Challenge To The Wellhausen Theory
The Religion of Israel: from Its Beginnings to the Babylonian Exile, by Yehezkel Kaufmann, trans. by Moshe Greenberg (University of Chicago, 1959, 486 pp., $7.50), reviewed by Oswald T. Allis, formerly member of Old Testament Department, Princeton Theological Seminary.
This is a provocative and also provoking book by a distinguished Jewish scholar, who was until recently Professor of Bible in the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. It is an abridgment of a seven-volume work written in Hebrew and published in Tel-Aviv over a period of years (1937–1946). The book makes interesting and stimulating reading. It is the work of a decidedly independent thinker and the reader will pay tribute to the wide learning of the author.
Like his compatriot Benno Jacobs, Kaufmann writes as a critic of the still widely held Wellhausen hypothesis. But while Jacobs and more recently Wouk emphatically reject, as did Dornseiff, the documentary analysis of the Pentateuch, Kaufman regards it as one of the achievements of criticism which may be regarded as firmly established. He holds also that the “Torah book” (Pentateuch and Former Prophets) “was not in pre-exilic times canonical and binding on the nation,” that Deuteronomy “was promulgated in the reign of Josiah,” and that “the Torah as a whole was promulgated and fixed in the time of Ezra-Nehemiah.” On the other hand he holds that the order of the Pentateuchal documents is JE,P,D and not JE,D,P. He insists that P knows nothing of D and must therefore be earlier. He also claims that the Law precedes the Prophets, or to be more exact that they represent two more or less parallel developments, which grew up independently. He is strongly opposed to the Scandinavian (Uppsala) school and says of it: “The religio-historical views of this school are even more paganistic than those of the classical criticism.” The same, he tells us, “may be said of the British school of Hooke and his adherents.” Thus it appears that this book is a challenge to the critics by a fellow critic who is fully worthy of their steel. It is safe to predict that the challenge will not be unanswered.
The conservative reader, on the other hand, will find the book decidedly provoking for the reason that Kaufmann’s attitude toward the authority of Scripture does not differ materially from that of the scholars whose views he criticizes and rejects. Two examples must suffice. Kaufmann does justice to the evidence from archaeology as to the antiquity of writing. He tells us that the great writing prophets wrote down their utterances themselves. This is good news in view of the emphasis placed by so many critics today on oral tradition and many revisings and editings of the prophetical books. But why does Kaufmann think we have the “autographs” of the prophets? His reason is that the prophets made mistakes, that some of their predictions were unfulfilled or falsified by history; and in the fact that these predictions appear in the text he finds the proof that the followers of the prophets reverenced them so highly that they did not venture to edit or delete. Hence the prophetical books may be regarded as authentic. A bad argument in support of a good position! Kaufmann insists that the prophets “misunderstood” the idolatry of the pagan peoples, and by failing to recognize its mythology they treated it as fetishism. We prefer to believe that these prophets who knew the “abominations” of the heathen at first hand and were engaged in constant conflict with them, were better acquainted with the inwardness of these cults than are the modern students of comparative religion who study them at a distance.
OSWALD T. ALLIS
Biblical Insights
The Bible Today, by C. H. Dodd (Cambridge, 1960, 168 pp., $1.45), is reviewed by William Childs Robinson, Professor of Historical Theology, Columbia Theological Seminary.
As a study of the Bible by a scholar of Dodd’s stature, this work has many excellent insights. There is continuity in the worshiping community, unity between the Old and the New Testaments in that one is promise and the other fulfillment, and the law is ably treated. The early Christian movement is seen as a generation of expansion followed by one of conflict and then of consolidation.
Yet one must demur from the Old Testament higher critical positions which are assumed. For example, we are told that the five centuries following the sixth (B.C.) were a period of great literary activity during which the bulk of the books of the Old Testament took shape … and yet “of the events of the period the literature has little to say” (p. 58). Can Dr. Dodd offer a parallel for this strange phenomenon anywhere else?
