Human Predicament

Christianity and the Existentialists, by Carl Michalson (editor). Scribner’s, New York, 1956. $3.75.

This book is made up of a very readable series of public lectures delivered at Drew University during the academic year 1953–54. Eight well-known scholars contribute as follows: Carl Michalson, editor, and Professor of Systematic Theology, Drew University, on “What is Existentialism?”; H. Richard Niebuhr, Professor of Theology and Christian Ethics, Yale Divinity School, on Soren Kierkegaard; John A. Mackay, President of Princeton Theological Seminary, on Miguel de Unamuno; Mathew Spinka, Professor of Church History, The Hartford Seminary Foundation, on Nicholas Berdyaev; J. V. Langmead Casserley, Professor of Dogmatic Theology, the General Theological Seminary, on Gabriel Marcel; Erich Dinkler, Professor of New Testament Literature, Yale Divinity School, on Martin Heidegger; Paul Tillich, University Professor, Harvard University on “Existentialist Aspects of Modern Art”; and Stanley Romaine Hopper, Dean of the Graduate School, Drew University, on “On the Naming of the Gods in Holderlin and Rilke.”

A certain arbitrariness in the selection of the existentialists under consideration was inevitable, as acknowledged by the editor, but as a service to the uninitiated, the book serves as a useful introduction to a philosophy made difficult not only because of its vocabulary and the importance of subjective moods of existentialists, but also because it is so contemporary. The aim of the book is further served well by the inclusion of a bibliography directing the beginning reader to additional sources.

Each writer sets out in brief compass some of the basic principles of the existentialist philosopher he is discussing, but it is not always apparent to the reviewer that the writers relate these to specifically Christian forms of thought and experience. In the opinion of the writer of this review, Professor Dinkler gives us the most explicit attempt in the latter by devoting twelve pages out of thirty to the relationship between Heidegger’s thought and Christian teaching. President Mackay’s essay on Michael de Unamuno proved to be the most vibrant of the book due first to Dr. Mackay’s personal acquaintance with Michael de Unamuno and Spanish life, and also the fact that for most of us this philosopher is a new figure.

After reading the book a Christian gets a sense of the acuteness of the problems of human existence in the face of the ultimate questions of human experience. Four of these stand out here, namely, the problem of guilt, the problem of communion, the problem of history and the problem of death. It is refreshing to find in these philosophers a disdain for the categories of Naturalism in terms of which an adjustment is sought to whatever happens to be the prevailing current in the cultural stream. It must be pointed out, however, that the contributors to this volume and especially the editor make clear the distinction between atheistic and metaphysical or theistic existentialism. Carl Michalson exhibits this contrast by the poignant use of an apt illustration from Kierkegaard. Man is shipwrecked at a point in the sea where the water is 70,000 fathoms deep. The atheistic existentialist suggests that man, in this predicament, will find his support in his thrashing about, whereas, the theistic existentialist will find his in the hope that while thrashing, his arms will encounter something outside himself for support.

Existentialism rubs the salt into the wounds of the human predicament, but where are the answers to the problems of human existence? One wonders whether answers are really possible within the framework of reference suggested in existentialism. For if as Heidegger writes, “… belief, not permanently exposing itself to the question and danger of unbelief, is no faith at all, but mere convenience and agreement with one’s self to keep the doctrine as to a comforting tradition” (p. 121), then the certainties of Christian experience based on justification by faith and union with Christ are not possible to the existentialist. If it is the prerogative of the existentialist to ask, but not to give, or find, answers to ultimate questions, then Paul Tillich is right in saying, “… I would agree that there is no Christian existentialism. There are many Christian existentialists; but insofar as they are existentialists they ask the question, show the estrangement, show the finitude and show the meaningless ness. Insofar as they are Christians, they answer these questions as Christians but not as existentialists” (p. 141). The assurances of genuine Christian experience will always prove a stumbling-block to philosophies not taking into account as final God’s intervention in history in redemption and the application of this by the Spirit in assured spiritual experience in the heart of the believer. No better expression of the problem of human existence on the one hand, and the resolution of the problem on the other, can be suggested than Augustine’s famous opening words in the Confessions, “Thou hast made us for Thyself, and our hearts are restless till they may have found their rest in Thee.”

SAMUEL J. MIKOLASKI

Divine Revelation

Exploring the Old Testament, by W. T. Purkiser. Beacon Hill, Kansas City. $4.50

Exploring the Old Testament comes as the answer to a need which has existed for a long time in the area of conservative scholarship for an introduction to Hebrew Scriptures at the undergraduate level. The panel of contributors to this work have sought to combine Old Testament introduction with the materials usually incorporated in Old Testament “book studies.” The editor has done his work so well that the volume gives no indication of its composite authorship nor of any essential differences of outlook among its writers.

A review of such a work can hope to do little more than indicate its general plan and to give its major characteristics. Sections 1 and 2 are basically introductory, dealing respectively with the themes, “This is God’s Word” and “Why the Old Testament?” These, along with Section 16, under title of “The Message and Meaning of the Old Testament” serve to acquaint the reader with the significance of the Old Testament for today’s Christian.

Sections 3 and 15 combine an analysis of the respective sections of the Old Testament with a survey of their meaning. These deal chronologically with Israel’s history, and after the events of 975 B.C. deal almost entirely with Judah’s history, except Section 11, “The Northern Kingdom and Its Prophets.” The volume includes two valuable appendixes, the first being designed to relate the chronology of the Old Testament to general world chronology; the second giving well-written summaries of the Old Testament books.

To characterize the work in detail would require more length than this book review permits. Some features, however, require special mention. First of all, Exploring the Old Testament is a good statement of the historic Christian position with reference to the Hebrew Scriptures. This statement is made from a generally affirmative approach, letting the Old Testament speak for itself and proclaim its own message. The writers show, however, an awareness of the critical problems which have been raised in connection with Old Testament studies and of the basics of so-called liberal Old Testament criticism. Its answer to the positions of liberal critical scholarship is two-told: that the Old Testament taken by itself fails to support these positions (i.e., that liberal criticism has forced its conclusions), and that the evidence for many liberal contentions is insufficient.

The volume embodies a valuable statement concerning such questions as the Old Testament canon, the versions and the New Testament use of the Old Testament. In addition to good basic statements upon these questions, there is an excellent bibliography by means of which the undergraduate teacher in biblical studies can expand the work of his classes as much as his program will permit and his needs will indicate.

The volume indicates an awareness upon the part of the writers of the significance of contemporary cultures for the understanding of Hebrew life and thought. The writers have a good knowledge of contemporary usages in Babylonian and Mesopotamian civilizations. Parallels in thought and practice are not minimized nor neglected by the writers, but rather, are shown for what they really were, namely survivals from an original disclosure of the Divine purposes—in fine, of an original Revelation.

The over-all impact of this work seems to this reviewer to be capable of summary in one word: appreciation. The writers have sensed the high significance of the Old Testament as divine Revelation. Their blend of comment and homiletics, their cross-referencing of Old Testament with the New Testament and their general attitude all work toward this objective. College student or intelligent layman will find this volume equally challenging. It is a significant addition to the literature of Bible-believing scholarship.

HAROLD B. KUHN

For Undergraduates

Exploring the New Testament, by Ralph Earle, Harvey S. Blaney, and Carl Hanson. Beacon Hill, Kansas City. $4.50.

This companion volume to Exploring the Old Testament is designed to meet a similar need, namely to be a “text for the required course in New Testament survey for lower division students in college.” Exploring the New Testament is similar in form to the earlier volume, seeking to compress the basics of New Testament introduction into three chapters, and then to expound in a topical order that which will reflect the general order of events described.

Chapter 1, “Why Study The New Testament?” is essentially hortatory: it seeks to inspire a love for the written Word and to cultivate an appetite for study of it. Questions of the extent and quality of inspiration are passed over briefly, with the emphasis being upon the message rather than the form of the New Testament Scriptures. This work then, assigns the home work for the study of apologetics rather than seeking to do its lessons for it.

The discussion of “The World Into Which The New Testament Came” (Ch. 2) seems unusually well-done; this reviewer would like to have had such an introduction to his undergraduate studies in New Testament. The same may be said of Chapter 3, “The New Testament Transmitted and Translated.” The writers have sought to broaden the base of New Testament study for undergraduates by filling the vacuum which the inter-testamental period seems too frequently to be.

