This column customarily restricts itself to current periodical literature. This time, however, we are devoting the page to a book—or more accurately a series of books—The Works of Jonathan Edwards. (Perry Miller, General Editor. Volume I, Freedom of the Will, edited by Paul Ramsey, New Haven, Yale University Press, 1957. 494 pp.; $6.50). This definitive edition is a matter of the highest importance and significance. Inasmuch as we have a personal interest both in Edwards and in this edition we feel compelled to give it the attention that it demands.

First a word about Edwards himself, and then a word on this whole edition, with incidental references to the first volume which has just appeared. Born in 1703 this child of a Connecticut manse early exhibited an intellectual precocity never surpassed in history. Well-trained by his father at home, he finished his academic discipline at the head of his class at Yale, where a college is today named for him. Possibly the two most important events in his intellectual life occurred here as he came under the influence of the British empiricist, John Locke, and as his conversion was occasioned by his yielding to the doctrine of divine sovereignty. Domestically speaking, he became acquainted with Sarah Pierpont, who later entered into one of the happiest of marriages with him, and began that line of descendants which is usually cited as America’s most distinguished.

For twenty-three years he preached the doctrines of the Bible to the Congregational church in Northampton, Mass., with a thoroughness and profundity that has never been matched in the annals of the Christian pulpit. It was during this period that the revivals occurred which have caused him to be regarded as our most eminent early evangelist, and, together with William James, our most distinguished psychologist of religious experience. The occasion of his dismissal, his insistence that persons not be admitted to the Lord’s Supper until they had given reasonable evidence of conversion, was to become ultimately his greatest ecclesiastical triumph.

In relative retirement, although still very busy, during the next six years at the village of Stockbridge, he produced the works on which his philosophical and theological fame largely rest. The most famous of these is the first to be published in the new edition, although under the abbreviated and misleading title, The Freedom of the Will. Edwards died, as serenely as he had lived, after serving only a few months as president of the college that today is called Princeton University. He lived the same number of years as Thomas Aquinas, whom he rivalled in religio-philosophical acumen, and John Calvin, with whose theological brilliance his own compares—fifty-five. Two hundred years have elapsed since he died in 1758.

Since Edwards was the first American to gain international reputation as a thinker, it is not surprising that his works have often been published, and some of them in many languages. The first edition of his works, though by no means complete and hardly worthy the designation “critical,” appeared fifty years after his death. Other such editions appeared but the last general one was in 1874. Now two hundred and fifty years after his birth comes the first edition that shows promise of becoming definitive and nearly exhaustive. This is a period in which Americans are again digging the wells that have been dug—going back to see the early foundations on which our history has been laid. It is fitting that at the same time that definitive editions of one of America’s earliest men of affairs, Benjamin Franklin, and one of her most influential early political figures, Thomas Jefferson, are being made, her first great theologian should be adequately presented.

The nature of the present undertaking is significant in more ways than its definitiveness. Not only is it being done by the careful Yale Press and subsidized by the Bollingen Foundation, but the makeup of the editorial committee is tell-tale. For one thing it is not an “Edwardean” committee in any theological sense. So far as we have noticed there is not one full-blown Calvinist of the Edwardean stripe on its roster. Indeed the committeemen are not all theologians. The general editor, for example, Perry Miller of Harvard, is a highly detached and somewhat skeptical student of puritanism who admires Edwards as its purest expression. Norman Pearson is a professor of English literature and culture at Yale who is probably even less interested in Edwards as a theologian and more interested still in him as an historical and literary figure. Paul Ramsey, editor of the first volume, is professor of Religion at Princeton University. John A. Smith, who will edit The Religious Affections, teaches at Yale University and is a recognized philosopher. All the other members are probably ordained men, but only one is a practicing minister, the Rev. Vincent Daniels of Greenwich, Conn. The significance of all this is that this new interest in Edwards is coming largely from a liberal and cultural source. Those of the conservative tradition may rejoice in this fact so long as these men, and the other editors they secure, permit Edwards to speak for himself, or give as Miller promises, “a clear and fair exhibition of his thought.”

Apart from the editorial committee there are at least two things of note about the edition itself. First of all, each volume, or group of volumes, will be introduced by its editor. If Ramsey’s is typical, these will be learned monographs giving an adequate critical, historical orientation that is invaluable to an understanding of the eighteenth century context. Such monographs have never been provided by previous editions. Where necessary, footnotes accompany the text.

