Book Briefs: April 26, 1963

Dust In A Land Of Gold?

The Inspiration of Scripture, by Dewey M. Beegle (Westminster, 1963, 223 pp., $4.50), is reviewed by Frank E. Gaebelein, Headmaster, The Stony Brook School, Stony Brook, New York.

This is a book with a purpose. As the author declares in his preface, “There are few areas of Christian life and thought that do not lead back eventually to the issue of the inspiration of the Scripture” (p. 9). Therefore, every generation of Christians must determine what it believes about inspiration. Past convictions regarding the Bible must be reexamined in the light of new knowledge. And, Dr. Beegle continues, “The purpose of this book is to make such a reexamination. All the relevant data possible, both Biblical and non-Biblical, will be reckoned with, in order to ascertain the truth of the matter concerning the inspiration of Scripture” (p. 9).

Does the book actually make this reexamination, reckoning with “all the relevant data possible”?

Dr. Beegle’s wide acquaintance with the literature of his subject is evident. Likewise his personal concern is apparent; he writes with all the fervor of a convinced man who is out to convert others to his position. And his position is essentially this: The Bible is an inspired but errant book. Any thought of errorless autographs of Scripture must be given up once and for all. Not only are there errors of fact in Scripture, but certain canonical books are of questionable value and, in some cases, of lesser spiritual worth than apocrypha or well-known hymns. Biblical writers are sometimes mistaken in their exegesis of the Old Testament, and they have also erred in doctrine. Such a writer as Luke is no more inspired than any other Christian historian. The “fringes” of the inspired Book are “tattered.” The process of inspiration must be extended to the translations of Scripture beginning with the Septuagint, for the view that inspiration applies only to the autographs and not to translations is untenable. Moreover, as in the new Reformation theology, “revelation must be defined subjectively if the term is to be in accord with the facts” (p. 126). In short, just as the Church had to come to terms with science in the time of Galileo, so evangelicalism must submit to a Copernican revolution in its view of the Holy Scriptures.

Such, very briefly stated, is Dr. Beegle’s position. In fairness let it be recognized that none of us who studies and uses Scripture is without presuppositions. Just as Dr. Beegle writes from conviction, so his readers cannot consider his views apart from their own convictions. But truth is truth, and, despite different convictions, each of us should beware of falling into fear of the truth.

It is to the credit of the book that it presents for reconsideration some of the difficult, yet by no means unrecognized, problems relating to the doctrine of inspiration held by the Reformers and more recently defended by such scholars as Warfield and Machen and, in our day, by writers such as Clark, Kantzer, and Packer. Dr. Beegle deals at length with such points as the chronological difficulty in the reign of King Pekah, the problems of Stephen’s quotations from Genesis, and Jude’s use of the pseudepigraphic Book of Enoch. It is indeed necessary to look phenomena like these in the face. Certainly no scholar committed to what Bromiley has called “the church doctrine of inspiration” can fail to see that inerrancy has its thorny problems, some of which are beyond our ability to solve. Consequently evangelicalism should continue to reexamine in the light of all the data the concept of inerrancy as applied to Scripture. To the extent to which Dr. Beegle’s book leads to contemporary renewal of the debate between Hodge and Warfield on the one hand and Orr and Henry Preserved Smith on the other hand, which Camell called “possibly the last great dialogue on inspiration in America” (The Case for Orthodox Theology, p. 102), it will have served a purpose.

Granting these things, however, this reviewer must say that Dr. Beegle has failed to convert him. The reason lies not in the abundance of data and quotations but in the methods used. The book goes beyond a reexamination of the conservative evangelical view of Scripture; it is a relentless polemic against that view. Dr. Beegle presses his argument with evangelistic zeal and in so doing not infrequently goes over to the subjectivity of special pleading.