On the contrary, he recognizes that the New Testament was about a century in being written, and that the great epistles were written in the most active part of Paul’s career.
We heartily concur with the distinguished author that the Gospel of Christ and the Law of Christ are both fundamental in the gospels and the epistles, and both have meaning only as they are referred to the historical personality and work of Jesus Christ.
WILLIAM CHILDS ROBINSON
Edwardsian Evangelism
Steps to Salvation: The Evangelistic Message of Jonathan Edwards, by John H. Gerstner (Westminster, 1960, 192 pp., $3.95), is reviewed by G. Aiken Taylor, Editor, The Presbyterian Journal.
The Professor of Church History and Government at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary presents a systematic analysis of how America’s greatest philosophical theologian, Jonathan Edwards, viewed the conversion experience and the steps leading to it.
Gerstner calls Edwards’ theology (“Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God”) “scare theology.” He justifies this interpretation in these words: “(For Edwards) hell is about all of spiritual reality that can affect an unconverted man.”
The book is based on the New Englander’s sermon manuscripts and probably should be classified as an interpretation rather than an exposition. Edwards himself never systematized the steps in conversion. Dr. Gerstner has taken advantage of this fact in order to present to his readers the noted Puritan theologian’s thoughts in a manner more easily grasped.
Most suggestive for a day in which Predestination has been under heavy attack is the way Dr. Gerstner relates Edwards’ high Calvinism to his evangelistic zeal. Actually this is the theme of the entire book.
“Predestination preachers have usually been evangelistic preachers,” the author points out. As Edwards insisted, the fixity of the divine decrees in no way altered the responsibility of men.
The reasoning is relatively simple in its profundity. God, who is absolutely sovereign, is gracious in his sovereignty. The greatest sinner among men may be saved if God pleases. And men will be saved when they come to recognize, in an awareness of their awful need, that God alone can save them, if he pleases. When men seek the Lord, it is a sign that he pleases. Men are therefore encouraged to seek him. The call to decision is efficacious because it is the call of God to begin with: his Word, in the mouth of his servant.
Here is hard doctrine, but spirit-satisfying strong meat.
G. AIKEN TAYLOR
Wooden Jesus
The Last Temptation of Christ, by Nikos Kazantzakis, translated from the Greek by P. A. Bien (Simon and Schuster, 1960, 506 pp., $6), is reviewed by Sherwood E. Wirt, Editor of Decision.
In a closing “note on the author and his use of language,” the translator of this novel tells that the late author, a Greek writer who missed the Nobel prize for literature by one vote, wished “to lift Christ out of the Church altogether.” His purpose, it seems, was “to fashion a new saviour and thereby rescue himself from a moral and spiritual void.” He “wished to make Jesus a figure for a new age, while still retaining everything in the Christ-legend” that seemed valuable.
The result is a Jesus who is curiously wooden; who is a target for the emotional catapults of men and angels alike; who takes issue with Paul of Tarsus over the latter’s Christological orthodoxy; and who is essentially the struggling hero of a (modern) Greek tragedy. Like so many before him, Kazantzakis writes the story of his own stormy life and clothes it in the garment of the Nazarene.
SHERWOOD E. WIRT
Playing Yogi
Christian Yoga, by J. M. Dechanet (Harper, 1960, 196 pp., $3.75), is reviewed by Georges A. Barrois, Professor of the History and Theology of the Medieval Church, Princeton Theological Seminary.
