God the Future of Man, by Edward Schillebeeckx, translated by N. D. Smith (Sheed and Ward, 1968, 207 pp., $4.95), is reviewed by John Warwick Montgomery, chairman, Division of Church History and History of Christian Thought, and director of the European program, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, Deerfield, Illinois.
Query: Is the change in posture of the post-Vatican II Roman church a good thing? Answer of most Protestants: Definitely—there is now less superstition, less use of Latin, more toleration, and so on.
But, though we naively dislike facing it, ecclesiastical changes in a sinful world invariably produce gray, not lily white or jet black. Even the Roman church cannot be regarded as an old western movie (despite Bishop Sheen’s famous appearance in a cowboy hat), with the good guys clearly separated from the heavies. A practical example is Dominican Robert Campbell’s survey of Roman Catholic youngsters entering De Paul University; whereas five years ago 90 per cent held that Christ is God and 73 per cent that extramarital intercourse is wrong, the corresponding percentages this year were only 64 and 47.
An equally jolting example of the negative side of current Roman Catholic change is the work of the Dutch theologian Schillebeeckx, whose influence on the controversial new “Dutch Catechism” has been very strong, and who is endeavoring to substitute existential for Thomistic categories of interpretation in such areas as sacramental theology (a perfect example of getting rid of one devil and thereby opening the door for seven others). God the Future of Man is the product of the author’s 1967 lecture tour in the U.S., and further develops his ideas vis-à-vis American radical theology and the new hermeneutic.
Ought the new hermeneutic of post-Bultmannians Ebeling, Fuchs, Käsemann, et al. to be identified (as they claim) with the hermeneutic of the Reformers? I find it to be the inverse of the Reformers’ conviction that Scripture is objectively, propositionally, and perspicuously God’s Word; it was the Roman Catholics who insisted on a “hermeneutical circle” that made the scriptural text dependent on the context (traditio) of the interpreter. Schillebeeckx cheerfully agrees: “Man can never escape from this circle, because he can never establish once and for all the truth or the content of the word of God.”
Faced with the death-of-God thinking of Hamilton, Altizer, and Van Buren, and the epistemological question their work has raised, Schillebeeckx can only offer a future-directed existential experience of God: as to “the ‘verification principle’ … all that we Christians can say, in the light of our faith in God as our future, is that faith is not based on what is empirically and objectively verifiable, but comes under the category of human existential possibility.” This answer is especially ironic when we remember that it was in part the unverifiable identification of truth with subjective immanence that led the death-of-Goders to deny objective divine transcendence in the first place.
Schillebeeckx, in obvious dependence on Ernst Bloch and Jürgen Moltmann, gives himself—and theology—up to the future. God is now the “wholly New”; “the Christian leaves the future much more open than the Marxist”; “the Christian cannot formulate the content of this promise in a positive way”; “the message which Christianity brings to the secular world is this—humanity is possible!” The author cautions his readers not to forget “the biblical basis of this so-called new idea of God;” but in light of Schillebeeckx’s prior commitment to the “hermeneutical circle,” what objective check can the scriptural text have on a new God of futurity?
Is Rome becoming the elephants’ graveyard for Protestant heresies?
Toward A Vital Christianity
Earthly Things: Essays, by Olov Hartman, translated by Eric J. Sharpe (Eerdmans, 1968, 235 pp., $5.95), is reviewed by Bernard Ramm, California Baptist Theological Seminary, Covina.
These essays by Olov Hartman, a very perceptive and talented Swedish churchman and author, are divided into three subject groups: personal piety or spirituality, counseling and psychiatry, and the Christian and society (including the arts). The essays rank high in both content and literary style.
Hartman is concerned over the ways Christians foul up their Christian experience and its expression, and summons them to a larger and more wholesome experience and witness. He wants the theologian and the Church to live in the center of the twentieth century with all its problems, not at the edge—and certainly not in some previous century.
But he does not want this for just the sake of being modern. Hartman has no intention of bargaining away Christian substance. What he wants is for Christian theology to bite deeper into our interpretations of modern life. To our understanding of psychology, sociology, art, and drama he wants to add a theological dimension that a pure humanism lacks. Occasionally he seems so anxious to correct an anachronistic orthodoxy that he overcompensates and represents some doctrines—among them the atonement—in a somewhat offbase way.
