Book Briefs: December 17, 1971

Everything You Always Wanted To Know?

Research on Religious Development: A Project of the Religious Education Association, edited by Merton P. Strommen (Hawthorn, 1971, 904 pp., $24.95), is reviewed by Kenneth O. Gangel, director, School of Christian Education, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, Deerfield, Illinois.

Here it is! Everything you’ve always wanted to know about religious development but were afraid to ask because if the answer came, you might have to plow through 904 pages. Sponsored by the Religious Education Association and funded by Lilly Endowment, the project represented in these pages culminates what the editor calls “a ten year program of activity [symbolizing] the sustained interest of the Religious Education Association in bringing religious education under the discipline of empirical study and evaluation.” The result is a volume heavy in size, price, style, content, and weight (approximately three pounds).

The central problem of this production may be at once its greatest strength and most seductive weakness. Early in the project the editorial committee “decided against adopting an official definition of ‘religion’ which could serve as a reference point for all the chapters. Rather, the committee asked each author to declare his own point of view and interpret his data accordingly.”

Martin Marty’s attempts at defining religion in chapter two seem to substantiate the decision of the editorial committee. Though written in the belletristic Mr. Marty’s typically brilliant style, the chapter is an exercise in evanescence, offering in conclusion a definition of religion as a cultural system attempted by Clifford Geertz in 1968:

(1) a system of symbols which acts to (2) establish powerful, pervasive, and long-lasting moods and motivations in men by (3) formulating conceptions of a general order of existence and (4) clothing these conceptions with such an aura of factuality that (5) the moods and motivations seem uniquely realistic.

But after listing this definition, Marty spends the next fourteen lines apologizing for it and telling us that given another time, place, and set of circumstances, Geertz would have written something considerably different.

Herein lies the weakness. Twenty-two authors supposedly dealing with the same subject, yet free to define that subject as they choose, may really be playing blind man and elephant. In some cases, the contributors offer us no scintilla of definition but plunge directly into the research gathered about the nonentity they are describing. In most cases, a distinctly relative conceptualization of religion is adopted, excluding even Marty’s scant genuflexion to a propositional norm: “Pure religion and undefiled is that which depends on the isolated person’s hold on the infinite—an experience which theoretically could be the same at all times in all places and cultures.” Many of the contributors, writing out of the theological vacuum of contemporary psychology, focus exclusively on a naturalistic approach, a complete denial of the supernatural component of biblical Christianity.

This is not a book for all seasons or, for that matter, for all people. Scholars and students will find valuable summaries of research in various areas, and the book’s thoroughness and accuracy will appeal to the academic mind. But the statistical jargon can communicate only to the initiated. Perhaps the best way to praise the virtues and expose the flaws of this work is to analyze it by sections (there are six) with a word about the value of each section for selected groups of Christian leaders.

Part I is entitled simply “Religion and Research” and consists of three introductory chapters by Bertocci, Marty, and Dittes. Bertocci’s chapter is an extremely helpful analysis of the religious conceptions of ten psychological philosophers. The section on Maslow is a distinct contribution to the chapter and the total volume. His frightening conclusion in view of the selected contributors to this book is that “in the area of the psychology of religion, psychologists may be likened to fishermen throwing their lines into an unexplored lake. What fish they catch depends upon the nature of the hook and of the bait used.” As mentioned before, Marty is saddled with the task of doing something about the problem of definition. Dittes identifies “two types of believers”—those for whom religion is a “thoughtful commitment” and those for whom religion is a “formalized and external response.” The initial 106 pages, then, provide helpful general information that could be useful to most professional Christian leaders, but particularly professors of biblical and related studies at both undergraduate and graduate levels.

Part II carries the amazingly broad heading, “Personal and Religious Factors in Religious Development.” Of the five chapters, this reviewer found Lawrence Little’s treatment of the role of religion in public education most scintillating. The section on “Religion in Public Education and Philosophies of Education” is a beautiful example of organizing and capsulizing a mass of material. Little, however, treats Donald Bole’s The Bible, Religion, and the Public Schools but offers no mention of Bole’s later book, The Two Swords. Other omissions include no references to the Religious Instruction Association of Fort Wayne, Indiana, and Educational Communication Association, located in Indianapolis. Leaders in parochial education can’t afford to overlook chapter seven by Greely and Gockel on “The Religious Effects of Parochial Education.” The three studies analyzed all converge on the family as the strategic agent in the socializing process but recognize that parochial-school education is a positive factor, though secondary. Conclusion: “When the orientation of the family is religious, then the impact of outside religious factors (e.g. parochial education) is minimized except to reinforce what the home has already established.”

