Function Of Literature
Perspective on Man: Literature and the Christian Tradition, by Ronald Mushat Frye (Westminster, 1961, 207 pp., $4.50), is reviewed by D. Bruce Lockerbie, Chairman, English Department, Stony Brook School, Stony Brook, New York.
The premise upon which Roland M. Frye, Professor of English at Emory University, bases his book is a quotation from a letter written by Luther in 1523: “I am persuaded that without knowledge of literature pure theology cannot at all endure.… Therefore … urge your young people to be diligent in the study of poetry and rhetoric.” Proceeding from this exhortation, Professor Frye suggests, is “the perspective of Christian humanism.” This he defines to be “a consciously Christian approach to literature, philosophy, and other humanistic disciplines.”
Perspective on Man comprises the Stone Lectures delivered at Princeton Seminary in 1959 and is divided into three parts. First, consideration is given to the effect of myth and symbol as literary forms on Scripture and its interpretation. Frye observes that fundamentalism and mythologizing are linked together by their common failure to recognize and distinguish between fact and symbol in the Bible. “Neither seems able to accept literary symbols as such, and they insist upon reducing the literary either to the literal or to the ideational.” As alternatives to these two sides of the same coin, the author proposes a resurgent acceptance of “the doctrine of accommodation” and “a willing suspension of disbelief,” from which will evolve “a distinctive kind of validity.”
The second section is devoted to showing literature’s concern with man’s desperate struggles for identity and against misery, failure, guilt, and death. Extensive citations from King Lear and Oedipus Rex lend support to Professor Frye’s contention that “great literature may not be Jacob’s ladder by which we can climb to heaven, but it provides an invaluable staff with which to walk the earth.” Parenthetically, it is interesting to note the conflict between Presbyterians over this point—Robert McAfee Brown’s article, “Salinger, Steinbeck & Company,” in Presbyterian Life being attacked by the editor of the Southern Presbyterian Journal.
The final portion of the book presents the wide scope of popular Christianity in a modern literary setting—a faith that is superficial in what is essentially a superficial age. Explications of plays by T. S. Eliot, Christopher Fry, and Bernard Shaw lead to the author’s assessment of Christianity’s deeper significance: “Only God could provide a denouement to man’s complexity, and in Christ, God did provide it.” From Piers Plowman, The Pilgrim’s Progress, and Samson Agonistes Frye gleans examples of faith in action and pursues his examination of the individual and of the community in quest of the City of God.
Perspective on Man is readable and scholarly without being either abstruse or pedantic, qualities that seem to fix themselves to studies of this kind. Professor Frye has made a substantial contribution to an area often under scrutiny but more frequently speculated upon than clarified.
D. BRUCE LOCKERBIE
Worth An Evening
Christ and Crisis, by Charles Malik (Eerdmans, 1962, 101 pp., $3), is reviewed by Carl F. H. Henry, Editor, CHRISTIANITY TODAY.
Publication of seven of Dr. Malik’s addresses in revised (and sometimes enlarged) form supplies a leisurely exposure to some profound convictions of one of the keenest lay thinkers of our day. The former president of the U. N. General Assembly ranges the wasteland of a world under the judgment of Christ. A Greek Orthodox layman, Dr. Malik seeks the ecumenical restoration of Christian unity which he thinks prevailed until the Great Schism of 1054. Many of Dr. Malik’s comments Protestant readers will heartily endorse; some they will question (“There is no better guide in matters theological than Saint Thomas,” p. xiv); but they will find all worthy of respectful hearing. Among many valuable insights are those into the Christian approach to war and peace, and into the battle for truth in our times. Put aside an evening for reading and contemplation with these revised addresses in hand.
CARL F. H. HENRY
Surmount The Temptation
Grace and the Searching of Our Heart, by Charles R. Stinnette, Jr. (Association, 1962, 192 pp., $4), is reviewed by John Warwick Montgomery, Chairman, Department of History, Waterloo Lutheran University, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada.
