Page 6212 – Christianity Today (2024)

“If there is deficiency of true learning,” says Geoffrey W. Bromiley in the article beginning on the opposite page, “it is not for any lack of the necessary tools.” Our spring book issue assesses the vast assortment of religious books that came off the presses last year and probes the outlook for 1964. Dr. Bromiley’s article and the two that follow survey the 1963 output. The “Spring Book Forecast” on page 16 lists what is coming, and the editorial on page 24 considers the current state of evangelical writing.

Now is my soul troubled; and what shall I say? Father, save me from this hour: but for this cause came I unto this hour (John 12:27).

The introduction reports a poll of twenty prominent people in America, some of them presumably Christians. When asked to list in order of importance 100 events in history, they accorded the Crucifixion fourteenth place. This life situation approach leads up to a message that no one can outline. Secure the book and read the sermon with the heart. What then do we really mean when we speak of the Cross?

I. A Unique Event in History. The Cross has changed the course of history, and may change the course of your life today. The Bible says that the preaching of the Cross becomes to the believer both the wisdom and the power of God. So on Passion Sunday we begin with the Cross, and we stay with the Cross. For the preacher it is inevitable, inescapable; and not only for the preacher. The New Testament writers—in Gospels and Epistles—return to it again and again as the compulsive center of their new-found faith. So it has been in the witness of the Church from the beginning. In every age the Cross looms up again against the Calvary sky, inevitable, inescapable, demanding a decision.

II. The Unique Word of Jesus Christ. As we see from the hymns, creeds, and prayers of the universal Church, authentic Christianity has always known that the Cross speaks the unique word of Christ, the climax of his teaching. The Cross is inseparable from his life. It is the point to which the whole Bible record leads and from which the Christian Church starts out.

The preaching of the Cross has overtones [so has this sermon] that can be heard in those depths that no simple ethics or logic can reach. [Here follows a poignant example from the war work of Chaplain Read.] For us the Cross was unavoidable. Its mark is set deep in human history, and our common life bears the scar of this divine sacrifice, this judgment, and this tremendous sympathy. But the question arises: Was the Cross inevitable for Him? Could Jesus have escaped his cross?

III. The Inevitability of God’s Love. [To this final answer the discussion leads up climactically. Over against certain impossible replies, the sermon quotes the text.] “For this cause.” With these words His destiny is clear. He came to die. The Cross that was now almost within sight would be freely chosen. Why? Because there was no other way in which he could reach to the depth of the human agony he came to endure, so as to “bear our griefs and carry our sorrows.” Because there was no other way he could draw upon himself the hopeless weight of our sins and absorb the evil that blocks us from the holiness of God.

“The Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.” The only way the God of peace and joy can reach his suffering family is in this amazing fashion to share that suffering. The only way the God of perfect purity and goodness can reach his disobedient people is himself to offer the sacrifice for sin. What we see in the Cross is not the hideous outworking of blind fatality, not a tragic accident of history. We see the end-result of God’s redeeming love going out to seek us where we are. “For this cause came I into the world.”

This is why, for those who have ears to hear, the message of the Cross is the greatest message in the world, and why whenever we hear it we face a life-or-death decision. Faced with this demonstration of God’s love, do I yield myself to Him who loved me and gave himself for me? “If any man will come after me,” says Jesus, “let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me. For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: but whosoever will lose his life for my sake, the same shall save it.”—From I Am Persuaded (Scribner’s, 1962).

Why does a growing minister preach better in each successive decade of his life? Partly because he keeps preparing every time as well as he can. Next week he strives to do still better. Except in vacation time he prepares a new sermon every week, new in content and in form. Alas, the converse often holds true. Many an able man preaches better at forty than at sixty. As every thoughtful hearer knows, the dominie has begun to slip. He has quit doing his best work on each sermon. Only a man’s best can begin to be good enough for God.

A wise man early forms the habit of writing out in full a sermon every week. Instead of writing two, he revises one. In preparing a sermon, as in penmanship, the more a man scribbles, the worse the end product. In making the first draft he sits down with everything needful close at hand. He writes straight through, as though speaking to friends in church. Then he asks his wife or teen-age daughter to read the message aloud, deliberately, to see if every part is as “clear as a cloudless moon,” as interesting as the facts warrant, as effective as he desires. If so, it all has a pleasing prose rhythm. When a man’s heart is moved his words flow. The next day he can revise the message.

What about other sermons and addresses, several in a week? After an apprenticeship, he can make ready to speak on the basis of a full outline. Seldom does a mature minister prepare more than one new sermon a week. Thus he has the advantages of making ready and speaking in two different ways. As for committing a sermon to memory and repeating it like a parrot, a typical pastor now does not have such ability. Neither does a church want that sort of sermon. However, with an exceptional man God blesses methods not ideal.

The immediate effectiveness of a spoken sermon depends on delivery more than on anything else. In a community where a given pastor speaks well but has little to say worthy of note, another has much to communicate but does not speak well. If both men do their best, the former has the larger hearing. This may be fortunate, since it is easier to excel as a public speaker than as a pulpit interpreter. Either one can do a vast deal of good with powers that he dedicates to God and people.

What does it mean to speak well? “The Lord God hath given me the tongue of the learned, that I should know how to speak …” (Isa. 50:4). Here our schools and books have rendered young men a disservice. We have taught them to admire a pulpit orator, who calls attention to himself, and a sermonizer, who directs attention to his message, often as an end in itself. In the Bible the stress falls on one whom I term a pastoral evangelist.

A pastoral evangelist aims to speak so that the layman will think about the Lord and about his own needs. From this point of view “the best preaching voice never is heard.” Neither by mellifluous beauty nor by a nasal twang should a minister’s voice call attention to itself and away from the Saviour. A man of God learns to speak so that the layman will fix the eye of the soul on the Lord, and part of the time on himself. As of old on the holy mount, other bases fade from view until a hearer sees the Lord and is transformed into His likeness, so as to serve.

As for ways and means, who can lay down rules? Would any reader make ready for Christ-centered, hearer-directed pulpit speech? Why not ask a wise layman to come in from elsewhere and on a tape recorder take down the morning service for a month? Then, alone with God, listen to yourself as a voice speaking for him to a layman who has come to church to find the Redeemer. In our sin-cursed, war-blasted, sorrow-stricken time, how can a pastor do more for his God than learn to prepare every sermon for His glory, and then deliver it so as to move every heart to resolve here and now to do His holy will?

A dedicated pastor never strives to prepare a great sermon, bringing glory to the speaker. He makes ready for a good message, bringing every hearer face to face with God in Christ, and leading the hearer to begin doing the will of God as it is done in heaven. Such a speaker looks on himself and his sermon as vessels of earth through which will shine forth “the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ” (see 2 Cor. 4:5–7). Such a man prepares as though everything depended on him. All the while he prays, because everything depends on God, who alone can send the fire. He will if his servant prepares with faith and holy expectation. (See my book The Growing Minister, Abingdon Press, 1960.)

Pricking The Preacher’S Pride

Christendom Revisited: A Kierkegaardian View of the Church Today, by John A. Gates (Westminster, 1963, 176 pp., $3.75), is reviewed by Jesse DeBoer, professor of philosophy, University of Kentucky, Lexington.

John A. Gates is qualified to write this useful little book. An earlier book of his, The Life and Thought of Kierkegaard for Everyman, was offered as an introduction to the work of the most important Christian writer since the Reformation. Having served as an ordained minister in a number of pastorates, he is familiar with the practices and attitudes of American Protestants. It is fortunate that in discharge of his present duties as professor of religion at Westminster College in Fulton, Missouri, he has had time to write out his reflections on how Sören Kierkegaard’s critique of the Danish State Church of his time may be restated in application to American Protestantism today. The project is worth doing, and the workmanship is sound; I hope that the book may stir American Protestants to read Kierkegaard and to ask themselves many disconcerting questions.

Let me present a few random samples of Gates’s Kierkegaardian observations in order to show the tendency and flavor of the book. Noting the contemporary neglect of discipline by ministers and officers, he says: “Now we do nothing except, perhaps, to erase the name of the erring member from the roll, and usually we do not even bother to do this. So far as we are concerned, they can go to hell.” The laxity veils a lack of love. Commenting on the motives from which a young man may enter the ministry, Gates provides a precious story: “… I recall one student who was very honest about his motives. He had lived across the street from a minister in his hometown, and had observed this minister’s daily routine—the easy hours spent on the front porch of the parsonage reading a book, waving to passing motorists, and chatting with pedestrians; the time available for golf; the fun had with youth groups; etc. He was well paid, liked by everyone, had enjoyable work and cradle-to-grave security. Where could one find a better deal?” (p. 58). Ministers are open to special pressures. “People don’t want their minister to be either a ‘fanatic’ or a ‘libertine’; they just want him to be a nice man” (p. 69). And it is not easy to consider one’s task before God when one has a wife and children. “As a middle-aged woman once said to me, ‘Ministers make such sweet husbands.’ So they do” (p. 64). Either “the soft arms of a blameless wife” (Kierkegaard’s words) or the normal desire not to disturb the public or repel approval, may lead a minister to forget what Christianity is. Then he may become an accomplice in perverting the truth, one who is posing, guilty of bad faith.

So with all of us: we “Christians” are interested in religious values; we want to get something from religion; we want God to satisfy our wants; we would like to use him. We insist that the faith must not make us uncomfortable or ask us to do anything costly or difficult (a close look at financial statistics is shaming). We avoid being serious about Christian education (“children and young people have known that it would be all the same whether they learned anything or not.… Their parents also know this and most of them prefer it this way” [p. 168]); in fact, we arrange to press the youngsters into full membership at an age when they cannot “realize fully what they are letting themselves in for” (p. 103). Is this in part because we know that if the decision were postponed to maturity there would be more resistance to pretending that one is a Christian? Do we like childishness?

Kierkegaard did not want to reform theology or church government. Gates says he was a detective (p. 158); I would add that he was a prosecutor. The visible church tends to lose sight of God’s demands, confusing Christendom with faith and obedience. Sören Kierkegaard charges that we do not want to see the lowly Christ, God in the offensive figure of a servant, dying in the status of a criminal. We do not really want to begin with despair over self, humility and trust, repentance and complete surrender to God’s offer. In his last two chapters Gates presents a fine interpretation of Kierkegaard’s account of how a man, by personal decision, can become a believer, and of his remarkable loyalty to the Church on earth, which, despite its being painfully weak and human, is still God’s appointed agent. His plea for honesty can stir us to more sincere acceptance of the Christian task.

I find one error in the text. “The opposite of sin is not virtue, but faith. To believe that virtue is the opposite of faith leads either to frustration and renewed despair or to Pharisaism (which is also despair)” (p. 145). The second sentence should be amended to begin either with, “To believe that virtue is the result (or fulfillment) of faith,” or with, “To believe that virtue is the opposite of sin.” The second alternative makes better sense.