We like to believe that the author has successfully disentangled his Yoga from the Hindu religious ideology with which Yoga is normally associated. Then nothing more would remain than a harmless, and perhaps beneficial, gymnastic. Everybody knows that bodily attitudes may influence mental, and eventually spiritual, activities; each religious group has its proven devotional gestures. But why should Yoga be the thing? We do not read that Jesus, who as a man was closer to his Father than any one of us can possibly be, ever practiced the “tree,” or the “bent bow,” or the “dolphin,” nor did his disciples. The following declaration, a rather unusual one, is printed back of the title page: “It is not implied that those who have granted the Nihil obstat and Imprimatur agree with the contents, opinions or statements expressed.” Obviously they have little use for Yoga; or do they anticipate unfavorable reactions from Rome? The author is the Prior of a Benedictine monastery in the Congo—of all places! Man, wake up! Africa is afire, while you are playing Yogi. Is this what you have been ordained for?
GEORGES A. BARROIS
Baptist Preaching
Southern Baptist Preaching, edited by H. C. Brown, Jr. (Broadman, 1959, 227 pp., $4), is reviewed by Andrew W. Blackwood, Professor Emeritus, Princeton Theological Seminary.
This book shows contemporary Southern Baptist preaching at its ablest. Each of 22 ministers submits a brief life sketch, a statement on “How I Prepare My Sermons,” and a favorite message.
The sermons are biblical in substance, evangelical in doctrine, practical in outlook, clear and interesting in style, and widely varied. Among the preachers are Theodore F. Adams, T. T. Crabtree, Billy Graham, G. Earl Quinn, Herschel H. Hobbs, C. Oscar Johnson, Robert G. Lee, Duke K. McCall, Caryle Marney, Charles A. Trentham, Perry F. Webb, and J. Howard Williams.
The compiler has done his work well. His book ranks among the best of its kind.
ANDREW W. BLACKWOOD
Pastor’S Guide
The Minister in Christian Education, by Peter P. Person (Baker, 1960, 134 pp., $2.95), is reviewed by James DeForest Murch.
Pastors who are, or ought to be, active in the Christian Education program of the local church will find this an invaluable practical volume. It tells how pastors can enlarge their usefulness in their teaching ministry; deals with their part in the Sunday school, the vacation school, the week-day school, youth and adult programs, leadership recruitment—in fact, every phase of education at the local church level. Dr. Person, author of the widely used textbook Introduction to Christian Education, writes out of a long and rich experience in his field.
JAMES DEFOREST MURCH
Luther Gold
Luther and Culture, by George W. Forell, Harold J. Grimm, and Theo. Hoelty-Nickel (Luther College Press, 1960, 211 pp., $3), is reviewed by Victor E. Beck, Secretary of Literature and Book Editor, Augustana Book Concern.
Luther has become a veritable mine for prospectors. In this volume George W. Forell of Chicago Lutheran Theological Seminary, Harold J. Grimm of The Ohio State University, and Theo. Hoelty-Nickel of Valparaiso University, scholars in their field, have quarried respectively in the ores, Luther and Politics, Luther and Education, Luther and Music. How accurately and adequately they have brought forth the “pure gold” perhaps only Luther himself, whose “mind was never static” (page 147), could say.
But here is an addition to the growing Luther material which those interested in Luther will want. A good index would have added to the usefulness of the book, but ample fly leaves at the end provided the reviewer with space to make one of his own.
VICTOR E. BECK
Shaky Foundation
The Word Incarnate, by W. Norman Pittenger (Harper, 1959, 295 pp., $7.50), is reviewed by Edward John Carnell, Professor of Ethics and Philosophy of Religion, Fuller Theological Seminary.
This is an erudite, yet highly readable, study of the person of Christ. The author defends a position which lies somewhere between traditional orthodoxy and the mediating schools of liberalism, though it is not easy to tell just where this position is. The author forthrightly rejects the liberal distinction between the “Jesus of history” and the “Christ of faith,” yet he rests his Christology on a view of Scripture which is much closer to liberalism than it is to orthodoxy. He places more reliance on the faith of the responding community than on the original charismatic gifts enjoyed by the apostolic college. The redemptive events of Christ’s life, death, and resurrection are stressed. But the stories of the nativity, of the empty tomb, and of the ascension and Pentecost are dismissed as “legends.” I regard this as a very shaky foundation on which to raise a rigorous, thoroughly biblical study of the person of Christ.
