Assorted new organizations, all thriving on bad publicity, are springing up almost daily.

The right-wing renascence is basically a political phenomenon, but some of the motivations are religious, as are some of the repercussions.

The Hargis organization and the Christian Anti-Communism Crusade of Dr. Fred C. Schwarz both have a large following among fundamentalists, but their scope long ago transcended theological lines. Schwarz was catapulted to national prominence this fall through widely-telecast public rallies in Southern California. Retraction of a critical story in Life magazine also helped the cause, inasmuch as Life publisher C. D. Jackson actually took the platform at a Schwarz rally to concede the magazine’s “over-simplified misrepresentation” and to praise the Schwarz enterprise.

Responsible evangelicals applaud the initiative of genuinely sincere anti-Communists. But some observers record their reservations over an excessively negative approach. They agree that the public ought to be more aware of Communist strategy, and that the ideological transition from socialism to communism is well worth publicizing. But they question whether some of the hoop-la rallies provide much ideological orientation. More important, these observers are disturbed at preoccupation with communism to the neglect of positive Christianity. The question is asked: Would we not be more profitably engaged if we indoctrinated the masses in the fundamentals of the Christian world-life view and called for personal commitment and for aggressive cells of workers?

Some anti-Communists and anti-liberals have become so irresponsible in their accusations and blanket denunciations that they hurt their own good cause. They have even leveled accusations at people who share their own convictions but who exercise more restraint. Extremists fail to see that they are being used as decoys by the liberals: smoke swirls about right-wing extremists while left-wingers quietly go about peddling their influence.

The Appeal To Roman Catholics

U. S. Roman Catholicism plays a major role in today’s right-wing renascence. The number of Roman Catholics active in conservative political ranks is believed to exceed their population proportion.

Officially, the U. S. Roman Catholic hierarchy frowns on right-wing extremists. Archbishop William E. Cousins, episcopal chairman of the Social Action Department of the National Catholic Welfare Conference, said in an annual report issued last month that “these groups are unwittingly aiding the Communist cause by dividing and confusing Americans.” America and Commonweal, most influential of American Roman Catholic periodicals, have taken similar stands.

Individually, however, it is a different story. Robert Welch, head of the John Birch Society, maintains that 50 per cent of its membership is Roman Catholic. The society’s national council includes several well-known Roman Catholic figures, including a priest. Even Cardinal Cushing was once quoted as having expressed sympathy for the Birchers’ cause.

Many more Roman Catholics espouse the conservative political views of U. S. Senator Barry Goldwater, who avoids the Birch extreme. Goldwater has attracted Roman Catholic support by cautious pronouncements, as on federal aid to education. He says that if there is going to be such aid (he is against it), then parochial schools should be given a share.

Acknowledged leader of Catholics-for-Goldwater is William F. Buckley, Jr., editor of the National Review, who stirred considerable controversy with a criticism of socialistic overtones in the latest encyclical of Pope John XXIII.

The aggressive liberal attack on right-wingers gives the liberals the initiative, keeps the right on the defensive; it raises questions about the right, while making the left seem respectable and normative; it enables the liberals to achieve their ends while discrediting those who would call them to account.

Many right-wingers are highly sensitive to the conspiratorial facets of contemporary Communist strategy, a fact which causes some to trace all socialistic trends back to the Kremlin. Thus the socialistic overtones in liberal church pronouncements are interpreted as continuing evidence of the presence of “Communist clergymen” in the United States.

Anti-Communist extremists who saw a Red in every other committee went into virtual hibernation at the demise of Mc-Carthyism. They came to life again when the National Council of Churches made a big affair out of an obscure Air Force Reserve manual which warned of clergy subversion. Some Protestant anti-Communist extremists also came to new life in the wake of the Roman Catholic issue in Kennedy’s election campaign because they happened also to share a genuine concern for church-state separation. Almost to a man they supported the candidacy of Vice President Richard M. Nixon, and Nixon’s narrow-margin loss was a batter blow.

Kennedy’s initial approach to the Soviets was decidedly more conciliatory than that of his predecessor in the presidency, and this stirred the feelings of the extremists still more. Following the Kennedy-Khrushchev meeting in Vienna, however, U. S.-Soviet relations deteriorated sharply. As he had done any number of times, Khrushchev feinted in East Germany, and Kennedy took the opportunity for a military buildup that some sources say he had wanted all along. But criticisms arose similar to those directed at Eisenhower by liberals and conservatives alike, that U. S. policy seemed to be shaped more by reaction than by initiative. By this time, many ultra-conservatives were vocal in calling for a policy of strength and stability, and their influence was spreading rapidly.

Political discontent in America today largely follows one of two general courses. To the left are pacifistic critics of nuclear testing. To the right lie a myriad of complainers ranging from George Lincoln Rockwell and his self-styled Nazism to the arms-carrying Minute Men of Southern California.

Liberally-oriented news analysts continually do the public a disservice by lumping all together under the right-wing forces under the same umbrella and assigning them a common identification. Washington correspondents largely regard the right-wing bloc as a laughingstock, and their bias is readily discernible in news stories. Thus far, however, this adverse treatment (even President Kennedy’s denunciation) has worked to the advantage of the extremists. It seems to win them friends, and most certainly spreads the word to persons of like convictions eager to line up behind a cause.

Two tactics currently used to discredit right-wingers are the same as those long decried by liberals: guilt by association (lumping together of superficially-similar representations) and arbitrary labeling on the basis of isolated quotations removed from context.

The year 1962 promises political developments which are bound to have one kind of bearing or another upon theological conservatives. The show will begin with Congressional hearings next month over the alleged muzzling of Major General Edwin A. Walker.

Missions Debate

What priorities ought to characterize evangelical missions strategy?

The question was tossed about with determined vigor in the fall issues of His magazine, a monthly published by Inter-Varsity Christian Fellowship primarily for college students. The literary debate was designed as a prelude to the IVCF’s sixth International Student Missionary Convention at the University of Illinois, December 27–31.

Chief figures in the debate were Dr. Kenneth Pike, linguistics professor at the University of Michigan, and Dr. Arthur Glasser, home director of China Inland Mission-Overseas Missionary Fellowship.

Pike, affiliated with Wycliffe Bible Translators, asserted that contemporary missionaries “should tackle those specialized tasks which the indigenous local church cannot, or will not … handle … in this decade.”

Glasser, who was a missionary to the Nosu tribal people of China, cited Kenneth Scott Latourette’s concept of “the ongoing Christian community” as the great tool. He declared that too much emphasis is being placed on “subsidiary” specialization.

‘Ferocious’ Objections

A national women’s magazine with a circulation of 7,000,000 cancelled a drug company’s $120,000 series of full-page advertisements on birth control and planned parenthood because of “readers’ objections,” Religious News Service reported last month.

Karyl Van, advertising director of Every woman’s Family Circle, a 10-cent magazine sold mainly in supermarkets, said the publication had received numerous complaints about the first advertisement of a six-part series for the Ortho Pharmaceutical Corporation, the nation’s largest manufacturer of contraceptives.

“The objections from readers was ferocious,” said Van. “We no longer are carrying the ads. This subject is too hot to handle.”

However, a spokesman for the drug company said the decision to withdraw the advertisements had been made by the firm itself after an article denouncing such advertising appeared in America, the Jesuit weekly.

The first advertisement, as it appeared in Everywoman’s Family Circle and True Story, a romantic fiction magazine, showed a young woman talking over a picket fence with an older woman. Large type over the advertisement read: “Don’t plan your family over the back fence.”