JESSE DEBOER

‘Wise Men Never Try’

The Feminine Mystique, by Betty Friedan (W. W. Norton, 1963, 409 pp., $5.95), is reviewed by Lars I. Granberg, professor of psychology, Hope College, Holland, Michigan.

American society is being destroyed from within by a deadly hoax perpetrated upon its women. They have been infantilized (sic), yea dehumanized by the “housewife trap.” Seduced by the feminine mystique, a vision of feminine fulfillment through marriage, motherhood, and mutual org*sm, today’s women have repressed the wish to grow, to develop their full human capacities, to discover their identity. For the past quarter-century women’s magazines; advice columns; novels and television dramas; experts on marriage, child psychology, and sexual adjustment, along with their popularizes; and, most notoriously, the advertising world, have peddled the same phony image of ideal womanhood. The ultimates in life, they keep dinning into milady’s ears, are a home in the suburbs decorously filled with fine furniture and the latest labor-saving devices; four or five attractive, socially desirable children; and a devoted husband who is progressing in his profession. Live for your children. Be their confidant, social secretary, and psychotherapist. Don’t let yourself go to seed mentally or physically. Read the latest books. Be a good companion to your husband; keep his morale high; and keep him enchanted by being passive, frivolous, fluffy, and youthful. Above all, don’t neglect your physical allure! The transports of sex satisfaction are the ultimate in feminine fulfillment. So they said. And American women believed them. Result: dominated and sexually indifferent husbands; physically emasculated sons with a bent to sexual inversion; daughters who flee from the conflicts, pain, and hard work of growing up, into the solace of sexual adventuring or early marriage; and also “the problem that has no name.”

This is an angry book. Mrs. Friedan speaks with the voice of Amos of Tekoa. Women tried to be what America told them to be, she says. Submissively they tried to find fulfillment as good housewives. Now they suffer a deadly plague. They are tormented by a vague, nagging, guilt-ridden discontent (the problem that has no name). They poison the emotional climate of their homes. In droves they seek refuge on the psychiatrist’s couch. “For women of ability, in America today, there is something about the housewife state itself that is dangerous.… The women … who grow up wanting to be ‘just a housewife’ are in as much danger as the millions who walked to their own death in the concentration camps” (p. 305).

Woe unto you, male editors of women’s magazines. You supplanted the image of the spirited career girl with the stultifying image of woman as housewife-mother! Woe to you, peddlers of the Freudian theory of femininity, spouting “biology is destiny,” shrinking women to childlike dolls who live only to love men and serve their needs, and stifling their protests over this caricature with, “Phallic envy.” Woe to you, functionalist educators, spawning rationales for the feminine mystique, seeking to adjust girls to the fraudulent, culture-sanctioned definition of femininity, and frightening them into repressing their desire to become full-fledged adults with cries of “Unfeminine!” Woe to you, Margaret Mead, who in Male and Female glorified the female sexual function rather than sharing your vision of woman’s great, untested potential. Except ye all confess your error, demolish the feminine mystique, and see to it via a national education program (similar to the GI bill) for women that the women deluded or cheated by the feminine mystique are re-educated, your sons and your daughters, your homes, and your nation shall all be destroyed!

Incredible, you say? The book is endorsed by such persons as Millicent McIntosh, Pearl Buck, Lillian Smith, Margaret Culkin Banning, and Ashley Montague, among others. But if Mrs. Friedan is right, how ever did American women, who are perhaps the freest and best educated in the world, embrace so monstrous a lie? Mrs. Friedan picks as reasons war-induced loneliness, a resurgence of anti-feminist prejudices rising from post-war competition for jobs, and subtle discrimination against women that kept them from being advanced according to their ability and drove many back to the home bitter over the injustice of it all.

The book is likely to bemuse the ordinary man, in whose lifetime women have so steadily encroached upon previously male territory that only the locomotive cab and pool hall are still sacrosanct (maybe we need a book on the male mystique).

Nevertheless, the book speaks to situations that concern many Americans. This past summer, for example, the World Council of Churches sponsored a four-day conference at the University of Rochester on the role of men and women in contemporary society. To me it seems undeniable that some women over-identify with the homemaker role to their own detriment and that of their family.

A few demurrers: It seems unwarranted to assume that any women, including women of ability, who love homemaking and the role of housewife are engaged in a neurotic security operation. Mrs. Friedan may well be right in her contention that the core problem for women today is a problem of identity. Many psychologists think this is true for men and women alike, in America and perhaps in Europe, too. Her insistence that the sole road to personal identity lies in training one’s abilities and applying them competitively against all comers for the betterment of society is a severely constricted view. A sense of identity is gained through how one does what he must do. While achievement done in a spirit of concern for human betterment can bring about a sense of identity, this is by no means inevitable; nor does it seem to me always the main road. I also wonder whether the emptiness she sees as the fruit of the feminine mystique may not instead have been a large factor in bringing about its acceptance. This is an age of deep metaphysical hunger. People seek either to fill their spiritual vacuum or to anesthetize themselves against its call. Could this be the reason why the mystique took so well?

Whether or not you find Mrs. Friedan’s thesis credible or her mode of argument convincing, you will find the book sprightly and compelling, with impressive evidences of scholarship. It deals with a topic of particular importance today. If you do not like her analysis or her answer, yours will be the better for having considered hers.

LARS I. GRANBERG

Deserves Thanks

Censorship: Government and Obscenity, by Terrence J. Murphy (Helicon, 1963, 294 pp., $5.50), is reviewed by E. Merrill Root, author and lecturer, Thompson, Connecticut.

This book explores what is at present a no-man’s-land torn by crossfire, where ignorant armies clash by night. It does us a service and deserves our thanks.

Grave, scholarly, logical, it explores the field temperately. It distinguishes between the bold vital frankness of the artist imaging areas of passion frankly, and the furtive salacious exploitation of sex and incitement of sex for commercial gain by p*rnographers. It poses the conflict of what it calls the “absolutist” and the “libertarian”—the absolutist being one who places social good and moral values first, the libertarian one who places utter (and sometimes indiscriminate) liberty first. The author, while reverencing the libertarian, favors the goal (if not always the mood and methods) of the absolutist.

The author sometimes seems (p. 124) to defend censorship for the wrong reasons: he says, “Many of the arguments raised against social reform legislation … are raised against government control of obscenity.” Such “reform” (he says) was called “creeping socialism”; but it was creeping socialism. And in ironic paradox, it is the Pharisees of “social reform” who now oppose social control of obscenity, whereas those who oppose the fiats of Caesar most question the trash and treacle of indiscriminate p*rnography. The paradox needs more exploration and explication than it finds here.

The author discusses Supreme Court rulings, which he rightly finds too lax and loose, and yet which (he finds) admit at least in principle the right of protecting immature and even mature minds, almost drowned in the tainted waters of p*rnography, from infection.

I wish he had made more clear that the subversion and dissolution of the Western soul, the destruction of values by indiscriminate cheap filth and by false art, is part of a conspiracy of the hidden persuaders of collectivism. But the book objectively and bravely explores a vexed limbo that must be mapped, and though it does not give the complete answer it raises the correct question.

E. MERRILL ROOT

Roman Debate

Scripture and Tradition: A Survey of the Controversy, by Gabriel Moran, F. S. C. (Herder and Herder, 1963, 127 pp., $3.50), is reviewed by James Daane, editorial associate, CHRISTIANITY TODAY.

This book is a sketch of the current debate within the Roman Catholic Church on the relative value and relation of Scripture and tradition. One group of Roman Catholic theologians insists that besides the Scriptures there is a “constitutive” tradition, which is defined as another and separate source of revelation, running from the time of the apostles to the present. They point to Mariology, and especially to the determination of the Canon, as examples of dogmas that are not based on the Scriptures alone.

Another group of theologians within the Roman church denies the existence of a constitutive tradition and urges that every dogma of the church has at least a seminal basis within scriptural revelation. Tradition for them is the church’s interpretation and development of a revelation contained in Scripture. This group is generally regarded as being among the “liberals” of Roman Catholicism, and most of its members have strong ecumenical concern.

Both groups agree that the original Tradition is the revelation that came through Christ and his apostles; but they differ on whether all essential revelation found its way into the Bible—so that the Bible is “sufficient”—or whether part was transmitted only by oral, unwritten tradition. Protestant ecumenical leaders have used this idea of an original tradition to make the general idea of tradition more palatable to Protestants, and have come to speak of the “Tradition and the traditions.” Neither group of Roman Catholics believes in the existence of a hidden esoteric revelation that originated in the apostles but was not made public until much later.

Both groups, interestingly, appeal to the Council of Trent for support; those who reject an extra-biblical constitutive tradition contend that Trent’s rejection of Luther’s “sola Scriptura” must be evaluated in the light of Trent’s intent in the given situation. Trent’s rejection of “sola Scriptura,” they urge, did not mean that there is another source of revelation besides Scripture. Trent only rejected Luther’s insistence that he be judged solely by Scripture (and reason), apart from the official, traditional stands of the Church (just as Protestant confessional churches sometimes in actual practice judge their dissenting members’ biblical claims by a mere appeal to their confessional standards).

Moran seeks to mediate the two positions and urges that agreement can be reached within a proper understanding of the unity existing among church, tradition, and Scripture. He contends that this unity can be understood only if the church is seen in her dynamic, historical function of conveying and interpreting revelation.

Whereas the basic question in this area for Protestants is: Is the Bible, is tradition, God’s revelation?, in Roman Catholic thought the equally basic question is: What transmits the revelation? In this function of transmission the church, no less than tradition and the Bible, is said to have her role; indeed the church’s role would seem to be dominant by virtue of her dynamic, continuous conveyance and interpretation of the revelation of God. At this point one can understand the considerable interest Roman Catholic theologians have shown in Karl Barth’s conception of revelation as an event, for the Roman Catholic conception is more congenial to Barth’s view than is that of conservative Protestantism, which states that the Bible is God’s Word.

In a foreword Roman Catholic George H. Tavard has high praise for Moran’s presentation of the debate but has only limited expectations for Moran’s mediating attempts. Tavard feels that each of the two groups has a different theological method, a different understanding of how the Roman church develops its dogmas; and that the real task lies in critically examining these, rather than in simply getting both sides together.

Protestants interested in theology will find this an interesting and profitable debate. They will discover what is going on theologically within the Roman church; they will also recognize problems that emerge in Protestantism, for it too has its traditions.

JAMES DAANE

Book Briefs

The Cambridge Bible Commentary on the New English Bible: The Gospel According to Matthew, commentary by A. W. Argyle (Cambridge, 1963, 228 pp., $2.75; also paper, $1.65). The first volume in a series designed for schools, training colleges, and laymen. Informative, concise, with occasional historical critical leanings.

The Western Heritage of Faith and Reason, by Eugene G. Bewkes, et al.; revised by J. Calvin Keene (Harper & Row, 1963, 703 pp., $8). A revision of a college text whose merit explains its usage for almost a quarter of a century. Beginning with the religion of the Hebrews, the book deals with the interaction of Judeo-Christian religion and reason up to the present, and does so with considerable objectivity and great clarity. Almost any minister will find the reading of this text a wonderful refresher course in the basic problems of faith and reason.