Nonetheless, this is a book to be reckoned with. It sets forth a painstaking introduction to contemporary viewpoints in Christology. The author is at home in most of the primary sources, ancient and modern, and he goes out of his way to provide the reader with such illuminating helps as learned footnotes, extensive bibliographies, and select quotations. His care and scholarship might well serve as a model for younger students in systematic theology. A book of this stature deserves a wide hearing, but its dreadfully high price may frustrate such a possibility.
EDWARD JOHN CARNELL
Liberal Journey
A Journey through the Old Testament, by M. A. Beek, trans. by Arnold J. Pomerans (Harper, 1959, 244 pp., $3.95), is reviewed by K. M. Yates, Jr., Associate Professor of Old Testament and Archaeology, Golden Gate Baptist Theological Seminary.
The author of this work is a Dutch scholar who teaches at the University of Amsterdam. Although he is not well known in English-speaking countries, his ability has been recognized for some time on the continent. The presence of this translation of one of his works serves as an introduction to one who will be heard more in the coming years.
There is, throughout the book, evidence of great enthusiasm coupled with thorough scholarship. The author has a style of writing which keeps “the journey” continually moving. His power of description and his vivid manner of presenting facts sustain the reader’s interest in a remarkable way.
The book is not designed as a study of the entire Old Testament. Professor Beek has been very selective in choosing what he considers most important or most interesting connection with each period of Israel’s history. The 73 brief chapters are the outgrowth of a series of radio broadcast talks, and are designed for laymen who have not a comprehensive knowledge of the contents of the Old Testament.
Although the book is not planned as a treatment of critical questions, the author’s own position is evident. Having been trained in the school of Albrecht Alt, his views on the historicity of the events connected with Moses and the Exodus are similar to those of Martin Noth. Although cognizant of certain archaeological discoveries, he ignores the numerous finds which give historical background to this important phase of Israel’s beginnings. Beek says of Moses, “He became a myth and so the real truth about his life will never be known.” This view is applied to the recorded events from Joseph to the conquest in Canaan.
The author’s more liberal position is also illustrated by his view of the value of the creation narrative in Genesis: for example, “Not that I wish to claim Genesis 1 is inherently greater than the myths of older peoples and religions.” However, in keeping with the emphasis of the school of Alt, a great change in attitude toward Old Testament history occurs from the beginning of the United Kingdom. From this point onward, the author ignores or de-emphasizes the critical problems involved.
There are many unique aspects of interpretative value in the work. The author’s enthusiastic style and love for the Old Testament bring to light many pathways seldom explored by the average student of the Bible. Once the critical position of the author is recognized and understood, the book becomes valuable to one in exploring various facets along the journey through the Old Testament.
K. M. YATES, JR.
Ready-Mixed Sermons
Religion That Is Eternal, by G. Ray Jordan (Macmillan, 1960, 134 pp., $3), is reviewed by C. Philip Hinerman, Pastor of Park Avenue Methodist Church, Minneapolis, Minnesota.
This book is for the preacher who is feverishly looking for a sermon to be used next Sunday morning. It is, in point of fact, a combination book of sermon outlines and excellent illustrations, nearly all of them bright and shiny, and some of them new. Author G. Ray Jordan is a former Southern Methodist pastor and is now homiletics professor at Chandler School of Theology, Emory University, Atlanta. Dr. Jordan wrote an earlier book for young ministers titled You Can Preach! With this latest book the professor seems determined to prove it, even to the point of giving us the message to use. No one any longer need say that he cannot preach. The ready-mix is right in the package.
These sermons are far from being great existentialistic preaching, but they do possess a do-it-yourself quality ideal for the desperate parson. A complete outline for the sermon was thoughtfully added at the end of each message to further simplify the preparation.