The chapters dealing with the four Gospels present our Lord in a four-fold role: as Messiah-King, as Conqueror-Servant, as Son of Man and as Son of God. This division is, to be sure, not wholly original; but the manner in which the work of the four Evangelists is shown to present one outstanding portrait is unusual in books of this kind. The approach is affirmative; the writers indicate an awareness of modern liberal New Testament criticism, but in general take the approach that the interpretation of historic Christian faith presents the fewest problems, while many critical views are lacking in supporting evidence.

Taken together, the conclusions to the chapters dealing with Matthew, Luke and John (pp. 112; 185 ff.; and 224 ff.) afford an excellent over-all view of the events which tie together the Gospels and the remainder of the New Testament. From this, as well as from the manner in which parallel passages in the Synoptics are treated, the student can scarcely fail to gain the impression of “togetherness” which underlies the volume—and which is a wholesome relief from the excessive analysis which has plagued New Testament critical scholarship.

This same factor finds emphasis in the continuity which the writers trace in the several studies of the Acts of the Apostles, and of the Pauline, Johannine and Petrine literature. In a similar vein, the treatment of the Epistle to the Hebrews in the chapter “God’s Last Word to Man” (Ch. 13) pursues the method of relating the Old Testament to the New Testament and of discovering in both the Incarnate Word. The same may be said for the treatment of the Book of Revelation. Here the writer(s) treat with reserve the areas in which legitimate difference of opinion and interpretation exists among scholars, and lay emphasis upon the One who is revealed, and who stands supreme over angels, living creatures and elders.

The volume, Exploring the New Testament, maintains in fine balance a careful scholarly analysis and a spirit of reverent regard for the Lord and Mediator of the New Covenant. Historical and background materials are well written, and documented so far as is essential to keep the work in line with standard volumes of its kind. Footnotes are, in general, kept to a minimum.

This reviewer asked himself the question: Suppose that, prior to becoming acquainted with the New Testament itself, the book Exploring the New Testament came into his hands. What major thought would be in his mind as he read this work? The answer seems clearly this: Where can he secure a copy of

the New Testament of which Dr. Earle and his colleagues have written? To all who approach the matter in reverse, having first the New Testament, such a volume as this is of great value in making the Scriptures to be the object of earnest study.

HAROLD B. KUHN

Church In Politices

The Kingdom Without God, by Gerald Heard, Edmund A. Opitz and others, Foundation for Social Research, Los Angeles, 1956. The Powers That Be, by Edmund A. Opitz. Foundation for Social Research, Los Angeles, 1956.

Recently some laymen urged the union of two denominations because they would then be more able “to mold public opinion.” Their argument reflects the struggle being waged today to win support for ideas and causes.

But the laymen’s argument produces a disturbing question. What is the content of the Church’s message? Or to state it differently, what is the function of the Church’s voice?

As many evangelists see it, the Church is here to proclaim God’s saving grace in Christ and to teach all the things that He commanded. This teaching has many social implications, but it builds upon an individual experience of salvation. Regeneration occurs, then nurture and instruction. Since the proclamation of the Gospel is public, the world outside of Christ’s fellowship will be aware of Christian ideals and standards and will be affected by the attitudes and actions of faithful Christians in all areas of life.

There are many liberals in American Protestantism who construe the message and function of the Church differently. While in varying degree they may pay tribute to the need for individual salvation, they are engrossed in social improvement. To achieve this improvement, the Church must be expert in political and economic matters. Having decided on the best program available at the moment, the Church must have a powerful, united voice to sway public opinion. Then the Church depends upon the State to legislate and enforce the program.

Two booklets published by the Foundation for Social Research present the cleavage in American Protestant thought incisively. The larger booklet, “The Kingdom Without God,” bears the revealing subtitle, “Road’s End for the Social Gospel.” It contains essays by Gerald Heard, Edmund A. Opitz and others.

The essayists contend that the social gospel movement was “a first cousin to modern socialism” (p. i.). The older flag bearers were Washington Gladden and Walter Rauschenbusch; the newer ones, Reinhold Niebuhr, John C. Bennett, Liston Pope and Roswell P. Barnes. Social Action departments in the denominations and in the Federal Council of Churches were the centers of social gospel strategy. Their refuge and strength was in the enlarged use of government’s power according to their theories.

Mr. Opitz contributes more than others to the indictment of the social gospel movement and argues effectively for the “libertarian” case. “The role of governments is to protect individuals in their God-given individual rights” (p. 162). He deplores the popularity of the axiom that “political action, i.e., legalized violence, has an efficacy in human affairs far surpassing uncoerced, voluntary action” (p. 69). “Collectivism,” he avers, “in its many varieties, is the great secular faith of our time” (p. 78).

The other booklet, “The Powers that Be,” written exclusively by Opitz, presents case studies of the Church in politics. It exposes the one-sidedness of positions and pronouncements of the Federal Council and of its successor, the National Council of Churches, in questions concerning labor, the United Nations, and other economic and political issues.

The title page of both booklets lists the Foundation for Social Research “as a nonprofit corporation.” Its president is James C. Ingebretsen, 1521 Wilshire Boulevard, Los Angeles 17, California, at which address the booklets may be obtained.

CARY N. WEISIGER, III

Repentant Liberalism

Vocabulary of Faith, by Hampton Adams, Bethany, St. Louis. $2.50.

This little book, a series of popular messages on central Christian doctrines, could be mistakenly associated with the current revival of interest in the study of the theological key words of the Bible. In this respect the title is misleading.

Dr. Adams, distinguished pastor of Park Avenue Christian Church, New York City, teacher of courses in religion at New York City’s Union Theological Seminary and active representative of the Disciples of Christ in the ecumenical movement, confesses here a change in his own theological thinking (p. 113).

Against an apparent background of thorough-going liberalism, he now feels the language of the street cannot carry the Christian Gospel’s full weight of meaning (p. 7). In step with the repentant liberalism of today, he is ready to make fuller use of the once discarded vocabulary of faith.

On this basis the author proceeds in the course of 12 brief chapters, slanted particularly to the layman, to discuss such central doctrinal themes as: revelation, Christ, faith, God, the Holy Spirit, the atonement, reconciliation, redemption, resurrection, the Kingdom of God, the love of God, and grace. His point of departure in each instance is not the biblical witness but human experience, particularly the author’s own experience in counseling with those who “came to my study” (pp. 8, 9, 10, 23, etc.).

Some of the author’s ideas are: “Within their own experience, persons can have a positive revelation of God that is not traceable directly to God’s specific revelation” (p. 9); the early Christians called

Jesus Lord because “they could not believe in Jesus without believing in God” (p. 14); God is not to be thought of “as three separate, or even distinguishable, persons” (p. 52); faith that appropriates God’s forgiveness is “faith in God’s fatherhood that is inspired by Jesus’ death on the cross” (p. 64); we cannot be sure that anyone ever finally refuses to seek God’s forgiveness (p. 72); God’s forgiveness is “not an act but a quality of the love he gives to men” (p. 83); “many perhaps all, of the truest Christians have known themselves to be sinners ‘saved by grace’ ” (p. 116).

Although this is repentant liberalism, a chapter on sin is omitted.

Much could be said in appreciation of the book as far as it goes, particularly with reference to the author’s apologetic and his constant exposure of the inadequacy of contemporary secularism.

There are detracting oversights in printing: “Kupios” (p. 14), “authropos” (p. 27), “James S. Steward” (p. 51, f.n. 1), and “James Denny” (pp. 64 and 66, f.n. 1). There are inaccurate judgments: the Latin fathers are said to have written the historic creeds (p. 51); “nephesh” is said to indicate the principle of life which man as man possesses (p. 53); and a reference to the innate immortality of the soul is quoted without qualification (p. 92).

W. BOYD HUNT

Attractive Booklets

Booklets. American Tract Society, New York. 30c each.

These are five attractive booklets which a minister may desire to distribute to young Christians and others who desire knowledge of the subject treated. The first is “The Story of our Bible,” by Dr. David J. Fant. In simple and graphic form the study of the divine origin and growth of the Bible is told. Charts are given and there is a fine chapter on the scriptural portrait of Christ. The second booklet is, “The Spirit and Method of Bible Study,” by Dr. Wilbur M. Smith. This helpful booklet teaches the beginner how he may obtain the most out of the Scriptures. The third is a searching message to the minister titled, “Words to Winners of Souls,” by Horatius Bonar. This reveals the causes of an unfruitful ministry and indicates how one’s ministry may be enriched. The problem of prayer is dealt with in the fourth booklet, “Prayer,” by Dr. Samuel M. Zwemer. Along with suggestions regarding how to make prayer more effective, there is a brief exposition of the Lord’s Prayer. What to place in the hands of an inquiring Roman Catholic is sometimes a vexing problem. A fair presentation of the differences between Protestantism and Roman Catholicism is given in the fifth booklet, “Which Religion,” by Dr. George Wells Arms. It considers such doctrines as the Pope’s Infallibility, the Mass, Confessional, Indulgences, Purgatory and Mariolatry.

