Barth’S Free Man In Christ
Church Dogmatics: Volume Ill: The Doctrine of Creation: Part 4, by Karl Barth (T. & T. Clark, 1961, 704 pp., 55s.) is reviewed by Colin Brown, Tutor at Tyndale Hall, Bristol, England.
Forty years ago critics, looking around for a convenient stick with which to beat Karl Barth, regularly resorted to the charge that Barth had no doctrine of creation. The criticism was not without its grain of truth. For the Barth of The Epistle to the Romans preached little else but a mystical doctrine of revelation. The Word of God was presented as a holt from the blue or rather from the God who is so Wholly Other that his contact with the world is limited to a series of excursions which simply show how lost and godless this world is. No one then (perhaps least of all Barth himself) could have foreseen that one day Barth would write a Church Dogmatics which would devote twice as much space to the doctrine of creation as to the doctrine of God. Still less could they have foreseen the remarkable turnabout in Barth’s thinking which has led up to it. Not that Barth has thrown overboard his insistence that our knowledge of God comes entirely from the Word of God. Rather he has come to the conclusion that there is more to revelation than that. For in the first instance the self-revelation of God is the Incarnation, the union of divine and human nature in Christ. From there Barth proceeds to make the deduction which has become the dominant theme of the Church Dogmatics, that the union of God and man in Christ implies a union of God with all men. Thus all men are in some sense in Christ already. This is what Barth means when he uses the word covenant and when he says that the world was created with the covenant in view.
The volume under review is the fourth and final gigantic volume of the Church Dogmatics dealing with creation. The three previous volumes on the subject have dealt with Barth’s view of the covenant as the basis of creation, the nature of man, time, providence, evil, and the angels. Now Barth turns to the question of ethics, a subject which occupies the whole of his attention throughout the present book. As might be expected, Barth will have nothing to do with any attempt to divorce ethics from the Word of God. We can only know what is right by hearing the Word of God. We can only do what is right in the power of Jesus Christ. In fact, ethics is simply being what we are in him. Within this general theological framework Barth tackles many of the complex problems of modern life—the sabbath, marriage, divorce, birth control and family relationships. But the key to the important topics which come up for discussion are pacifism, capital punishment and euthanasia. But the key to the whole is man’s freedom in Christ to live in fellowship with God and with his fellowmen.
No reader ought to attempt Barth without being warned that he will have to learn a new language—Barth! Despite the skill of the translators, Barth has his own way of putting things which has to be mastered before the book as a whole makes sense. But the effort is well worthwhile. If we reject Barth’s attempt to see all men embraced in the humanity of Christ, it is because we regard it as a piece of unbiblical speculation. Scripture addresses its obligations to all men not because they are in some sense in Christ already, but because they are God’s creatures. Although this criticism undermines the whole Barthian edifice at its foundation, there remain nevertheless Barth’s penetrating insights into innumerable individual passages of Scripture and the brilliant shafts of light which he throws on the great thinkers of the past and present. For these alone Barth has put us immensely in his debt. No serious thinker coming after Barth can afford to neglect what he has to say.
COLIN BROWN
Human And Unadorned
This Was John Calvin, by Thea B. Van Halsema (Zondervan, 1959, 176 pp., $2.95) is reviewed by Lambert J. Ponstein, Assistant Professor of religion, Hope College.
A man’s honor is not served when his life story is tailored to fit an ideal. But when he is described with honesty, a man of God, as was John Calvin, becomes the embodiment for the truth that “we have this treasure in earthen vessels, to show that the transcendent power belongs to God and not to us.” Thea Van Halsema has given us a biography so human and unadorned, that one feels the presence of a real person. Humanist, theologian, a man needing the love and help of his wife, the sadness of a father over a fallen daughter—they are all a part of the story.
The opening of the eyes of Calvin to the need for a reformation in the church is traced back to his early years in such a way that the early French Protestants receive their rightful place in history.
Those who have read the many distortions of Calvin’s life in Geneva will be rewarded by the historical research which allows the reader to make his own judgments. The words of H. R. Niebuhr come to life, “Calvin did not possess the will to power in any marked degree and he was convinced as any Christian has ever been that the Kingdom belongs to God alone, not to any self-appointed vicegerents on earth though they be Protestant preachers.”
LAMBERT J. PONSTEIN
The Image Of Luther
Luther in the 20th Century, by Peter Brunner (Luther College Press, 1961, XII and 159 pp., $3), is reviewed by Victor E. Beck, Secretary of Literature, Augustana Book Concern, Rock Island, Illinois.