To be specific, consider the belittling of The Song of Solomon, because Christ did not refer to it [nor did He refer to seventeen other Old Testament hooks], because it is not quoted by the other New Testament writers [nor did they quote from five other Old Testament books], and because its frank expression of human love is hardly, according to Dr. Beegle, to be interpreted as an allegory of Christ’s love for the Church. Furthermore, when he asks us to imagine that “all religious literature has been destroyed except the canonical Song of Songs and Isaac Watts’s beautiful hymn, ‘When I Survey the Wondrous Cross,’ ” and, in answer to the question “Given only one choice, which of the two would one choose?,” replies that “it is doubtful that most Christians would choose Song of Songs,” and when he goes on to say that the admittedly beautiful hymn of the eighteenth-century nonconformist “has far greater value in and of itself than does the Old Testament love song,” Dr. Beegle has allowed his own taste to demote canonical Scripture (p. 140). Moreover, to contrast a hymn of the Atonement written in the full light of the New Testament revelation with a pre-Christian poetical book violates the elementary basis of analogical reasoning. Dr. Beegle may not care much for Solomon’s Song, but it spoke deeply of Christ to some of the greatest saints, including St. Bernard, Rutherford, McCheyne, Finney, and Spurgeon (who took more texts from it than from any other portion of Scripture of like extent).

Similar to the treatment of the Song is the downgrading of Ecclesiastes, through comparing it with the apocryphal Ecclesiasticus. And what are we to make of this statement? “Some of the psalms are simply an exhortation to praise God because of his dealings with Israel.… Some of the great hymns are practically on a par with the psalms.…” Then referring to Matheson’s “O Love that Wilt Not Let Me Go,” Dr. Beegle passes judgment thus: “This is the kind of inspiration of which the psalms were made. There is no difference in kind” (pp. 140, 141). To the Christian for whom Scripture is the infallible Word of the living God, such subjectivism which presumes to put the God-breathed devotional manual of the ages on the same plane with the writings of uninspired men is utterly unconvincing.

The same kind of dogmatic subjectivism is carried over to the New Testament, as Dr. Beegle asks: “When Luke felt the urge to write ‘an orderly account’ was his inspiration of a different kind [italics author’s] from that of the Holy Spirit’s activity in the hearts and mind of God’s servants down through the history of the church?” Whereupon he almost jauntily answers, “Not likely,” and goes on to say that the only reason why Luke’s account was chosen above that of others was because it was more accurate, but this “hardly comes under the category of unique inspiration. Therefore, it is (1) his association with Paul [a novel theory of ‘inspiration by association’] and (2) his own experience in that crucial period of history, which constitute Luke’s uniqueness as a Biblical writer” (p. 135). In other words, Paul was uniquely inspired and Luke was not.

Revealing also is the treatment of the trivialities of Scripture. Here the author chooses several examples from Judges, including the “Shibboleth” incident (Judges 12:5, 6), about which he concludes that “from the standpoint of God’s revelation the text could just as well have omitted the ‘Shibboleth’ episode with vs. 5–6 reading as follows: ‘And the Gileadites … took the fords of the Jordan against the Ephraimites … and there fell at that time forty-two thousand of the Ephraimites!” (p. 88). This comes uncomfortably close to telling God how he should have written an Old Testament passage! What the author overlooks is the fact that the Bible is, as Patton said (Fundamental Christianity, p. 169), “an organism and not a miscellaneous collection of writings.” And because it is an organism, parts of it are “connective tissue”—minor, but not to be exscinded without damage to the living whole.