Smaller type in the advertisement urged young mothers to consult their doctors about spacing babies. It said: “He can recommend a method that is dependable, simple, inexpensive and best suited to the needs of you and your husband.”

Although contraceptives are not mentioned in the advertisement, the last line says: “This message is sponsored by Ortho Pharmaceutical Corp., to whom medical methods of family planning are a particular concern.”

The Bookies Of Boston

Richard Cardinal Cushing, the Roman Catholic archbishop of Boston, says his city has been “betrayed” by a CBS television documentary which spotlighted bookmaking.

“Gambling exists everywhere,” the prelate told a policemen’s ball in the Boston Garden. “And no one can deny it. The United States Army wouldn’t be a sufficient law enforcement body to stop people from gambling.

“In my theology, gambling itself is not a sin any more than to take a glass of beer or of hard liquor is a sin. It’s the abuse that makes gambling evil or drinking intoxicating liquors an evil.”

He said that whoever was behind the program “owes an apology to the City of Boston.”

In New York, meanwhile, a state government commission investigating operations was told that bingo games were more profitable to bingo hall operators than to the charities they were intended to benefit. A commission counsel estimated that one lessor had made an annual net profit of more than 600 per cent on a $6,000 investment in a bingo hall.

Embarrassed Baptist

“In the 24 years I’ve lived in Louisiana,” said Dr. J. D. Grey, “we’ve had Baptists in the governorship for 16 years. They’ve been the sorriest years that our state law enforcement has ever seen.”

The pastor of the First Baptist Church of New Orleans was addressing some 2,000 men attending the annual Louisiana Baptist Brotherhood Convention last month.

“I’m not mad,” added Grey, former president of the Southern Baptist Convention, “I’m embarrassed.”

Grey singled out Jimmie H. Davis, ballad-singing governor of Louisiana, as “the shame of Louisiana Baptists” for failing to act against “organized and commercialized gambling and corruption.”

Davis is a Baptist and once taught school in a Baptist college in Shreveport. He has written a number of songs, such as “You Are My Sunshine,” and has made recordings of Gospel songs.

Education And Religion

Gordon College won full academic accreditation this month.

The Beverly Farms, Massachusetts, school was approved for membership by the New England Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools as a senior, four-year college of the arts and sciences.

Dr. James Forrester, president, announced that the Gordon Divinity School will move at once for full membership in the American Association of Theological Schools, recognized accrediting agency for seminaries, in which it now holds an associate membership.

Both the college and the divinity school are known for their evangelical orientation, but neither have official ties with a church body.

Other developments in church-related education:

—Dr. Ralph Phelps announced he had withdrawn his resignation as president of Ouachita Baptist College.

—The new half-million dollar campus of Grace Bible College, Wyoming, Michigan, was dedicated.

Religious Review

Here is a brief resumé of significant religious developments during 1961:

EVANGELISM: Billy Graham conducted major crusades in Florida; Manchester, England; Minneapolis; and Philadelphia. Telecasts of the meetings took on new importance.… Bob Pierce held a month-long campaign in Tokyo. Overall impact was unprecedented, despite public controversy.

THEOLOGY: Theological activity by scholars on the conservative side of the theological spectrum gained momentum.… To the left, neo-orthodoxy and waning classic liberalism continued their ideological struggle.… “Neo-evangelicalism” apparently has established itself as a term describing some conservative scholars avoiding the fundamentalist label.

MISSIONS: Violence hindered missionary effort in such lands as Laos, Vietnam, Congo, and Angola.… A Church of Christ in Israel was stoned repeatedly before being granted police protection.

ECUMENICITY: The World Council of Churches received into membership Orthodox churches from Iron Curtain countries. The action weakens the numerical domination of the WCC by Protestants.… The International Missionary Council was absorbed into the World Council.… Roman Catholic and Orthodox leaders planned separate ecumenical councils.… Many denominational mergers were brewing.

SCHISM: Congregational Christian churches which rejected denominational ties with the Evangelical and Reformed Church formed fellowships of their own.… The Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod suspended relations with the Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod.… A Conservative Baptist faction formed its own mission society.… A group of Negro Baptists split off from the National Baptist Convention, U. S. A., Inc., to form a convention of their own.

EDUCATION: A new liberal arts college is planned at Sarasota, Florida, with the help of the Congregational Board of Home Missions.… The Conwell School of Theology, successor to the Temple School of Theology, opened its doors in Philadelphia.… The Interdenominational Theological Center in Atlanta, a pioneering Negro ecumenical institution, was dedicated. It embraces four theological schools in a cooperative program.

MORALITY: If the cinema and television are indicative of public moral standards, the trend continued downhill.

SOCIAL ACTION: The propriety of fallout shelters raised many an argument among churchmen, but a number of liberals who claim to be on the front lines of social action were caught napping.… A papal encyclical dealing with social problems won unprecedented publicity.… Christian-oriented crusades against communism mushroomed.

PUBLISHING:The New English Bible New Testament made a big hit among clergy and laity alike. More than 3,000,000 copies are already in print.

CHURCH-STATE: Roman Catholic pressure for federal school funds gave President Kennedy the biggest controversy of his first year in office.… Demands grew for restrictions upon tax-free church-related business.… The U. S. Supreme Court handed down a record number of decisions touching upon religious issues.… A Peace Corps program began operation, prompting concern as to whether cooperation with missionary organizations would violate the church-state principle.… Communist leaders were reported trying to split German Lutheranism.… Burma adopted Buddhism as a state religion but proclaimed religious liberty for all citizens. Effect upon missionary activity is still uncertain.… Dutch Reformed churches in South Africa, supportive of the government’s apartheid policy, severed relations with the World Council of Churches.

Protestant Panorama

• Dr. Karl Barth is planning to make his first visit to the United States next spring, according to Religious News Service. He is scheduled to arrive sometime around Easter (April 22) and to give a five-day series of lectures at the University of Chicago Divinity School. The world-famous Swiss theologian is also said to have accepted an invitation to lecture at Princeton Seminary’s 150th anniversary observance.

• A Christian Herald poll shows that “The Old Rugged Cross” is still America’s favorite hymn. “How Great Thou Art” was a close second, followed by “What a Friend We Have in Jesus,” “In the Garden,” “Amazing Grace,” and “Rock of Ages.”

• A commemorative four-cent postage stamp was issued last month to mark the 100th anniversary of the birth of the Presbyterian clergyman who invented the game of basketball in 1891. The stamp honoring Dr. James Naismith was first placed on sale at Springfield (Massachusetts) College, where he taught and where a Basketball Hall of Fame is being erected.

• Texas Christian University plans a 12-year program of development that will include construction of six new buildings at an estimated cost of $5,000,000.

• A year-long evangelistic effort aimed at Guatemala’s 4,000,000 citizens will open next month with a three-day orientation session for pastors. The effort will operate under the framework of the “evangelism-indepth” concept developed by the Latin America Mission. It will include training classes, public rallies, visitation, campus ministries, and local church campaigns.

• Youth for Christ plans to begin a national radio program. It will be developed by Tedd Seelye, a staff announcer for station WMBI, affiliated with Moody Bible Institute of Chicago. Seelye joins Youth for Christ January 1.

• Some 30 journalists representing 15 Protestant church publications in Portugal formed a fellowship group last month. It will be known as the Portuguese Evangelical Press Association. Baptist, Episcopal, Methodist, Presbyterian, Nazarene, and Brethren churches are represented.