The analysts in Part III examine the research on “Religion. Personality, and Psychological Health.” James Dittes of Yale University trundles through almost nine pages of bibliographical data to conclude that “religion is popular among those who need it,” and Becker divorces any necessary linkage between religion and mental health. Becker’s chapter provides a worthy section on theory, and his definition of religion is perhaps the best in the entire volume: “For me, religion is that set of human behaviors in which the concerns of man are related to God—The Holy Creator, The Divine Will, or the Ultimate Ground of Being.” All pastors should read “Psychological Characteristics of Religious Professionals” to see what makes them tick—or better yet, how they got wound up in the first place.

Chapter fourteen on crisis religious experience may be the apogee of the volume. Clark is willing to face the tough issues as he tackles conversion, mysticism, and drug-induced religious states. He also has the theological sensitivity (and sense) to make room for a supernatural dimension. Moberg’s chapter on religious practices and a collective effort treating motivation and religious behavior are both pristine inclusions; serious students of parish ministry will want to spend some time in them.

The fifth section of the book treats “Religious Development by Age Grouping.” Research dealing with the religious understanding of children and youth is, in the opinion of one contributor, at a stage where “we seem to be coming to the end of the qualitative descriptive phase” and “to be moving toward the quantitative experimental stage of inquiry.” Havighurst and Keating treat the evangelically oriented research of Zuck and Getz in their chapter on religion of youth and emphasize the need for further research among “three definable alienated groups” that appeared during the 1960s: hippies, radical social activists, and the uncommitted. Parker’s ten-page chart on the changes of religious beliefs during college avoids the lineal marsh-sloughing that characterizes so much research reporting. Section five could be read with benefit by many advanced lay leaders of the church’s age-group educational programs as well as by the professional professoriate.

The final section is simply entitled “Research in Religious Education” and consists of just two chapters focusing on “program development” and “problems.” In surveying denominational “in-house” research since 1960, Sibley selects three descriptive and three evaluative studies as models for future research. They bear examination by all denominational educational leaders. His list of “characteristics of good program research” is compact and comprehensible. Barton’s final chapter on problems will appeal only to the professional researchers, but to him it is given to write the last paragraph of this monumental volume. Says he:

Perhaps more important now even than the design and execution of new studies would be the creation for the field of religious research of some system for either centralized or decentralized storage and retrieval of data from past and current studies so that scholars could carry out new kinds of analysis on it.

Not a bad idea. Graduate students of the religious world, awake! To the task!

Commentary On Man

Man: God’s Eternal Creation, by R. Laird Harris (Moody, 1971, 190 pp., $4.95), is reviewed by Dwight E. Acomb, Fresno, California.

The Bible is not a textbook per se for the precise disciplines of modern scholarship, yet it does make noteworthy contributions to many by direct reference and implication. For example, though it is not appreciated by anthropologists in general, the Scriptures give a divine commentary on the nature of man and his relationships. In Man: God’s Eternal Creation, R. Laird Harris, faculty dean and professor of Old Testament at Covenant Seminary in St. Louis, recognizes this and brings Old Testament evidence to bear upon the technical study of anthropology. This volume is both helpful and controversial. In eight chapters Dr. Harris touches upon the nature and origin of man, his culture, worship and social controls established by God for Israel, warfare, and future life.

As the title shows, Harris believes that man resulted from a special creative act of God. Man was formed in the image of God and is a spiritual, moral, and rational being, therefore not limited by time or space—in short, an eternal creation who will continue either in fellowship or in antagonism with God into the future life. The non-material part of man (or soul) is presumed on the basis of the concepts of the “image of God,” the “spirit” of man, “heart,” and sonship with God, but not on the basis of the Hebrew term nephesh. In contrast he suggests that polyphyletic evolution need not be a problem to a fair biblical interpretation of the creation of subhuman life. Physical similarities can be explained by DNA instead of common ancestry.

Harris finds little evidence from human fossil remains for the upward evolution of man. However, he allows for “some evidence for a wider variation within the human pattern than is seen today.” Radioactive dating techniques and the practice of relating early human forms with the supposed four glacieral periods are legitimately questioned. He thinks that the dates of fossil man should be reduced to two-fifths of their commonly held ages. Suggesting 10,000 years ago as the date for the flood (on the basis of sedimentary core samples from the Caribbean and the Pacific Northwest), he assumes a reestablishment in accordance with accepted archaeological time designations of certain pre-deluge capabilities and occupations like metal craftsmanship and functions of urban life.

