Columbia Theological Seminary Bulletin, 59, number 4, December 1966

FACULTY ISSUE

Columbia Theological Sem

Bulleti

COLUMBIA THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY BULLETIN
Volume LLX December, 1966 No. 4

Published five limes a year by Columbia Theological Seminary, Box 520,
Decatur, Georgia 30031. Entered as second-class matter, May 9, 1928, at
the Post Office at Decatur, Ga., under the Act of Congress of August 24,
1912. Second-class postage paid at Decatur, Georgia.

CONTENTS

Page
FOREWORD By J. McDowell Richards 2

ARTICLES

"Witnesses To Glory" 3

... By J. Will Ormond

"Discontent The Lever of Change" 6

... By Frank B. Davis

"On The Boundary: The Minister as Catalyst" 12

... By Charles V. Gerkin

"John Calvin: Director of Missions" 17

... By Philip Edgcumbe Hughes

"On The Road to Damascus" 25

... By William C. Robinson

REVIEWS

Donald J. McGinn John Penry and the Marprelate Controversy 31

... By Stuart Barton Babbage
Martin Buber The Origin and Meaning of Hasidism 31

... By Ludwig R. Dewitz
Angus Fletcher Allegory, The Theory of a Symbolic Mode 32

... By Ronald S. Wallace

Charles F. Pfeiffer (ed) The Biblical World: A Dictionary of 33

Biblical Archaeology

... By Dean G. McKee

J. M. Cameron Images of Authority: A Consideration of the 34

Concepts of Regnum and Sacerdotium

... By Richard E. Sanner

Joachim Jeremias The Eucharistic Words of Jesus 35

... By Charles B. Cousar

John B. Grimley and Gordon F. Robinson Church Growth in 36

Central and South-
ern Nigeria
... By Dean G. McKee

Walter Kunneth The Theology of the Resurrection 36

... By Charles B. Cousar

Bernard Eugene Meland The Secularization of Modern Cultures 36

... By Richard B. Sanner

Michael Walzer The Revolution of the Saints: A Study of the 36

Origins of Radical Politics

... By Stuart Barton Babbage

D. Z. Phillips The Concept of Prayer 37

... By Paul T. Fuhrmann

J. G. Davies The Early Christian Church 38

... By Stuart Barton Babbage

SHORTER REVIEWS 39

FOREWORD

The pages which follow contain five significant messages delivered by
men intimately associated with the life of Columbia Theological Seminary
during the calendar year, 1966. Four of these were written by professors
of the institution and one by a member of its Board of Directors. While one
of the addresses was prepared for delivery at another seminary, the others
were first presented before audiences assembled on our Decatur campus.

The devotional message on WITNESSES TO GLORY was heard as
a sermon preached at a chapel service during October by Rev. J. Will
Ormond, who came to Columbia Seminary this fall as Associate Professor
of Biblical Exposition.

The stimulating treatment of DISCONTENT THE LEVER OF
CHANGE constituted the graduation address delivered here at Commence-
ment Exercises on June 6. Its author, Dr. Frank B. Davis, is Head of the
Department of Speech at Auburn University, a ruling elder of the Auburn
Presbyterian Church, and a Director of this institution.

Rev. Charles V. Gerkin is Executive Director of the Georgia Association
of Pastoral Care and for several years has served here as Visiting Professor
of Clinical Pastoral Training. His address entitled, ON THE BOUNDARY
THE MINISTER AS CATALYST, was a part of the seminary's pro-
gram during the first week of the current session. It provides helpful and
provocative insights into some of the problems of pastoral leadership in
our day.

The discussion of JOHN CALVIN: DIRECTOR OF MISSIONS by
Dr. Philip Edgcumbe Hughes, Guest Professor of New Testament, was de-
livered in March at Calvin College and The Western Theological Seminary,
Holland, Michigan. It contains a needed corrective to many misinterpreta-
tions of the great Reformer, and a valuable footnote to the study of Missions.

Dr. William C. Robinson, Professor of Church History, Church Polity,
and Apologetics, deals with a theme which, as he indicates, was the subject
of his first address as a teacher in this institution in the fall of 1926 ON
THE ROAD TO DAMASCUS. In this fact, as in his treatment of the
subject, there is a reminder of the unchanging nature of the Gospel in
a changing world.

The writer, as a member of the seminary's entering class, heard Dr.
Robinson's first message in the one time carriage house which for so many
years served as this institution's humble Chapel on the old campus in
Columbia, S. C. He also heard the revised version of the address which
constituted the opening message of the 1966-67 school year at the exercises
held in the lovely sanctuary of the Columbia Presbyterian Church last
September. The contrast between the two places of worship and the equip-
ment on the two campuses was striking in the highest degree. The improve-
ment in the seminary's facilities and the great enlargement in its faculty
and student body during these forty years challenge us today to inquire
whether we are in any real sense measuring up to our greater opportunities.
The problems and the possibilities of our world are new, but the ultimate
needs of men remain unaltered. We shall be unworthy of the able and
devoted men who served so well in the old Columbia if we do not con-
stantly seek for better ways in which to fulfill our ministry.

J. McDowell Richards

WITNESSES TO GLORY

J. Will Ormond

". . . they saw his glory . . ."

Luke 9:32

In Lewis Carroll's Alice Through the Looking Glass there is a conver-
sation between Humpty Dumpty and Alice which goes like this:

" 'There's glory for you.'
'I don't know what you mean by glory,' Alice said.
I meant "There's a nice knock-down argument for you."
'But glory doesn't mean a nice knock-down argument,' Alice objected.
'When I use a word,' Humpty Dumpty said in a rather scornful tone.
'It means just what I choose it to mean neither more or less'." 1

"The glory of God" is a phrase which rolls rather easily from our
liturgical lips, but for which we might be hard put to give a precise defini-
tion. In fact, it may mean just what we choose it to mean neither more
nor less. For example, we can sometimes convince ourselves that a particular
line of action which we very much want to follow is for "the glory of God."
Or we may take the phrase in both hands and swinging it 'round our heads
like a club make of it a "nice knock-down argument" with which to
devastate our theological opponents. For after all, our interpretation is for
"the glory of God", while theirs, since it differs from mine, obviously is
not. Or we may sometimes use the word "glory" simply to embroider our
Sunday morning language and make it sound particularly religious without
thinking at all seriously about what we mean by it.

But "glory" as we find it used in the Scriptures is no vague decoration
on the fringe of the garment of religion; rather it is of the very fabric of
revelation. At least one writer of note, Dr. Michael Ramsey, present arch-
bishop of Canterbury, has written of the word "glory": "The word ex-
presses in a remarkable way the unity of the doctrines of Creation, the
Incarnation, the Cross, the Spirit, the Church and the world-to-come.'' 2

A word which is able to do all this must be rich and complex indeed
in its connotations, but it is not our purpose to go into all its implications
here. However, it is safe to say that when the writers of Scripture speak
of the glory of God they are not setting forth a "nice knock-down argu-
ment" for the existence of God. Rather they are expressing in awesome
wonder and proclaiming in vivid figure the almost incredible truth that the
very God is present in this world and that, by His grace, men may appre-
hend his presence. Or to put it in a much simpler sentence perhaps far
too simple: To speak of the glory of God is a way of saying that God
is here and that we can see him.

The Old Testament pictures of the glory of God were ways of saying
that God was present with his people. The lightning and the thunder, the
fire and the smoke may seem to our modern minds only meteorological
disturbances which impressed the superstitious. But through the insight
of faith Moses and the people of Israel saw the cloud which settled on Mt.

1. Quoted in Ramsey, A. M. The Glory of God and the Transfiguration of Christ,
p. 6.

2. Ibid, pg. 5.

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Sinai as the glory of God; it was the visible manifestation of God's presence.
As the book of Exodus tells us, "Mount Sinai was wrapped in smoke,
because the Lord descended upon it in fire" (Ex. 19:18). "The glory of
the Lord settled on Mount Sinai, and the cloud covered it six days. . . . Now
the appearance of the glory of the Lord was like a devouring fire on the
top of the mountain in the sight of the people of Israel." (Ex. 24:16, 17).

