Current Religious Thught: January 3, 1964

G. C. Berkouwer

Observations from the second session of the Second Vatican Council.

The editor of Christianity Today asked me to say something about my observations at the second session of the Second Vatican Council. Although it is not possible to capture all of one’s responses to this great event within a single article, I will note at least a couple of matters that have struck me as of special importance. It is not true that this second session has been less productive than the first one. Many far-reaching subjects have been on the agenda. One of these was the question of the power of the episcopate. Another was that of the church as the people of God. Still another was the question of Mary’s place in respect to the church. This last question is one that asks whether Mary should be viewed within the framework of the church or in a special category, apart from the church. Does Mary belong within or above the church? One can immediately sense the importance of this question to the entire Mariological problem. This question is of such intense interest to the Roman theologians and is of such complexity that we shall have to devote a special article to it in the near future.

Related to the subject of Mary is the so-called triumphalism (an attitude toward the history of the church that sees it as a great and obvious success). I have observed a strong current within the council against the “triumphalistic” view of the church, indeed a crusade against it. Even in the first session, a speech against the hard-set clericalism within the juridical approach to the church was accompanied by an attack against “triumphalism.” Since this speech, the anti-triumphalistic voices have increased in volume.

Prior to the council, Heinrich Fries wrote that the church was obliged to take a more modest view of itself. Is the church on earth to serve or to rule? Does the church understand that it is here as a pilgrim? Does the church reflect Christ’s kind of glory, the glory of humble service? Is the Pope indeed a servant of the servants of God? Has it been evident in the church’s posture that she reflects the words of John 3:17: “God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved”? The church, it was said, must acknowledge that it is not identical with the Kingdom of God, that it is only an instrument in the service of the Kingdom. The warning that the church must drop all pride, all self-glorification, has sounded again and again through the vast halls. Those who sound it insist that they wish no revolution in the church, but only self-criticism and renewal, a willingness to be tested by the Touchstone.

Only in this way, it is argued, will the church be worthy of belief. This credibility of the church, as Hans Küng has argued, is not a self-evident and natural credibility. To be believable the church must submit itself constantly to the criticism of the Lord. It can be a believable institution only as it declines to be an instrument of power and accepts its station as servant. When the Church says of itself: “I am rich … and I need nothing” (Rev. 3:17), it loses its credibility. It is worthy of belief only as it makes clear to the world that it is here to dispense the mercy of Christ to the needy.

If this anti triumphalism wins the day, the attitude of the Roman church to the “separated brethren” must also be affected. The old categories (heathen and Jews, heretics and schismatics) can no longer easily be used, argues Fries. The ecumenical conversation cannot be entered by Rome with a demand for unconditional surrender, the insistence that return to Rome is the only and simple solution to the ecumenical problem. When the church acknowledges that it too has sinned and it too bears a burden of guilt, the ecumenical question suddenly becomes more complicated than it seemed to be.

All these matters are playing a vital role in the movement that is now loose within the Roman Catholic Church. They thrust themselves into almost every discussion at the council. This apparent movement is not merely an abstract theological concern. It is a matter of a different attitude. People want the church to be shed of the caricature of a conquering ruler, and to take on the image of service and suffering for the sake of the world. The spokesmen for the new tendency want the church again to be clearly and unambiguously the church of the Lord who came “not to be served, but to serve.”

This is not the first time in the history of this church that such a voice has been heard. But today it is coming from all sides. And, we must note, from all ages. This is not a matter of a new generation pitted against an old one. Hans Küng is young, but Karl Rahner and Han Urs van Balthazar are both fifty-nine, and Yves Congar is still older. The younger and the older men are finding each other in a consciousness that what they feel is really a primitive Christian pathos, a new personal discovery of the New Testament.

The questions of anti-Semitism and freedom of religion are also closely related to the changed vision of the church. Back of all this hangs the question, as everyone knows, of the changeable or unchangeable character of the church, of the ecclesia Romana. But the crusade against triumphalism is a truly remarkable phenomenon in this communion. No one is able to predict what will come of it.

This fortnightly review is contributed in sequence by J. D. Douglas, British editorial director, CHRISTIANITY TODAY; Philip E. Hughes, editor, The Churchman, London; Harold B. Kuhn, professor of philosophy of religion, Asbury Seminary, Wilmore, Kentucky; G. C. Berkouwer, professor of dogmatics, Free University of Amsterdam; and Addison H. Leitch, professor of philosophy and religion, Tarkio College, Tarkio, Missouri.—ED.

A Big Bill

A $1.2 billion program of federal aid to higher education was enacted last month over protests that it disregards the principle of separation of church and state. The bill, a compromise of a measure proposed by the administration of the late President Kennedy, was passed by the Senate by a vote of 54 to 27. It had cleared the House several weeks before.

The Senate originally tacked on to the measure an amendment providing for a court test of the constitutionality of loans and grants to religiously affiliated colleges and universities. The House refused to add any such amendment, and a House-Senate conference likewise declined to include it. Subsequently the Senate passed the bill without the amendment.

Two days after Senate passage the board of trustees of Protestants and Other Americans United for Separation of Church and State issued a warning against an “apparent disposition on the part of the nation’s leaders to disregard constitutional provisions which have traditionally separated state and church in the matter of public assistance for church institutions.”

“It would appear that this unprecedented legislation providing direct federal grants to church institutions can only lead to more and more legislation of the same kind,” the POAU statement said.

The bill is intended to help build classrooms, laboratories, and libraries for public as well as private colleges and universities (see editorial on p. 22).

President Johnson praised the action of the Senate, saying that “this Congress is well on its way to doing more for education than any Congress since the Land Grant College Act was passed 100 years ago.” “Members of the House and Senate Education Committees—Republicans and Democrats alike—are to be congratulated on this major step forward.”

In signing the measure into law, Johnson declared that “this is the most significant education bill passed by the Congress in the history of the republic.”

Separate legislation has been introduced in Congress providing for judicial review of the constitutionality of bills involving aid to sectarian institutions. Veteran Capitol Hill observers doubt, however, that a judicial review measure would pass the House. Such a judicial review may reach the U. S. Supreme Court on its own steam via a test case now pending in Maryland.

Protestant Panorama

American Lutheran Church Council approved a report on glossolalia following a two-year study. ALC President Fredrik A. Schiotz says it “calls our attention to the wisdom of St. Paul, who saw fit to permit, not promote the practice.”

Baptist Press challenged the propriety of secular news media references to the Apostle Peter as the first pope. The references occurred in the context of the announcement that Pope Paul VI would visit the Holy Land.

Protestant Council of the City of New York commended the broadcasting industry for its coverage of events relating to President Kennedy’s assassination and funeral.

Deaths

CANON DAVID E. GIBSON, 97, founder and director of the Cathedral Shelter, Protestant Episcopal welfare agency on Chicago’s West Side; in Chicago.

The RT. REV. ARTHUR BAILLIE LUMSDAINE KARNEY, 89, former Anglican bishop of Johannesburg; in Lewes, England.

BISHOP JOHN MCKENDREE SPRINGER, 89, retired Methodist missionary to Africa; in Penney Farms, Florida.

PKRRY G. E. MILLER, 58, historian and biographer of Jonathan Edwards and Roger Williams; in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

DR. ERNEST W. WADSWORTH, 86, general director of the Great Commission Prayer League; in Wheaton, Illinois.

Protestant Episcopal Church National Council endorsed a proposal to give complete autonomy to the Brazilian Episcopal Church. A request for independence was voted by the Brazilian body’s House of Bishops last November.

Miscellany

Accreditation to Concordia Seminary, St. Louis, and North Park Theological Seminary, Chicago, was granted last month by the American Association of Theological Schools. Action regarding Gordon Divinity School was deferred.

A resolution memorializing the U. S. Congress “to restore the Word of God to the schools” was adopted unanimously by the State Senate of Kentucky.

The Rev. Haywood Scott, pastor of First Methodist Church of Union Springs, Alabama, was relieved of his ministerial duties by Bishop Paul Hardin, Jr., after Scott’s congregation voted to withdraw from the Alabama-West Florida Conference of The Methodist Church. In leaving the conference the congregation charged that Methodist denominational leadership “had been infiltrated by liberals.” Meanwhile, a controversy has developed between the congregation and the conference over ownership of the church property.

A Last Look At 1963

“If these deep emotional commitments and ties occasionally lead to sexual intercourse, surely even that is more healthy than the situation a generation ago when ‘nice girls’ were dated under largely artificial circumstances and sexual needs were gratified at a brothel.”—From a report by a committee of the Harvard University Council of Undergraduate Affairs asking for an extension of the time allotted to women for visiting male dormitories.