It would seem that once having concluded that the Bible is not entirely true, Dr. Beegle feels constrained to find error wherever it seems to him that error might be postulated, even though not proved. Consider his highly suppositional treatment of our Lord’s teaching in Matthew 24 about His return. Here Dr. Beegle actually admits the inconclusive nature of his argument, yet uses it to declare that error in Scripture extends to doctrine: “Although it is difficult to give conclusive proof of contradiction, some of the verses noted in the three Gospels were in all likelihood inserted out of context, and, accordingly, they constitute erroneous elements of doctrine” (p. 172). “All Biblical doctrine is not infallible, but it is sufficiently accurate as a whole to achieve the goal that God would desire” (p. 174). But surely the doctrines of Scripture are to be believed, and if, as Dr. Beegle asserts, “all Biblical doctrine is not infallible,” what becomes of the great Reformed principle that Scripture is “the infallible rule of faith and practice”?

A further question about the author’s method relates to what seems to be a certain disingenuousness in using supporting authorities. While this may charitably be attributed to his zeal to persuade others to discard plenary inspiration, it is questionable. For example, Dr. Beegle introduces Dr. Patton’s well-known passage about inerrancy by referring to Machen’s dedication of his book What Is Faith? to Patton, thus using Machen to bolster up Patton (p. 66). But What Is Faith? appeared a year before Patton’s Fundamental Christianity, and in his two last books, published in 1935 and 1936, Machen flatly affirmed the inerrancy of Scripture.

It is strange that in attacking the principle of errorless originals Dr. Beegle excerpts a passage from the King James Preface, for, after making the common-sense point that just as the King’s speech in Parliament is still the King’s speech though translated into French, Dutch, Italian, and Latin, so “the meanest translation of the Bible in English containeth the word of God, nay, is the word of God,” the Preface includes this affirmation of the perfection of the original, the very point Dr. Beegle is arguing against: “For what ever was perfect under the sun, where Apostles or apostolic men, that is, men endued with an extraordinary measure of God’s Spirit, and privileged with the privilege of infallibility had not their hand?”

But what about the author’s discussion of the phenomena of Scripture—the difficult problems relating to King Pekah, Stephen’s defense, Jude, and the like? Before considering particulars, let us recall Dr. Beegle’s purpose as stated in his preface: “All the relevant data possible, both Biblical and non-Biblical will be reckoned with …” This is not a promise of encyclopedic completeness, but it does imply a balanced presentation.

Yet while Dr. Beegle’s presentation of difficult phenomena, including some very hypothetical discrepancies, is highly detailed, his consideration of the other side is less full. The phenomena of Scripture, however, are positive as well as negative. To be sure, he deals with some great texts, such as 2 Timothy 3:16, 17 (the basic meaning of theopneustos is strangely passed over as mere interpretation); 1 Peter 1:21; Matthew 5:17, 18; and John 10:35. But of the evidence of Scripture’s self-authentication in the multitudinous repetition of “Thus saith the Lord,” “God spoke,” “The Scripture says,” and so on (as dealt with, for instance, by Warfield), he has practically nothing to say.

Reading for Perspective

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

★ Faith Victorious, by Lennart Pinomaa, translated by Walter J. Kukkonen (Fortress, $4.75). An assessment of Luther’s view of major theological themes supplemented by résumés of other recent leading studies.

★ The Reality of the Resurrection, by Merrill C. Tenney (Harper & Row, $4). The resurrection of Christ is vigorously defended as a hard, unshakable historical reality, and full treatment is given its many facets.

★ Dictionary of the Bible, edited by James Hastings, Revised Edition by F. C. Grant and H. H. Rowley (Scribner’s, $15). Thoroughly revised by scholarship ranging the theological spectrum as widely as did its original authors fifty years ago. Excellent new maps.

Again, his references to the amazing accuracy of Scripture as compared with that of all other ancient books are exceedingly brief, as are also his references to the mountainous corroboration of the historicity of the Bible by archaeology. And while it is true, as Dr. Beegle shows, that it was not in support of inerrancy that Nelson Glueck made his famous statement about no archaeological discovery’s ever contravening the Bible, the statement is nevertheless factual regardless of its author’s intent.

