Basic Theology
Theological thinking is showing amazing vitality considering the obituaries that were being written a few years ago.
Carl Henry continues his massive project with volumes 3 and 4 of basic theology: God, Revelation and Authority (Word). They will no doubt be the standard for some time to come in evangelical circles. Elder R. V. Sarrels has published a full-blown Systematic Theology (Harmony Hill, Box 377, Azle, Texas). It is high Calvinism with a twist: apparently all who do not commit the unpardonable sin are elect, and the Atonement is “limited” to them. Awakening to God (InterVarsity), volume 3 of “The Foundations of the Christian Faith” by J. M. Boice, is more traditional Calvinism, but in pastoral, readable form. The basic topics of theology are dealt with simply by James Draper in Foundations of Biblical Faith (Broadman). What We Evangelicals Believe (Fuller Seminary) is David Hubbard’s exposition of Christian doctrine based on Fuller Theological Seminary’s statement of faith. Its sincerity and basic orthodoxy no one would deny, although some might take exception to his statement, “The infallible character of Scriptures means that they will get their message across”, his italics, (p. 55–60). Basic theology, in abbreviated form will be found in Help in Understanding Theology (Judson) by N. R. DePuy and in extended form in Understanding the Faith of the Church (Seabury) by Richard Norris. The latter has especially good material on the history of doctrine. Millard Erickson offers an excellent collection of basic material in The New Life: Readings in Christian Theology (Baker). It is mostly from contemporary evangelical thinkers.
Thomas C. Oden would point us to a “post-modern Christian orthodoxy” in Agenda for Theology (Harper & Row). He argues well that the way out of the quicksands of modernity is to be found in classical Christianity. A highly original work that argues that theology is commitment emerging from experience is The Physiology of Faith, A Theory of Theological Relativity (Harper & Row) by J. W. Dixon. Norman Pittenger offers us his earlier God in Process, revised, with new material added, in The Lure of Divine Love: Human Experiences and Christian Faith in a Process Perspective (Pilgrim).
Two Roman Catholic statements of Faith are Why Catholic? (Doubleday), edited by J. J. Delaney, and Introduction to Christianity (Seabury) by Joseph Ratzinger (profitable reading for anyone).
TOPICS IN THEOLOGY Current discussion covers numerous specific theological topics. The Love of God: Old style meditations are found in Love Divine (Exposition) by Reuben Brown. Election: A dogmatic treatment is The Sovereignty of Grace (Baker) by A. C. Custance and a biblical theological treatment is But As For Me (John Knox) by André Lacocque. Law: A very fine discussion of law and freedom, biblically considered, is The Trumpet in the Morning (Oxford) by Stuart Blanch. Grace: Roger Haight, S.J., attempts to build a theological foundation for the Christian life by analyzing the idea of grace in The Experience and Language of Grace (Paulist). Faith: Jean-Claude Barreau examines authentic false faith in The Religious Impulse (Paulist). Revelations from God: Herman Riffel offers ways to test whether God is speaking in Voice of God (Tyndale), and C. Floristán and C. Duquoc offer a theological analysis in Discernment of the Spirit and of Spirits (Seabury). Baptism: Robert Rayburn’s What About Baptism? (Baker) and G. W. Bromiley’s Children of Promise (Eerdmans) both argue strongly in favor of baptizing infants. L. Maldonado and D. Powers look more broadly at baptism in Structures of Initiation in Crisis (Seabury). Sacraments: A full-blown look at sacramental theology is made by the Roman Catholic R. Vaillancourt in Toward a Renewal of Sacramental Theology (Liturgical Press). Prayer:The Theology of Prayer (Baker) by Wayne Spear is a serious attempt to look at prayer within a Reformed framework. Healing:Medical Wisdom from the Bible (Revell) by R. J. Thomsen and Some Thoughts on Faith Healing (Christian Medical Fellowship) by Vincent Edmunds and Gordon Scorer are excellent short studies. Angels: Roland Buck claims to have seen them and personally to have interviewed Chironi, the angel who pushed over Jericho’s walls in Joshua’s day in Angels on Assignment (Hunter Books, 1602 Townhurst, Houston, Tex.). Ann Wedgeworth has interviewed numerous people who have encountered angels in Magnificent Strangers (Gospel Publishing House). Claus Westermann’s God’s Angels Need No Wings (Fortress) is less sensational and though angels are seen to be a “collective concept” they nevertheless show that “we are visited.” Satan/Demons: Warren Wiersbe offers biblical advice in The Strategy of Satan (Tyndale), as does Lester Sumrall in Demons: The Answer Book (Nelson). Death: A sensitive study will be found in Biblical Perspectives on Death (Fortress) by L. R. Bailey. Heaven: A contemporary look is taken in Heaven (Seabury), edited by B. Van Iersel and E. Schillebeeckx. Hell: Jon Braun takes a sobering look at this very difficult subject in his Whatever Happened to Hell? (Nelson).