A second feature is the use of the manuscripts themselves or the collation of published texts where the manuscripts are not available. The first volume had to follow the second alternative as the important manuscript on the Will, unfortunately, is among the missing. Ramsey has labored to give the best text possible in its absence. Fortunately, most of Edwards’ works are extant in manuscript and they are to be used. This is certain to yield a much less polished but much more idiomatic and authentic Edwards, inasmuch as he had his own colloquialisms and style and frequently did not re-work his material, not intending publication. Also many of the manuscripts have not previously been published. This is especially true of the sermons, only about sixty-five out of more than a thousand of which have previously been printed. But the most important manuscript corpus, and in the opinion of many Edwardean scholars his most important work of all, the Miscellanies, will soon be forthcoming from the extremely competent hands of Professor Schafer of Duke University.

While every minister and theological student should utilize these volumes whether from an interest in theology, philosophy of religion, church history, revivalism, psychology of religion, or church government; as we have noted, and as the composition of this committee indicates, Edwards belongs to the cultured reader in general.—JOHN H. GERSTNER

Religious Authority

The Pattern of Authority, by Bernard Ramm. Eerdmans, Grand Rapids, 1957. $1.50.

In this book the author, who is director of Baylor University department of Graduate Studies in Religion, again shows his ability to handle his subject in a way that is both interesting and attractive. Chapter One sets out his proposition: “First, I shall describe what I think is the true interpretation of religious authority; secondly, I shall briefly review a select number of competing interpretations.” This reviewer feels that he has succeeded on both counts. This volume is the second in Eerdmans’ Pathway Series, and for clarity, conciseness and contemporaneousness, could well be recommended for translation for the churches on the mission field, where I serve.

Ramm is aware of the various aspects of the problem of religious authority and he speaks forcefully to it and especially as it reflects the question of the authority of Scripture. His view is that of the informed Evangelical.

Especially interesting is the author’s treatment of the work of the Holy Spirit in inspiration. Describing the balance of priority which must prevail, he warns of the “subtle temptation to appeal to the Scriptures in isolation from the ministries of the Holy Spirit. That which awakens the soul to the divinity of the Scriptures is the internal witness of the Spirit. A catechetical method of proving the inspiration of the Scriptures is appropriate in its place, but the evidence of the verses cited does not compel till first the soul tastes of the life-and light-giving action of the Holy Spirit.”

The admirable brevity of this monograph is helpful and good, except perhaps when such brevity leaves the author open to misunderstanding. An example is his dismissal of the cultists in these words: “… they do not have the right principle of authority. The Holy Spirit does not speak in the Bible to the cultists. Because the Holy Spirit does not live in their midst nor speak to them in the Scriptures they fail to understand the Bible.” Further elaboration would have been useful especially as the Protestant Principle of Authority is, for the author, “… the Holy Spirit speaking in the Scriptures, which are the product of the sprit’s revelatory and inspiring action, …”

There is a need for clear, easily translatable and contemporary writing, in English, which is applicable to the church world-wide. It is the aim of Pathway Books to, “… make relevant to modern man the basic affirmations of the Christian faith through consideration of those questions which have come to the foreground of the modern scene.” If the publishers can convince their authors that this can be done in simple language, then laymen as well as ministers will be attracted by these books. Unfortunately, Dr. Ramm finds it difficult to stop talking like a theological professor.

A large amount of the confusion in theological thinking today is perhaps due to what has been called, “theological jargon”—the specialist’s lingo in spiritual things. The average non-professional reader knows little of original source material. He reads what someone said someone else meant, and, as a result, he often becomes confused. Thus, for example, when a Hollander’s views on Barth, in the German, are translated into English, and further translated by an American missionary and his assistant into Japanese, there is more than a slight possibility of misinterpretation. In a totally non-Christian context it is often disconcerting to a young missionary to refer to Scripture as objective authority, when the listener has no concept of the Bible as anything but a philosophical treatise.

HAROLD BORCHERT

Old Master

Commentary on the Epistle to the Ephesians, by John Eadie. Zondervan, Grand Rapids. $5.95.

Another reprint! Yes, all that and more—an old commentary (2nd. ed., 1861) resurrected and given another opportunity to speak its message to a new generation.

Not as well known as Lightfoot, Swete and other great interpreters of the New Testament, John Eadie, preacher, teacher and Scotsman, has qualities of mind and of spirit that put him in the category of the best exegetes of modern times.