An Old Friend

A Dictionary of the Bible, by John D. Davis. Baker, Grand Rapids, Mich.

The Davis Dictionary of the Bible is not a new arrival but an old friend. It was in large measure the life work of Professor Davis who taught for many years at Princeton Seminary. The first edition appeared in 1898 and the fourth in 1924, about a year before Dr. Davis’ death. This fourth edition was reprinted seven times between 1924 and 1940; and it is a testimony to its enduring value that in 1954, thirty years after this edition appeared, the Baker Book House published this “photolith” reproduction which has been reprinted three times.

The reasons for the popularity of this Dictionary are briefly stated in the Preface to the original edition:

The book aims to be a dictionary of the Bible, not of speculations about the Bible. It seeks to furnish a thorough acquaintance with things biblical. To this end it has been made a compendium of the facts stated in the Scriptures, and of explanatory and supplementary material drawn from the records of the ancient peoples contemporary with Israel …

The serious defect in many of the books which have been written in recent years as “helps” to the study of the Bible has been that they have devoted too much time to theories about the Bible and have done this all too often for the purpose of imposing these theories upon the facts of the Bible. The facts remain the same; theories about them are often as ephemeral as they are various. Theories are discussed when it seemed advisable to do so. But they are distinctly secondary. It is also to be noted that Dr. Davis had the assistance of two of his distinguished colleagues at Princeton, Dr. George T. Purves and Dr. Benjamin B. Warfield.

Something should now be said about the second aim of Dr. Davis, to make the Dictionary a compendium “of explanatory and supplementary material drawn from the records of the ancient peoples contemporary with Israel.” It is quite superfluous to remark that archaeological research has made many and notable discoveries in the second quarter of the present century. Were Dr. Davis alive today he would make it his aim to incorporate them in what would be a fifth edition of the Dictionary. The present publishers have not deemed it advisable to revise the Dictionary in order to bring it up to date archaeologically. As to this two things are to be noted. The one is that the discoveries of the archaeologist, important and valuable as they are, concern the background and setting of Biblical history. They add nothing to the Biblical revelation per se. Helpful as they are in many ways they serve rather to show the vast difference between the religion of Israel and the religions of the peoples with which Israel came in contact. Furthermore, it must be remembered that many of the findings of archaelogy are inconclusive, that while it has solved some problems it has raised many others. The scroll of history which it unrolls before us is in many respects more obscure and fragmentary than we often realize.

Fifty years ago there were two main theories as to the date of Exodus. The one made Thothmes III the Pharaoh of the oppression, the other Rameses II, a difference of about two centuries. Dr. Davis advocated the later date, holding it to be in harmony with the facts given in the Bible. Other scholars held then and hold today that the earlier date is more probable. The question is much debated today. Many critical scholars hold that only a few of the Twelve Tribes ever were in Egypt, and the Conquest took place at several different times and from more than one direction, a view which is utterly incompatible with the facts stated in the Bible.

The distinction drawn by Dr. Davis between facts and theories is an important one. The Christian rejoices in every confirmation and illumination of the statements of the Bible which archaelogy has produced. But he does not accept these statements because the archaeologist tells him that he may do so, but because they are found in the Bible. And conversely he feels fully justified in rejecting the findings of the scientists when they contradict the statements of Scripture. Consequently, while we may regret that the archaeology of the Dictionary is not fully abreast of the clearest finding of the archaeologist, we welcome it and value it because it is primarily a dictionary of the Bible and not of speculations about the Bible and because a multitude of users have found its interpretations to be “sober, fair, and just.”

OSWALD T. ALLIS

WORLD NEWS

Strong Communist Thrust In Italy

The biggest Communist Party in the Democratic West exists today in Italy.

What causes have given rise to such a strong communist movement, with a membership of over 1,250,000 members? Youth organizations and fellow-travelers boost the total past 2,000,000.

Historical Causes

The fact that Italy is 99 per cent Roman Catholic accounts for much. For long generations, especially since the Counter Reformation, the Italian people have been nurtured with a religious system and doctrine which in denying freedom of investigation has deprived them of an effective sense of personal responsibility. This facilitated the rise of a formalistic and hence anti-democratic mind (for democracy requires freedom of thought and speech). In addition, the Italians were governed till 1870 by a number of absolute monarchies. They were kept bereft of many civil rights; to speak of freedom and democracy was a crime. This antidemocratic stream provided the cadres of Fascism, just as today it provides the cadres of communism. At the end of World War II, when Fascism collapsed, many leaders and members were accepted into the Communist Party. Entire brigades of fascist militia entered communist organizations.

Economic Causes

Poverty in Italy is a chronic disease. Many factors contribute to its permanence: shortage of resources, unemployment, underemployment, overpopulation and the egotism of privileged classes. These factors induce a large mass to long for an overthrow of the present situation, and to look at the Communist Party as the only agency able to operate such a change.

Political Causes

The powerful Soviet Union, reaching with her satellites to the borders of the peninsula, suggests to the majority of Italians a defensive attitude, but it excites in a strong minority feelings of attraction. Moreover, the overflowing of the Catholic Church into the political field has given rise to a revival of anti-clericalism, pushing many categories of Italians, especially intellectuals, into the hands of Communists.

Accidental Causes

When, in 1944, the new Italian nation was rising from the ashes of war, Russia first gave recognition, and Signor Togliatti, most skillful leader of Italian communism, entered into the first democratic government. Communists remained in power until 1947, with the approval of the Allied Control Commission. This meant placing communist leaders in many administration key-posts. Besides, the Communists have until now enjoyed full support from the Socialist Party, with which they signed an agreement for unity of action.

Signor Togliatti and his Etat Major, re-entering into Italy at the back of Allied Troops, after having been long catechized in Soviet Russia, were able to draw an unimaginable profit from all these historical, economical, political and accidental causes. They set up a model Party organization, through which they could reach all kinds of classes of people, imbuing them with communist doctrine.

Fortress Of Communism

Within a short time there arose in Italy the strongest Communist Party in the West. The strength, more than in numbers, lies in the devotion of every member to the Party. The Marxist ideology has for them the appeal of a religion. Week by week they meet in their cells for indoctrination. Whether in their office or workshop, out in the country or in the market place, they are active propagandists. This zeal earned them 6,125,000 votes at the last general elections in 1953. Added to 3,450,000 votes gained by the Socialist Party of Signor Nenni, this represents 35 per cent of the whole Italian constituency.

Nevertheless, it is doubtful if communism could make such a thrust in Italy if it lacked certain means. Apart from funds from the Cominform agency, some export-import communist sponsored companies have been set up in Italy to monopolize commerce with countries behind the Iron Curtain. Communist countries do business with Italian firms through these companies only.

But the power of communism in Italy would not be so matchless without the handling of a mighty weapon—the Confederazione Generale Italiana del Lavoro (C.G.I.L.), the strongest labor organization in the land. Signor Di Vittorio, general secretary of the C.G.I.L. and president of the World Federation of Labour Organizations (communist), is one of the big bosses of international communism, frequently putting Italian Government in difficulty by strikes.

CHRISTIANITY TODAYis a subscriber to Religious News Service, Evangelical Press Service and Washington Religious Report Newsletter.

Outlook For Future

Is there an answer? Part of the answer to communism undoubtedly lies in the strengthening of democracy.

There is evidence of this axiom. In 1946, the allied Communist and Socialist Parties together reported 41 per cent of the votes. In 1948, after the Socialdemocrats of Signor Saragat left the Socialist Party for a coalition government with the Christian Democratic Party, the Social-Communists garnered only 31 per cent of the votes. But the Vatican-inspired Christian Democratic Party, having obtained the absolute majority, made the government its monopoly and did not always rule democratically. In some instances civil and religious rights were denied to citizens. Many acts of intolerance and religious persecution were carried out against Protestants. At the political elections of 1953, Social-Communists lifted their votes again to 35 per cent, while Christian Democrats fell to 41 per cent. In these circumstances a coalition of the democratic parties was necessary. Christian Democrats sought alliance with Social-democrats, Liberals and Republicans. At last a democratic government was set up. Since then the political situation in Italy is undergoing favorable evolution. In addition, the recent deconsecration of Stalin and the revelations of Khrushchev have inflicted a big blow on Italian communism.