• The Italian Bible Institute in Rome, project of the Greater Europe Mission, was dedicated last month. It will offer a three-year Protestant course.

• The British Weekly, founded by the late Sir William Robertson Nicoll to represent the so-called “nonconformist conscience,” is observing its 75th anniversary. The journal, published in Edinburgh, achieved a position of considerable influence in the religious and political life of the British Isles. It is now owned by the Church of Scotland but still serves the original purpose of representing Presbyterianism in Scotland and the nonepiscopal churches in the rest of the British Isles.

Regional Reaction

Resolutions criticizing the establishment of a new mission society were adopted at two of the Conservative Baptists’ three regional conferences this fall.

The Eastern and Western conferences labeled as “unfounded” certain allegations given as grounds for the founding of the new society by the Conservative Baptist Fellowship. Leaders of the fellowship, most separatist of Conservative Baptist bodies, charged that the “impact of Neo-Evangelicalism and its twin evil of ecumenical evangelism has had a divisive and deteriorating effect on the schools, societies and churches of our movement.” … Eschatological differences also were cited.

Highlights Of Wcc Assembly

Here is a summary of actions taken at the 18-day assembly of the World Council of Churches in New Delhi, India:

—Admission of the Russian Orthodox Church to membership in the WCC. The Russian church is the largest single religious body in the WCC, and its admission made Eastern Orthodoxy the largest “confessional family” in the World Council.

—Integration of the International Missionary Council into the WCC.

—Adoption of an appeal to all governments to make every effort to take “reasonable risks for peace” in order to dispel the climate of suspicion that leads to war. The assembly also endorsed a report warning that years of living under the threat of nuclear war will reduce mankind’s sense of human worth and dignity.

—Endorsement of a report on Christian witness which urged creation of cells of Christian laymen and women in areas where the church has lost contact with the masses.

—Election of six new presidents and a 100-member (formerly 90 member) central committee.

—Participation in the first official WCC communion service celebrated according to the Anglican rite. Although the service was open to all, Orthodox and some Lutheran churchmen, in accordance with their doctrines, did not participate.

—Expression of solidarity with those in South Africa who oppose the government’s racial policies.

—Adoption of a report from the WCC’s Division of Inter-Church Aid and Service to Refugees which said that churches should encourage governments in programs of relief and rehabilitation and should establish their own pilot projects where governments are uninterested.

—Adoption of a resolution submitted by Dr. Frederick Donald Coggan, Archbishop of York, that provided for a message of Christian unity to be sent to the East German church leaders who were refused visas to attend the assembly.

—Revocation of a report condemning Portugal for repressive acts in Angola. The assembly had endorsed the report by a margin of 179 to 177, but because of the closeness of one vote, the report was declared “meaningless” and was referred back to the Commission of the Churches on International Affairs.

—Approval of the first detailed plan for Christian unity ever acted on by a WCC assembly. The plan calls for interlocking communities of churches which recognize another’s members and ministers and allow joint participation in communion. Another unity report which the assembly endorsed calls for removal of barriers which keep members of different churches from taking communion together.

—Adoption of a new Basis for WCC membership which specifically mentions the Trinity and the Scriptures instead of requiring only recognition of Jesus Christ as Lord, as in the original Basis which was adopted back in 1948.

—Condemnations of violations of religious liberty through “legal enactments or the pressure of social customs.”

—Denunciation of anti-Semitism as a “sin against God and man.”

The Central conference adopted a resolution which affirmed the right of Conservative Baptists “to start new C. B. schools, C. B. Mission Societies, homes for the aged and other agencies to help in the further spread of the Gospel.” However, the resolution made no specific reference to the new mission society or to issues in its establishment.

Dr. Albert G. Johnson, president of Western Conservative Baptist Seminary, has resigned his position as a director of the Conservative Baptist Fellowship in protest of the fellowship’s action in creating a new mission society.

German Misgivings

Misgivings were voiced in many German Protestant and Roman Catholic quarters over the World Council of Churches action in admitting the Russian Orthodox Church to membership and electing Dr. Martin Niemöeller, controversial figure in the Evangelical Church in Germany, as one of its six presidents.

Der Tag, West Berlin organ of the Christian Democratic Union, whose membership includes both Protestants and Roman Catholics, said the first obvious result of accepting the Russian church in the World Council seemed to be a tendency to keep out of discussions “all problems which might anger the Eastern churches.”

Der Tag said New Delhi delegates must have been aware of the fact that Niemöeller “uses, or rather, misuses the pulpit and the Church to propagate his politically misty and often abstruse ideas.”

It added that Niemöeller’s election “may be regarded as a signal for a new WCC course.”

The Soviet Zone press hailed Niemödeller’s election as a serious warning for advocates of “the West German Military Church traveling in the wake of NATO.”

A Blow To Liberty

Even while the World Council of Churches in New Delhi was calling for religious liberty, a Seventh-day Adventist minister in Greece was found guilty of proselytizing by a Court of Appeals and given a 40-day suspended sentence.

The Rev. George Kotsasaridis, 47, had been acquitted last September by a lower court, but the local Greek Orthodox priest who instigated the charge appealed the case. The Orthodox clergyman maintained that Kotsasaridis had visited a number of families in his parish “to change their religion” and therefore was guilty of proselytizing, which is outlawed in Greece.

Still another appeal is expected.

Heresy Trial

A theologian’s trial on charges of heresy before a Dutch Reformed Church of Africa commission will be resumed January 30.

Professor A. S. Geyser won an adjournment to allow him time to prepare his defense. He is charged with heresy in interpreting the New Testament for his students and in criticising the church’s ban against nonwhite members.

Target: Adventists

Seventh-day Adventist missionaries in the Congo accused United Nations troops last month of firing shells that wrecked the church mission’s office building and damaged several villas in a compound at Elizabethville.

The mission buildings are a cluster of villas about 30 yards from U. N. headquarters. They were shelled as fighting erupted between U. N. and Katangan forces.

“We are everybody’s friend,” said a Seventh-day Adventist official. “We are here for our spiritual and medical work. Why should the U. N. shoot at us?”

The Rev. Chester L. Torrey, treasurer of the World Conference of Seventh-day Adventists, who was on a deputational tour, was hit on the head with a small shell splinter.

Official news dispatches said the missionaries had been caught in crossfire between U. N. and Katangan troops, who had taken up positions in flower beds at the compound. Mission buildings were badly damaged.

Crusade ’61

In the Australian CRUSADE ’61, covering 23 cities in four states, the Rev. Leighton Ford and Dr. Joseph Blinco of the Billy Graham evangelistic team rode the crest of a wave of spiritual enthusiasm that started with the 1959 Graham crusade. A major aim this year was to reach small communities untouched two years ago, and that half of Australia’s population which is under 21 years of age.

Police estimated that 10,500 attended a welcome rally in Sydney Stadium, where the platform party included Anglican Archbishop H. R. Gough, Primate of Australia, and other church leaders. Three days later CRUSADE ’61 was officially launched, with Mr. Ford in Brisbane, and Dr. Blinco in Wollongong, an industrial city of about 125,000 some 50 miles from Sydney. The Brisbane attendance was about 56,000, with 1,046 decisions; in Wollongong, more than 30,000 came, and more than 600 decided for Christ. Every Protestant church in the greater Wollongong area cooperated. In one boys’ college more than half the students made public commitment to Christ. Both evangelists conducted services in other provincial areas, and addressed also industrial groups and ministers’ meetings.