THEOLOGIANS The study of what other men have said continues unabated. An excellent introduction and defense of Kant is Allan Wood’s Kant’s Rational Theology (Cornell University). The Tongues of Men (Scholars Press) by Stephen Dunning is a look at Hegel and Hamann, being a defense of the latter with profound implications for today, asserting that biblical language cannot successfully be secularized. The essence of Pascal’s quest for certainty is ably explained by H. M. Davidson in The Origins of Certainty: Means and Meanings in Pascal’s Pensées (University of Chicago). Theistic Faith for Our Time (University Press of America) by G. D. Straton lucidly introduces the process thought of both Josiah Royce and A. N. Whitehead. Another brilliantly done piece of work is The Value-Philosophy of Alfred Edward Taylor: A Study in Theistic Implication (University Press of America) by Charles Mason. A stimulating and sympathetic look at Tillich’s socialism is John R. Stumme’s Socialism in Theological Perspective: A Study of Paul Tillich 1918–1933 (Scholars Press). Fortress Press gives us in paperback the Preface to Bonhoeffer by John Godsey and The Logic of Promise in Moltmann’s Theologyby Christopher Morse. The latter is a particularly helpful work. George Goodwin looks at The Ontological Argument of Charles Hartshorne (Scholars Press) and R. J. Rowling at A Philosophy of Revelation According to Karl Rahner (University Press of America). Charles Hefling writes on Jacob’s Ladder: Theology and Spirituality in the Thought of Austin Farrer (Cowley). Farrer’s brilliance is being more and more appreciated. A fair, but strongly critical review of the pastor of the Berachah Church in Houston is found in Bob Thieme’s Teachings on Christian Living (Church Multiplication, 9560 Long Point Road, Houston, Tex.) by J. L. Wall.
Two nontheologians who have profoundly influenced theology are examined in: Martin Heidegger (Viking) by George Steimer and Jung in Context (University of Chicago) by Peter Homans.
Two excellent Festschriften round off this section: Science, Faith and Revelation (Broadman), edited by R. E. Patterson in honor of Eric Rust; and Hearing and Doing (Wedge), edited by J. Kraay and A. Tol, in honor of H. Evan Runner.
THEOLOGICAL SOURCES A. W. Wood and G. M. Clark have translated and annotated Kant’s Lectures on Philosophical Theology (Cornell University). This is a very useful volume for an understanding of Kant in readable English style. The Parables of Kierkegaard (Princeton University) have been edited by T. C. Oden and neatly illustrated by L. S. Johnson. S. K. lovers will welcome this handy collection. Teilhard de Chardin’s The Heart of Matter (Harcourt Brace Jovanovich) completes Teilhard’s collected works and contains two previously unpublished essays. Carillon Books has made available in A Fulton Sheen Reader some of the best writing of the late popular Roman Catholic thinker. Karl Rahner continues his epoch-making work with volume 16 of his Theological Investigations: Experience of the Spirit: Source of Theology (Seabury). John Mulder has put together the best of Hugh T. Kerr’s essays in Our Life in God’s Light (Westminster). Written over 35 years by the former Princeton theologian, these essays strike a resounding note.