The Voice of the Cross: Meditations on the Seven Last Words, by Marcus L. Loane (Zondervan, 1963, 127 pp., $2.50). Biblically grounded essays; scholarly and stimulating.

Champion of Liberty: The Story of Roger Williams, by Norman E. Nygaard (Zondervan, 1964, 159 pp., $2.50).

Christ and the Church: An Exposition of Ephesians with Special Application to Some Present Issues, by Dale Moody (Eerdmans, 1963, 153 pp., $2.95).

Romans: An Interpretative Outline, by David N. Steele and Curtis C. Thomas (Presbyterian and Reformed, 1963, 200 pp., $5). An outline treatment of Romans dedicated more to a vindication of the “five points of Calvinism” than to a full treatment of Paul’s thought.

The Big Read-To-Me Story Book, by W. G. van de Hulst, translated by Marian Schoolland (Zondervan, 1963, 178 pp., $3.95). A book of warm, gay, lovely stories of the wonderful world of make-believe. Written in language of literary grace; fine illustrations; well bound.

The Popes and World Government, by Emile Guerry, translated by Gregory J. Roettger (Helicon, 1963, 288 pp., $5.50). The story of the Vatican’s comprehensive program for a world order based on international law, with its rejection of the doctrine of absolute national sovereignty and its insistence that all national communities must recognize a trans-national universal moral law.

The Bible History Told to Our Children: Old Testament, by John Vreugdenhil, translated by Aileen Hamilton (W. M. Den Hertog [Utrecht, The Netherlands], 1963, 830 pp., $6). A soundly evangelical Bible story book which regretfully suffered greatly in translation from Dutch to English. The English is often wooden, the style prosaic, the sentences lumbering (the first has fifty-five words), the inking bad, picture captions microscopic; it is also marred by misspellings, verbosity, unattractive paragraphing, faulty syllabification, and an inelegant title.

God’s Covenants, by Donald Grey Barn-house (Eerdmans, 1963, 176 pp., $3.50). The late Dr. Barnhouse’s exposition of Romans 9:1 through 11:36.

Paperbacks

Preaching the Passion: 24 Outstanding Sermons for the Lenten Season, edited by Alton M. Motter (Fortress, 1964, 193 pp., $1.95). Twenty-four brief, readable, ethically orientated sermons of varying degrees of theological substance. By such men as R. Sockman, M. E. Marty, K. Haselden, G. Florovsky, D. H. C. Read, P. Scherer.

The Coming World Church, by James DeForest Murch, Clyde W. Taylor, John F. Walvoord, and John I. Paton (Back to the Bible, 1963, 70 pp., $.35). An unsympathetic critique of the ecumenical movement, whose goal is described as the creation of a super-church of doctrinal indifference. The proposed remedy looks to the mystical unity that already exists between Christians and to the return of Christ.

Church Growth in Mexico, by Donald McGavran, John Huegel, Jack Taylor (Eerdmans, 1963, 136 pp., $1.95). A valuable study of church growth and mission effort by men of evangelical theology and mission commitment. With graphs and statistical tables.

The Savior’s Suffering: Sermons on the Passion Symbols, by E. Kenneth Hanson (Augsburg, 1964, 80 pp., $1.75). Short, evangelical sermonettes; devotional, informative. Good reading.

The New Testament Witness to the Virgin Birth: Luke 1:1–12, by William C. Robinson (self-published, 1963, 16 pp., $.10).

Messages of the Helsinki Assembly: The Lutheran World Federation, a symposium (Augsburg, 1963, 128 pp., $1.95). Five significant, provocative theological lectures. They open a window on current Lutheran thought.

The Half-Known God, by Lorenz Wunderlich (Concordia, 1963, 117 pp., $1.95). A study of the Holy Spirit as the Lord and Giver of life, which any adult could read with profit.

Saint Francis of Assisi, by John R. H. Moorman (Seabury, 1963, 118 pp., $1.25). A sensitive story of the great Francis of Assisi. First printed in 1950.

The “word” occupies a central place in the Christian religion. It was the Word that became flesh and dwelt among us; the Word that was crucified for our sins and raised for our justification. Though stilled by the Cross, it was sounded again by God himself through the Resurrection in all cosmic time and place. Though Protestants may differ with the theology of Karl Barth and with that of the Roman Catholic Church, Barth’s theology is a theology of the Word, and even the Roman theology of church, tradition, and Scripture, as understood by both its conservatives and its liberals, is a theology of the transmission of the Word.

Because the Word that became flesh was a Person, the highest form of Christian proclamation and witness occurs through persons. And because the most proper and appropriate form of Christian proclamation is the personal word, the minister of the Gospel has priority of rank over the academic theologian, over the ecclesiastical administrator, and over the author of books and the editor of a religious magazine. This primacy in the ecclesiastical kingdom does not exclude, however, but rather suggests that there are other legitimate and effective forms of witness to the Gospel. The Christian writer, whether theologian, poet, journalist, or novelist, fulfills a high and indispensable calling in the Christian community.

For a long time evangelicals had many preachers of the Gospel in pulpit and mission field but relatively few Christian writers. In their efforts to save souls they addressed the heart, leaving the minds of men to be addressed by the less evangelical sector of the Church. While they neglected the intellectual battle for the minds of men, they nourished themselves on the evangelical scholarship of the past, and evangelical book publishers were driven by the famine of evangelical writing to reprint what had been published in a more intellectually virile age. Much that has been written in the past should be reprinted, of course, for contrary to the pride of modernity, wisdom was not born with us. We may indeed be grateful to paperback publishers for making so much of our rich heritage available in inexpensive form. But the reliance of evangelicals upon older religious literature showed a lack of vital engagement with the world to which they preached.

Happily there has been a marked change in recent years. Evangelicals are beginning to rise to the intellectual task of the Church. They are beginning to sense the folly of losing by default the battle for the minds of men in and outside the Church. Anyone who scans what has come from the religious press in the last ten or fifteen years can see changes that bespeak better things. As book titles indicate, evangelicals are now addressing themselves to the whole complex of theological and ethical problems that engages the Church today on all fronts. A considerable amount of what is being written is superficial; much critical writing appears to have been forged from without rather than from within competitive theologies and ecclesiastical movements. Consequently, much of it is still ignored. But evangelicals are writing, and a substantial core of evangelical theological writing is far past the stage of slogans and shibboleths.

Book publishers themselves are aware of this, and many prosper as never before. They are also pleased to bring out not only reprints but new and exciting evangelical books of academic stature. Some of the established and highly respected secular publishing houses are today producing many conservative Christian works.

William B. Eerdmans, Sr., a well-known evangelical publisher, recently told CHRISTIANITY TODAY that “during the last decade American evangelical Christianity has made a promising advance toward Christian maturity in the area of publishing. It has become more informed and accurate, fair and courteous, honest and poised, communicative and relevant. For all this we rejoice and are grateful.” He expressed the wish that in the future “American evangelical writers will spend their efforts in honest defense and compassionate communication of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, not only in the Church but also in the world.”

In a letter to us Dr. Eugene Exman, vice-president of Harper & Row, shares his experience: “When I began selecting religious books for Harper to publish thirty-five years ago, there were few top writers in the evangelical field. Of conservative theological writers Dr. Machen was one of the few luminaries in the literary skies who could brighten his star with intelligence, insight, and style. Today there are many more, and they represent a larger proportion of all authors of religious books than was true a generation ago. It is also true, I think, that the so-called fundamentalism of the early decades of the century was less concerned than evangelicals are today with scholarship and literary standards.”

And Lester J. Doniger, president of the Book Club Guild, tells us: “The past decade has seen a notable growth in both the volume and the quality of published evangelical works. A growing corps of dedicated scholars has emerged with a maturity and outlook that has gained attention, recognition, and approval even from non-evangelical circles. This observation comes from my vantage point in working with our book club known as Evangelical Books. By providing a larger market for evangelical writing we may perhaps claim a part of the credit for this upsurge of interest.

“In the early years of the club our judges, concerned with selecting books that are soundly evangelical and at the same time scholarly, experienced some difficulty in providing sufficient variety in reading fare. Today there is almost an embarrassment of riches largely because the evangelical movement through greater self-awareness and increased emphasis on scholarship has been able to develop a large number of writers who are equipped to be scholarly and interesting.”

Theology cannot develop in a vacuum, nor can it become mature overnight. It can grow into maturity, not in isolation, but within a community of Christian scholarship. Moreover, as Dr. Exman also says, “In a sense, writers like artists create their own public.” May the literary movement that has begun within evangelicalism continue and flourish under God.

A House Divided

“When the last of us has been driven out, the Church of the Province of South Africa will have declared itself an ecclesiastically lawless sect ready to slide into the lap of Rome.” These words of the Rev. A. J. Sexby focus attention on the curious case of his country, which has two denominations, each claiming to be the true Church of England established there in 1806 but divided in 1870 when Bishop Gray of Cape Town, a Tractarian, seceded to form the present Church of the Province. Now the larger denomination, the latter is in communion with Canterbury, while the evangelical “Church of England in South Africa” is not. The CPSA’s claims to have maintained the connection with the Church of England were rejected by Britain’s Privy Council (the supreme court) in 1884. Nothing daunted, this overwhelmingly Anglo-Catholic body has produced its own alternative Prayer Book, which omits the Thirty-Nine Articles and makes other changes of vital doctrinal significance. The present Archbishop of Cape Town reflects his church’s position in saying that on “major issues” the CPSA and the church of Rome have “generally speaking … found ourselves at one.” Within the CPSA, however, is a tiny evangelical minority, two of whose clergy have now been declared by their bishops ineligible for appointment, after their firm adherence to the 1662 Prayer Book (constitutionally the official book) and the Thirty-Nine Articles. One of these ousted ministers has recently joined the CESA. Though erroneously dismissed by the London Church Times as a “small schismatic body” (a smear unsustained by the historical facts), the CESA commands much support among evangelicals in England. Dr. Philip E. Hughes, editor of The Churchman and himself the holder of a doctoral degree from Cape Town University, suggests that the time has come for the whole matter to be investigated by an impartial tribunal headed by the Archbishops of Canterbury and York. In an ecumenical age it does not seem an unreasonable request.

Serpent In The $ Sign

There is in America a growing movement for national and state lotteries and legalized gambling in general. Christians should therefore be prepared for propaganda even now being directed toward making gambling acceptable in our society.

Already one state, New Hampshire, has voted approval of a state lottery. Other states may be tempted to follow. Some publications and radio stations are conducting public-opinion forums on the pros and cons of legalized gambling.

Some seemingly plausible arguments are being used: “Legalized gambling means tax gains for the government”; “It makes more money available for schools and other worthy objectives”; “People are going to gamble anyhow, so it should be legalized”; “Proper laws will make for proper supervision”; “People need the excitement and financial gain that come to winners”; “Other nations have national lotteries, why not America?”—and many more.

