A New World Order?
Variations on an old theme.
Thinkers, theologians, and statesmen since World War II have pressed their search for an answer to the oldest question in the world: Is international justice possible? Today this search is hastened by the shadow of nuclear war and the fact that the atomized structure of our society favors a disconcerting variety of attitudes.
Can we find any absolute, definitive criteria that might secure peace and slow down the feverish relational changes in the international community? How can we establish a collaboration between states based on equality, freedom, and justice? As soon as someone thinks he has found such criteria, he is immediately challenged—rightly or wrongly. The debate appears as realists versus idealists, philosophers and theoreticians versus statesmen, relativists versus absolutists, empiricists versus moralists.
To this vital question—which too many essays have diluted into a boring, endless discussion—two recent books give a refreshing perspective: International Politics and the Demands for Global Justice (G. R. Welch, Burlington, Ont., Canada, and Dordt College Press, Sioux Center, Iowa), by James W. Skillen, and Morality and Foreign Policy (Louisiana State Univ. Press), by Kenneth W. Thompson.
For Skillen, who is executive director of the Washington-based Association for Public Justice, no ready-made recipe will do. He is engaged in a redefinition of, and quest for, “the entire reality, the full reality of international politics, including the very identity of states and the principles by which the states ought to go” (p. 43). A realistic or relativistic approach to international problems, he contends, is no longer possible. In reality, what man seeks is a moral norm.
The search for a norm in international politics is also the main theme of Thompson’s book. But the two books, which start with the same premise, reach opposite conclusions. While Skillen undertakes to demonstrate that it is possible to attain a new order based on Scripture, Thompson devotes much of his time to defining the limits of man’s power to make rules. Both authors are basically conscious of the Christian implications of Western political thought, and warn of possible excesses. Their conclusions, however, show that the division between realism and certain forms of idealism stems from the deep-seated division between two opposite conceptions of man: one under the banner of secular humanism, the other under the banner of Christianity.
Still, it is interesting to put Skillen’s and Thompson’s books together. They show that the division separating the two points of view may not be as unbridgeable as one might think, in spite of their seeming irreconcilability. In fact, both Thompson and Skillen devote a great deal of space to pointing out the limitations of their own beliefs and in trying to find new approaches. Each evinces an attitude of intellectual thoroughness that is seldom encountered among Christian writers—or secular writers, either, for that matter.
The discussion about the reorganization of world relations and of international justice presents a crucial difficulty: it is the tension between domestic and international affairs. Frederick O. Bonkovsky observed, “Justice within states and among them exists … when a government can aid the growth of public harmony domestically in a way that does not require it to act unjustly against other nations and governments.”
Skillen himself has demonstrated the need for changing the concept of “public justice” at both the domestic and the international level by balancing his essay about international relations with one on domestic action, Confessing Christ and Doing Politics (Association for Public Justice Education Fund, Washington). What makes his position so original is that he believes global change must begin first in individuals, in a change of heart and basic reaction. Because for him political action goes far beyond the merely pragmatic, he does not give overly precise answers. Rather, he calls for new, permanent, biblical standards for the definition of “justice” and “morality.” While emphasizing that these goals may never be fully attained, Skillen stresses that we must act in faith: faith in the human nature God has given us; faith in our moral standards as defined with the help of Scripture; faith that the kingdom of God should replace our present concept of the state.
Though it might be catalogued among other utopian essays, Skillen’s call for a new order goes well beyond them in offering a challenge here and now. For example, in discussing the actual, mainstream conception of the state that led to the creed of “America First,” he challenges America’s “possessive individualism” and the general law of self-survival. He urges us to show love and a sense of justice in international actions. The reader thus feels compelled to start reorganizing his own life, then ask how these new principles might apply to the American attitude toward the Soviet Union.
But Skillen needs to be asked: Should a Christian attitude of forgiveness and of “let us start improving first” make us forget the danger of living in the same world with a powerful, destabilized and militaristic power such as the Soviet Union? If it doesn’t, what criteria should we use to analyze the situation? It is just possible that Skillen lacks perspective on the American-Soviet conflict because he wills to believe that love can offset hatred and rivalry. This does not invalidate everything Skillen says, but it does mean that more hard thinking is needed.
Both Skillen and Thompson introduce us to some genuine and urgent problems, and for that they are to be thanked. The real question seems to remain, however: How does one deal with empirical realities from within a stance of faith when asking questions about international justice?
Reviewed by Alice-Catherine Carls, adjunct professor in humanities at Sterling College, Sterling, Kansas.