These awesome phenomena said to the people, "God is here; he speaks
to us, and what he speaks we must do." The cloud which covered the tent
of meeting and the glory of God which filled the tabernacle this was
visible evidence in the sight of Israel that the Lord was here, dwelling,
tabernacling with his people, guiding, overshadowing, shepherding them
along their journey to the promised land. The last words of Exodus are:
"For throughout all their journeys the cloud of the Lord was upon the
tabernacle by day, and fire was in it by night, in the sight of all the house
of Israel." (Ex. 40:38).

Prophets who were almost overwhelmed with the knowledge of God
expressed that realization in accounts of visions of the glory of God.
Isaiah at worship in the temple is bold to say that he saw the Lord seated
upon a throne, high and lifted up. The foundations of the temple shook.
The house was filled with smoke, and Isaiah felt himself unclean and in-
significant in the presence of the holiness of God. But in his vision of God's
glory Isaiah learned that the holiness of God his utter uniqueness, his
burning purity are not impenetrable walls of flame which isolate and
insulate God from his world and from his people. It was the sense of the
presence the "hereness" of the glory of God, the realization that God
had come to the place where Isaiah was now which caused him to cry out
for mercy. But although he knew that "God is here", he also learned that
God's glory is not localized nor confined to places set apart for formal
worship, but that "the whole earth is full of his glory" (Isaiah 6:3). Isaiah
found as well that holiness is expressed not only in veiling clouds of smoke,
but also in the forgiving, cleansing initiative of God who purges the unclean
lips of his servant and commissions him to proclaim His word.

Still another prophet, Ezekiel, saw the glory of God as a dazzling bril-
liance of gleaming splendor seated upon a throne "the appearance of fire
enclosed round about" (Ezek. 1:27). Ezekiel fell on his face before the
brightness of the throne. He dared not raise his eyes nor his voice. He
waited for the One upon the throne to speak to him. The response to glory
is worship, awe, reverence. This was true with Moses and the people of
Israel; the people kept their distance, and Moses himself approached the
cloud with fear and trembling. Isaiah cried for mercy; Ezekiel fell upon his
face.

These Old Testament pictures of the glory of God remind us that God
is here and that we can see him, but they also say to us that we cannot look
upon that sight with casual, undazzled eyes nor saunter into that Presence
with our hands in our pockets. He who deals with us is the God of majesty
and mystery, of holiness and power, of sovereignty and light unapproachable.
When this truth breaks in upon us then it makes all the more amazing the
fact that the glory of God is best expressed and most clearly revealed in
the life of a man the man Christ Jesus.

For if the glory of God is the visible manifestation of his Presence, if
it is to say that God is here and we can see him, then where is this more

plainly set forth than in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ?
For if the coming of Christ says naught else, it says, "God is here Em-
manuel God with us."

"The Word became flesh and dwelt or tabernacled among us, full
of grace and truth; we have beheld his glory, glory as of the only Son
from the Father" (John 1:14).

Illustrative of this truth is the experience granted to Peter, James and
John, who, upon a mountain reminiscent of Mt. Sinai, "saw his glory."
There was the dazzling brilliance of his own person; there was Moses and
Elijah who knew about mountains and glory; there was the settling, over-
shadowing cloud and the Voice from out the cloud, "This is my Son, my
Chosen; listen to him." (Luke 9:35).

Here is glory in visible form; but it shines through One who has recently
told those who now see his glory that he is on the way to Jerusalem to die
upon a Cross. It centers upon One who speaks with Moses and Elijah about
his "exodus" which he will accomplish in Jerusalem. It gathers about One
who truly dwells with men, who tabernacles with them so intimately as
to know the weariness and pain of a human body, who shows compassion
and concern for the lost and the lowliest, and who finally pours out his very
life on behalf of sinful men. It is in such a man as this; it is in this par-
ticular Man, that the glory of God is most clearly seen.

For surely the Gospel writers did not mean to say that the glory of
God was revealed in Jesus Christ only in that mysterious, flashing moment
on the Mount of Transfiguration. Rather they used the experience of the
Transfiguration to say, "God is here in Jesus Christ; he who has seen him
has seen the Father."

If this be true, then the glory of God is best expressed not in billowing
clouds and lightning flashes but in His own self-giving, in his own sovereign
condecension in taking upon Himself the form of a servant. This would
seem to say that the road to glory leads to a Cross and that the exaltation
of Resurrection must be preceded by the utter surrender of self. It is to say
that if we wish to see the glory of God, we must see it in the face of Jesus
Christ.

It is no light and easy thing to see the glory of God in the man, Christ
Jesus. Thus to see God's glory requires the gift of the insight of faith.
But once we have seen that glory, once we have recognized who he is, once
we have received what he offers us in his own self-giving our forgiveness
and redemption then we must respond in reverent worship, in grateful
obedience, in surrender to his lordship. One cannot be indifferent to a
vision of glory.

When we have committed ourselves to Jesus Christ, we stand in the
circle of his glory, and if we do, it is for us in our humanity to reflect
a measure of the glory which he manifested completely in his human life.
Something of that same self-giving, something of that same concern for
the lost and the lowliest, something of that same surrender of self must
show forth itself in us. For it was the Lord of Glory who said to those
who claimed to be his own, "Let your light so shine before men, that they
may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven."
(Matt. 5:16).

It is of the mysterious grace of God that he reveals his glory to us
at all; it is of his infinite love that he reveals his glory in Christ Jesus,

our Lord. To such a grace, to such a love, to such a glory we can do no
other than respond with adoration, with worship and with obedience.

"Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy, as it was in
the beginning, is now and ever shall be, world without end. Amen."

DISCONTENT THE LEVER OF CHANGE

Frank B. Davis

You realize from the introduction just heard that you have the rather
unusual situation today of a layman addressing a group of theologians. Or
if the term "theologians" is a bit too complimentary at least you are a group
trained for the ministry some of you may become theologians. But you
are far more learned in theology and homiletics and Biblical history and
Greek and Hebrew and Biblical interpretation than any layman can possibly
be. Therefore, I feel it would be presumptuous of me to bring you anything
other than a layman's message. That is what I propose to do. I know you
are used to approaching any subject by way of a text a chapter, a verse
or series of verses which states succinctly a basic thought to be developed.

Therefore, may I quote to you some random verses from which I would
take my text. Quotations from Chapter II of a book published in 1954 and
one probably not too frequently quoted by your professors. The book is
Sweet Thursday by John Steinbeck.

Steinbeck's main character "Doc" is meditating to himself; he thinks
"how few men like their work, their lives indeed how few men like
themselves." And Steinbeck says of Doc that "Discontent nibbled at him
not painfully but constantly:

Have I worked enough?

What has my life meant so far?

What have I contributed in the Great Ledger?

What am I worth?
Discontent is when a man stops and thinks:

"What am I thinking?

What do I want?

Where do I want to go?"

"There would be wonder in such a man and a little impatience as

though he stood outside and looked in on himself through a glass shell."

Finally Steinbeck sums it all up neatly by having Doc ask himself, "Isn't
discontent the lever of change?"

Discontent the lever of change.

Discontent has been observed in man for a great many centuries. His-
torically its puzzling characteristics and origins have been the concern of
philosophers. Plato in The Republic, Book IV suggests that "Wealth is the
parent of luxury and indolence; poverty of meanness and viciousness; and
both of discontent." Today's wealth, "the good life" and other cliches dealing
with the affluent society seem to many to be tranquilizers of any type of
discontent.

Plato in The Phaedrus written in the 4th Century B.C. has the character
Socrates give a prayer to the God Pan which is, I think, one of the most
beautiful requests of one who wishes to put discontent aside: "Grant," asks
Socrates of Pan, "that I may be beautiful in the inner man; and that all
I have of worldly possessions be in harmony with those within. Let me judge
only the wise man to be rich and let my store of gold be only what
a soberminded man can bear." Discontent would certainly be foreign to
a man if such a prayer were granted. Fortunately, perhaps, such a prayer
is seldom granted.

