An Alternative View
Pro-existence, by Udo Middelmann (InterVarsity, 1974, 126 pp., $1.95 pb), is reviewed by Michael H. Macdonald, associate professor of German and philosophy, Seattle Pacific College, Seattle, Washington.
Udo Middelmann here applies biblical precepts to a discussion of the value of work and creativity, pointing to their ultimate significance as part of God’s original purpose for man. His plea is that a job be made to conform to our God-given uniqueness, for each is called to do a unique task well. The book will be of particular interest for those having or dealing with identity-related problems.
Addressing himself to the accumulation of wealth and property, Middelmann stresses that the Bible does not teach pride in poverty. He gives several clear implicit warnings concerning the dangers of rampant socialism; for example, that “community requires that there be something to share.” The aim is for a balanced biblical justice, allowing for equal worth among individuals, yet also “inegality of property and creativity.”
One might trace the origin of modern thinking back to several periods. In Escape From Reason Francis Schaeffer begins with Thomas Aquinas and his division of reality into the higher level of “grace” and the lower of “nature.” In The God Who Is There Schaeffer traces the “present chasm between the generations” to a change in the perception of truth, i.e., Hegel’s emphasis on synthesis instead of the previously accentuated antithesis. Middelmann traces modern philosophical folly to the emphasis on man’s autonomy and freedom from all restriction; man has thus lost the concept of objective truth. Since man is not the measure of all things, immediate experience alone (including reason) cannot be made the final reference point to knowledge. Descartes is portrayed as that philosopher who clearly wished to reconstruct from the beginning a system of knowledge beyond reasonable doubt. Yet his emphasis is on the subject, i.e., human reason, and Middelmann traces various dilemmas of thought in modern society to Descartes’s appeal to “reasonableness” separate from a reference point. He points to this generation’s life-style as a demonstration of that thought patern.
The thrust of the book is to show that God is indeed pro-existence. This world was created “very good,” and God has made us his agents (Middelmann’s term is “vice-regent”); we are the responsible creatures, so let’s carry out our responsibility wisely.
This is a typical piece of L’Abri scholarship in the sense of offering an alternative view to the present-day subjectivity and current emphasis on autonomous man. It is somewhat uneven in style and lacks crisp clarity in places, but it’s well worth reading. The chapters on work and property are particularly useful.
Mind Your Business
Help Wanted: Faith Required, by William Proctor (Revell, 1974, 158 pp., $2.95 pb), is reviewed by John Marshall, editorial assistant, Canon Press, Washington, D. C.
Ever since the fall of man, work has been both a curse and a blessing, and for many workers the former is perhaps the more accurate term. Unfortunately, even Christians are not immune to boredom, overwork, and temptations to dishonesty and goldbricking in their jobs. But they at least can tap the source of meaning and satisfaction in work, according to William Proctor. In a revealing survey of Christians in various occupations, Proctor shows how they have successfully dealt with such challenges as how to define success, how to overcome boredom, and how to assess the limits of personal loyalty to an organization or employer.
In each case the job itself is not seen as the source of ultimate fulfillment: satisfaction first and foremost comes from the worker’s focusing his attention on God. This is not to say, of course, that it is wrong to want enjoyment and satisfaction from one’s work; it is simply a matter of priorities.
Most people spend more time working than in any other one activity. To exclude God from this area is to bar him from a major part of life. God is intimately interested in the totality of every believer’s life, including his occupation, whether he has received a “calling” to the ministerial vocation or some other special career, or whether he has an “ordinary” job. Proctor notes that some Christians are clearly led into a particular occupation, while for others there is no specific career plan but simply the responsibility to live a Christian life both at and away from work.
Proctor, a professional writer whose style is extremely smooth and readable, is objective throughout most of the book. He doesn’t allow any type of work to appear inherently better than or preferable to another. Except for telling of one personal conflict and its resolution from his own journalistic background, and offering his own broad views regarding the traditional husband-wife roles and women’s working outside the home, he lets the techniques used by Christian men and women in hurdling occupational difficulties speak for themselves.
