Book Briefs: February 16, 1979

The Teaching Of Theology

Case Studies in Christ and Salvation by Jack Rogers, Ross MacKenzie, and Louis Weeks (Westminster, 1977, 176 pp., $7.95 pb), is reviewed by John V. Dahms, professor of New Testament, Canadian Theological College, Regina, Saskatshewan.

This book illustrates how the case study approach, which was developed at Harvard Business School to train business personnel to make decisions may be adapted for a college or seminary class in theology. Students get background information about historical situations in which a particular theological question became an issue. It includes some understanding of the persons involved and the nontheological factors that were influential. They then are encouraged to discuss what the most appropriate resolution of the issue would have been. A note at the beginning of each chapter says that the material is intended as a “basis for class discussion rather than to illustrate either effective or ineffective handling of a situation.”

Seventeen case studies are presented. The first four, on Christology, set forth what prompted the Councils of Nicaea, Constantinople, Ephesus, and Chalcedon. The middle section of the book sets the stage for discussion of nine historical questions concerning soteriology, most of them having to do with theories of the atonement. The first question is about Augustine’s views on the content of catechetical instruction, the last with Aulen’s theology of the cross. The final section of the book deals with four recent problems on the person and work of Christ: the question of Kimbanguist membership in the World Council of Churches, Rosemary Radford Reuther’s perspective on sexism in theology, differences at the International Congress on World Evangelization at Lausanne, and tensions at the World Council of Churches Fifth Assembly at Nairobi.

I was surprised to see recent issues, whose permanent significance is doubtful, highlighted in a study of theology. The same may be said of the inclusion of such matters as an ethical problem faced by the Shakers in 1774. Moreover, I wonder why the challenge of Mary Baker Eddy is included but not the challenge of Mormonism or of Transcendental Meditation, to say nothing of such questions as those posed by liberalism, dispensationalism, and neo-orthodoxy.

Having said all of this, I note that each case is presented as clearly, concisely, and interestingly as possible. If some of the problems seem to be over-simplified, the need for brevity is the excuse. Also, stimulating classroom discussion may require it. On the other hand, I wonder whether some of the material is not more interesting than relevant, e.g., the relationship of Abelard and Heloise.

The authors indicate that here is a methodology in which “the heart of the matter is participation.” Therefore they hint that enjoyment is a major concern. The teacher is “primarily … a discussion leader,” a “moderator and enabler.” The authors magnify the idea that students should learn from one another.

This method may be excellent in problem-solving. It may be valuable as a secondary method when the academic concerns are of a different nature. I would encourage it as a secondary method for college classes in theology.

But only those whose philosophy of education has been unduly influenced by existential thought will suggest that it should be the primary method when the foremost concern is other than to train in problem-solving. To suggest—and I am not intimating that the authors do—that the heart of education generally should be “participation” makes the student more important than Christ, since it makes self-expression the summum bonum of education. Participation sometimes has no other value than that of ego-building. Although education should be made as enjoyable as possible, the primary concern therein ought to be to prepare students to serve God. And primary reliance on a method that emphasizes students learning from one another and that reduces the teacher to a moderator caters to the conceit of students and wastes both students’ time and teachers’ knowledge.

True Fellowship

Our Life Together, by James Thompson (Sweet, 1977, 144 pp., $1.95 pb), The Power of a Loving Church, byMargaret and Bartlett Hess (Regal, 1977, 143 pp., $1.95 pb), and Creative Love, by Louis H. Evans, Jr. (Revell, 1977, 126 pp., $5.95), are reviewed by Neal F. McBride, assistant professor of Christian education, Western Conservative Baptist Seminary, Portland, Oregon.

Christian periodicals and book stores offer a profusion of books that eagerly guarantee panaceas for healthy church life. A few of these would-be cure-alls actually include biblical, practical advice. Yet, all you get from others is a lighter purse.

These three books, read together, lay a biblical foundation for genuine Christian fellowship, examine the love bond of a church, and suggest a realistic way to attain fellowship. Although brief, these books are stimulating.

Our Life Together should be read first. The author presents a fresh, comprehensive look at genuine Christian fellowship. More instructional in nature than the other two, Thompson’s work builds a complete and convincing doctrine for the responsible practice of fellowship. His premise is that biblical faith and Christianity were never intended to be lived alone but rather in community. He forcefully argues that individualism, or the preoccupation with self, has permeated our society and churches. The author warns that if the church loses its intimate sense of family life to the “Me Decade” syndrome, it will become an anonymous crowd of worshipers. Thompson systematically and carefully examines the necessary ingredients for achieving the divine standard of koinonia. A possible weakness in Thompson’s book is the failure to include practical examples and advice to help implement the suggestions. This is not the case, however, with the other two books.

