Book Briefs: October 23, 1981

Making Your Marriage Work

Five books on marriage and the family are reviewed by C. E. Cerling, pastor of the First Baptist Church, Tawas City, Michigan.

The quality of Christian books on marriage is finally starting to improve. A good example is Geoffrey Bromiley’s God and Marriage (Eerdmans). When the Continental Congress on the Family met in 1974, there was a call for a theology of marriage. Instead, we got an avalanche of popular books, most of which disappeared from the market almost as quickly as they appeared. At last one has come along that is grounded firmly in theology and church history.

Bromiley integrates many areas of theology with his understanding of marriage. Take sin, for example: What are the implications for marriage of our involvement in sin? For one thing, it means marriage is a place where we have to learn to forgive as a regular part of life with another person. It also means we can expect our partner to fall short of our expectations. It further means we will have to work to implement God’s plans for marriage in our own relationship. While the implications could have been explored in greater detail, the suggestions are valuable.

Increasingly, both husband and wife are working, causing G. Wade Rowatt and Mary Jo Rowatt to look at The Two-Career Marriage (Westminster). These two write well, and both worked while researching the problems of working couples. Though no one could call this work inspiring, it is a good, solid presentation of a special aspect of family life in America. The book is part of the Christian Care Series under the editorship of Wayne Oates, and if I have one criticism, it is that as such, there is scant material on Christian care. It shows little or no evidence of the authors’ own Christian commitment or any personal struggles with moral issues involved in both partners working outside the home.

On the positive side, the potential problems that abound for a working couple are carefully analyzed, such as, Whose job has priority when an opportunity for advancement arises in another community? What about normal household chores—who does what? Who takes care of the children when?

The opportunities in a two-career marriage are also discussed. These include the greater financial freedom a couple will have, and the growth and significance of achievement that both will regularly experience. The pair will also have greater Opportunities to meet new people, freedom from restrictive role limitations, and more opportunities to teach children responsibility through involvement in household chores.

This book could easily be used as a discussion group tool among couples where both partners work. It would also be a good introduction to the subject of two-career marriages for a pastor.

Few contemporary writers have done a better job of integrating psychology and theology on a practical level than Norman Wright. His marriage enrichment manual, Communication: Key to Your Marriage, has long been the pacesetter for books on marriage. Regal has now published a sequel, The Pillars of Marriage. It retains the same high standard while complementing the earlier work. Wright places a strong emphasis on communication, with particular attention given to meeting stress in marriage and dealing creatively with conflict. There is also a first: a concluding chapter on “Learning to Forgive Completely.” I don’t know of any other book on marriage that treats this subject.

As with Wright’s earlier work, a study guide is available. This is an excellent tool, unlike other study guides that often seem thrown together; it is written largely by Wright.

For a long time Christians have focused on the problems of marriage, but what makes a marriage enduring? Study has recently begun in an effort to find out what makes long-term marriages last. Both Floyd and Harriett Thatcher’s Long Term Marriage (Word) and James R. Hine’s What Comes After You Say, “I Love You”? (Pacific Books) have taken a close look at long-term marriages. A heartening result of their independent works is that they come to similar conclusions. They have found marriages that last usually have at least three key ingredients, though they are not limited to these.

First, the partners have good communication with one another. They freely share what they are thinking or feeling because they know their partner will continue to accept them for who they are. Second, they are growing. For example, one couple who had been married more than 40 years still felt they were growing and would never be too old to try something new. Finally, and in many ways possibly most important, these couples are committed to making the marriage work.

That final ingredient needs to be stressed to couples planning marriage. Counselors have long realized that couples committed to working out their problems have a far greater chance for success than those unwilling to work. Interestingly, it also comes back to the biblical attitude that marriage is for life, with the corollary that one ought to determine from the beginning to work out problems and not run from them.

Of the two books, the Thatchers’ is the more readable because they include a great deal of autobiographical material. Hine, on the other hand, brings to his writing his years as a pastor in a university town as well as experience as a professor and counselor in marriage and family, and his book is the more professional. Though neither book comes across as strongly Christian, either could help a pastor understand why marriages last.

Papal Feet Of Clay?

How the Pope Became Infallible: Pius IX and the Politics of Persuasion, by August Bernhard Hosier (Doubleday, 1981, 385 pp., $14.95), is reviewed by Fred H. Klooster, professor of systematic theology, Calvin Theological Seminary, Grand Rapids, Michigan.