“Now, for every kid in America who can’t decide between candy and ice cream—Candi-Creme Good Humor (It has both).”—Advertisement.

“A pastor, a janitor, and a secretary—in that order—are the first three staff members to be employed by a typical church, according to a survey to which 638 Southern Baptist Churches replied. The fourth staff person to be employed is someone to direct music.”—The Survey Bulletin.

“It would be awfully convenient if he, Ruby, represented the right wing, but I’m afraid it just wasn’t that way.”—Rabbi Hillel E. Silverman, clergyman of the imprisoned Jack Ruby, slayer of accused presidential assassin Lee Harvey Oswald.

The Cardinal

James Daane

An Irish-Bostonian’s rise from lowly parish priest to high office in the Roman Catholic Church—this is the story of Otto Preminger’s The Cardinal. Based on the novel of the same name by Henry Morton Robinson, the film deals with many of the problems that arise within the Catholic Church: integration in the South, mixed religious marriage, and the let-nature-take-its-course ethic that allows a mother to die to save an unborn child.

The story covers the time span of the two world wars. Created over a stretch of 5,000 miles and employing over 4,000 actors, the film has a width not equaled by its depth. The scenery is superb, the acting good: yet The Cardinal suggests neither the crises of the period, nor the anguished religious struggles it seeks to portray within the Catholic soul. Though the treatment is reverential, it lacks spiritual fiber.

Tom Tryon is a good actor, but he lacks that suggestion of strength, depth of personality, and resonance of character his role requires. He is most equal to his role when he banks his romantic feelings for Annemarie (Romy Schneider), the girl in his Vienna life. Neither Irish nor Catholic, his appearance as he greys with age elicits the image of Bishop Sheen, with none of Sheen’s mystique. He gives the impression of a good boy who makes good in the big church; but viewers will find themselves wishing that John Huston, who plays another role in the film, had been cast as the Cardinal.

Most of all the film lacks religious strength and authenticity. One would imagine that in making such a film cardinal efforts would be put forth to get the proper religious slant of the Catholic Church. But ten minutes’ reading in the Council of Trent would have taught Preminger more catechism than he apparently knows. His Roman version of Christianity turns out to be nothing more than a respectable morality and a conflict between democratic political freedom and totalitarianism. The film concludes with a speech about man’s right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness: “That is America’s creed.” Maybe so. “That is the gospel of The Church.” This is not so, as any altar boy knows.

When Robinson’s novel first appeared a number of years ago, it evoked some sharp criticism from Roman Catholic leaders. The film, however, can hardly be construed as representative of any significantly adverse reflections on the Roman church. The film opened in New York to mixed notices. Comments ranged from “banality, tastelessness” to “a picture of great stature.”

‘Lucia’

An attractive young mother from Buenos Aires watched her life story unfold on ninety minutes of Eastman Color film last month. Mrs. Nelly Fideleff, converted to Christ a year ago, made special guest appearances at the U. S. and Canadian premieres of Lucia, the screen drama based on her wayward quest for peace of mind. First showings of the film were on the West Coast, in Pennsylvania, and in Toronto. The Latin American premiere was held in Montivideo, Uruguay.

Produced by World Wide Pictures, the film arm of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, Lucia includes scenes taken during evangelist Graham’s Buenos Aires crusade in October, 1962. It was during that time that Mrs. Fideleff and her husband, a prominent physician, committed their lives to Christ.

The plot of Lucia follows rather closely the events that led to the conversion of Mrs. Fideleff, including a clandestine romance with a gallivanting American businessman. The film was produced in Argentina with a Spanish-speaking cast, but the version available for rental to churches and other organizations in English-speaking countries has an English soundtrack. The leading role is played by actress Fernanda Mistral, who represented Argentina at one of the famous Cannes film festivals.

NCC Pleads for Racial Justice

Frank Farrell

The sixth General Assembly of the National Council of Churches met December 1–7 in Philadelphia, but its eye was on Washington, D. C. A long shadow cast over the Quaker City’s Convention Hall by the memory of a vacated White House chair seemed to impel the delegates toward the seats of power on Capitol Hill in a search for solution of the nation’s racial crisis, easily the dominant issue of the convention.

The high point of the assembly was to have been a televised address by John F. Kennedy, scheduled to be the first President and first Roman Catholic national leader to speak to an NCC general meeting. Instead of his projected address on “Our Liberties, One and Indivisible,” a memorial service was held for him, in which United Presbyterian Stated Clerk Eugene Carson Blake said: “John Kennedy by his actions as President demonstrated that he was indeed a good Catholic, but more—that his kind of Christianity was a strength rather than a handicap to his serving the whole people of the whole nation under the Constitution and under God.” Bishop George W. Baber of the African Methodist Episcopal Church prayed: “In this hour of our national and world sorrow, we pause to thank Thee for John Fitzgerald Kennedy who now moves with Thee in glorious realms of eternal light; and for the impact of his dedicated personality upon the lives of so many, great and small, known and unknown, of all creeds and colors.” Pennsylvania’s Governor William W. Scranton paralleled the assassination with that of Lincoln, and asserted: “America will survive so long as we have leaders of the people who use as their guidelines the people’s common sense. While politicians and lawyers discuss the legalistic fine points of civil rights legislation, the tyranny of prejudice is doomed because the American people in their deep common sense realize it is wrong.”

Again and again throughout the course of the assembly, speakers pointed to the plight of the dispossessed Negro, and called for Christian action. The newly elected NCC president, Bishop Reuben H. Mueller of the Evangelical United Brethren Church (see News section, Dec. 20 issue), declared Negroes have come to the conclusion that “a threat to profit or property can move a white Protestant a lot faster than an appeal to spiritual ideals.” Methodist church historian Franklin H. Littell said that those who argued during Hitler’s reign that the function of churches was to undergird the “German way of life” have their counterpart in those who today maintain that churches exist to support “the American way of life” or the “Southern way of life.” Dr. W. A. Visser t Hooft, general secretary of the World Council of Churches, spoke of “courageous Christians” in South Africa who are fighting racial estrangement, and said: “You in the American churches can help them more effectively by solving your own race problem than in any other way.” Sierra Leone’s minister of external affairs. John Karefa-Smart, offered some exegesis that startled some: “I wonder if we are far wrong in suggesting that the famous ride into Jerusalem on the donkey was perhaps our Lord’s way of protesting, both to the Jews and to the Romans, for the rights of the masses of his fellow citizens.” Dr. Robert W. Spike, executive director of the NCC’s Commission on Religion and Race, said that the racial issue provides an area where the validity of all lay movements can be tested: “I do not wish to imply that only Negro freedom fighters qualify for the Christian mission in this crucial hour.… Heroic white Christians … keep their trust as well.”

Assembly delegates responded to the repeated platform appeals by: (1) Approving a message to the churches that stressed racial brotherhood. It said: “At the point of race the Christian church must now profess or deny Christ.” (2) Adopting a pronouncement on human rights that said that particular attention “should be given to the denial of rights on the basis of race or color and to the correcting” of such injustices. (3) Taking the strongest stand on civil rights in NCC history by urging all churches and Christians to initiate specific action toward complete elimination of racial discrimination in their organizations, agencies, and institutions. A call was made for pulpits to be opened to all qualified ministers regardless of race, and for “investment portfolios” to be examined to determine if funds are invested in enterprises that practice racial discrimination, such investments to be removed if discrimination is not ceased. (4) Calling upon Congress to “take every step necessary to insure the earliest possible passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1963, including the immediate use of a discharge petition which will enable the House of Representatives to take action on the bill,” and calling upon all Christians “to urge their Representatives in Congress to sign such a petition when it is presented.”

To suit action to their words, some 100 clergymen and laymen contacted congressmen in Washington to urge them to sign the discharge petition. Two charter busloads of General Assembly consultants took a day off from the Philadelphia meeting for this purpose. If signed by the necessary 218 House members, the petition would bring the civil rights bill immediately to the House floor for a vote on the next discharge date (second and fourth Mondays of the month—if the House is in session). Dr. Spike indicated that such lobbying “would have been unheard of” a year ago.

Five NCC leaders met with President Lyndon Johnson at his request. They expressed concern for prompt passage of the civil rights bill, commended the President for his “very vigorous” record on civil rights, and discussed how churches can best support racial justice in the future.

The stance of the NCC leadership on the race issue seemed clear. But the key to the program would be grass-roots response. As the Philadelphia assembly drew to a close, a minister reported for thirty workshops that had discussed race during the week: “… the lack of church initiative does not come from an absence of official statements and positions; … our failure arises from the churches’ concentration on themselves.” But the workshops had one specific proposal: that the NCC, which employs many nonwhites in non-executive positions, would promote qualified minority-group members to executive positions.

