Eutychus and His Kin: September 1, 1958

FASHION GUIDE

There is no better way to be different than to stay the same. Amish “plain dress” was once completely unobtrusive, but even Dior’s latest is less bizarre on Fifth Avenue. Those cutting the patterns for the zig-zag changes of fashion have this worked out. Everyone, especially every woman, wants to be different. She can’t bear to look like an ordinary woman. As soon as she returns from vacation, she must find a new fall wardrobe that will flatter her individuality. Of course, she doesn’t dream up a queer creation of her own. In fact, by studying the magazines, she has prepared herself for exactly what the better shops are offering.

This has to be different, the same difference for everybody who wants to be different. Now to make the different women different, style creators seldom think of anything new and different. In fact, this would be a waste of time when there is so much old and different. Therefore, the difference to which no truly different woman is indifferent is sometimes only different from the last difference, and may be the very difference by which women who are not different differ from the different! This Empire style, for example. Surely there must be a few recluses, in crumbling mansions or private institutions, who have never given it up.

The supreme act of courage is to stay with the difference after it is no longer different. Urge your wife to buy a sack at an absolute clearance, and wear it for three or four years. After all, aren’t you still wearing those bargain pink shirts?

Unfortunately, style consciousness is not limited to the world of haute couture. Theological fashion seems equally potent, and appears to follow the same rick-rack pattern. Those weary of the new and different, can be overcome with a fashionable rage for the old and different. Even a Neanderthal conservative is occasionally astonished at the authentic cut of the latest orlon bearskin.

The toughest assignment is to ignore fashion for the sake of truth. The theologian who seeks to build on the achievements of orthodox theologians of the last generation cannot boast even a modish bearskin. He must work in a pink shirt.

SYMBOLISM AND DOGMATISM

Can Mr. Freeman (July 21 issue) prove that any statement about anything is not symbolic?… Can he keep warm on a winter night with only the word “blanket” over him?… One does not have to swallow every statement that Dr. Tillich makes, but one is bound to be the poorer if he refuses to consider his frequently challenging and constructive thoughts. Dr. Tillich states his adventures in thought in a very dogmatic manner. A bit more humility might benefit him, and the same might help Mr. Freeman, and, indeed, all of us.

Sacramento, Calif.

I speak as one who has been greatly helped by the thinking of Paul Tillich. I am certain he addresses himself to questions that are actually there but which can easily be obscured by any of the several varieties of “Protestant” and Roman Catholic scholastic theologies current today which insist on a propositional Deity to worship, to swear by, and to use for whipping the rest of society into some kind of shape. Tillich braves psychological hazards that Jesuitical, Fundamentalists, and “Power of Positive Thinking” expressions of “the will to believe” refuse to risk. Perhaps he himself should have a word in your journal, on the question as to which route is the more idolatrous and alien to the genius of the Christian movement.

Westminster Foundation, Univ. of Ore.

Eugene, Ore.

When Freeman represents as Tillich’s own position the view that “experience is an inexhaustible source out of which new truths are continually taken” and that “the theologian ought to be open to experience which might go beyond Christian experience,” he completely overlooks the fact that in the discussion to which he refers (Systematic Theology, I, 45) Tillich himself is in reality concerned to reject any such view. As can be readily confirmed by … the context in which the statements that Freeman paraphrases occur, Tillich’s purpose in making them is actually descriptive—or, even better, polemical; for it is against precisely such a position as he thereby describes that he is concerned to set his own view of experience as a “medium” rather than as an independent source.

So. Meth. Univ.

Perkins School of Theology

Dallas, Tex.

Your frantic support of reactionary religion … only confirms Tillich’s judgment of some years ago, that much of American religious thinking is comfortably at anchor in the backwaters of a hard-shelled and fundamentalists supernaturalism—which he has called a “happy state of backwardness.” If openness to the eternal and to the future means anything in religious thought and action Tillich is in the vanguard.

Christ Episcopal Church

Tracy City, Tenn.