Bible Doctrine In Capsule Form
God’s Words: Studies of Key Bible Themes, by J. I. Packer (IVP, 1981, 233 pp., $4.95), is reviewed by Millard H. Erickson, professor of theology, Bethel Theological Seminary, Saint Paul, Minnesota.
James I. Packer, professor of systematic and historical theology at Regent College, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, has given us a clear, concise, and helpful treatment of key biblical and theological concepts. Though approximately two-thirds of the chapters in this book deal with aspects of the doctrine of salvation, such other topics as revelation, Scripture, and the Lord also receive helpful treatment.
The writing style is spare but solidly filled with content. The author himself makes a pun of this, saying, “Packer by name, packer by nature.” Each chapter is clearly organized and gives numerous biblical references, which the author intends the reader to look up. There is an examination of differing perspectives on the issue, and a concluding practical application.
Packer makes an effort to direct his writing to a wide range of readers. Lay people will appreciate his clarity and the absence of unexplained technical terms. Pastors, theological students, and theologians will appreciate his awareness of current scholarly developments and fresh insights. He avoids past mistakes of word study methodology, emphasizing the flexibility of language and explaining the necessity of using nonbiblical terms to make biblical meaning clear for today.
The book is a helpful summary of many concepts of Christian doctrine, and it could be used as a basis for an advanced church-study group. The abundance of Bible references enables the reader to follow up with additional self-study. The positive tone and balanced judgment characteristic of Packer’s earlier writings are also found here. One might wish for a more complete treatment of other areas of doctrine than salvation, and there might also have been more integration of the several chapters as well as a summarizing conclusion. But this is understandable in view of the fact that much of the content was originally a series of magazine articles. Overall, this volume can be recommended as a clear, succinct, and perceptive summary of significant evangelical beliefs.
Now, Acts And John
The Expositor’s Bible Commentary, Volume 9, edited by F. E. Gaebelein (Zondervan, 1981, 573 pp., $19.95), is reviewed by Gary M. Burge, assistant professor of New Testament, King College, Bristol, Tennessee.
Volume 9 of the Expositor’s Bible Commentary is the newest member of this series. It will continue to strengthen the solid reputation already established by one introductory volume of essays and two commentary volumes on the Pauline literature. Frank E. Gaebelein, the series’s general editor, says the project proposes to exhibit “scholarly evangelicalism.” In varying ways, the commentaries in the series tend to differ in whether they specialize in “scholarship” or “evangelicalism.” The same is true of this volume. While making lasting exegetical contributions, both Merrill C. Tenney and Richard Longenecker differ surprisingly in the way they tackle their subjects.
Longenecker, an established scholar in Toronto, knows well that any new commentary on Acts must somehow justify itself by focusing more narrowly on the current issues of interpretation. For Acts, one key issue is historical reliability. Longenecker’s study stands shoulder to shoulder with the already acclaimed volume of I. Howard Marshall (Tyndale, 1980) as another evangelical bulwark against radical historical skepticism (cf. Haenchen, Conzelmann). Indeed, Longenecker’s overall introduction is itself a model of scholarly acumen, clear-headed reasoning, and penetration. This serves to acquaint the reader with numerous important debates and the evangelical response.
Secondary literature is well attested, yet under control. The serious student can therefore pursue his own avenues of inquiry. This full exposure to the academic environment is matched by a lucid and comprehensive exposition of the text. Longenecker does not focus on the minutiae of the text. Instead he refreshingly draws the reader back into the larger theology of Acts. This commentary will without question stand out as one of the strongest contributions in the series.
Tenney, of Wheaton College, is no stranger in evangelical circles and is well-known as a student of the fourth Gospel, particularly through his popular analytical study of John (Eerdmans, 1948). While this new work is more scholarly than his earlier study, it seems to be aimed at the same audience. Superior exposition is the consistent standard throughout the commentary, but Longenecker’s unique strengths are absent. Major issues in Johannine studies are simply left undeveloped. Current Johannine criticism is not reviewed and major issues are given marginal attention—such as the Gospel’s cultural setting (Judaism, Qumran, etc.), the problem of historicity and the synoptics (C. H. Dodd), and major theological issues (Christology, eschatology, revelation, etc.). The reader should be introduced to the key secondary literature in all of these.
In spite of this, scholarly interaction is not the only test of a good commentary. Tenney displays insight into the meaning of the text, and everywhere evidences that spiritual maturity that can bring the fourth Gospel alive for us today.
These criticisms are simply to point out that Longenecker and Tenney will best serve different audiences. When this is kept in mind, the entire volume will be a complementary addition to the series.