Socrates, the man, speaks and teaches of the worthiness of discontent
with anything but "the good." "The good" or "truth" was of primary im-
portance to Socrates and Aristotle; the latter of course stressed at great
length that "truth" and "justice" must be discovered and defended. Any
man was to suffer discontent until he discovered, upheld and maintained
the standards of truth and justice which we may today too blithely attribute
solely to our "Christian way of life." Many virtuous and noble ambitions
of man stem from the start of recorded history discontent among them.
Aristotle felt that young men were probably not concerned much with dis-
content. In The Rhetoric he observes that "The young are not cynical [or
discontented], but believe in human goodness . . . they are trustful, for as
yet they have not seen many examples of vice. They are trustful, for as
yet they have not been often deceived . . . They live their lives for the most
part in hope as hope is of the future and for young men the future is long."

According to Walter Pater, Marius, the Epicurian, had a modern and
up-to-date approach when he said, "The aim of a true philosopher must lie.
not in futile efforts towards the complete accommodation of man to the
circumstances in which he chances to find himself but, in the maintenance
of a kind of candid discontent in the face of the very highest achievement."
Note the phrase "Candid discontent in the face of the very highest
achievement." This historic approach to discontent permits its application
to any situation no matter how well done the task, how perfect the results,
no matter how satisfied we might be; "maintenance of a candid discontent"
leaves us a challenge.

One last reference to historical discontent which as you recognize is
also describing and identifying my text the philosopher Edmund Spenser
had at one time an interesting comment on discontent. "What hell it is," he
said, "To wait long nights in pensive discontent." Hell has been described
in many ways and attributed to many situations however carrying dis-
content this far, as may be done, is, I think, going to far.

Apparently there are two dichotomies of discontent, positive and nega-
tive, of which the latter is the more unsatisfactory and the less rewarding.
Negative discontent is perhaps best illustrated by the stereotyped picture of
the professional, or at least semi-professional "Again'er," the person to
whom a new idea, a different way of doing something, a so-called "pro-
gressive" act contemplated by any person, official or institution, is greeted
by at least questioned suspicion if not downright hostility. And many times
before even a causal, much less thorough and dispassionate, study can be
made. I remember as a youngster I laughed at the old, time-honored crack
that an elderly man may make to the effect that he has seen a great deal
of progress made in his community during the last 50 years and he's been
"agin" all of it. In my youth that was humorous I knew no one could

possibly be like that. Now, I personally know a few people who are exactly
like that. They are imbued with such a negativism that one wonders how
they can enjoy life and I fully believe some of them don't. It's amazing
that some men even ministers expect God's world and His people
to be static dullards; not to try and try again and again to find better ways
of conquering His world, of understanding His works Biblically and in
nature; to feel that God would be pleased with a people who have the
colossal egotism to say "We now have the best of all possible worlds," we
understand you, God, and know your wishes so completely that theology,
archeology, linguistic studies and other intellectual pursuits of Your world
and word can be halted such type of negative reasoning is not only
surprising but it is unfortunately not out of the bounds of possibility even
in our denomination. I hope you personally will not be a party to that
kind of discontent.

Dag Hammarskjold has vividly described a personal negative approach.
He pictures a man driving across the country on his vacation when "de-
scending into the valley, at the last curve he lost control of the car. As
it toppled over the bank at the side of the road, his only thought was 'At last
my job's done.' His one, weary, happy thought. It wasn't so. He would go
on living but not go on with this journey. When he came to and the solid
world again took shape around him, he could hardly keep back his tears
tears of self-pity and disappointment because his vacation plans had been
ruined." Note he accepts death but weeps at the loss of a vacation trip.

"The one reaction," say Hammarskjold, "was no less genuine than the
other. We may be willing to turn our backs on life, but we still complain
like children when life does not grant our wishes."

Personal discontent yes, develop it; but not of the variety that has
its entire existence on being negative, always against. Rather cultivate,
if you please, a positive, personal discontent. This can, I realize, sometimes
be a dangerous thing. Psychiatrists and mental health clinics are kept busy
by 20th century man who has advanced far in a great many areas of knowl-
edge but may have lagged considerably in knowledge of himself. Remember,
to be self-critical is not to be self-debasing. Do your best yet accept the fact
that your best may not be good enough. To be able to live successfully with
yourself, however, should include some self appraisal, some introspection,
some discontent, even with yourself; but to get acquainted with yourself may
be most difficult. Not that you are really difficult to know, but to get to
know anyone has to be done over a period of time, time spent alone together.

One of the valuable things man of the 1960's has practically removed
from his life is time to be alone. You'll find, as you probably already have,
that after the committees have met, the sermon has been prepared, the
minimum family demands met, and so on and on, that suddenly you need
a 30 hour day and nine day week. That's not good. Any man, and especially
a minister who's dealing with man and his relationships with his fellow man
and God, needs some time just to sit and think. So I urge you to keep some
time for your own, schedule it, insist on having it. You will need time to
organize your thoughts on what things to think about as well as what you
think about things. You need time to daydream, to plan ahead, to chase
speculations up many a road. Time to reflect on the past.

Oddly enough an amazing number of people never try to find this time.
They apparently don't really want to. We live in a world that makes available

8

1

destructions of solitude in myriads of forms. We have become used to them
to the point that silence, quietness, thought, meditation or prayer are seldom
part of us. For example: you get in your car to go downtown since all
of us can drive automatically, on goes the radio; you may have to dial
some before you find a station that won't cause nausea but you can and
in doing so you have lost an opportunity for a quiet drive where you could
have several minutes alone. Another example. I'm continually surprised at
people who simply don't like to be in their own company. People who will
say to me, as one friend did yesterday, "Going to Atlanta? Who's going with
you? By yourself? Long trip over there wish I could go along to keep
you company." Now I like that man but to be frank I didn't want him
along. I'd saved up at least three things to think about while driving over
here and I didn't want him messing them up. Incidentally, isn't it tragic for
a man to anticipate only depressing boredom when he faces the prospects
of his own company for a couple of hours? I must confess I like me. I like
to spend sometime occasionally in my company and I sincerely hope you
feel the same way about you. I suggest to you that time alone will not only
be fun but be profitable if used with some degree of positive, personal
discontent with yourself.

The German Chancellor Bismarck once remarked something to the effect
that in history one-third of the German university students broke down
from overwork and dissipation, one-third continued to exist, but the other
one-third ruled Germany. How far will the parallel go with you this
graduating class twenty or thirty years from today? Will one-third of you
have disappeared into breakdown or oblivion, to be remembered at reunions
only by the phrase, "Oh, him? I don't know whatever did happen to
him?" Will one-third of you just be around striving for little more than
existence? Will one-third of you be the leaders of the Presbyterian Church
in the United States? Our denomination will continue to develop and be
worthwhile only in proportion to the trained, dedicated, progressive, intelli-
gent persons who can give leadership. To be in that number you will have
to develop the fine art of discontent; a positive, calm, calculated, personal
discontent can help bring you into the top one-third the leaders in the
future.