The aim of this book is to establish the contemporaneity of Luther. The lectures were delivered by Peter Brunner of Heidelberg University, Germany, and Bernard J. Holm of Wartburg Seminary, Dubuque, Iowa, both well qualified for their assignments. They have brought forth a valuable volume for all who desire a better understanding of Luther.
According to Luther, Brunner says, the meaningfulness of history lies in the fact that it is the field in which God performs the work of salvation and thus brings about the advent of his kingdom. Luther’s understanding of history is eschatological. Brunner claims that in Luther’s thought war is justified on the same basis as is the domestic use of armed force. He finds principles in Luther which are imbedded in the charter of the United Nations. The Golden Rule and all of God’s Word are basic to true civilization.
After enumerating in his spicy lectures several distorted images of Luther In the United States, Dr. Holm declares that Luther’s graveyard care has been left to the Lutherans. The real Luther, however, is beginning to come to America in the 5 5-volume edition of his works, in a new translation now being jointly produced by Concordia and Muhlenberg. Of the Church and the churches, Luther says that “the saints, one in faith, made holy in Christ, and they alone, are the one true Church, but they are spread throughout the Christendom of all times and all ages.” “They are the ‘masks’ and coverings for the great work that the Spirit is carrying on.” Here is real ecumenicity!
This work should inspire scholars to read more of Luther himself. A thorough index would have greatly enhanced the value of this book.
VICTOR E. BECK
Christian Classic
Servant of Slaves, by Grace Irwin (Eerdmans, 1961, 432 pp., $7.95) is reviewed by Henry W. Coray, Minister of First Orthodox Presbyterian Church, Sunnyvale, California.
Grace Irwin, Head of the Classics Department of Humberside Collegiate Institute, Toronto, and producer of three other novels, is Canada’s gift to Christian literature. This, her fourth and best, is a biographical saga of John Newton. With choice, effortless prose, Miss Irwin takes her subject from the double bondage of servitude to an individual in Africa and the even greater serfdom to moral corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God, thence to the pulpit to proclaim Christ with tremendous power. Newton’s courtship of comely Mary Catlett and subsequent marriage to her adds up to one of the great romances of history and does warm the wine of the heart. The work readily takes its place in the top echelon of Christian classics and merits a wide reading. There isn’t a dull sentence in the entire book.
HENRY W. CORAY
Reading for Perspective
CHRISTIANITY TODAY’S REVIEW EDITORS CALL ATTENTION TO THESE NEW TITLES:
* I Am Persuaded, by David H. C. Read (Scribner’s, $3). Sermons from the well-known minister of New York’s Madison Avenue Presbyterian Church encouraging the reader to surmount the hard facts of life by faith.
* Pentecost and Missions, by Harry R. Boer (Eerdmans. $5). A theology of missions built on the New Testament teaching that the Church was created at Pentecost to witness to the gospel of Jesus Christ by its very existence and action.
* Word and Spirit, by H. Jackson Forstman (Stanford University Press, $4.75). A Stanford professor investigates Calvin and concludes provocatively that he unconsciously held two conceptions of biblical authority.
The Cross And Main Street
On a Hill Far Away, by J. H. Baumgaertner and Elmer A. Kettner (Concordia, 1962, 120 pp., $1.75), is reviewed by Paul S. Rees, Vice-President-at-large, World Vision, Pasadena, California.
“You cannot,” said J. H. Jowett, “drop the big themes and create great saints.” Whatever else may be said for or against the Protestant observance of Lent, it must be admitted that it calls upon the pulpit to tackle the “big themes” without which neither pulpit nor pew possesses a Gospel.
The collaborating authors of this series of Lenten messages have a pastoral approach that keeps their topics and their material close to the people, which is all to the good. The unique and unrepeatable Calvary-event is made timelessly relevant to Main Street, the market place, and the television-garnished living room.
Part I consists of a series of short, vivid meditations on assorted facets of the Passion Story: Gethsemane, the Arrest, the Trials, the Execution. These are followed by a Palm Sunday sermon and by two sequences of brief messages suitable for Good Friday services, one of them based on the six steps in our Lord’s humiliation as given in the second article of the Apostles’ Creed. The style is direct, conversational, pictorial. If the homiletical organization of the material could be improved, it nevertheless must be said that these messages have the flavor and grip of preaching.