God
Practical and analytical studies about the Christian doctrine of God continue to be written. Not as much time is being spent in this area as could be wished, but helpful works are appearing. Peter Toon contributes a traditional work, God Here and Now (Tyndale), that is readable and trustworthy, and concludes by defending the orthodox doctrine of the Trinity. Not so Joseph A. Bracken, What Are They Saying About the Trinity? (Paulist). A helpful survey of contemporary speculations about the Trinity is vitiated by his conclusion that only a broadly-based processive, communitarian, bisexual approach to the Trinity will genuinely speak to modern men and women. Logos International offers The Other God: Seeing God as He Really Is by Richard Exley as an opportunity to break free from our misconceptions by a new experience of God in his reality. It does it in quite traditional categories. Edmund Steimle of Union Seminary (N.Y.) reflects on God the Stranger (Fortress) by means of 13 sermons that attempt to take modern doubt into consideration by not asking for too much belief in certain facts (the Resurrection should be looked at out of the corner of the eye rather than directly). Whether the theology can stand, without the facts, is another matter.
Who Art in Heaven (Zondervan) by Philip Hook studies the attributes of God. Simply written, with study questions for each chapter, this book should be helpful for lay people. Theological students and scholars will turn to the Baker reprint of Elisha Cole’s God’s Sovereignty. Originally published in 1673, it was used for over a hundred years, in 14 editions. It is straightforward, five-point Calvinism.
Linwood Urban and Douglas Walton have compiled a helpful book of readings on omnipotence and evil in The Power of God (Oxford). Arranged topically, this is a helpful collection of medieval to modern statements about problems related to Job’s ancient problems of the Judge of all the earth doing right. A thought-provoking book. Equally thought-provoking is the speculative The Feminine Dimension of the Divine (Westminster) by Joan Engelsman. She argues, drawing on Freud, Jung, and Hellenistic religions, that the feminine dimension of God has been repressed by Western theology only now to come into focus. Our views of Trinity and evil will probably need redefinition to include the missing dimension. Hans Küng looks at God and Freud for a different reason in his Terry Lectures, Freud and the Problem of God (Yale University). This very helpful and positive book is a careful study of Freud’s views of God, combined with a sensitive Christian rejection of his negative conclusions.
Another book that in the end rejects Freud is The Birth of the Living God: A Psychoanalytic Study (University of Chicago) by Ana-Maria Rizzuto. Rizzuto accepts the Freudian psychological thesis, but rejects the Freudian metaphysical thesis, regarding human belief in God.
JESUS CHRIST/CHRISTOLOGY Continuing a 20-year-old trend, publishers pour forth books trying to explain to an inquisitive American public who Jesus was, or is. Joining the 1,000-plus books already available in print, the following attempt to answer anew the age-old question, “Who do they say that I am?,” by looking at Jesus as part of his own times. Jesus, His Life and Times (Revell) is the beautifully done Genesis Project production that carefully (and reverently) goes through the life of Jesus with explanations, text (KJV), and over 200 color illus-looking at Jesus as part of his own times. Jesus, His Life and Times (Revell) is the beautifully done Genesis Project production that carefully (and reverently) goes through the life of Jesus with explanations, text (KJV), and over 200 color illustrations. It is a striking volume. Portrait of Jesus (Mayflower) by Alan Dale is nicely illustrated with drawings by Trevon Stubley. It is a theological picture of Jesus that is disappointingly tentative—the Resurrection (though Dale apparently believes it) is pushed as a new experience of God bringing new convictions and a new job for the disciples. John Drane’s Jesus and the Four Gospels: An Illustrated Documentary (Harper & Row) is nicely written, well-illustrated and diagrammed, and argues strongly for the trustworthiness of the accounts. Jesus of Galilee: His Story in Everyday Language (Judson) by Louis Baldwin and Autobiography of God (Regal) by Lloyd John Ogilvie are attempts to restate the life of Jesus in modern terms using the Scripture text as the base. Both are well done, as in Anthony Burgess’s Men of Nazareth (McGraw-Hill), the novel on which the TV series “Jesus of Nazareth” was based.