Reading for Perspective
CHRISTIANITY TODAY’S REVIEW EDITORS CALL ATTENTION TO THESE NEW TITLES:
* The New Bible Dictionary, edited by J. D. Douglas (Eerdmans, $12.95). First entirely new Bible dictionary since Hastings’. Its 2,300 new articles show loyalty to the Scriptures and carry the gains of recent advances in biblical studies. Illustrated.
* World Christian Handbook 1962, edited by H. Wakelin Coxill and Sir Kenneth Grubb (World Dominion Press, $7.50; 27s. 6d.). Statistical picture of all churches throughout the world. Invaluable reference work.
* Christian Thought from Erasmus to Berdyaev, by Matthew Spinka (Prentice-Hall, $6.60). Spinka unravels the Renaissance experiment in humanism to show how it turned into its opposite: an anti-human secularism.
The most popular religious literature in our present “age of analysis” most certainly consists of subjectivistic, navelorientated peace-of-mind books. Dr. Stinnette, professor of pastoral theology in the psychiatry and religious program of Union Theological Seminary (New York), has recognized the genuine concern that motivates laymen to read such publications, and has provided, from a thoroughgoing Christian viewpoint, the best literary witness to the contemporary educated layman who realizes “that the meaning of life is constantly getting lost in the routine of the ‘8:15’.” Notwithstanding his psychological specialty, the author avoids the twin pitfalls of existentially de-historicizing and subjectively de-theologizing the Christian message; the solidity of his approach is evident from such a moving assertion as, “The same Lord who knew no sin and yet became sin for us, enters into our gracelessness and becomes grace in us,” and from the remarkable fact that he devotes a full one-fourth of his book to “The Trinity and the Roots of Our Identity.” Pastors should purchase the volume in quantity for their questing laymen of college background—if, that is, they can surmount the temptation to use the book as a major source of sermonic material! With a multitude of penetrating quotations from Chesterton, Robert Frost, Donne, Browning, Gerard Manley Hopkins, Camus, Tennessee Williams, F. D. Maurice, Charles Williams—to name only a few—the book is perfect for the preacher who suffers from Spurgeon’s disease (“I am the biggest thief in England but I defy any man to catch me at it!”).
JOHN WARWICK MONTGOMERY
Black, White, Dutch
Let My People Go, by Albert Luthuli (McGraw-Hill, 1962, 256 pp., $5.50), is reviewed by Tunis Romein, Professor of Philosophy, Erskine College, Due West, South Carolina.
Recent Nobel Peace Prize winner Albert Luthuli is the grandson of a Zulu chief, leader of the African National Congress, and presently a semi-prisoner of the South African Government. Simply and impassionately he tells his story—an account of the tragic and complicated struggle of his people against injustices and discriminations in South Africa.
One must keep in mind that this book is a thoroughgoing nonwhite version of the troubled South African situation. In the light of so many reports of social imbalances in South Africa, however, Mr. Luthuli’s account deserves a careful hearing. This report affords the white man an opportunity to see himself as the colored man sees him in matters of race. Mr. Luthuli seems always the man of reason in spite of the emotional overtones which almost unavoidably appear in a review describing the predicament of one’s own people. He speaks favorably now and then of one white group or another, and is even somewhat broadminded in his critique of Communists. His dispassionate mien shows some telltale strains, however, when he occasionally refers to the Dutch Reformed Church in South Africa.
TUNIS ROMEIN
Blurred Image
They Called Him Mr. Moody, by Richard K. Curtis (Doubleday, 1962, 378 pp., $4.95), is reviewed by William G. Reitzer, editorial department, CHRISTIANITY TODAY.
Some called the great evangelist “Mr. Moody,” and others “crazy Moody” or “brother Moody.” The author of this biography calls him at one place “a despot, albeit a benevolent one,” at another place “the man who walked with God and came to know Him as few preachers since Paul.”