Will Its Voice Be Heard?
Winterflight, by Joseph Bayly (Word, 1981, 173 pp., $8.95), is reviewed by Maralee S. Crandon, assistant professor of communications, Bethel College, Mishawaka, Indiana
“Are there any Christian prophets?” asks Dr. Price Berkowitz, hero of Winterflight. The author may be a prophet himself, for this novel indicts Christians for moral apathy. Bayly probes: When must a Christian oppose the state? Does God ever sanction civil disobedience? What consequences will future generations suffer because of current indifference to abortion or euthanasia?
Bayly’s prophetic approach makes the reader potentially responsible for the setting of Winterflight. It is a future United States, technically sophisticated but morally dwarfed. This strong society “no longer cares for the weak”; it uses them. Its euphemistic “Center for Life Support Systems,” for instance, is an “organ factory supplying live transplants from brain-dead bodies.”
Berkowitz, a Jewish physician, sabotages the medical system by treating the genetically diseased. He illegally treats Stephen Stanton, who faces the “organ factory” at age six if his hemophilia is revealed. His Christian parents, like Berkowitz, face exile for civil disobedience: harboring the weak.
Jonathan and Grace Stanton, whom Berkowitz calls courageous early in their conspiracy, prove to be inconsistent. They fight for Stephen, but collapse when Grace’s father receives his “termination notice.” At 75, George Duncan prefers suicide to a state “thanotel appointment.” But the Christian Stantons cry that suicide is murder and sin.
Incredulously, Berkowitz asks, “If the state kills Grace’s father, it’s not murder?”
“No,” explains Jon, “God has given the power of the sword to our rulers.” Besides, George Duncan is ready to meet the Lord. Berkowitz begins to see how German Christians rationalized Hitler.
For the reader, seeing himself in the Stantons may make this a difficult novel. Consequently, he may exaggerate its faults: stilted dialogue and one-dimensional characters. The author tends to say how a person feels rather than show how he acts.
But Winterflight makes two outstanding contributions to Christian fiction. First, it allows believers to struggle and grieve realistically, reflecting Bayly’s own loss of children. Second, it provokes believers with a startling irony. For example: a U.S. Christian must appeal to Communists for humanitarian aid; a Jewish agnostic risks his life for Christians who resign their father to extermination; a believer mourns and an agnostic drunkard comforts.
Bayly’s skillful irony and his civil disobedience theme will appeal particularly to college-age readers. His target audience, however, is the apathetic Christian. Bayly wants to provoke him to incite him to moral commitment. But will his voice be heard?
Briefly Noted
Theology. The Witness of the Jews to God (Handsel, 33 Montgomery St., Edinburgh, UK), edited by David W. Torrence, is an excellent collection of essays covering Jewish-Christian relations. Theological Anthropology (Fortress), by J. Patout Burns, is a useful collection of original documents from the early church dealing with the doctrine of man. Bruce A. Demarest has written a magnificent work in General Revelation (Zondervan) that will set a standard for some years to come. Some heavy but valuable material may be found in The Philosophical Frontiers of Christian Theology (Cambridge Univ.), edited by Brian Hebblethwaite and Stewart Sutherland.
Two fine books look at contemporary theology: Contemporary American Theologies (Seabury), by Deane William Ferm, is a critical look at theology from 1900 up to today, with a special emphasis on black, feminist, liberation, evangelical, and Roman Catholic theologies. A topical look at six varieties of modern theology (secularity, process, liberation, hope, play, story) makes up The Shattered Spectrum (John Knox), by Lonnie D. Kliever. While it covers its territory well, it unfortunately ignores evangelical thought.
Finally, two fine books on Catholic scholars: The Theological Methodology of Hans Küng (Scholars Press), by Catherine Mowry LeCugne, and The God of Forgiveness and Healing in the Theology of Karl Rahner (Univ. Press of America), by J. Norman King.
Christology. Klock &Klock has made three standards available again: Rudolf Stier’s The Words of the Risen Saviour; F. W. Farrar’s The Life of Christ; and James Denney’s The Death of Christ (rev. ed.). A paperback edition of John Stott’s excellent Understanding Christ (Zondervan) is now available.
