The Fate Of A Non-Conformist
The Crime of Galileo, by Giorgio de Santillana (Heinemann, London, 1955, 339 pp., 30s., University of Chicago Press, $5.75), is reviewed by Philip Edgcumbe Hughes, Editor of The Churchman.
The Crime of Galileo is the title of a most interesting book on a fascinating subject from the pen of Giorgio de Santillana, who is Professor of the History and Philosophy of Science at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dr. de Santillana’s writing is marked by intelligence, good humor, and objectivity, and he is always master of what is indeed a dramatic theme, touched with both pathos and tragedy. Who will deny that he is justified in seeing parallels between the persecution of Galileo and the hunting down of non-conforming suspects in our own generation? It is at all times a terrible indictment of humanity to see a great man crushed, humiliated, and silenced by the ignorant inhumanity of power politics.
Galileo’s crime consisted in his espousal of the view that the sun, not the earth, is the centre of our planetary system. But it is well to be quite clear that the facile affirmation, still too commonly accepted, that his condemnation is attributable to the enmity of religious obscurantism towards scientific enlightenment by no means answers to the full truth. For centuries the Ptolemaic doctrine of the earth as the unmoving centre of the world has been the unchallenged view of science. To it the Church had added its sanctifying sanction. It was the science no less than the theology of his day that stood up in anger against Galileo. Galileo was, of course, following in the footsteps of Copernicus, who had published his treatise on The Revolutions of the Celestial Orbs in 1543, 21 years before the birth of Galileo. It was Galileo, however, who first caused the Copernican system to be regarded with some seriousness, so much so that in 1616 the ecclesiastical authorities took the step of placing Copernicus’ work on the Index of forbidden literature.
Yet it must not be thought that the whole world of theology and science was united in its repudiation of Galileo’s doctrine. There were, in fact, numbers of theologians and philosophers who were convinced by the cogency of his reasoning, though not all could fully understand the system he expounded with such brilliance. Some of these friendly spirits were influential, and they did what they could to influence the authorities to Galileo’s advantage. But none were able to withstand a determined Pope or challenge the senseless inexorability of the all-powerful machine of the Inquisition. What could be more preposterous than the fact that Firenzuola, the Commissary-General of the Inquisition which tried and condemned Galileo, was in reality (though not in public) of the same opinion as Galileo concerning the solar system?
Professor de Santillana, himself a Roman by birth, says that “we should try to think of Rome of those times, … where true saints could be found, to be sure, but which otherwise was the most corrupt of administrative capitals … packed with fanatical and petulant monks, shrewd intriguers, postulants, paid and unpaid observers, diplomats, cynical secretaries, fulsome literati and inane versifiers living off the bounty of some prelate; lazy insolent nobles, curialist lawyers, stony-faced publicans rack-renting for the princes and the convents; spies, informers, go-betweens, men about town, unctuous priests and officials, careful hypocrites, suspicious hard old men, meeching young men on their way to preferments through oily conformism; all the parasitical, torpid, cunning and malevolent society that vegetated like a pestilent mushroom growth on the fringes of an imperial world bureaucracy and for whom the stability and prestige of that bureaucracy in matters spiritual meant their career and their income.” It was to this city that the papal messenger summoned Galileo from Florence in order to give an account of himself. “His was the tragedy of an excess of gifts,” comments Dr. de Santillana; “for, while the telescope was his key to success, his real social strength lay in his extraordinary literary capacity, his brilliant repartee, his eloquence and charm, which gave him rank in a culture founded exclusively on belles-lettres and humanistic accomplishments.” In potent Rome he was a voice crying in the wilderness.
As with others before him who had shown signs of moving against the powerful stream of ecclesiastical authoritarianism, Galileo had little option but to make formal submission to the judgment of Pope and Church, if he and his work were to stand any chance of not being submerged and smashed. Thus when called upon to make answer to the charge preferred against him he protested that he would never affirm the Copernican doctrine as true: “zeal for our religion and holy faith” prevented him from doing that, however great the probability of the doctrine on the grounds of human reason and experience. His tongue, however, was too obviously in his cheek. Indeed, the hollowness of his submission was such that, even in making it, he presumed to state that, “within the limits of natural and human considerations, the rightness of the Copernican system appears incontrovertible.” As Professor de Santillana remarks, the chuckle is almost audible when Galileo writes that, the more valid the proofs, “the clearer the beneficent conclusion that there is no trusting purely human reasoning and that we must rely implicitly on the higher knowledge which alone can bring light to the darkness of our mind.”
But Galileo’s adversaries were not willing to let him get away with things as easily as this. Matters moved on, tediously and frustratingly for Galileo, to the summons which was to arraign him before the Roman Inquisition. Increasingly he became a pathetic figure; his self-denunciations became more and more abject, in the hope that he might at least be permitted to pass his old age in some measure of peace and immunity from persecution. But the many self-important officials and dignitaries, whose pride was threatened by his theories, and the Pope himself, who was inflexible in his determination to uphold the decree of 1616 proscribing the teaching of Copernicus, were bent on his destruction. Well might the unfortunate Galileo exclaim that “of all hatreds there is none greater than that of ignorance against knowledge,” and complain bitterly: “The months and the years pass by, my life wastes away, and my work is condemned to rot.”