Dr. Curtis, who recently resigned from the faculty of Bethel College in St. Paul to pastor the Immanuel Baptist Church in Kansas City, Kansas, has laboriously researched together a giant-sized volume chock-full of anecdotes. It portrays (in three near-equal parts) Moody as apprentice, preacher-evangelist, and educator, with a well-documented view of life in nineteenth century America for a backdrop. At the end of the book appears an excellent bibliography—albeit several biographies catalogued by the Library of Congress are not included. The reader would have been rendered a valuable service if sources had been appraised. Is it not helpful intelligence to know that biographer Gamaliel Bradford was an agnostic, that biographer Paul D. Moody (a son) was an out-and-out liberal, and that biographer William R. Moody (another son) was somewhat less fervent and evangelical than his father?
One finds throughout these pages a strange commingling of that which leaves a favorable and of that which leaves an unfavorable impression of Moody and the Gospel. Whereas the back cover illustration highlights the New Birth, the front cover illustration too readily lends itself to an interpretation of Moody as a grimacing, arm-flailing haranguelist. Whereas an apposite verse of Scripture heads the chapters, lurking in their interstices are such staggering remarks as: “There was … little logic … in most of Moody’s preaching” (p. 193); “Moody’s sermons today [are] usually dull fare” (p. 200); “Moody was about to popularize and commercialize religion as it had not been done in this nation” (p. 234).
A light mood is the book’s leitmotiv. At times there is even a flirting with flippancy. Moody’s taking of a collection is described in these words: “he lifted more than $7,000” (p. 263), and Moody’s anticipation of great spiritual results in these: “For Moody there was no question that God was going to uncork a revival” (p. 275).
Curtis manifests an objectivity unusual in biographers. Curiously, on almost every occasion, he disassociates himself from Moody’s message and ministry. He prefers to say not that people are converted to Christ or to the Saviour, but to “Moody’s” Christ or to “his” Saviour (pp. 85, 93, 115, 147, 169, 215, 275, 278, 331).
An adequate understanding of Moody would necessitate a perusal of his many sermons, a source this volume has grossly slighted. These, concentrating as they do on salvation from, sanctification through, and service to Christ Jesus, reveal much about the heart, mind, strength and soul of their originator. In spite of the foregoing criticisms, this book will move many readers to be more urgent in holding forth the Word of Life and more zealous in performing good works.
WILLIAM G. REITZER
Function Versus Origin
Biblical Words For Time, by James Barr (SCM, 1962, 174 pp., 13s. 6d.), is reviewed by Martin H. Cressey, Minister of St. Columba’s Presbyterian Church, Coventry, England.
The French word “temps” is sometimes translated “time” and sometimes “weather.” What would you think of someone who talked about a French “temps concept” which includes both time and weather and is an essential element in the Frenchman’s world outlook? Yet this, says Professor Barr, is akin to what has been done by several recent writers on the biblical understanding of time.
Anxious to compare and contrast biblical “concepts” with those of Greek philosophy over the whole range of the latter, theologians have filled the lack of explicit biblical statements about time and eternity by basing a theological structure on the vocabulary which the Bible uses to refer to time, in particular on the Greek words kairos and chronos. Barr examines in some detail books by Cullmann, Marsh, and J. A. T. Robinson and exposes the errors into which such a method has led them. It is not his purpose to criticize or deny their major theological ideas; he simply wishes to show that at some points they have based their arguments on false linguistic premises; … “biblical interpretation in theology must work from the things said in the Bible, and not from the lexical resources used in saying them” (p. 161). This view implies, incidentally, that “the fundamental points of biblical assertion will normally be visible to those who do not know the original languages—an important conclusion for “lay” use of the Bible.