In recent days the Ugaritic and Psalm studies of Michael Dahood have reopened the discussion of resurrection in the Old Testament. The positive nature of this inquiry confirms Harris’s conviction and that of most conservative Christians. However, many readers will question the author’s position that she’ol should be equated with the grave. It is more probable that she’ol refers to the place of departed spirits, which was pictured metaphorically by the ancients as a tomb cut out of bedrock.

Man: God’s Eternal Creation is an interesting book, well worth reading. The addition of a preface to state the overall view and purpose of the book and an index would increase its usability. Its brevity imposes limits on depth of discussion, but does not keep the author from drawing attention to ideas deserving consideration. There is plenty of room for disagreement. Perhaps the greatest contribution of the volume is Dr. Harris’s awareness of the importance of Genesis 4–11 to the study of anthropology. Evangelical scholars need to pursue this further.

For Scholars Only

First and Second Kings: A Commentary, by John Gray (Westminster, 1970, 802 pp., $15), is reviewed by Donald J. Wiseman, professor of Assyrology, University of London, England.

Professor Gray of Aberdeen University has made a fine job of revising and expanding his massive commentary on the books of Kings (the first edition, 1964, is to be discarded since it was riddled with errors, mainly typographical—a misfortune that hit the first volume of the New International Commentary’s Isaiah in 1965).

There can be no question of the need for a full-scale commentary on these historical books since philological advances and fresh archaeological discoveries render most earlier treatments inadequate for the needs of advanced students. Gray very fairly presents different views held of the chronology and historical problems (e.g., Sennacherib’s campaign) and provides extensive explanatory and philological notes. For these reasons alone this book must largely replace J. A. Montgomery and H. S. Gehman’s Book of Kings (1951) as the standard academic work.

Unlike the majority of the commentaries in this same “Old Testament Library” series, which have largely relied on translations of German scholarship, Gray repeatedly strikes out on his own, but leaning—some will say too heavily—on his expertise in Ugaritic and Arabic. He overstresses the bearing of the Qumran fragments of Kings (and parallels in Isaiah) as supporting the Greek (Lucian) text. This has led him to changes in the text and thus in his very literal translation (in itself helpful to Bible translators without a knowledge of Hebrew), which heads up each section. This will not be widely accepted.

While there are passages of theological discussion, this does not emerge as a main emphasis in this treatment of the crucial period of Hebrew history from the zenith of the united monarchy under David and Solomon to its fall under divine judgment in 587 B.C.

Gray takes as his basic critical stance that “the Deuteronomistic book of Kings is a pre-exilic compilation which underwent some post-exilic redaction and expansion.” He finds a predominantly pre-Deuteronomistic prophetic source for much of the history of the northern kingdom and argues toward the genuineness of a number of disputed prophetic incidents, including the “Elijah-Saga.” Many will object to such subjective observations as “Elisha and the rude boys of Bethel … a puerile tale without serious point” for which no discussion of the moral or ethical implications is given.

This volume will be of essential use to teachers and students working on the Hebrew text or engaged in literary studies. For them it is more worthwhile than C. F. Burney’s Notes on the Hebrew Text of the Books of Kings (1918, reprint 1970). It is not a book for the average preacher’s shelves. He may well get inspiration still from earlier works like C. F. Keil’s The Book of Kings (1872) in the recently reprinted commentary series by Keil and Delitzsch (omitted from the bibliography here, though at a number of points it anticipates Gray’s conclusions).

Now that we have an abundant supply of Bible atlases, dictionaries, and mini-commentaries, it is to be hoped that fully equipped scholars, including evangelicals, will not shy away from the arduous task of writing major works that will face the text and all its associated problems with the aim of making Scripture clear to the plain man.

Newly Published

Imagination and the Spirit, edited by Charles A. Huttar (Eerdmans, 496 pp., $9.95). A stimulating festschrift for Clyde Kilby (The Christian World of C. S. Lewis), including essays by Tom Howard, Owen Barfield, and Calvin Linton.

Early History of the Middle East, edited by I. E. S. Edwards, C. J. Gadd, and N. G. L. Hammond (Cambridge, 1,058 pp., $23.50). The period from about 3000 to 1750 B.C. is authoritatively covered in this major revision of a standard work. Issued as Volume I, Part 2 of The Cambridge Ancient History.

Matthew, by W. F. Albright and C. S. Mann (Doubleday, 363 pp., $8). Latest addition to the Anchor Bible series.