Brought before the Inquisition, he had to learn the further lesson that every attempt at self-defense was a foregone futility, that as Professor de Santillana observes, “the authorities were not interested in truth but only in authority.” The sum of the situation was this, that “in the Galileo trial the Inquisition was suborned into a command performance by an unscrupulous group of power politicians.” The authorities “could not very conveniently broadcast the real motives” for their persecution of this cultured man with the questing mind, “which were that Galileo had taken to writing in Italian and that he had made them look foolish, or that the political meaning of it was that the Jesuits had evened up a score with the Dominicans by way of the new game of cosmological football.” Father Grienberger in fact had told Galileo that, if only he had known “how to retain the favour of the Jesuits, he would have stood in renown before the world, he would have been spared all his misfortunes, and he could have written what he pleased about everything, even about the motion of the Earth.”
The sentence pronounced on June 22, 1633, against Galileo, then 70 years old, condemned him as “vehemently suspected of heresy, namely, of having believed and held the doctrine—which is false and contrary to the sacred and divine Scriptures—that the Sun is the centre of the world and does not move from east to west and that the earth moves and is not the centre of the world; and that an opinion may be held and defended as probable after it has been declared and defined to the contrary to Holy Scripture.” Galileo was required to sign a prescribed form of abjuration in which he professed to “abjure, curse, and detest the aforesaid errors and heresies and generally every other error, heresy, and sect whatsoever contrary to the Holy Church.” The Galilean cosmology is not, of course, contrary to Holy Scripture (though it is a strange fact that many modern theologians speak of the two as being incompatible, and therefore concur with the judgment of the Inquisition, but not with its verdict, since they now condemn Holy Scripture instead of Galileo). The point was that it was contrary to what ecclesiastical authority had declared and defined to be contrary to Holy Scripture.
Though the physical penalties imposed on this old man may be said to have been slight—the repetition once a week for a period of three years of the seven penitential Psalms and, as things worked out, house arrest during the remaining eight years of his life—the spiritual damage inflicted was appalling: the violation of a personality, the steamrollering of a mind, the humiliation of a genius. The lessons of the Galileo case are plain enough for those who are willing to perceive them. Absolute authoritarianism, whether in church or state, whether in theology or science, is an evil thing, and must be withstood by those who value truth and freedom and the dignity of the individual. The moral is graphically pointed by Professor de Santillana: “Today, when juridical safeguards have been exterminated in one half of the world and are gravely threatened in the other, it might behoove us not to feel overly virtuous in reading of these ancient errors. The Curia of Urban VIII stand out as great gentlemen compared with their modern lay counterparts. Caccini rides again among us, and his name is legion. He is no longer an itinerant monk; his place is in the senates of the great nations. Electronic computers are slowly closing in on the citizen’s uncertain course. Deviations from what is considered the essential orthodoxy have never, of course, escaped punishment since the beginning of history; but, once search converges on the ‘thought crime’ in its double aspect of something theoretically intangible and concretely dangerous, the way of the inquirer is bound to become again and again that of the Inquisitor.”
PHILIP EDGCUMBE HUGHES
Discovery Of New Direction
Conversion, by E. Stanley Jones (Abingdon, 1959, 253 pp., $3.25), is reviewed by Robert O. Ferm, Author of The Psychology of Christian Conversion.
In his delightful and interesting style, Dr. E. Stanley Jones has produced another volume, this time on the subject of conversion. He leaves no doubt in the mind of his reader concerning the beneficial effects of conversion. Though he defends the policy of the church that includes in its membership those who are unconverted, he laments the fact that “two thirds of the membership of the churches know little or nothing about conversion as a personal, experimental fact.”
Dr. Jones correctly distinguishes between conversion and proselytism. He also calls attention to the unique character of Christian conversion; and when making comparison with what he calls the “vast universal process of conversion,” he speaks of Christian conversion as being “conversion at its highest point.” He says “Christian conversion is of a specific kind with a certain definite content and character leading to certain definite results in life.”
Having so well stated this proposition, he proceeds to say that there are three steps in conversion—the first being the discovery of a new direction. This, he says, means “to turn your back on the old life and face toward Christ.”
The second step is to have a fresh beginning. Here the person converted becomes as a little child.
The third step is to enter the Kingdom, and this gives “a new sphere of living.” The person may be called upon to live in two worlds at once, “The world of physical relationships and the world of the Kingdom of God.”
The unconverted man is not living in a natural state, Dr. Jones claims, and at this point he departs from the Pauline definition for “natural” and holds the popular one. But his point is well taken when he says “Conversion doesn’t dehumanize us by transplanting an alien life on the framework of the natural, thus setting up a tension between the natural and the supernatural.… The converted man is more natural because controlled by the supernatural, with natural joys, natural gaiety, natural spontaneity, natural freedom, natural fulfillment.” One must accept his total world view in order to grasp the significance of such a claim.
Having manifested a knowledge of the significant works on the psychology of conversion, Dr. Jones proceeds courageously to make his own definition and holds that “the area of the work of conversion is largely in the realm of wrong thinking, wrong attitudes, wrong emotions—of a mixed up, messed up self.” In making this declaration he obviously rejects the turpitude of all sin.
