What’S Behind The Fourth Gospel?
Historical Tradition in the Fourth Gospel, by C. H. Dodd (Cambridge, 1963, 464 pp., $9.50), is reviewed by Andrew J. Bandstra, assistant professor-elect of New Testament, Calvin Seminary, Grand Rapids, Michigan.
This book is not of the “meaning of St. John for today” type; it deals with the rather technical area of historical criticism in the Fourth Gospel. The Cambridge professor emeritus presents this volume as a sequel to his earlier one, The Interpretation of the Fourth Gospel.
In view of the increasing sterility of “the quest of the historical Jesus” by the “liberal critics,” Dodd feels that the negative reaction against such “historicism” by what has been called the “biblical theology” movement was largely justified. The author, nonetheless, reckons that the time is right to renew the search for the historical tradition in the Gospels. Why? Among other things, Dodd reminds us that history was extremely important to the Gospel writers and that it was not for nothing that the early Church decisively repudiated gnosticism with its high degree of disregard for the historical.
The central aim of the book is to demonstrate that “behind the Fourth Gospel lies an ancient tradition independent of the other gospels, and meriting serious consideration as a contribution to our knowledge of the historical facts concerning Jesus Christ.” Marked by the author’s usual careful analysis, sane judgment, and moderate critical views, this book has the material for the historical quest divided into two main parts, “The Narrative” and “The Sayings”; the former is subdivided into sections dealing with “The Passion Narrative,” “The Ministry,” and “John the Baptist and the First Disciples.” Dodd thinks that the early Church was not so “bookish” as many have represented it; oral tradition played a dominant role. While it might at first appear that in many instances John used one or more of the synoptic accounts, this, on further examination, Dodd thinks to be most unlikely. It is more probable, he feels, that John used an independent tradition, the basic part formed in a Jewish-Christian environment in Palestine, prior to A.D. 66.
Specifics aside, the main problem of such a study revolves around methods, types of evidence, and validity of conclusions. Dodd recognizes that “absolute proof” cannot be achieved in such a study but offers what he calls a cumulative argument that establishes a high degree of probability. Dodd contends that the hypothesis that best accounts for all the facts is that all three Gospel writers used three independent strains of tradition. This reviewer feels that Dodd has the better of the argument on this point; nonetheless, the two disparate conclusions indicate that the criteria for making such judgments are not uniformly acknowledged.
Another item may illustrate a related point. Dodd does not regard the author of the Fourth Gospel to be John, the son of Zebedee, and admits that if this could be established, his conclusions, though still retaining some value, would have to be modified. Yet not a few scholars have contended that this John is the author. In support of this contention they regard the Qumran literature to be significant, while Dodd regards it of little consequence and rather summarily rejects it. Thus another matter of dispute is the question about which evidence is pertinent and significant.
In this light one might wonder if a study such as this is profitable enough to be worth the while. Yet one can hardly dispute Dodd’s contention that the historicity of the redemptive event in Jesus Christ is of basic importance to the Christian Gospel. While Dodd’s proposed answers to certain questions are debatable, he raises many problems with which every New Testament scholar must grapple.
ANDREW J. BANDSTRA
Into The Teenagers’ World
Young Life, by Emile Cailliet (Harper & Row, 1963, 120 pp., $2.95), is reviewed by Pierson Curtis, senior master, The Stony Brook School, Stony Brook, New York.
“Teen-agers live and move largely in a world of their own. If communication is to be established with them, it has to be in terms of that world, its tradition, and its vernacular.”
This, according to the author of this book, is the firm conviction not only of the leaders of Young Life, a movement to reach teen-agers untouched by churches, but also of the rising generation of social scientists.
Dr. Cailliet, Stuart Professor Emeritus of Christian Philosophy at Princeton Theological Seminary, has long been in contact with young people. Several years ago he lectured at the Young Life Institute. To gather the material for this study, he spent months visiting Young Life clubs and camps, talking with leaders and club members, and studying many case histories.
“My own interest in Young Life,” he says, “was awakened by the fact that here was a company of persons who, instead of lamenting the plight of our teen-agers, were doing something about it. It may also be that a man in his late sixties experiences increasingly that mysterious affinity between the old and the young which has found such wonderful expression in Victor Hugo’s The Art of Being a Grandfather. Possibly, too, having as a college professor freely indulged in the writing of philosophical treatises, I have felt a certain debt to my fellow man, an obligation to do something practical when the chance offered.”