The arguments are insidiously persuasive, and they consistently evade the moral and spiritual issues involved. Legalized gambling is a sordid business. Moreover, along with it many other forms of vice crowd through the opened door. This is inevitable in areas where gambling is officially tolerated.

Gambling is not a sport. It is not entertainment. It is not recreation. It can become a deadly malady, claiming addicts as does alcohol and carrying sorrow and misery with it. This is being written in Las Vegas, where we have watched the hard, intent, and unhappy faces of hundreds surrounding the gaming tables.

Legitimate sport has its important place in our society. There are times when all of us need good entertainment. Recreation is a boon to be enjoyed. But gambling is a curse that breeds vice and crime as it grows in its power over an individual and a community.

Nowhere are the sins of the flesh more in evidence than where gambling holds sway. There one finds immorality, greed, licentiousness, strife, jealousy, anger, selfishness, dissension, envy, drunkenness, and the like. No talk about “profits” is relevant until it weighs the loss in terms of the moral and spiritual blight that settles as a pall over the whole sordid business. The Las Vegas coroner reported sixty-seven unnatural deaths such as suicides and murders for the first twenty-seven days of December alone.

Let us not succumb to the argument that legalized gambling has its financial advantages. In the fiscal year 1962–63 the total levied in taxes on gambling in the state of Nevada was $22,600,000, divided among the federal, state, county, and city governments. The total amount involved in gambling is not known exactly, nor are the astronomical profits of the gambling industry. Even from a monetary standpoint the “profit” from taxes was surprisingly low in Nevada, while the loss in moral and spiritual values beggars description. To no practice do the words of our Lord apply more clearly than to gambling: “For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?” (Mark 8:36).

Too High A Price

At the Commission on World Mission and Evangelism meeting of the World Council of Churches, held in Mexico City, the final report on “Witness” contained the following statement: “In all ages the church is called to be the sign of God’s purpose for His whole creation. This unchanging calling in the changing world is expressed in the eucharist in which the redemption of the whole world given in Jesus Christ is offered continually for and to the world. Thus if the eucharist is the sign of God’s redeeming work, its redeeming reality needs to be manifested within the broken world of contemporary neighborhood” (our italics).

It comes as no surprise to learn that this report, now definitely scheduled for publication, was challenged from the floor when read; but it was not changed. Why not, if this includes (as it does) the very thing that Protestantism repudiates? “He has no need, like those high priests, to offer sacrifices daily, first for his own sins and then for those of the people,” declares the Epistle to the Hebrews; “he did this once for all when he offered up himself.”

Ultimately we are confronted with the question: What price are we prepared to pay for ecumenicity? If what is demanded is an uncritical commitment that denies the “full, perfect and sufficient sacrifice, oblation, and satisfaction for the sins of the whole world,” then the price is too great. For whom is the WCC committee speaking in this report which apparently gives a boost to the Roman Mass? The church of Rome’s attitude to the ecumenical movement is too candid to arouse false hopes. Far from the picture of a Rome dragged screaming into the twentieth century, this WCC utterance seems to be dragging Protestantism back to the sixteenth century—and with barely a whimper. Our world may be a very different world from that of the Reformers, but the battle is the same. It is not a battle for unity to be won by exchanging concessions (an essentially Protestant delusion); it is a battle for the souls of men that calls for clear witness to biblical principles.

Though with customary caution the WCC points out that this is not an official policy statement, it may be fairly regarded as a leading symptom somewhat like the camel’s nose in the door. The quest for unity is justifiable only as one manifestation of the quest for spiritual revival. Principles for which the Reformers gave their lives are not negotiable.

Ncc Pronouncements: Episcopal View

Many Christians will rejoice if the National Council of Churches gives heed to the Joint Commission of the Protestant Episcopal Church. The commission’s report on its two-year study of the overall program of the NCC says some very significant things.

The NCC’s pronouncements, the report declares, “should avoid the impression that they offer the only specific Christian solution” to contemporary problems and “should be so phrased as not to bring into question the Christian commitment of those who do not agree.” A Christian who differs should not be given the impression that “he is less than ‘Christian’ in upholding his own convictions.” The commission further urges that when the NCC believes it necessary to speak on controversial political matters, “we expect our representatives to point out that dedicated Christians may be standing on either side of that particular question.”

The Episcopal study, while insisting that the NCC “should not stop making public announcements,” sees the proper value and function of these pronouncements in the “opening up of issues about which Christian people ought to be concerned.” If the NCC follows this admonition, it will lose considerable attraction for the secular press, which has little interest in theological reflections and materials handed down to churches for further study.

Less interest on the part of the secular press may, however, be salutary, for until the NCC can speak on social and political issues out of a real consensus of Christian conviction, it has no “word” for society. The report makes it clear that there is no such consensus; indeed, there is even disagreement about when the NCC may speak and what it may say in its public pronouncements.

A release from the Episcopal Church Center on the commission’s report suggests that “specific solutions to political, social and economic problems should be left to statesmen or to others in specialized fields.” Such a forthright statement rightly challenges the pretentious and indefensible notion that churchmen are automatically qualified to speak on the intricate problems of national and international life. In these areas they have too often said more than they know.

The Joint Commission vigorously denies that the NCC speaks on any matter for anyone. “It would be helpful,” it declares, “if a word other than ‘pronouncement’ were used since that word carries a note of authority that the statements do not possess.” The report continues, “The fact remains that the NCC by its constitution … has no real authority to issue authoritative pronouncements on any subject, theological, political, economic, or sociological.” Except for “rare occasions,” the “NCC should resist the temptation to make authoritative statements.… We would hold that when the NCC speaks to its member churches it speaks only in the sense that it conveys information and conclusions reached by the General Assembly and the General Board.”

If the NCC accepts this advice, it will learn how to speak within the limits of its competence and the boundaries of its proper function.

A Long Red Arm

This planet wears two faces. One is seen on travel posters. The other is reflected in political science texts, which outline the challenges and agonies of men’s attempts to govern themselves.

The cloistered Indian Ocean country called Zanzibar has been the worthy subject of many a daydream. It derives its income mainly from cloves, and their aromatic scent permeates the island. Nearby Tanganyika recalls Hemingway and the frozen leopard near the summit of majestic Kilimanjaro. To the north are the highlands of Kenya, and Uganda’s Ripon Falls at the source of the Nile. West lies the Congo at the core of Equatorial Africa with jungles, pygmies, and Watutsi giants.

But superimposed upon the idyllic scenes of nature is the human struggle for power and sovereignty. And no longer is the warfare confined to internecine tribal rivalries. The activities of leaders who often learn the tactics of revolution in places like Moscow, Peking, and Havana produce reactions in cities like Washington, London, and Paris.

To many Americans, the name of Zanzibar simply invokes memories of an old Bob Hope-Bing Crosby film, The Road to Zanzibar. What concerns American officials in Washington today is the road from Zanzibar, the possible exporting of the leftism of the newly installed revolutionary government. The Western powers now face the threat of another Cuba, a Communist dagger pointed at the heart of Africa. There is some evidence of Zanzibar’s influence in the recent revolt in Tanganyika, and there are suspicions of a Red link extending to the uprisings in Kenya and Uganda. The murder of missionaries in the Congo is a result of the guerrilla warfare being led by a leftist who recently returned from Red China.

Communists cannot be blamed for all the troubles of the world, but they rarely fail to capitalize on these troubles. The Red network is a restless one. During the test-ban negotiations in Moscow, Nikita Khrushchev was frank with Averell Harriman long enough to say: “From time to time we will stamp on your foot, and when you yell, we will apologize politely. Then, as we leave the room, we will stamp on your corns again.” By way of illustration, Latin America expert Adolf Berle asserts that the local Communist machine in Panama took part in the rioting there. And now comes the brutal shooting down of an unarmed American jet training plane over East Germany.

Further complicating the cold war is French recognition of Red China, followed by a coup in South Viet Nam by army officers who claimed to be thus thwarting French influence toward a neutralist reunited North and South Viet Nam. And the tension in Cyprus seems to be still another problem that will be with us for some time to come.

The conjunction of the idyllic and the turbulent in this world can well remind the Christian of two stupendous events—the Creation and the Fall. By the grace of God these lead on to redemption. Today behind the shifting lines of human strife, two figures loom. One is Karl Marx, in the atheistic trappings of an antichrist. Confronting him is the infinitely greater Christ himself, in whose face shines the light of the knowledge of the glory of God and in whose hand rests the ultimate victory. The mystery of iniquity is yet working, but so is the Gospel, which brings liberation to the human soul. A secondary but vital accompaniment to this liberty is the momentous fact that the depth of penetration by Christian missionaries is often the measure of the chances for survival of that most delicate flower—political freedom.

Another Expose Of U.S. Morals

It is possible that future historians looking back upon our times will evaluate the sex obsession that grips so many in our nation as even more far-reaching than the current race revolution. A cover story in Time magazine (January 24) describes in matter-of-fact detail this overturn in the private morality of millions of American youth and adults. It is not pleasant reading for those—and their number is not inconsiderable—who still believe that the law of the living God is not set aside by the disobedience of men no matter how widespread that disobedience is.

If ours is a day of sex obsession—as indeed it is—one reason may be the relentless, incessant exposure of the mind, through the printed page, through pictures, and through the latest adulteries of Hollywood idols, to the unrestrained sexuality Time reports.

The Christian ethic of sex is widely misunderstood by modern man, including the writers of the story in Time. Neither ascetic nor joyless, it is poles apart from the erotic fixation that haunts our society. And Christians need to be concerned lest by sheer multiplication of words and the overpowering weight of example contemporary paganism squeezes them into its mold of moral relativism and sex preoccupation.

Today, when adult sensual indulgence has by example and by the gainful pandering of sex stimuli debauched youth as never before in our national history, two things, among others, must be said by Christians with utmost emphasis, yet in love. The first is the ever relevant affirmation, bearing within it hope even for our wicked and adulterous generation, that Christ Jesus came into world to save sinners. The second is a question: By what right does this generation presume to think that it can break the laws of the living God with impunity?

The writer was once the unwilling witness of a city’s being taken over by diversionary tactics. After sporadic attacks over a period of eighteen months, a detachment of Japanese made a strong show of strength from the north, including air bombings, artillery barrages, and probing units of foot soldiers. Against all of this the Chinese put up a strong defense.

Then, during the night, while there was every evidence of a renewed attack from the north at daylight, a small detachment of Japanese soldiers rapidly advanced by a circuitous route; after quickly dispersing the Chinese guarding the outskirts of the southern sector, they stormed and took the city. The Chinese soldiers retreated in disorder to the east.

Individual Christians, and the Church, are constantly subjected to the diversionary tactics of Satan. This is not being written for those who deny the personality of the Devil or his devious methods of attack. It is written for those who by bitter experience are aware of his devices but who even so are prone to succumb to his wiles and in so doing find their minds and hearts diverted from Christian truth and objectives.