Charles C. Cochrane in Jesus of Nazareth in Word and Deed (Eerdmans) and Lucas Grollenberg in Jesus (Westminster). Written over 35 years by the former Princeton theologian, these essays strike a resounding note. Times (Fortress), presents a liberal reconstruction where little is actually known of the historical Jesus, and where the Resurrection did not occur in space and time. James Borland, in Christ in the Old Testament (Moody), attempts a comprehensive study of the Old Testament appearances of Christ in human form. Many of its footnotes, however, are from books dated before 1925. Norman Geisler also looks for Christ in the Old Testament, but also in the New, in To Understand the Bible, Look For Jesus (Baker). Werner Kelber, Mark’s Story of Jesus (Fortress), attempts to lay bare Mark’s focus on Jesus by using current literary and redaction criticism. The motion picture Jesus is available in text and photos in a book by the same name, put together by Lee Roddy and published by Spire Books. It is based primarily on the Gospel of Luke and is very true to the text. S. G. DeGraaf’s Promise and Deliverance (Paideia) is a sensitive account of Christ’s ministry death, and a blessing to read.
Israelis, Jews and Jesus (Doubleday) by Pinchas Lapide is a very interesting survey of current Jewish opinion about Jesus, past and present.
Five new books deal with the work of Christ. Herbert Lockyer offers meditations on the death and resurrection of Jesus in The Man Who Died For Me (Word). The Cross: Tradition and Interpretation (Eerdmans) by Hans-Ruedi Weber, a Swiss Reformed pastor, is a carefully written biblical, theological study of the death of Christ. Weber has also produced a beautifully illustrated and thoughtful series of meditations on Christ’s death called On a Friday Noon (Eerdmans). It is moving and disturbing at the same time. Both are well worth reading. So is What the Bible Teaches About What Jesus Did (Tyndale) by F. F. Bruce. Here is a clear statement on the work of Christ by an eminent scholar in clear, understandable English. Richard Bauerle and Frederick Kemper have put together a set of sermons and dialogues for Lent in Up to Jerusalem Where He Must Suffer (Concordia).
No one really knows what Jesus looked like, but Denis Thomas, The Face of Christ (Doubleday), has collected a representative sampling from the whole of the history of Christian art. It is a marvelous and moving book.
The deeper significance of Jesus is also under discussion. Charles Massabki sees liberation as the key to understanding Jesus in Christ: Liberation of the World Today (Alba House). It is a sensitive and deeply spiritual book. John Stott, Focus on Christ (Collins), says authentic Christians must make Christ the center of their lives because he is the center of Christianity. Christ is to be seen as Mediator, Lord, Goal, and Model. Three excellent books stress the deity of Jesus: Peter Toon, Jesus Christ Is Lord (Judson); Wilfrid Tunink, Jesus Is Lord (Doubleday); John Buell and O. Q. Hyder, Jesus: God, Ghost, or Guru? (Zondervan). It is deeply satisfying to see fundamental Christian truth so well presented and carefully argued. The necessity to worship Christ as Lord is well-argued in a deeply spiritual book by Ernest Lussier, Jesus Christ Is Lord (Alba House). Sir J. N. D. Anderson enters into dialogue with modern critics of the traditional view of the Incarnation in The Mystery of Incarnation (InterVarsity). It is a fine and vigorous defense of the truth. In opposition to it could be placed James Mackey, Jesus, the Man and the Myth (Paulist), who sees mostly myth and only man (i.e., no Incarnation), and Françoise Dolto and Gérard Sévéron, The Jesus of Psychoanalysis: A Freudian Interpretation of the Gospel (Doubleday), who look at the Gospels much as fairy tales, and through Freudian eyes.