Most interesting is the longest chapter of the book which is devoted to particular conversion stories. In reading them, one wonders how clearly these “converts” grasped the essentials of redemption through Christ, for some of them appear to be psychological conversions more than theological ones. Dr. Jones also weakens the discussion by making the statement that he needs to be converted frequently.
Conversion, the author points out, comes through three movements: “Mental conflict, emotional crisis, and the resolution of the conflict.” This statement follows closely the findings of William James. Then he says that “the center of conversion is the conversion of the will.”
To the person desiring conversion, the following steps are suggested: review, repent, surrender, receive, make restitution, commit yourself, and finally rejoice. Having followed through these seven steps, the convert is exhorted to rejoice for “when you are with Christ, facing life together you are saved.”
The noticeable weakness of Dr. Jones’ study lies not so much in what has been said but in what has been omitted or obscured. His emphasis upon the psychological aspects of conversion causes certain uneasiness on the part of the critical reader whose orientation is biblical and theological. Important as the psychological aspect of conversion may be, the biblical emphasis upon the redemptive work of Christ, the power of the Holy Spirit, and the sufficiency of the revealed Word are of paramount importance.
Having noted the overemphasis of the psychological, I shall conclude that this interesting volume has a wealth of information for those whose concern is with the phenomenon of conversion.
ROBERT O. FERM
Significant Contribution
Christian Hymnody, by Ernest E. Ryden (Augustana Press, 1959, 670 pp., $5.95), is reviewed by F. R. Webber, of Mount Vernon, New York.
A spinster, frustrated and unhappy, is making her way to the river to drown herself. She hears a nightingale sing. Seizing the stub of a pencil and a torn scrap of paper she produces in half an hour a hymn that the whole world sings. Most books on church hymnody are full of such incidents. Dr. Ryden’s is not. He is not misled by the tear-jerking tales of the legend makers. In his 670 pages he discusses 1,166 hymns, very few of which were written on the back of an old envelope with a stubby pencil.
This does not mean that he has ignored the humbler type of hymn, nor has he overloaded his book with classics. A work of this scope must tell the entire story. Just as a truthful account of New York City’s religious life will include the shabby storefront missions no less than St. Thomas’, St. Bartholomew’s, and Fifth Avenue Presbyterian, so Dr. Ryden in all honesty discusses hymns that have brought joy to the lowly people of the Cremorne Mission as well as the classical hymns that once brought joy to such men as G. Edward Stubbs, T. Tertius Noble, and Percy Dearmer. He has a good word for them all.
Perhaps Dr. Ryden’s most important contribution to hymnal makers of the future is to be found in his 13 chapters on Scandinavian hymns and their writers. Denmark, Sweden, and Norway have produced many splendid hymns, most of which are unknown to the average American. Dr. Ryden discusses them in detail, together with excellent translations. His chapters on the hymns of Finland and Iceland are valuable.
In his book Britain heads the list with 41 chapters on English, Scottish, Welsh, and Irish hymns. Hymns of American authorship are discussed in 33 chapters, German hymns are given 18 chapters, and hymns of the early Christian period nine chapters.
Dr. Ryden’s early newspaper training, and his 30 years as editor of a religious journal are evident in the graceful literary style of his book. There are a very few slips of the typewriter (hardly to be avoided in a first edition) and the typography is excellent; but one might wish that the initial letters were a bit smaller so that they would align with three lines of text.
A great work of the past is Hymns Ancient and Modern, Historical Edition (London, 1861, with several later editions). This is a huge volume, the size of two volumes of the Britannica. It contains the full text of every hymn, its original text, its musical setting (or settings), with critical and biographical notes, and often a facsimile of the original hymn in its author’s handwriting. This great work contains no twentieth century material, and much the same may be said of Julian’s well-known book. Dr. Ryden brings the story down to date, and his familiarity with the significant contributions of Scandinavian hymn writers is a real contribution.
F. R. WEBBER
History And Faith
A New Quest of the Historical Jesus, by James M. Robinson (Alec R. Allenson, 1959, 128 pp., $2.25), is reviewed by George Eldon Ladd, Professor of Biblical Theology, Fuller Theological Seminary.
Germany may well be called the laboratory for the study of scientific theology. Most of the movements in theological and Biblical studies, which have affected the American theological scene for good or ill, have had their origin in Germany.
This little book, written by a young professor who has spent some four years in study on the Continent, interprets accurately and lucidly (if at times in rather Germanic English) the contemporary state of research in the “historical” Jesus.
Rudolf Bultmann has been the dominating figure in recent years. The Christian world was shocked by the conclusion of this great historian: “I do indeed think that we can now know almost nothing concerning the life and personality of Jesus …” (Jesus and the Word, Scribner’s, 1934, p. 8). Even Bultmann’s disciples were disturbed when he excluded the message of Jesus from New Testament theology and made it one of the presuppositions of this theology (Theology of the New Testament, Scribner’s, 1951, I, p. 3 ff.). In other words, the “historical” Jesus and his message are phenomena of Judaism and not the beginning of the New Testament Gospel. This extreme position has led Bultmann’s disciples to reopen “the quest of the historical Jesus” and to seek a new approach to the study of the history of the Gospels.