The Power of A Loving Church can be summed up in the familiar slogan, “in essentials unity, in nonessentials liberty, in all things charity.” Bartlett Hess is pastor of a church in Michigan that has grown to over 2,600 members in his twenty years as minister. The Hesses contend that leading a church to maturity comes through the power of love. “A loving church knows how to settle its differences. A loving church appreciates the endless flavors of human personality. A loving church first of all loves its Lord.” This book is not a mushy “this-is-how-we-did-it-you-do-it-too” prescription. Rather, the Hesses set forth seventeen short chapters on some issue of applied love, all effectively illustrated with the dynamics of their own church. The book is replete with practical suggestions on how love can be realistically demonstrated at all levels in a local church.

While the Hesses briefly touch on small groups as a vehicle for love in the local church, Creative Love is a more complete statement on the subject. Covenant groups, as Evans calls them, are the central subject of this concise volume, based on the experience of his Washington, D.C., church. Evans explains that covenant groups are composed of a small number of people who agree to enter into a covenant relationship with each other. He suggests eight covenants around which the groups operate: affirmation, availability, prayer, openness, honesty, sensitivity, confidentiality, and accountability. The majority of the book is then spent explaining each of these covenants. Unfortunately, the chapter on such details as establishing covenant groups is too short. Evans’s willingness to admit that he is still growing and that his ideas are not complete or necessarily correct is refreshing. In an age of know-it-alls, his book is a sincere attempt to provide useful and worthwhile information.

God Of A Philosopher

First Considerations by Paul Weiss (Southern Illinois University, 1977, 273 pp., $13.95), is reviewed by Winfried Corduan, assistant professor of religion and philosophy, Taylor University, Upland, Indiana.

In an age when metaphysics is often treated as the dross of philosophy, the work of Paul Weiss is a refreshing exception. His thought is a unique creation, reminiscent at times of Whitehead or Aristotle, but always original. First Considerations is Weiss’s latest and most rigorous presentation of his ever-changing system. Also included are six critiques and Weiss’s replies to the criticisms. The style is reflective and intuitive, never letting up in demanding the highest amount of concentration from the reader.

Common sense is not the final standard of truth for Weiss, but he does begin with the world of experience, rather than borrowing his methodology from the natural sciences. Our normal experience, he claims, is that we come to know a world outside of us. Reality is not merely constituted by our minds, as supported by the fact that frequently reality defies us and proves us to have been wrong.

Reality, to Weiss, is constituted by contexts of actualities. But actualities are not perceived in themselves, only their appearances. Such an appearance is always limited, for knowledge will penetrate beyond the appearance; and the actuality is larger than the appearance. The qualities that determine the make-up of actualities serve as evidences for knowledge.

For Weiss the actualities are existing states of affairs, not merely events. Of course actualities do change, and there is causal interaction among them. But the change is not haphazard or unruly. All actualities are governed by five finalities: Possibility, Substance, Being, Existence, and Unity. These ultimate realities stand behind the actualities and actively give them their modes of being, that is, they make the actualities possible and provide them with substance, being, existence, and unity, as their names indicate.

Although Weiss at one point remarks that Substance can be referred to as God, it is Unity for which he wants to reserve that title. But Weiss does not intend to set up a case for the God of Christianity. In fact, he prefers the term “Unity” in order to lessen the chance of such a confusion. Weiss’s God is not the God who created the world, to whom we pray, who intervenes in the history of the world. He is a philosophical abstraction with the purely metaphysical function of establishing unity among all actualities.

In religious terms, it is customary to speak of God as the ultimate reality. For Weiss, Unity is only one among five finalities and has no particular precedence over the others. All the finalities interact with each other and rely on each other; Unity enjoys no special eminence.

Thus we have here a form of pan-entheism, the theory that God metaphysically pervades the world. The world could exist without him, Weiss claims, but only with Unity can the sum total of actualities present an aesthetically unified whole. As ultimate source of coherence, Unity is also the source of values. Traditional arguments for God’s existence are “encrusted with irrelevancies,” but can be taken as metaphysical pointers to Unity.