Only too often Satan shifts our attention to trivialities, or to the peripheral areas of Christianity, because of our own ignorance of the content of the faith. Christianity is a body of truth to be believed and a way of life, all of which centers in the Person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. If men can be turned aside from these truths, if the essential meanings of these truths can be perverted, if extraneous matters can bring us to ignoring them, if we become obsessed with anything that dims the primary object of our Lord’s intervention in the affairs of men—then Satan has won a major victory.

The Church (and this applies as well to Christians) can be diverted from her divinely appointed task by involvement with the cares of the world and the pleasures of secular living, by the deceitfulness of material things.

She can become enamored with the pomp and pageantry of ecclesiastical meetings and leave the Lord of glory outside the door.

She can confuse her message and forget that her primary task is not reformation, but proclaiming God’s plan of redemption.

She can forget or ignore her spiritual mission and become involved in secular matters to the eternal loss of countless souls.

She can become so intent on temporal welfare that she forgets the eternal destiny of man and fails to tell him of the way, the truth, and the life.

Satan has diverted us when we look for reformation without redemption, secular rather than spiritual values, immediate rather than eternal welfare. Unless eternity looms large in our thinking, human relations are out of perspective; social righteousness will not become a reality apart from lives transformed by the Living Christ.

Within the theological world there is always the danger of permitting theory to take precedence over fact, of setting philosophical reasoning over simple faith and human speculation above divine revelation.

The rose of the Gospel message can be destroyed by picking apart its content so that the petals of truth cease to have the fragrance of personal relevance. Simple faith must transcend presuppositions and men’s opinions.

Satan diverts whenever we permit the human element to take precedence over the divine, for not by “signs” or “wisdom” can spiritual truth be seen or become relevant at the personal level.

Once the Christ of man’s opinion is substituted for the Christ revealed in Scriptures one of Satan’s major battles has been won, for the Christ of man’s imagination then obscures the Christ of history and the Christ of personal experience.

We are fighting a battle that must be fought in every generation, although as the pace of life accelerates it seems as though the Devil is increasingly active. Can it be that John’s prophecy—“But woe to you, O earth and sea, for the devil has come down to you in great wrath, because he knows his time is short!” (Rev. 12:12b, RSV)—is being fulfilled today?

We are confronted not only with the diversions of strange doctrines that subvert the faith of many but also with assaults on the citadels of decency, which go to the point of glorifying what is evil, even bestial. The words of Paul search and convict today: “Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever!” (Rom. 1:24, 25).

Within the Church Satan diverts by substitution: “This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me; in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the precepts of men” (Matt. 15:8, 9). Our Lord’s quoting of this passage from Isaiah is echoed by Paul as he warned the Colossian Christians: “If with Christ you died to the elemental spirits of the universe, why do you live as if you still belonged to the world? ‘Do not handle, Do not taste, Do not touch’ (referring to things which all perish as they are used), according to human precepts and doctrines?” (Col. 2:20, 21.)

The world has for centuries seen a Church in which accretions, assumptions, and distortions have had full sway. Today we are witnessing some changes in that system, and many Protestants, diverted from the distinctives of their own faith, are in danger of being lulled into an ever growing ecumenical heresy—that ecclesiastical organization takes precedence over Christian truth.

Paul speaks of “doctrines of demons” (1 Tim. 4:1). The writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews speaks of “diverse and strange teachings” (13:9). All of these are carefully calculated diversions of the Evil One.

With a continuing battle, with the cleverly devised diversions of Satan, how can the Christians stand? How can the Church continue true to her mission?

There must be a source of reference, an anchor of the soul, a divine revelation that is preeminent over every human thought and motive. God has not left himself without a witness. He has given us his Holy Word, the revelation of his Son in that Word. He has given us the Holy Spirit, and all around us we see the evidences of his eternal power and deity. He has provided the communicating line of prayer and the warning radar of minds and hearts surrendered to him and filled by the Spirit of the risen and living Christ.

The Apostle Paul was keenly aware of the diversionary tactics of Satan. He set his sights on Christ crucified, dead, buried, risen, ascended, and coming again; and because of this he could say near the end of life, “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith” (2 Tim. 4:7).

Every victory Paul won we too can win. But we must know the enemy and his tactics; otherwise we will be diverted from the way God has laid out for us.

‘CUIUS REGIO CUIUS RELIGIO’

The man with me was a psychologist, and I sometimes think he did it on purpose. We were waiting for a football game to begin. The band marched out on the field with all the majorettes prancing out in front, and he said, “There come the fillies to the post.” Ever since that day I have had a hard time construing majorettes.

A girl and her mother were on a train headed for the West Coast, and I was put at their table in the dining car. What with one thing or another, we fell into conversation, and it turned out that the girl was a student at one of our great big universities in California. “How are things going?” I asked. Her mother answered, “Oh, Wilma Sue had the most exciting thing happen to her. Her sorority picked her to hold one of the color cards in the stadium.”

Some people have all kinds of things to say about what they call the American Way of Life, and this will no doubt become more evident in election year. My own private definition is that the American Way is to take a good thing and run it into the ground. And we are just likely to take a good thing like this beloved land and run it into the ground by running into the ground things like majorettes and color cards.

These sobering thoughts have just afflicted me as I came from watching Texas beat the Navy. That in itself was a sad experience, but mostly I was saddened by all those girls from some junior college in Texas making like the Rockettes for a half-time show. Every once in a while we were given a close-up of a beautiful and vacuous face. They all wore sombreros, a kind of a hat invented to keep the sun off; and then because they had run out of ideas they put on part of their act with parasols. A girl in boots, shorts, and a sombrero is something to contemplate, but a girl wearing a sombrero and carrying a parasol tells us just about where we are as we set out in 64.

“So why do we spend money for that which is not bread?”

EUTYCHUS II

LIFE AND THE TEST TUBE

May I commend your magazine for printing and John R. Holum for writing the article “If Scientists Create Life” (Jan. 3 issue). I can imagine the consternation that this article will produce in some of your readers, but to me this was a breath of fresh air blowing into the public domain on a very ticklish subject.

One thing that bothers many people, both Christians and non-Christians, in the debate between science and religion is that they forget that science is basically the finding out of truths and knowledge about God’s creation. If we remember that this is God’s creation, then we can accept the fact that any truth found out concerning it will not contradict God, but rather will tend to affirm God even though it may contradict some of our cherished beliefs. If we can accept truth when it is discovered, then our faith, rather than being destroyed, will become strengthened and more mature. Then also we will see the futility of the struggle between science and religion. We will also be able to accept the fact that man may be the agent of God’s creation of a living substance in a test tube just as we now accept the fact that man is often the agent of God in mediating His forgiving grace to other men.

GEORGE M. SHELDON

St. Paul’s Episcopal Church

Salt Lake City, Utah

I am a lay preacher without academic theological training and a chemist by profession.…

Serious students of the Bible know that the Lord Jesus Christ who inhabits eternity (Isa. 57:15) is the only Creator of Life (Gen. 1:1; John 1:3), the only Redeemer of Life (John 14:6, John 20:31), and the only Sustainer of Life (Acts 17:28; Heb. 1:3). To entertain the possibility of man creating life in a test tube one would either have to be woefully ignorant of the Scriptures or to deny the infallibility of God’s eternal Word.

Taylors, S. C.

W. H. SQUIER

The lead article in your current issue elicited keen interest which, however, turned soon to an equal disappointment. Professor Holum has not at all answered the question implicit in his title, “If Scientists Create Life.” Instead he seems to have studiously avoided it. The minister’s son he mentions is still left with his perplexity, “If … [so], who needs God?”

Holum did make a contribution in showing the uncertain line between life and non-life at its lowest levels. But then he merely fell back, for his affirmations, on New Testament passages that were entirely irrelevant to the scientific issue. His Christian faith serves him—and the rest of us—very poorly when it precludes his carrying over into his religious thinking the same rigorous, critical methods without which his scientific work would not merit a moment’s attention. Surely religion is of such supreme worth that it deserves the best intellectual resources we can bring to it!

Since he has failed us, may I be tolerated if, devoid of his scientific specialization, I undertake an answer? Science has come so close to producing (not “creating”) life artificially (as indeed he admitted) that for purposes of religious significance we may consider it achieved. And this inescapably means that life on this planet began through operation of “natural” forces, presumably of physics and chemistry. It is a demonstration which Christian people should welcome with open arms. For, taken along with the great achievement of Charles Darwin a hundred years ago, it closes the last blank in the line of objective evidence for the soundness of the Christian faith. That inscrutable, mysterious “Something” which operated in flaming galaxies and systems, and brought to being habitable planets, also produced life and in course of time man himself, and man’s achievements, dreams, and vague apprehensions and longings. We live in a universe that is our home by right of heritage! The whole Christian episode and Christian faith are broad-based in the reality of things that are; that is, in the Mystery that in the aeons of its working had manifested purpose, intelligence, and good. One shrinks from the bald claim that science has brought us to a biblical faith; but the line of thought precipitated by the artificial production of life leads to conclusions not far removed.

Professor Holum’s half-apologetic hesitation reads too much like the opening salvo in a war of words such as disgraced both science and religion in the later nineteenth century. God forbid that we repeat that folly!

WILLIAM A. IRWIN

Emeritus Professor of Old Testament

University of Chicago

Southern Methodist University

Dallas, Tex.

If … “science may someday create life,” I would be amazed at the feat, but I would, in no wise, think that “it would be fun” to be part of that future team. I would think, instead, that the prophecy of Revelation 13:15 was about to be fulfilled, and that the source of the “miracle” was not God, but Satan.

The Christian who is a true scientist must, in reverence for God and his Word, draw a line beyond which only the godless may go; and beyond which, in becoming “like God” they attain the goal first set by Satan in the Garden; only to find that they have not become “godlike.”

WILLIAM G. LOWE

Berlin Bible Church

Narrowsburg, N. Y.

For many years, the scientists have been proving their solid ground of hard facts was unsteady. This is not to disparage what the scientist is doing. It does remind us that the best scientists have the most searching questions [about] the ultimate solidity of the ground on which they stand.

Dr. John R. Holum … has certainly earned the deserving applause of both the evangelical and scientific communities. He has ably demonstrated that the most solid ground upon which one can stand to view the world … is that of Christian faith.

TED MALLINCKRODT

Court Street Methodist Church

Fulton, Mo.

DEATH OF THE PRESIDENT

Your editorial comment, “Light Out of Darkness” (Dec. 20 issue), was probably inspired in intent, but it was also extremely shallow in facts. You have attempted to emulate the left-wing extremists by association of a tragedy with some sort of “national” sin.…

C. D. RIAL, JR.

Hayward, Calif.

The editorial “searches the heart and the mind” and says things that need to be said and heeded about repentance for our toleration of violence and extremism and our need to cleanse our hearts of hatred. Thank you for it.

CLYDE V. SPARLING

Cattaraugus, N. Y.

My husband and I had already read “Light Out of Darkness,” and this morning very early I read it aloud as part of Advent devotions. Congratulations …! I’m writing the editor of The Catholic World as well as our daughter, Sister Margaret Ann, S. N. D., about this special editorial and its perfect Christian message, its own shining in the darkness of these days.