In an Appendix to Part I the author has given a suggested Order of Service for Good Friday, the arrangement being governed by the topics used in the messages mentioned in the preceding paragraph.
Part II, which has no logical or structural relation to Part I, offers a series of eight sermons on the “Hands” of our Lord. Beginning with “Helping Hands” and ending with “Pierced Hands,” we are shown the manifold ministries of the Master, all of them culminating in that saving self-oblation in which His hands were “pierced.”
Though there is little of exegesis, the biblical content of these messages is strong. Inevitably, theological predilections are evident. In this case what emerges—not as apologetic but as assumption—is the Lutheran concept of baptism and a strongly Augustinian approach to “sin and grace.” This reviewer, knowing full well this will commend the book to many, still wishes that a Lenten series such as this might carry to Christians far more of the accent of Bonhoeffer’s “costly grace” and Thomas Kelley’s “holy obedience.”
PAUL S. REES
More Help
A Greek Grammar of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature, by F. Blass and A. Debrunner, tr. and ed. by Robert W. Funk (University of Chicago Press, 1961, 325 pp., $10), is reviewed by Robert C. Stone, Professor of Classical Languages, North Park College, Chicago, Illinois.
This English translation of an outstanding German work is an important addition to the stock of study aids at the command of students unfamiliar with the German language. For too long a time American students in the field of New Testament Greek have had to depend on works emphasizing the eight-case system and other points which, while valuable in themselves, served to overemphasize the classical writers. This book keeps the study of the Koine in proper perspective by its constant reference to and comparison with the classical Greek constructions and usages.
Three sections of the book deserve special mention: (1) “Syntax of the Cases” is a clear exposition of the many nuances of case usage in the New Testament, with a wealth of illustrations taken from the text; (2) the section on “Tense” contains a discussion of the significance of tense in Greek, a valuable exposition on a point to a great extent misunderstood; (3) the plain setting forth of the rationale of conditional sentences in Greek sheds a floodlight upon many passages.
This book is a must for anyone seriously concerned with the study of the Greek Testament, especially for students in college or seminary classes, and for pastors, whose primary task is clear and accurate exegesis of the sacred text. Extensive bibliographical references make it possible to investigate more thoroughly any desired subject.
ROBERT C. STONE
Ancient Criticism
The Earliest Lives of Jesus, by Robert M. Grant (Harper, 1961, 134 pp., $3.50), is reviewed by R. B. Culbreth, Pastor, Metropolitan Baptist Church, Washington, D. C.
Dr. Grant says that the purpose of his book is to “show how the problems, historical in nature, which arise out of the canonical Gospels whenever they are thoughtfully considered, were faced by Christian writers in the first two or three centuries.” In order to do this he seeks to relate modern questions pertaining to the early life of Jesus in the hope that these may provide the answers.
The author assumes for his readers an advanced knowledge of New Testament textual criticism and a familiarity with the first two centuries’ writings on the subject. He carefully reviews the teachings of Marcion, Papias, Justin, Tatian, Irenaeus, Clement and others. He presents an excellent analysis of the writings of Origen. In fact, the main body of the book concerns itself with Origen and his writings on the Gospels and the life of Jesus.
The interested reader will find this book very helpful in understanding the analogy of ancient literary criticism and the modern historical approach.
R. B. CULBRETH
To Meet A Real Need
Personal Devotions For Pastors, ed. by William B. Williamson (Westminster, 1961, 202 pp., $3.50), is reviewed by Leslie Hunt, Principal, Wycliffe College, Toronto, Canada.
I think this little volume of personal devotions will be widely received by ministers and others because it supplies a real need. No one knows better than the minister under the pressure of work in his parish that so often the spiritual output exceeds the intake and in the course of time may result in spiritual exhaustion. In this setting, aids to a vital prayer life are necessary and welcome.
This volume of personal devotions was born out of a need. The editor, an Episcopal clergyman, found himself hospitalized for serious surgery and tried to obtain a book of devotions which would help him. When he did not find what he sought, he set himself to the task of compiling such a volume, with the concern that there might be many others in his situation needing similar help and spiritual renewal. He gathered together this collection from a wide variety of sources and added some prayers of his own composition. The choice is such that they could be used by ministers of any denominational tradition. Many prayers have been rendered in the first person which has added greatly to making the little volume deeply personal.