Since Weiss makes it very clear that he is not talking of the personal God of Christianity, no ground is gained by confronting him with what the Bible teaches about God. Instead the object must be to show where he is wrong in his conceptions, and then to demonstrate that the Christian God is the true one. Such an undertaking demands a more thorough analysis than is possible here. Let me merely indicate a few relevant issues.

First, a point raised by several commentators: Weiss indicates no clear methodology. His introspective style only occasionally alludes to other thinkers; it becomes almost impossible to latch onto him in dialectical encounter. Hence, despite Weiss’s talk of evidence, he doesn’t give much. But where evidence gives way to insight, irrationality is around the corner.

Second, Weiss resists all attempts to saddle him with an ultimate God, either as a composite of the five finalities, as a God behind the finalities, or as the exaltation of Unity ahead of the other finalities. But this resistance is unconvincing. Weiss’s conception of the world is dominated by the value of having a functioning, coherent, and realistic cosmos, and this value is at the root of how Weiss understands the finalities to govern. Thus this value does take precedence over the rest of the system and should be admitted to being ultimate, whether as an aspect of Unity or as a “final finality.”

Third, given his starting point, Weiss has no warrant for positing Unity at all. His claim rests on the fact that the world represents a unified aesthetic totality. But that is a doubtful premise if you begin with a nontheistic starting point, as the existentialists (among others) have shown. Traditional arguments that only need to point to some contingent being to demonstrate God’s existence carry more plausibility.

First Considerations was published amid a rush of publicity that even filtered down to the level of television talk shows. As metaphysics is slowly gaining in respectability, Weiss’s importance is bound to increase, and with him his attacks on traditional conceptions of God. Evangelical thinkers will do well to deal carefully, thoroughly with his thought.

The Book Of Mormon, Of Smith, Or Of Whom?

Who Really Wrote the Book of Mormon?, by Wayne L. Cowdrey (Vision, 1977, 257 pp., $4.98 pb), The Mormon Papers, by Harry L. Ropp (InterVarsity, 1977, 118 pp., $2.95 pb), and Will the “Saints” Go Marching In?, by Floyd McElveen (Regal, 1977, 175 pp., $3.50 pb), are reviewed by J. Gordon Melton, director, Institute for the Study of American Religion, Evanston, Illinois.

Critics have attacked the credibility of the alleged translations of Joseph Smith, the founder of Mormonism, since the first publication. In an 1830 review of the Book of Mormon, Alexander Campbell snickered over the way a book supposedly written more than a thousand years earlier could have provided specific answers to each and every question that inflamed western New York in the 1820s. Throughout the nineteenth century friends and relatives of Solomon Spaulding published testimonies to the effect that the Book of Mormon was based on the manuscript of a novel by Spaulding, who died in 1816.

In more recent years, the attacks, which had continued without clear resolutions, found new ammunition. First, The Rocky Mountain Mason of January 1956 published the notes by Mormon apostle B.T. Roberts, which showed the parallel between the Book of Mormon and an obscure volume, The View of the Hebrews by Ethan Smith, published in Poultney, Vermont, in 1825.

Then in 1967, papyri used by Joseph Smith, which he called the Book of Abraham (another of Smith’s “translations,” included in The Pearl of Great Price, which Mormons also considered to be scripture), were discovered. Mistakenly believed to have been destroyed in the great Chicago fire of 1871, the papyri were turned over by the finders to the church, which in turn gave them to Dee Jay Nelson, a Mormon and an Egyptologist. He translated them, but found that they bore no relation to the content Smith had ascribed to them. In light of his work, Nelson resigned from the church.

Now, new evidence has surfaced that the Book of Mormon was more than the product of Joseph Smith’s vivid imagination as some critics have claimed. Howard Davis, a young research colleague of cult-scholar Walter Martin, noticed that the handwriting of a portion of the original manuscript of the Book of Mormon closely resembled the handwriting on several documents known to have been written by Solomon Spaulding. That portion of the Book of Mormon had been designated as by an “unidentified scribe.”

Who Really Wrote the Book of Mormon? tells the story of Howard Davis’s search following his initial discovery and how, joined by Wayne Cowdrey and Donald Scales, he carefully reconstructed a plausible history of the method of Joseph Smith’s obtaining the Spaulding material and republishing it in a new form as the Book of Mormon. This volume promised to be the most exciting new discovery relating to Mormon history in a decade. However, handwriting experts vacillated and disagreed on the identifications. (See CHRISTIANITY TODAY, Oct. 21, 1977, issue, p. 38.)