Professor Cailliet begins this interesting book by telling first how Jim Rayburn, a young home missionary in the Southwest, was led to Dallas Theological Seminary. When sent to help in the youth program of a Gainesville church, Jim was told by the pastor that since most of the local teenagers never came to any church, “your parish is the high school.”
Most churches, Dr. Cailliet points out, are contented with, “Come ye.” But “Go ye” is Christ’s command. Our God is the seeking God. And in America nine million high school students, 70 per cent of the total in high schools, never come to church and must be sought.
But how does one reach teen-agers in their world? How does one really communicate the Gospel to them? There were no books to guide Jim Rayburn. He had to feel his way. For over a year he tried weekly meetings in a schoolroom after school, and got nowhere. Then he tried evening meetings in a private house. He learned the teen-agers’ native language and traditions. He put no pressure on them but respected their right of choice. In four months his first club grew from 12 members to 175. He had his troubles; but though some snickered and scorned when he spoke of Christ, there were conversions and a growing interest.
That experimental beginning in 1940—incorporated in 1941 as Young Life, with a staff of five recent seminary graduates—initiated a chain reaction. After twenty-five years the work has a central staff in Colorado Springs and six regional staffs in the States and Canada; some 225 trained men and women (with 500 volunteer helpers) in charge of half a thousand clubs; several beautiful regional camps for weekend groups and summer sessions; an institute for training club leaders; and a yearly budget to meet of over $800,000.
Anyone who wants to know how thousands of non-church-going young people have been reached with the Message should read this book. It is hopeful, inspiriting, and informing. And it is an honest book, recording distressing failures as well as heart-warming successes.
Dr. Cailliet answers the critics who claim that Young Life clubs compete with and hurt local churches. He answers those who condemn Young Life leaders for taking no rigid doctrinal stands but only preaching Christ crucified.
The whole secret of the work, he tells us, is constant dependence on the Spirit, who can still enable some to be all things to all, that by all means they can save some.
PIERSON CURTIS
From The Pressroom
The Way and Its Ways, by George W. Cornell (Association, 1963, 251 pp., $4.50), is reviewed by Russell T. Hitt, editor, Eternity magazine, Philadelphia.
The accepted stereotype of an American newspaperman is a carefree person with a battered hat sitting at a poker table, finding time only occasionally to check with the city desk or to take another drink.
George Cornell, religious news editor of the Associated Press, demonstrates that he is a journalist of another breed. In this book he proves that journalism and theology can mix. Indeed, his explanation of Christianity might even break up the game in the pressroom.
Actually Cornell is trying to do something more than present Christianity in a way that the average man can understand. He also sets out to show that in spite of the differences of stress in the three major traditions—Protestant, Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox—these expressions of Christianity have much more in common than the theologians would have us believe. Cornell jostles those who, to him, are quibblers, and again and again seeks to show that they are saying about the same thing.
Theologians will accuse him of oversimplifying the issues, but Cornell dares to insist that even on the controversial subject of baptism “all the definitions are virtually the same in emphasis, and quite similar in terminology.”
For Cornell, traditional explanations of doctrine have contributed to the divisions of Christianity. “The tedious habit of drawing party lines, where they are a matter of emphasis or semantics, has contributed to the distorted trademarked portrayals of faith,” he declares.
Yet he does not dodge the basic issue of man’s sin and estrangement from God. He forthrightly stresses the provision of God for our redemption in the Person of Jesus Christ, who died on the Cross and was raised from the dead.
The wide range of quotations from leaders of the Church in all generations, but especially from contemporary theologians, indicates that the author has read widely. His eclectic approach undoubtedly springs from a deep desire for Christian unity, and his presentation will please those with longings for ecumenical dialogue.
Thus it does not come as a surprise that Episcopalian Cornell does a commendable job with the doctrine of the Church.
My battered hat goes off to a fellow journalist who truly loves Jesus Christ and his Church and seeks to be a faithful witness.
RUSSELL HITT
To Vex The World
Reuben, Reuben, by Peter De Vries (Little, Brown, 1964, 435 pp., $5.95), is reviewed by Roderick Jellema, instructor in English, University of Maryland, College Park.