Other assembly actions included:

• Reaffirmation of opposition to legalized gambling.

• Adoption of a revised constitution, effective January 1, 1965, and authorization of the policy-making NCC General Board to draft and implement new by-laws (see News section, Nov. 8 issue). Though this has been termed a “sweeping reorganization” of the NCC’s structure and though there have been warnings voiced previously by General Board members against the resulting increase of centralization which could, it was said, result in loss of council membership, the action was voted with scarcely a murmur from delegates.

Church Membership Tally

U. S. Protestant church membership gains continue to fall slightly shy of the country’s population increase, according to National Council of Churches statisticians. But a 2.3 per cent growth reported by Roman Catholics enables the new Yearbook of American Churches to again list overall church membership as 63.4 per cent of total population. That is the same figure as last year.

The church membership increase and the country’s population growth are both given as 1.6 per cent.

In actual figures, the Yearbook’s 1964 edition records that 117,946,002 Americans are members of churches, synagogues, or other places of worship. That includes 64,929,941 Protestants and 43,847,938 Roman Catholics.

The Yearbook, just out, is compiled by the NCC Bureau of Research and Survey and is based on reports by official statisticians of 252 religious bodies for the fifty states and the District of Columbia. The latest figures are said to be “mainly” for the calendar year 1962 or for a fiscal year ending in 1962.

Protestant Sunday school enrollment is showing a slow but apparently steady decline. It is now given as 40,096,624, compared with 40,239,020 a year ago, and 40,241,650 two years ago.

Here are the ten largest Protestant denominations in the United States as reported in the Yearbook:

Secular observers were struck by two negative aspects of the assembly: the almost inaudible responses during voting, though there were more than 800 voting delegates present (along with some 2,500 consultants and accredited visitors); and the widespread delegate absenteeism during the final sessions when most of the important votes were taken.

Paucity of debate on many important issues was attributed by some to trust in and/or awe of the professional leadership.

Electronics helped determine the political complexion of the delegates, consultants, and accredited visitors. An IBM machine reported that of 575 persons polled, 46 per cent were Republican—25 per cent of these self-described as liberal, 19 per cent moderate, and only 2 per cent conservative. Democrats comprised 36 per cent—26 per cent liberal, 10 per cent moderate, and less than 1 per cent conservative.

Top Evangelical News

A group of evangelical editors picked the Supreme Court decision on public school devotions as their most significant news event of 1963.

The Roman Catholic “thaw,” the race question, Billy Graham’s Southern California crusade, and the charismatic revival, were also cited, in that order.

A total of thirteen Christian publications participated in the selection of “the five most important news stories in the evangelical religious world in 1963.” The survey was conducted by News Editor Phil Landrum of Moody Monthly for a special article that appears in the publication’s January issue.

The Idea Of A University

Southern Baptists can hardly talk about higher education without bringing up Wake Forest College. The campus at Winston-Salem, North Carolina, is a leading center for the training of Southern Baptist young people, and it has had more than its share of controversy. Latest furor is over a proposal by the Wake Forest administration to include non-Baptists and out-of-state residents among its trustees.

The idea grew out of a study made of Wake Forest’s graduate program by a group of educators who analyzed the aim of the school to achieve university status. They recommended a “diversified board of trustees with ability to cultivate potential sources of financial support.” As a result. Dr. Harold W. Tribble, Wake Forest president, undertook a campaign to change the method of electing trustees, now handled solely within the North Carolina Baptist Convention.

Meanwhile, a special committee studying relations between the college and the convention reported concern over a decline in the percentage of Baptist students and faculty members. They supported Tribble’s contention, however, that the new trustee proposal was not designed to wrest a measure of control from the convention.

A petition was circulated among Baptist ministers in the state opposing the change, and scores of them signed it. The petition said the move would “tend to widen the gap between Wake Forest and the convention instead of bringing the two together.”

The trustee plan was introduced at the annual meeting of the convention held in November in the coastal town of Wilmington. It never made it to the floor. A compromise plan also fell short of the necessary two-thirds majority for passage (the vote was 1,628 for and 1,106 against).

“Anything we have to say we will bring up at the next convention,” Tribble declared. “We will not give up. Next year we can carry it at the convention.”

The 1964 North Carolina Baptist Convention will meet in Greensboro, a neighbor city to Winston-Salem.

Tribble’s bid to make Wake Forest a university involves an expansion program that will cost an estimated $69 million. Included are plans for a $4 million Graduate School of Religion, which, in Tribble’s words, “would be distinctly graduate work in terms of university graduate studies rather than professional in terms of theological education.”

An Evening At The White House

Evangelist Billy Graham, in Annapolis for a Sunday morning preaching engagement at the U. S. Naval Academy Chapel, was called to the telephone for a message from the White House. Said the voice at the other end:

“Billy, this is Lyndon.”

The President of the United States expressed regret that he would not be there to hear the sermon, but said he was immediately dispatching daughter Lucy from Washington to Annapolis.

“God bless you as you preach,” added President Johnson.

The following evening Graham spent five hours at the White House at Johnson’s request. The two talked privately for half an hour, then went swimming in the White House pool with presidential assistant Bill Moyers and Graham’s close friend, Grady Wilson. The President asked Graham to lead the group in a session of prayer and later to return thanks prior to a dinner with executives of the New York Herald Tribune.

Surprise Citations

The late Pope John XXIII was among thirty-three distinguished persons honored last month with the U. S. Presidential Medal of Freedom. The names of thirty-one of the group had been announced in advance, but the awards to Pope John and the late President Kennedy came as a surprise. This was the citation to the pontiff:

“His Holiness Pope John XXIII—dedicated servant of God. He brought to all citizens of the planet a heightened sense of the dignity of the individual, of the brotherhood of man, and of the common duty to build an environment of peace for all human kind.”

The Factory: A Christian Frontier

J. D. Douglas

Ten years ago Bill Gowland was minister of the Albert Hall, Manchester, which with more than 1,500 members was one of English Methodism’s key pulpits. Yet always in his mind was the haunting concern of how to reach those millions to whom the Church was irrelevant. Characteristically he saw a parable in the leper squint, a feature still to be seen in certain ancient churches in Britain. The leper squint was a small window through which the leper, in his completely outcast plight, could watch the service being conducted. Millions outside the Church, with no intention of coming in, were still contemplating the Church’s doings from afar, some with a new curiosity.

To Bill Gowland, a congregation displaying a cosy insularity (“ghetto-minded” is his phrase) was sowing the seed of its own destruction. A new imaginative approach was needed and a new mode of expression: references to lilies and sheep were alien to men working with coal and steel. The 42-year-old Methodist pastor stated his aim thus: “The kind of places in which we wish to operate are those in which men and women work and play, sweat and swear.” The industrial town of Luton (population now 150,000), thirty miles northwest of London, offered a fitting challenge to a man of vision and courage, and there he went with the blessing of The Methodist Church, in 1954. Thus was born Luton Industrial Mission. He took over a moribund church which had a seating capacity of 2,000—and a congregation of 60. By 1959 it had 500 members and was growing at the rate of 100 per year.

But this was not the whole story. “We must bridge the gulf between pavement and pew,” he asserted, “and get onto the factory floor.” And he did. The chaplain who had at first been introduced at an employer-employee conclave under “Any Other Business” became a familiar figure who through selfless love and infinite patience won his way into the hearts of those who had lost sight of their eternal destiny.

Here, in industry, Gowland insists, is the most effective forum of our day. In a little book, Militant and Triumphant, he had pointed out that the Communist target was not a majority in Westminster (in Luton two months ago the Communist Parliamentary candidate polled a mere 1,200 votes), but a strategic minority in the trade unions, shop stewards, trade councils, and other focal points of working-class life. In this vital sector of the world-struggle Christians have been conspicuously absent, leaving empty thrones for Communist occupation and thus abandoning millions, workers and employers alike, to the mercy of stark materialism.

William Gowland is now universally recognized as the foremost expert on the subject of the Christian relation to industry. Consultant of many trade unions, managements, and groups in all parts of the world, he has lectured widely in the United States and Canada, and returned a few months ago from Australia, where he established the pattern of industrial evangelism.

In 1957 he found Luton Industrial College, where he gave priority to the training of chaplains. This work continues, but with greater emphasis now on the layman. The chaplain is regarded as the bridgehead, but the layman has a permanent foothold, and in his hands is the real task of the Church in industry. So far several hundreds of men—chaplains, shop stewards, apprentices, and managers—have graduated from the college. One year the college was swamped with 3,000 applicants. Hospitality is given by local townsfolk, who hold Gowland in high respect; but funds for the residential accommodation on which he has set his heart are badly needed. Only when Bill Gowland feels that chaplains, lay members, and lay preachers have been adequately trained does he allow them to do evangelistic work on the factory floor. Similarly, he will not receive anyone into membership of his church unless he is convinced that the candidate will become a militant Christian. “I just can’t afford to have passive Christians at Luton,” he declares. Last month his church was crowded at a memorial service for President Kennedy at which a U. S. Air Force chaplain gave the address.