While evangelicals debate the infallibility of Scripture, Roman Catholics have not yet begun a serious debate on the infallibility of the pope. Hasler’s book, and Hans Küng’s enthusiastic introduction, attempt to provoke that debate. Hasler contends that so much human fallibility went into the declaration of that dogma at the First Vatican Council in 1870 that it ought to be abandoned.

The author, who died in 1980 at the age of 44, was a Swiss priest who served from 1967 to 1971 under Cardinal Bea in the Secretariat for Christian Unity. His dialogues with Protestants and Old Catholics demonstrated to him that papal infallibility was the greatest single obstacle to Christian unity. During that period, Hasler had access to the Vatican archives and examined diaries, letters, and official documents relating to Vatican I. A two-volume doctoral dissertation emerged from that study in 1977. Hasler presented the basic material in a more popular format in 1979; that volume now appears in English translation. Numerous photographs, mainly of Vatican I participants, replace the scholarly apparatus of the dissertation.

Hasler writes a fascinating story of personality conflicts, papal politics, and doctrinal innovation; Küng labels it “a chronicle of scandal.” It is a grim story of alleged intrigue and coercion. Conciliar declaration of the dogma of infallibility became a crusade, if not an obsession, for Pius IX. Hasler thinks the pope’s epilepsy was responsible for his unusual behavior. His frank discussion—such as whether one of the cardinals was the pope’s illegitimate son—has increased the heated reactions to Hasler’s publications. The 25-page appendix provides a sample of such reactions.

Hans Küng broke a taboo by raising the question of papal infallibility a decade ago. Hasler’s more systematic, detailed, and graphic historical study digs into the open wound. Specialists suggest that Hasler has not really uncovered new material. He devotes more attention, however, to the losing party, describing the dishonest methods used, charging that the council members were not really free, indicating how the pope bullied opponents and hounded doubters. Hasler has been charged with weaknesses in historical methodology and with failing to distinguish authoritative primary sources from mere gossip.

Most Protestants will approach the book with sympathy for the main thesis—the illegitimacy of papal infallibility. The dogma has no valid scriptural support. Hasler also shows that it lacks the support of tradition. Yet it is difficult to evaluate Hasler’s book fairly without access to the sources. Pope Paul VI opened the archives in 1970, but apparently much Vatican I material was destroyed earlier and even Hasler was denied access to much Pius IX material. An evangelical would also have more confidence in Hasler’s conclusions if he held to the infallibility of Scripture and the ontic deity of Jesus Christ. For Hasler, those doctrines developed from motifs similar to those that produced papal infallibility (pp. 32–34).

Rome faces almost insuperable difficulties in open debate on the dogma of papal infallibility. That dogma is irreformable seems to be a permanent roadblock. And how can the pope be pope without infallibility? Hasler makes some suggestions, but it is difficult to imagine their acceptance. For the sake of the Roman church itself, and for Christianity in general, one can only hope that a full-scale debate on the subject will occur. Hasler has made a provocative contribution to that cause.

Reconstructionism Rejected

God’s Righteous Kingdom, by Walter J. Chantry (Banner of Truth Trust, 1980, 151 pp., $3.50 pb), is reviewed by L. John Van Til, professor of history, Grove City College, Grove City, Pennsylvania.

A persistent notion among some American Christians has been the idea that America is a “chosen nation,” a belief that thrives at times upon a vague mixture of secular and religious concepts. For the past generation, there has been a revival of the “chosen nation” syndrome among some theological circles.

Judging from recent publications, one finds a brew of arguments simmering that proclaims the virtue and necessity of Mosaic social principles for America. It is about to bubble over into a heated debate.

Walter Chantry is well aware of the debate and he seeks in God’s Righteous Kingdom to outline some of the basic arguments involved. He defends the traditional view held by most in the Reformed tradition that the kingdom of God is first of all a spiritual kingdom found in the hearts of believers. In this view, kingdom citizens act as salt and leaven in society. Blessings of God flow into the society as kingdom citizens live out their lives in obedience to Christ the King. Kingdom ethics and justice improve the quality of life in society through the lives of Christians as they witness in word and deed.