His commentary on Ephesians (one of several written on Paul’s epistles) deals minutely—and in some places quite exhaustively—with the Greek text. This is not a “popular” work, since, among other characteristics, it cites profusely (without translation!) from Greek and Latin authors. However, there are many places where the comments will be readily understood by the non-linguistic reader. But only the person whose Greek is not entirely antiquated will receive the greatest satisfaction from this work of an old master.

Eadie was conversant with the views of many other commentators from ancient to modern times. These views are listed critically on every knotty problem of interpretation. In one place (on 3:18) ten different views are examined.

In the 485 pages of comments on this epistle one will find very few places where he will demur to the commentator’s judicious conclusions. Eadie, Calvinist and conservative, upholds the plenary inspiration of the Bible, and has little patience with those who impute a lapsus memoriae to Paul in a debated quotation (p. 388). But the reader will always find Eadie’s views sensibly and cogently defended. He is no mere dogmatist, nor is he an obscurantist. He receives help from many but calls no man his master. He is as likely to disagree with Calvin as with De Wette. Eadie lets nothing but the Word of God as grammatically exegeted determine his meaning of the inspired words of Paul.

WICK BROOMALL

Evangelical Scholarship

Tyndale New Testament Commentaries: The Epistles of Paul to the Thessalonians, by Leon Morris. Eerdmans, Grand Rapids, 1957. $2.00.

The General Epistle of James, by R. V. G. Tasker. Eerdmans, Grand Rapids, 1957. $2.00.

“What is the best textbook in Arithmetic?” someone asked. The answer was, “That all depends upon what you mean. Are you asking about the best textbook for John who is in the fourth grade or for Mary who is in the seventh?”

So it is also with commentaries. The question, “What is the best commentary?” can be annoying. It should be given a definite context. If one is looking for a commentary that is to be used by a person who wishes to make a thorough study of the text, the Tyndale series will probably not be the answer. The thorough student will be looking for such things as a good, present-day rendering of the best text, a real and satisfying discussion of the problems which arise in connection with almost every verse, a synthesis of the whole after careful exegesis, etc. The amount of material that is presented in the two books under review is too scanty to do justice to such demands.

However, there are readers who lack the time for such detail and thoroughness. They are satisfied with a minimum of argumentation and proof. They look for conclusions rather than discussions. To such a reading-public I heartily recommend these two books. Evident on every page is the fact that the authors are scholars, and what is more, that they are men of warm, evangelical scholarship. The style, moreover, is lucid.

To give an illustration of the type of comments found in these books, let us take Morris’s explanation of “the man of sin” (2 Thess. 2, p. 127):

“Paul does not use the term Antichrist, but it is Antichrist that he has in mind; and this being will not be revealed until the end is near.”

Now, though such a comment offers little in the way of proof, it has the virtue of being correct!

Tasker’s volume on James is excellent in the same sense. In order to see what the author does with a difficult passage, one turns naturally to the reference to prayer for the sick and anointing them with oil in the name of the Lord (James 5:14, 15). One finds that the conclusion reached by the author is in harmony with the context and with common sense. In the very limited amount of space at the author’s disposal he could not very well have done better than he did.

WILLIAM HENDRIKSEN

The One Theme

The Invincible Christ, by Massey Mott Heltzel. Abingdon, Nashville, Tennessee. $2.00.

This is a volume of 13 sermons by the minister of Ginter Park Presbyterian Church, Richmond, Virginia. Before taking this pastorate in 1955, Mr. Heltzel was pastor of the Reid Memorial Presbyterian Church, Augusta, Georgia—attended by President and Mrs. Eisenhower on their trips to Georgia.

The first sermon this young pastor ever preached was on the text, “Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and today and forever.” His 17 years in the ministry have strengthened his conviction that the preacher’s one theme is Christ. He writes this book as a plea that Christ be placed at the heart of preaching and living. Each chapter in this volume deals with some aspect of the person and work of the Lord in history and in contemporary life.

The first chapter, “The Fascinating Christ,” appeared in the June 1954 issue of Reader’s Digest under the title, “The Central Character of the Centuries.”

The author uses illustrations skillfully. He is obviously a student of hymnology and well-read in classical and contemporary works. But while these aids to presentation are used so well, they do not dim the central figure—the saving and kingly Christ.

FRANK LAWRENCE