With the church and college Gowland runs also a community center to demonstrate Christian faith and practice in persistent social concern. Sixty per cent of its 1,100 members are non-churchgoers (“this is how it should be”). Gowland’s voluntary staff help in visiting homes, ministering to the needy, running extensive campaigns, and conducting open-air meetings. The whole project is run on a shoestring: Gowland has one ministerial assistant and a tiny administrative staff. He is a modest man who disclaims all credit for his truly staggering achievements, stressing that the glory is God’s alone.

In October last the mission celebrated its ninth anniversary, and in his report Bill Gowland made a typical point: “If industry is in parts dirty and difficult, that is all the more reason why we should find the way by which it can be made to serve the purposes of God.”

Advertising The Gospel

Can the language and methods of advertising be used to put across a basic Christian truth?

Mennonite Broadcasts, Inc., sponsors of “The Mennonite Hour” and other religious radio programs, are currently testing two series of brief radio messages aimed at the man in the street—one series written by them, one by an advertising agency—to get an answer to this question.

The Mennonites’ “sermonettes,” written by Stanley Shenk, a Mennonite minister, take one minute and are being broadcast once a day for six months. The agency’s promotional “spots” take thirty seconds and were broadcast for nine weeks, at the rate of 120 messages a week. The two series were planned for two undisclosed cities, the secrecy extending through the duration of the test to avoid prejudicing the results.

It was made clear that the experiment was not intended as a formula for “instant salvation.” “We can’t preach the whole Gospel,” said Kenneth Weaver, executive director of Mennonite Broadcasts. The idea was rather to find out whether a “basic Christian truth” could be put across.

The Mennonites are trying this novel approach to gospel broadcasting because they believe that “the usual religious program attracts an audience which already has some tendency toward spiritual orientation,” as the chairman of the Minute Program Committee, Dr. Henry Weaver, puts it. “Such a program serves a worthwhile purpose, but we feel we also have a mandate to reach the unchurched,” Dr. Weaver said. He also said that he hoped that the program would ultimately bring those reached in touch with a church, although the immediate aim is solely for comprehension of the message.

A research firm has been retained to measure attitudes before, immediately after, and six months after the programs. As far as anyone has been able to determine, this is the first time that modern audience research techniques have been applied to a religious broadcast, according to Alvin A. Sarra, senior account executive of Henry J. Kaufman and Associates, the agency handling the project. Both programs are aimed at men between 18 and 40, he said. There are no Mennonite churches in either broadcast area.

Since final returns are not yet in (the agency’s nine-week series was completed in November, but the six-month sermonette series will run until February), neither the agency nor the Mennonites are making official statements about how the experiment is going; but privately they are reported encouraged.

Here is a sample of the messages prepared by the agency;

Young but mature, highly enthusiastic male voice. “My children love life,” says the young father.

Round, vibrant voice—sincere in sound and pitch. “I give life,” says Jesus Christ. Echo chamber. “I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.”

Selling voice—varied in pitch, range, and tempo. Help your children to live a new way—live abundantly—really live! Teach them to take the gift of new life that only Christ can give. Take Him, too. He forgives sins. He leads to new understanding and enjoyment of life. Don’t keep Him waiting any longer! Don’t let your children miss out!

Here is one of Shenk’s messages:

This is a minute; it may be your minute.

Many people who have never accepted Christ as sin-forgiver think they’re good Christians—just because they’re Americans and have never killed a man or robbed a bank.

Many who have never accepted Christ as leader think they’re Christians just because sometimes they ask God to follow along like a good fellow and give them a hand.

The religion of these people is a foggy combination of self-satisfaction, personal convenience, once-in-a-while church attendance, and thinking of God as the Man Upstairs. They know next to nothing of true religion.

A man gets a start at real religion when he accepts Christ as sin-forgiver and leader. Then he gets a whole new outlook on life—and he finds what religion is.

GEORGE WILLIAMS

Theology

The Christian Conquest of Fear

George W. Truett

Fear not; I am the first and the last, and the Living One, and I was dead, and behold, I am alive for evermore, and I have the keys of death and of Hades (Rev. 1:17c, 18; read vv. 1–20).

“Let the visiting minister tell us how to conquer our fears.” At one of our largest and most representative of colleges so responded a majority of the students to a questionnaire concerning what they wished to hear during special services twice daily for a week. Hence one of the sermons had to do with our Lord’s noblest saying on the subject, as it concerns three issues ever supreme. Today he bids us be—

I. Unafraid of Life. Think of its responsibilities. Often you ask yourself: “Can I make good?” Even Moses trembled before his mighty responsibilities. And Paul cried out: “Who is sufficient for these things?” Once when in a despondent frame a man attempted to snuff out the candle of life. After he was prevented, I asked him why he had attempted to end it all. He answered: “Because I was afraid to go on with life.”

People are afraid, for one thing, because they feel dependent: dependent upon God, and upon one another. Also, because they stand in the presence of vast mysteries, especially sin and sorrow. But Jesus comes to us who believe and says to us, one by one: “Do not be afraid of life. I will never leave thee nor forsake thee.”

II. Unafraid of Death. Here our Lord reminds us: “I was dead, and behold, I am alive for evermore.” He is ever with his people now, especially when they come to die. With joy John Wesley declared: “Our people die well.” They were unafraid and triumphant. Week by week the pastors of our churches witness triumphs of faith over death. Hence they are able victoriously to exclaim with Paul: “Thanks be to God who giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.”

III. Unafraid of Eternity. Here Christ says: “I have the keys of death and Hades.” That word “keys” shows his authority, his guidance, his control. Just as he has cared for his people in life and in death, so will he prepare for you in eternity. “I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you unto myself, that where I am, there ye may be also.”

Are you trusting in Christ as your personal Saviour? Do you gladly bow to him as your rightful Master? If your heart answers “Yes,” go your way without hesitation or fear. Your personal relation to Christ will determine your relation to life, death, and eternity. He is our Saviour, our promised and infallible Guide, even unto death, and throughout the vast beyond, forever. Well do we often sing: “He leadeth me.” As we sing it now, who wishes openly to confess him and follow him?

From Follow Thou Me (Nashville: Broadman Press, 1932).

Theology

More than Conquerors

Kyle M. Yates

In all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us (Rom. 8:37: read vv. 1–33).

In Romans 7 Paul revealed something of the terrific struggle in the soul of one who has allied himself with Christ. Here the Apostle has been giving a personal illustration of his journey through justification and sanctification toward glorification. Now he proclaims his certainty that victory is possible through the power of the Holy Spirit.

I. Victorious Living (1–17). Chapter 8 is different. The struggle has given way to quiet trust. Peace reigns. The Holy Spirit comes into our lives, first to convict, then to bring us to Christ, and thus to bring about regeneration. The Holy Spirit is also the Giver of sanctification. Often we consider holiness a lofty peak, almost inaccessible, too difficult for any except a few choice spirits. Paul makes it clear that striving for holiness is a sacred duty binding on all who name the name of Jesus. Then follows adoption. What more could make a Christian ready to major on living the holy life? As the Spirit leads we long to find full holiness.

II. Patience under Suffering (18–32). Paul wants us to share in the glory enjoyed by our Saviour. Meanwhile the Apostle bids us be patient in all our sufferings. The Spirit helps us to pray, and as God’s called ones to accept the plan he has had for us through the ages. When we respond to God’s call we become new creatures in Christ. In the midst of our sufferings we have the assurance that God is in full and complete control. He makes all things work together for our good and his glory. God keeps, guides, sustains, comforts and empowers his own through the constant ministry of the Holy Spirit. The saved man comes into the fullest realization of God’s purposes for him and shares eternal glory with his Saviour, the Lord Jesus.

III. Golden Assurance (31–39). All the way we have had divinely given notes of assurance. Now we are brought up suddenly with pointed questions. Who can stand against us? No power anywhere can match strength with eternal God. He is all-powerful and supreme. Does he love us? This question brings out the greatest verse in Paul’s writings: “He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not also freely give us all things?”

Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Nothing anywhere can sever the golden chain that binds the heart of God to his people. Earth never has known anything like the love of Christ. You are in the middle of that love. You are one whom he has commissioned the Holy Spirit to inhabit. Why should we not lead victorious lives? We follow in the footsteps of One who has given us the supreme example of living above earthly desires. No power in the universe can separate us from the love of God. Let us determine that our lives shall be worthy of our calling.