Mr. Ford assured reporters: “We have not come with some strange North American brand of Christianity, or a religious sideshow … but Christ means so much to us that we want to share him with others.”

In Sydney, whose population now exceeds 1,500,000, attendance at nine crusade services totaled 97,000, with 2,832 recorded decisions for Christ, including scores of teenagers.

Dr. Blinco in an interview had spoken hopefully of the World Council of Churches meeting in New Delhi, observing that though sound historic and often spiritual reasons lie behind divisions in the Church, these reasons must gradually fade. He rejoiced that Christians are “finding one another again in fellowship, in opportunities to serve together.”

In many places during the crusade, which closed December 10, the evangelists were given civic receptions.

J. D. D.

Sunday Versus Sobriety

As a result of local elections held under a new licensing act, drinking is now permissible on Sundays in nine of the 17 “areas” in Wales. In an electorate of some 1,804,000 (not including some 80,000 young people between 18 and 21, who are permitted to drink but not to vote) 47 per cent voted. “As expected,” commented one influential British newspaper, “industrial and Anglicised areas chose the Sunday open door.”

The president of the Methodist Conference, after pointing to the election percentage as evidence of no large demand for Sunday opening, added: “One would like to know why the government considers Sunday closing good for Scotland and not for Wales.” This was a reference to a government decision which brought surprise and dismay in certain quarters by decreeing that Scottish public houses should remain closed on Sunday.

J. D. D.

Church Union In Ceylon

The Church of England’s attitude toward the proposed United Church of Lanka (see CHRISTIANITY TODAY editorial, June 5, 1961) presents bewildering features. Not, however, to Principal M. A. P. Wood of Oak Hill Theological College, London, who has compared Anglican objections to the project with the situation in the early Church when Christians had “cold feet” about the admission of Gentiles into fellowship.

Recent efforts of an actively vocal group of Anglicans have contrived virtually to reverse a previous decision on the plan by pushing the “apostolic succession” issue to the forefront. What emerges now is a Canterbury Convocation decision stating that Anglicans would establish intercommunion with the Lanka Church “provided that ambiguity in the rite of unification is removed so as to make it clear that episcopal ordination has been conferred on those who have not already received it.” Basically this is the same rock on which foundered negotiations with the Church of Scotland in 1958.

A significant note was nevertheless struck by the Archbishop of Canterbury in a speech to the autumn Convocation of York. “In all our thoughts of unity,” said Dr. Ramsey, “we ought, I feel sure, to submit ourselves to justification by faith alone. That means in practice that in our attitude to other Christian bodies, we let ourselves as far as we can, be stripped of any boastfulness about our own possessions and our own standing.” The Archbishop then approvingly quoted William Temple, who had said: “Those who by God’s election have received His ministry will neither surrender it, nor so hold it as to make difficult the access of others to it.”

Many feel that the intercommunion problem is only a part of a more fundamental issue facing the Church of England today: Is she to adhere to the basic Reformation formularies of her Prayer Book and the Thirty-Nine Articles which are her legal charter, or is she to follow the Tractarian innovations of the last century? The whole subject had caused great controversy in England. Much interest was aroused by an open letter addressed to the Archbishops of Canterbury and York by 32 Anglicans, mostly professors and college principals, in which they urged immediate intercommunion, and added that nonepiscopal ministries were not to be considered in any way inferior to episcopal ones.

J. D. D.

Disputed Motivations

Four American Methodist missionaries, jailed for three months by the Portuguese government for alleged “conniving with terrorists” in Angola, were released this month and deported from Lisbon.

Three of the four returned to the United States and promptly became involved in a dispute over the cause of the terror in Angola. The fourth, the Rev. Wendell Lee Golden, 39, proceeded to Southern Rhodesia.

In New York, charges of “conniving with terrorists” were denied by the Rev. Edwin LeMaster, 39, and his lay colleagues, Fred Brancel, 35, and Marion Way, Jr., 30.

All labelled as false the Portuguese accusations that the missionaries had aided Angola rebels by permitting them to hold political meetings in Methodist churches or mission grounds.

They expressed disagreement with reports by other first-hand observers that Communists had instigated and led the Angola revolt.

“We can’t say that the Communists aren’t trying to capitalize on the revolt,” said Way, “but they neither started the war nor lead it. The Africans are rebelling against the deplorable conditions that have existed in Angola for almost 500 years.”

Other informed sources tended to place more blame on the Communists and to attribute the violence to tribalism and fetishism rather than to nationalism.

The Pittsburgh Choice

Dr. Donald G. Miller was chosen last month to assume the presidency of Pittsburgh Theological Seminary. Miller, now professor of New Testament at Union Theological Seminary, Richmond, Virginia, will succeed the retiring Dr. Clifford E. Barbour next May 31.

Selection of the 52-year-old Miller climaxed 18 months of work by a seminary-nominating committee. Theological considerations played a chief role in the selection process, inasmuch as there are sharp differences between conservative and liberal factions at the seminary. The Pittsburgh seminary came out of a merger between the old Pittsburgh-Xenia Theological Seminary of the former United Presbyterian Church and Western Theological Seminary of the former Presbyterian Church in the U. S. A. prior to denominational merger. The seminary is the oldest and second largest among the seven theological seminaries of the United Presbyterian Church, U. S. A.

Miller is a member of the Presbyterian Church in the U. S. (Southern), which operates the Richmond seminary and which is generally considered to be more theologically conservative than the United Presbyterian.

Miller, a native of the Pittsburgh area, was graduated in 1930 from Greenville (Illinois) College, and won advanced degrees at the Biblical Seminary of New York and New York University. He took post-doctorate study at Faculte de Theologie Protestante in Montpellier, France, and at Basel, Switzerland.

People: Words And Events

Deaths: The Rev. Mordecai F. Flam, 84, Baptist evangelist under whose ministry Billy Graham was converted; in Louisville, Kentucky … Canon T. C. Hammond, 84, world-renowned authority on Anglican affairs; in Sydney, Australia … Dr. William A. Curtis, 85, former principal of New College, Edinburgh; in Melrose, Scotland … the Rev. Percy E. Warrington, 72, founder of Bristol (England) Theological College … Bishop Theodore Russell Ludlow, 78, retired suffragan bishop of the Protestant Episcopal Diocese of Newark, New Jersey; in Newark … Dr. Charles Ernest Scott, 85, for 33 years a Presbyterian missionary in China; in Philadelphia … Dr. John Raymond Chadwick, 65, president of Iowa Wesleyan College; in New York … theRev. David Schmidt, 39, professor at Concordia Lutheran Seminary in Villa Ballester, Argentina.

Appointments: As executive secretary of the General Commission on Chaplains and Armed Forces Personnel, the Rev. A. Ray Applequist … as treasurer of the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod, Norris H. Koopmann … as moderator-designate of the Free Church of Scotland General Assembly, Professor W. J. Cameron … as vicar of St. Mary’s, Islington, London, the Rev. R. P. Johnston … as pastor of the Baptist Tabernacle in Atlanta, Georgia, the Rev. William F. Doverspike … As an associate pastor of the Central Presbyterian Church in Towson, Maryland, Dr. T. Roland Philips, pastor emeritus of the Arlington Presbyterian Church of Baltimore … as bishop of the Krishna-Godavari diocese of the Church of South India, the Rev. N. D. Anandarao Samuel … as president of the National Council of Churches in Germany, Dr. Hans Luckey, director of the Baptist seminary in Hamburg … as chairman of the Pentecostal Fellowship of North America, the Rev. James A. Cross, general overseer of the Church of God (Cleveland, Tennessee) … as executive director of the Unitarian Fellowship for Social Justice, Richard Wilson … as president of the Scripture Press Foundation, Vincent C. Hogren … as editor-in-chief of Youth for Christ Magazine, Ron Wilson.