Chantry criticizes, though not by name, those who argue for a “reconstruction” of society, an alteration that would replace the existing social structures with a system based upon the Mosaic program set down for Israel. These reconstructionists would institute the death penalty in America for prostitutes, homosexuals, and breakers of the Sabbath—something that would certainly decimate the population.

Crucial to this simmering debate is the question of the relationship of the Law and the gospel. This, in turn, raises the old question of the relationship of the Testaments to each other. The reconstructionists’ view places such extreme emphasis upon the Mosaic Code that it might be well to denominate their position with the term “hypernomianism,” meaning an excessive emphasis upon law.

Chantry’s book is required reading for all who are interested in the continuing debate on the question of the place and meaning of the kingdom of God in America.

Is Evangelicalism Doomed?

Will Evangelicalism Survive Its Own Popularity?, by Jon Johnston (Zondervan, 1980, 192 pp., $5.95), is reviewed by John Van Engen, Department of History, University of Notre Dame, South Bend, Indiana.

Over the past century, evangelical Christians have found themselves in bewildering fluctuations at odds with, and then again at, the center of American culture. Johnston, a sociologist and pastor, believes the relative popularity of evangelicalism in America today offers a serious and much more subtle threat to its integrity than the outright hostility of liberal Christians and secular folk in days gone by.

His major theme is compromise. With a sociologist’s eye—sometimes also his jargon—he describes how individualism, self-indulgence, demagoguery, and the American fascination with technology, celebrities, fads, and youth have now made their way into evangelical lifestyle and witness. Each of eight chapters begins with his description of a particular phenomenon in American culture (for instance, “celebrity-ism”). He then sets out its growing influence upon evangelical Christianity, and concludes with a call for caution, reform, or even rejection based on biblical mandates.

Johnston’s warning is a much-needed one. It is strengthened by his own deep commitment to evangelical Christianity and not marred by any apparent hostility toward the well intentioned. The book ends simply with a call for return to the Bible and its teachings.

What it does not contain—and this would be my only major criticism—is any sense of the historical framework within which evangelicals have interacted with American culture, or any developed theological perspective from which to critique that interaction. It may be significant in this regard that among the various “isms” discussed there is no treatment respectively of “nationalism” and “anti-intellectualism,” two areas in which evangelicals have also frequently compromised themselves with the prevailing American culture. But all in all, this is a good book directed to a critical area of evangelical lifestyle. Questions are provided at the end of each chapter, making it useful for study groups.

A Bibliography Without Peer

Biblical Bibliography, Volumes I and II, by Paul-Émile Langevin (Les Presses de L’Université Laval, Quebec, Canada; Vol. I, 935 pp., Vol. II, 1,586 pp.; Vol. I, $45.00, Vol. II, $85.00).

If you love books, you probably also love bibliographies. And if you love bibliographies, you will surely love this one. It is a towering achievement that will certainly be the standard reference work (along with its continuation, which, it is devoutly hoped, will follow) for the foreseeable future.

Professor Langevin of the University of Laval (Quebec) has put together a 2,500-page reference work, primarily for students of biblical exegesis and biblical theology, but touching also spirituality and pastoral concerns. There is a total of 54,510 entries drawn from 120 major journals, basically in five languages—French, English, German, Italian, and Spanish—and 1,094 books, such as festschriften, collected essays, monographs, and congress papers. These first two volumes cover the period from 1930 to 1975.

Enhancing its usefulness is an index of authors and one of subject headings, so specialized research needs can be met. The number of subject headings runs into the thousands. These are basically arranged into four major groups: Old Testament, New Testament, Christ, biblical themes. It would be difficult to describe in any detail such a massive work, but a few sample topics will provide an example of what it contains. There are over 1,700 entries for the Book of Matthew, arranged under 16 headings. Pauline theology has over 900 entries under 56 headings. Isaiah has 928 entries. I could not discover how many authors are cited, but it takes 53 pages to list them. Lucien Cerfaux appears to be the prize winner numerically, with over 300 entries to his credit. Some evangelicals are also to be found, with F. F. Bruce the frontrunner with over 80 entries.

If there is a criticism to be made, it is that specifically evangelical journals, such as the Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society, were not included in the listing; that hardly invalidates such a venture as this, however. What we have is a bibliographical tool that will save untold hours of work for anyone interested in studying the Bible. Pastors and scholars will find this work without equal for their labors.