On the other hand, when he comes to negative phenomena, Dr. Beegle makes the most of his material. 2 Kings 15:27 states that Pekah reigned twenty years, but according to the scriptural data he reigned only eight years. Even Thiele, whose success in unraveling the tangled skein of most of the discrepant reigns is passed over, stumbles at this problem. Are we therefore to conclude that the problem is, as Dr. Beegle dogmatically insists, insoluble for good and all and that this is a case where the original must have been wrong? Not everyone will agree; witness the suggestion advanced by John Briggs Curtis in the Journal of Biblical Literature (Dec., 1961, pp. 362, 363) that Pekah might have “actually set up a Gileadite monarchy rivaling the house of Menahem during the period of anarchy following the death of Jeroboam II and actually reigned the twenty years credited to him in 2 Kings 15:27.”

This may not be the final answer. But there are those of us who hold more tenaciously to suspended judgment than does Dr. Beegle. We do this on two grounds—first, the enormous complexity of historical events compared with the paucity of our knowledge of the distant past; second, the fact, almost completely overlooked in this book, of the dramatic movement of archaeology in corroboration of Scripture. The reviewer has watched this movement for over forty years and has seen the reversal of one critical position after another. Yet about the only recognition Dr. Beegle accords this trend is a passing reference to the old story of Hartmann’s mistaken notion that writing was not known in Moses’ time. If the situation respecting the phenomena of Scripture were static, then to hold a suspended judgment regarding difficult passages might be obscurantist, but in view of the progressive corroboration of many disputed points, it is a thoroughly reasonable position.

A review, however, has limits, and the temptation to discuss many other details must be resisted. It should simply be said that by no means all the evidence presented is as significant as the Pekah, Jude, and Acts 7 problems. In fact, some is highly unimpressive—for example, the peculiar attempt to read a discrepancy into the accounts of the cockcrowing at Peter’s denial when there is a natural and adequate explanation. This tendency to insist upon error when an alternate explanation is possible appears in a number of instances.

Also unconvincing is the elaborate attempt to explain away our Lord’s explicit authentication of the indefectible character of the Old Testament through recourse to first-century views of the Septuagint. As for the extensive treatment of Philo and of the patristic view of Scripture, here Dr. Beegle seems to be reading back into the Fathers his own views.

Chapters 8–11, dealing with existentialism and “the new Reformation theology,” show a wide acquaintance with such writers as Kirkegaard, Barth, and Brunner, the quotations from Brunner being particularly copious. Although there is some criticism of Brunner and strong dissent from Bultmann, one gains the impression that Dr. Beegle approves in good part of the new Reformation view of inspiration. Certainly it is in accord with the subjectivism with which he so generally views Scripture.

The book leaves one with the feeling of propaganda. The author is passionately convinced of the rightness of his views and is on a campaign to persuade his evangelical brethren that God inspired an errant Bible. While his sincerity is evident, his argument fails to carry conviction.

FRANK E. GAEBELEIN

Theology And Life

Theology and the Cure of Souls, by Frederic Greeves (Channel Press, 1962, 180 pp., $3.75), is reviewed by Gene Griessman, Pastor, Lakeside Baptist Church, Metairie, Louisiana.

The title of this book indicates that the author has selected a neglected field in which to do his work. Current renewed interest in biblical theology along with the great concern about pastoral care means that this attempt to relate these two complex areas of Christian thought and action should evoke considerable interest.

Frederic Greeves’s experience has come in both the pastorate and the seminary. He is presently principal of Didsbury College, the oldest English Methodist school for the training of ministers.

Despite the book’s lack of an arresting introduction and a gripping conclusion, the reader finds that the heart of the work amply rewards the effort spent reaching it. Among the several outstanding sections are an appraisal of the pastoral office today, and an analysis of existentialist theology and its legitimate relation to biblical theology.

One chapter is entitled “The Doctrine of the Trinity and the Cure of Souls.” With this doctrine that too often has been considered of little practical importance to Christian living, the author vividly illustrates that Christian doctrine does have profound implications for Christian living.

