The evolving debate: men and monkeys
Ibid. And Op. Cit.
I remember writing somewhere a long time ago a little column entitled “Who Wrote Ibid.?” It was about a young man who wished with all his heart that he could lay hold of just one book, a book called Ibid. It seemed to him from the footnotes in his reading that Ibid. was the authority all other writers seemed to rest on. “If I could only get that one book,” he thought, “I wouldn’t need all the rest.”
Some books impress me as being almost Ibid., the supreme source book on almost any subject. Take Troeltsch’s The Social Teaching of the Christian Churches. What a mine of information! When John Whale led me to it, he urged its scholarship on me by saying, “You will feel like a mouse in a cathedral.” And I did. Karl Heim is like that, and so is Brunner and John Oman. Or to turn from theology to sociology, try the footnotes in Myrdal’s The American Dilemma. The vast learning and critical apparatus in one of C. S. Lewis’s literary (as opposed to religious) works, English Literature in the Sixteenth Century, is simply appalling. Bultmann’s New Testament Theology leaves one benumbed. How can these writers know so much, let alone get it organized and written down.
So now there has appeared another Ibid. Its author is Marshall McLuhan, a literature professor at the University of Toronto, and his book to read for information but especially for stimulation of your intellectual juices is The Gutenberg Galaxy. You can’t believe the number of things he takes time to talk about (and throw light on). One reviewer, Ian Sowton, writes in part, “His book opens directly and creatively out into every human activity known to man … politics, economics, philosophy, literature, and post-Newtonian physics.… It offers casual erudition [I like that!].… It’s shot through with illuminations of illuminations [italics mine] of men like Shakespeare, Pope, Swift, Blake, Rimbaud and Joyce.…”
McLuhan will give a Christian many long thoughts. To quote another professor, “Reading easy books is the hardest way to learn anything.”
EUTYCHUS II
Suicidally Ambivalent
In “The Creation of Life, Matter, and Man” (insert, Sept. 16 issue), Dr. Leitch displays many helpful, stimulating insights concerning the evolutionary debate, e.g., his observations on the common unscientific confusion of supposition and proof. However, his presentation advances haltingly under an equally common theological weakness, i.e., the suicidal attempt to make a truce regarding the scientific acceptability of God’s creation from nothing.…
Dr. Leitch’s ambivalent approach is often regarded as gentlemanly, just, and academically respectable. In reality, to grant the validity of any scientific or philosophical court in which the Creator’s existence is immaterial is to deny the Truth by whom all things consist, hence to be evangelistically futile and intellectually suicidal.
WILLIAM H. MCDOWELL
Orlando, Fla.
In the insert by Dr. Leitch a number of correct statements are made about what different groups of people have believed.
I am a Christian and also a teacher of science in college, having specialized in genetics. I accept the creationist viewpoint fully and see no reason for Dr. Leitch’s leaning toward agnosticism.
Dr. Leitch seems to group all scientists together; to use the terms scientist and evolutionist interchangeably. This is a common failing of theologians, but it is ill founded, for there are many scientists who are creationists; in addition, many of these scientists are well recognized. In the Creation Research Society, forty members are listed in American Men of Science, in addition to members in foreign lands who have similar recognition.
The American Scientific Affiliation, consisting of 1,500 members, recently asked in a questionnaire, “All the living forms in the world have been derived from a single form of life. Do you agree?” Twenty answered Yes, 295 answered No, while 137 gave a qualified answer. Bear in mind that all these men are scientists.
How unnecessary it is to modify the teaching of the Bible in order to agree with one group of scientists while another group accepts creation!
There are many details of the creation process which we never will know. But rightly defined, creation and evolution stand as alternatives to each other, if one is true, the other is essentially false. I believe the scientific evidence points toward divine creation. It is unfortunate when one thinks it necessary to “dismiss the findings of the scientists” in order to believe in creation. Dismiss some theories and hypotheses, if necessary, but cling to the findings.
WILLIAM J. TINKLE
Secretary
Creation Research Society
Eaton, Indiana
“The Creation of Matter, Life, and Man” by Dr. Leitch cannot be classified under “Fundamentals of the Faith,” since he tells us to do so would be “to accept an area of discussion that cannot in the very nature of things be discussed.…”
JOE B. PALAFOX
El Cajon, Calif.
I would like to obtain a half-dozen or even a dozen copies to distribute to some of my friends in this country and former colleagues at my mission post in Nigeria, West Africa.… There are some things in the essay with which I cannot agree, but on the whole I found it quite stimulating and challenging.
ROGER W. COON
Lansing, Mich.
Please send me ten extra copies of this essay as I desire to give them to the University Class in our Sunday school.
HAROLD GRIFFITH
Austin, Tex.