Nearly 20 years ago, the late C. C. McCown wrote, “The nineteenth century ended with the destruction of its characteristic ‘liberal’ portrait of Jesus. It would appear that after nearly 40 years, the twentieth century has discovered none at all of its own” (The Search for the Real Jesus, Scribner’s, 1940, p. 278). He went on to say that the basic problem was the understanding and interpretation of history. Professor Robinson shows how contemporary German scholarship, standing on the same presuppositions as those of Bultmann and McCown, is attempting a “break-through” of this impasse of skepticism to recover a “historical” Jesus. This attempt rests on a new understanding of history.
The old search for the “historical” Jesus was based on a positivistic approach to history. Historical study must be governed by certain “rules of the game,” and modern historiography pursued the method of objective scholarship governed by a scientific methodology freed from the limitations of dogma. In other words, the adjective “historical” did not mean “the Jesus who actually lived” but the Jesus capable of being recovered by a historiography governed by scientific presuppositions. In a word, “scientific” meant a naturalistic world-view which explained “historical” events by other known historical causes. Bultmann’s skepticism about the “historical Jesus” is really skepticism about the “historian’s Jesus,” not Jesus as he actually was.
The new quest is based on a new understanding of history which recognizes a dimension transcending the merely objective. “History is the act of intention, the commitment, the meaning for the participants, behind the external occurrence” (p. 67). History embodies meaning as well as fact. This has led to the conclusion that “Jesus intended to confront the hearers inescapably with the God who is near when he proclaimed ‘Repent, for God’s reign is near,’ i.e., that he intended a historical encounter with himself to be an eschatological encounter with God, and that he consequently understood his existence as that of bringer of eschatological salvation” (77).
This is refreshing and stimulating. The problem of the relationship between history and faith is the most important single question today in critical biblical studies. Liberalism tried to reconstruct a “historical” Jesus on the basis of a naturalistic historiography and failed. Certain types of recent theology may be accused of fleeing from history and attempting to establish a theology which is not dependent upon the relativities of history. Bultmann’s interpretation of the Gospel has often been criticized as not needing a historical Jesus of any sort. Now criticism is being driven back to the historical to seek something which has eluded it.
The heart of the Gospel is the redemptive acts of God in history. Here is history which modern historiography must critically examine; but here is also the work of God about which the historian qua historian can make no final judgment. Christ died; this is history. Christ died for our sins; this is theology. Christ rose from the dead; this is an event in history for which there can be no “historical” explanation, for the cause of the resurrection is not an antecedent historical event, but the unmediated act of God. Furthermore, the resurrection of Christ was not revivification, it is the appearance of a new order of life within history which nevertheless transcends all historical explanation and analogy. The Christian Gospel can never be brought altogether under control of historical science. Therein lies both the glory and the scandal of the Gospel.
GEORGE ELDON LADD
Sociological Theory
Trumpet Call of Reformation, by Oliver Read Whitley (Bethany Press, 1959, 252 pp., $3.95), is reviewed by James DeForest Murch.
There is a comparatively modern theory which suggests that all religious communions—Lutheran, Methodist, Presbyterian, Reformed—are the product of sociological pressures and processes. H. Richard Niebuhr develops this idea in his Social Sources of Denominationalism, by assuming that churches have their origin in social, economic, and cultural unrest, and then develop through successive stages from (1) movement to (2) sect, and eventually to (3) denominational status.
Dr. Whitley, who is a Disciple teaching in Methodist Iliff School of Theology, applies the theory to the Christian Churches (Disciples of Christ), and effectively cuts and fits their history into his preconceived pattern. If his premises are correct, he has made a very convincing case. The quality of Whitley’s work is attested by the fact that this manuscript received the Christian Board of Publication “First Award” in the 1958 “Bethany Book Contest.”
The book will probably be extensively used in the current effort of left wing Disciples to convert this 150-year-old “free church” movement into a centralized, closely-knit ecclesiastical structure which can easily be merged into the coming “ecumenical church.”
JAMES DEFOREST MURCH
Who Is The Real Niemöller?
Pastor Niemöller, by Dietmar Schmidt (Doubleday, 1959, 224 pp., $3.95), is reviewed by Harold B. Kuhn, Professor of the Philosophy of Religion, Asbury Theological Seminary.
It is ironical that the same traits of character which are praised in one connection may be condemned in another. Martin Niemöller commanded the admiration of the non-fascist world when he stood, a lone tree against the storm, in quiet defiance of the Nazis. Later, as he stood with equal firmness against the rearming of West Germany and against her participation in NATO, his former admirers were not so sure. One frequently hears the question, “Who is the real Martin Niemöller?” Dietmar Schmidt seeks to answer this question.
Our author finds a partial explanation for Niemöller’s character in his Westphalian extraction, together with his career as a U-Boat commander in World War I. Added to this was the highly significant feature of his call to the ministry. Yet one feels that all of these, taken together, scarcely account for the combined bravery and wisdom by which he endured nine years of imprisonment, chiefly at Sachsenhausen and Dachau. To him must have come a vision of a call to a unique task, a unique suffering.
Try as he will, Dietmar Schmidt cannot maintain the thesis that Martin Niemöller has trod with equally admirable step since 1945. Perhaps the issues of right and wrong have not been so clear since then. But the volume, taken as a whole, sketches for us a portrait which is unforgettable. After all, courage in the face of mortal danger outweighs what seems at times like Prussian and aristocratic stiffness.
