Apologetics Made Appetizing
Christianity on Trial, by Colin Chapman (Tyndale, 1975, 594 pp., $7.95 pb), is reviewed by Clark Pinnock, associate professor of theology, Regent College, Vancouver, Canada.
Most Christian workers are convinced of the need for apologetics, for evangelism, and for nurture, and are on the lookout for a text to give disciples or interested persons, a book that clearly sets out the reasons for faith and provides a ready reference to the many subjects grouped around this theme. Colin Chapman’s handsomely prepared and printed book should meet this need for many.
This substantial volume is divided into three main parts: (1) “How can we know if Christianity is true?” (2) “Questions of God, Man, and the Universe.” (3) “Questions about Jesus Christ.” It is subdivided into seven basic questions, and the format is consistent in each subsection, eminently teachable. The author begins by giving the answer of biblical Christianity, then turns to the major alternatives to it, and finally returns to the biblical answer, clearing it of all objections that have arisen from the investigation. One particularly valuable feature of the volume is the paragraph-length citations culled from famous and influential writers of every opinion and fully documented at the back of the book. These are very apt and usable in connection with various apologetic issues.
The book starts out sharply and boldly. God has revealed truth about himself, and the truth is open to verification. Intellectual convictions about Christianity are of course inadequate in themselves, but they do supply a threshold for personal trust. In the first part, Chapman promises that Christian truth is verifiable factually, philosophically, and experimentally. After discussing options such as authoritarianism, agnosticism, and existentialism, he returns to his thesis and responds to the major questions that it raises. He does not advocate a cold rationalism, but believes that the Gospel has a broad appeal to the whole of man’s being, including his thinking. The first part prepares us for a rich feast of apologetic argument and evidence.
There is more than a slight letdown, however, in the second part. Although the basic question “Does God exist?” is raised in questions two and four, it is answered with the help of only the weakest kind of evidences. The reason is that Chapman, like so many others today, does not find the traditional arguments for God’s existence convincing. While they may carry some weight with those who are already Christians, he does not think they make any impression on the unbeliever. The result, however, is a large vacuum in the center of the handbook. There is no cosmological or teleological or moral argumentation, not even an appeal to religious experience to justify theistic belief. All we find is the sort of apologetic reasoning that tells us what it is like to view the world if you do believe. If the quite solid arguments of traditional apologetics have no effect on the unbeliever (an enormous generalization), one shudders to think what effect the absence of solid reasoning will have on them.
The strongest section in the book is perhaps question three, “What is man?” It is a statement of the experimental test for Christian truth. What good sense for the living of life does faith in Jesus make! In the section we are treated to some splendid quotations from Russell, Blackham, Huxley, and others that illustrate vividly the metaphysical darkness from which God has rescued us and cause us to be grateful to our Saviour for his goodness to us. But this substitution of an experimental, anthropological argument for the older theistic proofs, while it fits the spirit of our age and doubtless has a wide appeal, should, I suspect, be viewed rather as a complement to them than as a replacement. The practical evidence that proves Christianity relevant unfortunately does not prove it true, and the truth question about theism cannot be indefinitely shelved.
The third part is devoted to historical and theological apologetics concerning the person and work of Jesus, including his death and resurrection. The material here can only be called elementary. There is, for instance, no in-depth defense of the authenticity of the New Testament documents, and no detailed resurrection apologetic such as a toughminded person would require.
In conclusion, Christianity on Trial is a handbook of Christian apologetics suitable for the beginner or seeker in late high school or early college. It begins strongly, and raises expectations of a university-level treatise, but does not carry through with it. The book is excellent in format, and it could be used in the classroom together with supplementary readings.
The Gold Is There
Noah’s Three Sons: Human History in Three Dimensions, by Arthur Custance (Zondervan, 1975, 368 pp., $8.95), reviewed by Robert Brow, associate rector, Little Trinity Anglican Church, Toronto, Canada.