A second kind of positive discontent has to do with society; human,
man-to-man relationships. To work toward an ideal is the calling of a min-
ister. Perhaps to expect man ever to live in Christ-like relationship with his
fellowman is too ideal, but it's a dream worth working on. Doc in Sweet
Thursday points out that "Man owes something to man . . . the quality of
his gift is the measure of the man." As ministers your gift is complete, it
is yourself. You have laboriously trained to serve your fellow man in many
ways, but always with the ultimate goal of bringing him in harmony with
God, with his fellow man and with himself; and all three of these are in-
extricably entwined, bound up, part of each other. They must be achieved
simultaneously. Your authority is in the testaments; your example of a com-
mander is Christ. Adlai Stevenson once said that statesmanship "consists
sometimes not so much in knowing what to do ultimately as in what to
do now." That will be one of your greatest problems, I think, how to
interpret to your people what to do "Now." The "ultimate," the distant
future, can be much simpler, much easier and much safer. Exhort your
people to "do good," "follow the examples of the Biblical saints," and "be

a good Christian." (You know, that phrase has always struck me as
tautology.) Those are phrases and sermons unworthy of a Christ who drove
out the money changers, who went against many of the old, comfortable,
established ways and who also said "Come unto me all ye. . . ." Knowing
what to do "now" is in many instances a problem, a discontent beyond our
abilities and of course, we run the danger of deciding we have discovered
the one, the exact road to a solution and that is extremely unlikely.

Biblical quotations are abundant to suggest rather strongly that Christ
felt that many of his fundamental principles should be practiced with, for,
by and on society and our fellowman. It has been said that a university or
even a person's education generally reflects rather than molds the culture
of the society in which it functions. This should not be true of the Christian.
He does not reflect society he should reflect Christ and he should mold
society. This approach to a truly living, vital relationship with Christ can
be troublesome. Many voices will tell you to keep Christ, religion, the
Church out of the market place, out of politics, out of society. I'm aware
that there are many definitions of "fundamentalism." That idea Keep
Christ, the church, or religion for Sunday only is one, or part of one.
This type of "fundamentalism" is a problem to some Presbyterians. But
please notice that Presbyterians are much more a problem to such "funda-
mentalists." For the Presbyterian Church in the United States is a community
of "truth-seekers," a community of Christ's people who take seriously his
admonition of going "into the world;" and such people are a terrible frustra-
tion to fundamentalists who tend to resent and resist the 20th century and
are probably dubious about even re-reading Calvin.

I don't wish to suggest that you go out and become social reformers,
but any minister who is worthy of the name and all it implies must see
that all is not well between God's people and must surely feel an urge to, on
occasion, associate himself with trying to bring man and society to a better
understanding of themselves and their relationship with God and His ideals
for men. You are, of course, familiar with Harvey Cox and his views.
Valuable to be sure, but I like this statement made by Dr. Rene Williamson,
"It has become the fashion to describe secular and secularization as 'good'
words ... If all that was meant by this view was that Christ is the Lord
of all creation and not of the church only, that God is not confined to
ecclesiastical channels but speaks and acts outside as well as inside the
church, there would be no objection. John Calvin made this point with far
less ambiguity a long time ago. But the contemporary version treats secular-
ization as the opposite of sanctification."

God is concerned with His people their society, their relationships
one with another. And for you also to be concerned, to have a desire to
improve society when an opportunity presents itself may not always be
popular but it will be a manifestation of positive discontent which will be
in keeping with the young man of Jerusalem who not only thought and
desired but did something about the money changers.

So I would ask that you address some part of your ministry of discontent
to society, to man and his relationships with his fellow man. You'll be on
solid theological ground when you do. But the pitfalls are many. I remember
Dag Hammarskjold in one of his speeches once said, "When the devil
wishes to play on our lack of character, he calls it tolerance; when he wants
to stifle our first attempts to learn tolerance, he calls it lack of character."

10

Finally, I recommend to you a positive discontent in your relationship
not only with yourself and with society but with God. There has been, and
there will be many times in the future, occasions when you feel close to
God, when you feel you understood your place in His scheme of things.
Also there will be occasions when you will feel unsure, alone, confused.
Expect this. No skill of mind or body can be retained, much less improved,
without constant use or practice. And I think the skills of the spirit are
parallel. Certainly there are some Biblical passages, some action or word
of Christ's which you find impossible to understand. But unless you continue
to read, to study, to think, to ask God you can never expect to improve
understanding. God doesn't change but we do. Use all the resources at your
disposal the centuries of Christians, your denomination with its rich
heritage and current strengths and services but most of all use the personal
desire that you will, all your life, continue an unending search for God's
truth: a search for the Mind of God, what God wants of you. This can be
a perplexing and frustrating experience but one that we must all do. Perhaps
to call it a skill is a poor description or parallel yet the connotation is of an
activity which we must continue to the best of our ability, a perpetual search
for a better understanding of our relationship with God and what He wishes
us to do, to be.

Your relationship with God is an ever changing relationship or perhaps
it should be said that of the three ingredients involved; God, the relationship
and you, that really the only one that changes is you. God is the same always,
there with the same, hard-to-keep demands on our lives, actions and thoughts.
Our relationship to Him changes only as we change. Man, you and I, is
continually experiencing, learning. We are never the same "yesterday, today
and forever." That was not said of man. Man and his problems are the
most fluctuating, the most fluid imaginable. But, fortunately, God's prin-
ciples, His commands, His entreaties, remain the same so it becomes a matter
of each individual carrying out to the best of his understanding and ability
these entreaties, commands, principles, as they speak to him, to his society,
to his relationship with God.

This approach decries the "God is dead," or the "keep God out of life
or politics or economics" cults. But remember true Presbyterians are a prob-
lem for these cults. For as I have said before the true Presbyterian is an
individual and a community of "truth-seekers," continually studying, evaluat-
ing, testing his understanding and faith in the present, current world and
such an individual and group are a terrible frustration to those cults who
think all problems are neatly answered with cliches from the "good old days."

In this continued discontent of trying to find an improved individual
relationship with God we are not on our own, not alone struggling with
difficult questions. We have at our disposal what Roger Shinn has called
"the Resources of a Pilgrim People." These resources are three: 1 History,
as given in the Bible and as our own experience: 2 a Mission, the goals,
purposes for our own lives; and 3 the Church, a community of faith
where we may not necessarily be protected but will be sustained, guided,
helped.

So I recommend to you a positive discontent when a man stops and
in the quiet of his own mind evaluates and develops plans to improve him-
self; to improve his relationships with his fellowman and society; to improve
his relationship with God.

11

This is my layman's message to you:

May this positive discontent always nibble at you not painfully but
constantly; discontent the lever of change.

ON THE BOUNDARY: The Minister as Catalyst

Charles V. Getkin

When Dr. Richards invited me to speak for this occasion he gave me
a rather free rein while suggesting that my address might appropriately have
something to say about the nature of pastoral care. Someone else on the
faculty suggested I might focus on the changing role of the pastor in con-
temporary society. Like most preachers, I suppose, I tend to feel that I can
do my best speaking out of my own current concerns, the things that
trouble or attract me most right now. Happily, the suggestions received from
Dr. Richards and my faculty colleagues point in the direction of one of
my current deepest concerns, so it is with some feeling of personal involve-
ment that I address myself to the question of the meaning of pastoral
leadership in the church and the world of our time.

The question might be put this way: "In a world where gods are dying
and cities are becoming secular, where the leaven of moral concern is some-
times more readily apparent in the lump of federal legislation than it is
in church policy, where many are saying that the Church has become
irrelevant, what is the nature of the pastoral ministry? With what stance
can the pastor approach his task? Is there a task that the ordained repre-
sentative of the Gospel can not only rightly but relevantly perform? What
kind of person does it take to fulfill this role? And, as a corollary question,
how can the theological seminary prepare a man for so ambiguous and
hard pressed a vocation?"

Those of you who are just entering the seminary will soon find out,
if you are not already aware of it, that you are beginning your theological
studies at a time of crisis in the Church and in theological education. Pick
up any journal for pastors, denominational or otherwise, and the evidence
of crisis in the Church is readily apparent. One of the evidences one looks
for in identifying crisis is the expression of radical views and strong feelings,
for crisis breeds radicalism and the power of emotion. Certainly both are
present in the Church. The result is that differences are being expressed in
polemics. Everywhere churchmen are asking with great seriousness if
Harvey Cox is right in his assumption that "the collapse of traditional
religion is a necessary corollary to the emergence of an urban, technological
society." 1 What is to be done with Dietrich Bonhoeffer's "religionless
Christianity"? Does this mean that we are to do away with all the traditional
forms of religion, i.e., the worshipping congregation, the sacraments, the
ritual of the eleven o'clock hour, perhaps even the sacred calling of the
pastor-preacher-priest? Not only this, but radical polemics are just as evident
in the world of theology itself. Altizer has received most of the publicity,

1. Cox, Harvey, The Secular City, MacMillan Co. 1965. p. 1.

12

but his is not the only voice that is clamoring for radical changes in our
way of thinking about the God-man relationship.