Barr shows how recent theology has stressed etymology and neglected usage whereas in linguistic study it is recognized that “only within their syntactical environment do words function” (p. 154). The particular discussion of time has been further hampered by an overemphasis on comparison between Hebrew and Greek to the neglect of comparison between Hebrew and other languages and by an undue attention to classical and philosophical sources for Greek usage rather than to well-known facts about Hellenistic developments.
This lucid, stimulating and very searching book, together with Barr’s more general work on The Semantics of Biblical Language is now required reading for all who wish to use the many recent biblical “word-studies” and “word-books” with proper discrimination.
MARTIN H. CRESSEY
On Christian Service
What Shall This Man Do?, by Watchman Nee (Victory Press, 1961, 198 pp., 12s. 6d.; Christian Literature Crusade, $3), is reviewed by Gordon F. Bridger, Minister, Holy Sepulchre Church, Cambridge, England.
Mr. Nee To-Sheng (commonly called Watchman Nee) was the founder of the “Little Flock” Movement, which is the name given to possibly the largest single group of Christians in China. During 1952 he was imprisoned on charges of being a counterrevolutionary, and is still serving a 15-year prison sentence in Shanghai.
In “What Shall This Man Do?” Mr. Nee illustrates from the lives of the apostles Peter, Paul and John the essential functions of Christian service—evangelism, edification and restoration. His treatment of the doctrine of the Church includes some helpful and practical teaching. But it fails to satisfy, when he criticizes the Reformed view with its distinction between the visible and invisible Church, and substitutes in its place an “ideal” view which, it seems to the reviewer, would almost certainly lead to a narrow exclusiveness in practice. However, as Mr. A. I. Kinniar in the preface to his book writes: “To some this book may appear to attempt too much, and to raise more questions than it answers.”
GORDON F. BRIDGER
Not That Dark!
The Growing Storm, by G. S. M. Walker, (Paternoster Press, 1961, 252 pp., 16s.; Eerdmans, $3.75) is reviewed by A. Skevington Wood, Minister, Southlands Methodist Church, York, England.
Evangelical historians commonly dismiss the Middle Ages as an unprofitable period in which little or no spiritual advance was made. The partisan is always tempted to exaggerate the darkness preceding his cherished dawn, and such bias has marred too many previous accounts of this era.
Dr. Walker, who lectures at Leeds University, avoids the pitfalls in a balanced, comprehensive, informative and withal fascinating survey of the Christian scene between 600 and 1350. His immense erudition is apparent on every page but it does not obscure his lucid style or halt the flow of his narrative. He elects to treat this complex period mainly by fixing on the prominent figures—Gregory the Great, Boniface, Alcuin, Anselm, Abelard, and others.
Various convictions—Catholic, evangelical and liberal—are shown to be represented throughout and often intermingling. As the storm gathered, the disengagement took place which led to the Protestant Reformation. We cannot rightly understand the significance of that outbreak apart from its antecedents. Dr. Walker is an admirable guide through the labyrinthine ways of medievalism in this addition to the seven-volume series of Paternoster Church History.
A. SKEVINGTON WOOD
Papal Pattern
The Spirit of Eastern Orthodoxy (Volume 135, Section XIV, of The Twentieth Century Encyclopedia of Catholicism), by M. J. Le Guillou, O.P., translated by Donald Attwater (Hawthorn, 1962, 144 pp., $3.50), is reviewed by C. Gregg Singer, Professor of History, Catawba College, Salisbury, North Carolina.
This book by one of the leading figures in the Roman Catholic “ecumenical” movement is of more than passing interest to both Protestant ecumenists and evangelicals. It sheds a great deal of light on both the methods which Rome is willing to use in order to bring about a reunion of Christendom, and the terms by which such a goal would be realized. Under the skillful touch of Father Le Guillou the many conflicts which have occurred between the Eastern and Roman Catholic churches are minimized to a degree which imperils historical accuracy. He then appeals to Eastern Orthodoxy to come back home to Rome because both Rome and the East “are brothers sharing the same mystery.” However, the reunion of the Eastern and Western churches means that Eastern Orthodoxy must accept the whole doctrine of papal supremacy. Thus Rome states its terms to the ecumenists; unity must be achieved according to the pattern laid down by the Papacy.