John Thompson has given us a masterful work in Christ in Perspective: Christological Perspectives in the Theology of Karl Barth (Eerdmans). It is a fine treatment of the subject. Two earlier works of Willi Marxen are now available again as a single volume in The Beginnings of Christology, together with the Lord’s Supper as a Christological Problem (Fortress). New Testament students will be happy to see these works by the Münster theologian. Geoffrey Grogan, What the Bible Teaches About Jesus (Tyndale), has written a readable overview of the New Testament’s teaching about Jesus, at a level any layperson could understand. Jesus, The New Elijah (Servant) by Paul Hinnebusch is a typological look at Jesus, using Elijah as the key. It has some interesting insights.
Undoubtedly the most significant of all the new books on Christology is Edward Schillebeeckx’s massive Jesus: An Experiment in Christology (Seabury). It is a scholarly work that comes to some unconventional conclusions, but it will need careful consideration by all who are seriously interested in the subject.
THE HOLY SPIRIT C. F. D. Moule. The Holy Spirit (Eerdmans), and John Peck. What The Bible Teaches About the Holy Spirit (Tyndale), are very useful biblical studies that concentrate on basics. Come Holy Spirit (Eerdmans) is a paperback reprint of 25 sermons by Karl Barth from the years 1920–24. They deal with more than the Holy Spirit, and still retain their vigor. A traditional and readable discussion of the Third Person of the Trinity is Who Is the Holy Spirit? (Alba House) by Father Charles Massabki.
Leanne Payne in Real Presence: The Holy Spirit in the Works of C. S. Lewis (Cornerstone) has given us more a helpful introduction to all of C. S. Lewis than a technical study of the Holy Spirit, but it is nonetheless valuable on that account. The question of whether the gift of tongues is for this day and age is answered negatively by Richard Gaffin in Perspectives on Pentecost (Presbyterian and Reformed). He argues that gifts were intended only for the foundational period of the church’s life and ceased with the coming of the completed canon of Scripture. Not so the Roman Catholic Karl Rahner, who argues in The Spirit in the Church (Seabury) that the Spirit still works in numerous ways, including charismatically. In fact, we should pray for the courage to receive new gifts. Michael Griffiths also encourages cultivating charismatic gifts, which he renames grace-gifts, in Grace Gifts (Eerdmans). Oxford has republished in paperback the 1973 work of John V. Taylor. The Go-Between God. It is an attempt to relate the Holy Spirit to mission in an experimental way and it still retains its ability to challenge us to new ways of looking at things.
ESCHATOLOGY Throughout the history of the church, when troubled times arose Christians searched the Scriptures, sometimes responsibly, sometimes irresponsibly, to look for a way out. Our time is no exception. Curtis Routley, The Vision of All (Carlton Press), offers a blueprint of the last days that has a postmillennial(!), but pretribulational Rapture. He has calculated how many gallons of blood will make up the river of Armageddon: “The winepress of my God is awesome!” Jack Van Impe (with Roger Campbell), Israel’s Final Holocaust (Nelson), sees Israel as the key to understanding and looks at its future through traditional pretribulationist eyes. A war with Russia is predicted and the end is upon us. The Granary (150 Ottley Dr., Atlanta, Ga.) has republished I. M. Haldeman’s The Coming of Christ, Both Pre-Millennial and Imminent, an old standard of pretribulation eschatology. Dan Betzer. Countdown, A Newsman Looks at the Rapture (Gospel Publishing House), also offers standard pretribulationism, complete with a novellete on the night of Christ’s return as chapter one. A full-blown novel is The Years of the Beast (Beacon Hill) by Leon Chambers. Based on a partial Rapture theory, it is the story of a Christian who got left behind.
Three recent books are written from an amillennial perspective. Anthony Hoekema’s The Bible and the Future (Eerdmans) is a scholarly presentation that is thoroughly abreast of current studies in the area and is written from a positive point of view. Everett Carver’s When Jesus Comes Again (Presbyterian and Reformed) is more biblical than contemporary theological, but it is marred by a rather constant negative attitude toward dispensationalism. John Bratt, The Final Curtain (Baker), is standard amillennialism put in simple terms with study questions at the end of each chapter.