One of our younger ministers … conducted … devotions.… He had given them Tillich. Even the wisest of preachers told me he didn’t know what he was talking about.… Yet Tillich gets all the space possible in your paper.… I want you to sense the deep, tragic needs of a baffled world, and give us food for … our souls.

Winnipeg, Man.

I am really delighted … you have taken Tillich’s Saturday Evening Post article (June 14 issue) and … have analyzed so competently and unsparingly his position. Dr. Bell’s article on the subject is superb. I was greatly impressed also by the article by David Freeman.

Headmaster

The Stony Brook School

Stony Brook, L. I., N. Y.

It was a very excellent criticism and certainly needed. One cannot help but feel after reading Tillich that his whole approach is just first century Gnosticism warmed over and given a twentieth century sauce. The Gnostics emphasized the idea of “depth” in their philosophy. Indeed, they were trying to give to New Testament Christianity a depth which they felt was missing. Unfortunately, they like Tillich, only succeeded in divesting the relation of God’s saving act in Jesus Christ of historicity and therefore of relevance. The historic facts of the Christian message have always been an offense to the intellectual who has not been humbled at the cross. It is tragic that Tillich’s position is often represented as being the only road by which modern man can travel if he wants to reach a mature faith. Your articles … certainly helped to show that Christian faith must be rooted and grounded in the historic acts of revelation where God in Christ has acted in time—for men and our eternal salvation.

… My prayer is that God will bless the whole ministry of the Church through the excellent and timely articles.…

Thornhill Presb.

Thornhill, Ont.

Encamped along horizontal plane in existential present

Modern man’s predicament becomes quite evident

Lost is the meaning of his life; no infinite concern

Depth the dimension that’s been lost; for which we all should yearn.

Depth is the victory! Depth is the victory!

O glorious victory of infinite concern.

The banner over us is, “Go! directions without limit.”

We’ll tread on roads no saint has trod; world-space will not inhibit.

Fair Science like a whirlwind’s breath makes all and us a tool

While transitory life-concern completely does us fool.

On every hand the foe we find drawn up in dread array.

Literal defense of our symbols for us will lose the day.

The truth of History’s healing power and power in personal life,

Is plainly in symbolic sense and pure non-literal light.

To him that hurts with hard questions; black raiment shall be given

By angels he shall be well-known, at Harvard, if not heaven.

Analysis, Existentialist with cube and plane and line

Humility’s “learned ignorance” is still their name and sign.

Chaplain

Veterans Hosp.

Sheridan, Wyo.

By far the greatest service rendered by Freeman’s article …, particularly in quoting Tillich’s references to “the continuous self-surrender of Jesus who is Jesus to Jesus who is the Christ,” is to show how really far from dead is that Gnosticism the early Church Fathers fought, and how much alive and energetic it still is, particularly in the dress of academic sophistication.

Dongola, Ill.

The references to Tillich … were handled in love and critical integrity.

Indianapolis, Ind.

PROPER THRUST

The thrust of … Prof. Cullmann’s … thesis (July 21 issue) may be in the proper direction, but can such of his quotations … as the following be considered as biblical? “He [Jesus] is now actually in the hands of God’s great enemy [death]” (p. 5). But death is a judicial penalty inflicted by God and is therefore man’s great enemy, not God’s. “He [Jesus] can only conquer death … by betaking himself … to the sphere of ‘nothingness’ …” (p. 5). I have purposely condensed this to bring out the objectionable part, e.g. calling death the sphere of nothingness. Cullmann here implies, if he does not actually say, that Jesus’ death included the cessation of existence for his soul. This is not only unbiblical, it is anti-biblical. “Death is not something natural, willed by God, … it is … opposed to God” (p. 5). This smacks of a dualism that makes death practically, if not actually, as ultimate as God. “The soul is not immortal” (p. 22). This statement agrees with Cullmann’s thought as expressed in the above statements, but it is also simply not true. The biblical data describe death in the primary sense as separation of the soul from the body, and in the ultimate sense as separation of the complete personality from God, of which the former is but a portent. And in neither case does the soul lose its existence.