Now let me make clear that I am not here to pose as an expert on
Harvey Cox, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Thomas Altizer or any of the others.
I cannot speak with authority either pro or con about what they represent.
I allude to what these people are saying only to give substance to the point
that we are in a time when Christian thought, the Church, and our calling
as ministers of Christ are in crisis. If we are to become ministers of the
Christian Gospel in the world in which we live we must forego the right to
slip easily into well-formed molds and established patterns. For ours is not
a comfortable time in Christian history and we must find the meaning of
the pastoral ministry in the midst of polarities, conflicting claims, and
confused notions about everything from the activity of God in the world to
the nature of Christian human action.

In the midst of this crisis where can we look for patterns, guidelines,
models to follow in forming our identity as ministers of Christ?

Paul Tillich in his little autobiographical sketch written some years ago,
but recently re-published in this country, makes use of a symbolic expression
in attempting to speak concerning the ground upon which he stood in his
ministry that has been tremendously helpful to me as I have thought about
these questions. He says that his life has been a life lived always "On the
Boundary." 2

For Tillich this boundary symbol had special and unique meanings. The
polarities in his life were both personal and intellectual. But the boundary
symbol is one which gathers up something of the struggle for integrity in
the midst of crisis that characterizes our situation. To be on the boundary
means to be pulled in two directions, to walk a narrow way between this
and that, to be always correcting one's movement too far in a given
direction, to be never fully at home anywhere, to be always saying, ''Yes,
but on the other hand." In short, to walk the boundary means always to be
in tension between competing claims. My thought is that perhaps here we
may find a symbolic way of thinking about the ministry that will sustain
us and give us direction in a troubled time in the Church. To be a minister
in today's world is to be "on the boundary." What does it mean?

First, to be a minister in today's world is to labor on the boundary
between the Church and the world.

I suppose there was a time when the pastor could find his calling largely
as a chaplain to the faithful. His life could be lived out in tending the faithful
flock of Christ as their lives were centered in the Church, for the Church
was the community. I recall with warm remembrance one such church-
centered rural community in which I spent a portion of my childhood out
in the wheat country of central Kansas. My father was the pastor of the
little church to which virtually every family in the community belonged.
There were no other temples in the community and the corporate life of
the people largely focused on that fellowship. My father was the shepherd
of these faithful people.

To a degree that is true today. There are still around every Church
those faithful people whose lives are centered there and who look to the
minister as their spiritual leader. And to be a minister one must be able

2. Tillich, Paul, On the Boundary, Scribner's, 1966.

13

to be at home with God's faithful. That is not always easy. Their theology
is often not very contemporary. Their vision of what the Church should
be is often cramping and confining. Their expectations of the minister tend
to be pretty conventional and may make of him more of an unearthly
creature than he may care to be. Like Jesus, some of us may at times feel
more at home with publicans and sinners than with the righteous. Never-
theless, to be a minister one must be able to wear the garment of the
shepherd of the faithful.

But in the twentieth century, urban, technological world, many, if not
most of the centers of activity have moved away from the Church. Our
cities have new and different temples. The university, the merchandise
mart, the commerce club, the union hall, the hospital, and even the inner
city ghetto have taken their places alongside of, if not as replacements for,
the Church as temples toward which men look for meaning, fellowship,
guidance and direction. And for a great many people whose lives are
centered around these shrines, the Church is off to one side, uninvolved
if not irrelevant. Yet, if one listens carefully to the talk that goes on in
these other temples, one finds here concern with burning issues that grow
out of the ultimate questions of life.

Let me point to just one example of what I mean the so-called mental
health movement. It is becoming increasingly clear that the twentieth
century concern with man's health as a total person, his emotions, his
attitudes, his relationships, his caughtness in a web of experience from
which he cannot of his own volition escape this concern is grappling with
the same struggle of the human spirit with which Christian theology has
always grappled. The language is different and the perspective is different,
but the concern is the same. In mental health we speak of unconscious
drives, repression, conflicts, identity confusion rather than sin, guilt, pride,
and bondage. But the struggle of the human spirit that is our concern is
the same struggle.

My suggestion is that to be a minister in today's world one must learn
to be at home in these other temples, these other centers of activity out in
the world as well as in the Church. We must be able to walk the boundary
between the Church and the world, at home in both, yet content to stay
in neither. For you see this is a catalytic ministry always relating the
Church to the world and the world to the Church. This means experimenta-
tion, innovation, renewal, dialog and all the rest. Most of all it means
taking the risk that boundary walking always involves. Like the tight rope
walker who must permit himself to lean first to one side and then the
other if he is to walk without falling, the boundary line minister must be
flexible enough to move back and forth between the Church and the world.
Or, to use our other metaphor, like the catalytic agent, the minister must
be able to nurture a process of reaction between the Church and the world
without becoming lost in the process. That involves risk taking.

There is a second boundary that the Christian minister in our time is
called to walk. It is the boundary between the proclamation of what God
has done and participation in what God is doing.

It seems clear to me, though I may be taking the risk of oversimplifica-
tion, that some of the polemics one finds in contemporary theology can be
understood by pointing to this tension between proclamation and participa-
tion. The struggle in theology seems in many respects to be a struggle

14

between those who would see theology's task primarily as the proclamation
of the Biblical message concerning what God has done, on the one hand,
and on the other those who, immersed in the world of contemporary affairs,
are attempting to speak a theological word about what God and man are
doing today. Another way to state this might be to say that the tension
lies between the proclamation of the Word of Christ and the ministry in
the spirit of his incarnation.

Now there was a time when these two aspects of the ministry were not
in such great tension. If we look at the history of pastoral care, for example,
we can go back to a time when the language of pastoral care and the
language of proclamation were much the same. In the care of souls the
art of pastoral conversation used largely the Biblical images of sin and
salvation, guilt and forgiveness, being lost and being saved. But in the
contemporary world these realities are expressed by man in other languages
having to do with inter-personal relationships, intra-psychic conflicts and
anxiety. So much has the language of communication about the things of
the spirit changed that for the modern pastor the art of finding the right
metaphor of communication is now one of the most important arts in
pastoral care. The pastor who is to minister in the spirit of Christ's in-
carnation must be at home in the language with which men now describe
their bondage. Modern man seldom asks, "What must I do to be saved?"
But in other language he searches for the reality that Biblical symbol contains.

As a pastoral counselor I sometimes experience the criticism of my fellow
pastors for being too immersed in the language and method of psychology,
psychiatry and psychotherapy. "What does the pastoral counselor do that
is unique to his calling? Are you just psychotherapists in clerical garb? Where
and how do you proclaim the Gospel?" we are asked. And for the pastor
on the boundary between proclamation and participation there are important
questions. On the other hand I find I am inclined to nod in agreement when
a troubled parishioner tells me that his pastor cannot participate in his
suffering and understand his struggle with life because he is too busy
proclaiming the Word from his pulpit as well as in his study to listen and
hear. Hear the tension? Proclaim what God has done or participate in what
God is doing, which shall it be?

This tension can be seen elsewhere in pastoral care. Dr. E. Jerry Walker
in an article titled "Let Renewal Begin from Within," 3 quotes Will Oursler
as saying that "Clergymen are forsaking the pulpit to fight for God in
the slums, gambling joints and streets. Relevance is their credo." This is
true. Participation in what God is doing has called many pastors in recent
years to marches, housing authority meetings and the poverty programs. Dr.
Walker quotes Time Magazine in response, however, as saying "Worship
directed churches . . . still form the majority in the United States. The new
kind of man directed church . . . still has to persuade millions of its Tightness
in putting service before services."