H. B. KUHN
Clinical Education
An Introduction to Pastoral Counseling, edited by Wayne E. Oates (Broadman, 1959, 331 pp., $6), is reviewed by Theodore J. Jansma, Chaplain-Counselor of the Christian Sanatorium, Wyckoff, New Jersey.
This is a collection of papers by a group of seminary professors and hospital chaplains of the Southern Baptist Convention. It is intended as a textbook for classroom use, to help pastors in counseling work, and to encourage pastors to seek clinical training experience. The editor, Wayne E. Oates, is professor of Psychology and Religion at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary and has distinguished himself as author of numerous articles and books on pastoral care.
Although it is the work of 10 authors, it is not a symposium or a loose collection of articles and opinions. The book was carefully planned so that each writer deals with a specific aspect of pastoral counseling and contributes to a progression of thought. There are five main divisions—Counseling in the Context of the Church, The Personhood of the Pastoral Counselor, The Process and Procedures of Pastoral Counseling, Pastoral Counseling and the Ministry of the Word of God in Christ, Pastoral Counseling and the Educational Intentions of the Church. Each of these divisions is introduced by a brief statement of the goals contemplated in the division and the specific contribution each author will make. In spite of such careful outlining and division of labor, there is nevertheless overlapping and repetition which could hardly be avoided in a product of several minds.
As an “Introduction” this book is strong on the method of counseling, and that has much practical merit. In this reviewer’s opinion there is need for a more radical kind of “Introduction,” one that goes further back to the biblical roots. While in this book, as in others on pastoral care, there are many allusions and references to biblical principles and examples, there is practically no exposition of biblical principles and objectives for the pastoral office. The opening chapter on “The Heritage of the Pastoral Counselor” has barely three pages on the “heritage” of the Bible. The book does set forward a growing movement of systematic study of the pastoral ministry to the sick and emotionally troubled. It includes an appendix on “Standards for Clinical Pastoral Education” set up by the Southern Baptist Association on Clinical Pastoral Education.
THEODORE J. JANSMA
Dynamic Missions
Religion and Faith in Latin America, by W. Stanley Rycroft (Westminster, 1958, 208 pp., $3.75), is reviewed by Horace L. Fenton, Jr., Associate Director, Latin America Mission.
Dr. Rycroft knows Latin America through long years of experience as a missionary in that area. Besides, he is well acquainted with the literature that has been written concerning this part of the world and its spiritual needs. Out of this background, he has written a thought-provoking book which should help many readers to understand in a new way that it is not religion in a formal, ecclesiastical sense but living faith in a living Saviour that is the only hope of the men and nations of Latin America.
The author’s basic thesis is that there is a world of difference between religion and faith. He shows clearly that there never has been any dearth of religion in Latin America, either in the days before the coming of the Roman Catholic church or in the four centuries since the conquistadores introduced the religion of Spain. But of vital faith in Jesus Christ, as he is revealed in the Scriptures, Latin America has known little, until the coming of Protestant missions in comparatively recent times.
Dr. Rycroft’s principal point is not established by any extended attack on Roman Catholicism. He lets the facts of history speak for themselves; and in so doing, he comes to the inevitable conclusion that Romanism has failed to meet the needs of the people, and has provided another illustration of the bankruptcy of all religions, as compared to the riches found in the gospel of Christ.
Dr. Rycroft has no doubt about the challenge that faces us today: “The opportunities for proclaiming the Gospel in Latin America are perhaps greater than in any other area of the world” (p. 166). Nor does he have any question as to the adequacy of that Gospel: “No religion, no matter how elaborate and aesthetic, and no ecclesiastical system, however powerful, can lead Latin America toward a new day of justice, righteousness, freedom, understanding, and love. The power of the living Christ alone, untrammeled and free to work in the hearts of men, can purify, inspire, energize, and enable. Christ must be in all and through all, the beginning and the end … without new men in Christ, with a dynamic faith and a moral and spiritual purpose, Latin America cannot solve its outstanding problems or fulfill its destiny in a new day of promise and opportunity” (pp. 176, 177).
The reader may find himself wishing on occasion that the author had stated some things differently. He may disagree, for example, with Dr. Rycroft’s statement that “the number of missionaries under independent groups has increased beyond that of the denominations or regular mission boards, probably because the latter have sought in every way possible to develop national leadership by diverting funds for this purpose and also by turning over responsibility to the national churches” (p. 164). But these are basically matters of opinion, and the important thing is that this book exalts Christ and summons his people to do something for lands that were too long neglected by the Protestant churches.
HORACE L. FENTON, JR.
Mildly Liberal
The Doctrine of the Prophets, by A. F. Kirkpatrick (Zondervan, 1958, 537 pp., $4.95), is reviewed by Edward J. Young, Professor of Old Testament, Westminster Theological Seminary.
This work is a reprint of lectures delivered during the years 1886–1890 in the Chapel of Lincoln’s Inn upon the Bishop Warburton foundation. Kirkpatrick was a competent biblical scholar who exhibited a great interest in the prophets. He is also known for a commentary on the Psalms.
Kirkpatrick was a mildly liberal critic who accepted most of the tenets of the then regnant hypotheses. As the publisher notes on the cover, Kirkpatrick “subscribed to the multiple authorship of Isaiah.” The publisher remarks that in Kirkpatrick’s day the Dead Sea Scrolls were not known, although we question whether this discovery would have had much effect upon Kirkpatrick’s views of the authorship of Isaiah. But we commend the publisher for the honesty of his advertising.