Worldly Goods, by James Gollin (Random House, 531 pp., $10). Long and thorough research by a non-Catholic on the state of the American Catholic Church, its wealth and poverty. May help to dispel some myths, at least among those willing to listen.

New Testament Word Studies, two volumes, by John Albert Bengel (Kregel, 980 pp., $29.95). Originally done in 1742 by one of the few master commentators in Christian history.

Memo for the Underground, by Ted Ward (Creation House, 128 pp., $3.95). Short observations on topics such as the Church, worship, and communication for those who take Jesus seriously.

In Defense of People, by Richard Neuhaus (Macmillan, 315 pp., $6.95), and Nature—Garden or Desert?, by Eric C. Rust (Word, 150 pp., $4.95). Neuhaus, while believing that the ecology crisis is real, warns against some radical responses to these problems. Sane, witty, well-written argument. Rust, however, breaks no new ground.

I Believe Because … by Batsell Barrett Baxter (Baker, 284 pp., paperback, $3.95). An ordinary introduction to traditional Christian arguments for belief in God.

The Westminster Dictionary of Church History, edited by Jerald C. Brauer (Westminster, 887 pp., $17.50). A major work well deserving of a place in many private and all institutional theological libraries.

Before I Forget, by Wilbur M. Smith (Moody, 304 pp., $5.95). One of the best-known figures in contemporary American evangelical circles reminisces, rather selectively, on his experiences.

When God Was Black, by Bob Harrison (Zondervan, 160 pp., paperback, $1.95). The moving story of his life by one of today’s leading black evangelists.

Twenty Centuries of Great Preaching, thirteen volumes, compiled by Clyde E. Fant, Jr., and William M. Pinson, Jr. (Word, $179.95 until Dec. 31, 1971, then $199.95). Those who like to read sermons will enjoy this set. By far most of the selections are from the last 200 years.

Churches and How They Grow, by M. Wendell Belew (Broadman, 144 pp., $3.95). This book, by a Southern Baptist home-missions executive, is based on studies of 200 growing churches (mostly Southern Baptist) located in a variety of settings from rural to inner city. Encouraging news indeed and some insight into special problems, but short on the “how.”

A Gift of Doubt, by Robert H. Pope (Prentice-Hall, 143 pp., $4.95). A month-by-month account of the author’s six-year struggle with Christianity, a struggle still continuing.

The Culture of Unbelief, edited by Rocco Caporale and Antonio Grumelli (University of California, 303 pp., $10). Thorough coverage of the Rome Symposium, March 22–27, 1969, including essays by such men as Harvey Cox, Martin Marty, and Jean Danielou.

God on Broadway, by Jerome Ellison (John Knox, paperback, $2.45). The interest in God at the box office is fully explored in this timely book.

Crossroads in Missions, edited by Arthur Glasser (William Carey Library [South Pasadena, Calif. 91030], 897 pp., paperback, $9.95). Five significant books issued over the last decade are now available in one volume: Missionary Nature of the Church, Missionary Go Home, Responsible Church and Foreign Mission, On the Growing Edge of the Church, and Missionary Between the Times.

The Life and Writings of Francis Makemie, by Boyd S. Schlenther (Presbyterian Historical Society, 287 pp., $6), and The Journal and Major Essays of John Woolman, edited by Phillips P. Moulton (Oxford, 336 pp., $10.50). Well-edited collections of the works of two very important colonial figures. Makemie was the founder of American Presbyterianism and Woolman was a leading Quaker mystic and preacher.

Beauty for Ashes, by James P. Leynse (Good News, 320 pp., $5.95). An out-of-the-ordinary missionary story about China.

The Ground of Evil-doing: An Inquiry Into the Limits of Man’s Power to Act, by E. Hans Freund (Christopher, 321 pp., $8.95). Attempts to bring new insights to the question of man’s wrong-doing. The book is free from much of the abstractions (undefined) that accompany some modern philosophy.

Poetry, Language, Thought, by Martin Heidegger (Harper & Row, 229 pp., $7.95). For Heidegger, poetry, a highly specialized use of language, “opens up the realm of truth” and helps us arrive at the meaning of “being.”

Channing: The Reluctant Radical, by Jack Mendelsohn (Little, Brown, 308 pp., $8.95), and How Shall They Hear Without a Preacher?: The Life of Ernest Fremont Tittle, by Robert Moats Miller (University of North Carolina, 524 pp., $12.50). Two prominent pastors, a nineteenth-century Unitarian and a twentieth-century Methodist, are the subjects of admiring biographies that view them in the context of their times.

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