Faith Presbyterian

Fawn Grove, Pa.

Making a distinction between body and flesh is certainly a bizarre idea.… It is my humble opinion that if this is a sample of Fundamentalist scholarship, they should give it up altogether and confine themselves to the emotional side of religion. Then Christianity will become an outgrowth of the old mystery religions with a modern setting.

Reading, Pa.

I cannot agree that our Lord was afraid to die. If Dr. Cullmann had not omitted the last phrase of Hebrews 5:7, this verse would have refuted his statement concerning this matter. If Christ prayed that he might be spared from death, then he was not “heard.” I believe the only thing he feared was that the sins of the whole world which were beginning to weigh heavily upon him might crush out his life and prevent him going to the cross to accomplish our redemption. The fact that “his sweat was as it were great drops of blood” and that “there appeared an angel unto him from heaven, strengthening him” would seem to allow for this interpretation.

Dean

Simpson Bible College

San Francisco, Calif.

Thank you for the stimulating article … by … Cullmann. I … appreciated his statement that sickness, although not necessarily the result of individual sin, is a result of “the sinful condition of the whole of humanity. Every healing is a partial resurrection, a partial victory of life over death.…” This is exactly what the exponents of divine healing from Drs.… A. B. Simpson … and A. J. Gordon down to the present have been saying. My ideal of a preacher is F. W. Robertson of Brighton, and I consider Oral Roberts to be in the same class.

Parkside Christian & Missionary Alliance

Visalia, Calif.

Cullmann’s vital point is that we have a sure and certain hope only because of the concrete fact of Christ’s resurrection—an … outstanding article … with … essential soundness.

Whitley Vicarage

Godalming, Surrey, England

While reading Cullmann …, I was reminded of a poem by John C. Cooper (July 7 issue). It would seem that Mr. Cooper would agree with the Socratic hope, as described by Dr. Cullmann, that “death is the soul’s great friend.” … Cullmann’s Ingersoll Lecture is a good antidote to the frazzled ending of Mr. Cooper’s otherwise inspiring poem.…

First Cong. Ch.

Brewer, Maine

ALCOHOL

The July 7 issue contained some very good articles on the social aspects of the Gospel which many have a tendency to neglect.

Solon, Maine

The last few paragraphs in … Bainton’s article do little to mitigate against the oinophilic tones of the rest of the article.… Should the subtle invitation to “moderate” drinking be accepted by untaught or mistaught people, then some of the responsibility should be thrown on the shoulders of the writers who “practice and teach total abstinence,” but at the same time undermine the authority of God’s Word regarding the dangerous poison chemically known as ethyl alcohol. San Gabriel, Calif.

The author, as he freely confesses … did not base his article on biblical precepts and examples. An habitual drinker could not have avoided them better.

Chicago, Ill.

Dr. Bainton … holds out a Bible which does not teach total abstinence … and a Christ who … dispensed alcoholic drinks at the wedding in Cana.… History proves that Christians have never risen higher … than their concept of … Christ.…

Evangelical Cong. School of Theol.

Myerstown, Pa.

I wonder if Dr. Bainton felt that there would not be among his readers any who would be so inconsistent with themselves as to read both his article in CHRISTIANITY TODAY on total abstinence, in which he seemed to endorse fully the non-literalist approach to biblical interpretation, and his more recent article in The Christian Century on pacifism, in which he appears to be rather self-consciously embarrassed about his own biblical literalism and legalism. “But if one cites a text one is promptly accused of legalism” (“Christian Pacifism Reassessed,” The Christian Century, July 23, 1958, p. 848). In the article on abstinence he openly admits that his thesis is in direct contradiction to the precepts and practices of the early Church, but seeks to justify his position on grounds of deeper Christian principles. In the article on pacifism he skips over principles and dwells more on the actual precepts and practices of the early Church.

One is puzzled as to what is fundamental in the celebrated professor’s thought—biblical precepts, biblical principles or his own concepts. On the other hand, Professor Bainton may be the latest star to appear on the dialectical horizon.