From Preaching from Great Bible Chapters (Nashville: Broadman Press, 1957).

Theology

Contentment in Christ

Andrew W. Blackwood

I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content (Phil. 4:11b).

Writing from prison, where he faces death for the sake of Christ, the Apostle tells how as a believer he has formed the habit of feeling contented. Surely he was not born that way. Even after he had been born again he had to learn this lesson in the school of Christ. So do many of us here today.

I. The Meaning: Glad acceptance of your lot, as the gift of God. An individual matter, contentment not because of heredity, but through learning from God. A. Acceptance of the self with whom you must live. Only to a slight degree can anyone change his temperament. But by the grace of God anyone can make the most of all his God-given powers. B. The place where God puts you to serve. Here again, joy comes through acceptance, not through chafing or rebellion.

C. The people with whom you live, in some cases far from ideal. Indeed, one of them may seem like your cross. D. The conditions amid which God would have you grow. In all of this do you believe that your life is a plan of God, and that by his grace you should find contentment in your lot? For a living example of what this means turn to the life of John Bunyan. While in prison for twelve years, because of loyalty to Christ, Bunyan learned the secret of Christian contentment.

II. The Schooling. Paul had to learn this lesson, and so may you, in much the same fashion. It appears in his three Greek verbs. A. By reading and study of the Bible, in daily prayer. Why not begin with this letter about joy? B. By watching others whom you admire. Who is the happiest person you know, despite hard times? The least happy, amid the most pleasant conditions? Why the difference? Surely because one friend has learned to be Christlike. The other has not. As with Paul, contentment comes to the one who best knows God.

C. Have an inner experience of God’s grace. The third Greek verb means, literally, “to be initiated” into the secret of the Lord. This in turn means that by his grace the Lord comes to live in you, and that by faith you begin to live in him. What else has God a right to expect from every person who has been born again?

The Minister’s Workshop: Form and Freedom

Paul S. Rees

Among the Phillips Brooks reminiscences is one that goes back to his first days in seminary. He observed that in the devotional meetings there were certain students who would pray with rare fervor. But then came Brooks’s disillusionment: next morning in the classroom these same students showed with shocking clarity that they had not done their homework in Greek. Wryly Brooks commented, “The boiler had no connection with the engine.”

The misplaced connection between zealous prayer and disciplined study suggests a similar relationship that preachers frequently mishandle. Our business is to correlate homiletical form and pulpit freedom in such fashion that the maximum impact is delivered at the point of congregational and personal response. Put any tag on the sermon that you will—evangelistic, didactic, practical—if it is worthy of the name, it must be, in Jowett’s famous phrase, preaching “for a verdict.” To go back to the Brooks figure, the steam of inspiration requires an efficient enginery for its use.

So long as men practice the arts—music, painting, sculpture, rhetoric—the question will occur and recur: What is the relation between form and freedom? Obsession with form results in style. Style, however, carries no guarantee of content. Obsession with freedom means the uncovering of reality, but with no assurance that it will be transmitted in a fashion that will make it either attractive or assimilable. Break the marriage and, as always with broken marriages, something precious is forfeited. This holds for preaching, which, though more than an art, is not less.

Let us go back to an eminent preacher born two centuries ago. For more than fifty years the pulpit of Holy Trinity Church, Cambridge, was occupied by Charles Simeon, of whom Lord Macaulay once said, “As to Simeon, if you knew what his authority and influence were, and how they extend from Cambridge to the most remote corners of England, you would allow that his real sway over the Church was far greater than that of any Primate.”

The present Archbishop of York, the Very Rev. Donald Coggan, a close student of Simeon’s career, has given five reasons why the preaching of this renowned servant of the Word had such extraordinary effects. One of them is this: “his revival of the formal sermon-scheme.” Simeon is on record as having said that for the first seven years of his preaching he “did not know the head from the tail of a sermon.” The turning point came when he got hold of a monograph, written by a French Reformed pastor, entitled “Essay On the Composition of a Sermon.” Later he translated it for the conclusion of his monumental series of sermon volumes known as Horae Homileticae, wherein may be found 2,536 sermons!

Simeon discovered that a worthy sermon has form, structure, rhythm, inner relationships of logic, and outer vestments of rhetoric and illustration, through which the energy of biblical truth can run like the electric current that flows through a properly wired house. The discovery did not destroy his freedom: it channeled it—and enhanced it. The homiletical hobo, wandering hither and yon through the wide open spaces of the preaching hour, became the sermonic soldier, with gleaming gun-barrel, controlled fire-power, and a bead on the target.

Did this attention to the craft of the sermon cost Simeon his freedom? One may presume that the switch from meandering to method may have seemed awkward for a little while. But then came a freedom wider than ever, and far more authentic. Always, the method subserved the message.

One day a very small girl sat listening to Simeon as he preached. Looking up to her mother, she asked in a whisper, “What is the gentleman in such a passion about?”

Fire, freedom, spirit—it was all there! And along with it, as its vehicle, an artistry which, at least in dedication, was worthy of the incomparable Gospel being preached.

Let us have done, then, with this false antithesis between form and freedom. They belong together. Let us have done, too, with the opaqueness and laziness that stand between us and some recognizable degree of proficiency in our preaching task—the opaqueness that sees it not in its importance and the laziness that dares it not in its achievement.

Books

Book Briefs: January 3, 1964

John J. Kiwiet

How Baptists Are Built

The Baptist Way of Life, by Brooks Hays and John E. Steely (Prentice-Hall, 1963, 205 pp., $3.95), is reviewed by John J. Kiwiet, associate professor of church history, Northern Baptist Theological Seminary, Oakbrook, Illinois.

The authors have been working jointly on this book, which is part of the “Way of Life” series published by Prentice-Hall. It was prepared for the general reader rather than for the specialist in denominational history (p. xiii). The major trends in Baptist life, especially among Southern Baptists, are delineated in a clear and elucidating way.

The first section of this book is a survey of Baptist history. The great times of Baptist life are its beginnings on English and American soil during the seventeenth century, and also the period of frontier life in which Baptists played a significant role (c. 1675–c. 1950). The third great period of Baptist development, according to the authors, is the present day, which characterizes itself by rapid growth and by a bewildering scene of explosions in various areas of life.

The authors then proceed to take up the main Baptist teachings. They consider the following to be major points of agreement among Baptists: the emphasis on conversion and personal commitment; the centrality of preaching in worship; the symbolic understanding of the sacraments; and the unfulfilled challenge of social ethics in Baptist church life. It is sometimes not clear whether the authors describe present Baptist understandings or challenge the Baptists themselves to a renewed approach; this is particularly so in Chapter 4, where they criticize certain interpretations of the experience of conversion. In the matter of race relations the authors conclude: “We are advancing slowly; but we are advancing” (p. 87).

The third and largest section of this introduction to Baptist life is devoted to the topic, “How Baptists do their work.” We now enter the sanctuary of Baptist self-understanding, and we encounter their great principles of local church government; separation of church and state; participation of laymen and women in church life; evangelism and education—all of this under the observance of the New Testament pattern. The authors twice quote a statement that they believe accurately characterizes membership in a Baptist church: “It takes a strong constitution to be a good Baptist” (p. vi, p. 105). Large numbers of Baptists, however, live under prohibiting circumstances, e.g., the young churches on the mission field; churches under persecution; several of our own city churches. They cannot carry on an extensive evangelistic and educational program, but they too consider themselves as vital Baptist churches.

The book concludes with a section on Baptist contributions. The authors make no secret about the weak emphasis on theology and hymnology among Baptists. Although they have their great theologians and hymn writers, Baptists have relied for a large part on general Protestant theology and hymns. The closing chapter on religious liberty shows that Baptists still are in the midst of their search for freedom of religion for all men.

With this well-written and very informative book the authors succeed in introducing us to genuine Baptist life. We discover, too, that Baptists do not feel they have “arrived” yet, and that they still have to exert themselves to meet a wide range of problems and challenges—from the minor ones at the local level, to the far-reaching national and international issues of our day.

JOHN J. KIWIET

Journalistic Diversion

The Church of England, by Paul Ferris (Macmillan, 1963, 224 pp., $4.95), is reviewed by J. D. Douglas, British editorial director, CHRISTIANITY TODAY.

A 34-year-old secular journalist gives here a well-written, selective, and superficial impression of various facets of the Established Church. His grasp of the true nature of the Church of Jesus Christ is perhaps understandably tenuous, but when it comes to recounting ecclesiastical scandals and controversies, he doesn’t miss a trick. Atheists-in-heaven, Lady Chatterley and the Bishop of Woolwich, the Balham defrocking case, London slums owned by the Church Commissioners, the Provost of Guildford row, Harry Williams’s unorthodox views on fornication—they’re all here.