The devotional situations of the book include sections for personal need; for special occasions such as sickness, recovery, discouragement, and perplexity; a grouping of devotions on “My Ministry;” and one on the “Seasons of the Church Year.” I commend this book especially to the clergy but it will prove valuable to laymen also.
LESLIE HUNT
The Shape And The Drift
One Great Ground of Hope, Christian Missions and Christian Unity, by Henry P. Van Dusen (Westminster, 1961, 205 pp., $3.95); On the Road to Christian Unity, by Samuel McCrea Cavert (Harper, 1961, 192 pp., $3.75), are reviewed by James Daane, Editorial Associate, CHRISTIANITY TODAY.
For eighteen centuries the Christian Church fragmented its unity. During this time there was scarcely an organization, or a fellowship of any kind, in which churches met to confer about their differences and attempt to regain their unity.
In the nineteenth century, which Kenneth Scott Latourette calls the “Great Century,” things changed. Through missionary effort Christianity expanded as never before and as no other movement in all history had ever expanded.
Out of the painful awareness that the disunity of the Church was a tremendous obstacle to the missionary effort, the ecumenical concern for regaining the oneness of the unbroken Body of Christ was born. “The Christian world mission,” asserts Van Dusen, “has been the principle parent of the effort after Christian unity” (p. 16). It is this missionary concern over disunity which constitutes Van Dusen’s “one great ground of hope,” a hope shared by many ecumenists. This widely held hope accounts for the enthusiasm which greeted the recent merger of the IMC with the WCC. Since missionary zeal is often stifled when channeled through the machinery of ecclesiastical organization, it remains to be seen whether this zeal will endure. It also remains for the future to disclose whether the primary motif for unity is still the deep missionary concern of early ecumenical decades. Since greater missionary effort seems to lie in the younger rather than in those older churches, and lies in America, where missionary concern is chiefly concentrated, outside rather than inside the membership of the World Council, many feel that they can correctly guess the answer.
Samuel McCrea Cavert presents an excellent history of the ecumenical movement and its progress, especially of the last 50 years, with an able and sympathetic treatment of the ecumenical problems and possibilities of Orthodoxy, Roman Catholicism, and of such non-cooperating Protestant bodies as the Southern Baptists.
Both books are excellent sources of information concerning the shape and drift of ecumenism today, for both authors write within a field they know well.
JAMES DAANE
Roman Ecumenics
The Ecumenical Council, the Church and Christendom, by Lorenz Jaeger (Geoffrey Chapman, tr. by A. V. Littledale, 1961, 194 pp., 21s.), and The Church of England and the Ecumenical Movement by James Good (Burns Oates, 1961, 163 pp., 18s.), are reviewed by Colin O. Buchanan, Anglican Minister at Cheadle, Cheshire, England.
These two books both have Roman Catholic authors and the word “ecumenical” in their titles. But the Archbishop of Paderborn is examining Roman Councils (especially the next one), while the Professor of Theology at Cork, reviews non-Roman counsels and councils, and the place of the Church of England in them.
Jaeger aims to show that the papacy has always been the same, belittles conciliarism as a passing and heretical fancy and suggests some probable formulations of the forthcoming Council. On the first point the Fathers are not helpful, on the second Jaeger sidesteps the Council of Constance almost completely, and on the third he warns us not rashly to expect anything but a closing of the hierarchical ranks. Thus Rome adheres to her own interpretation of “ecumenical.”
Good’s book is tremendous reading for Anglicans. He is thoroughly at home in all our modern writers from Kirk to Inge and from Headlam to Barnes. Historically he is a little weaker (e.g., he calls all continental influences at the Reformation “Lutheran”!). His logical mind exposes the folly of the “dualism” that Anglicans often count as a virtue. He grasps a slippery ecclesiology and shows that virtually exclusive statements can often be found in the same Anglican documents. Similarly he accurately exposes Anglican attempts (in differing ecumenical contexts) to trace authority for belief to the Scriptures, the early Fathers, the episcopate, or the enlightened conscience. He complains of insincerity bordering on deceit—and he has made out his case.
He is blind in deriding “private judgment” without contemplating that the Bible might be a genuine and clear means by which God reveals himself. He also says Rome is semper eadem—and, though he writes from the fastnesses of Cork, in this, as in all his arguments, Anglicans ought to read him very seriously.