Elections: As chairman of Christian Business Men’s Committee International, Andrew W. Hughes … as president of the Christian Writers Association of Canada, the Rev. Bernard T. Parkinson.

Installation: As “Ecumenical Minister” of the Missouri Council of Churches, Dr. Stanley l. Stuber.

Citation: As “Chaplain of the Year” of the Reserve Officers Association, Air Force Colonel Samuel M. Bays.

Resignations: As executive director of the Greater Oakland (California) Council of Churches, Salvation Army Colonel Bertram Rodda … as director of the Lutheran Immigration Service, Vernon E. Bergstrom … as executive vice president of World Vision, Ellsworth Culver.

Retirement: As president of Pacific Lutheran College, Dr. S. C. Eastvoid … as pastor of the First Baptist Church of Pontiac, Michigan, Dr. H. H. Savage.

Quote: “Every human ideology comes to an end sometime, and communism, too, will be a thing of the past, maybe much sooner than anyone presently thinks. There already are traces of crumbling and falling down.”—Bishop Otto Dibelius, at a Reformation rally in the First Methodist Church of Los Angeles.

The Pittsburgh seminary announced this month the receipt of a $1,350,000 grant, largest in the school’s history, for construction of a new library. The gift is a joint grant of the Sarah Mellon Scaife Foundation and the Richard King Mellon Foundation.

By approving the expanded Basis of membership proposed last summer at St. Andrews, the New Delhi Assembly gave greater ecumenical centrality to the doctrine of the Trinity and to the role of the Bible. Hailed both by Evangelical and by Eastern Orthodox leaders, the step avoided reduction of the ecumenical witness to “a dull and uninteresting gray.” It gave promise of new virility in matching a theological counterattack to “the acceleration of history” in a revolutionary age, to the resurgence of non-Christian religions, to the aggression of evolutionary atheism, to the dazzling spell of scientific technology, and to the grip of secular materialism.

Although almost one in ten of the delegates voting on the issue opposed approval of the trinitarian basis, including some liberal leaders who thought the action would launch the World Council along the pathway of creed-making, the St. Andrews proposal swept through the General Assembly by a 383–36 vote. Its immediate effect was to disqualify Unitarians from WCC membership.

Amsterdam to Delhi

When WCC came into being in Amsterdam in 1948, it adopted the bare Basis that: “The World Council of Churches is a fellowship of churches who accept Jesus Christ as God and Saviour.” (This statement was stronger than that of the National Council of Churches.) Norwegian evangelicals sought in Evanston in 1954 to amend the Basis to read … who, according to Holy Scriptures, confess Jesus as God and Saviour,” but their proposal was sidetracked. Eastern Orthodox theologians later reinforced this move, urging additional reference to the Trinity and to church tradition. At St. Andrews last summer, the WCC Central Committee agreed to submit the altered form adopted by the Delhi Assembly after nearly two hours of debate: “The World Council of Churches is a fellowship of Churches which confess the Lord Jesus Christ as God and Saviour, according to the Scriptures, and therefore seek to fulfill their common calling to the glory of the one God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.” Some liberal Protestant churchmen, both in the United States and Europe, had sharply opposed the expansion. Friends Journal (Sept. 15 issue) deplored it as “restrictive and exclusive” and added that “the assurance formerly given that we could interpret the membership formula as liberally as we saw fit can hardly apply any longer to this much more rigid test.… We can only regret that a sizeable group among our church leaders still insists on considering Christian beliefs to be primarily a system of thought.” But some conservatives, like Dr. L. D. McBain (American Baptist) opposed the expansion as a risky precedent. Russian Orthodox Archbishop Nikodim in his first speech to the Assembly urged expansion, as did Dr. C. G. Baeta of Ghana, former secretary of the old IMC.

At the same time it was clear that the Delhi Assembly’s theological pronouncements had little in common with affirmations of the great ecumenical councils of the first centuries. The early ecumenical councils defined and condemned the heresies to which they opposed their theological affirmations. But Delhi, like Amsterdam and Evanston, was preoccupied with unity and had little interest in combatting heresy. As a result the “victory” for trinitarianism and the Bible is far from precise and may, in fact, accommodate views of the divine Trinity and of the Scriptures which would have been abhorrent to Christian faith in earlier Christian centuries. While the move from the older liberal emphasis on theocentrism to trinitarianism is widely hailed as an evangelical victory, the fact remains that Christocentrism has also sheltered liberal theories, and that the Delhi affirmations are not inconsistent with grossly objectionable views both of divine trinity and scriptural authority.

The Role of Theology

Yet Delhi witnessed some pointed pleas for greater theological earnestness as indispensable to the realization of ecumenical unity. The Archbishop of Canterbury, the Most Rev. A. M. Ramsay, deplored what he called a “hand theology” spirit in the West which says in effect “do not go deep into theology; we need just a few simple facts and principles in order to get unity.” He warned that unity will not be found in such “twentieth century simplifications,” and added that “those who talk thus commonly make large theological assumptions which they do not pause to examine.” “If we will be patient,” he continued, “true theology, good theology, is something which unites. But it will not be true unless it keeps itself and us near to the Cross whence the call to holiness comes.”

Eastern Orthodox churches reinforced the periodic call for more theological depth. In a statement for the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, Abuna Theophilos noted that “a really fruitful line of work towards unity would be a closer study of the traditional doctrines with a view to evolving clearer and less inadequate verbal definitions.”

But the theological thrust had alien interests to contend with also. Among these were the Burma Baptist U Ba Hmyin’s plea for universal synthetic theology unrestricted to biblical structures, and neo-orthodox hostility toward revealed truths and an intellectual faith.

Doctrinal differences among the Delhi delegates limited their full fellowship except as they downgraded the importance of doctrinal truth and fell back on the Basis as the sufficient touchstone of Christian commitment. Despite the dissent of one-tenth of the delegates, spokesmen confidently referred to the Basis as “the fixed stratum of unity” alongside which the ecumenical movement continues its “search for a unity” which does not yet exist. By this “common faith” the member churches were pledged to stand together despite frightfully deep and divisive differences. The Delhi mood was still to “obey Christ’s command” (to find unity) and to work out “details of doctrine” later. Faced by a time of greater challenge to Christianity than that posed by the Renaissance, by an age more demanding than any since apostolic times, they felt oneness more than truth to be their highest calling. Disturbed by the unedifying spectacle of Christian disunity, they cheered the word of WCC General Secretary W. A. Visser’t Hooft that “desire for Christian unity is no longer the concern of the few but the preoccupation of the many,” and they welcomed every evidence of a general ecumenical mobilization.

Dr. Visser’t Hooft noted that the WCC had become with “one very important exception” (Roman Catholicism) a body in which all major Christian confessions are strongly represented, and that it now embraces “a greater variety of expressions of the Christian faith than have ever been brought together in one movement.” The presence of five Roman Catholic observers authorized by the Vatican Secretariat for Christian Unity cheered ecumenical leaders, although Father Edward Duff did not hesitate to indicate in a television interview that Roman Catholicism already has the unity to which non-Roman ecumenism aspires.