Prophecy and Prediction (Pryor Pettengill) by Dewey Beegle was intended to be a thorough discussion of the issues, but unfortunately it is a hodge-podge of critical remarks about rigid conservatives who won’t admit the Bible has errors in it, dispensationalists, Seventh-day Adventists, assorted kooks, and Lindseyism. Apparently they are all about the same to Beegle, who doesn’t manage to say much that is very constructive. Robert Jewett, Jesus Against the Rapture: Seven Unexpected Prophecies (Westminster), is also against Lindsey and dispensationalists, calling their view “The New Apocalypticism.” It is interestingly written, but rambling and disorganized. It’s difficult to discern what he is trying to accomplish.
Desmond Ford has tackled one of the thorniest problems of New Testament eschatology in The Abomination of Desolation in Biblical Eschatology (University Press of America). He concludes that belief in the return of Christ, as pictured in Mark 13, is not a delusion of primitive Christianity but something inherent in fundamental Christian doctrine. This scholarly work will be appreciated by all students of New Testament eschatology.
Westminster Press has republished J. A. T. Robinson’s controversial 1957 work, Jesus and His Coming, virtually unchanged. Robinson’s thesis remains that there was but one coming of Jesus which included victory in it; there is no need for a further second return.
Finally, there is Endtime: The Doomsday Catalog (Collier) by William Griffin. It’s hard to describe but equally hard to put down. In it you will find everything everybody has ever said about the end of the age, complete with drawings, cartoons, and pictures. A real experience awaits you.
Apologetics
A good way to begin our look at defenses of the faith is to mention a hard-hitting attack on the faith: Atheism—The Case Against God (Prometheus) by George Smith will introduce you to the current arguments against God’s existence: it is a minority viewpoint, as Smith himself admits (indeed, only 4 percent of the American public denies that God exists).
Defenses of the faith take many forms. Chance or Design? (Philosophical Library) by J. E. Horigan is a carefully presented scientific-philosophical argument for design in the universe, and hence a designer. Rationality and Religious Belief (Notre Dame), edited by C. F. Delaney, is a stimulating collection of essays that argue for compatibility between human reason and belief. Josh McDowell has revised and updated his Evidence Demands a Verdict (Here’s Life). It is still helpful, but also unreliable in places. Objections Answered (Regal) by R. C. Sproul is a set of well-thought-out answers to difficult questions about the faith. Faith for the Non-Religious (Tyndale) by Michael Green is the same sort of book, also well done. Finally, Rosalyn Kendrick argues from the structure of evolution to God in a neatly written Does God Have a Body? (Morehouse-Barlow).
A series of books offer Christianity to the thoughtful, but nonhostile unbeliever. All are sensitively written and would be excellent gifts for one searching for some answers. These are: H. Thielicke, The Faith Letters (Word); Thomas Powers, Invitation to a Great Experiment (Doubleday); Colin Morris, Bugles in the Afternoon (Westminster); Richard Holloway, A New Heaven (Eerdmans); George Otis, The God They Never Knew (Bible Voice); Denis Osborne, The Andromedans (InterVarsity).
Three books look at the present situation: G. I. Williamson, Understanding the Times (Presbyterian and Reformed), tries to explain our current distress and offer a biblical answer; J. I. Packer, Knowing Man (Cornerstone), tries to correct false views of man; and James Muyskens, The Sufficiency of Hope (Temple University Press), offers hope as a meaningful way out of our present problems.
Ethics
The pendulum is swinging back in the area of ethics. After a decade or so of contextualized morality, the whole subject of ethics has come intensely under review again, with attempts to find absolute norms once more. Newer and far more complex problems have also forced the issue.
BASIC ISSUES An excellent survey of the areas covered by ethics is The Concise Dictionary of Christian Ethics (Seabury), edited by Bernard Stoeckle, a Roman Catholic. Augsburg has made available George Forell’s History of Christian Ethics: From the New Testament to Augustine, being volume 1 of a three-volume series. It is original, insightful, and easy to read. Karl Holl looks at Luther’s ethics in a fine work, also from Augsburg, The Reconstruction of Morality.