For the first time a crisis is in the making within the communist movement in Italy, and is already reaching the communist constituency and the leaders too. In local government elections last May they lost a half million votes. The “Unita,” organ of the Italian Communist Party, has reduced its printing 21 per cent, while sales have declined 27 per cent. The Confederazione Generale Italiana del Lavoro is floating in bad waters. Workers are more and more giving credit to the free and democratic labor organizations (C.I.S.L., Christian Democrat and U.I.L., Social-democrat).

This crisis, however, may be just a “momentary bewilderment.” Communism is still powerful and Italian conditions are not much changed. Only a continuous, untiring effort to broaden the basis of democracy can save the Italian nation from the Communist threat.

The next 12 months will indicate if democracy is to be firmly established in Italy or if the Communist threat shall continue to hang upon her like a Damocletian sword.

R.T.

Paul Walked Here

Several threads of biblical history were woven together recently when the Stoa of Attalos was dedicated by the American School of Classical Studies as the Museum of the Agora of Athens.

(The “Agora” is the “market” where Paul “disputed daily” with the philosophers of Athens during his short stay in the city.)

Excavation of the Agora was undertaken by the school in 1931 and has continued to the present, with a five-year break during the war years. The 25-acre site formerly housed some 5,000 people.

East, west and south boundaries have been brought to light in the largest part of the excavation. Still to be explored is the north side, where the “painted Stoa”—birthplace of the Stoic school of philosophy—is to be found.

Discoveries now being studied include the ruins of the law courts, the Mint, the concert hall (Odeion) and the public library of ancient Athens. A broad road passing diagonally through the Agora was the one used once a year by the Panathenian Procession on its way to the Acropolis.

The Agora was surrounded by “stoas” (shed-like buildings with deep porches). Bordering the square on all sides, these buildings provided sunshine or shade, according to the needs of the season.

The Stoa of Attalos, on the east side of the Agora, has been reconstructed on the original site in the original design. Attalos II of Pergamum built the Stoa. Pergamum, which later became the seat of the “Emperor-cult” for the Roman province of Asia, was called “Satan’s seat” by the Lord.

Within the Stoa are housed the finds from the excavation: some 65,000 catalogued objects, along with 100,000 coins, great masses of pottery, ancient sculpture, inscriptions on marble, bronze voting ballots, water clock from the law courts and elaborate machines for selecting civic officials by lot.

Now, after 19 centuries, followers of the Bible can visit the place where Paul encountered the philosophers of ancient Greece and where he was sent to be tried by the Aeropagus.

G.A.H.

Scroll Revelations

The radiant beauty of Sarah, wife of Abraham and mother of Isaac, is noted in an excerpt of a Dead Sea Scroll made public in Jerusalem by the Hebrew University and the Institute of the Shrine of the Book.

Badly preserved and very brittle, the 2,000-year-old Aramaic-written scroll is the last of seven found in the Qumran caves of the Judean desert in 1947 and acquired by the university.

The excerpt enlarges on the story of Abraham’s journey to Egypt with Sarah, as related in Genesis, Chapter 12. Just before entering Egypt, Abraham persuaded her to pose as his sister, according to the biblical account.

Abraham, in the biblical story, said:

“I know that you are a woman beautiful to behold; and when the Egyptians see you, they will say, ‘This is his wife’; then they will kill me, and keep you. Say you are my sister.”

The newly-deciphered scroll gives this description of Sarah:

“And how beautiful the look of her face. And how fine is the hair of her head; how fair indeed are her eyes and how pleasing her nose and all the radiance of her face.

“How beautiful her breast and how lovely all her whiteness. Her arms goodly to look upon and her hands how perfect. How fair her palms and how long and fine all the fingers of her hands.

“Her legs how beautiful and without blemish her thighs. And all maidens and all brides that go beneath the wedding canopy are not more fair than she. Above all women she is lovely and higher is her beauty than that of them all, and with all her beauty there is much wisdom in her. And the tip of her hands is comely.”

The scroll then gives Abraham’s account of how his fears about Sarah’s beauty were justified, when the Pharaoh Zoan heard she was “very beautiful,” had her brought to him, “marveled at all her loveliness and took her to him to wife,” unaware that she was the wife of another.

Abraham tells in the scroll how he prayed that God would show His “mighty hand” and descend upon the Egyptian king and “all his household and may he not this night defile my wife.”

Biblical accounts say that God afflicted the Pharaoh with plagues and “most grievous stripes.”

The scroll quotes Abraham as saying: “That night the Most High God sent a pestilential wind to afflict him (Pharaoh) and all his household, a wind that was evil. And it smote him and all his house and he could not come near her nor did he know her.”

Abraham’s account ends with a description of how, after two years, the ruler of Egypt sent for him and restored his wife, asking him to pray that the plagues might cease.

As the Bible relates, he tells how he was permitted to leave Egypt “exceedingly rich in cattle and also in silver and gold.”

Action In Burma

A plan for the Burma Baptist Convention to take over duties previously handled by missionaries was approved by delegates to the 88th annual meeting in Rangoon.

Proposed by the missionaries themselves, the plan has a goal of making Baptist work in the country self-supporting, self-directing and self-propagating.

Main points of the agreement deal with the turning over of church properties on the mission field “to the appropriate holding bodies representing the indigenous Christian community,” assigning to the convention the responsibility of determining the number of missionaries needed in Burma, and giving the convention the major responsibility for financial needs.

Prime Minister U Ba Swe, in an address to the meeting, emphasized the guarantees of religious freedom in Burma.

‘Mistaken Policy’

A decree ordering full freedom of religion throughout Communist North Vietnam has been issued by the Council of Ministers.

The order reportedly corrects “a mistaken policy of the government in the past.”

North Vietnam is the first Asian Communist nation publicly to proclaim deviation from the Moscow line. It is also the first to admit the existence of anti-religious persecution within its boundaries.

From time to time, the Hanoi Radio has broadcast statements claiming that all religious groups in the country enjoy full liberty, despite reports to the contrary. Most of the North Vietnamese are Buddhists. The Christian minority is predominantly Roman Catholic. A majority of the Christians fled to the South after partitioning of the country.

“Freedom of religion must be strictly respected,” the new order declared. It specifically directed that the “unjustified” house detention or “unlawful” arrest of religious personnel be abolished.

Communist authorities in North Vietnam 17 months ago issued a decree of religious freedom which nevertheless provided many loopholes for persecution. One of the loopholes was the proviso that “when they preach, ministers of religion must impress on their flocks … respect for the democratic authorities and the laws of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam.”

Another was a clause which said “the law will punish everyone who uses the pretext of religion to attack peace, unity, independence and democracy, to make propaganda for war, to break popular opinion, to keep believers from their duty as citizens, to attack other persons’ freedom of belief and thought, or to commit any other violation of law.”

These provisions were subject to communist interpretations that made religious groups especially vulnerable to attack.

Property confiscated during the land reform movement “will be restored to owners,” according to Hanoi Radio. But it did not say whether this measure applied to church-owned property.

The new decree may contain hidden implications, but for the moment Christians are grateful for the tiny crack of religious freedom in the Bamboo Curtain.

Turn About

Christian missionaries in India, who have been the target for much government criticism in recent months, received warm praise recently from Gov. K. N. Munshi of Uttar Pradesh.

At celebrations marking the centenary of the Methodist Church in southern Asia, he lauded missionaries for a century of “useful educational and humanitarian work. Above all, by the impact of their work, they have imparted a keener sense of mission to other religious and philanthropic bodies.”

Gov. Munshi said the “comparatively small Christian community of India” (5,000,000 Protestants in population of 400,000,000) had taken its full part in national life.

“Many Christians participated in the struggle for freedom,” he said, “and many now bear heavy responsibilities in this country.” He cited the role of Protestantism in “restoring to man his sense of individual dignity and freedom.”

The governor warned missionaries of all faiths, however, against an “active campaign of mass conversion” for social, political or economic motives. He said this could not be considered a “religious act,” and was bound to create resistance.

Scores of foreign Christians in India have been falsely charged with political activity and many have been sent home. Resident permits are extremely difficult to obtain, except in the cases of medical missionaries and other professional people.

Observers predict that the days of missionaries in India are numbered, but point out that God seems to be using the situation to make the Protestant Indian Church, under Indian leadership, stronger than it has ever been under foreign support.