MRS. JOHN A. HESS

Athens, Ohio

The various comments on the death of the President were quite interesting (Dec. 20 issue, p. 39). I was, however, quite disturbed by the comment of Eugene Carson Blake and Silas G. Kessler that “those who have been making irresponsible attacks upon [President Kennedy] and his policies are as responsible for his death as the one who pulled the trigger.”

Certainly, irresponsible attacks and statements are to be deprecated, but they do not cause the death of anyone. Former President Hoover was certainly the object of many irresponsible attacks, but they did not kill him. What caused the death of our late President was the bullet of the assassin, that, and that alone. Had that bullet not been fired, the President would have continued to live, no matter how many irresponsible attacks had been made. It has been a long time since I have read any statement as irresponsible as that of Blake and Kessler.

EDWARD J. YOUNG

Professor of Old Testament

Westminster Seminary

Philadelphia, Pa.

I would like to disavow any guilt for the assassination of President Kennedy. It is the stated policy of the Marxist revolution of which Oswald was a part to “openly declare that their ends can be attained only by the forcible overthrow of all existing social conditions. Let the ruling classes tremble …” (quote from the Communist Manifesto).

I oppose Communism and its left-leaning apologists both within and outside of our country. I am openly opposed to the ideas and methods of Communism in whatever form and in whatever way they may appear. If the left wing would like to assume part of the blame for the dastardly act they may, but as for me, I disavow it. Why should one who opposes the devil be responsible for the devil’s treacherous deeds?

H. FEISTNER

Emmanuel Evangelical Lutheran Church

Oregon, Ill.

As long as language remains the most effective means of communication, many books will be published and many read. Even within the limits of the religious sector, a prodigious number of books are published each year; and even granting that people read less than they should, the aggregate of hours spent in reading religious publications must be staggering. To help the Christian minister, professor, and layman make their way through the abundance of religious publications, the book review section of CHRISTIANITY TODAY and this semi-annual forecast of books are dedicated.

Book titles not only indicate the contents that lie between the covers; they also indicate the intellectual problems, the agonizing anxieties, and the vexing questions that disturb the hearts and minds of the Church, and of the world no less. Social problems, particularly the “simple” problem of how to get along with one another, seem to be the chief concern of the day. As can be seen below from the titles of volumes that will come from the publishing houses this spring, social and ethical problems, problems of race and prejudice, of war and peace, and of ecumenical relations within Protestantism and among Protestants, Roman Catholics, and Orthodox—these loom large in the Christian mind and conscience.

Not every title can be listed. It is hoped, however, that even if some we mention are not among the most important, all taken together represent something more than a mere cross section.

THEOLOGY: Meredith will publish Christian Faith and Modern Theology (twenty essays by as many men) edited by C. F. H. Henry; Westminster, The Christian Belief in God by Daniel Jenkins, Beyond Belief by Edward W. Bauman, History, Sacred and Profane by Alan Richardson, and No Other Name by World Council Secretary Visser t Hooft; and Harper & Row, God Here and Now by Karl Barth and The New Hermeneutic by J. M. Robinson and J. B. Cobb, Jr. John Knox Press will publish Beyond Fundamentalism by D. B. Stevick and Revolutionary Theology in the Making: Barth-Thurneysen Correspondence, 1914–1925, translated by J. D. Smart; Holt, Rinehart and Winston, Varieties of Unbelief by M. E. Marty; Helicon, Man in the Church (Vol. II of Theological Investigations) by K. Rahner, S. J., and The Church by Pope Paul VI; Eerdmans, The Hope of Glory by D. Moody; Putnam’s, Luther and the Reformation by V. H. H. Green; Fortress, New Meanings for New Beings by R. Luecke; and Abingdon, The Doctrine of the Church by D. Kirkpatrick and The Historical Jesus and the Kerygmatic Christ by C. E. Braaten and R. A. Harrisville. Sheed & Ward will issue One and Apostolic by A. Hastings and Nature and Grace: Dilemmas of the Modern Church by K. Rahner, S. J.; and Herder and Herder, Israel’s Concept of the Beginning: The Theology of Genesis 1–3 by H. Renckens, S. J.

NEW TESTAMENT: Eerdmans will publish Introduction to the New Testament by E. Harrison and Count It All Joy: Themes from the Book of James by W. Stringfellow; Herder and Herder, The Sources of Acts by J. Dupont, O. S. B.; McGraw-Hill, The Pioneer of Our Faith: A New Life of Jesus by S. V. McCasland; Beacon, Jesus, Son of Joseph by D. F. Robinson; Judson, Theology in the New Testament by R. E. Knudsen; and Westminster, Prayer in the New Testament by F. L. Fisher.

Harper & Row will publish The Language of the Gospel by A. N. Wilder, Law and Wrath (Vol. IV of Bible Key Words) by G. Kittel, and The Humor of Christ by E. Trueblood; and Oxford, Jesus and Christian Origins: A Commentary on Recent Viewpoints by H. Anderson, The Interpretation of the New Testament, 1861–1961 by S. Neill, The Text of the New Testament: Its Transmission, Corruption, and Restoration by B. M. Metzger, and The Greek New Testament: Being the Text Translated in the New English Bible by R. V. G. Tasker.

OLD TESTAMENT: From Prentice-Hall, Living Story of the Testament by W. R. Bowie and Old Testament Light: A Scriptural Commentary Based on the Aramaic of the Ancient Pesh*tta Text by G. M. Lamsa; Hawthorn, Old Testament Apocrypha (Vol. 71 of the 20th Century Encyclopedia of Catholicism) by C. Dimier; Moody, Survey of Old Testament Introduction by G. L. Archer and Gleanings in Joshua by A. W. Pink; and Baker, Egypt and Exodus by C. F. Pfeiffer.

ARCHAEOLOGY: McGraw-Hill will print W. F. Albright’s History, Archaeology and Christian Humanism (Vol. I of Collected Studies); and Putnam’s, Temples, Tombs and Hieroglyphics: The Story of Egyptology by B. Mertz.

APOLOGETICS, PHILOSOPHY, SCIENCE: In this broad field much is offered. From Yale, Thomas Aquinas and John Gerhard by R. P. Ascharlemann, The Problem of God: Yesterday and Today by J. C. Murray, S. J., and Thomas Stapleton and the Counter Reformation by M. R. O’Connell; Fortress, The Abolition of God by H. G. Koch; Macmillan, Christian Faith in Our Time by F. Buri; Nelson, Hitler and the Pope by E. Alexander; Eerdmans, Faith and Philosophy by A. Plantinga and The Christian World of C. S. Lewis by C. S. Kilby; and Westminster, Truth as Encounter by E. Brunner (a new and much enlarged edition of his The Divine-Human Encounter) and Christ and Time: The Primitive Christian Conception of Time and History, a book in which O. Cullmann levels sharp criticism against R. Bultmann. Regnery will issue Toward Understanding St. Thomas by M. D. Ceni; Cambridge, Why So, Socrates? by I. A. Richards and The Discarded Image by the late C. S. Lewis; another by C. S. Lewis, Letters to Malcolm: Chiefly on Prayer, is to be published by Harcourt, Brace & World. Scribner’s will issue Moral Philosophy: Historical and Critical Survey of the Great Systems by J. Maritain; Princeton, Meaning and Truth in Religion by W. A. Christian; Harper & Row, The Basis of Christian Faith by F. E. Hamilton; Doubleday, Tongue Speaking by M. T. Kelsey; Holt, Rinehart and Winston, From Hegel to Nietzsche: The RevolutionaryBreakthrough in 19th Century Thought by K. Lowith, translated by David Green, and Philosophical Interrogations (120 philosophers and theologians interrogate Buber, Weiss, Wild, Wohl, Brand, Blanshard, Hartshorne, Tillich); and Oxford, Apologia pro Vita Sua: Being the History of His Religious Opinions, “his” referring to John Henry Newman.

ART AND ARCHITECTURE: Hawthorn will print The Building of Churches and The Art of the Church (Vols. X and XI of the “New Library of Catholic knowledge”), both by P. F. Anson; and Putnam’s, The Architecture of England by D. Yarwood.

BIBLICAL STUDIES: Revell will give us (loosely speaking) The Analyzed Bible by G. C. Morgan; Baker, An Introduction to the Apocryphal Books of the Old and New Testaments by H. T. Andrews and C. F. Pfeiffer; Bethany, The Heritage of Biblical Faith by J. P. Hyatt; Holt, Rinehart and Winston, Conversation with the Bible by M. Barth; Helicon, Primitive Christian Symbols by J. Daniélou, S. J.; Eerdmans, The Nature of the Resurrection Body by J. A. Schep and Volume I of the monumental Theological Dictionary of the New Testament, edited by G. Kittel, translated by G. W. Bromiley; Princeton, Handbook of Biblical Chronology by Jack Finegan; Harper & Row, Living Personalities of the Old Testament by H. Staack; Zondervan, The Church in Prophecy by J. F. Walvoord; Cambridge, The Setting of the Sermon on the Mount by W. D. Davis; Regnery, God’s Kingdom in the Old Testament by M. Hopkins, O. P.; and Westminster, Turning to God: A Study of Conversion in the Book of Acts and Today by W. Barclay.

BIBLE COMMENTARIES AND DICTIONARIES: Nelson will publish Commentary on the Apostolic Fathers (Vol. I) by R. Grand; Sheed & Ward, The Gospel According to St. Mark: A Text and Commentary for Students by A. Jones; and Eerdmans, Commentary on the Epistle to the Hebrews by F. F. Bruce, The Book of Isaiah (Vol. I) by E. J. Young, and The Wesleyan Bible Commentary by R. Earle and H. Blaney.

CHURCH HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY: Oxford will print The Oxford Movement edited by E. R. Fairweather and John Wesley edited by A. C. Outler; Yale, The Quakers in Puritan England by H. Barbour; Abingdon, The History of American Methodism by forty-four writers; Eerdmans, The Church in an Age of Reason (1648–1789) by G. R. Cragg and The Church in an Age of Revolution (1789 to the Present Day) by A. R. Vidler, and The Reformers and Their Step-Children by L. Verduin; Sheed & Ward, The Theology of Marriage: The Historical Development of Christian Attitudes Toward Sex and Sanctity in Marriage by J. Kerns; Scribner’s, Henry Sloane Coffin: The Man and His Ministry by M. P. Noyes; Christian Publications, 20th Century Prophet (a biography of the late A. W. Tozer) by D. J. Fant and Beyond All Waters (a story of the Christian and Missionary Alliance after seventy-five years) by J. Hunter; Herder and Herder, How the Reformation Came by J. Lortz; Princeton, The Two Kingdoms: Ecclesiology in Carolingian Political Thought by K. F. Morrison; McGraw-Hill, The First Six Hundred Years (Vol. I of The Christian Centuries: A New History of the Catholic Church) by J. Daniélou, S. J., and H. I. Marrou; Harper & Row, The Russian Religious Renaissance of the 20th Century by N. Zernov and The Elect Nation by W. Haller; Beacon, Christian Unity and Religion in New England (Vol. III of Collected Papers in Church History) by R. H. Bainton; Helicon, Blessed John Neumann: Bishop of Philadelphia by J. Galvin, C. S. S. R.; Hawthorn, Bernard of Clairvaux, Doctor Mellifluous by H. Daniel-Rops, Christianity and Other Religions (Vol. 145 of the 20th Century Encyclopedia of Catholicism) by R. C. Zaehner, Christianity and Colonialism (Vol. 97) by R. Delavignette, and Primitive and Prehistoric Religions (Vol. 140) by Bergounioux and Goetz; and Holt, Rinehart and Winston, Priest and Worker: The Autobiography of Henri Perrin translated by Bernard Wall. A Way Home: The Baptists Tell Their Story edited by J. S. Childers; and In the Service of the Lord: The Autobiography of Bishop Dibelius.