The book serves the useful function of pointing out some connecting lines between biblical theology and pastoral care. It deserves a wide reading. It will be unfortunate if its influence is limited to Methodist clergymen, for it deals with a problem which is of vital concern to all Christians.

GENE GRIESSMAN

Interviews With Eichmann

The Struggle for a Soul, by William L. Hull (Doubleday, 1963, 175 pp., $3.50), is reviewed by F. Carlton Booth, Professor of Evangelism, Fuller Theological Seminary, Pasadena, California.

This is part of the story that was never told concerning Adolf Eichmann. It embraces the content of many extended conversations which took place in the death cell at Ramleh Prison between Eichmann and his spiritual advisor, the writer of this volume, an evangelical American clergyman. How could any living human being yield himself to be used as such an awful instrument of destruction? How could Eichmann, the assassin of six million Jews, insist during these interviews, “I am in contact with God. He has led me continually”? Eichmann maintained that he was only a cog, a tool of the State, but his crime lay in the fact that he was a willing tool, desirous of being used in the vile work.

His dramatic trial covered a period of four months with 121 court sessions, during which time Eichmann spurned the idea of being visited by a spiritual advisor. But once confined to the death cell, he who had been reared in a Christian atmosphere and had been a member of the Protestant church now expressed interest in having spiritual counsel. It was William Hull, a resident of Jerusalem for twenty-seven years, who offered and gave this counsel, and this is the record of his thirteen interviews with Eichmann. “Do you repent of the things you were forced to do?” asked Hull during the tenth interview. “Yes, I do,” was Eichmann’s reply. What he meant only God knows. This book relates at once the struggle of a soul and “the struggle for a soul.” It is a deep philosophical and psychological study well worth reading.

F. CARLTON BOOTH

The Christian In Business

The Christian in Business, by John E. Mitchell, Jr. (Revell, 1962, 156 pp., $3), is reviewed by Wilbur D. Benedict, Publisher, CHRISTIANITY TODAY.

Anyone inclined to think of Christianity as something that deals only with “pie in the sky when you die” should read The Christian in Business. Here is a book that portrays in clear, concise language the teachings of Christ as applied to the workaday lives of people. The fact that most of the persons named are connected with one business concern detracts in no way from a general application of the message. Biblical Christianity in action is on display in this volume.

WILBUR D. BENEDICT

New Light On John Wesley

John Wesley, A Theological Biography, Volume I (1703–1738), by Martin Schmidt, translated by Norman P. Goldhawk (Epworth Press, 1962, 320 pp., 30s.; Abingdon, $6.50), is reviewed by Arnold A. Dallimore, Pastor, Cottam Baptist Church, Cottam, Ontario, Canada.

Another biography of John Wesley? Yes, and this one has much to say which others missed.

The book’s unique qualities arise from the fact that Dr. Schmidt, professor of church history at the University of Mainz, was able to use a number of primary documents not available to previous writers. John Wesley, in the years immediately before and after his conversion, was in close relationship with a number of Germans of the Moravian and Pietist schools. From the records of these men, long stored in the archives at Herrnhut and the University of Halle, Schmidt has gathered much information and published many statements heretofore unknown. New light is shed on the early stages of Wesley’s career by these German associates.

Besides providing this fresh factual knowledge, Dr. Schmidt has attempted a penetrating analysis of the mind and soul of his subject. At each decisive point in Wesley’s life the author makes a lengthy pause to probe what lies beneath the surface, seeking to discover Wesley’s basic motives, hidden desires, spiritual conflicts, and subconscious personality. This analysis is continually related to Wesley’s religious beliefs, thereby occasioning and meriting the book’s subtitle, “A Theological Biography.” Having been translated excellently, the book is highly readable, and the ever-fascinating life of Wesley takes on fresh attraction in this attempt at portrait-in-depth.