Three books present overviews of Christian ethics. Newness of Life: A Modern Introduction to Catholic Ethics (Paulist) by James Gaffney is an excellent topical study from a Roman Catholic point of view. The Christian Moral Vision (Seabury) by E. N. Brill (with study guide by C. A. Hahn) covers the same area but includes representative non-Catholic opinions as well. Law, Morality and the Bible (InterVarsity), edited by Bruce Kaye and Gordon Wenham, explores basic biblical themes and specific inquiries into morally problematic areas. It, too, is an excellent introduction to ethics, from an evangelical point of view.
ETHICAL TOPICS A diverse group of problem areas has received analysis during the last year. Honesty: Jerry White takes a down-to-earth look at basic principles in Honesty, Morality and Conscience (NavPress). It comes with a helpful study guide. Pauline Ethics: Select topics, such as homosexuality and the place of women in the church, are examined from a rather liberal perspective in The Moral Teaching of Paul (Abingdon) by Victor Paul Furnish. Crime: Nelson-Hall has published an interesting book entitled A New Look at Biblical Crime by Ralph W. Scott. It takes an objective look at some of the problem areas of the Old Testament. Black Ethics: Enoch Oglesby has given us a very fine look at ethics from a black perspective in Ethics and Theology from the Other Side: Sounds of Moral Strangle (University Press of America). Ambiguity: Richard McCormick and Paul Ramsey have put together a representative set of opinions in Doing Evil to Achieve Good: Moral Choice in Conflict Situations (Loyola University). Sin: A devastating look at contemporary lunacy is taken by Henry Fairlie in The Seven Deadly Sins Today (Notre Dame). This is an excellent book. Norms: A very perceptive and helpful introduction to the subject is Readings in Moral Theology No. 1—Moral Norms and Catholic Tradition (Paulist), edited by C. E. Curran and R. A. McCormick. Freedom: Two very fine studies have appeared: Paul’s Ethic of Freedom (Westminster) by Peter Richardson, and Free and Faithful in Christ: The Truth Will Set Yon Free (Seabury) by Bernard Häring, which is volume 2 of his three-volume Moral Theology. Richardson writes from a biblical Protestant perspective and Häring from a dogmatic Roman Catholic view. Politics: John Warren Johnson has written an excellent handbook for believers in the public arena in Political Christians (Augsburg). The University Press of America has made available a series of George Wesley Buchanan’s sermons in The Prophet’s Mantle in the Nation’s Capital.Mental Retardation: A sensitive book on a difficult subject is Ethical Issues in Mental Retardation: Tragic Choices Living Hope (Abingdon) by David and Victoria Allen. Materialism:The Golden Cow (InterVarsity) by John White attacks this twentieth-century idol with relentless vigor. Higher Education: A challenging series of papers on a crucial issue will be found in The Hesburgh Papers: Higher Values in Higher Education (Andrews and McMeel) by Theodore Hesburgh.
BIOMEDICAL ETHICSAn Introduction to Bioethics (Paulist) by T. A. Shannon and J. J. DiGiacomo raises more questions than it answers, but it’s a start. Lifespan: Values and Fife-Extending Technologies (Harper & Row), edited by R. M. Veatch, contains valuable information on the technological side of the question but is disappointing on the question of values. Joseph Fletcher in Human-hood: Essays in Biomedical Ethics (Prometheus) argues that we ought to pass laws keeping infants “who fall below the minimum standard” from being born and should consider unwanted pregnancy “a venereal disease,” thus justifying abortion. One wonders how the word ethics got into the title. Completely opposed to Fletcher in its antiabortion stand is Beyond Abortion: The Theory and Practice of the Secular State (Franciscan Herald) by Charles E. Rice. Equally opposed are Francis Schaeffer and C. Everett Koop, Whatever Happened to the Human Race? (Revell).
Social Ethics
Klaus Bockmühl explores Evangelicals and Social Ethics (InterVarsity) in a timely monograph. Gregory Baum looks at a number of contemporary issues in a perceptive book, The Social Imperative (Paulist). Robert Webber builds a good case for evangelical social responsibility in The Secular Saint (Zondervan).