C. PHILIP HINERMAN
Light On Beatitudes
The Cross on the Mountain, by Sherwood Eliot Wirt (Crowell, 1959, 129 pp., $2.75), is reviewed by John K. Mickelsen, Pastor of Canoga Presbyterian Church, Seneca Falls, New York.
“The Beatitudes in the Light of the Cross,” the subtitle given on the paper jacket, describes the subject and approach of the book. Dr. Wirt lets the Cross, the death and resurrection of our Lord, shed its penetrating light on the Beatitudes. In his exposition, the eight piercing declarations of our Redeemer bring us to his Cross. We learn to rest upon him, accept our crucifixion with him, and live obediently in the power of his resurrection.
The sixth meditation on “the pure in heart” is entitled “The Washing of the Cup.” Here is a sample of the spiritual food which the chapter offers. “In eleven short words Jesus now faces us with man’s highest hope and his deepest frustration.… We need major cardiac surgery of the kind that the Lord prescribed for Israel: ‘A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you’ ” (pp. 78–81). “The only conscious thing we can say about the pure in heart is that they are fundamentally honest about their own impurity.… They have carried motivation research to the point where they know that since the ‘heart is deceitful above all things’ (Jer. 17:9), the good life must be a gift of Grace, and their good works are but the works of the Lord” (pp. 81–84). “The instant that the Christian life ceases to be a pilgrimage of sacred events and becomes a consuming fire, the celestial vision is ours, though there is nothing left of us but ashes” (pp. 91–94).
JOHN K. MICKELSEN
Roman Romance
The Bride of Pilate by Esther Kellner (Appleton, 1959, 305 pp., $3.95), is reviewed by Marie Malmin Meyer, Professor of English, St. Olaf College.
The historical novel ranks second only to the detective story as escape literature. And therefore the reading public will welcome Esther Kellner’s most recent novel, The Bride of Pilate. In choosing her subject, Miss Kellner has recognized that the author of a historical novel gains greatest artistic freedom by dealing with a little known character out of history or by inventing persons whose experiences will typify a historical situation. She chose the wife of Pilate as her main character, for about her we know nothing except that she warned Pilate against condemning Jesus. Thus with a complete freedom, she has produced a story purely imaginative up to the last 50 pages, where then the characters are linked to the story of Jesus, “the Native,” as he is called in the novel.
Unfortunately, the linking is highly artificial and contrived. That Pilate’s wife was an unacknowledged granddaughter of Emperor Augustus of Rome one might willingly accept, and even that the Roman centurion whose child Jesus healed miraculously was a close friend of hers, in fact the son of her foster parents in Rome, one might admit; but that the thief whom Jesus saved on the cross was a part of her earlier life—first as the pirate through whose activities she was at the age of 13 returned from exile to Rome, and then as the man she really loved—overstrains one’s sense of credulity.
Yet the book is delightful to read. The narrative moves rapidly, and Miss Kellner shows a sensitive feeling for Roman and Hebrew custom and tradition. The character of Claudia is well drawn, as is also that of Lucius Pontius Pilate.
I am not sure that this novel qualifies as Biblical-historical fiction, but as historical romance of the Roman era, it is a pleasantly entertaining piece of work.
MARIE MALMIN MEYER
Catholic Reading
Harvest 1960, edited by Dan Herr and Paul Cuneo (Newman Press, 1960, 290 pp., $3.50), is reviewed by Stuart P. Garver, Director of Christ’s Mission, New York.
A former editor of The Commonweal observed that “no group has taken fuller advantage of freedom of the press than American Catholics.” This is true, but it is also terribly frustrating for a reading public already floundering in the vast ocean of ink created by American writers. Who can find time to scan—let alone assimilate—the best any group of authors might produce? The anthologies, the condensed books, the choice readings edited by professors and enterprising publishers at least help us to keep informed about the minds and motives of our contemporaries. While one may not applaud the selection of materials for these compilations, he will, nevertheless, be appreciative of the work that has gone into their preparation.