My suggestion again is that to be a minister of Christ in the midst
of this tension is to walk the boundary and act as the catalyst, always
relating what is the activity of God and God's people now to the ancient
Biblical message of what God has done in Christ. To stand at one pole or

3. Walker, E. Jerry, "Let Renewal Begin from Within" in The Christian Advo-
cate, September 8, 1966, p. 7.

15

the other in this tension is to be only half a minister. We are then in
danger of missing our calling from the Christ who said both, "I have come
to fulfill the law and the prophets," and "You have heard it said by men
of old, but I say unto you." Perhaps we need to learn more about the
proclamation of the Gospel that takes place as we enter into the healing
of that which is broken in our time and place.

We asked in the beginning of these remarks concerning the person of
the pastor who walks this boundary line of which we speak. What kind of
person does it take to walk a narrow boundary with integrity? My experience,
both as I have struggled to find integrity in Christ's ministry and as I have
been involved rather intimately with a considerable number of young men
in process of becoming pastors, tells me that this is where the crucial battle
will be fought. Can one walk a boundary with integrity without simply
becoming a fence straddler, "neither hot nor cold"? Is it possible to be
"in the world and yet not of it"? Can one be a catalyst on the boundary
and not be lost in the confusion of competing claims?

My response to these questions is admittedly a biased one, biased, that
is, by the limits as well as the opportunities of my own experience. Never-
theless I am bold to make these suggestions.

First, if you are to walk the boundary with integrity you must know
yourself at some depth. Get acquainted with the shape of your own bondage.
Learn some of the specifics of your own sinfulness, the ways in which your
finite humanity can block you from being the instrument of God's Holy
Spirit. If for no other reason, this is why every seminary student should
have the experience of ministry under supervision such as we attempt to offer
in the clinical pastoral care programs. More than this, learn to know your
own assets, your talents, the special God-given capacities for relationship
and leadership that are yours to offer. For, you see, if we are to be
catalysts we must know who we are at some depth.

Second, commit yourself to be God's man, not the one who brings God.
If there is one thing I have learned in attempting to minister to people in
all kinds of crises and conditions it is that I have very little control over
whether or not God will be present or absent. God's providence is often
present in a life or a situation in ways I do not recognize. I am constantly
surprised by the mysterious way in which his Spirit is at work. And he seldom
moves at my command. As a minister, I am called to be God's man, not his
substitute. That means being a man in the fullest sense, not some unearthly
creature uninvolved in the follies of ordinary men. What I am seeking here
is the freedom the Gospel implies to be myself while trusting the Grace of
God to be participant in my life and in the world.

Finally, to be a minister on the boundary is to accept the tension of the
boundary land, the discontent of being never fully at home. It is to risk
having "nowhere to lay your head." And yet I would suggest that in the
very acceptance of this tension that is essential to functioning as the
catalytic agent the minister may learn something of the meaning of that
peace that transcends human understanding which is of God.

16

JOHN CALVIN: DIRECTOR OF MISSIONS

Philip Edgcumbe Hughes

Prejudice dies hard; and there are few figures around which prejudice
has accumulated more tenaciously than that of John Calvin. There are still
many churchmen today who (though in this much vaunted ecumenical age
they ought to know better) use the word "Calvinist" as an ecclesiastical term
of abuse or a theological swear-word. We are repeatedly assured that mis-
sionary or evangelistic activity was entirely incompatible with the character
of John Calvin both as a man and as a theologian. The purpose of this paper
is to demonstrate the falsity and injustice of this damning judgment.

With regard to Calvin's personal character, it was for a long time a
popular practice of his enemies to blacken his name as one of the most un-
natural monsters ever to have been born. Today, however, no self-respecting
historian would seek to perpetuate the details of the crude calumnies that
have been invented against the person of Calvin. Indeed the evident sincerity
of the desire of Roman Catholic scholars like Hans Kung to arrive at a fair
and sympathetic understanding of the Reformers of the sixteenth century is
as welcome as it is remarkable; so much so, that, by one of the strangest
quirks of history, the fiercest detractors of John Calvin are now to be found
among protestants rather than papists. Their hostility is no less damaging
because it is necessarily restricted to the use of sweeping generalizations. It
would not be difficult to draw up a catalogue of such slanders, but two or
three examples from recent publications must suffice. According to the
Roman Catholic author Erich Fromm, Luther and Calvin "belonged to the
ranks of the greatest haters in history" [The Fear of Freedom, 194, p. 80].
The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church, edited by F. L. Cross, speaks
of the "vindictiveness" of Calvin and describes him as "the unopposed
dictator of Geneva [1957, p. 220]. R. H. Bainton has written that, "if Calvin
ever wrote anything in favour of religious liberty, it was a typographical er-
ror'' [Preface to his translation of Castellio's Concerning Heretics, 1935,
p. 74]. That even so admirable a historian as A. G. Dickens has his blind
spots is apparent when he says that Calvin "trampled down one opponent
after another in his steady march toward the triumphant theocracy of his
later years" [The English Reformation, 1964, p. 198]. It follows axiomatically
that one who had such hatred for his fellow men and was guilty of such ruth-
less tyranny could not possibly have felt that compassion for others which
is characteristic of the missionary-hearted Christian, and could not even
have understood, let alone promoted, the Gospel of divine love and grace.

As for Calvin's theology, we are all familiar with the scornful rationaliza-
tion which facilely asserts that his horrible doctrine of divine election makes
nonsense of all missionary and evangelistic activity. If certain persons are
predestined to be saved, and, by simple arithmetic, the remainder are pre-
destined to be lost, then there is nothing that anyone can do about it; and
so "Calvinism" is equated with inaction and unconcern.

There is, however, a very considerable difficulty which these indignant
critics of Calvin both as man and as theologian fail to take into account,
namely, that he did not behave himself in the way that they say he did
[see my introduction to the Register of the Company of Pastors of Geneva
in the Time of Calvin, 1966] and that his theology did not have the conse-

17

quences for him that we are assured it must have had. In this respect at
least, Calvin would appear to be a true successor of the Apostle Paul!
I suppose no passage in Scripture is more "calvinistic" (to speak anachronis-
tically) than Romans 9 "So then God has mercy upon whomever he wills,
and he hardens the heart of whomever he wills"; but it leads on without any
embarrassment to the great missionary charter of Romans 10:

There is no distinction between Jew and Greek; the same Lord is
Lord of all and bestows his riches upon all who call upon him. For,
"every one who calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved." But
how are men to call upon him in whom they have not believed? And
how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And
how are they to hear without a preacher? And how can men preach
unless they are sent?

Let us consider, then, the facts of the case. In the mid-sixteenth century
Geneva was a small city-state of some 20,000 inhabitants. Calvin's return
to Geneva in 1541, to lead the work of the Reformation there, was at the
insistent invitation of the city's government, confirmed by the acclamation
of the populace and it should not be forgotten that both governors and
governed knew by first-hand experience what sort of a man Calvin was, for
he had already lived and laboured in their midst for some two years (1536
to 1538), and it is evident that they did not think they were inviting a mis-
anthropic tyrant to return to their city. In an essay which expertly and
trenchantly "debunks" the Calvin legend Basil Hall, of the University of
Cambridge, has written:

Those who wish to focus denigration of Calvin, and what he stood
for, on his supposed cruelty and dictatorial powers fail to come to
grips with two major facts. First, if Calvin was a cruel man how did
he attract so many, so varied, and so warmly attached friends and
associates who speak of his sensitiveness and his charm? The evi-
dence is plain for all to read in the course of his vast correspondence.
Secondly, if Calvin had dictatorial control over Genevan affairs, how
is it that records of Geneva show him plainly to have been the servant
of its Council which on many occasions rejected out of hand Calvin's
wishes for the religious life of Geneva, and was always master in
Genevan affairs? A reading of Calvin's farewell speech to the min-
isters of Geneva made shortly before he died should resolve doubt
upon this point. To call Calvin the 'dictator of a theocracy' is, in
view of the evidence, mere phrase-making prejudice. [The Church-
man, London, Vol. 73, No. 3, Sept. 1959, pp. 124f.]