COLIN O. BUCHANAN
Christ Our Exodus
When Israel Came out of Egypt, by Gabriel Hebert (John Knox Press, 1961, 128 pp., $1.75), is reviewed by David A. Hubbard, Chairman, Division of Biblical Studies and Philosophy, Westmont College, Santa Barbara, California.
Israel’s exodus has captured the interest of both Old Testament historians and biblical theologians. Historians seek to untangle knotty problems like its date, route, and scope, while theologians grow increasingly aware that the Exodus is the grand event in Israel’s experience, the pattern for God’s subsequent redemptive acts. This little book summarizes splendidly the results of both approaches.
Following a survey of passages which rehearse and interpret the Exodus, Hebert tackles such questions as the dates of Joseph’s descent into Egypt (c. 1360 B.C., under Akhnaton) and the Exodus (c. 1280–70 B.C., under Rameses II), the nature of the plagues and the location of Sinai. Linguistic and critical problems are touched upon: the origin and meaning of JHVH; the relationship between Moses and Israel’s law. Though critical in his approach, e.g., the post-Mosaic nature of much of Israel’s legal structure, Hebert is generally cautious in his conclusions.
In the final pages on the “Christian Exodus” he builds a graceful bridge between the Old Testament expectation of a second exodus and the New Testament affirmation that Christ has accomplished it. We who are strangers to the liturgical use of the exodus motif will welcome the moving lines from the Lenten and Easter services. The combination of scholarship and piety will commend this book to a wide range of readers.
DAVID A. HUBBARD
See Sinai
God’s Wilderness. Discoveries in Sinai, by Beno Rothenberg (Thomas Nelson & Sons, 1962, 196 pp., $15), is reviewed by Carl F. H. Henry, Editor of CHRISTIANITY TODAY.
For a few short months in the winter of 1956–57, the Sinai peninsula was open to the searching study of Israeli scholars. This volume yields the findings of those expeditions. Enlivened by 16 maps and plans and 90 photogravure illustrations, the work by Beno Rothenberg (in collaboration with Yohanan Aharoni and Avia Hashimshoni) sheds new light on the scene of the Hebrew desert wanderings. The location of the Mountain of God, of Kadesh-Barnea, Mount Hor and Jotbathah are among questions uppermost in the minds of the fieldworkers, who indicate the reasons for their agreements and disagreements. The volume will fascinate students of archaeology, but Bible scholars in general will also enjoy traversing the bleak Sinai mountains, with few hardships and many rewards, by entering into the narrative of these explorations.
CARL F. H. HENRY
Peale Faces His Critics
The Tough-minded Optimist, by Norman Vincent Peale (Prentice-Hall, 1961, 246 pp., $3.95), is reviewed by Lars I. Granberg, Professor of Psychology, Hope College, Holland, Michigan.
Dr. Peale’s familiar themes are developed in this book. As in his earlier books he encourages an optimistic approach to life and provides specific suggestions on how to accomplish this. One cannot, however, dismiss the book with “Here’s another,” for it contains Dr. Peale’s attempts to deal with his critics.
To those who speak of his work as a Pollyannish attempt to hear no evil and see no evil, Dr. Peale replies that the tough-minded optimist is one who faces his problems but nevertheless, is hopeful and active in the face of adversity. To the charge that he makes religion a kind of veneer or at best a tool in the service of positive living, he speaks firmly concerning his commitment to historic Christianity (p. 29 f.). His devotion to Jesus Christ is unmistakable.
That his system of thought falls entirely within historic Christian theology is less apparent. In speaking of its components he cites his father’s analysis with apparent approval:
… it is clearly evident that you have gradually evolved a new religious system of thought and teaching. And it’s OK too, very OK, because its center and circumference and essence is Jesus Christ. There is no doubt about its solid biblical orientation. Yes, you have evolved a new Christian emphasis out of a composite of Science of Mind, metaphysics, Christian Science medical and psychological practice, Baptist evangelism, Methodist witnessing, and solid Dutch Reformed Calvinism (p. 33).
Strange bedfellows. The nuclear concept appears to be a courageous affirmation of life through fellowship with God. In our day of foreboding and despair a vigorous call to clear-sightedness, courage and hope in the name of Christ is eminently in order. Such an orientation to life makes a significant Christian witness. However, Dr. Peale relies heavily upon self-suggestion techniques to produce this courage, hope and vigorous action. Can the presuppositions and techniques of ideal suggestion actually be grafted to Christian theology as easily as this? The Scriptures do contain a ringing call to the Christian to face life with courage, hope and joy, and this is what Dr. Peale seeks to underscore. I wonder whether it is not possible to achieve these objectives without leaning so heavily upon suggestion techniques.