A built-in weakness of this approach is that some advice is bound to be too general, or not applicable to a similar situation faced by the reader. In spite of this, however, Proctor succeeds in giving interesting, practical principles for discovering meaning in work and for planning a career. All in all, his book emphasizes what is apparent both from the New Testament and from the example set by conscientious Christians in all walks of life: “full-time” Christian service is for everyone.
Fullest Impact Ahead?
Footnotes to a Theology: The Karl Barth Colloquium of 1972, edited by H. Martin Rumscheidt (CSR Office, Wilfrid Laurier University [Waterloo, Ontario, Canada], 1974, 149 pp., $3.50 pb), is reviewed by Donald W. Dayton, director, Mellander Library, North Park Theological Seminary, Chicago, Illinois.
Over a decade ago Robert McAfee Brown analyzed “American resistance to Barth” as reaction to a stereotype that focused on his alleged pessimism, his emphasis on transcendence, his supposed anti-cultural stance, and his affinities with orthodoxy. Whatever the reason, Brown is correct in asserting that America has seen very little serious interaction with Barth. Some observers of the contemporary theological scene (William Hordern, James Smart, and more recently Ronald Goetz in the May 15 Christian Century) have argued, however, that “Barth’s fullest impact on the modern American church is yet to be felt.” Such predictions insist that only recently have American liberalism and optimism been sufficiently shaken that Barth’s thought can find response on more sublimal psychological levels.
One sign of the validity of these predictions is the recent founding of the Karl Barth Society of North America under the auspices of the Toronto School of Theology. (I am membership secretary, and readers can get more information by writing to me at North Park Seminary, 5125 N. Spaulding Ave., Chicago, Ill. 60625.) This volume makes available the papers of the 1972 inaugural colloquium, edited by Martin Rumscheidt, vice-president of the society and professor at the University of Windsor.
These seven papers provide something for everyone. Although Arthur Cochrane of Pittsburgh Seminary provides more personal reminiscences of Barth, the emphasis is on sophisticated, even technical, treatments of Barth’s thought. The most critical paper, by Joseph McLelland of McGill University, uses the relation between Karl and his philosopher brother Heinrich to illuminate tensions between theology and philosophy in Barth’s thought. Paul Lehmann, now of Union Seminary in Virginia, focuses on the relation between Barth and BonhoefEer to examine “the concreteness of theology.”
The two most exciting and controversial papers are by Yale biblical theologian Paul Minear and Barth’s own son Markus, recently appointed to Basel in New Testament. Minear examines the reaction to Barth’s explosive Commentary on Romans to attack dominant schools of exegesis so captured by secular historiography that they can understand neither Paul nor Barth. Especial criticism is brought against Bultmann, who, “followed by most exegetes, so defined history as to deny to the resurrection of Jesus the status of historical fact.” Markus Barth’s paper is the only introduction in English to a recent controversy in Europe over the writings of Friedrich-Wilhelm Marquardt, who has argued that Barth’s theology is essentially a revolutionary ideology developed in response to the questions of “religious socialism.” While no doubt overstated, this thesis has given new impetus to the study of Barth in Europe and may well be picked up by activists in this country struggling for self-understanding the wake of the turbulent sixties.
The two remaining essays trace the ecumenical impact of Barth’s thought. Emilien Lamirande of Ottawa surveys fifty years of his influence on the Roman Catholic Church, where Barth has been taken more seriously than in many Protestant circles. Somewhat startling is an essay by Michael Wyschogrod of CUNY’s Baruch College on why Barth is of interest to Jewish theologians. Wyschogrod claims that “Barth is the Christian theologian of our time who is oriented toward Scripture, who does not substitute the Word of Man for that of God, and who does not find himself helpless before the mighty technology of ‘scientific biblical scholarship.’ ”
There is little attention to the significant, and occasionally profound, dialogue of evangelicals with Barth. We need a study like Lamirande’s devoted to this subject. Evangelical reaction has varied from the early attacks of Cornelius Van Til, for whom Barth’s thought was The New Modernism (1946) and perhaps the most dangerous heresy in the history of the Church, to more appreciative but not uncritical evaluations by men such as Donald Bloesch, who devotes a chapter to “A Reassessment of Karl Barth” in The Evangelical Renaissance (1973). Surely the truth lies more with Bloesch, and evangelicals ought to welcome a reawakening of interest in Barth’s theology as a most potent force for biblical and evangelical renewal of theology in America.