Research In India

The National Christian Council of India has voted to establish a research center for the study of non-Christian religions in the country—especially Hinduism.

Dr. P. D. Devanandan, visiting professor at Union Theological Seminary in New York, will be invited to serve as the center’s director.

A statement of objectives for the center said “it will be allowed from the beginning to develop its own atmosphere where a free intercourse between scholarly Christians and leading non-Christians may take place.”

Religious Freedom Asked

Full religious freedom was given major emphasis in a document drawn up in Singapore by the Malayan Christian Council as a guide to the kind of country Christians want Malaya to become when it receives its independence from Great Britain next year.

“It is significant that the question of religious freedom has been given careful consideration by many Asian nations in recent years, notably India and Pakistan in their final constitutions and Indonesia in provisional constitutional proposals,” the Christian Council said.

“In all these,” the Council added, “there is careful protection of minorities in fundamental freedoms and the giving of full religious freedom to all residents of the country.”

Christians are a minority in Malaya.

‘Uneasy And Unhappy’

The respected voice of Dr. Geoffrey Francis Fisher, Archbishop of Canterbury, was heard in the House of Lords on the Anglo-French attack of Egypt.

“Christian opinion,” he said, is “terribly uneasy and unhappy. We cannot ignore the fact that the President of the United States thinks we have made a grave error, that world opinion on the whole—almost entirely—is convinced we have made a grave error.”

The Anglican Primate said he spoke “with fear and trembling.”

In Berlin, Bishop Otto Dibelius, head of the Evangelical Church in Germany, expressed great concern over Near and Middle East events through letters to British and French church leaders.

12 Days Of Life

Hungarian churches were making big plans when their brief hours of freedom were cut short by Russian butchery.

Bishop Lajos Ordass, imprisoned in 1948 on trumped-up charges, was reinstated as active head of the Lutheran Church of Hungary after the resignation of two communist-sponsored bishops.

He put into immediate practice the teaching of Jesus to “love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you and pray for them which despitefully use you and persecute you …”

He sought to aid dependents of former church leaders.

New elections were planned—to replace all officials of the Reformed and Lutheran churches who received their posts after 1948. Many churchmen known for their collaboration resigned.

Church schools and-other institutions were to be reopened.

Millions of tons of food and clothing arrived from friendly countries and relief centers were opened.

Josef Cardinal Mindzenty, Primate of Hungary liberated by the rebels, called on the United Nations and the world for support.

The revolt seemed destined to succeed on October 31—Reformation Day. Then, during the night of November 3–4, the vanguard of a massive Russian force of 200,000 men and 5,600 tanks, supported by squadrons of bomber planes, launched a surprise attack on Hungary. Almost defenseless people were slaughtered like cattle.

(An American newscaster said Russia threw more armor against Budapest than U. S. General George Patton used in driving across France during World War II.)

Fighters for freedom put up stubborn resistance, but their cause was virtually hopeless. Millions prayed around the world.

Some Hungarian leaders were captured. Others took refuge in embassies or escaped across the border.

Twelve days had passed.

But in suffering defeat, Hungary emphasized to the world that Communism was crumbling around the edges. Hundreds of individual members left the party in European countries. Early returns from Italian regional elections showed heavy communist losses. Unrest was noted in East Germany.

And Russia looked around anxiously as she waited for the next shot.

Question In Norway

On January 25, 1953, a professor, Dr. Ole Hallesby, addressed the Norwegian people by radio with words which were to resound from one end of the country to the other.

He asked:

“How can you who are not converted go to bed calmly in the evening, not knowing whether you will awake in your bed or in hell?”

Testimony of several conversions was received as a result of the broadcast. Many newspapers, however, raged. One of the bishops of the Norwegian Church, Dr. Kristian Schjelderup, wrote a sharp article, denouncing the doctrine of eternal punishment as contrary to God’s love.

The debate raged until finally the question was put before the Government, as well as the Stortinget (assembly of the people). Views of all bishops and leaders of the two theological faculties were given.

As usual in such discussions, the controversy eventually subsided, with both sides holding to original beliefs.

But new fuel has been added to the fire.

A well-known Christian layman, manufacturer Otto Langmoen, made public a letter in which he declared himself unwilling to represent his local congregation at an all-diocese meeting—where Bishop Schjelderup was listed as one of the preachers.

Mr. Langmoen said it was a matter of conscience and cited Scripture to support his views.

Theological sides again came to life, with the press serving as a gleeful go-between for their eager readers.

The diocese meeting was held. Participation was great, and Bishop Schjelderup was elected chairman of the assembly.

Front page headlines next day said there would be no fight within the church after all.

But Norwegians long will remember the professor’s blunt question!

T.B.

Reds Razing Old Church

Historic Holy Spirit Church, dating back to the 13th century, is slated to be razed in Magdeburg, Germany (Soviet Zone), despite protests by the Evangelical Church of Saxony.

The church, considered one of the finest specimens of Gothic architecture in Germany, will mar the looks of a new city hall due to be built on an adjacent site, according to the Communist city planners.

Heavily damaged during World War II, the church was the first worship center to be rebuilt in Magdeburg after the end of fighting. Many foreign churches contributed to the reconstruction cost.

Significance of the razing, in the opinion of church leaders, can be traced to the fact that the Evangelical Church in Germany designated Magdeburg as the 1956 “City of Church Reconstruction.”

Some 275,000 of Magdeburg’s 337,000 residents are Protestants.

Powers Of Violence

The world is afraid of its own powers of violence “and can only be saved by suffering and forgiving love,” Dr. Martin Niemoeller, president of the Evangelical Church of Hesse-Nassau in Germany, told 9,000 at a Reformation rally in Kiel Auditorium, St. Louis, Missouri.

In a reference to the H-bomb, he said, “Like Peter and John, we are tempted to bring down the fire of heaven upon the evildoers,” but warned “the danger is that we shall love our own truth and our own way and not put our trust in God.

“We must not give ourselves to our own ideas and our own beliefs, for both are dangerous, but we must remember that God’s promise to His children stands. Christ is the way, the truth and the life for a world in which men are caught in the nets of pride and despair.”

(On December 6, New York University will present Dr. Niemoeller with the University Medal, its “highest award to distinguished people.”)

Lutheran Merger

Representatives of four American Lutheran bodies, with a combined membership of more than 2,861,000, will meet in Chicago on December 12–13 to begin conversations toward organic union.

The denominations are the United Lutheran Church in America, Augustana Lutheran Church, Finnish Evangelical Lutheran Church (Suomi Synod) and American Evangelical Lutheran Church.

All Lutheran denominations in America were invited last December to “consider such organic union as will give real evidence of our unity in the faith.”

Three other Lutheran bodies now engaged in negotiations for a separate merger said they will be “unable to participate in the meeting, whose sole stated purpose is to consider organic union.” They are Evangelical Lutheran, American Lutheran and United Evangelical Lutheran.

Also absent from the unity conference will be the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod, the Wisconsin Synod and the Norwegian Synod. They declined the invitation on the grounds that they cannot discuss organic union before doctrinal agreement has been reached.

Baptists Add Colleges

A trend toward establishing Southern Baptist colleges in large cities will result in the opening of perhaps 12 new schools in the next 15 years.

(Records show that it costs about half as much per student to operate a college in a city of over 50,000 population).

R. Orin Cornett, executive secretary of the Southern Baptist Education Commission, said some of the schools will be junior colleges and universities.

The plans, hailed in many quarters, aren’t meeting with approval everywhere. Dr. W. A. Diman, executive secretary of the Chicago Baptist Association of the American Baptist Convention, denounced the move to Chicago and the North as “a bad case of bigitis.”

Dr. Diman, who said Southern Baptists intend to start 60 new churches and open a theological seminary in Chicago, said such action may “further divide a badly-splintered Protestantism here.”

(The University of Chicago has offered a 150,000-square-foot area on its campus to American Baptist Convention officials for headquarters of the denomination. Adoption or rejection will be decided at the annual meeting in Philadelphia next May.)

Major Religious Trends

Intense interest in the Bible and increased interest in theology on the part of laymen are among the major religious trends of the past 10 years, Dr. L. Harold DeWolf, of the Boston University school of theology, said recently. Dr. DeWolf, speaking to deans of Methodist pastors’ schools at Dickson, Tennessee, also noted that “extreme controversy” among theologians has given way to “a mood of mediation and communications and conciliation.”

He added:

“It was only a few years ago that theologians couldn’t understand each other and didn’t want to.”

The Bible, he said, occupies a place of greatly enhanced esteem and influence over previous years.

