Eutychus and His Kin: June 2, 1978

Test of Current Religious Knowledge

Here is the first Eutychus Quiz. Answers will be found at the end of this column. If you get all six right, you live in California. Four or five, you work for a Christian advertising agency. Three or under, you are reading this in a study. (Shame on you.)

1. What new product will “guide family members while walking in the house at night … offer the gentle reassurance and inspiration of religious faith shining through the night]

(a) Gospel flashlight; (b) 700 Club’s satellite telecast; (c) Faithful Night Light.

2. A string sonata is horsehairs scraping across catgut, producing sound at predictable decibel levels in a particular pattern. This description is similar to what current phenomenon:

(a) Description of sexual love in books; (b) Portrayal of sexual love on stage and in movies; (c) Inferences about sexual love on TV.

3. What two words in the English language have a greater number of synonyms than any other words:

(a) faith and hope; (b) shirts and pants; (c) drunk and insane.

4. Americans are on a collecting binge. What are they collecting:

(a) dolls, miniature furniture, beer cans, guns, model railroads, African violets, stamps, coins, buttons; (b) lasting friendships.

5. Who said this? “Christians who would not expect Paul to have had in mind the entire range of 20th Century knowledge about geography … stumble blindly into assuming he had a 20th Century knowledge of behavioral science”:

(a) Karl Menninger; (b) John Ehrlichman; (c) Ralph Blair.

6. Name the version in which the following quotation is found, “Where two thousand or three thousand are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them”:

(a) TEV; (b) LB; (c) NASB; (d) TCV.

Answers: 1. (a) Faithful Night Light, developed by Faithful Enterprises of Beverly Hills, “casts sky-blue light through the image of either a Christian cross or a Jewish Star of David.” 2. All three. 3. (c) 4. (a) 5. (c) Self-styled “chief apologist for the homosexual lifestyle,” in “Evangelicals Concerned,” homosexual newsletter. 6. (d) The California Bible.

EUTYCHUS VIII

On Sex And Sources

I am relieved that someone so expert in early church history has unscrambled the dates I wrongly assigned to Tertullian and Ambrose (“Were the Puritans Right About Sex?”, April 7). The remainder of Mr. Dunaway’s objections are matters of interpretation and in no way affect my main thesis.

I think I can restate my summary of Athanasius’s views on virginity to my critic’s satisfaction: Athanasius cites virginity as a doctrine distinctive to the teaching of Christ and therefore proof that Christianity is the true religion; this argument appears in De Incarnatione Verbi Dei and Vita Antoni. For his additional views, one should consult De Virginitate and In Pasionem et Crucem Domini.

Regarding Origen’s castration, I did not, of course, intend to imply that his shocking extremism was the norm in medieval Catholicism. I do maintain, contrary to Dunaway, that Origen’s view on the virtue of virginity is indeed representative of the early church’s attitude, since it has many parallels in the writings of the fathers. Nor can I agree that the church excommunicated Origen “for that very act.” St. Jerome insists that the proceedings of the councils against Origen were not based on any doctrine but were due solely to jealousy over his eloquence and reputation. The New Catholic Encyclopedia accepts this interpretation, showing that Origen found himself in trouble because he preached while still a layman and was ordained as a priest without the knowledge of his bishop Demetrius, who was the moving force behind his loss of ordination.

Dunaway’s personal aversion to the Council of Trent should not be allowed to obscure the accuracy of my statement that it was a major Catholic council whose object, according to The Catholic Encyclopedia, “was the definitive determination of the doctrines of the Church” and which made official many of the teachings of the medieval Catholic church, including the doctrine of virginity that I cited.

The letters and telephone calls I have received about my article suggest that Dunaway is not alone in wishing to know where the data that I cited can be found. There are several surveys that cover the material very well and that will direct a reader to the primary sources. They include the following:

Roland Bainton, What Christianity Says About Sex, Love, and Marriage; William G. Cole, Sex in Christianity and Psychoanalysis; Oscar E. Feucht, ed., Sex and the Church; Roland M. Frye, “The Teachings of Classical Puritanism on Conjugal Love,” Studies in the Renaissance, II (1955), 148–159; C. S. Lewis, chapter one of The Allegory of Love; E. C. Messenger, The Mystery of Sex and Marriage (volume two is the key book and bears the individual title Two in One Flesh); G. Rattray Taylor, Sex in History; Maurice Valency, chapter one of In Praise of Love. Anyone who reads these sources will find my data corroborated several times over and will see that in regard to medieval Catholicism I have uncovered only the tip of the iceberg.

For the apparently numerous Lutherans who suspect that I pulled Luther’s comment “if the wife refuse, let the maid come” out of the air, may I say that the source is Luther’s sermon entitled “The Estate of Marriage,” volume forty-five, page 33, in the fifty-six-volume American edition of Luther’s works.

LELAND RYKEN

Professor of English

Wheaton College

Wheaton, Ill.

Kantzervative

Your April 7th interview with Dr. Kenneth Kantzer reveals the wisdom of your choice. Looking forward to CHRISTIANITY TODAY’s Kantzervative approach!

DAVE MACPHERSON

Liberty, Mo.

Praise and Questions

The interview with Malcolm Muggeridge (April 21) was the most refreshing article I have read in many a day. Instead of relativism and situation ethics here is a vital relationship between a man’s faith and his understanding of life and reality in general. Wow! But now … you should indicate why in the italics before the article, you wrote, “You may not agree with all of Muggeridge’s views; we do not, but the interview is thought-provoking, nevertheless.” Why do you not agree with him? I do! It’s your tum; the ball is in your court. That is, how do you differ from Muggeridge?

GIFFORD H. TOWLE

Amherst, Mass.

• We do not agree with him that birth control is unnecessary in India.-ED.

Why are the evangelical magazines so enamored with Malcolm Muggeridge? Is be another of the trophies in the evangelical game room? If he has been captured, it has certainly not brought him into the fold of evangelicalism. This is obvious from his own doctrinal confession, whether he likes being cross-examined about dogma or not.

I think the secularists are laughing at us all. “Well, they couldn’t get Muggeridge all the way down the aisle, but they’ve at least gotten him to raise his hand for evangelicalism.” Shame on us all for displaying so prominently in our magazines and conventions such a half-done convert.… better evidences of the gospel’s power can be found.

WILLIAM VARNER

Independent Bible Church

Willow Grove, Pa.

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