The author sees a “multiple diaconate” in the ministry of the Church as the only realistic approach in the twentieth century. One pastor simply cannot handle all the complex parish problems. The closing chapters of the book deal helpfully with drama, the arts, and literature. And the book ends with an unusual extended paraphrase of the Apostles’ Creed as it should be read by modern man.
Although it takes some persistence to stay with these essays, the reader who does so will be richer for it.
Distorted View Of Viet Nam
American Catholics and Viet Nam, edited by Thomas Quigley (Eerdmans, 1968, 197 pp., $4.50), is reviewed by John Sawin, pastor, Lombard Bible Church, Lombard, Illinois.
In this volume, sixteen Roman Catholics—including theologians, editors, and philosophers—exercise their literary skills in criticizing their church’s war views and support of the American involvement in Viet Nam. They strum a single string and sing a well-known song. America is the bad boy in Viet Nam, and the Communists are the good guys who wear the white hats. If the bad boy would leave the good guys alone, there would be peace. The writers admit to holding a minority view within their church. They see the Viet Nam war as unjust (in view of “the just war” thesis), and hold that the issues revolve around Vietnamese internal differences and that America turned these differences into a bloody holocaust. Almost nothing substantive is presented to support their views.
The only non-Catholic contributor, Robert McAfee Brown, appends his “Amen” to this semi-pacifist position. In an “Afterword” he writes, “There is scarcely a line in the entire book to which I cannot wholeheartedly subscribe.”
I don’t take issue with the authors when they say that the Vietnamese people have suffered unimaginable pain, sorrow, and loss. Nor would I contend that the American government has shown the keenest insights regarding the Vietnamese people or pursued the best ways to rid South Viet Nam of Communist aggression. And the credibility gap has certainly contributed to the confusion of the American public. What irritates me is the authors’ complete whitewashing of the Communist Viet Cong and North Viet Nam and their wholesale incrimination of America. Haven’t they read about the Tet offensive, or are they ignorant of what Tet means in Viet Nam? Are they unaware that from 1964 through 1967 the Viet Cong killed or kidnapped more than 36,000 Vietnamese officials and civilian leaders such as school teachers, doctors, and nurses? Comparable deeds in the United States would have removed about 400,000 persons from American public life. Do these writers have any idea of the countless atrocities the Viet Cong have committed in their efforts to intimidate villagers?
American Catholics were heavily involved in relief work in Viet Nam during Diem’s regime. Some questionable practices were carried out, but there is not a line in the book about this aid. During the same time Protestant missionaries were denied entry visas for seventeen months. The Diem government repeatedly refused to permit Protestants to buy property and build a church for American personnel. Diem had dedicated Viet Nam to the Virgin Mary. This offended both the Buddhists (numerically superior) and the Protestants. The authors make no reference to this.
At times the writers are in error. For example, Harry Haas (Dutch priest-specialist, free-lance journalist, and authority on Southeast Asia) writes of Diem’s struggle to unite into the central government the great sects—Binh Xuyen, Cao Dai, Hoa Hao—and comments that these sects “had waged an almost independent war against the French.” On the contrary, the sects are better described as French lackeys who controlled certain territories for the French against the Viet Minh. The French continued support of them through the beginning of Diem’s regime and hoped to overthrow him. They failed. They had to use military means to evacuate the Binh Xuyen chief from Viet Nam to France.
This inaccurate and highly disappointing analysis offers little help to the reader who seeks objective information on the complex problem of Viet Nam.
Rocks The Boat
Where Religion Gets Lost in the Church, by C. Edward Crowther (Morehouse-Barlow, 1968, 158 pp., $4.75), is reviewed by Charles Ball, pastor, First Presbyterian Church, River Forest, Illinois.
Here is a real shaker, one that may very well upset the complacency of the Establishment. The author seeks to say from a Christian standpoint what many dissident groups are saying by their anger and revolt.