“There’s a new and increasing hunger for real biblical learning,” Dr. DeWolf asserted.

Unhappy Liquor Stores

God works in mysterious ways His wonders to perform!

Church folk of Hamilton County, Tennessee, decided they wanted to vote Chattanooga’s 54 legal liquor stores out of business.

The Christians organized under the leadership of Major General Paul H. Jordan, who is retiring as leader of Tennessee’s National Guard in order to give more time to the three rural Methodist churches he is pastoring.

Sufficient signatures were obtained for a referendum, but Jordan, using the military’ tactic of surprise, kept the wets guessing as to when the vote would be called. The drys reportedly favored a special referendum because of the heavy vote in “controlled” wards on general election days. To offset this planning, the wets got some signatures of their own and filed for an unprecedented referendum to be held on November 6, with a big vote assured by the Presidential election.

The battle about bottles began, with the liquor store operators catching it from all sides. They had to finance the wet campaign. Political leaders of one party, with the “say so” on retail licenses, put the squeeze on them for funds. The other party, irritated about the money given to the opposition, passed the word their followers would vote dry unless contributions were forthcoming.

J. B. Collins, staff writer for The Chattanooga News-Free Press, said the liquor dealers, fearful of being drained by politicians and then being voted out of existence, were in a sad plight … somewhat like the farmer who knocked down a hornets’ nest while trying to beat out a grass fire around his barn. He didn’t know whether to fight fire or swat hornets.

Then came the vote. With well-organized church support, the drvs collected 29,704, and the wets trailed with 27,180. The wets asked a court injunction to keep the election commission from certifying the results, on charges that phrasing of the ballots and vote machines was confusing. Chancellor J. Clifford Curry denied the injunction and the votes were certified.

The 54 stores have 90 days to liquidate their liquid.

This case may be the only one in history where whiskey stores asked for a referendum in which they were voted out of business.

Philadelphia Story

The New Berean Baptist Church is located in a section of Philadelphia where a large part of the population is colored.

Eighteen months ago the church called as its pastor the Rev. David E. Gregory, 40, a graduate of Southern Baptist Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky.

He believed in ministering to the people of his community, no matter what their color. In 1955 about 30 per cent of children in the Vacation Church School were colored. This year, a Negro minister was invited to participate in the Vacation School program. Another adult Negro worker was enlisted.

The enrollment was 194 children, and 80 per cent of them were Negroes.

Deacons of the church became alarmed at the trend, especially when Negroes began attending the worship services. A questionnaire was sent out by the deacons to the membership, asking three questions:

First, should the church seek members among the Negro race?

Second, would members be willing to receive Negroes into the church if they applied?

Third, would the present members remain in the church if Negroes were received?

To the first question, most members said they would not seek Negro members, but would not reject those who applied of their own volition. A majority replied in the affirmative to the second. In answering the third, 31 said they would leave and over 50 said they would stay.

The deacons then sent out a letter to the congregation stating that the church policy would be neither to seek nor admit Negroes to membership. A special meeting of the congregation was called. Mr. Gregory said that according to the church constitution the deacons could not formulate a policy for the congregation. Deacons pressed for a vote to uphold their stand. The church constitution required a month’s notice before a vote could be taken on a change of policy and said a two-thirds majority vote of those present was necessary in order for it to become a law of the church. A majority endorsed the deacons’ stand when a vote was taken.

Mr. Gregory resigned as pastor.

Integration problems, seemingly, are not confined to the South!

R.E.G.

Milestone In Mexico

The year 1957 will mark the 100th anniversary of Benito Juarez’s “Reform Constitution of 1857,” a milestone in Mexico’s struggle to achieve civil and religious liberties.

Appropriate ceremonies throughout the republic will celebrate the occasion.

The Reform Constitution opened the doors to Protestant missions and introduced evangelical Christianity to the people of Mexico, after 300 years of domination by the Roman Catholic clergy.

Benito Juarez, described by Stuart Chase (author of Mexico—A Study of Two Americas) as “perhaps the greatest name in Mexican history,” was a full-blooded Zapotec Indian from the state of Oaxaca. He was educated, first for the priesthood and later for the bar, becoming Minister of Justice and eventually Constitutional President of the Republic.

As president, he legislated against the special privileges of the military and the clergy, confiscating vast land holdings of the church valued at $125,000,000. Into his Reform Constitution he wrote the laws which decreed the separation of Church and State, severed relations with the Vatican, placed priests under civil authority, closed parochial schools and made the state responsible for the education of all children, forbade churches to own property, prohibited foreigners from officiating as priests or ministers, reserved the right to perform marriages and burials, and guaranteed liberty and equality for all religions.

His efforts were interrupted by foreign (French) intervention and the ill-fated empire of the Hapsburg Archduke Maximilian. Juarez died in Mexico City on July 18, 1872, before his program was carried into effect.

Thirty years of dictatorship under Porfirio Diaz further delayed the reforms. It was not until “The Revolution of 1910,” which overthrew Diaz, and “The Constitution of 1917,” which embodied all of the major tenets of the first reform, that Juarez’s dream of religious freedom for the common people was realized.

It is within the framework of this constitution that modern missions and churches operate today in Mexico.

Since the constitution forbids churches to own property, land and buildings for mission schools and hospitals are held in the name of legally constituted holding companies composed of individual missionaries and Protestant Mexicans.

When some of the mission schools were closed, student homes and hostels were opened, providing dormitory facilities under Christian supervision for Protestant young people attending nearby government schools.

Since no foreigner may be a minister or priest, only native-born Mexicans are pastors of the churches and only they may officiate at the sacraments. Foreign evangelistic missionaries, however, are allowed to preach, to hold special services and to engage in personal work—completely unmolested.

Celebration of the centenary of Juarez’s reforms is expected to be bitterly opposed by anti-Protestant church leaders, and some observers predict that the occasion will be used as a pretext for the Catholic church to make an open bid at regaining some of her former prestige and power. Should this occur, trouble undoubtedly will ensue.

But Juarez evidently thought the reforms were worth any trouble involved. He said, “Upon the development of Protestantism largely depends the happiness of our country.”

J.H.R.

Faithful And Fruitful

The Rev. David Finstrom had two great assets when he arrived in Venezuela in 1899—faith in God and willingness to serve.

He began his pioneering work in La Victoria, Aragua.

At the beginning of the century, when a great battle during a civil war was fought in La Victoria, he and his wife did everything they could to help the people. They cared for the wounded and dead.

As a reward, Grab J. V. Gomez, when he became president of the country, granted Mr. Finstrom a personal right to address the Congress of Venezuela. Gomez, a tyrant for 26 years, was a great admirer of the missionary. A mistress of the president was converted under the preaching of the faithful servant.

Mr. Finstrom lived to see the small beginning grow into churches and conventions of churches, with thousands of believers. A Bible Institute was founded. In 1914 he published the first issue of his paper, El Faro Evangelico (The Evangelical Beacon), which spread throughout the country.

The 57 years of fruitful service came to an end recently when he died in Palo Negro, Aragua State. His widow survives.

P.N.T.G.

Tongue In Cheek

Twenty-three Protestant ministers of Mount Ida, Arkansas, have proposed, with a trace of sarcasm, that speeding, theft and prostitution be legalized and taxed for revenue in the state.

The clergymen attacked arguments that “drinking and gambling should be legalized because people are going to do them anyway,” and said, “it is just as consistent to legalize and collect taxes” from other vices.

Bible And Flag

The Woodmont Kiwanis Club of Nashville, Tennessee, is sponsoring a drive to place a Bible and American flag in every home of the city.

Profits will be used to buy recreational equipment for church orphanages.

Offhand, the combination appears to be the world’s best buy!

Predestination

Clergymen as a group are “not good, safe drivers,” in the opinion of M. L. Allison, accident prevention department of Employers Mutual Casualty Company, Charlotte, North Carolina.

“Most clergymen drive like they are going to a fire,” he said.

Digest …

Dr. Harold J. Ockenga honored on 20th anniversary as minister of famed Park Street Church in Boston, Massachusetts … A. F. (Tex) Keirsey, church editor of Amarillo (Texas) News-Globe, wins 1956 Press Award of Baptist General Convention of Texas.

Rep. Ruth Thompson (R-Mich.), defeated at polls on November 6, seen working cheerfully as volunteer at Washington, D. C. Central Union Mission on November 7 … Superior Court Judge in Montreal, Canada, rules testimony not acceptable from witness who does not believe in heaven and hell … The Rev. H. Lawrence Love, Jr., pastor of Bethany Presbyterian Church, Fort Lauderdale, Florida, appointed associate executive director of World Evangelical Fellowship.