Examining the relations between the sexes in Reuben, Reuben, humorist Peter De Vries gives stronger notice than usual that his purpose is to vex the world as well as to divert it. The farce and satire are as devastating as usual, and the laughs about the foibles of the “worldly, effortless, delinquent, and suave” suburbanites come easily. But De Vries skillfully blends his zany comedy of smart psychologizing with enough of the horror of grim reality so that the reader feels ashamed for laughing at something that really is very funny. As compassion conspires with laughter (uneasily) to drown out disgust and contempt, and as the characters bumble along toward divorces and a suicide, De Vries commits himself to nothing. But he again makes a shambles of an ultra-clever “faith” by which modern men attempt to live.
RODERICK JELLEMA
Booklover’S Delight
The 500th Anniversary Pictorial Census of the Gutenberg Bible, by Don Cleveland Norman, with an introduction on the life and work of Johannes Gutenberg by Aloys Ruppel (Coverdale Press, 1961, 263 pp., $100), is reviewed by Herman C. Waetjen, assistant professor of New Testament, San Francisco Theological Seminary, San Anselmo, California.
Only a few bibliophiles can afford every book they would like to own, and even they are not always able to buy this or that particular one. This is especially true of the book that every collector regards to be equivalent to the pearl of great price, and to obtain which he would sell all he possessed: the Gutenberg Bible, the king of all incunabula.
Only 47 of 185 copies originally printed by Gutenberg between 1450 and 1455 are extant today; twelve are on parchment or vellum and thirty-five on paper. They are described in great detail through word and picture in this magnificent census commemorating the 500th anniversary of the Gutenberg Bible.
This volume is a collector’s item. In recent years only one man in the world owned a complete copy of the Gutenberg Bible (Carl H. Pforzheimer, to whom this book has been dedicated, and who died in 1957). Here, however, in this pictorial census, published in a limited edition of 985 copies, a bibliophile can compensate very nicely for his yearning to possess a Gutenberg. In a sense he can have all of them. He can own a richly bound and boxed volume—in red morocco leather with the Gutenberg coat of arms on the cover—that presents an encyclopedia of knowledge on the location and condition of every one of the forty-seven Gutenberg Bibles in existence. He can read the life of Gutenberg and the extraordinary story of the first printing of the Bible. Finally, he can share the experiences and journeys of another bibliophile, the author Don Cleveland Norman, who traveled extensively to gather all this material together into a very splendid book, one that is without question a booklover’s delight.
HERMAN C. WAETJEN
Good Potpourri
Truth for Today, by John F. Walvoord (Moody, 1963, 255 pp., $2.95), is reviewed by Steven Barabas, professor of theology, Wheaton College, Wheaton, Illinois.
This is a commemorative volume, a compilation of twenty-three articles that have appeared in Bibliotheca Sacra during the thirty years that it has been published by the faculty of Dallas Theological Seminary. Of the twenty-three contributors, sixteen either are or have been teachers at Dallas; the others are Wilbur M. Smith, Kenneth S. Kantzer, Merrill C. Tenney, Earle E. Cairns, and Donald P. Hustad. The articles are divided into the following groups: systematic theology, apologetics and contemporary theology, Old Testament, New Testament, church history, and practical theology. Articles with a dispensational emphasis naturally predominate, like Charles C. Ryrie’s “The Necessity of Dispensationalism” and J. Dwight Pentecost’s “The Relation Between Living and Resurrected Saints in the Millennium.” There are, however, also interesting articles on Barthian theology, the importance of the Septuagint for biblical studies, Calvin and Servetus, the Book of Job and Ugaritic literature, and church music. If they have a defect it is their brevity: their average length (eleven pages) hardly allows for thorough treatment.
STEVEN BARABAS
Theologians Of History
Prophets in Perspective, by B. D. Napier (Abingdon, 1963, 128 pp., $2.75), is reviewed by Charles F. Pfeiffer, professor of Old Testament, Gordon Divinity School, Wenham, Massachusetts.
Professor Napier’s brief study of the Old Testament prophets is an expansion of the article on the same subject that he wrote for the Interpreter’s Dictionary of the Bible. He does not attempt to analyze the ministries of individual prophets but rather seeks to gain an understanding of the prophetic movement itself, particularly as it found expression during the period of classical prophetism (800–600 B.C.). In broader terms, however, Napier recognizes biblical prophetism as extending back to Moses and forward to New Testament times. He notes that the Bible presents a prophetic concept of history, revealed in terms of God’s concern, the divine purpose, and even Yahweh’s participation in the events of history.