I have suggested to the editors of Life magazine that the views of Addison Leitch might form a good background for a Life magazine presentation of the biblical view of the beginning of things …
NORVAL HADLEY
Asst. to the President
World Vision
Monrovia, Calif.
Your recent booklet … might have been valuable were the author informed in the areas he discussed.
I am sorry this booklet was printed because it will not likely help our evangelical Christian cause.…
WAYNE FRIAR
Assoc. Prof. of Biology
The King’s College
Briarcliff Manor, N. Y.
Unfinished Business
Whatever letters you may have received from other persons about the Northwest Nazarene College reference or from or about any other colleges, and whatever quotes you may run in the letters section, we cannot believe that the issue with us has been settled until it is settled properly (“Rebel Spirit Jolts Church Colleges,” News, Sept. 2 issue).
May we repeat that the flat statement that at Northwest Nazarene College such and such happened is to the best of our knowledge completely untrue, and reflects what seems to us to be unprofessional reporting; and we still believe you should correct it editorially, even though it might mean some slight embarrassment to your talented news editor and the forsaking of your faulty news source, the continued use of which could do disservice both to you and to us.
We sincerely believe CHRISTIANITY TODAY to be a champion of scholarly conservatism, and we honestly hate to see a spot on your armor.
PAUL WARDLAW
Associated Student Body President
JOSEPH H. MAYFIELD
Vice President for Campus Life
JOHN E. RILEY
President
Northwest Nazarene College
Nampa, Idaho
The Baffled Laymen
Billy Graham has said that the laity must be mobilized, that this will require a “drastic revolution,” and that it is time for the Church to take the offensive with “unambiguous proclamation” … Laymen are aroused by all such appeals coming now with force from all sides; they are baffled by what it all means, i.e., what is required of them in these our times. As Graham indicated, it is first and foremost up to the Church to come out with a clear statement.…
The problem of cooperation between laymen and clergy appears to be greater than the willingness, or ability, to grapple with it.… Whether it can ever be solved satisfactorily remains to be seen. Or does it imply that the buildup of the entire system within the Church needs “reforming”? Before this fundamental question is answered—and answered scripturally—there remains little meaning to this appeal, no matter how often and how urgently it may be repeated.…
CHARLES GRESSINGER
Niederaichbach, West Germany
Prayer In The Schools
Congratulations to Mr. Panoch for his very fine piece (“Is Prayer in Public Schools An Illegal Maneuver?” Sept. 30 issue). In the face of present secular pressure and customary evangelical indifference, those of us concerned about the trend in public schools can take heart.
CHARLES CLOUGH
Dallas, Tex.
Please drop my name from your mailing list if you intend to go on printing such trash as this.…
CAREY DANIEL
Dallas, Tex.
I was very interested in reading this article, especially since Mr. Panoch has previously informed the Subcommittee on Constitutional Amendments, of which I am chairman, about his views on prayer in public schools.…
I called the article to the attention of the Senate Tuesday, October 4, and secured consent for it to be printed in the Record along with another article by Professor Donald Reich.
BIRCH BAYH
U. S. Senator, Indiana
Washington, D.C.
A Point About The Point
In News (Sept. 30 issue) a footnote incorrectly states that most Seventh-day Adventist ordained ministers draw a salary of $9,375, besides a housing allowance. The correct figure is $93.75 per week. That misplaced decimal point makes quite a bit of difference!
ROGER W. COON
Lansing, Mich.
Don’T Sell It Short
You state (Editorial, Sept. 16 issue): “There is no longer any doubt that missions as they have existed in Asia will be eliminated in the next ten or twenty years.”
This is indeed a sweeping statement. Of course, much depends on what connotation one attaches to the qualifying phrase “as they existed.” What concerns me is the tendency in some quarters to sell the missionary enterprise down the river. Ever since the China debacle in 1950 the prophets of doom have been sounding the death-knell of the missionary enterprise. We have talked so loud and long about “closing doors” that we have come to believe our own story. The problems are many and massive, but all is not lost.
When I was in India in 1945 the missionaries there feared that independence, which ultimately came in 1947, would mark the end of missionary work. Today, almost twenty years later, there are some 5,000 missionaries still carrying on—business as usual. Moreover, Nepal, a traditionally closed country on the northern border of India, opened its doors for the first time in 1954, and today there are 130 missionaries working in ten centers.…
During the 1950’s when the Mau Mau Movement in Kenya was at its height, the missionary picture was dark indeed. Most missionaries assumed that if Jomo Kenyatta ever managed to get out of prison and into parliament he would expel all Westerners from Kenya. Today Kenya has one of the most stable governments in Africa, and President Kenyatta has more than once publicly encouraged the missionaries to remain and help him build a new Kenya.