Baptist General Convention of Texas approves record $10,000,000 budget for missionary work during year.

Billy Graham speaks to over 7,000 in Moody Church auditorium and overflow halls. Service relayed to seven other churches … Mrs. Billy “Ma” Sunday, 88, widow of noted evangelist of 1920’s, elected president of Winona Lake (Indiana) Bible Conference.

The present day stream of literature in Europe dealing with religious and theological questions is best described as overwhelming. It appears that almost all the questions of the previous era are again being considered; also those that were given little attention by the past generation.

Restricting ourselves on this occasion to the dogmatical literature, we refer first of all to newly published dogmatical works such as: Werner Elert (Lutheran), Der Christliche Glaube, 1940; P. Althaus (Lutheran), Die Christliche Wahrheit, 1948; Th. L. Haitjema, Dogmatiek als Apologie, 1948; H. Vogel, Gott in Christo (1000 pages); O. Weber, Grundlagen der Dogmatik, Vol. 1, 1954 (a second volume will follow); H. Diem, Dogmatik, Ihr Weg zwischen Historismns und Existentialismus, 1955. In addition, not to mention more, two volumes of Barth’s Kirchliche Dogmatik (IV, 1 and IV, 2) appeared in 1953 and 1955.

¶ Alongside the Protestant activity there is a profuse stream of Roman Catholic dogmatical publications, some dealing only with particular subjects, some covering the whole field. Important particular studies are those of W. Stahlin, Allein. Reckt und Gefahr einer polemischen Formel, 1950 (dealing with the “sola Scriptura, sola gratia, sola fide” doctrines); and M. Lackmann, Sola Fide, Eine exegetische studie uber Jacobus 2 zur reformatorischen Rechtfertigungslehre, 1949. With respect to comprehensive Roman Catholic dogmatical works, a dogmatics (succeeding the old works of Scheeben, Pohle, Bartmann and Diekamp) is in the process of being published by Michael Schmaus, whose pen has already produced the volume on Mariology (1955).

In the Netherlands the beginning of a new dogmatics by P. Schoonenberg has been published under the title: Het Geloof van ons Doopsel (Vol. I, 1955; II, 1956). This is an important contribution because Schoonenberg is one of the most brilliant representatives of the so-called “New Theology,” a movement which arose in France about 1942 and which is letting itself be heard at the present time. This movement has given a different version of the relation between nature and grace than that found in the traditional Roman Catholic theology, as well as a trenchant analysis of the influence of philosophy on scholastic thought. Without speaking of a radical revolution, one can say that through this “New Theology” the controversy between Rome and the Reformation has taken on new aspects, especially since the criticism made by the Reformation was narrowly connected with the dualistic Roman Catholic vision of the relation of nature and grace. An important point in the discussions is the evaluation of the already famous papal encyclical of 1950 (Humani Generis), in which the new streams of irenism and existentialism were rejected, but in which also a warning was sounded against a relativizing of dogma and an underestimation of the significance of Thomas Aquinas. In spite of the fact that many were of the opinion that the “New Theology” was condemned by this encyclical, the representatives of this theology, through many publications, are playing a very important role in current discussions. We see in this movement one of the important phases of contemporary Roman Catholic thought.

¶ In addition to the literature concerning “Humani Generis” and the “New Theology”, the fixation of the Marian dogma of 1950 (the assumption of Mary) has received special attention. The interest here undoubtedly centers around an infallible proclamation (ex cathedra) because it is declared that whoever denies or doubts this dogma “has totally fallen away from the divine and catholic faith.” A very orientating study has been published by F. Heiler: Das neue Mariendogma im Lichte der Geschichte und im Urteil der Oekumene, 1951. It contains the views of many scholars with respect to this new dogma, including, among others, that of B. E. Mascall (Anglo-Catholic). From all sorts of angles the question is discussed as to the deepest meaning of this new dogma concerning Mary. It appears very clearly that the intention is not to deify Mary. The interest turns rather on the share that Mary (as creature) has in the redemptive work. In this light the Marian dogma takes on its distinct significance at the peak of the Roman Catholic system, because precisely this share of Mary is connected with her physical glorification in heaven.

Although in the above-mentioned “New Theology” new perspectives are visible in the Rome-Reformation controversy, this new Marian dogma has again pointed up the conflict in spite of all the attempts by Rome to demonstrate that its Mariology in no wise constitutes a threat to the glory of Christ as our only Redeemer. Already before 1950 there were signs pointing to the fact that the proclamation of the assumption of Mary would not yet mark the end of the Mariological development. We think of the feelings (not yet firmly established) concerning Mary as participating, not only in the subjective redemption (the distribution of the treasures of Christ), but also in the objective redemption. This dogma is at present not yet fixed, but already studies are appearing under titles such as: Mary as Co-Redemptress alongside Jesus our Lord. It is understandable that in this development there is a constant demand from the Reformation camp for scriptural proof. But tradition plays such a powerful role here that in the proclamation of 1950 of Mary’s assumption, no scriptural proof is given, and the only texts appearing in it are the citations to be found in the church fathers. The power of the Reformation remains here also the power of the “sola Scriptura”!

¶ Besides that already mentioned, there is in continental theology a many-sided interest in the theology of Luther. Excellent studies have been made, e.g., W. von Lcewenich, Theologia crucis, 1954; idem, Luther als Ausleger der Synoptiker, 1954; J. T. Bakker, Coram Deo, Een Bijdrage tot het Onderzoek naar de Structuur van Luthers Theologie, (dissertation at the Free University) 1956; R. Prenter, Spiritus Creator, Studien zu Luthers Theologie, 1954 (translated from Danish into German). In these studies there is a continual discussion of the relation between Luther and Calvin, and this is understandable because there is a growing feeling that in spite of all their differences (e.g., concerning the sacraments), a deep unity in faith bound these two reformers.

¶ It is impossible in any respect to set forth in one “review” a complete survey of what is now in the center of interest in continental reflection. This incompleteness already appears in the fact that we have made no mention up to this point of the continuing discussion surrounding the theology of Karl Barth, who recently put his doctrine of redemption into print (IV, 1 and IV, 2). In commemoration of Barth’s seventieth birthday many articles and “Festschrifte” have reviewed his theology anew.

G. C. Berkouwer, Ph.D., is Professor of Systematic theology, Free Universty of Amsterdam.

It is to me an astonishing thing that nearly all the exponents of the Christian Faith seek to commend it mostly in intellectual or in personal terms. We seek to make people understand that they need faith as interpretation for their wonderment about what life is, as refuge and solace for its hurts and lonelinesses, as dynamic to lend aim and purpose to their lives. We seek to help them to know that the faith can stand on its own feet intellectually. These things are abundantly true, and it is in the personal realm that religion must find its rise and take root.

Freedom Has A Christian Basis

But there is another angle of approach which we do not take as often as we might. It is simply the practical one of reminding people who enjoy the blessings of human freedom that they owe this blessing primarily to the Christian Faith, and if they are concerned to help make the world a good place for their descendants, they had better ask what shall be its spiritual climate. From whence shall we find sufficient inward force to stand against the barbarism and inhumanity and tyranny and slavery that have arisen in our time? Military defense, industrial strength, political and diplomatic adroitness are necessary and important; but they do not have in themselves enough of a worldview to stand against the godless and materialistic view of the world which is rampant about us.

There are a great many people today who find in some kind of Naturalism or enlightened Humanism all the explanation they need, in friends and family and culture all the solace they need, in some creative interests and work all the dynamic they need. They may be young, well, happily married and reasonably successful. No appeal of personal need may reach them at the moment. But there will come a day when some deeper awareness of need will arise, when life will carry them through some dark valley of sorrow or of suffering. Must we wait till this time before we can expect them to wake up?

Sometimes this will be true. But there is a way into their hearts and minds that we have too seldom tried. It is the simple, practical approach of (1) reminding them whence came our chief blessings, especially freedom; and (2) asking them which way they want the world to go in the future. Jacques Maritain says that “States will be obliged to make a choice for or against the Gospel. They will be shaped either by the totalitarian spirit or by the Christian spirit.”