The lectures are quite useful, but they must be read with discrimination. In too many places, it seems, Kirkpatrick has simply followed the line of the dominant criticism without having sufficiently evaluated and weighed the arguments for the position that the Scriptures are infallible and completely authoritative. I fear too that in certain instances he simply has not gone into matters thoroughly. For example, he does not begin to do justice to the Messianic interpretation of Isaiah 4. And to say the least, the treatment of Isaiah 7 leaves much to be desired. On the other hand, Kirkpatrick is far above many of his contemporaries in his remarks on Isaiah 9. Serious students of prophecy will, of course, consult these lectures; but when a new day in prophetic study dawns, it will be characterized by an acceptance of what the Bible says all along the line.
EDWARD J. YOUNG
Interpreting Scripture
Shield Bible Study Series: The Epistle to the Ephesians, by John H. Gerstner (84 pp., $1.50); The Epistle to the Galatians, by Floyd E. Hamilton (66 pp., $1.25); The Epistle to the Romans, by Gleason L. Archer (103 pp., $1.50, Baker Book House, 1958–9), are reviewed by Walter W. Wessel, Professor of New Testament, North American Baptist Seminary, Sioux Falls, South Dakota.
One does not have to read far in these study manuals to discover that they are anything but superficially done. This is not surprising since the authors are reputable scholars. Two of them (Archer and Gerstner) are professors in leading theological seminaries, and the third (Hamilton) has authored several well-written and significant books.
The purpose of the Shield Series, of which these three books are a part, is to provide inexpensive paper-bound manuals to serve as guides in the study of the Bible. They are geared for the use of any intelligent and inquiring student of the Bible. Each of the manuals listed above contains a brief introduction, selected bibliography, detailed outline, and brief but suggestive exposition of the book concerned.
Gerstner champions the Pauline authorship of Ephesians. His exposition is capably done with a generous assist from those two peerless expositors of Scripture, John Calvin of Geneva and Charles Hodge of Princeton.
Hamilton supports the North Galatian theory and curiously thinks that “advocates of the South Galatian theory date the epistle as early as A.D. 54” (p. 2), when in reality they date it as early as A.D. 48. A number of errors occur in his bibliography which should contain at least one recent definitive work on Galatians.
Archer’s exposition of Romans is carefully and competently accomplished with close attention given to the underlying Greek text. At times he startles his reader. For example, objecting on the basis of Romans 5:14 to the assumption that children dying in infancy merit heaven, he goes on to the amazing assertion that if the assumption were true, “a truly loving parent would be under obligation to commit infanticide in order to insure his child’s eternal welfare” (p. 31). This appears to be an unwarranted conclusion, since the basic obligation of any parent toward his children is not to insure their salvation (which only God can insure) but through them to glorify God, an obligation which is fulfilled by obedience (not disobedience—“Thou shalt not kill”) to God’s will.
The Bible is a book not only to be read but to be studied! The serious student will find much help in the Shield Bible Study Series.
WALTER W. WESSEL
An Exegetical Approach
The Holy Spirit and the Holy Life, by Chester K. Lehman (Herald Press, Scottdale, Pennsylvania, 1959, 220 pp., $3.50), is reviewed by Stuart Cornelius Hackett, Professor of Philosophy, Louisiana College, Pineville, Louisiana.
“How does Christ through the power of the Holy Spirit transform sinful man into His own likeness?” With this question our author, who is professor of theology at Eastern Mennonite College, Harrisonburg, Virginia, sets the tone for his whole discussion. The answer to the question involves the analysis of the Holy Spirit’s encounters with man and of the character of the holy life in contrast to man’s sinful predicament, as these concepts are reflected in the successive strata of Old and New Testament literature and as they receive clarification in the history of Christian theology. Dr. Lehman’s discussion, reflecting his long experience as a teacher of biblical studies, is closely and intricately scriptural throughout: the whole presents the reader with a continuous citation and explanatory analysis of relevant biblical passages. While this close attention to Scripture sometimes involves a tendency toward extensive quotation without a correspondingly extensive systematic exegesis (p. 24 f., 109 f.), it nevertheless has the advantage of putting at the reader’s disposal a wealth of biblical material for further study, while at the same time the author uses this close concern with Scripture as a means of presenting a number of excellent exegetical interpretations of certain basic biblical terms such as righteousness, holiness, sanctification, and love (p. 12 f., 81 f.).