It is not an altogether objective picture, for Ferris has his prejudices and journalism will out. Thus, speaking of the single evangelical college he visited, he says, “Everyone has his ‘personal testimony,’ which he will give at the least provocation, describing how a man, a book, or a random thought began a process that (in most accounts) passes through a state of prolonged prayer, kneeling on a hard floor, before the truth of Christ became apparent” (p. 27). Seeing that this college’s principal had a photograph of Billy Graham on his desk, Ferris comments: “Many Anglican clergymen, particularly Anglo-Catholics, wince at the sight of those big lapels and blazing eyes.…” There are coat-trailing references to “thoroughgoing fundamentalism” and “the gimlet eyes of Conservative Evangelicals.” Anglo-Catholics, on the other hand, are for the most part treated with marked sympathy.

Though this book gets in several shrewd digs at officialdom, it makes some curious judgments—the editors of Prism will be intrigued to find themselves labeled as “a High Church ginger group”—and quotes even more curious statements, like that of the Church Commission executive who explained about part of that body’s $900 million resources: “We try to keep our hands clean, only it’s pretty obvious nowadays that if you’re investing in equities you can’t keep clear of armaments.” The reader is alternately entertained and depressed, grateful for the diversion but thankful that this is only journalism after all.

J. D. DOUGLAS

Good Or Bad?

Constructive Aspects of Anxiety, edited by Seward Hiltner and Karl Menninger (Abingdon, 1963, 173 pp., $3.50), is reviewed by James Forrester, president, Gordon College and Gordon Divinity School, Wenham, Massachusetts.

This book is the record of a frank interdisciplinary exchange between clergymen of various denominations and psychiatrists of various schools of thought focused productively upon the question of anxiety. Some of the “work papers” form the content of the book.

Ishak Ramzy points out that the position first taken by Freud that “no forces other than the physical, chemical ones are active within the organism” proved to be too penurious for the clinical data. Freud, after three decades, emerged with the psychological observation that anxiety is the reproduction of early experiences of denial of protection or love. Ramzy suggests that if the emphasis is on the “signal” function of anxiety, it can have no positive use.

Hiltner expands upon Freud’s emerging ideas of anxiety and affect and his “continuum” toward pathology. The second of Hiltner’s papers is a perceptive approach to anxiety in the theological terminology of Kierkegaard, Reinhold Niebuhr, and Tillich. When man senses his freedom as a potentiality, he must accept responsibility for what he does with his freedom. His freedom is the precondition of his sin, and his subjective response to this awareness is anxiety. Whether anxiety is to be construed as constructive or destructive “depends upon the response made and executed by ego, self, or person.” Freud, Kierkegaard, and Niebuhr are seen as in some agreement regarding the “normative function of the total process of which anxiety is a part” (p. 61). Tillich relates anxiety in an ontological context to the “existential awareness of non-being.” Hiltner suggests that the others “all agree, against Tillich, that what makes confrontation possible is not the message of anxiety itself but … strength of ego or freedom of the self” (p. 65).

Fred Berthold suggests that anxiety seen only in clinical perspectives appears to be “disteleological” and restrictive of productivity. He attempts to make the case for anxiety as an aspect of the creativity of man. Viewed in the Christian context, the “anxiety of guilt” has a creative element intrinsic to it. It drives us to seek a cure and “to resume our quest for the image of God” (p. 84).

Albert C. Outler discusses anxiety and grace in the perspectives of Augustine. He establishes a helpful differentiation between anxiety as “cognition” and anxiety as “emotion.” He sees the constructive aspects of anxiety as related to cognition. He sees anxiety through the prism of a theological existentialism. On the “constructive” side anxiety “may serve the function of posing the problem of selfhood in its ultimate dimensions” (p. 100).

Charles A. Curran sees two impulses making for positive outcomes from anxiety in the Judeo-Christian tradition. These are an “anxious striving” toward maturity and an “anxious longing” for lasting identification with God. It is possible, in the Christian understanding, for anxiety “to come full circle from striving and longing to fulfillment” (p. 118).

Paul W. Pruyser sees the clinical approaches to anxiety as putting the emphasis upon affect and appraises its role as potentially pathogenic. In theological perspectives he denies that anxiety necessarily produces cognitive awareness of finitude. Paradoxically, for the study of the subjective side of anxiety one needs the live experience of anxiety; but the anxious person is the least able to make a “phenomenological study of anxiety” (p. 137). Pruyser’s paper suggests that the theological approaches tend to seek constructive functions for anxiety but the empiricists insist upon specific identifiable causes.

Dr. Hiltner has made a significant attempt to bring psychology and theology into a common area of discourse and to present a unified definition of anxiety (p. 154). The impression hopefully emerges that anxiety is not to be seen as wholly malignant, but may be seen in some dimensions of existence as a provision of the grace of God for the preservation of the integrity of the totality of the human being. Theology is concerned with “some kinds” of “danger and challenge” in terms of how they can be met. The clinician may still need to be convinced that anxiety is a value to be exploited rather than a syndrome to be removed. His method may be too parsimonious to accommodate the spiritual need of man.

JAMES FORRESTER

A Good Missionary Story

Bill Wallace of China, by Jesse C. Fletcher (Broadman, 1963, 157 pp., $2.95), is reviewed by L. Nelson Bell, executive editor, CHRISTIANITY TODAY, and former medical missionary in China.

This is the story of a missionary whose name and skill as a surgeon became a legend in South China. With a dedication equaled by few, he set his mind to one task, “the best of medicine” and a clear witness for his Lord, regardless of danger.

Here is a story of a dedicated life, exceptional professional ability, and the adventure and tensions of working during the war-torn years of the Sino-Japanese conflict, and later of the take-over by the Communists. It is the kind of story young people will revel in; they will catch a new vision of the meaning of Christian dedication.

The final chapters tell of the coming of the Communists to Wuchow, first with fair words, then with severe restrictions, and finally with imprisonment and death.

Here is a picture of the raw hatred communism has for Christianity. When Dr. Wallace was arrested on trumped-up charges, the Chinese of Wuchow, Christians and non-Christians alike, refused to participate in the “trial”; and when he died in prison because of tortures inflicted on him, the local Christians defied the Communists in order to erect a monument over his grave—an enduring witness to his faithfulness even unto death.

There are too few good missionary books. This, by a writer with an unusual gift, is an inspiring exception.

L. NELSON BELL

Responsible To What?

The Responsible Self, by H. Richard Niebuhr (Harper & Row, 1963, 183 pp., $3.50), is reviewed by Bernard Ramm, professor of systematic theology, California Baptist Theological Seminary, Covina, California.

This volume is H. Richard Niebuhr’s basic ethical theory. It is not an easy book to read, for Niebuhr is interested not in specific ethical principles nor in specific ethical cases but in the so-called phenomenology of morality. He bypasses traditional ethical theories and contemporary theological ethics in an effort to present that which he feels is the very core of ethical action.

That core seems to be the concept of a responsible self (responsible to the self, to God, and to society) who in a given situation or context chooses that act which is fitting. Thus Niebuhr carries on a continual diatribe against teleological or deontological ethics as they represent an act in isolation from the ethical agent. Only the responsible self (which includes responsibility before God and his actions, p. 86) is the true ethical agent. Again, it is wrong to discuss ethical theory apart from philosophical, psychological, and sociological considerations. Only from the latter can we ever decide what the fitting action is.

Niebuhr admits that he is not writing a theological or a biblical ethics, and that his orientation is more philosophical and phenomenological. However, he hopes that his ethics is biblically informed (p. 46).

I found three things disturbing me as I read a book which is no doubt a profound effort to get to bedrock in ethics. First, I do not believe one can write an ethics and be so removed from the concrete biblical data itself. If the Bible is “dependable, reliable, honest, truthful” in its witness of the life of men before God (p. 23, the words of editor Gustafson), why keep it at such arm’s length? Second, there is no light given on specific cases, and this Niebuhr considered a virtue (cf. p. 13). But it seems to me that it would require a person of extraordinary sophistication to proceed from Niebuhr’s basic theses to specific cases. I carry with me a continuous dissatisfaction with philosophers and ethicists who forever refuse to show concretely what their theories involve. Third, I am unhappy over the concept of fitting. This seems to me to bypass the great theological issue of the command of God. Certainly that which is fitting is the command of God. By bypassing a detailed analysis of this concept, Niebuhr has left this theological flank completely exposed.