ECUMENICS: New books here show both continued and expansive interest. Westminster will publish The Problem of Catholicism by V. Subilia; and Herder and Herder, The Quest for Catholicity: The Development of High Church Anglicanism by G. A. Tavard. From Putnam’s will come The Latter-Day Saints in the Modern Day World by W. J. Whalen; from Scribner’s, The Prospects of Christianity Throughout the World edited by M. S. Bates and W. Pauck; from Eerdmans, Church Unity and Church Mission by M. E. Marty; and from Nelson, Justification and Structures of the Church, both by Hans Küng. Abingdon will print Parish Backtalk by B. Barr and The Doctrine of the Church by D. Kirkpatrick; Helicon, The Rise of Protestant Monasticism by F. Boit; John Knox, Unitive Protestantism: The Ecumenical Spirit and Its Persistent Expression by J. T. McNeill; and Sheed & Ward, Mind If I Differ: A Catholic-Unitarian Dialogue by J. Hasley.

ETHICS AND SOCIAL PROBLEMS: The offerings in this field reflect the many problems of church and society. Harper & Row will publish Church and State in the United States by A. P. Stokes and L. Pfeffer, Reshaping the Christian Life by R. A. Raines, and How the Church Can Minister to the World Without Losing Itself by L. Gilkey; Oxford, Religion and Social Conflict by R. Lee and M. E. Marty; Van Nostrand, Profile of the American Negro by T. Pettigrew; Seabury, Christians in a Technological Era edited by H. White; Putnam’s, The Cured Alcoholic by A. H. Cain; Eerdmans, Slavery, Segregation, and Scripture by J. O. Buswell and Christian Social Ethics: Some Basic Questions by C. F. H. Henry; Beacon, Black Religion: The Negro and Christianity in the United States by J. R. Washington, Jr., and Intermarriage: Interfaith, Interracial, Interethnic by A. I. Gordon; Abingdon, Religion and Leisure in America by R. Lee and In This Free Land: A Case for Responsible Conservatism by C. M. Crowe; and Doubleday, The First Amendment by W. H. Marnell and The Christian Fright Peddlers by B. R. Walker.

Sheed & Ward will issue Black, White and Gray: 25 Points of View on the Race Question edited by B. Daniel and Peace and Arms: Reports from ‘The Nation’ edited by H. M. Christman; Holt, Rinehart & Winston, The Teaching of Contempt: Christian Roots of Anti-Semitism by J. Isaac; Herder and Herder, Mutations of Western Christianity by A. Mirgeler, This Nation Under God: Church, State and Schools in America by J. Costanzo, S. J., and Peace on Earth, a commentary on Pope John’s encyclical, by P. Riga; Westminster, The Christian Understanding of Human Nature by W. N. Pittenger and Radical Obedience: The Ethics of Rudolf Bultmann by T. C. Oden; Hawthorn, Religious Orders of Women (Vol. 85 of the 20th Century Encyclopedia of Catholicism) by S. Cita-Mallard; William Morrow, The Face on the Cutting Room Floor: The Story of Movie and Television Censorship by M. Schumach; and Beacon, The John Birch Society: Anatomy of a Protest by J. A. Broyles.

MISSIONS: Revell will offer The Unpopular Missionary by R. E. Dodge; Bethany, The Layman Views World Missions by L. A. Davis; Prentice-Hall, Missionary, Go Home by J. A. Scherer; Herald, Evangelism, An Invitation to Discipleship by M. S. Augsburger; and Westminster, The Christian Witness in an Industrial Society by H. Symanowski.

PASTORAL THEOLOGY: Judson will publish The Campus Ministry by G. L. Earnshaw; Lippincott, Careers of Service in the Church by B. Y. Landis; Moody, The Pastor’s Wife and the Church by D. H. Pentecost; Baker, Preaching Values from the Papyri by H. H. Hobbs and Proclaiming the New Testament—Philippians, Colossians, Philemon by P. S. Rees; Augsburg, Unfragmented Man by Hans-Joachim Thilo, translated by A. Seegers, and The Making of Ministers edited by K. R. Bridston and D. W. Culver; Abingdon, The Art of Illustrating Sermons by I. Macpherson; John Day, When a Child Is Different (about mentally retarded children) by M. Egg; Harper & Row, For Preachers and Other Sinners by G. Kennedy and The Whole Person in a Broken World by P. Tournier; Broadman, Psychology in Search of a Soul by J. W. Drakeford; Prentice-Hall, Pastoral Care in Historical Perspective by W. Clebsch and C. Jaekle; Zondervan, The Art of Preaching by A. S. Wood; Herald, Servant of God’s Servants by P. M. Miller; and Holt, Rinehart and Winston, The Silent Pulpit: A Guide to Church Public Relations by E. Greif.

RELIGIOUS LITERATURE: Eerdmans promises The Rustle of Wings by C. Holding; Fortress, The Sudden Sun by O. Hartman; Funk & Wagnalls, Man on Fire: A Novel of the Life of St. Paul by L. Blythe; Seabury, The Climate of Faith in Modern Literature by N. A. Scott, Jr.; and Sheed & Ward, The New Orpheus: Essays Toward a Christian Poetic edited by N. A. Scott, Jr.

SERMONS: Baker will publish Fathers of the Church by C. P. Dame, Parables of the Old Testament by R. Norden, and Personalities of the Old Testament by R. G. Turnbull; Abingdon, And Our Defense Is Sure (sermons and addresses delivered at the Pentagon) by H. D. Moore, E. A. Ham, and C. E. Hobgood; Van Nostrand, Best Sermons (Protestant edition), Vol. IX, edited by G. Paul Butler; W. A. Wilde, Great Sermons on the Resurrection edited by W. M. Smith; Nelson, The Easter Message Today by H. Thielicke, L. Goppelt, and H. R. Muller-Schwaefe; Scribner’s, Sons of Anak: The Gospel and Modern Giants by D. H. C. Read; Broadman, Nehemiah Speaks Again by K. O. White; and Zondervan, Spurgeon’s Park Street Pulpit (six volumes) by C. H. Spurgeon and Preaching Through the Bible by E. W. Hayden.

DEVOTIONAL LITERATURE: From Seabury will come The Night and Nothing by G. D. Webbe; from Eerdmans, The Christian Calling by J. H. Kennedy; from Doubleday, Pilgrim’s Primer by L. Cassels; and from Zondervan, The Mystery of Godliness by W. I. Thomas, The Ministry of Keswick by H. F. Stevenson, and God Speaks to Women Today by Eugenia Price.

PAPERBACKS: Westminster will publish Drinking: A Christian Position and Agents of Reconciliation, both by A. B. Come, His Life and Our Life: The Life of Christ and the Life in Christ by J. A. Mackey, and A Protestant Approach to the Campus Ministry by J. E. Cantelon; United Church Press, The Principle of Protestantism by Philip Schaff and Moments of Truth: A Book of Meditations for Lent by R. L. Shinn; Signet (New American Library), Promises to Keep by A. Dooley (Dooley’s mother tells the story of his life) and Why We Can’t Wait by M. L. King; Judson, Baptists—North and South by S. S. Hill and R. G. Torbet; Herder and Herder, On Heresy by K. Rahner, S. J.; Eerdmans, The Revelation of St. John by A. Kuyper, An Introduction to New Testament Textual Criticism by J. H. Greenlee, Missionary Principles by R. Allen, and Phantastes and Lilith (two novels, one volume) by G. MacDonald; Seabury, The Word on the Air by G. M. Jones; Sovereign Grace, Antidote to Arminianism by C. Ness and Absolute Predestination by Zanchius; Fortress, The New Dimension of the Soul by R. Kroner, The So-Called Historical Jesus and the Historic, Biblical Christ by M. Kahler, The Genesis Accounts of Creation by C. Westermann, The Lord’s Prayer by J. Jeremias, Only to the House of Israel? by T. W. Manson, and Jesus and the Wilderness Community at Qumran by E. Stauffer; Moody, Our Neighbor, Martin Luther by E. R. Charles; World, The Holy Bible (RSV); Bethany, In the Presence of Death edited by C. Dale; Warner, What Was Bugging Ol’ Pharaoh? by C. M. (“Peanuts”) Schulz and Brief Introduction to the Old Testament by A. W. Miller; Baker, The Heidelberg Story by E. Masselink, The Sin of Being 50 by J. Johnson, and An Introduction to Communism by H. H. Barnette; Augsburg, The Church in a Diverse Society edited by L. W. Halvorson; John Knox, The Heidelberg Catechism for Today by K. Barth, The Social Humanism of Calvin by A. Bieler, Sowing and Reaping: The Parables of Jesus by E. Brunner, The Three R’s of Christianity by J. Finegan, and Trinitarian Faith and Today’s Mission by L. Newbigin; Faith and Life, The Theological Basis of the Christian Witness to the State (tentative title) by J. H. Yoder; Friendship, Death of a Myth by K. Haselden; and Abingdon, The Young Church by G. Ladd, Great Nights of the Bible by C. E. Macartney, Getting to Know God by J. A. Redhead, and The Methodist Church in Social Thought and Action by G. Harkness.

The best evangelical contributions of 1963, in the judgment ofCHRISTIANITY TODAY, are listed below. The selections propound evangelical perspectives in a significant way or apply biblical doctrines effectively to modern currents of thought and life. These are not the only meritorious volumes, nor do they in every case necessarily reflect the convictions of all evangelical groups.

BARNHOUSE, DONALD GREY: God’s Covenants: Romans 9:1–11:36 (Eerdmans, 176 pp., $3.50). Israel’s future according to Romans, by a master expositor.

BRUCE, F. F.: Israel and the Nations: From the Exodus to the Fall of the Second Temple (Eerdmans, 254 pp., $3.95). Israel’s history as it occurred within the context of her national neighborhood.

BUSWELL, J. OLIVER: Soteriology and Eschatology, Volume II of A Systematic Theology of the Christian Religion (Zondervan, 600 pp., $6.95). The final volume of a theology whose thought is systematized and whose meaning is always clear.