Nevertheless, Dr. Schmidt’s work has a serious defect. He who would truly depict John Wesley must be prepared first of all to perform the unpleasant labor of the iconoclast; the false must be destroyed before the true may be fully known. Wesley’s early followers, faced with the task of defending his teaching of perfectionism, blinded themselves to his faults and exaggerated his merits; aided by subsequent biographers and artists, they have handed down to posterity a legendary image that is rather bland and always smiling and sweet, and therefore bears little resemblance to the militant heroism of the Father of Methodism. An objective study of the evidence will show John Wesley to have been a man of iron with a fist of steel and a heart of both ice and fire; a soldier of Napoleonic stance, demanding obedience, defying his foes, and overpowering his friends; a mortal subject to internal struggle, fighting and failing, striving and winning; a hero with stains and scars and victories. It is this Wesley, a man of like passions with ourselves, who has a message for us today.

It is at this point that the one failure in Dr. Schmidt’s work appears. He has apparently given full credence to the common assumptions, and his acceptance of the legendary image has colored his interpretations of even the new information which his unique sources provided. One can but wish he had started his study with a clean slate, devoid of any preconceived notions. A much truer and more valuable portrait would have resulted.

Nevertheless, the book, the first of a two-volume set, must be accorded a place among the most important on Wesley, and it is to be hoped the second volume will correct the basic error of the first.

ARNOLD A. DALLIMORE

Meet The Man Moody

Moody: A Biographical Portrait, by J. C. Pollock (Macmillan, 1963, 336 pp., $5.50), is reviewed by Clyde S. Kilby, Professor of English, Wheaton College, Wheaton, Illinois.

A well-known modern biographer once said that it is almost as hard to write a good life as live one. The difficulty is not simplified, indeed is often increased, when one Christian writes about another Christian. Though the author of this biography, an Anglican rector, obviously admires D. L. Moody, he has not allowed this to disrupt a severely truthful, though appreciative, presentation.

The author believes that his biography of Moody has a threefold advantage over many previous ones: he is the first to make complete use of several vital collections of papers relating to Moody; he has attempted to show Moody’s capacity for growth to the very end of his life; and he has avoided allowing anecdotes to dominate his study.

The biography is replete not only with famous names in the Christian world—Scofield, Revell, Torrey, Gray, C. T. Studd, Hudson Taylor, George Muller—but also with names such as John Wanamaker, Marshall Field, Cyrus H. McCormick, Pierpont Morgan, Cornelius Vanderbilt, Woodrow Wilson, Bernard Shaw, and W. E. Gladstone. There are excellent accounts of Moody’s great evangelistic campaigns abroad and at home and of his founding of schools.

Moody the man is pictured well. We see his irrepressible gaiety, his schoolboy frolics to the end of his life, his charm and joviality, his vast appetite and sound sleep, his love of farm life, his directness in everything. Readers not already acquainted with Moody will be shocked to discover the brevity of his prayers and devotions, his subscription to the construction of a Roman Catholic church in Northfield, his bold requests for money to run his schools, and his hatred of ecclesiastical division.

CLYDE S. KILBY

BOOK BRIEFS

Shorter Atlas of the Classical World, by H. H. Scullard and A. A. M. van der Heyden (Thomas Nelson, 1962, 239 pp., also 112 pp. of illustrations and 10 pp. of maps, $3.95 or 15s.). Polished account, fine maps, and excellent photographs convey the spirit of ancient Greece and Rome.

As the River Flows, by John A. Morrison (Anderson College Press [Anderson, Ind.], 214 pp., $3.25). The development of Anderson College reflected through the biography of its first president.

The First Gospel, by Carroll E. Simcox (Seabury, 1963, 311 pp., $5.75). Richly suggestive, well-written discursive commentary on Matthew, occupying the happy borderline between the devotional and the sermonic.