I find this appeal almost unknown by many educated people. They still persist in thinking that some people are weak and need religion, while others (like themselves) are strong and do not need it. Such paltry private considerations loom very small when you ask in which direction the world is going. Such people take for granted the freedom and other characteristic blessings which we enjoy in the western world, as if they were natural rights, not privileges, and were to be found quite easily. They have forgotten, or never known, how scarce a thing freedom has been, how rare in all human annals. They have not learned that the real centerpiece of the West is Christianity; nor have they considered that, if we would continue to enjoy the fruits of freedom, we had better look to the roots of faith. Shall there be less freedom, or more of it, in the world in which our children are growing? Are we using up our freedom as prodigally as we are using our water supply? If faith is the root, of which freedom is the fruit, it is high time we warned people that their legitimate human interests may very well be directly involved with the success of the Christian enterprise.

The Syrian Stream Runs Deep

I know very well that there are other factors in western civilization than Christianity. Arnold Toynbee says, “The Greek wave coalesced with a Syrian wave, and it is this union that has generated the Christian civilization of the Western world.” Nearly everyone knows the debt we owe the Greeks in all our search for truth. But let’s face it, the Syrian wave (in its Christian form) has spread vastly farther and more deeply into the world than the Greek. On one occasion in a university I seemed to be making too great a claim for the influence of Christianity on the West, and saying too little for the Greek, and a faculty historian challenged me. I asked him if he did not think that Christianity had been the pervasive and popular force that had primarily carried the double blessing, of Syrian and Greek influence, down the centuries; and he allowed this might be true.

We must, of course, remind ourselves that western civilization is not our first concern: Christianity itself is that. But there are substantiating effects in western civilization with which some of us will not readily part. When Toynbee calls ours ‘Christian’ civilization, one is sure he does not mean we are Christian through and through, but rather that the greatest blessings we have, including those values to which we sometimes give devotion, and sometimes only lip-service, derive from Christianity. Much of western civilization has grown fat, soft, comfortable and irresponsible with its own blessings. Unless we are mindful whence they came, and unless we share their benefits with others, we shall lose them, for we shall misuse as well as misunderstand them. But let us still be thankful for the amount of freedom to travel, to know the news, to live at a level of physical comfort above the need for grinding toil, which so many enjoy in our land. These are in themselves good things, when observed in the light of a religion that is concerned “for the body as well as for the soul.”

Self-Interest A Proper Appeal

In suggesting that the good human effects of Christianity are further reason for believing in Christianity and working for it, one is sometimes accused of appealing to self-interest. I have no hesitation whatever in appealing to anyone’s self-interest to get him to come quickly out of a burning house, or to go and have a physical examination when he appears to have cancer. What seems to me at stake today is human survival. If a man can be persuaded to give his attention to the Christian religion, on the basis that this may give him a whole view of life, improve his human relations, and help him win the war of ideas between the forces led by Christian thinking as against those led by communist thinking, thank God for having such a practical point of contact by which you can get his attention! There is a great deal of pseudo-spirituality floating about which asks for a purely unselfish approach to the search for God. Come, come, which of us was ever disinterestedly unselfish when we sought God? We sought Him because we needed Him. We used Him at the first, as our little children use us. Later on, let us hope, we came by a more mature mind, and began asking God to use us.

Do not forget that Jesus’ own sayings are filled with the thought of reward, understood as meaning that what He held out to us was good for us. “Seek and ye shall find”. “He that loseth his life for My sake, the same shall find it.” “Seek ye first the Kingdom … and all these things shall be added unto you.” We find some persecution also promised in this arrangement; but the New Testament is not so squeamish about rewards as we are. Do not ask a drowning man to be too meticulous about his motives: he is drowning and he would like to be saved.

Our Malady Is Spiritual Poverty

Our civilization is in just such critical danger. We need help. We ask for it with desperation. If God wills to send it, we shall remember one day to say “Thank You” and one day we shall even begin to say, “Now what do You want me to do?” And then we shall be in the way of getting converted. But the beginning is way back in the elementals of human desperation and need. Too many men, and especially clergy, forget how primitive and unspiritual was their own first cry to God, and persist in making their hearers feel that, unless you come to God from some high motive, you dare not come to Him at all. It is contrary to natural life, as we know it in our children, and to spiritual life, as we have known it in ourselves. Away with this pseudo-spirituality! Our world is sick and we are sick, and our sickness is primarily our poverty of faith in God and the Christ to Whom we owe just about everything of worth that we know. Let us be simply honest about our need. God has answered many a selfish prayer, and then led the prayer on to better things.

Democracy Does Not Stand Alone

Do we need proof of the dependence of our western freedom on our inherited Christian faith? Let me give you just a few statements which carry weight. William Aylott Orton of Yale said, “… it is only in the Christian doctrine of man that we can find a firm and reasoned ground for the American affirmation.” G. K. Chesterton said, “There is no basis for democracy except in a dogma about the divine origin of man.” T. S. Eliot says, “The term democracy … does not contain enough positive content to stand alone against the forces that you dislike—it can easily be transformed by them. If you will not have God (and He is a jealous God) you should pay your respects to Hitler or Stalin.” And there is the widely-quoted remark of William Penn, “Men must be governed by God, or they will be ruled by tyrants.”

If we will not accept the dicta of believers in democracy, we should at least accept those of men who hate and vilify it. Karl Marx said, “The democratic concept of man is false, because it is Christian. The democratic concept holds that each man has a value as a sovereign being. This is the illusion, dream and postulate of Christianity.” And Adolph Hitler said, “To the Christian doctrine of the infinite significance of the individual human soul, I oppose with icy clarity the saving doctrine of the nothingness and insignificance of the individual human being.”

The Best A Christian Bequest

We are not saying that western civilization is perfect: we are saying that the best things in it derive from the Christian heritage. We are saying that freedom is one of faith’s best and most important results. And we are saying that the thing that may catch the attention and the imagination of some selfish, and even sodden, beneficiary of our culture and civilization and freedom may be a reminder of what may happen to his hide in the immediate future, when you cannot get him to think about what is going to happen to his soul in eternity. When he finds out how much he owes temporally to the Christian Gospel, he may wake up and realize that he should be doing something about a faith to which he owes so much.

There are, I think, excellent reasons for beginning where people are, rather than where they should be. We must not fear; instead we should with all honesty and integrity try to make some appeal to the common sense and long-range self-interest of the ordinary man. It would do theoretically-minded clergy a great deal of good to have to think out a really logical argument to convince a skeptic or a materialist that it would be good for him to help forward the Christian enterprise.

Liberty Without God Breeds Bondage

We all know that the danger of freedom is always its misuse. Left to himself, left to a philosophy that does without God, man becomes more and more selfish in the use of his liberty. This in turn will require more and more controls from somewhere to keep him within bounds. Edmund Burke said, “Society cannot exist unless a controlling power upon will and appetite be placed somewhere, and the less of it there is within, the more there must be without.” The converse is also true: the more there is within, the less there must be without. If only western, democratic, so-called Christian man would exercise a little more self-restraint and unselfishness in the use of his freedom, he would have much better prospects for preserving it for his grandchildren. But what will make him do this? Nothing but the setting of his “will and appetite” in the framework of his accountability to God. As faith is the thing that gives a man the conception of himself as God’s child in the beginning, and encourages him to fight for his freedom, faith is also the thing that gives him the sense of his accountability to God when freedom threatens to run away with him. The faith which creates freedom alone can control it.

We believe in the “separation of church and state” in this land. It was proven a good and sound principle. But in the day when our people think that this means a democracy can run well without having continually poured into it sound, believing, God-directed men and women, our greatness will have passed.

Samuel M. Shoemaker, D.D., S.T.D., is rector of Calvary Episcopal Church in Pittsburgh and author of The Church Alive, They’re on the Way, How to Become a Christian, and other books.

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NEW AVENUE OF SERVICE

While I was a student in Bible college, several classmates took up the fad of saying things “backwards,” or mixing up words to give an expression a different meaning. One favorite expression was “occupew the pie,” for “occupy the pew.”

There were several small churches in the area where student ministers preached. I was invited to bring the Sunday evening sermon at one of these. A rather unusual number of student ministers attended. My sermon had to do with “Christian Service.”

Toward the end of the message I was building toward the “climax.” I was endeavoring to impress my audience with the fact that they should be “busy about the Father’s business.” I stated that many people could not teach, sing, preach or go as missionaries, but that no man lived who could not lend encouragement to the work of the Lord by his presence each church service. I intended to say that the least thing anyone could do was to come and “occupy a pew.” What I really said was, come and “occupew a pie.” Silence prevailed for a moment until one of my best friends could no longer hold his feelings. The service ended immediately.—The REV. SHERRIEL E. STOREY, Minister, Perry Christian Church, Canton, Ohio.