A sharp distinction is drawn between the cult prophet—the type of prophet Amos renounced in saying, “I am no prophet nor a prophet’s son,” and the great prophets who saw the events of Old Testament history as parts of a process willed by God. Napier does not, however, like much of the older biblical scholarship, see the prophets as enemies of the cult per se. Rather he sees them as enemies of the cult in the guise in which they saw it—an externalism devoid of spiritual power.
After surveying the prophetic movement throughout Israel’s history, Napier concludes with a chapter on the faith of classical prophetism. His key words here are election, rebellion, judgment, compassion, redemption, and consummation. It begins with the election of Israel, but ends with a consummation that transcends national distinctions, bringing God’s salvation to the ends of the earth.
CHARLES F. PFEIFFER
Mind Over Matter
Mysterious Revelation, by T. A. Burkill (Cornell, 1963, 337 pp., $6.50), is reviewed by Robert Preus, professor of systematic theology, Concordia Seminary, St. Louis, Missouri.
This book is not a commentary in the ordinary sense, but an attempt to understand the point of view of Mark in writing his Gospel. The author maintains that Mark starts from the conviction that Jesus is the promised Messiah. But Christ’s is not ostensibly a life of divine victory. Rather, his claims were rejected for the most part, and this was as it had to be. His status was a predetermined secret, and Jesus therefore often deliberately concealed the truth from people. This presumes that the nature of Christianity is paradoxical, to be explained, according to Mark, only soteriologically. The author bolsters his thesis with a number of enlightening and convincing studies of Jesus’ parables, his transfiguration, and the like.
It is not so much with the author’s conclusions that the reader may have misgivings as with the way in which he arrived at them, with his attempt to get behind the words of Mark (and of the entire New Testament) to the mind of Mark. This reviewer, for one, has great difficulty with such an approach. We would certainly agree that Mark’s Gospel is not an essay in scientific biography but a religious document written for the edification of the Church and depicting the life of Jesus the Messiah. We might even go along with the author when he says that Mark’s Gospel is “essentially a soteriological document in which history is subservient to theology”—depending on what is meant by the last clause. But we do not agree (if we understand the author correctly) that Mark is merely employing a number of traditions according to a definite or indefinite tendenz, however correct that tendenz may be. St. Mark is first of all a witness, that, one who witnesses to events that have happened and words of Jesus that have been spoken. It is not therefore Mark’s attitude that forms his Gospel, but the works and words of Jesus that form his attitude. It is when one fails to see the role of the evangelist as witness that one often becomes preoccupied with the “theology,” the point of view, the presuppositions and the tradition behind the evangelist, and becomes skeptical, more or less, of the facts that the evangelist is professedly seeking to recite.
A case in point is the author’s chapter on the Lord’s Supper. To him the Eucharist testified to a mystical continuation of the Messiah’s incarnate life. This is well and good; but the Eucharist is more than this. When the author goes on to say that “the essential spirit” of the Messiah resided in the blessed bread just as it had previously resided in the physical body of Jesus of Nazareth, he is not interpreting any text in Mark or anywhere else, and his words are unclear. What is meant by “essential spirit”? Jesus speaks of his body and his blood. The sacramental character of the Lord’s Supper is played down by dissociating it from the Passover celebration. And Jeremias’s conclusions to the contrary are rejected on the basis of the latter’s believing too easily in the authenticity of Christ’s words of institution. The Church’s belief in the Eucharist is represented as the result of a development that took place after Christ’s institution. This is hardly in keeping with Paul’s claim in First Corinthians 11:23. These words do not give the impression of a Church seeking to interpret the Lord’s Supper. Too much source criticism and not enough exegesis has gone into this book.
Our criticisms are not offered to question the basic thesis of the author, much less to impugn the value of many of his studies, but to question his approach. An exegetical approach, not isolating Mark, but taking into account the whole analogy of Scripture, is the only right one.
ROBERT PREUS
Book Briefs
The Circle and the Cross, by G. W. C. Thomas (Abingdon, 1964, 144 pp., $2.75). A discussion of the Cross as the restorative power that undoes the consequences of sin; carried on within a conception of the Atonement in which the consequences of sin have nothing to do with legality.
Meditations on Early Christian Symbols, by Michael Daves (Abingdon, 1964, 160 pp., $2.75). Interesting, readable, and informative.
Drastic Discipleship: And Other Expository Sermons, a symposium (Baker, 1963, 116 pp., $2.95).