In the Hollow of His Hand, by Kai Jensen (Augsburg, 1963, 128 pp., $2.75). A bishop presents 36 short devotional chapters in language that is the shortest distance between Christian truth and human adversity.

The Protestant Liturgical Renewal, by Michael J. Taylor, S. J. (Newman Press, 336 pp., $5.50). A Roman Catholic looks at the movements (in the Lutheran, Presbyterian, Methodist, and United Church of Christ Churches) toward making the Lord’s Supper more central in Protestant worship. A valuable, non-technical study.

Faith of the Psalmists, by Helmer Ringgren (Fortress, 1963, 138 pp., $3.50). The Psalms interpreted not as expressions of personal piety but as cultic expressions of public worship in the temple.

Predestination, by Howard G. Hageman (Fortress, 1963, 74 pp., $1). A provocative series of letters to young Jan—though they can be read with interest by adults—on the subject of predestination. The language is simple, the thought sharp, the observations shrewd, and the whole rendered even more readable by a dash of humor.

Paperbacks

The English Church in the Fourteenth Century, by W. A. Pantin (University of Notre Dame Press, 1963, 292 pp., $1.95). A treatment of church and state, of intellectual life and controversy, and of the religious literature of fourteenth-century English church history.

Memoirs of Childhood and Youth, by Albert Schweitzer (Macmillan, 1963, 124 pp., $.95). Schweitzer’s reminiscences of his boyhood; written with whimsy and charm.

The Sources of Religious Insight, by Josiah Royce (Scribner’s, 1963, 297 pp., $1.65). A major work by the significant American philosopher and religious thinker. First published in 1912.

The Communist Encounter, by Carl Bangs (Beacon Hill, 1963, 94 pp., $1). A “first reader” for those who wish to begin a study of Communism.

Holy Week: A Short History, by J. Gordon Davies (John Knox, 1963, 82 pp., $1.75). An ecumenical study; part of the liturgical renaissance effort to recapture the church year within those churches that discarded it at the Reformation.

Christianity Among the Religions of the World, by Arnold Toynbce (Scribner’s, 1963, 116 pp., $1.25). Toynbee’s allocation of Christianity’s place in the world’s religions. A significant book that disappointed many of his Christian admirers.

The Loveliest Story Ever Told, by Murdoch Campbell (Highland Printers, Ltd., 1962, 94 pp., 4s. 6d.). A running spiritualized commentary on the love story of Isaac and Rebecca. Designed primarily for young people.

Christ, Communism and the Clock, by G. Ray Jordan (Warner, 1963, 128 pp., $1.50). Author believes that the alternatives today are Christ or Communism.

The Great Divorce, by C. S. Lewis (Macmillan, 1963, 128 pp., $.95). Lewis’ story of the bus which travels the route from Hell to Heaven to show that there are absolutes in life, and places where men must choose either/or. First printing 1946.

The Call to Preach, by Clayton Beyler (Herald Press, 1963, 45 pp., $.50). A consideration of the divine call to preach within the context of that call to minister which comes to every member of the Church.

Religion in America, by Willard L. Sperry (Beacon Press, 1963, 317 pp., $2.25). The only American edition in print of this work (first published in 1946) by the former dean of Harvard Divinity School. New introduction by D. W. Grogan.

A Guide to the World’s Religions, by David G. Bradley (Prentice-Hall, 1963, 182 pp., $1.95). Brief, uncritical, historically oriented survey of the major faiths. Lacks a satisfactory frame of reference.

The Dying Lord, by Walter C. Klein (Morehouse-Barlow, 1963, 80 pp., $1.25). Brief Lenten meditations; in both form and content extraordinarily fine.

Religious Language: An Empirical Placing of Theological Phrases, by Ian T. Ramsey (Macmillan, 1963, 221 pp., $1.45). Author argues that a philosophical empirical concern with language renders great service to theology and makes possible a new cooperation between philosophy and theology. Not for amateurs. First printed in 1957.

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