The “Doorway Papers” were written over many years, beginning in 1957 after Custance wrote a doctoral thesis in anthropology at Ottawa University in Canada. Here we have five of the sixty papers strung together in a spotty, repetitive fashion, but the gold is worth digging for.
Custance’s wide-ranging generalizations are admittedly too big and too skinny. Noah had three sons. From them came three races, the Semites, Hamites, and Japhethites. It is easy to identify the Japhethites as Indo-Europeans, and clearly Hindus, Greeks, and Europeans have been the world’s philosophers. The Semites contributed the great religions of the spirit: Judaism, Christian, and Islam. The Hamites, who include all the non-white races, were the originators of technology in the great civilizations of Sumer, Egypt, Babylonia, and Africa. Japhethite philosophy applied to Hamitic technology, and Semitic religion had a glorious flowering in our Western civilization. All three contributions are designed by God for the good of humanity, and we neglect one or the other at our peril.
What is important is Custance’s attempt to ground a truly biblical and interdisciplinary view of history in the Table of Nations. The Greek and Latin classicists and the Near Eastern archaeologists and linguists have sufficiently pursued their unrelated minutiae. Our author effectively argues for the very early date of Genesis 10 (confirmed from another point of view in R. K. Harrison’s Introduction to the Old Testament). Custance argues well that early races looked back to individuals as founding fathers, that these persons can be related genealogically, and that Genesis 10 gives us the correct framework.
The book is at its strongest in collecting references to the wide-ranging Japhethite Indo-European races. I was fascinated by the derivation of Saxons, German Sachsen, and Scandinavians from Ashkenaz, and the Gauls, Celts, and Galatians from Gomer.
Custance follows the assumption adopted by the first Semitic scholars that Abraham’s race and language were the same. The Table of Nations actually suggests that Abraham was Shemitic by race, but adopted the dominant Babylonian and Canaanite language (see CHRISTIANITY TODAY, October 26, 1973, “The Curse of Ham”). It is as if an African Muslim learned French at school and teaches philosophy at the Sorbonne: is his work Hamitic, Semitic, or Indo-European? Having taken it for granted that the Babylonians were Semites because they spoke a language similar to Hebrew, Custance is then in constant trouble. He admits the difficulty of finding Canaanites and Philistines Hamitic by genealogy and yet speakers of what scholars call a Semitic language. If we want to take the Table of Nations seriously, we have to call Babylonians, Canaanites, Egyptians, Minoans, and so on, Hamites. We then have to look for a race of true Shemites, who, like Abraham, originally spoke a completely different type of language.
Interestingly enough, Custance has dug up the information needed to link the Etruscans and Proto-Lydians with the agglutinative group of languages including Finnic, Altaic, Basque, and Sumerian. These are much more likely to be the representatives of the original Shemites, together with the Elamites. According to Genesis 10:21–23, the original language of the Assyrians and Arameans, before they were swamped by Akkadian language and culture, would also belong to this group.
Even if the author is wrong in the details I have suggested, much can still be retrieved from his work. He reminds us that pure science and philosophy have been produced by Japhethites. In a history of philosophy, what could one include apart from Hindu, Greek, Latin, German, French, English, and American contributions? (He disposes of the minor objection from China by arguing that Confucianism is not a philosophy.) Quoting Benjamin Whorf and other works in linguistic philosophy Custance offers the fascinating suggestion that perhaps philosophy, as we understand it, is possible only in the logic and thought forms of the Indo-European languages.
Much else in the book can whet the appetite, such as the chapter on “The Inventive Genius of Ham,” which apparently impressed the Canadian government in its immigration policy. There is an interesting section on racial migrations with the suggestion that degenerate forms such as Neanderthal man tend to be found at the margins of habitation, and yet can occur in otherwise healthy families. If you are looking for scholarly precision in a narrow field you will not survive the first few sections, but if you find imaginative synthesis worthwhile, this book will do much to stimulate your thinking. There is no index or bibliography but over 700 footnotes.