It is not unworthy of notice that in stating the case for unity Le Guillou, perhaps unwittingly, revealed the weakness of the arguments of those who insisted that the Greek and other Eastern churches should be admitted to the World Council of Churches, for Le Guillou, in unmistakable terms, sets forth the unevangelical character of Eastern theology.
C. GREGG SINGER
Buchman Appraised
Frank Buchman’s Secret, by Peter Howard (Doubleday, 1962, 142 pp., $2.75), is reviewed by Harold Lindsell, Vice-president, Fuller Theological Seminary, Pasadena, California.
This small book is fascinating reading, embracing as it does the work and ministry of Frank Buchman, founder of the Oxford Movement and Moral Re-Armament (MRA). The later dynamic of Buchman sprang basically from four crises in his life: his English Keswick experience after humiliating defeat in Philadelphia social-service work; his experience at State College in Pennsylvania shortly after the Keswick encounter; his 1912 Canadian illumination when he became convinced that Christians are powerless because they professed Christ with their lips but compromised him in their lives; his 1921 attendance at the Disarmament Conference when he was constrained to leave his teaching situation in Connecticut and go forth to change and transform the world.
Despite the title, which gives a promise it does not fulfill, the book deals mainly with the successful exploits of Buchman and the influence he exerted around the world. It is laudatory in the extreme, uncritical in its evaluation, and largely propaganda. Yet one cannot remain unimpressed by the scope of Buchman’s labors and influence, nor can his ministry be dismissed as that of a charlatan. When the wheat is sifted from the chaff, the Church can learn valuable lessons and find penetrating insights as it seeks to discharge its obligation to the world. The author writes well and maintains the interest of the reader to the finish.
HAROLD LINDSELL
Clerical Opinion
The Acts of The Convocations of Canterbury and York 1921–60 (SPCK, 1961, 194 pp., 17s. 6d.), is reviewed by Gervase E. Duffield, member of The National Assembly of the Church of England.
This book contains the resolutions of the two clerical synods of the Church of England since their reform in 1921. Subject matter ranges from sacramental doctrine to inter-church relations, from education to social issues. Pronouncements are recorded on such controversial items as Sunday observance, gambling, the use of contraceptives and atom bombs.
These Acts are not official Anglican teaching, since they have no statutory authority. They simply represent the views of the bishops, senior clergy and some elected clergy. The Church of England is governed by the Sovereign who is its head and by Parliament since it is the national church of the land. The present work is a handy reference book to Anglican clerical opinion in the last 40 years.
GERVASE E. DUFFIELD
An Excellent Study
Pulpit and Table, by Howard G. Hageman (John Knox, 1962, 139 pp., $3), is reviewed by Floyd Doud Shafer, Pastor, Salem Presbyterian Church, Salem, Indiana.
Our much-discussed problem of the relationship between preaching and worship originated with the Reformation. The pastor of the North Reformed Dutch Church, Newark, New Jersey, shows how the Zwinglian over-emphasis on the intellectual, the verbal, and the individual crowded out Calvin’s desire to unify the intellectual and liturgical, the individual and the corporate, the sermon and worship into a single heart, sustaining and propelling the body of Christ. The Zwinglian influence ran to excess in Puritanism and Pietism.
Worship began to rediscover its theological underpinnings in the latter half of the nineteenth century, and today we have an exciting liturgical renaissance which, far from depreciating preaching, is providing it with its most natural and favorable setting, seal, and implementation. Dr. Hageman illustrates how the revival of theology, the ecumenical movement, and brilliant biblical studies are helping us realize that salvation reaches us through the Word, preached from the pulpit and dramatically sealed at the table. Although we do not need uniformity in details, nevertheless it is the union of pulpit and table, sermon and liturgy, that involves worshipers in joyous experience of Christ’s lordship over all life. And this same union of pulpit and table impels and enables worshipers to bear the Gospel’s redemptive thrust in joy and gratitude to every facet of life.