Four challenging, scholarly works have also appeared. Jon Sobrino argues for a Third World perspective, the radical historicity of Jesus, and soteriology in Christology at the Crossroads (Orbis). Christological Perspectives (Pilgrim), edited by Robert Berkey and Sarah Edwards—a festscrift for Harvey K. McArthur—contains numerous excellent essays. John Riches argues powerfully in Jesus and the Transformation of Judaism (Seabury) that Jesus reworked the kingdom idea current in his day. This book will challenge New Testament scholars. Servant and Son (John Knox) by J. Ramsey Michaels makes God central to an understanding of Jesus: Jesus’ message is a message about God before it is a message about himself. Michael’s book is careful, well written, and very useful.
Karl Barth’s Learning Jesus Christ through the Heidelberg Catechism (Eerdmans) uses the catechism to answer Christological questions. This work appeared earlier (1964) under the title The Heidelberg Catechism for Today (John Knox).
John Coventry’s Faith in Jesus Christ (Winston) argues (erroneously, I think) that the earliest Christians thought functionally about Jesus’ and the Holy Spirits deity rather than ontologically. Christology is later reflection on the Easter experience.
Although not strictly Christology, New Testament students will be happy to see that Joachim Jeremias’s Jesus’ Promise to the Nations has been reprinted by Fortress Press.
North American Scene
The Alabama governor will ignore a court injunction against his state’s new prayer law. Governor Fob James announced that he would not abide by a district court injunction against a law allowing any teacher to lead “willing students in prayer.” James said the injunction was “entirely without basis in the United States Constitution and … intolerable to a free people.” He also petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court to make an immediate ruling on the case. That was refused by the Supreme Court clerk, who said the case must be appealed to a regional federal circuit court of appeals before the Supreme Court would consider it.
Divorce resulted in rising poverty rates during the 1970s, according to the U.S. Bureau of Census. Changes in “family composition” accounted for 2,017,000 additional poor families, the bureau said in a recent study. The study considered income figures from 1971 to 1981. In that period, the rising divorce rate led to a sharp jump in the number of one-person households and of families headed by women. Both types of households tend to have lower income than traditional husband-wife families. The bureau also noted that higher divorce rates among blacks than whites tended to depress family incomes more among blacks. The poverty rate for blacks in 1980 was 28.9 percent, with the bureau estimating it would have been at 19.9 percent if family changes had not occurred. The rate was 8 percent for whites, with the bureau estimating it would have been 5.9 percent without family breakups.
The Catholic Telecommunications Network of America (CTNA) has begun transmission—on a Mormon satellite channel. CTNA is leasing satellite time from the Bonneville Satellite Corporation, owned by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. Bonneville is leasing a transponder (channel) on the satellite Westar IV. The CTNA has 29 affiliated dioceses and archdioceses in cities including Dallas, Detroit, and Los Angeles.
A United Methodist Church task force has urged the church not to join the Nestle boycott. After two years of study, the UMC’S Infant Formula Task Force concluded the Nestle Company has hired new management, been open in discussions with churches, and “moved toward compliance” with the World Health Organization’s code governing infant formula marketing. The Nestle Company has been criticized for marketing infant formulas in impoverished countries, a move said to result in decreased sanitation and in infant illnesses. The UMC task force praised Nestle for halting the use of public advertising for formula in Third World countries. Nestle has also stopped using counselors and sample packets, which were given to expectant or new mothers.
Approximately as many serious crimes occurred in 1981 as 1980, the FBI reported in its latest Uniform Crime Reports. Attorney General William French Smith said it was “heartening to see that figures that have been marching upward for so long are now stabilizing.” But FBI director William Webster noted that “1980 was the peak year for lawlessness in our nation” and that crime rate was maintained in 1981. The rate of violent crime for 1981 was 577 per 100,000 inhabitants, while the property crime rate was 5,223 per 100,000 people. During 1981, murder decreased by 2 percent, forcible rapes were down by 1 percent, robberies rose 5 percent, aggravated assaults declined 2 percent, and burglaries went down 1 percent.
World Scene
Honesty has been vindicated as the best policy in doing business overseas. After enactment of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act of 1977, which prohibits U.S. firms from offering bribes as a part of overseas transactions, critics complained that U.S. companies would be put at a disadvantage. A little “sweetener” under the table was essential in some countries, they said, to seal a deal. Now a study by John Graham of USC shows that from 1978 to 1980, U.S. trade performance, measured by the share of each foreign market captured, was not hampered by the act. Instead, U.S. trade with so-called bribe-prone countries grew faster than trade with non-bribe-prone countries.
Quick! Which is the seventh-largest Hispanic nation? The answer, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, is the United States. It counted 14.6 million Spanish-origin Americans in 1980, or 6.4 percent of the population. Of these, 8.7 million are of Mexican origin and 2 million of Puerto Rican origin. Several “foreign” missions that have concentrated on work in Latin American countries are now opening U.S. “fields,” further blurring the distinction between home and foreign missions.