For those interested in pursuing the wider questions of the claims of Joseph’s Smith’s translations, Harry Ropp’s The Mormon Papers provides an excellent contemporary survey. Ropp brings together all the traditional arguments against the authenticity of the Book of Mormon, including the all-important archeological evidence. Rapp lacerates the Doctrine and Covenants, which does not claim to be a translation, but rather a collection of the ongoing divine revelations received by Smith. He spends a chapter detailing the significant changes between the first and second editions, the contradictions with the Book of Mormon, and the many unfulfilled prophecies.

Although Ropp acknowledges the Spaulding theory for the origin of the Book of Mormon (as set forth by Davis, Cowdrey, and Scales) he warns readers to refrain from a too hasty acceptance of their work. Ropp claims to have examined not only the disputed Book of Mormon manuscript but a manuscript of Doctrine and Covenant, entry 56, clearly written in 1831, long after Spaulding’s death. The Mormon Church claims that the latter document was also copied for Smith by the “unidentified scribe” and that the handwriting will prove identical.

Ropp’s point is well taken. Davis is quite incorrect in asserting that graphology is an “exact science,” and Ropp is quite correct in claiming that the evidence is not in yet, despite Davis’s hypothesis.

Finally, for those waiting for the issues to be resolved, Floyd McElveen’s Will the “Saints” Go Marching In? continues the traditional evangelical Christian approach to Mormonism. Drawing heavily on the massive research of Jerald and Sandra Tanner, the most famous ex-Mormons, McElveen offers a thorough critique of the Utah-based religion. He emphasizes the weakness of the case for the authenticity of the Book of Mormon, the Mormon’s polytheistic conception of God, and the false way of salvation that Mormonism teaches. McElveen’s position loses nothing in the controversy over the possible “fraudulent” manuscript and will remain the essential thrust of an evangelical critique, no matter how the Spaulding issue resolves itself.

• Since this review was prepared, McElveen has released another book, The Mormon Revelations of Convenience (Bethany Fellowship, 108 pp., $1.75 pb). Triggered by the recent “revelation” that permitted black men to enter the Mormon priesthood, he also surveys the role of other revelations in the group’s history.

One of the outstanding evangelical students of Mormonism is Gordon Fraser. His Is Mormonism Christian? (192 pp.) continues to be a top-selling Moody Press book. Its 1977 edition is a consolidation and revision of two earlier works. Three supplementary 1978 paperbacks are available directly from the author at $1.75 each, as is the Moody book (P.O. Box 10, Hubbard, OR 97032): Joseph and the Golden Plates (124 pp.), Sects of the Latter-day Saints (111 pp.), and A Manual for Christian Workers: A Workshop Outline for the Study of Mormonism (47 pp.).—Ed.

Pastoral Ministry

Every Pastor Needs a Pastor, by Louis McBurney (Word, 1977, 156 pp., $5.95), The Living Reminder, by Henri Nouwen (Seabury, 1977, 80 pp., $5.95), Today’s Pastor in Tomorrow’s World, by Carnegie Calian (Hawthorn, 1977, 153 pp., $6.95), The Authentic Pastor, by Gene Bartlett (Judson, 1978, 110 pp., $3.95), The Mid-Life Crises of a Minister, by Ray Ragsdale (Word, 1978, 105 pp., $4.95), and Survival Tactics in the Parish, by Lyle Schaller (Abingdon, 1977, 208 pp., $4.95 pb), are reviewed by Gerald C. Studer, pastor, Plains Mennonite Church, Lansdale, Pennsylvania.

A pastor can scarcely argue with Louis McBurney’s title, Every Pastor Needs a Pastor. No pastor should be too insecure to admit it. McBurney says, “The man of God is a man with the same needs as other men.” Unfortunately too few lay people understand this simple truth.

McBurney, founder of a psychiatric center devoted exclusively to ministers and their families, elaborates that statement in some thirty chapters. I expect books from the field of psychiatry to be heavily laced with professional jargon and case histories. But McBurney clearly supports his thesis and tells how a pastor can find a pastor.

Nouwen’s spare style and trenchant massage make this the most deeply provocative of these books. I intend to reread it. He reminds the reader that each of us, but ministers especially, represent the work of God, despite flaws and sin. Here is to be found such grist for personal growth: “… to forget our sins may be an even greater sin than to commit them. Why? Because what is forgotten cannot be healed and that which cannot be healed easily becomes the cause of greater evil.”