Although Bishop Crowther repeatedly refers to his frustrations with the church in South Africa and although his remarks are oriented toward the Anglican system, there is here expressed a real concern for the Christian churches of the whole world. He contends that our smugness and unwillingness to act in current crises and problems will endanger the continued existence of the Church as we know it. In thirteen chapters, he analyzes these problems—“the living issues of the world”—and concludes that they can be either a threat or a challenge to the Church. He argues eloquently that the Church should be “a vehicle of involvement and Christian action” and that this action should be based not on emotional reaction to injustice but on what we believe about God.
Crowther addresses himself to the poverty and racism that are all about us, and the Church’s apathy in the face of these problems. He hits hard at our tendency to put the means before the end and to confuse priorities by allowing plans for new buildings and maintenance of the “administrative monster” to be put ahead of the needs of people. He discusses the challenge of the Church on the university campus and the possibilities latent in the rising laymen’s movements, and speaks of our inflexibility in adjusting to the social revolution, which today is aimed at the structured church. “Much that we administer need not even exist,” he says. “Today, more and more clergymen administer work involving fewer and fewer people.”
There is a chapter on sex, an area of life in which the Church’s attitude is greatly at variance with that of secular society.
All in all, this is a frank, hard-hitting book. One is fascinated with the author’s style and admires his courage. In my opinion, the chief weakness of his argument is his assumption that the influence and power of the Church lie solely in its official pronouncements and power structure. He seems not to be impressed by the fact that individual believers, by their influence, their vote, and their Christian activism, are in truth “the salt of the earth” and “the light of the world.”
Although it would be possible to criticize certain details of Crowther’s conclusions, in my judgment he has written a great book and administered a dose of medicine that will not be palatable to every one but will do us all good.
Ministry To Senior Citizens
The Bonus Years, by Thomas Bradley Robb (Judson, 1968, 156 pp., $4.50), is reviewed by Walter Vail Watson, psychologist, Buffalo Bible Institute, Buffalo, New York.
Here we have the foundation for a ministry to older people. Read it, oldster and take heart, for here is a practical young clergyman who loves you and knows how to meet your “golden year” needs. Dr. Robb, a Presbyterian minister with pastoral experience, has been pursuing studies in a master plan for older adults in the California Bay area. The Bonus Years is well written, soundly analytical, and informative, and has a valuable bibliography. It is remarkably free from the pedantry and piosity so often found in the works of the religious do-gooder.
Robb outlines the aging problem in America and discusses the characteristics and the needs of the aging. In chapter four he considers the role of the church, which should function and focus at the parish level. The final chapter presents a modus operandi, and a warning that personal concern and a great deal of quiet persistence must be present in local study and planning. Something is left to the imagination of the concerned. This book could well be used as a study text preliminary to the instituting of local congregational programs.
It is always encouraging to discover the kind of practical, discerning leader who can write a book like this, whose consecration and insights augur well for the implementation of the kind of social programs that ought to be a chief concern of Christian people who care.
‘Relevance’ Re-Examined
Relevance, by Richard C. Halverson (Word, 1968, 102 pp., $2.95), is reviewed by John F. Walvoord, president, Dallas Theological Seminary, Dallas, Texas.
Even those committed to the Christian faith have often been sharply critical of what they see as a lack of sensitivity to the contemporary world on the part of the Church, in its message and in its program.
Dr. Halverson, minister of Fourth Presbyterian Church in Washington, D. C., responds to this criticism in a thoughtful and provocative way. He concedes that too often Christianity appears to be indifferent to the pressing needs of men and seems out of date and irrelevant. But, he says, such a view reflects misunderstanding by the world and lack of communication by the Church. The relevance of Christianity is to be determined, not by the Church’s involvement in social programs, but by its ability to deal with the disease rather than the symptoms of modern man, and to accomplish, through its transforming Gospel, reconciliation between God and man as well as between man and man. To individuals and to a world groping for solutions, Christianity offers the only real answer, God’s answer.
Beginning with the question of whether Jesus Christ was relevant to the world he lived in, Halverson criticizes the superficial definition of relevance often accepted today, defines the basic mission of Christianity as that of reconciliation, discusses the relation of Jesus Christ to race prejudice, and advocates the modern Samaritan attitude toward one’s neighbors. The book closes with an appeal to recapture the zeal of the early Church, which triumphed over a pagan world by total commitment to its Lord. Such Christianity was relevant then and is relevant today.