Although the approach is thus exegetical rather than theological, the author makes his opinions clear that God’s encounters with man through his Spirit are thoroughly ethical in nature (Chapter II); that the two Testaments present a unified, though progressively developing picture of God’s holiness, man’s sin, and human redemption through the transforming agency of the Spirit (pp. 20, 21, 26); that the New Testament doctrine of Baptism with the Spirit is characteristically the work of the Holy Spirit in regeneration and not a second crisis experience in the believer’s relation to Christ (p. 101); that sanctification involves both a formal aspect in which the believer is reckoned righteous through union with Christ by faith and a progressive aspect in which the believer’s moral nature is gradually transformed—although no believer ever actually achieves the standard of holiness in this life (pp. 113, 116, 120); and that repentance and faith, while made possible through God’s free and universal grace to all, are specifically conditions that man himself must meet through his own decision as prerequisites to regeneration by the Spirit (pp. 56–62, 152–153). Thus Dr. Lehman opposes, in the name of Scripture, the extreme dispensationalist contrast between the Old and New Covenants as related to the believer’s personal salvation, the doctrine of a “second definite work of grace,” the Wesleyan concept of entire personal sanctification (perfectionism), the Calvinistic doctrines of efficacious grace and unconditional election, and the Arminian concept of self-contained natural ability. On the other hand, few if any of these affirmations and denials are discussed in the critical atmosphere that would characterize an adequate systematic theology: and in general it is correct to say that the approach is primarily expository and devotional rather than theological and critical, though an exception to this point is approached in the discussions of Wesleyan perfectionism and Arminian natural ability.
This general absence of systematic theological orientation is doubtless the basis for whatever negative criticisms we might be disposed to offer. There is, for example, a rather conspicuous vagueness on certain theological points which should be clear in any such work: the essential relation of the Holy Spirit to Deity is hinted at (pp. 6, 7) but never clearly analyzed; that Adam’s sin had an effect on posterity is asserted (pp. 10, 78), but we look in vain for any precise definition of this effect or of its moral basis; that Christ’s anointing by the Holy Spirit was the basis, in some sense, of his redeeming power, is repeatedly asserted (pp. 34–44, 52), but the problem of the relation between the Holy Spirit’s function in Christ’s ministry and the divine nature of Christ himself is not even mentioned; and finally, in a work that continually emphasizes the theme of redemption through Christ, the lack of a discussion of Christ’s Deity, as related to his mediatorship, is keenly felt. In connection with the last point, this reviewer feels an even deeper inadequacy: while the author speaks much of the believer’s justification through union with Christ, his explanation of this union seems primarily concerned with the believer’s personal relationship of faith in Christ; at no point that I can find is there any clear explanation of Christ’s death as a vicarious satisfaction or of the believer’s justification as based on the imputation of Christ’s righteousness. But these criticisms, while they detract from the value of the discussion, may simply be the results of the lack of theological orientation previously mentioned; and they should not therefore prevent the reader from appreciating the spiritual warmth and intellectual stimulus which, in this work, urge every Christian believer to a more total commitment to Christ as Lord and as supreme Exemplar of the Spirit-filled life.
S. C. HACKETT
Evangelical Preaching
Evangelical Sermons of our Day, edited by Andrew W. Blackwood (Harper, 1959, 383 pp., $5.95) is reviewed by James DeForest Murch.
This volume contains 37 messages from men who “preach the Word.” A recent survey revealed that 75 percent of the ministers in the United States consider themselves evangelicals. Dr. Blackwood’s selection is a fair cross-section of this sector of Protestantism.
There are names like V. Raymond Edman, Peter Eldersveld, Billy Graham, Oswald C. J. Hoffman, Leslie R. Marston, Harold J. Ockenga, Alan Redpath, Paul S. Rees, Samuel M. Shoemaker, and Cary N. Weisiger, III. This is sufficient assurance of the quality and value of the sermons in the book. The editor makes no claim for their “greatness,” but gives them a higher commendation—“good and faithful.”
The sermons are grouped into six sections: (1) The Background of the Gospel, (2) With Christ Before Calvary, (3) With Christ Near His End, (4) With Christ After the Ascension, (5) With Christ in Later Epistles, and (6) With Christ in the Unknown Future. Evidently they were not prepared with such an outline in view but naturally tended to speak, as true evangelical sermons must, in terms of Jesus Christ as Saviour and Lord. Despite the fact that some of the preachers are of Arminian persuasion, some of Calvinistic, and others of eclectic theology, they all reveal a love for the same Lord and declare the same basic Gospel.
Marks of good evangelical preaching may be seen in dependence on Holy Scripture in text and doctrine, stress on the saving Gospel, food for Christian nurture, practical application to life problems, and the message of Christian hope. Always there is the note of divine authority. These men speak not “as the scribes and the Pharisees” but with an inner conviction and confidence that inspires faith and brings decision for Christ.
Ministers who read the volume will thrill at Shoemaker’s sermon calling for decision for Christ in the Battell Chapel at Yale; at Kirkland’s bold dealing with the burden of the Seventh Commandment; at the “tone color” and heart appeal of Rees’ “The Service of Silence”; at Graham’s evangelistic entreaty in terms of God’s grace; at the high challenge of Ockenga’s “Jesus, the Christian’s Example,” and other great preaching.
As the book goes into the hands of young ministerial students, they will be inspired to measure up to the stature of “good and faithful” preaching. Ministers of long standing will find help and encouragement in maintaining superior pulpit standards. Even the “brethren in the pew” who enjoy good preaching will find here a feast of good things.
JAMES DEFOREST MURCH
Covenant Implications
The Biblical Basis for Infant Baptism, by Dwight Hervey Small (Revell, 1959, 191 pp., $3.50), is reviewed by John Murray, Professor of Systematic Theology, Westminster Theological Seminary.
When Mr. Small says in his Preface that it is “a conciliatory spirit that motivates” him in writing this book (p. 6), we must not think that there is any lack of forthright vigor in presenting the biblical evidence supporting his theses. This volume is polemic in the truest sense, and the author in admirable fashion marshals the arguments for infant baptism and for sprinkling as a scriptural mode of administration.