Special emphasis fell on a large-scale Communion service arranged by the Anglican Church of India, Pakistan, Burma, and Ceylon, open to “all baptized communicant members of their churches,” as another first step toward unity. An Eastern Orthodox spokesman indicated to the press that Communion is “the summit of unity, and not a way of achieving it,” but said delegates from his church would be present to support the ecumenical movement. In the Orthodox view, said Dr. Nikos Nissiotis, assistant director of the Ecumenical Institute at Bossey, Church union is not “a ‘spiritualized,’ sentimental, humanistic expression of good will, but is an absolute reality preestablished by God.… The Church does not move towards unity through the comparison of conceptions of unity, but lives out of the union between God and man realized in the communion of the Church.… We are not here to create but to recapture it.…”

Common Faith, Diverse Theologies

It was clear that a variety of conceptions of unity entered into the ecumenical dialogue, and that the achievement of any carefully-defined unity was still a long way off for WCC affiliates. Dr. Joseph Sittler of Chicago summed up some of the tensions as disagreement over “whether the way to unity is a common faith, or a closer fellowship in confidence that the fellowship itself will lead to a common faith; whether the churches must enter into intercommunion to advance unity or have a larger unity in order to enter into intercommunion; whether unity is to be found in a common faith, or in a common order equally.” Sittler’s view is that the unity of the Church depends not on a common theology but on a common faith (it is noteworthy that nonsupematuralist John Dewey promulgated the thesis a generation ago in the interest of humanism). He deplored “the idolatry of putting theology in the center.” Explaining theologies as intellectual functions of the differences in cultures, he said “there is not and will not be a common theology.” When newspaper reporters asked Sittler whether any movement exists outside the United States similar to the Blake-Pike emphasis on organic unity as the only worthy ecumenical goal, he noted the Union of South India, the Ceylon scheme, and the North India scheme as somewhat similar.

The earlier feeling that the ecumenical world assemblies represent a kairos, a divinely-appointed time at which church unity would be achieved by listening to the voice of the Spirit, seemed at Delhi to have worn somewhat thin. While there was little searching of the biblical doctrine of the Church, representatives of nearly all confessions at Delhi declared their traditional formulation of ecclesiology inadequate to grip today’s ecumenical realities. One or another speaker, in order to deflate the absolute claims of rival ecclesiastical traditions, invoked the thesis that the Church is historically conditioned and exposed to corruption, but the speakers were more hesitant to apply the thesis to their own communions, and seemed wholly reluctant to apply it to the ecumenical development. Delhi championed a “more explicit and definite” position with regard to church unity through its emphasis on mission (integration of IMC into WCC) and through its expanded Basis, and it trusted these developments to hold together in the member churches.

Dr. W. A. Visser’t Hooft acknowledged candidly that “though it is in God’s grace sometimes given to us to render a common witness, we cannot claim that in the important matters of faith, of life, of church order, we speak with one voice.” With death gradually overtaking one after another of the ecumenical movement’s surviving pioneers, Visser’t Hooft’s importance has grown. In two respects he differs somewhat from the earlier men; he is largely alien to their pietistic-evangelistic emphasis, and he is actively interested in the enlistment of Rome. But he reiterates the longstanding ecumenical emphasis that no external reunion will be forced upon member churches “who are not ready for this and do not desire it.… Those who would attempt to create union by force or coercion would meet with the determined opposition of our member churches.” With a look at present ecumenical achievement, Visser’t Hooft added: “Cooperation is not the same as unity, but it can and should be a mighty stimulant to unity.”

A major document of 9,000 words, approved in the closing days of the Delhi Assembly, further delineated the complex WCC notion of unity. Instead of a single ecclesiastical organization of all Christians, WCC pledged itself to work for a system of interlocking church communities on the local, national and international level, with mutual recognition of ministries, members, and joint participation in the Lord’s Supper. The document emphasized that “unity does not imply simple uniformity of organization, rite or expression.” But it affirmed also that it “will involve nothing less than a death and rebirth of many forms of church life as we have known them. We believe that nothing less costly can finally suffice.”

Machinery and the Kingdom

Ecclesiastical machinery functioned actively through all phases of the Delhi Assembly; the mechanism of resolutions and program enjoyed special prominence. This growing preoccupation with organization rather than with mission has periodically troubled leaders distressed over ecumenical programming—the endless series of conferences, consultations, commissions, and committees apparently substitute a passion for dialogue for the passion to witness. And the disposition to limit democratic processes within ecumenical gatherings at times irked the press. In New Delhi no floor debate was permitted, for example, on the question of admission of the Russian Orthodox Church. In the various section meetings the press was prohibited from continuous coverage (even by substitutes or alternates). Whatever the intention of such limitation, it had the effect of concealing from the press what day-to-day sectional emphases were eliminated or revised by the editorial committee in the final sectional draft—a device by which ecumenical leaders have sometimes promoted special objectives.

The cost of the Delhi Assembly, including travel, has been estimated at half a million dollars. Delegates had been informed it would be best not to seek reservations in the city’s best hotels; when they arrived, they found ecumenical staff already ensconced in the Janpath, most modern hostelry in the city, while arrangements for many of the participants were substandard. Yet delegates tend to be awed by the staggering size and complexity of ecumenical institutions, and by the stature of inclusivist leaders heading the movement.

The World Council has developed both a strong central staff and a formidable structure of divisional and departmental committees, whereas the International Missionary Council had neither. The ecumenical movement has been given or assured virtually all of the needed $2,500,000 for a new 250-office headquarters building in Geneva, to be ready for occupancy in mid-1963. The design allows for additional offices if required later. The Ecumenical Church Loan Fund provides funds to assist ecumenically-minded mission-founded churches. At Delhi the leadership proposed a 47 per cent increase of $218,000 in the WCC budget, the $751,200 total to include provision for larger staff salaries. Dr. Eugene Carson Blake emphasized that the principle of support thus far has been to raise funds from member churches on the basis of their ability to give, but that those making larger contributions are not to dictate the program. He noted that some churches already regard the WCC budget as outsize, while others, in view of modern government spending, consider the annual budget ridiculously low. Others are reluctant to approve a greatly-increased budget because of its super-church potential. Yet WCC leaders continually stress how much more could be achieved for the ecumenical cause were additional money and staff available.

The Six and the One Hundred

The 100-member central committee elected at New Delhi gives 17 posts to Orthodox churchmen; 16 to Lutherans; 15 to Presbyterian and Reformed groups; 12 to Anglicans; 11 to Methodists; 10 to United churches; 5 to Baptists; 4 to Congregationalists; and 1 or 2 to other groups. At the helm of the WCC’s 198 church bodies representing more than 350 million members will be the six-man presidium: The Most Rev. Arthur M. Ramsey, Archbishop of Canterbury; Sir Francis Ibiam, a Presbyterian and Governor General of Eastern Nigeria; Archbishop Iakovos, head of the Greek Orthodox Church in North and South America; the Rev. Dr. David G. Moses, the United Church of Northern India; the Rev. Dr. Martin Niemöeller, a German Lutheran; and Charles Parlin, a Methodist lay leader from New York City.

Ambiguity remained as to whether WCC expresses the world-wide Christian judgment of its members, or whether it determines that judgment. On one hand it is stressed that WCC cannot legislate for member churches, but is merely an instrument for expressing their common witness and service, the Assembly On which all member churches are represented) being viewed as their main voice. Yet the Central Committee often speaks out between assemblies on many issues, sometimes so provocatively that members have withdrawn from WCC.