BERNARD RAMM

Generally Sound View

Can I Trust My Bible?: Important Questions Often Asked About the Bible … With Some Answers by Eight Evangelical Scholars (Moody, 1963, 190 pp., $3.30), is reviewed by John H. Gerstner, professor of church history, Pittsburgh Theological Seminary, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Five of the chapters of Can I Trust My Bible? are concerned particularly with the canon and text of Old and New Testaments. Dr. R. Laird Harris rests the case for canonicity on miraculous attestation of authors as he does in his book Inspiration and Canonicity of the Bible, which should be consulted for his more “apologetic” handling of the argument. Professor Meredith G. Kline argues interestingly for the traditional dating of Deuteronomy (p. 150) and charges surviving Wellhausenists with “obscurantism.” Wheaton’s A. Berkeley Mickelsen is content to provide a somewhat statistical and informative lecture on manuscripts plus a table of criteria for ascertaining genuineness of texts. Robert H. Mounce concentrates on Luke’s historical reliability (pp. 180 f.) and also indicates the difficulty of proving biblical error (p. 177), while the University of Idaho’s professor of physics. Edson R. Peck, argues for the harmony of science and Scripture.

As the reader can notice, this symposium tries to prove that the Bible can be trusted as historically reliable; but it may be asked whether the Bible can be trusted as the Word of God. For the most part the authors seem to assume an affirmative answer to that vital query. Three of the essays examine this matter more particularly. Frank Green states that Christians have “a completely adequate and entirely logical basis for believing in miracles …” (p. 46), while Robert Culver, in “Were the Old Testament Prophecies Really Prophetic?,” maintains that the Resurrection is “proof” of Christianity and argues that prophecy of the Resurrection is also evidence; or, rather, that the cumulative effect of prophecies is evidence. Still he says that “any one of these alone might be explained away” (p. 110). Gordon H. Clark, the only professional philosopher writing here, tries to show that conviction of the Bible’s inspiration cannot be based on argument but must be “produced by the Holy Spirit” (p. 32).

Putting the picture together, Can I Trust My Bible? contends that we may, as far as historical accuracy is concerned. However, the inspiration of the Bible is not similarly grounded but appears to be the work of the Holy Spirit directly (without “proof”) persuading the Christian soul. Many other basic problems are untouched or touched lightly; yet on the whole this is a salutary volume, taking a generally sound view and expressing it clearly.

JOHN H. GERSTNER

Still Unintegrated

The Pastoral Care of the Mentally Ill, by Norman Autton (S.P.C.K., 1963, 223 pp., 23s.), is reviewed by Paul D. Fairweather, associate professor of pastoral counseling and psychology, Fuller Theological Seminary, Pasadena, California.

In this book of eight chapters the author defines the role of the pastor and gives practical guidance for ministering to the mentally ill. The pastoral ministry to the mentally ill is described as primarily one of prevention and after-care. The need for cooperation between the psychiatric and ministerial professions is emphasized, and the roles are differentiated in terms of possible interrelation. In addition, the values of religious worship, of administration of sacraments, of prayer, and of Bible reading are described. The appendices include accounts of pastoral clinical training with outlines of courses for the clergy, a new terminology for mental health, a glossary of psychiatric concepts and terms useful for ministers, and an index of scriptural references.

The author emphasizes that the cure of souls is passing more and more out of the minister’s hands. Pastoral counseling in its most unique sense as a spiritual ministry, however, is not clearly articulated. Rather, it is defined in terms of psychological counseling and psychotherapeutic approaches to the person. Knowledge of emotional disorders is recommended. However, the importance of this “knowledge” seems to be that the pastor will thus be able to refer difficult cases to other professional groups. Cautions about not counseling neurotic and emotionally disturbed persons take precedence over a definition of the minister’s contribution as a counseling pastor to such persons. The pastor is warned not to fall into stereotyped ways of dealing with people, but little integration of theological and psychological concepts is attempted. The ultimate therapeutic recommendation is to “be” a Christian with the person. Dogmatic statements and clichés abound throughout. The pastor ought to “love” the neurotic and be “unshocked.” The author points to the necessity of self-knowledge for resolution of neurotic conflict, but does not indicate how the minister is to achieve this. The chapter on psychosomatic disorders is helpful, but of little value to the minister in understanding how persons can be helped in their faith when they are symptomatizing organically. It is believed that the approach to persons, if they are to be helped, will involve something more than “infinite patience,” namely, an ability to understand the psychic conflicts in terms of Christian theology.

The reader is struck by the author’s use of dogmatic adverbs such as “always” and “never” in describing the minister’s role; for example, “the door of his study should always be open to the troubled parishioner.”

This book does abound with practical suggestions for the pastor in his contacts with the mentally ill. But it lacks the theoretical articulation necessary to help the minister find the integration of psychological and theological concepts that must occur in the therapeutic effort.

PAUL D. FAIRWEATHER

Toward A Christian Couch

The Christian and the Couch, by Donald F. Tweedie, Jr. (Baker, 1963, 240 pp., $3.93), is reviewed by Gelmer A. Van Noord, M.D., superintendent, Pine Rest Christian Hospital, Grand Rapids, Michigan.

Dr. Donald Tweedie, professor of psychology at Gordon College, has written a sequel to his earlier book, Logotherapy and the Christian Faith (1961), in which he analyzed and evaluated the existential psychiatry of Dr. Viktor Frankl of Vienna. In The Christian and the Couch Tweedie makes a special plea for making the Christian faith central and dynamic to the psychotherapeutic process. He also sees the distressing tensions in mental health research as being clustered about a “lack of an adequate anthropology, and objective axiology, or value system, a distinct therapeutic direction and a governing goal.”

The author courageously attacks a controversial issue in discussing the relation of Christianity and psychotherapy. He discusses the “anti” group, those Christians who “are negative to any inroad of psychological science into the area of dealing with personal problems” (p. 22). Next he considers the views of Christians who “believe that psychological means should be sought out in the alleviation of human suffering, just as food, clothing, shelter, and medicine” (p. 25). He describes as neutralists “those who hold that the Christian faith is neutral to psychotherapy” (p. 28). And he makes a special plea for a Christian psychotherapy grounded in biblical presuppositions (p. 33).

Undoubtedly all Christian psychotherapists will agree that “the Christian has a basic presupposition as he approaches the concept of personality for he believes that the Bible presents significant truths regarding man” (p. 50). However, there may not be universal agreement as to the specific manner in which a Christian psychiatrist will function psychotherapeutically. Dr. Tweedie uses the Bible and prayer as techniques in his psychotherapeutic sessions (pp. 175–79). Although he allows for special circumstances when their use may not be judicious, to the reviewer there seems to be some arbitrariness in the implication that the specific use of the Bible and prayer is necessary inherent in a Christian psychotherapy. Could not a statement of Christian doctrine or a suggestion embodying the law of love be equally Christian and something more therapeutic? Inadequate attention is given to the non-verbal Christian witness (e.g., Christ-like compassionate acceptance and understanding) that is most essential for every Christian psychotherapist who is committed to Christ and to service to God’s, creatures.

In Chapter II, “Man,” Tweedie provides a convenient synopsis of a section of his earlier book. Chapter III on “Mental Illness” presents elementary material which will be of help to those unacquainted with the psychiatric and psychological literature, and the same generalization may be made about the convenient glossary (pp. 229–38).

Chapter IV, “Psychotherapy or Christ; To Whom Shall We Go?” contains an analysis of the psychotherapeutic practices of several Christian psychotherapists: Dr. Paul Tournier of Geneva, Dr. Ernest White of London, and Dr. Orville Walters of Urbana, Illinois.

Chapter V on “The Christian Therapist” provides information on the counseling process and interview techniques. The latter are reflected in several descriptions of psychotherapeutic sessions found in Chapter VI, “The Transformation of Personality.”

Dr. Tweedie exhibits great enthusiasm for the techniques of dream analysis and hypnosis. He also recommends two therapeutic techniques that have grown out of the existential psychiatry of Viktor Frankl: “paradoxical intention,” in which man’s ability to transcend himself and rise above his circumstances and symptoms is challenged (p. 173), and “de-reflection,” which is the turning of the client’s attention away from his symptoms to positive goals (p. 174).

In The Christian and the Couch, Dr. Tweedie has performed a service to and for the Christian community (and hopefully for others also) by significantly focusing on an important modern problem: the scholarly and devout integration of Christianity and psychiatry. He has utilized sources that were not previously brought to the attention of all interested in this integration. (I refer to the writings of many authors who are members of the American Scientific Affiliation and the Christian Association for Psychological Studies.) Careful reading of this book will challenge all Christians engaged in psychotherapy to rethink their psychotherapeutic theory and practice. And Dr. Tweedie’s strong stand for a distinctive Christian psychotherapy will probably encourage profitable discussion. Both would please Dr. Tweedie, because he would like to be convinced if he has not been convincing, and he would be happy to make a pilgrimage in depth with others who have a common commitment to Jesus Christ.