Harvest 1960 represents what Messrs. Herr and Cuneo considered to be the best articles appearing in 22 Roman Catholic publications in America. Their selection of authors and subjects is itself laudable and, whether one agrees or disagrees with what has been written, he cannot escape the fact that Roman Catholic writers as herein represented deserve to be read with due respect for both their spirit and literary style.
This is not a polemic against Protestants so much as an open window through which one can hear the Roman Catholic literary elite discussing the problems of their church. Indeed the book has nothing else to tie it together except a common loyalty to the Roman Catholic “position” within the framework of American democracy. The papal church no longer strives for recognition as an integral part of the New World culture but has become very self-conscious as a social and political power in a democratic, pluralistic society.
There is certainly nothing juvenile in these chapters, although one sometimes feels certain attitudes expressed are more adolescent than adult. From the Protestant viewpoint there is the obvious influence of an official magisterium which few care to challenge. The priest is everywhere present and yet, with but very few exceptions, one looks in vain for any essay on the complex problems which confront American Catholics in their relationship with Protestants and other non-Catholics.
Of special interest in this presidential election year are the contributions of Senator Eugene McCarthy, John Cogley, Charles Malik. The editors of The Pilot have questions they would ask a Protestant nominee for the office of President, and a former chairman of the Democratic National Committee shares in a panel discussion, “How to Get into the Political Act.”
Perhaps no other paragraph in all the book displays the new spirit of Roman Catholicism in America better than the following lines written by the English lawyer, Norman St. John-Stevas:
“The responsibility of the Catholic Church to the American nation is a heavy one. As the doctrinal basis of Protestantism dissolves, the moral cosmos fragments with it, and the time is not far distant when the Catholic Church will become the sole institutional repository of Christian values in the United States.”
STUART P. GARVER
Book Briefs
Techniques of Christian Writing, by Benjamin P. Browne (Judson, 1960, 382 pp., $5). Forty practicing writers and editors give good advice to amateurs.
Awake, My Heart, by J. Sidlow Baxter (Zondervan, 1960, 384 pp., $3.95). Daily devotional studies by a noted British exegete.
Invitation toBible Study, by Miles Woodward Smith (National, 1960, 214 pp., $3.95). Simple aids for the lay student of the Scriptures, including an abridged concordance.
The Borderland, by Roger Lloyd (Macmillan, 1960, 111 pp., $2.50). A short explanation of the relationship of Christian theology and English literature.
Christianity in Art, by Frank and Dorothy Getlein (Bruce, 1959, 196 pp., $4.50). Valuable interpretations of Christian art in a Roman Catholic frame of reference.
Here’s How to Succeed With Your Money, by George H. Bowman (Moody, 1960, 191 pp., $3). Christian rules for financial success.
Laughter in the Bible, by Gary Webster (Bethany, 1960, 160 pp., $2.95). A captivating, fresh excursion into a subject mentioned 250 times in Sacred Writ.
Our Heavenly Father, by Helmut Thielicke (Harper, 1960, 157 pp., $3). Gripping sermons on the Lord’s Prayer preached in Germany during the horrific closing days of World War II.
The Sage of Bethany—A Pioneer in Broadcloth, compiled by Perry E. Gresham (Bethany, 1960, 189 pp., $1.95, paper). Competent critics evaluate the pioneer leadership of Alexander Campbell (1788–1866) in education, Christian unity, politics and social action.
The Self in Pilgrimage, by Dr. Earl A. Loomis, Jr. (Harper, 1960, 109 pp., $3). A distinguished psychiatrist shows how to lose self in communion with God and man.
View from the Ninth Decade, by J. C. Penney (Thomas Nelson, 1960, 222 pp., $3.50). Sage advice on principles of business success by a dedicated Christian merchant prince.