The last chapter in the book is bound to get most notice. In it he says blunt things about preachers who fail to present their parishioners with “man-sized honest-to-goodness redemptive religion.” He is especially hard on what he calls the “would-be-erudite, super-scholastic vocabulary-ish ethical-implication social-action type.” He considers persons of this sort responsible for creating a misleading view of the church—especially in the business community—through dubious socio-economic pronouncements representing a point of view not characteristic of most church members.
Dr. Peale is obviously smarting from the personal attacks made upon him by persons of this type in criticizing his earlier books—and not without considerable justification. While his reaction is understandable, I wish he had remained positive.
LARS I. GRANBERG
Religious Novels
Search Your Soul, Eustace (American title: The Victorian Vision), by Margaret Maison (Sheed and Ward, 1961, 360 pp., 12s. 6d., $4.50) is reviewed by Arthur Pollard, Lecturer in English Literature, Manchester University, England.
Dr. Maison has had to read a lot of rubbish in order to write this book, but bad novels, like bad poets, can often be fascinating to read about, if intolerably boring to read. No reader should be put off by the unfortunately flippant title. This is an important book, a serious and perceptive study with a good bibliography, marred a little by the absence of footnote references and index.
It is difficult for us to realize the influence of religious attitudes on the writing of novels in the last century, but not the least of the commendations which, be it said, a rather insensitive publisher’s reading bestowed on Trollope’s The Warden was that it was “pervaded by a vein of quiet humour and [good-natured] satire, which will make the work acceptable to all Low Churchmen and dissenters.” That was the extent to which the religious reading public mattered. As a result there was a ready sale for explicitly religious novels of all kinds, High, Low, Broad, Non-conformist and agnostic. The surprising thing is that the masterpieces were so few.
Yet for literary diagnosis and historical commentary they are most interesting. They make the surprising thing less so, for they are countless horrible reminders of how to be certain not to write a masterpiece. Scattered about English literature are numerous warnings of the dangers of didacticism. The religious novelists of the nineteenth century were, in general, either ignorant of or undeterred by such admonitions. As a result plots are slanted to some predetermined didactic pattern to point a moral or to press the propaganda—sudden conversions after dire calamities for Evangelicals; contentment in the Church of England after perilous escape from the clutches of Rome for Tractarians; a plague on both your houses, preferably satirical, for agnostics. It is the same with character and dialogue. The difference between the good novelist and the bad is one of artistic integrity. The good novelist possesses it and respects it; the bad does not even know what it is. This was exactly the case with the writers Dr. Maison considers.
It is her triumph that she makes no extravagant claims for the unimportant. As she points out, they have a continuing documentary significance providing useful information about the strength and types of religious attitudes in the period. They also provide some (largely unconscious) humor, of which the following will serve as a sample with which to take leave of this interesting book. It is a quotation from a certain Emily Agnew:
“When he (the priest) informed her that the same Divine Being … would, in the three persons of His essential unity, descend on her soul in Baptism, Lilia immediately inquired, ‘By particles or emanation?’ ”
ARTHUR POLLARD
Handy But Incomplete
The Old Testament: its formation and development, by Artur Weiser (Association Press, 1961, 493 pp., $5.95) is reviewed by R. K. Harrison, Professor of Old Testament, Wycliffe College, University of Toronto.
This work is a revised and expanded form of the author’s Einleitung in das Alte Testament. It deals successively with the formation of the writings in the Old Testament canon, the growth of inter-testamental literature, and the significance of the Qumran sect. While the author purports to strike a balance between the tradition-history and form-critical schools, he is clearly an adherent of the old Wellhausen position.
What is perhaps even more unfortunate is that the student is unlikely to derive more than the barest hint from this work of the tremendous upheaval in the world of Old Testament studies. Weiser presents a picture of his subject as it existed in the late twenties, and although he has enlarged his bibliography by the addition of more recent works he has not modified his basic position to any extent discernable to the reviewer. While he mentions the writings of some conservative scholars, he clearly prefers the views of Noth and von Rad on the Pentateuch and makes only the briefest reference to the important criticisms of Wellhausenism advanced by Engnell and the Scandinavians.