GELMER A. VAN NOORD

A One-Volume Library

Masterpieces of Christian Literature in Summary Form: The Central Ideas of 300 Influential Works on Which Protestant Christianity Is Grounded, edited by Frank N. Magill; associate editor, Ian P. McGreal (Harper & Row, 1963, 1193 pp., $9.95), is reviewed by James Daane, editorial associate, CHRISTIANITY TODAY.

This is the kind of book that any Protestant minister and any Roman Catholic priest would like to have in his study. The only exceptions would be those who have none because they don’t.

The book is a small library. It contains 300 essay-reviews on the writings of almost as many men. About 30 per cent of the titles presented are pre-Reformation—beginning with the First Epistle of Clement to the Corinthians, and including works by Abelard, Aquinas, and St. Augustine.

Some essays include a bit of biographical material; others none at all. For the most part the essays are “book reviews” of the most important writing of a given writer prominent in the thought of the Christian Church.

Sub titles are usually composed for a double purpose; to give a fuller explanation of the title, and to provide an inducement to buy the book. This one does both; vet it needs further explanation. It claims to present the central ideas of 300 influential writings, and does so admirably. But it also claims that Protestant Christianity is “grounded” on these. This is true if it is understood that “Protestant Christianity” is defined historically, rather than biblically. From the historical point of view, Hegel, Renan, Rousseau, Wieman, A. Schweitzer, Kant, and others are justifiably included, for they did influence Protestantism. One may question, however, whether Mary Baker Eddy, W. T. State, and some few others have even seriously influenced Protestant Christianity.

But if the editors were induced by the poll they conducted to be a bit too generous, they have by the same poll been induced to fairness. They have included in their book writings of very conservative men, such as Machen, Dooyeweerd, Charles Hodge, Abraham Kuyper, and C. S. Lewis, and have chosen some very evangelical, conservative men for review work.

The stance of the editors is quite neutral. This points up that no survey of Protestant Christianity can ignore evangelical Protestants or their writings. It also indicates that the book is eminently worth buying for its intrinsic value and practical usefulness.

Every essay-review read by this reviewer is expertly done. If you want a competent, though uncritical, review of Barth’s Dogmatics, Cullmann’s Christ and Time, Nygren’s Agape and Eros, Dooyeweerd’s New Critique of Theoretical Thought, Barth’s Epistle to the Romans, Brunner’s Dogmatics, Calvin’s Necessity of Reforming the Church, or his Institutes. Warfield’s Plan of Salvation, to mention but a few, then this is your book, for a price that gives you your money’s worth.

JAMES DAANE

Book Briefs

Religion and Freedom in the Modern World, by Herbert J. Miller (University of Chicago, 1963, 129 pp., $3.95). A professor of the University of Indiana probes the period of 1800 to the present to discover how Christianity fostered and opposed freedom. Even the dissenting reader will read this with profit.

The Cambridge Movement: The Ecclesiologists and the Gothic Revival, by James F. White (Cambridge, 1962, 272 pp., $6). The story of how the Cambridge Movement revived medieval architecture, vestments, and ceremonial in English churches in the nineteenth century.

Amos and His Message: An Expository Commentary, by Roy Lee Honeycutt (Broadman. 1963, 182 pp., $3.75). An interpretative analysis by an author convinced that the divine message of Amos is bitingly relevant for the modern world. The lion roars again.

Preface to Old Testament Theology, by Robert. C. Dentan (Seabury, 1963, 146 pp., $3). A revised edition of a work first published in 1950. For scholars only.

Lutheran Elementary Schools in Action, edited by Victor C. Krause (Concordia, 1963, 414 pp., $6.50). A detailed explanation of what Lutheran schools are, and of how, and for what purpose, they are run.

Your Child from Birth to Rebirth, by-Anna B. Mow (Zondervan, 1963, 152 pp., $2.95). Essays which contain many truths, but often ramble and frequently have little to do with book or chapter title.

That I May Live in His Kingdom, by Louis E. Ulrich, Jr. (Augsburg, 1963, 233 pp., $3.50). Devotions based on the new translation of Luther’s small catechism.

The Negro Protest, by James Baldwin, Malcolm X, Martin Luther King, and Kenneth B. Clark (Beacon Press, 1963, 56 pp., $2.50). The transcript of interesting (one unrehearsed), rather angry interviews from tapes made for TV broadcast.

Expository Sermons on Revelation, Vol. 2, by W. A. Criswell (Zondervan, 1963, 184 pp., $2.95). Sound, relevant sermons on the seven churches of Asia Minor, churches checkered with the same shade and sunshine as fall over the Church today.

The Crucible of Love: A Study of the Mysticism of St. Teresa, of Jesus and St. John of the Cross, by E. W. Trueman Dicken (Sheed & Ward, 1963, 548 pp„ $8.50).

A Harmony of the Gospels: in the Knox Translation, edited by Leonard Johnston and Aidan Pickering (Sheed & Ward, 1963, 252 pp., $6).

Unity: A History and Some Reflections, by Maurice Villain, translated by J. R. Foster (Helicon, 1963, 384 pp., $5.95). A fine-spirited attempt by a Roman Catholic to understand the Protestant churches and the Protestant ecumenical movement, which he traces from Edinburgh (1910) to the Second Vatican Council. A genuine contribution to the “Big Dialogue.”

Christian Education and Evangelism, by Donald Gordon Stewart (Westminster, 1963, 176 pp., $3.50). The author takes a serious look at how the educational arm of the Church relates to the voice of the pulpit, that special office and “means of grace.” The book is really a call to the Church to understand what it is doing.

Man in the New Testament, by Werner Georg Kümmel (Westminster, 1963, 96 pp., $2.95). A very theologically modern discussion of the nature of man by a prominent German theologian. First published in German in 1948, now brought up to date by new footnotes. A scholarly treatise.

Paperbacks

Words on Target, by Sue Nichols (John Knox, 1963, 90 pp., $1.50). Best little book available on Christian communication. Full of good examples for ministers in the jet set.

A Short History of the Interpretation of the Bible, by Robert M. Grant (Macmillan, 1963, 224 pp., $1.45). Although it shows the author’s personal position and his own sitz im leben, this is a very valuable and readable introduction to the various methods employed throughout history to interpret Scripture. Originally published as The Bible in the Church, it now appears with a new title, revisions, and a new introduction. Fine collateral reading for students of hermeneutics.

The Lord’s Prayer, by C. F. Evans (Seabury, 1963, 103 pp., $1.25). An explanation of the Lord’s Prayer; brief, but with substance.

The Future of Mankind, by Karl Jaspers (University of Chicago, 1963, 346 pp., $1.95). One of the world’s greatest existentialists speaks on many things social and political, and chiefly on man’s ability to stand up to the grim threat of nuclear war.

William James, from the “Modern Thinkers Series,” by Gordon H. Clark (Presbyterian and Reformed, 1963, 47 pp., $1.25). A critical evaluation of the pragmatism of James.

Philosophers Speak of God, edited by Charles Hartshorne and William L. Reese (University of Chicago, 1963, 535 pp., $2.95). Readings in philosophical theology and analyses of theistic ideas.

Creator Spirit, by Stephan Hopkinson (Seabury, 1963, 102 pp., $1.25). A study of the biblical doctrine of the Holy Spirit, and of his relation to art and science and to the modern idea of society.

The New English Bible, the New Testament of 1961: A Comparative Study, by Oswald T. Allis (Presbyterian and Reformed, 1963, 71 pp., $1.50). A critical discussion of the diction of the New English Bible, and of the method used by its translators.

The Basis of Christian Unity: An Exposition of John 17 and Ephesians 4, by D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones (Eerdmans, 1963, 64 pp., $.50).

The University and Its Basis, by Hendrik Van Riessen; Facts and Values: A Christian Approach to Sociology, by Remkes Kooistra; A Christian Critique of Art, by-Calvin Seerveld; from the “Christian Perspective Series 1963” (Association for Re formed Scientific Studies; 1963; 72, 63, 63 pp.; $1 each). Lectures of substance and stimulation.

The Hidden God, by Cleanth Brooks (Yale University Press, 1963, 136 pp., $1.45). Delightful reading for literati who are also interested in problems of Christian literature.

The God That Failed, edited by Richard Crossman (Harper & Row, 1963, 275 pp., $1.60). Ex-Communists show their disenchantment with Communism. A kind of classic; first published in 1949.

The All-Sufficient Christ: Studies in Paul’s Letter to the Colossians, by William Barclay (Westminster, 1963, 128 pp., $1.45).

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