Dept. of Religion

Judson College

Marion, Ala.

If it is true that the wine of Cana was fermented, then Jesus was doing exactly what Dr. Bainton suggests a stronger brother should not do for a weaker brother—placing before him the wherewithal to yield to temptation.

Santa Rosa, Calif.

Alcohol taken even in moderation provides a degree of drunkenness.

Shelton, Conn.

The article by Dr. Bainton was especially helpful.

River Falls, Wis.

WE WOULD LIKE PERMISSION TO REPRINT IN THE DAILY PAPERS YOUR ARTICLES … ON “THE LIQUOR PROBLEMS” … “TOTAL ABSTINENCE AND BIBLICAL PRINCIPLES,” “LIQUOR, LEGALITY, AND LICENSE” … AND TO QUOTE OR PRINT THE OTHER ARTICLES AS NEED MAY ARRIVE. THE REASON FOR THIS REQUEST [IS] OUR CITY AND COUNTY ARE DRY AND THERE SEEMS TO BE SOME INDICATION OF AN EFFORT FOR A WET ELECTION.

FIRST CHRISTIAN CHURCH

GLASGOW, KY.

Concerning the article by Mr. Wallace and the Temperance League: while it is expected by the churches that they shall follow the methods of the Anti-Saloon League whose chief purpose was to close up liquor outlets, they have retreated by substituting so-called education and have let down the churches.

Townville, Pa.

Dr Jellema states, “Only 2 per cent of those who drink become alcoholics.” The latest issue of the Quarterly Journal of Alcohol Studies reports that in 1956 there were 5,015,000 alcoholics in the United States.… The Gallup Poll has recently made a survey resulting in the estimate that there are now about 57 million adults in the United States who use alcoholic beverages.… This would mean that the alcoholics constitute about 11 per cent of the present drinking population.…

State Supt.

Temperance League of Ohio

Columbus, Ohio

The editorial on “The Alcohol Problem” is the best thing on that subject I have ever read.… The article just following, “Evangelism and the New Birth,” … dovetails into [it].… The alcoholic must be born again before there can be any constructive work on emotional instability or personality weakness.

Presbyterian Junior College

Maxton, N. C.

I wish to commend you on an excellent presentation of a very serious problem that the pulpits of the land seem to have ignored for years. I’m 70 and can’t recall when I last heard a preacher even mention the subject.

Pasadena, Calif.

I would like … copies for parish distribution.

First Congregational Church

Iowa Falls, Iowa

I feel … there is only one way to arrest the spread of alcoholism; … spread the word not to take the first drink.

Winchester, Mass.

I enjoyed reading every word.… Every Christian should be active in the cause of total abstinence.

Coronado, Calif.

Your series of articles … is the most helpful I have ever read.

Emanuel’s Evangelical Lutheran Church

Pittsburgh, Pa.

It is heartening to us to see items given to such a serious problem as alcoholism by a publication such as yours.

Arkansas Commission on Alcoholism

Little Rock, Ark.

CONGREGATIONAL POLITY

In your July 21 issue appeared a statement by Dr. Truman Douglass which is an insult to all churches and ministers who do not believe that organic union is the only expression of the ecumenical movement, and therefore wish to remain outside the “United” Church of Christ. Congregationalists, from the days of the Pilgrim Fathers, have never supported Dr. Douglass’ “legal principle of ‘obedience and support to the will of the majority,’ ” for under our system of church polity each local congregation is in complete charge of its own affairs. We remain a fellowship rather than a national denomination, and a much greater number of churches than the General Council admits have taken their stand in favor of the continuation of our fellowship of free and autonomous congregations, answerable only to the guiding power of the Holy Spirit in our midst. I would like to ask Dr. Douglass how many churches have taken positive action to merge with the Evangelical and Reformed Church. The General Council takes far too much for granted when it approves recent newspaper releases claiming that all Congregational churches and ministers support this hybrid union.

First Cong. Church

Tarentum, Pa.

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