NEWLY PUBLISHED
A Guide For Old Testament Study, by William Stevens (Broadman, 320 pp., $3.95 pb). A useful, conservative, introductory overview of the Old Testament.
The Perfect Life: The Shakers in America, by Doris Faber (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 215 pp., $6.95), and Work and Worship: The Economic Order of the Shakers, by Edward Deming Andrews and Faith Andrews (New York Graphic Society, 224 pp., $10.95). To commemorate the Shaker bicentennial both of these offer a history of the movement. Faber, a journalist, gives a basic overview. The Andrewses, the leading historians of the movement, delve into the economic structure and ideology besides presenting a thorough history with numerous photographs.
Clergyman’s Psychological Handbook, by Clinton McLemore (Eerdmans, 146 pp., $2.95 pb). Summary of the major functional and organic disorders pastors encounter. General but helpful.
Western Attitudes Toward Death From the Middle Ages to the Present, by Philippe Aries (Johns Hopkins, 111 pp., $6.50). Scholarly, illustrated presentation of predominant attitudes and their ramifications as shown in art, philosophy, and social customs.
The Christian School: Why It Is Right For Your Child, by Paul Kienel (Victor, 131 pp., $1.50 pb), and Have the Public Schools “Had It”?, by Elmer Towns (Nelson, 192 pp., $2.95 pb). Two contenders for private schooling. Towns also suggests ways for improving public schools.
Justice and Mercy, by Reinhold Niebuhr (Harper & Row, 137 pp., $5.95). Posthumous collection of prayers and sermons.
The Measure of a Man, by Gene A. Getz (Regal, 219 pp., $1.25 pb). Examines the qualifications for Christian maturity as listed in First Timothy and Titus with suggestions on attaining them. Highly recommended.
Is There Really Only One Way?, by Dick Hillis (Vision House [1415 E. McFadden Ave., Santa Ana, Ca. 92705], 117 pp., $1.25 pb). The necessity of faith in Christ is well presented, especially for young people, by a missionary leader.
The Jesus Party, by Hugh Schonfield (Macmillan, 320 pp., $7.95). The author of The Passover Plot takes off from there in his highly speculative rewriting of early Christian history. Don’t be deceived by the scholarly apparatus.
Jesus’s Audience, by J. Duncan M. Derrett (Seabury, 240 pp., $6.95). Scholarly, well documented report on the social, economic, political, and intellectual spectrum of first-century Palestine.
The Vatican in the Ages of the Dictators (1922–1945), by Anthony Rhodes (Holt, Rinehart, Winston, 383 pp., $12.50). An apologetic study of the political positions and reasoning under Pope Pius XI and XII and the effect they had on European politics.
The African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church, by William J. Walls (AMEZ Publishing House [Charlotte, N.C. 28201], 669 pp., $10). A comprehensive history and chronicle of the second largest black Methodist denomination, with references to the black churches generally.
You Can’t Begin Too Soon, by Wesley Haystead (Regal, 130 pp., $2.25 pb). Biblical and educational paths to take with children to direct them toward a true understanding of God appropriate to their capabilities.
The Church in the New Testament, by Rudolph Schnackenburg (Seabury, 222 pp., $4.95). A leading Roman Catholic scholar offers a helpful exegetical study.
Ian Ramsey: Bishop of Durham—A Memoir, by David Edwards (Oxford, 101 pp., $6.50). Biographical sketch of the late intellectual and activist Anglican bishop.