Reform Movements in Judaism, by Abraham Cronbach (Bookman Associates, 1963, 138 pp., $3). A kaleidoscope of Jewish reforms beginning with the Deuteronomic Reformation and extending to the present; from the liberal viewpoint of Reform Judaism.
The Holy Spirit in Your Teaching, by Roy B. Zuck (Scripture Press, 1963, 189 pp., $3.95). An examination of the role of the Holy Spirit in religious teaching. The treatment is usually true but superficial and meager, and the rejection of competing theological positions often cavalier.
The Relationship of Baptism to Church Membership, by Joseph Belcastro (Bethany Press, 1963, 244 pp., $4.50). A study of a point of controversy within the Christian Churches (Disciples of Christ).
Toward an American Orthodox Church, by Alexander A. Bogolepov (Morehouse-Barlow, 1963, 124 pp., $3). From the viewpoint of Orthodox Canon Law, the book raises the question of the establishment of independent churches, with special reference to the one in America. For professional students.
Sing the Wondrous Story, by Ernest K. Emurian (W. A. Wilde, 1963, 148 pp., $2.50). The true stories of how eighteen people came to compose fifty-five of our hymns and gospel songs. Written with zest.
The Form of a Christian Congregation, by C. F. Walther, translated by J. T. Mueller (Concordia, 1963, 200 pp., $5). A translation of an original (1862), one-third of whose title was: “The Right Form of an Evangelical Lutheran Local Congregation Independent of the State.”
Paperbacks
Christianity and the Problem of Origins, by Philip Edgcumbe Hughes (Presbyterian and Reformed, 1964, 39 pp., $.75). An Anglican looks at evolution in the light of the Christian faith.
The Social Teaching of Pope John XXIII, by John F. Cronin, S.S. (Bruce, 1963, 83 pp., $1.35). A commentary on the late Pope’s thinking on social issues by the assistant director of the Roman Catholic Department of Social Action.
The Lamb and the Blessed: Sermons for Lent and Easter Based on the Beatitudes, by William H. Eifert and Daniel A. Brockhoff (Concordia, 1964, 86 pp., $1.50). Worthy sermonettes.
Art and Scholasticism and the Frontiers of Poetry, by Jacques Maritain, translated by Joseph W. Evans (Scribner’s, 1964, 234 pp., $1.45). A pioneer work that develops a theory of art based on the concepts of St. Thomas Aquinas.
The Nature and Destiny of Man (Vols. I and II), by Reinhold Niebuhr (Scribner’s, 1964, 305, 328 pp., $1.65 each). While these volumes raise some serious theological questions, they are a brilliant critique of man and his culture; perhaps Niebuhr’s greatest work.
Visible Unity—What Does the Bible Say?, by J. M. Ross (Friends of Reunion [Little-hampton, England], 1963, 20 pp., 1s. 8½d.). This booklet is recommended by the Faith and Order Department of the British Council of Churches as part of the preparation for the Conference in Britain in 1964. It effectively urges that the unity of the Church is something more and other than merely spiritual.
The Loneliness of Man, by Raymond Chapman (Fortress, 1964, 169 pp., $1.90). Getting behind mere aloneness, the author takes a long hard look at loneliness, how people attempt to overcome it, and how Christianity meets the need. For those who dare to take a look at themselves.
The Literary Impact of the Authorized Version, by C. S. Lewis (37 pp., $.75); The Sermon on the Mount, by Joachim Jeremias (38 pp., $.75); The Old Testament in the New, by C. H. Dodd (33 pp., $.75); The Significance of the Bible for the Church, by Anders Nygren (46 pp., $.75); The Meaning of Hope, by C. F. D. Moule (72 pp., $.85), all by Fortress, 1963. Brief expositions, but each is all substance and no fluff.
In Debt to Christ: A Study in the Meaning of the Cross, by Douglas Webster (Fortress, 1964, 158 pp., $1.75). An extraordinarily provocative and perceptive theological interpretation of the Cross. Easy to read, it will germinate many a sermon.
The Five Points of Calvinism: Defined, Defended, Documented (from “Biblical and Theological Studies”), by David N. Steele and Curtis C. Thomas (Presbyterian and Reformed, 1963, 95 pp., $1.50). A bird’s-eye treatment of position, biblical proof, and a bibliography useful for reference.
The Upper Room Disciplines 1964: A Devotional Manual for Ministers, Theological Students and Other Church Workers (Upper Room, 1963, 372 pp., $1).