CAILLIET, EMILE: Young Life (Harper & Row, 120 pp., $2.95). The story of a vital movement for leading teen-agers to Christ and an account of the Young Life Institute’s successful venture into staff training.

CLARK, GORDON: Karl Barth’s Theological Method (Presbyterian and Reformed, 256 pp., $4.95). A scholarly, fair-minded evaluation of Barth’s theology as it relates to the laws of thought and the possibilities of human language.

DOWDY, HOMER E.: Christ’s Witchdoctor (Harper & Row, 241 pp., $3.95). This fascinating and authentic account of the conversion of a witch doctor in a tribe of South American Indians is of anthropological as well as spiritual value.

EVANS, ROBERT P.: Let Europe Hear: The Spiritual Plight of Europe (Moody, 528 pp., $5.95). A survey indicating that sixteen Western European countries are authentic mission fields.

GOODYKOONTZ, HARRY G.: The Minister in the Reformed Tradition (John Knox, 176 pp., $3.75). A study that explains and upholds the distinctive character of the office of minister.

KELLY, J. N. D.: The Pastoral Epistles (from the “New Testament Commentaries” series, Harper & Row, 264 pp., $5). A very lucid interpretation that conveys the results but not the mechanics of scholarship, by an author who argues for Pauline authorship.

POLLOCK, J. C.: Moody (Macmillan, 336 pp., $5.50). A faithful portrait with all the lights and shadows.

MARTIN, JAMES P.: The Last Judgment (Eerdmans, 214 pp., $4). A study of how eschatology was eased out the back door of Christian theology.

METZGER, BRUCE M.: Chapters in the History of New Testament Textual Criticism (Volume IV of “New Testament Tools and Studies,” Eerdmans, 165 pp., $4). A highly scientific work by a meticulous scholar of international repute.

MICKELSEN, A. BERKELEY: Interpreting the Bible (Eerdmans, 425 pp., $5.95). A fresh inquiry into the issues, tools, and techniques of biblical interpretation.

RAMM, BERNARD: Them He Glorified: A Systematic Study of the Doctrine of Glorification (Eerdmans, 148 pp., $3). Done with a painstaking competence that tempts the reader to read on.

RICHARDSON, JOHN R., and CHAMBLIN, KNOX: The Epistle to the Romans (Baker, 166 pp., $2.95). A popular, pithy exposition blending the doctrinal, ethical, and homiletical.

RODDY, CLARENCE S.: The Epistle to the Hebrews (Baker, 141 pp., $2.75). Practical commentary on selected texts dealing with the chief motifs of the epistle.

SHOEMAKER, SAMUEL M.: Beginning Your Ministry (Harper & Row, 127 pp., $3). Salty wisdom about the minister and his ministry—spoken out of the ripeness of the author’s years.

STONEHOUSE, NED B.: Origins of the Synoptic Gospels: Some Basic Questions (Eerdmans, 201 pp., $4.50). A scholarly investigation of the authorship, origins, and interdependence of the Synoptic Gospels. A contribution to scholarship.

TENNEY, MERRILL C.: The Reality of the Resurrection (Harper & Row, 221 pp., $4). A doctrinal and apologetic treatment of Christ’s resurrection.

TWEEDIE, DONALD F., JR.: The Christian and the Couch (Baker, 237 pp., $3.95). The author crosses frontiers to discover a distinctive Christian psychotherapy.

WHITESELL, FARIS D.: Power in Expository Preaching (Revell, 174 pp., $4). The author powerfully pleads the equation: expository preaching equals preaching for eternity.

Sometimes I believe I understand the frustration that must have come to mankind at Babel, for nothing is more disconcerting than to be unable to communicate with your fellow man. I have often watched a Babelian type of bewilderment cross the faces of my military congregation on Sunday morning. It strikes them most frequently when I have begun to read the Scriptures or quote from them in the course of my sermon.

Many of the fine Christian people in my flock have developed the commendable habit of bringing a Bible to church. Somehow the reading has more meaning when they can follow it in their Bibles. Also, they are able to keep the sermon text available during the sermon.

Unfortunately, my congregation comes from as diversified a denominational background as can be found in our American pluralistic church society. These people are the unfortunate victims of well-intentioned parsons who have taken to heart the command of God to feed the flock and who have instructed their parishioners faithfully in diverse places with diverse versions of the Scriptures. I do not take exception to the good intent of these ministers of the Lord. Every minister has been called to teach his people God’s Word, so that they may better understand God’s relationship to his children. To accomplish his purpose every alert and conscientious minister will encourage his flock to purchase a translation that will enable them to comprehend the Bible.

But as I stand in my pulpit, I wonder why there is no consensus among my fellow clergymen about the one best version for God’s people. The fact that there is no unanimity makes my task on Sunday morning almost impossible. I enter the pulpit with fear and trembling, gazing around with trepidation at all those parishioners in their pews with Bibles at the ready. Which version do they have? Is it the one from which I am about to read? The answer soon comes in their look of bewilderment, and in the sounds of confusion as the pages of the Bibles are rapidly shuffled in an attempt to coordinate what I am reading with what is printed in their translations.

Little does my congregation realize the battle I have fought over the Bible translations in my hours of preparation for the service. I know Mrs. Adams prefers the beauty of the King James Version and resolutely continues to extol its virtues. Mr. Beale, my youth department superintendent, is equally convinced J. B. Phillips’s is the only translation that speaks the language of youth, tomorrow’s church. And then there is Mr. King, who holds that only a compromise will be of benefit to everyone, and that the Revised Standard Version is therefore the best. But as I begin to read, I know that the disappointed ones are viewing me with a sense of pity and resignation. It seems the chaplain is not intelligent enough to choose the one truly superior version of the Scriptures.

I find myself reacting even more violently when I quote Scripture in my sermon. Lately I have started to paraphrase rather than risk the danger of direct quotation. Most of the passages I have committed to memory come from the King James Version. By dint of great labor and concentrated effort I have managed to relearn a few of the more obscure and difficult ones. Still my memory does play tricks on me, and then J. B. Phillips begins to sound like a scholar at the court of King James. On occasion one such Jacobean scholar sounds as if he had an insight into twentieth-century English. I shudder to think about what this does to those who are intently following my sermon.

I have learned also never to lift my eyes from the pages of the Bible. Should I be reading a familiar portion of the Scriptures in one of the newer translations, King James has a nasty habit of sneaking in. At times the confusion becomes monumental, and I have already lost my place in the heart of the morning lesson. Alas, I am in that awkward age for preachers—too old to relearn the many passages committed to memory from the King James Version, too young to be retired. So I continue to struggle in the midst of the confusion of tongues.

But this is not solely a problem of biblical translations. My Lutheran church has just rewritten the English version of Luther’s small catechism. No longer shall I be able to impress my catechism class as I quote the catechism from memory. I tremble to visualize those same children commiserating with that doddering old chaplain who after so many years can no longer recall even the explanation to a commandment.

Time marches on, and new versions of everything sacred to the Church will continue to roll from the presses. As the process continues, I shall become a more bewildered preacher trying to cut through the maze of sounds to bring the simple Gospel to God’s people. I can even hear the echoes of a young student saying: “Excuse me, sir, in what version are you attempting to communicate with me?”

Yet there is at least a partial answer to the problem. Let each congregation furnish Bibles for church use just as it does hymnals. Hymnbooks have achieved uniformity in worship, conformity in congregational singing. Bibles placed alongside the hymnbooks will ensure the same kind of uniformity in the Scripture lessons and during the morning sermon. Once the congregation’s board has decided upon a specific version of the Scriptures, it should make sure that this version alone is used throughout the program of the church, including Sunday school classes and all other educational functions. Other translations may be used for private study and for comparison, but never at the expense of common fellowship in the Word of God.

Your Spirit Is Showing

Much has been written recently about bigotry. The one point upon which everyone is agreed is that bigotry is a bad thing and should be purged from our society. Little has been said, however, about the way bigotry develops nor yet how it may be counteracted. For this reason, it would be profitable to see how our Lord Jesus detected a bad spirit among his disciples and what he said about getting rid of it.

In Luke 9, the disciples reported to Christ that they saw a man doing miracles in his name and that they had forbidden him “because he was not with us.” But, said Jesus: “Forbid him not; he that is for us cannot be against us” (Luke 9:50). These two propositions, “with” and “for,” spell the difference between bigotry and beneficence. The bigot insists that everyone must join his group or be regarded as a dangerous heretic.

To counteract such a spirit among his disciples Christ used the word “for,” explaining that “he that is for us cannot be against us.” Nor is it difficult to determine whether or not a man is for or against Christ. He who “gathereth with me” is for me, says Christ (Matt. 12:30). Thus, the best antidote for bigotry is to do the work of an evangelist. The thing of prime importance is never, “Are they with us?” but rather, “Are they gathered unto Christ?”

One day Jesus had to reject a proposal for energetic action by his disciples. Peter, seized by an explosive impulse, had cut off the ear of one who had come with those sent to arrest Jesus. This was a proposal for action rather than a veiled hint as to what could be done. But Jesus rebuked Peter saying, “Put up thy sword!”

Now Peter’s spirit was wrong on four counts. First, Jesus reminded him, “He who takes the sword shall perish by the sword.” Peter’s action was self-defeating; and what is true of the sword is equally true of any reckless use of the pen. The words of the bigot invariably boomerang with devastating results. Secondly, said Jesus, “Do you not think I could have asked the Father and he would have sent me twelve legions of angels?” If force was of any value in the work of faith Christ sought to accomplish, then forces far more effective than Peter’s sword were available to the Son of Man. The truth is, he does not need our “fighting spirit” so much as our obedient faith to the Holy Scriptures, which Jesus declared “must be fulfilled.” God’s plans are set forth within the written Word in sufficient detail for us to know that nothing can possibly thwart his eternal purpose. That was the third reason why Christ rebuked Peter’s lashing out at those breaking in upon their company. Finally, Jesus asked quietly, “The cup which the Father giveth me, shall I not drink it?” To take any other course of action than that of full obedience to the revealed purpose of the Father would be an affront to the sovereign will of God.

Faith and obedience, therefore, are inseparable in the life that is pleasing to God. And perhaps nothing shows our true spirit more clearly than this. For the besetting sin of the bigot is to substitute strong-headed convictions for whole-hearted consecration to the will of God. Your spirit will be shown most clearly not at the gates of Gethsemane where men resort to swords, but within its cloistered walls where strong men sweat as it were drops of blood, praying, “Father, not my will, but thine be done!”—From A Plea for Faith, by STUART P. GARVER. Copyright 1963 by Christ’s Mission, Inc. Used by permission.

Thomas W. Klewin is a chaplain (Major) at Loring Air Force Base, Maine. Before entering the chaplaincy, he served as pastor of Trinity Lutheran Church, Morris Plains, New Jersey. He received the A.B. and B.D. degrees from Concordia Seminary, St. Louis, Missouri, and the A.M. from Washington University, St. Louis.