Faith and order were not the only paths to unity explored at Delhi. Some delegates thought the world would be most impressed by ecumenical agreement on social and political problems. Some Greek Orthodox spokesmen, however, emphasized that agreed social positions are no criterion of unity but rather the result of unity. They challenged the social activism of American churchmen who involve themselves in political affairs more as a secular activity than as a church act. But the American tendency had won a following. Days before Delhi, the East Asia Christian Conference had met in Bangalore to discuss political issues that cause tensions among Asian countries. While Dr. D. T. Niles was thoroughly enthusiastic about its achievements, some European churchmen thought the best thing that could be said about the conference was that it was now over. The Bangalore conference was marked by a concerted drive for United Nations’ recognition of Red China. Korean and Formosan delegates demurred. At Delhi a whole colony of spokesmen pushed the weighty thesis that Christian relationship with government must not be just a private affair, and ended with a plea for a resolution, for direct pressure upon government, for a Christian policy to be implemented by government, as if this procedure were the historic Christian dynamism for transforming the social order. The contemporary alternative to Christianity, which more than any other surging force threatens to sweep our children’s children into the orbit of state absolutism, was seldom confronted and addressed as a foe; many delegates felt that the Christian thesis concerning the axis and goal of history and the ultimate meaning of life had not been expounded at Delhi with the precision and consistency that characterizes Marxian propaganda.

The large press services and news magazines, aware from the history of the ecumenical movement that politico-economic issues would loom as large as the religious, assigned their political editors to cover Delhi as readily as their religion editors. Whenever the world mission of the Church was defined in distinction from evangelism, the secular journalists seemed fully at home in the spirit of Delhi. At Sunday dinner at the home of Rajkumari Amrit Kaur with Time-Life’s Henry Luce and evangelist Billy Graham, I remarked to Mr. Luce: “The Life series superbly exposed the dynamism on which communism relies for world revolution. Why doesn’t Life give us a great series on the dynamic on which Christianity relies?” Mr. Luce replied: “I think that is why I came to Delhi.” It was, in fact, why most actual delegates had come. But many left confused over the manner in which Jesus Christ is the world’s light. Not even ecumenical self-gratification that “seldom had there gathered a greater selection of outstanding Christian leaders and personalities” had removed their indecision. To stress the difference between an ecumenical meeting and a political meeting, Visser’t Hooft urged the press not to judge the Vigyan Bhavan Assembly by the norms and categories of the U.N. He noted the common Christian basis of the delegates, and indicated that their primary obsession is not with the modern East-West tension, but with overcoming the East-West cleavage that divided the Church 1000 years ago. But in the realm of international affairs ecumenical spokesmen took quite another course; they expressed delight that their convictions in international relations are already being applied by some Christian statesmen at the precise moment when grave world decisions are being made.

Dr. O. Frederick Nolde, director of WCC’s Commission of the Churches on International Affairs, located the Church’s “duty to speak to the nations for peace and justice” in a protest against nuclear weapons testing and arms competition, and in a plea for disarmament. It seemed not to occur to Dr. Nolde, nor to his associates, that a rebuke to the Communist agitation of class hatred and class warfare might equally serve the cause of peace and justice, and that such rebuke might equally fall within the Church’s duty.

“The trouble with the ecumenical movement,” remarked retiring president Franklin Clarke Fry, “is that it is so diverse that it takes a long time for us to agree.” Few observers were likely to question this comment. Delhi made visible to the world what unity—and what diversity and disunity—characterizes Christianity in the twentieth century. Some of this diversity was concealed because many delegates seemed unaware of the preciousness of their own traditions, and were therefore prone to search for the richness of the Christian religion in flat uniformity. But the diversity in the midst of Delhi’s togetherness lent new importance to the comment of an American churchman, Dr. Eugene Carson Blake: “Ecumenism is nothing if it is not local.”

C. F. F. H.

The intercessory work of Christ presupposes that the predicament of man is not an alleged flaw in his existence but the enmity which separates the creature from the Creator. “For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life” (Rom. 5:10). Furthermore, just as no mere analysis of human existence in psychological or philosophical categories will provide an adequate anthropology, so likewise no definition of Christ in terms of substance or nature will properly describe his intercessory action. Much modern Protestant theology, however, exhibits such a protest against the merely physical conception of the Lord’s state in heaven that the reality of Christ’s work has been volatilized into a gaseous vacuity. A true biblical understanding will appreciate the power of Christ’s personal pleading as God’s Word in action, God in Jesus giving his life at the right time for the ungodly.

Old Testament Priestly Sacrifice. The concept of intercession has its roots in the priestly sacrifice of the Old Testament. God was at work in the family of Israel providing sacrifices which were acceptable for atonement before the once-for-all sacrifice of Jesus. Aaron was instructed to come once a year to the holy place with a bull, a ram, and a goat, sacrificing them with the laying on of hands and sprinkling the blood of the bull and the goat on the mercy seat and offering the ram as a burnt offering (Lev. 16:5–19). A second goat was driven into the wilderness with the laying on of hands and the confession of the sins of the people (Lev. 16:20–22). This system of sacrifices hearkened back to the experience of Abraham in which God provided a ram as a substitute for Isaac, and it projected forward to Christ in the anticipation of the Suffering Servant of Isaiah on whom was laid the iniquity of us all (Gen. 22:8; Isa. 53:6).

The significant thrust throughout the history of sacrifice is therefore the intercession of God in providing the sacrifice from the ram of Abraham to Jesus, the lamb of God, who was also caught on the branches of a tree. Precisely here is the difference between the biblical understanding of sacrifice on the one hand and both pagan and perverted Jewish notions on the other. In pagan sacrifice a gift is offered by man in hope of gaining favor from the god. Thus man works a change upon the god through his offering. In the practice of Judaism a work is done by man in the hope of changing the heart of man, cleansing him so as to render him acceptable to God. But the Christian revelation in both testaments teaches that God intercedes providing a sacrifice which changes the wrath of God into mercy and the sinner into a saint.

Sören Kierkegaard’s references in Fear and Trembling to the sacrifices of Iphigenia, Jephthah’s daughter, and Abraham’s son serve well to illustrate these three conceptions of sacrifice (Oxford, 1943, pp. 127 ff.). Agamemnon and Jephthah make their sacrifices for a reason: Agamemnon vows to offer his daughter to gain a favorable wind; Jephthah vows to provide a thank offering of whoever comes to meet him from his door after he has defeated the Ammonites. Abraham has no reason that might be justified ethically. He simply prepares to sacrifice Isaac in obedience to the Lord. What was done by Agamemnon was a supreme human effort to control the gods; what was done by Jephthah was a valiant human attempt to preserve the integrity of the heart. Abraham alone accepted the intercessory work of God by offering whatever God provided whether it be his only beloved son or a ram caught in a bush.

Christ’s Reconciling Sacrifice. When, according to the history of salvation, the right time (kata kairon) had come, God’s Messiah interceded by means of his sacrifice in order to reconcile helpless and rebellious sinners with the Father (Rom. 5:6). Thus as in the Old Testament the priest represented man and offered a sacrifice to God, so now Christ Jesus as man offers himself as a “fragrant offering and sacrifice to God” (Eph. 5:2). “For our sake he [God] made him [Christ] to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Cor. 5:21).