The British director of Underground Evangelism has resigned in the aftermath of an appeal for contributions to cover the cost of books that had not been printed (CT, Sept. 17, p. 53). Stanley White, a Pentecostal pastor who had served for 12 years, resigned at the end of July. A fellow official in the umbrella organization Evangelism Center (whose other component is International Christian Aid), Richard Norton, also resigned earlier in the summer.
The Moors may have been driven out of Spain, but mosques are making a comeback. A new mosque was dedicated in the village of Pedro Abad, near Cordoba, last month. It was built by the Ahmadia sect of Islam. Last year, wealthy Arab sheiks, who have built summer residences along the Costa del Sol, erected a mosque at Marbella. They are the first mosques built since the Spanish Inquisition in the fifteenth century.
A successor has been chosen for rebel Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre. The Priestly Society of St. Pius X, which Lefebvre founded to oppose reforms of the Catholic church by Vatican Council II, elected a 36-year-old German priest to succeed the 77-year-old French prelate as superior general in the event of his death, resignation, or incapacitation. He is Franz Schmidberger, a native of Saarbrucken, West Germany.
Billy Graham preaches in Czechoslovakia next week, following his current visit to East Germany. In Czechoslovakia, Graham will be the guest of the Baptist Union. His host in the German Democratic Republic is the Federation of Evangelical Free Churches in the GDR, which includes Baptists, Methodists, and others. Also agreeing to the invitation was the Federation of Evangelical Churches in the GDR, a grouping of Lutheran and Union churches. Arrangements for both invitations were cleared through the state church affairs offices only last month. Even then, the visits were briefly in doubt because of a painful back injury Graham had sustained while hiking in Washington State in August. Graham cancelled two weeks of American engagements to recover.
African Enterprise evangelists are conducting a campaign in seven cities of southern Sudan. South Africans Michael Cassidy and David Peters and Ugandan Festo Kivengere are leading a team effort spread among six cities; they will then converge on the south’s major city, Juba, at the end of the month for a closing rally. At week-long meetings in Mutare, Zimbabwe, in July, more than 5,000 people registered conversion decisions.
Kenya got its first woman pastor last month. John Gatu, moderator of the Presbyterian Church of East Africa ordained Jane Njoroge, married and the mother of two children. The denomination’s general assembly had studied the matter in its 1976 session and concluded that there was no biblical or theological basis for barring a woman from the ministry.
The South African government conducted a hearing on activities of the South African Council of Churches last month, based on allegations of fiscal irregularities under a former general secretary, John Rees. The current general secretary, Bishop Desmond Tutu, conceded that the council had had “financial problems but was capable of putting its own house in order.” In testimony he stoutly denied what was thought to be the real object of the Eloff Commission’s probe—charges that the SACC supports terrorism or preaches revolutionary theology. In a show of support, the U.S. National Council of Churches contributed $50,000 to defray legal expenses and to fund the Dependents’ Conference. The conference provides assistance to political detainees and displaced persons and their families—activity that displeases the authorities. No findings were released by the end of last month; the council fears that the commission was fishing for evidence to justify imposing a ban on it.
While ships were evacuating PLO forces through Beirut harbor in August, another ship was in nearby Jounieh harbor dispensing gospel literature. The Operation Mobilization ship Logos anchored there after having been refused entry at Egypt’s port of Alexandria. The substitute stop was arranged in six days. The war situation actually simplified the permission process that normally takes several weeks. One key contact with the ruling Phalangist party cleared the way. Five thousand, including Maronite bishops and priests, visited the ship, and OM teams traveled for meetings to Beirut churches.
Plans for an Asia Evangelical Alliance were launched in Seoul, Korea, in August at the Asian Conference on Church Renewal. The conference’s steering committee, chaired by John Richard, executive secretary of the Evangelical Fellowship of India, was authorized to continue in order to draft a constitution and by-laws for the proposed alliance.
A cartoon-style version of Patricia St. John’s Treasures of the Snow is to air on Japanese television this winter. Pacific Broadcasting Association and TEAM’S Word of Life Press negotiated production with Nihon Animation. The five 30-minute episodes will appear on successive Sunday evenings at the prime viewing time of 7:30. Coca Cola is the sponsor. The success of dramatizations of classic European novels—such as Swiss Family Robinson and Heidi—in Japan inspired the attempt to get the evangelistic Treasures broadcast.