There is yet another factor which needs to be weighed, and which, as
we shall see, is of particular relevance to the theme of this paper. This is
the remarkable phenomenon of the great numbers of persons who fled to
Geneva for refuge from the fierce persecutions that raged against adherents
of the Reformed faith elsewhere in Europe (and especially in France). Is it
likely that all these people over so many years would so eagerly have
exchanged one tyranny for another? After all, there were other hospitable
cities, without a Calvin, whose gates were open to them and where they
could be sure of a welcome. But they chose to go to Geneva! And it was
Calvin, the "man-hater", none other, who was their champion; for Calvin's
most powerful and persistent opponents in Geneva were not those who were
out of sympathy with his theology or with the aims of the Reformation,

18

but the Perrinists, who strongly objected to the opening of their city to this
influx of foreigners (bringing with them, as they no doubt did, problems
of accommodation, of assimilation, and of competition) and maintained that
Geneva should be kept for Genevans. It was thanks to Calvin, as much as
to anyone else, that the motives of warm humanitarianism triumphed over
those of narrow jingoism.

It is important for us to realize, however, that Calvin's Geneva was
something far more than a terminus of ultima tlmle for Protestant refugees.
So far from being an end in itself, Calvin saw it as being a means to a much
more splendid end. It was indeed a haven for hundreds of afflicted fugitives.
But it was also a school "the most perfect school of Christ which has
been seen on earth since the days of the apostles", according to the estimate
of the great Scottish Reformer John Knox, who himself found refuge and
schooling in Geneva. Here able and dedicated men, whose faith had been
tested in the fires of persecution, were trained and built up in the doctrine
of the Gospel at the feet of John Calvin, the supreme teacher of the
Reformation.

But, again, Calvin's Geneva was something very much more than a haven
and a school. It was not a theological ivory tower which lived to itself and
for itself, oblivious of its responsibility in the Gospel to the needs of others.
Human vessels were equipped and refitted in this haven, not to be status
symbols like painted yachts safely moored at a fashionable marina, but that
they might launch out into the surrounding ocean of the world's need,
bravely facing every storm and peril that awaited them in order to bring
the light of Christ's Gospel to those who were in the ignorance and darkness
from which they themselves had originally come. They were taught in this
school in order that they in turn might teach others the truth that had set
them free. Thus John Knox returned with the evangelical doctrine to his
native Scotland; Englishmen went back to lead the cause in England:
Italians to Italy; Frenchmen (who formed the great bulk of the refugees) to
France. Inspired by Calvin's truly ecumenical vision, which penetrated far
beyond the horizon of his own environment, Geneva became a dynamic
centre or nucleus from which the vital missionary energy which it generated
radiated out into the world beyond.

The extent of this missionary activity may well astonish us. Its cost,
in terms of human courage and suffering, was high. Its singleness of pur-
pose in the face of daunting odds is a moving challenge to us today. Indeed,
this self-giving, outward-looking attitude is all the more remarkable when
we remember that the constant demands and difficulties of the Church in
Geneva itself might understandably have been used as an excuse by Calvin
and his colleagues for inability to give attention to matters further afield.

The figures which are available to us are far from complete; but even
so they are eloquent. They are restricted, in the main, to the few years
between 1555 and 1562 when it was felt that the names of those who were
sent out from Geneva as missionaries might be recorded (though not
advertised) with some degree of safety. The outbreak of the wars of religion
in France in 1562, with the consequent intensification of the perils at-
tendant on these activities, made it expedient to resort to the practice of
imposing a black-out on the names and destinations of these evangelical
envoys. Another expedient which ordinary prudence dictated was the use

19

by many of these men of pseudonyms as they executed their hazardous
assignments. Indeed, as I have written elsewhere,

it would be hard to exaggerate the extremely hazardous nature of
the assignment undertaken by those who sallied forth from Geneva
as missionaries. The unbridled hostility to the Reformation meant
that the utmost secrecy had to be observed in sending out these
evangelical emissaries. . . . Their lines of infiltration were along peril-
ous paths through the mountains, where they were dependent on
friendly cottagers for food and hiding in case of necessity. Nor did
the danger end when they arrived at their various destinations, for
there too the utmost caution had to be observed lest they should be
discovered and apprehended, with all the dire consequences that
would be involved. Where a congregation was mustered, services were
conducted in a private home behind locked doors or in the shadows of
a wooded hillside. There were times when, as much for the sake of
the work as for his own safety, it became advisable for a missionary-
pastor to leave a place because his activities were becoming suspect
and his identity was no longer well concealed (he was becoming, as
the Register puts it, 'trop decouverf) . [Introduction to the Register,
ut supra.]

During the period to which we have referred, 1555-1562, the Register
of the Company of Pastors mentions by name 88 men who were sent out
from Geneva to different places as bearers of the Gospel; but in actual fact
these can represent no more than a fraction of the missions that were
undertaken. The incompleteness of the Register may be gauged, by way of
example, from the consideration that in 1561, which appears to have been
the peak year for this missionary activity, the despatch of only twelve men
is recorded: whereas evidence from other sources indicates that in that
year alone no less than 142 nearly twelve times twelve men ventured
forth on their respective missions. [See Robert M. Kingdon, Geneva and
the Coming of the Wars of Religion in France, 1555-1563, Geneva, 1956,
pp. 79ff.] For the Church, itself struggling, in a small city-republic, this
figure indicates a truly amazing missionary zeal and virility, and a fine
unconcern for its own frequently pressing needs.

If the sending forth of preachers had been somewhat sporadic prior
to 1555, the eclipse of the Perrinist party in that year enabled Calvin to
organize this work in a more systematic manner. The whole of France was
a potential mission-field into the midst of which Geneva jutted like a little
promontory or springboard, and as the great majority of the carefully
trained emissaries who were sent out were French-speaking, and indeed came
originally from France, they were particularly well fitted to minister the
Gospel in the towns and cities of France. A mere recital of the places to
which they went sound like a lesson in French geography. Thus we find
them penetrating to the ancient city of Lyon not far to the west of Geneva;
southwards to Aix-en-Provence, Nimes, Montpellier, Villefranche, Toulouse,
Nerac, and the province of Beam; along the Atlantic coast to Bordeaux,
La Rochelle and the nearby islands, Nantes, Caen, Dieppe, and the Channel
Islands; and in the north to Bourges, Tours, Orleans, Poitiers, Rouen, and
Paris; besides a host of smaller places too numerous to mention. There were
others who ventured into the rugged Piedmontese valleys of Northern Italy

20

in response to the call for help from the Waldensian remnant who for so
long had been manfully battling for their very survival.

But the venture that most stirs the imagination was the despatch of two
men across the Atlantic to Brazil. The Register for 1556 simply says, in
typically laconic fashion, that on Tuesday 25 August Pierre Richer and
Guillaume Charretier were elected to minister in the islands recently con-
quered by France off the coast of Brazil, and "were subsequently com-
mended to the care of the Lord and sent off with a letter" from the Genevan
church. Through the influence of the Hugenot leader, Admiral Coligny,
arrangements were made for a group of Protestant emigrants to join the
expedition that was being sent out, with the expectation that they would be
able to establish a colony in South America and, free from persecution,
develop their own culture and at the same time instruct the heathen natives
in the Gospel of Christ. Richer and Charretier accompanied them in the
dual capacity of chaplains to the French Protestants and missionaries to the
South American Indians. Regrettably, however, the project was ill-fated.
Villegagnon, the governor of the expedition, betrayed Coligny's trust in
him. He turned against the Calvinists in his party, throwing four of them
to a watery grave in the sea because of the faith they confessed, and causing
the rest to seek safety by returning to their homeland, which, ironically,
they had left in order to enjoy freedom to express and practice their faith
without being hated and hunted like animals. This project, abortive though
it was, testifies strikingly to the far-reaching vision which Calvin and his
colleagues in Geneva had of their missionary task.