BRIEFLY NOTED
Christians interested in the arts should welcome the new thrust of the Fellowship of Christians in the Arts, Media, and Entertainment. To inquire about membership and the revived Newsletter write: Box 9323, Seattle, Washington 98109. Also, Genesis made its first appearance in April, with a sixty-four-page issue. It is the journal of the fine arts-oriented Society of Christians in the Arts. The journal should be in theological and art libraries and costs $5/three issues. For information on subscriptions and membership write: Box 1194, Greenwich, Connecticut 06830.
Providence Lost: A Critique of Darwinism, by Richard Spilsbury (Oxford, 133 pp., $11.25). A secular approach to the questions of man’s origins in a challenging, broadly philosophical manner. Criticizes reliance upon purely materialistic explanations.
Psalms For Worship Today, by Dwight Vogel (Concordia, 176 pp., $6 pb). A new arrangement and organization of the Psalms for use in the worship service. This spiral-bound kivar volume is more for antiphonal than responsive reading.
Church Planning and Management, by B. Otto Wheeley (Dorrance, 218 pp., $8.95). A guidebook, complete with examples of budgets, salaries, and pastor’s job descriptions.
There’s a Snake in My Garden, by Jill Briscoe (Zondervan, 143 pp., $4.95), It’s Good to Know, by Randy Bullock (Mott Media [Box 236, Milford, Mich. 48042], 233 pp., $5.95, $2.95 pb), Tell It to the Mafia, by Joe Donato (Logos, 154 pp., $2.95), The Dino Story, by Dino Kartsonakis (Revell, 128 pp., $4.95), Move Over Mountain, by Nancy Life (Bethany, 139 pp., $2.45 pb), and A Rebel From Riches, by Bebe Reynolds (Alba, 150 pp., $1.65 pb). The first five are autobiographical accounts of how five persons came to Christ: in the order listed, an evangelist’s wife, an actor, an ex-criminal, a pianist, and a formerly frustrated housewife. The sixth autobiography, reminding us of the variety of conversions, is by a self-made millionaire who became a Benedictine monk.
Jesus of Nazareth in New Testament Preaching, by G. N. Stanton (Cambridge, 207 pp., $16.50). A technical, important study of the life and character of Jesus in Luke-Acts by a younger British evangelical.
The Gospel According to the Wall Street Journal, by Carnegie Samuel Calian (John Knox, 120 pp., $3.95), Notes Toward a Christian Critique of Secular Economic Theory, by A. B. Cramp (Institute for Christian Studies [229 College St., Toronto, Canada M5T 1R4], 80 pp., $1.50 pb), and Illusions of Success, by John Raines (Judson, 128 pp., $5.95). Three critiques of modern Western economic value systems. Calian uses the Wall Street Journal to illuminate economic values, presenting his view of a Christian response throughout. Cramp’s more technical book examines theories of economics and presents his conservative Christian analysis. Raines’s treatment attempts to illumine the true, exploited condition of the American middle class. Some mention is made of religious influences in economic values.
Anarchy, State, and Utopia, by Robert Nozick (Basic Books, 367 pp., $12.95). An important addition to the field of political philosophy. Nozick seeks to show that anything more than a very limited government will violate individual rights and is not justified. The author is a full professor at Harvard, and the book won the latest annual National Book Award in philosophy and religion.
Which Way to Education?, by Philip May (Moody, 159 pp., $2.95 pb). Addressing Christian parents and teachers, the author, rather philosophically, points out their responsibilities in a child’s education. A rather abstract presentation of some biblical principles, but with a helpful perspective.
Man Without Tears, by Christopher Mooney (Harper & Row, 148 pp., $7.95), and The Mystery of Man, by Owen Sharkey (Franklin, 189 pp., $10.95). Mooney, follower of Teilhard de Chardin, calls his book “soundings for a Christian anthropology.” Sharkey’s study is also anthropological and is more clearly biblically based.