HUMAN RIGHTS Two excellent defenses of human dignity are After All. I’m Only Human (Vantage) by C. Bassett and Human Science and Human Dignity (InterVarsity) by D. M. MacKay. An attempt to renew the human rights tradition in Roman Catholicism is to be found in David Hollenbach’s Claims in Confüct (Paulist). Peggy Billings utters a plea for involvement in Paradox and Promise in Human Rights (Friendship Press). Bread and Freedom (World Council of Churches) is Ron O’Grady’s defense of the wcc. As usual, the U.S. comes off badly as a violator of human rights. T. R. Ingram argues for a return to the universal law of God as a basis for human rights in What’s Wrong With Human Rights? (St. Thomas Press, Box 35096, Houston, Tex.). Alois Müller and Norbert Greinacher edit an excellent collection of essays in The Church and The Rights of Man (Seabury). Another excellent work by Seabury is The Death Penalty and Torture, edited by Franz Böckle and Jacques Pohier: it is essentially against the death penalty. Not so Walter Berns in For Capital Punishment: Crime and the Morality of the Death Penalty (Basic Books): it is well argued.
LIBERATION THEOLOGY Four attempts to look at the oppressed world and what the church should be doing from a bit left of center are: S. M. Ogden, Faith and Freedom: Toward a Theology of Liberation (Abingdon): Religions Life and the Poor: Liberation Theology Perspective (Orbis) by A. Cussianovich: Political Theology and theLife of the Church (Westminster) by Andre Dumas: and Beyond Our Tribal Gods (Orbis) by R. Marstin. Two semidevotional books stress the church’s need to be involved: Room to be People (Fortress) by J. J. Bonino, and Charismatic Renewal and Social Action: A Dialogue (Servant) by Cardinal L. J. Suenens and Dom H. Camara.
A full-blown biblical theology of liberation is The Way to Peace: Liberation Through the Bible (Orbis) by L. J. Topel, a well-written book. A helpful look at contextualizing theology is Gospel and Culture (William Carey), edited by John Stott and Robert Cooke. This series of papers goes a long way toward clearing up misunderstandings in this area.
PEACE STUDIES Three new books argue for a peace initiative: Mission and the Peace Witness (Herald), edited by R. L. Ramseyer: New Testament Basis of Peacemaking (Center for Peace Studies) by R. McSorley: and Peace in Search of Makers (Judson), edited by Jane Rockman. Ramseyer’s work is carefully done from an evangelical point of view, Rockman’s includes speeches by the First Secretary of the Soviet Embassy, delivered in Riverside Church (N.Y.).
Judaism and Jewish-Christian Relations
Available in paperback is the award-winning The Jewish Mind (Scribner’s) by Raphael Patai. It is a definitive study of the Jewish life and history that ought to be read by anyone interested in Jewish thought. Also available in paperback is the third edition of Jacob Neusner’s clear and simple The Way of Torah (Duxbury).
A different sort of introduction to Judaism is Living With the Bible (Bantam) by Moshe Dayan. The reflections of this great general on biblical times and his own time are worth considering.
Two books probe the meaning of the Holocaust: Journey of Conscience (William Collins) by L. Rabinsky and G. Mann, and A Consuming Fire (John Knox) by John Roth. No one should ever forget, and these books are reminders.
Rosemary Reuther’s Faith and Fratricide: The Theological Roots of Anti-Semitism (Seabury) is available again in paperback. Its trenchant argument still carries force. John Koenig, Jews and Christians in Dialogue: New Testament Foundations (Westminster), attempts to bridge the gap between Christians and Jews by showing that the early church did not see itself apart from its Jewish background. The God Who Cares: A Christian Looks at Judaism (John Knox) by Fredrick Holmgren also looks at Christianity’s Jewish heritage as a foundation for better Jewish-Christian relations. The definitive Encyclopedia of Jewish Concepts (Sanhedrin) by Philip Burnbaum is now in paperback. If only one book could be owned on Judaism, this would be it.
Carl F. H. Henry, first editor of Christianity Today, is lecturer at large for World Vision International. An author of many books, he lives in Arlington, Virginia.