This time last year Indonesia teetered on the brink of a Communist takeover. The Peace Corps had been expelled and the missionaries were sitting tight, wondering how and when the end would come. Overnight the situation changed. Today the missionaries and church leaders cannot cope with the thousands who are pouring into the churches.
J. HERBERT KANE
Director of Missions
Lancaster School of the Bible
Lancaster, Pa.
Reason In Rhyme
Re Wilma W. Burton’s “Sonnet of the Midget Crosses” (Sept 16 issue):
’Tis good to know that thoughts sublime
Still come to us in words that rhyme.
Print more such poems, with lines that match,
To reach the pedant and the patch.
BRYCE TERHUNE CLEVELAND
Mass. Federated Church
Lanesboro,
On Alcoholism
I have seen your editorial on alcoholism and on the drinking driver in your September 16 edition, and I applaud your recognition of the need to give him special emphasis.
The magnitude of this perplexing problem is clear, but the solutions are evasive. I am hopeful that the study provided for in the new law (Public Law 89–564, Section 204) will be a positive first step toward alleviating the tragedy which results all too often throughout our country.
WALTER F. MONDALE
U. S. Senator, Minn.
Washington, D. C.
The only sure cure for alcoholism is the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. As long as man fools around with a number of alibis on false premises he may endure an uneasy sobriety for a time. But, if he gets down to the roots of the problem, and labels drunkenness as sin, the possibilities are good that he will be forgiven, that he may be cleansed, and that he may be delivered. This is the only lasting foundation.
A. D. HARTMARK
Chaplain
The Door of Hope
Minneapolis, Minn.
I was appalled to see that you have fallen for the theory that alcoholism is a disease. Certainly Holy Writ does not treat it as such.…
PAUL E. BILLS
Assembly of God
Nome, Alaska
Thank you for your editorial.… Enclosed you will find a copy of a resolution recently passed unanimously by our congregation. Copies of the resolution have been sent to every member of both houses of the national Congress.…
JAMES H. SEMPLE
First Baptist Church
Paris, Tex.
Christ And The Campus
Your interesting editorial on Southern Baptist campus evangelism (Sept. 16 issue) … [is] correct in the statement, “The secret of their [Southern Baptist] growth has been evangelism.” Yes, we have lagged in all areas in evangelism the past few years. However, we are prayerfully moving into a new projection. The director of the Student Division and his co-workers have invited the Evangelism Division to work closely with them in this spiritual enterprise. All that we are and have is dedicated, under our Lord’s leadership, to a witnessing movement never before experienced in our state. We dare … prophesy the coming of a great revival. It could begin on the college campus.
C. WADE FREEMAN
Director
Evangelism Division
Baptist General Convention of Texas
Dallas, Tex.
A Crisis For Evangelism?
Never … has there been such a widespread and sustained evangelistic consciousness as we experience today. This new consciousness, largely due to the efforts of Billy Graham and his associates, is almost global in scope. The fact that a World Congress of Evangelism is even possible is a case in point.
I for one hope that the forthcoming World Congress on Evangelism may not only stir up greater zeal for evangelism, not only spell out the “Theology of Evangelism,” but give us an “ethic of evangelism” as well.
GUNTER E. ROCHOW
Toronto, Ont.
The High And The Low
Thanks for your article about underpaid pastors. It’s a shame that the “highest calling” is accompanied by the “lowest pay.”
Too bad LBJ’s minimum-wage law does not benefit the young minister. If it did, my pay would be tripled. The only consolation one receives is that there is only one way left to go—up.
ROBERT L. NEUMAN
Grace Assembly of God
Marion, Ind.
The Unoriginal American Mind
May I thank you for the service of CHRISTIANITY TODAY. Personally I should like to see more articles from British teachers of theology. Also in your editorial committee please take note of this. We non-Americans consider that an undue list of quotations and their sources is a sign of weakness: no statement is a strong statement or a weak statement according to from whose mouth it proceeds. Even a fool speaks wisely sometimes and a wise man speaks foolishly. We desire original thought, fresh and perennial, and not that which may be gleaned here and there from sources that most of us are aware of. The American mind is considered by some of us unoriginal but very “gadgetty.” Nothing original comes from the United States—but tremendous improvement is made upon a thought after it reaches the United States.
Theologically I like CHRISTIANITY TODAY because of its great vice: it halts between two opinions. In other words, it revolves upon the liberal-fundamentalist axis so that we are able to form something of a dialogue of what is going on. I am a fundamentalist but a “kind” one and one who owes much to the opposite school of thought because of the courage with which they tackle some mysteries of theology.
I recognize neither the pope nor the renowned Scofield and his Bible as the norm of theology or truth. The umpire of truth sits upon the joint throne of revelation and conscience in each individual heart.
C. VICTOR BARNARD
Lucknow, India