Here is a challenging book for both conservatives and liberals.
Book Briefs
The Taizé Picture Bible (Fortress, 1969, 277 pp., $4.95). Stories from the Scriptures, adapted from the Jerusalem Bible, with illustrations by Brother Eric de Saussure of the Taizé Community.
Buried Alive, by Paul G. Johnson (Knox, 1968, 171 pp., $5). Graphically and candidly analyzes the gap between clergy and laity, and offers guidelines for renewed vitality in the life of the Church.
The Infancy Narratives, by Jean Daniélou (Herder and Herder, 1968, 127 pp., $3.95). A Roman Catholic New Testament scholar defends the historical authenticity of the infancy narratives.
Are You Fun to Live With?, by Lionel Whiston (Word, 1968, 143 pp., $3.95). Suggests ways in which to make the most of personal relationships.
Punjab Pioneer, by Charles Reynolds (Word, 1968, 183 pp., $4.95). Challenging story of Dr. Edith Brown, who ministered to the physical and spiritual needs of the women of Ludhiana in the Punjab section of India and eventually established the Ludhiana Christian Medical College to train women doctors.
David, by John Hercus (Inter-Varsity, 1968, 136 pp., $4.50). A fresh, exciting look at David written in a crisp, slangy, first person style that makes for lively reading.
Higley Sunday School Lesson Commentary, edited by Ralph Earle (Huffman, 1968, 580 pp., $3.25). An evangelical commentary on the uniform lessons with questions, illustrations, and other teaching aids.
The Drama of the Cross, by J. Eugene White (Baker, 1968, 111 pp., $2.95). A graphic account of events leading up to the crucifixion.
Faith for a Secular World, by Myron Augsburger (Word, 1968, 96 pp., $2.95). Points modern man to the wholeness of life that can be found only in Jesus Christ. Contends that unbelief is more difficult than belief.
Silent Saturday, by R. Earl Allen (Baker, 1968, 98 pp., $2.95). Ten enriching sermons focusing upon the passion, resurrection, and return of Jesus Christ.
Paperbacks
Tomorrow’s Church: Catholic—Evangelical—Reformed, by Peter Day (Seabury, 1969, 192 pp., $2.95). The ecumenical officer of the Episcopal Church, who is a lay member of that church’s delegation to the Consultation on Church Union, evaluates the thrust and scope of present movements toward church union.
Crisis in the Church, by Everett C. Parker (Pilgrim, 1968, 143 pp., $2.95). These essays, written as a tribute to Truman Douglass, attempt to put the last twenty-five years of church life into perspective and to make some educated predictions about what will happen within the next decade or so.
Biblical Numerology, by John J. Davis (Baker, 1969, 174 pp., $2.95). A careful, sober study of a subject that has fallen into disrepute because of the irresponsible treatment it has often had.
Contemporary Evangelical Thought, edited by Carl F. H. Henry (Baker, 1969, 320 pp., $3.95). Reprint of a series of essays by evangelical scholars reflecting the present-day thought of evangelicalism.
New Directions in Theology Today, Volume IV: The Church, by Colin Williams (Westminster, 1968, 187 pp., $2.45). Reviews the changing ways in which the nature and mission of the Church have been described since the organization of the WCC.
Personal Finances for Ministers, by John C. Banker (Westminster, 1969, 125 pp., $1.65). Details the minister’s special financial position and gives practical advice on the management of his income.
The Call of Lent, by James G. Manz (Augsburg, 1968, 92 pp., $2.25). Seven sermons relating the lessons of Lent to contemporary life.
The Church’s Faith, by Regin Prenter, translated by Theodor I. Jensen (Fortress, 1968, 224 pp., $2.75). A Danish theologian summarizes the classical beliefs of the Church from a biblical and confessional point of view.
The Book of Nehemiah, by Ralph G. Turnbull (Baker, 1968, 109 pp., $1.95). A helpful addition to the “Shield Bible Study Series.”