Calian in Today’s Pastor in Tomorrow’s World wants the minister to be a grass-roots theologian. Seminary training “must equip the pastor to think theologically on a lifetime basis.” He asserts that pastors tend to be overworked but underemployed. He also examines the role of the pastor’s wife, as well as the urgency of the church to eliminate “any kind of laicism or clericalism” if the priesthood of believers is to be realized as well as professed. This does not obviate the upgrading of the quality of professional leadership if the churches are to grow and the expectations of the laity are to be met.

Bartlett in The Authentic Pastor believes that “the very marks of a secular day which make ministry difficult also make it imperative.” He discusses the meanings of relationships rather than methods of pastoral work. He seeks to clarify some of the problems of pastoral counseling. Pastors, he says, have a lifelong task to understand who we are, what we do, and why we do it. He concurs with Calian and Nouwen that a pastor must base his relationships on theology. He criticizes the shallowness of much evangelism, asserting that it is often promotional, not pastoral. Real evangelism, he says, is much nearer courtship than salesmanship. We are reminded that preaching is a time of disclosure, not only of truth, but also of the person presenting the truth.

Ray Ragsdale, retired superintendent of the United Methodist district of Los Angeles, has written a pastoral rather than an analytical book on The Mid-Life Crises of a Minister. He roughly defines the mid-life crisis years as between thirty-five and fifty-five. He discusses four broad areas: physical, career, marital/family, and meaning. Since all are intertwined, an overview is necessary before problems can be properly identified. He uses case studies effectively and faces the implications for women in the ministry.

Schaller’s title, Survival Tactics in the Parish, suggests that the church is under seige. He follows a fictional pastor through a nine-year pastorate, and though he shares a remarkable array of helpful data, the persona seems wooden much of the time. His analysis is not enhanced by such corny humor as “back in the days when a three-cent stamp only cost a dime.” He generallizes too much. But he is nonetheless thought-provoking, as when he claims that the pastorate rarely reaches its greatest effectiveness before the fourth to eighth year. I thought Schaller too glib for the most part.

From Nazareth To Bethlehem

The Road to Bethlehem, by Tom Harpur (Cook, 1977, 95 pp., $6.95), is reviewed by Victor M. Parachin, pastor, Bethany Free Methodist Church, Melrose Park, Illinois.

Of the people who have taken the time to walk the 100 mile road from Nazareth to Bethlehem, only a few have reported their observations. The journey made by Mary and Joseph, which is recorded in the Gospel of Luke, has long been romanticized, especially on Christmas greeting cards and similar products. Seldom has the trek been viewed as a “gruelling, dangerous hike with a woman in the late stages of pregnancy through some of the most awesome terrain on the face of the earth.”

This, however, was the assessment of Tom Harpur, religion editor of one of the largest newspapers in Canada, The Toronto Star. (Before turning to journalism, Harpur was an Anglican minister who taught New Testament at Wycliffe College, a Toronto seminary.) Two years ago, Harpur persuaded his editors that a first-hand retracing of the trip made by Mary and Joseph would prove to be interesting for readers of the paper. Harpur explains: “I didn’t see it as a stunt or gimmick.… I wanted to see for myself the terrain which Joseph and Mary saw and which became so familiar to Jesus in his later life.”

Harpur, his wife Mary, and photographer Dick Loek made the journey; their delightful book on the experience is beautifully illustrated.

Harpur’s fascinating book helps refute some views advocated by scholars who question Luke’s accuracy. For example, Harpur writes: “I was aware from my New Testament studies that some scholars have argued Jesus could not have been born in the winter because the shepherds would not—as St. Luke says they were at the time of the Nativity—be tending their flocks in the hills at that time of year. Everything we saw, however, indicated quite the contrary. Off in the hills to our left towards Bethlehem, we could see vast flocks and the spreading tents of the Bedouin or nomadic shepherds.” Harpur noted that almost all the shepherds in the countryside were teenagers and female and therefore wonders if “the shepherds who hastened to the manger at that first Christmas were not the rather venerable men with staffs depicted on so many Christmas cards and in traditionals religious art, but young people, many of them girls.” Harpur’s suggestion would certainly be in harmony with the Old Testament report of Rachel, the daughter of Laban, caring for the sheep.

The book certainly belongs in every church library and ought to be read by those who want to have a fresh view of an ancient story.

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