THEOLOGICAL ANTHROPOMETRICS
I am a breaker of bruised reeds. But not intentionally. When she came in to see me, brimming with excitement, I didn’t realize how fragile her psyche was.
She was a young pre-ministerial student who had received her call to the ministry while reading an article on women’s liberation in Redbook magazine.
“Have you read about anthropometrics?” she asked.
“Vaguely,” I replied.
“Well, anthropometrics is the study of the human configuration with a view toward designing more comfortable objects for human use.”
She expanded on the topic with a story about the costly mistake of one of the automobile companies in importing bucket seats for American cars from its European subsidiary only to find that Americans have more ample proportions than Europeans and do not fit the same bucket.
Hopefully, she explained, anthropometrics will give us umbrellas that can be held without wrist strain and car seats that can be sat in comfortably on long trips, and in general will make living in the technological age physically more bearable.
“Well,” she said, brightening as she came to her real subject, “I’ve been thinking that anthropometrics should be applied to theology! Instead of starting with theology we should start with people. After all, theology exists for people, not people for theology. Theoology doesn’t have to be a Procrustean bed—it could be something really beautiful and supportive. She was now on the edge of her chair.
“In the past, theology was like a straight-backed church pew that hit people in all the wrong places.”
“Or like corrective shoes,” I interjected.
She looked doubtful about my contribution but plunged ahead. “All those ideas of taboos and divine judgment and fixed propositions about God strike the human soul in all the wrong places. As Christians we are called to affirm all things human. We should design theology to support the shape of the human soul, not restrict or remold it. After all, the Apostle Paul himself said that all things are lawful!”
A silent moment hung between us as, bright-eyed with excitement at what her own mind had brought forth, she waited for my reaction.
“It’s been done,” I said, perhaps with a touch of weariness. “Repeatedly.”
She furrowed her brow and opened her mouth as though to offer some rebuttal. Then I saw the enthusiasm drain from her eyes. Her face became expressionless. Mentally she had already left the presence of this Philistine. Instead of rebuttal, she offered apologies for troubling me with something so trite, and then left.
The moral of the story is: If you want to talk with youth, speak with the tongues of men and of angels but not with the voice of history.
ACCORD FOR BEETHOVEN
I was greatly encouraged by Frank Gaebelein’s fine article on Beethoven (Dec. 4). It was heartening to find that there are some evangelicals who realize the great spiritual significance of the works of the masters, even though these men in general did not verbally express theological orthodoxy.… It is difficult for me to believe that God is honored by the cult of mediocrity which permeates modern “Christian” music in general.
Palo Alto, Calif.
ON WITH THE REVOLUTION
Leighton Ford’s “Revolution for Heaven’s Sake” (Dec. 4) is excellent and should be widely read.
Bellflower, Calif.
Haven’t we had enough of the semantic games Christians play? Revolution is an “in” word; so we “relevant” evangelicals drag it to the baptismal font—and blur distinctions necessary for the clear thinking demanded in a confusing time. Why not rather a moratorium on this word, since our day has squeezed all its meaning out of it (as it has recently with love, peace, and law and order)? Slogans are for those with a bumper-sticker mentality.
Department of English
Westmont College
Santa Barbara, Calif.
MISPLACED CONGRESSMAN
You have erroneously listed Congressman J. Edward Roush from Indiana as a member of the Brethren in Christ Church (“The Ninety-second Congress: A Religious Census,” Dec. 4). He is a member of the Church of the United Brethren in Christ.… Though we work closely with the Brethren in Christ, and enjoy their fellowship, we are not at the present ready to relinquish Congressman Roush to them. Church of the United Brethren in Christ Bishop Huntington, Ind.
• Sorry, we erred. You may have him back.—ED.
REVISED VERSION
May we call your attention to some errors that appeared in “Behind the Iron Curtain: Bibles” (Nov. 20).
Mr. Van Capelleveen states that distribution of Bibles, Testaments, and Portions [complete books of the Bible] grew all over the world except in the United States. This should read “except in the Americas”.… In the same paragraph, Mr. Van Capelleveen states that the Bible Societies in Europe reported an increase of 115 per cent. This should read 1.5 per cent. This percentage and those that follow for Africa and Asia are not based on the distribution of Bibles, Testaments, and Portions as reported in his opening sentence. These percentages (1.5 per cent for Europe, 9.2 per cent for Africa, and 33.5 per cent for Asia) include the distribution of Selections [publications of less than a complete book of the Bible].… In the interest of accuracy it should be noted that total Scripture distribution throughout the United States during this period, including Selections, increased 19.2 per cent, an increase greater than those achieved by either Europe or Africa.…
Assistant Secretary
Education and Information
American Bible Society
New York, N. Y.
MORE FAILURE’ PRESCRIBED
In his concern regarding the polarization of the Church (Nov. 6), C. Philip Hinerman calls for a “great new movement of the Holy Spirit.… This is not to be a movement of emotionalism; we have already had that, and it has failed.”
I must remind Mr. Hinerman that during revival meetings at his church, the Park Avenue United Methodist Church in Minneapolis, in the 1930s and 1940s, … hundreds were born into the Kingdom under the preaching of men like Dr. John Thomas of Wales, and Dr. Paul Rees. There was much emotion, tears of sorrow and then of joy, as the Word was preached with power. Scores entered the ministry and foreign mission service, hundreds of others committed their lives to Christ. How many Christian homes resulted from these meetings only God knows. If this is failure, we need more of it in the churches today.
MIRIAM M. SWEET
East Ivanhoe, Victoria
Australia
MORE!
Thank you very much for the “Minister’s Workshop” in your October 23 issue. Many ministers will find “Focus on Pastoral Counseling” by Louis O. Caldwell a great help. Could we have more treatment of this very important part of the ministry today?
Ohura, New Zealand