This excellent historical and liturgical study is amply documented and liberally sprinkled with little-known incidents, wise deductions, and practical suggestions. Anyone interested in liturgics, especially those of the Reformed churches, will be enlightened and pleased by this study.
FLOYD DOUD SHAFER
Inner Wasteland
Beyond Our Selves, by Catherine Marshall (McGraw-Hill, 1961, 266 pp., $4.95), is reviewed by Mrs. Lucy D. Sullivan, Assistant Professor of English, Beirut College for Women, Beirut, Lebanon.
Beyond Our Selves is a combination of autobiography, penetrating insights into the plague of our age, and a suggested cure for it.
Asserting that both humanism and materialism have failed us, Catherine Marshall perceives the malady of our day to be that of inner, spiritual poverty. As the cure for this spiritual wasteland, she offers the revivifying rain of a personal encounter with Christ. She is careful to differentiate this fruitful encounter from an “inherited faith” which she found to be “not enough” when she finally recognized that “God has no grandsons.” Perhaps that which most distinguishes this book from others of its kind is the boldness with which the author treads on territory usually labeled “keep off” by many Christians. Out of profound experience and with genuine sincerity, the writer probes some of the prejudices and sins of Christians. She points up the necessity of that act of will by which we lay our insoluable problem of bitterness toward others in the hands of Christ. She offers for defeating self-originating effort, the thrilling experience of linking human helplessness to God’s power to effect real achievement. She affirms that physical healing is God’s response to out-reaching faith. And most significant of all, she underlines the imperative of recognizing the Holy Spirit as a Person rather than as a mere colorless influence. Indeed, it is in this recognition alone, she asserts, that we as Christians can pass “beyond our selves” into true freedom of personality and fullness of joy.
LUCY D. SULLIVAN
Some Help For Some
The Future Life, by René Pache, translated by Helen I. Needham (Moody, 1962, 376 pp., $4.95), is reviewed by J. Kenneth Grider, Associate Professor of Theology, Nazarene Theological Seminary, Kansas City, Missouri.
In this sequel to The Return of Jesus Christ, René Pache gives us a quite sustained treatment of questions that relate to death, spirits (angels, demons, Satan), the resurrection of the dead, the marriage feast of the Lamb, perdition, and heaven.
The author opposes Roman Catholicism (e.g., p. 86), is interested simply in what the Bible teaches, and anxious to communicate in plain language. He covers considerable territory, but does not slow up long enough to mention that other evangelicals at times see things differently than he does. An instance of this is his view that Isaiah 14 refers to Satan (pp. 121–122).
Although it is creative at points, as when it shows that immortality is “applied by Scripture only to the raised body, not to the soul” (p. 30), well-trained ministers may not find enough challenge in the book to keep them pursuing its pages. Ministers of moderate training will find it useful, as will laymen.
J. KENNETH GRIDER
Book Briefs
The Church at Worship, by Bernard Schalm (Baker, 1962, 108 pp., $1.95). Brief studies to aid the minister, church organist, and worshipper enrich the worship service by a greater understanding of its various elements.
Tomorrow’s Miracle, by Frank G. Slaughter (Doubleday, 1962, 306 pp., $3.95). A disgusting novel about a morally weak missionary whose love for another man’s wife becomes the vehicle for portraying him as a hero.
The Congregation at Work, by R. C. Rein (Concordia, 1962, 247 pp., $4). Appalled by the dissipation of undirected energies in the average congregation, the author shows how to marshall, organize, and channel this prodigious amount of energy into purpose and achievement.