Selective Emotional Help

Emotions, Can You Trust Them?, by James Dobson (Regal, 1980, 143 pp., $6.95), is reviewed by Stanley Clark, pastor of the Huntsville Bible Church, Huntsville, Texas.

We live in an existential generation. Christians as well as non-Christians tend to make feelings the measure of all things. For the secular world, the quality of feeling has come to determine morality. And for the religious, “God is leading me” is synonymous with “this is what I feel.” Despite our tendency to steer by them, however, we all recognize that emotions cannot be trusted. Dobson’s latest book deals with four of the larger issues (guilt, anger, romantic love, and discerning God’s will) and the misunderstandings that surround them.

Several features make this a profitable book. The first is the content. Successful living, in great measure, is determined by how well we deal with guilt, anger, romance, and the will of God. The second strength is Dobson’s method. He has an ability to defuzz fuzzy thinking and to teach principles with a disarming wit. He also uses illustrations successfully, selecting experiences with which anyone can identify. Finally, his format enhances the material. Dobson breaks down his four subjects into subsections, and under these deals with a series of practical questions appropriate to each. Because the reader can dip in at random, this device makes the book useful to hand to those struggling in a particular area. Also, at the end of each chapter is a section of learning/discussion ideas that covers the chapter with questions and additional material. These could be used to structure a Sunday school class, a Bible study, or a group meeting together to discuss mutual problems.

Readers familiar with Dobson’s other books will observe that much of his material has been lifted from them and rearranged here. While that is okay, the steep price of $6.95 for a 143-page book may cause the reader to expect more. For example, other emotions (fear, jealousy, self-worth, bitterness) cry out for attention. Nonetheless, people looking for answers will probably consider any chapter alone worth the inflated price of the book.

BRIEFLY NOTED

Practical Psychology. Several new books deal with how to handle the negative aspects of life. Freedom from Depression (Haven Books), by James E. Johnson, is a helpful, easy-to-understand analysis of this problem, which makes good sense. Depression: Coping and Caring (Cope Publications), by Archibald D. Hart, consists of cassettes, notes, and a book (including testimonies of people who overcame) that should be in every church’s library. These two works are of great value to struggling Christians.

Telling Yourself the Truth (Bethany Fellowship), by William Backus and Marie Chapian, oddly call this approach “misbelief therapy”; but it is still helpful. They show the way out of depression, anxiety, and fear. Bert Ghezzi shows how to control and use anger properly in The Angry Christian (Servant).

Six general books are: How to Win in a Crisis (Zondervan), by Creath Davis (new printing), a very helpful book that covers a variety of crises; Overcoming Discouragement (Harvest House), by Richard Kaiser, shows how to find meaning in times of sorrow; Learning to Manage Our Fears (Abingdon), by James W. Angell, discusses the values of love, community, conversation, and prayer; Make Friends with Your Shadow (Augsburg), by William A. Miller, shows how to accept and use the negative side of our personality; God Writes Straight with Crooked Lines (Atheneum), by Ernest A. Fitzgerald, discusses coping strategies for a weary world; and There’s a Lot More to Health Than Not Being Sick (Word), by Bruce Larson, helps us to feel better than we ever thought was possible.

Specific problems are dealt with in the following: Stress/Unstress (Augsburg) by Keith W. Sehnert, showing how to control stress; Caring Enough to Forgive/Caring Enough Not to Forgive (Herald), by David Augsburger, dealing with true and false forgiveness; How to Enjoy Life and Not Feel Guilty (Harvest House), by James L. Johnson, covering true and false guilt; Win the Happiness Game (Acropolis), by William Nickels, offering a plan for true happiness; Friendship (Argus), by Martin Marty, dealing with the value of friendship; and Decision Making and the Will of God (Multnomah), by Garry Griesen, offering a valuable theological look at personal guidance.

Theoretical Psychology.Psychology and Theology (Abingdon), by Gary R. Collins and H. Newton Malony, offers prospects for integration. Studies in Non-Deterministic Psychology (Human Sciences), edited by Gerald Epstein, looks at the impact of Oriental thought on Western therapies in a constructive collection of essays. Judith Goldring, in Quick Response Therapy (Human Sciences), shows how this new therapeutic approach works out in the practice of crisis intervention, family therapy, and time-limited treatment.

Stations of the Mind (Harper & Row), by William Glasser, is an expansion of Glasser’s “reality therapy” dealing with internal motivation using BCP principles. It is an original and quite provocative book.

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