Those who may be disposed to recoil from a traditional formulation of Covenant Theology are hereby advised that what is found on pages 15–29 is not characteristic of the rest of the volume. The whole discussion from that point on is based directly on Scripture and there is nothing stiff or stereotyped. In reference to the question at issue, Mr. Small’s insistance upon the Abrahamic covenant as “normative for the understanding of God’s redemptive purposes” (p. 34) and upon the unity of the covenant of grace is supported by a thoroughly competent and refreshing treatment of the biblical data. Having established this basic thesis, his argument proceeds not only to draw out the implications but also to adduce from Scripture the many considerations which show the perpetuity of that covenant provision exemplified in the Abrahamic covenant by the circumcision of infants.
Small is well aware of the abuses so frequently associated with infant baptism. “It is an appalling thing,” he says, “that countless thousands participate in infant baptism in our churches who are never instructed in the promises or the obligations!… It is cause for deep repentance upon the part of ministers of Reformed Churches” (p. 48). And his plea for covenant nurture is worthy of letters in gold. “God establishes His covenant with parents not only for their assurance as to what He will do, but also for their strengthening for what they must do” (p. 53). “Parental faith in God’s promise will always be known by parental faithfulness to God’s will” (p. 54).
Small’s treatment of mode in Part II (pp. 119–191) excels in fairness and competence. Scarcely any relevant biblical usage or passage is overlooked. He leaves us in no doubt as to the propriety of sprinkling or pouring, and shows that these are the modes congruous with the symbolism intended.
There are indeed details to which this reviewer takes exception. Small’s endorsement, for example, of the “principle of presumption” (p. 80; cf. pp. 64, 87), though espoused by some of the greatest Reformed theologians, is not one that, in the reviewer’s esteem, can be validated. But apart from some incidentals, here is an eminently worthy addition to the library on baptism, and it is timely.
JOHN MURRAY
Temporary Or Permanent?
Persuaded to Life: Conversion Stories from the Billy Graham Crusades, by Robert O. Ferm (Revell, 1958, 192 pp., $2.50), is reviewed by Faris D. Whitesell, Professor of Practical Theology, Northern Baptist Seminary.
Does large scale mass evangelism produce permanent and worthwhile results? Professor Robert O. Ferm of Houghton College has written this book to prove that it does. He has collected and verified the conversion experiences of a large number of people who professed faith during the Billy Graham Crusades. These experiences are typical of countless others unknown to the general public.
Dr. Ferm’s material is interesting, varied, and conclusive. As one reads the accounts, largely in the words of the converts themselves, he cannot help but be impressed by their genuineness and sincerity. All walks of life and all ages are represented.
This book has created several profound impressions in the mind of the reviewer, and probably will do the same for any sympathetic reader.
1. The gospel of Christ has not lost its ancient power. It is still the power of God unto salvation to everyone who hears and believes (Rom. 1:16). The big problem is how to catch the ear and attention of the careless, Christless multitudes.
2. The Billy Graham Crusades have reached many who never would have been reached in any other way. The size and publicity of the Crusades aroused interest and drew attendances.
3. True conversion is sudden. All of these people made sudden and drastic breaks with the old life. Many experiences and much time may be necessary to prepare the way and to lead up to conversion, but when it comes it is abrupt.
4. The power of the Holy Spirit is in the Billy Graham meetings. The straightforward, clear gospel preaching came with tremendous impact to show sinners that they were lost and that they needed Jesus Christ. Elements of mystery, reverence, and supernaturalness surround the invitation. Many never expected to go forward, but harriers seemed to melt away, and they joined the hundreds of others streaming to the front. The convicting, wooing power of the Spirit alone accounts for it.
Pastors and Sunday School teachers will find many fine illustrations in this book, and students of psychology and evangelism will find it full of challenging material.
FARIS D. WHITESELL
New Version
The Christ of the Gospels, by William F. Beck (Concordia, 1959, 224 pp., $3), is reviewed by E. P. Schulze, Minister of the Lutheran Church of Our Redeemer, Peekskill, New York.
Luther’s endeavor in translating the Bible was to make the holy writers speak German. His translation was strongly idiomatic but in many cases a very free rendering of the originals. It is apparent that Dr. Beck is attempting with success to make the inspired scribes speak English. Beck, too, has taken pains with idiom, and in the present work he has produced a free and somewhat periphrastic translation of the four Gospels combined into one chronologically arranged account.
Dr. Beck has been working for years upon a translation of the entire Bible. A scholar, familiar with textual criticism, may often be deficient in popular appeal, but this book, along with specimen printings of his translation of Ruth and of Galatians, indicates that in his literary style he has the common touch. When pastors of the Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod in the Detroit area were asked to compare 57 passages in the Revised Standard Version with the same verses in Beck’s translation, and then without being informed from which of the two the texts were taken, they were questioned, “Which is the language of the people?”—the vote was 3,558 to 162 in favor of Beck’s version.
As this volume was reviewed from the uncorrected proofs, I cannot evaluate details of the published work. The general effect is one of easy readability, though perhaps somewhat too colloquial in places to suit all tastes. It is to be hoped that this book will stimulate an appetite for Beck’s complete Bible.
E. P. SCHULZE