His treatment of the minor prophets is rather scanty. He does not mention the Qumran commentary in the section of Habakkuk, while his introduction to the Book of Daniel shows no advance upon the views expressed by S. R. Driver in 1897. Similarly, some of the critical problems connected with the pseud-epigraphal literature are ignored completely in the writer’s survey.
To the reviewer the book is a handy survey of European critical thought in the late twenties. It is not as up-to-date as the author or publishers would have the reader believe. The book appears to have been translated carefully, and is attractively produced with few misprints.
R. K. HARRISON
Human Side Of The Faith
Treasure in Earthen Vessels, by James M. Gustafson (Harper, 1961, 141 pp., $3.50) and The Precarious Vision, by Peter L. Berger (Doubleday, 1961, 238 pp., $3.95) are reviewed by Ivan J. Fahs, Associate Professor of Sociology, Greenville College, Greenville, Illinois.
The extent to which these books regard things Christian as transcending social structural forms, the more valuable service they will render to the thinking leadership of Christianity. Gustafson, I think, has done this more explicitly than Berger. The net effect of both books is to sensitize the reader to those features of the Christian faith which are plainly human.
Gustafson, who employs the vocabulary of both minister and social scientist, does a competent job of extending his theme that the church is a human community. We have needed a book which would easily mix the language of sociology and theology within the context of a common question; this is especially well done in his chapter, “Social and Theological Interpretation of the Church.” The tone of the book is such that even the layman is ready to accept certain startling things he has to say.
Berger’s major theme is that what is manifestly Christian faith is often social fiction. For the most part, Berger is a debunker, a role he consciously and skillfully takes. This reviewer followed his argument with admiration, but with sustained regret that his keen and flashing sword was not more carefully lubricated with an oil of kindness. Berger inaccurately infers that the debunking technique and the techniques of social analysis are mutually overlapping terms. A rug can be pulled from under somebody’s feet so violently as to fracture a skull, or it may be done (repeat, it may be done) by a slow and gentle tug without serious side effects. I fear that only the hard-headed will survive this book—and, alas, these are often the hardhearted, too.
IVAN J. FAHS
Book Briefs
Effective Prayer by J. Oswald Sanders (China Inland Mission Bookroom, 1961, 28 pp., Is. 6d.). Twenty short meditations on prayer reprinted from the CIM periodical The Millions.
Sermons of Robert Murray M’Cheyne (Banner of Truth, 1961, 187 pp., 3s.). Twenty-five sermons of a great Scottish preacher of the last century, some from his own notes, and others from notes taken down by his hearers.
Emerging Pattern in the Diocese of Singapore and Malaya by R. Alan Cole (China Inland Mission Bookroom, 1961, 48 pp., 2s. 6d.). An account by an Anglican ClM missionary of the work in the last nine years in Malaya amidst attacks from Communist rebels, a decaying Buddhism, and rank materialism.
Christ’s Words from the Cross, by Charles Haddon Spurgeon (Zondervan, 1962, 120 pp., $1.95). Seven sermons by Spurgeon on the seven words of the Cross.
Pilgrimage into Depth, by Antoinette Adam (Antoinette Adam, 5345 Greene St., Philadelphia 44, 1961, 57 pp., $2.50). Fifty-six poems reflecting the faith and service of a Christian nurse.
The 7 Words, by John A. Holt (Baker, 1961, 95 pp., $1.50). Seven sermons which probe the seven words of the Cross.
What is Christian Life?, by P.-A. Liege (Hawthorn, 1961, 144 pp., $3.50). A Roman Catholic interpretation of the Christian life and Christian sanctity. Vol. 56 of “The Twentieth Century Encyclopedia of Catholicism.”
The Epistles of Paul to the Romans and Thessalonians, tr. by R. Mackenzie, ed. by David W. Torrance and Thomas F. Torrance (Eerdmans, 1961, 433 pp., $6). Romans and Thessalonians (Vol. 8) in a completely new translation of Calvin’s New Testament commentaries.
Trumpet of Salvation, by Norman E. Nygaard (Zondervan, 1961, 180 pp., $2.50). A biographical novel of the lives of William and Catherine Booth, founders of the Salvation Army.
They Called Him Mister Moody, by Richard K. Curtis (Doubleday, 1962, 378 pp., $4.95). A colorful biography of an unconventional man and a great revivalist who did much to change the climate of life in late nineteenth-century America.
The Ten Commandments Yesterday and Today, by James Burton Coffman (Revell, 1961, 128 pp., $2.50). The essays display the timeless validity of the Decalogue.