Since God in his gracious favor toward man was concerned to free us from our bondage to sin, flesh, and the power of the devil, he sent his Son “in the likeness of sinful flesh” (Rom. 8:3). “Therefore he had to be made like his brethren in every respect, so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God, to make expiation for the sins of the people” (Heb. 2:17). The Greek verb hilaskesthai and its substantive form to hilasterion in Romans 3:21 are both used in the Septuagint to render the propitiation offered to God at the mercy seat in the holy of holies (Exod. 25:17; 31:7; 35:12; 37:6; Lev. 16:2, 13). The meaning is that God in the person of Christ acts mercifully on behalf of sinners by sacrificing his life. This suffering, which is accepted that all righteousness may be fulfilled, is well pleasing to God because it is God’s glory that he spends himself for his creature (Matt. 3:15–17).

Intercession must be made by a mediator who can successfully represent both sides. A priest is such a mediator because he represents his own people as he offers their spotless gift which is received by the holy God. But here the ineffectualness of every human intercession is manifest: the gift is never spotless and hence it is not well pleasing to God. In Christ’s intercession a pure gift is offered since he who is sinless gives himself.

Christ’s Continuing Work. Christ’s work is not ended with his death on the cross in the sense of finis, although it is certainly complete in the sense of tetelestai, but he continues to plead for sinners in heaven. Sacrifice we found to be the basic meaning of Christ’s intercession since through it God is glorified magnificently over his enemies and his rebellious creatures are reconciled. But in the Old Testament the central moment of sacrifice was not in the slaying of the victim but in what was done with the blood when it was released. Blood was understood to mean the life of the victim. When blood was shed it signified the pouring out of the victim’s life. On the Day of Atonement the ritual sacrifice brought the priest into the holy of holies behind the veil of the temple where he sprinkled the mercy seat with the lifeblood of the sacrificial animal. Hence the moment of the ephapax of Christ’s sacrifice is not the death on Golgotha alone but also and especially the heavenly moment of presentation of his sacrifice to the Father at his ascension. Paul gives this emphasis to the heavenly intercession when he says: “Is it Christ Jesus who died, yes, who was raised from the dead, who is at the right hand of God, who indeed intercedes for us?” (Rom. 8:34). And the author of Hebrews, who is so careful to guard the once-for-all character of the sacrificial death on Golgotha, is no less concerned to declare the continuing intercession in heaven: “Consequently he is able for all time to save those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them” (Heb. 7:25).

Christ does not offer himself repeatedly, as the high priest offered his sacrifices each year, but he appeared once for all in the world to be seen by all in the scandal of the cross (Heb. 9:25). But inasmuch as he lives now throughout all eternity in the true holy of holies in the presence of God, he continually intercedes on our behalf. Thus the Cross, which was an unrepeatable historical event, becomes an effective sacrifice for every generation in history both before it by proleptic promise in the word of prophets and after it by fulfilled faith in the word of apostles. Our salvation is “built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the chief cornerstone” (Eph. 2:20).

Through this intercession of the ascended Christ, his priestly office is coupled with his kingly office. “But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God, then to wait until his enemies should be made a stool for his feet” (Heb. 10:12, 13).

It is just this paradox of Christ’s sacrificial humiliation and his triumphant exaltation that Jesus reveals in his high priestly prayer of John 17. The theme of the whole prayer is doxa, the glory of God. He begins with the petition: “Glorify thy Son that the Son may glorify thee.” Yet he has just referred to the hour for which he came into this world, the hour of his death. The violence of the godly scandal is manifest in that God is glorified by the obscene and hateful execution of his Son. Jesus glorified God on earth through his lowly birth, through his coming in our sinful flesh, through his rejection and death. Now he comes to the moment when he will glorify God in heaven. He has been exalted in the Resurrection from the dead, and he sits at the right hand of the Father and rules over heaven and earth, bringing all things into subjection under him (1 Cor. 15:25). But his work as he rules in kingly power is just this continuous intercession before God. God’s glory is none other than Christ’s intercessory work.

The rest of the prayer is the petition that God’s glory may be given to the elect ones whose names are written in heaven so that they may be one as Christ and the Father are one. In effect this amounts to an invocation of the Holy Spirit who is the guide to truth (John 16:13), and truth is revealed not as the wisdom of this world, whether abstract or operational, but the personal, active, unifying love of God suffering for his creatures and drawing them into the same active passion. It is interesting to note here the relation between the intercession of Christ and the Spirit. Paul in Romans 8 speaks of the intercessory work of the Spirit in such a way that one could almost substitute for it the continuing work of Christ without change of meaning. This is not surprising when we consider that God is one and any separating distinction would improperly divide the Godhead; but it is clear from the teaching in John that since the Ascension, the intercessory work of Christ is God’s love as seen from within the veil of the heavenly temple, whereas the intercessory work of the Spirit is the same gracious love as seen working in this world to draw all men to Christ. It is not that Christ is absent from this world but that only through the Spirit can men confess him to be Lord (1 Cor. 12:3).

Our Share in Christ’s Intercession. The concluding application of Christ’s intercessory work concerns our share in this intercession. The suffering of Christ is proclaimed as God’s glory. Inasmuch as this work is done on our behalf the Spirit calls and gathers us into the worshiping community which we call the Church. Thus the author of Hebrews says: “Therefore, brethren, since we have confidence to enter the sanctuary by the blood of Jesus … let us draw near with a true heart … and let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together …” (Heb. 10:19–24). The shape of our response to Christ’s intercessory work is the sacrifice of thanksgiving in which we offer ourselves as living sacrifices. Thus Paul says to the Colossians: “Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I complete what is lacking in Christ’s affliction for the sake of his body, that is the church …” (Col. 1:24).

Luther makes the distinction between the sacrifice of atonement and the sacrifice of thanksgiving (J. Pelikan, Luther the Expositor, Concordia, 1959, p. 238). Christ’s sacrifice is ephapax, the all-sufficient sacrifice of atonement. Our share in this intercession is the thankful participation of response, the eucharistic worship commemorating Christ’s atoning sacrifice in which we repeatedly plead his work before the Father and thus provide the context in which the church offers itself in union with Christ’s own sacrifice to God. The offering of the Church is the graceful stewardship of doing the truth, of suffering, sacrificing, serving in the world on behalf of the neighbor. This is the true meaning also of Luther’s doctrine of the priesthood of all believers. The universal priesthood has nothing to do with a polemic on church polity, but it has everything to do with our share in Christ’s intercession. It means that every man in Christ becomes a priest to his neighbor. It is not that every man is his own priest in any sense of religious individualism, but that through eucharistic oblation in the Church every man is able and must be exhorted to become a little Christ (i.e., a Christian) to his neighbor.

It should be clear, in conclusion, that the biblical proclamation of Christ’s intercessory work teaches that the glorious suffering of Christ draws us into a participating fellowship in which peace is made with God and new life is given to his fallen creatures so that they in turn may glorify God through a joyful suffering in this world. As John says in his first letter: “My little children, I am writing this to you so that you may not sin; but if any one does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous” (1 John 2:1). John uses the same word (parakletos) to designate Christ as he used in his Gospel to define the function of the Holy Spirit. Thus whether the work is seen to be oriented to God in heaven or to man on earth, the gracious love of God is always all sufficient for our needs. We are assured that we have an advocate, one who is called alongside to help us, whether we are strong in our works of love or weak in our failures of sin. Jesus Christ is our interceding, comforting friend whose suffering love is for us and the world.

Bibliography: G. Aulén, Eucharist and Sacrifice; E. Brunner, The Mediator; O. Cullmann, The Christology of the New Testament; W. Manson, The Epistle to the Hebrews; V. Taylor, Jesus and His Sacrifice; The Atonement in New Testament Teaching.

Professor of Systematic Theology

Northwestern Lutheran Seminary

Minneapolis, Minn.