The perilous nature of the missionary enterprises which were organized
from Geneva is well illustrated in the Register though perhaps one should
add that the Register is anything but a martyrology and very frequently in-
formation has to be culled from other sources in order to complete the
stories of the persons and events which it mentions. On 12 October 1553,
some three years prior to the Brazilian interlude, a letter was sent from
the Company of Pastors of Geneva to "the believers of certain islands in
France", giving them advice for which they had asked and sending them
a man (who also carried this letter) to minister in their midst. No names
or persons or places are mentioned: the times were too perilous, and the
interception of a letter containing names could lead to the direst conse-
quences. It is true that the letter is signed "Charles d'Espeville in the name
both of himself and of his brethren"; but this gave away nothing, for
"Charles d'Espeville" was a cover-name used on occasions by Calvin when
it would have been imprudent for him to sign his real name.

Most dear brethren [the letter reads], we praise God that He has given
you, in your captivity, the desire to serve Him faithfully, so that you
are more afraid of being deprived of His grace than of exposing
yourselves to the dangers into which the malice of men may bring
you. For the brother who bears this letter has told us that you have
requested him to return to you as soon as possible, and that you
wish by every means to advance in blessing and to be confirmed in
the faith of the Gospel.

They are admonished to be diligent in meeting together for worship and
instruction and to separate themselves from the idolatry and superstition of
the Roman church. In due course, when they have proved themselves in
these respects and a proper order has been established, but only then, would

21

they be well advised to commence the administration of the sacraments.
"It is not lawful," they are told, "for a man to administer the sacraments to
you unless you are recognizably a flock of Jesus Christ and a churchly form
is found among you". The letter closes in a manner which is not only typical
of such letters from Geneva, but also revealing of the true depth of com-
passion of Calvin's heart:

Meanwhile take courage and dedicate yourselves wholeheartedly to
God who has purchased you through His own Son at such cost, and
surrender both body and soul to Him, showing that you hold His
glory more precious than all that this world has to offer. May you
value the eternal salvation which is prepared for you in heaven more
than this fleeting life. Therefore, and in conclusion, most dear breth-
ren, we shall pray the good Lord to complete what He has begun in
you, to advance you in all spiritual blessings, and to keep you under
His holy protection.

The persons to whom this letter was addressed were living on the islands
off the coast of Saintonge, near La Rochelle (He d'Oleron, He de Re, etc.),
and the bearer of the letter, who became their first pastor was Philibert
Hamelin. This man prosecuted his ministry with faithfulness until he suf-
fered martyrdom in 1557.

On 27 June 1555 a letter arrived at Geneva from three men, Jean
Vernou, Antoine Laborier, and Jean Trigalet, who had set out a week
earlier to minister in the Piedmontese valleys, conveying the news that they
had got no further than Chambery, where they had been seized and im-
prisoned. They in turn were comforted and encouraged by letters from
Calvin and his fellow-pastors in Geneva. The text of a subsequent letter
from the imprisoned missionaries, dated 1 August 1555, is given in the
Register. In it they bemoan, not what has befallen them personally, but
their "fault", as they now believed it to be, in having sought to protect
the evangelical groups to whom they were being sent by dissembling before
their interrogators.

Gentlemen and most dear brethren [they write], we have been greatly
comforted by the letters which you have kindly written us, especially
in seeing by them that your customary magnanimity has supported
us despite our fault, which cannot be described as small, as its effects
show us all too clearly. Have we achieved anything by what we have
done? Have we, by our misguided prudence, prevented what we
feared from happening? Alas, no. For three or four days later, when
we were still sorrowing over our fault, the news came that Satan was
inflicting his fury on those whom we wished to preserve. Our grief
was then redoubled; and we knew very well that this was for our
humiliation, having learnt that the prudence of man cannot prevent
the providence of God. We have in ourselves more than enough im-
perfections to keep us lowly before God; but this one is so obvious
that it exceeds all the others. The Lord God has caused us to feel
this most vividly so that for the rest of our lives we may be humbled
by it; yet He is willing to pardon us, as we believe He has already
done. We entreat you to pray God for us, since the need for prayer
is greater than ever and not so much for us as for these poor
people, that God may withdraw His rod from them or may soften
them, and that, if it is necessary, He may soon send upon us what

22

He pleases. Meanwhile we shall pray for you and for them while
awaiting the outcome of our case, whatever it may be that God is
pleased to give us, confident that in guarding our faith, as is our
duty, He will enable us to fulfill our calling.

They were, in fact, never released, but were martyred in that same place.
The mission to Piedmont was not allowed to fail, however; for as the
Register shows, others took their place and, braving all dangers, went forth
from Geneva as Christ's ambassadors to these needy parts.

Perhaps no assignment was more hazardous than that of being sent to
minister in Paris, for the enemies of the Reformation in France's capital
city were so numerous and so influential that to associate oneself with the
evangelical cause, however secretly, was tantamount to taking one's life in
one's hands. This is amply borne out by the experience of Calvin's trusted
lieutenant, Nicolas des Gallars, himself a Frenchman of aristocratic family,
on one such expedition. Des Gallars set out from Geneva on 16 August
1557, accompanied by the envoy who had come from Paris to request
the despatch of a minister to strengthen the cause there. On the way this
companion was captured and put to death, but des Gallars managed to
escape and continued on to his destination. But a still greater misfortune
awaited him there. On 7 September he sent a letter to Geneva conveying
the news that three days previously their congregation had suffered
a disastrous raid. "Almost two hundred persons are held captive by the
enemy," he wrote, "who threaten them with all kinds of dire consequences.
Among them are many distinguished individuals, both men and women;
but not the least respect is shown either for their family or for their
station". This was the notorious affair of the Rue Saint-Jacques, which was
to have international repercussions. Calvin replied immediately. "Although
my first reaction was one of horror," he wrote, "and I was almost prostrated
with grief, yet I lost no time in seeking a means of remedy" and he
outlines, though under the circumstances in cryptic terms, the steps that
had been taken to influence the situation in Paris for the better. Calvin
also tells des Gallars that his wife was with him and that he had taken care
to keep the worst news from her, lest she should be over-anxious. In this
we have a glimpse of Calvin's thoughtfulness and solicitude for others. His
letter concludes with the following words: "May the Lord guide you and
them [des Gallars' colleagues in Paris] in this crisis by the spirit of wisdom,
understanding, and uprightness; may He be present with you and with the
cover of His wings protect, strengthen, and sustain both you and the whole
church!"

Finally, I should like to bring to your attention a letter which was re-
ceived in Geneva on 15 July 1552. It is true that it came from five young
men who were not missionaries but students, and that they had been
studying in Lausanne (where Beza was then teaching) not Geneva (the
Genevan academy was not founded by Calvin until 1558). But these young
men were missionaries in the making, and their letter is addressed to "our
brothers of the church of Geneva". On returning to their native land, they
were seized and thrown into prison in Lyon; and there they were put to
death because of the faith they professed steadfastly to the end. They are not
out of place, therefore, in this paper, and the fact that they were students
of the Reformed faith preparing for the ministry of the Gospel makes what
they say in this letter very specially appropriate. It is a most moving docu-

23

ment, and these five young martyrs speak clearly to us across the centuries,
reminding us that, at its deepest level, our training for the Christian min-
istry consists of something more than the accumulation of learning and
the passing of exams.

Very dear brothers in our Lord Jesus Christ [they write], since you
have been informed of our captivity and of the fury which drives our
enemies to persecute and afflict us, we felt it would be good to let
you know of the liberty of our spirit and of the wonderful assistance
and consolation which our good Father and Saviour gives us in these
dark prison cells, so that you may participate not only in our afflic-
tion of which you have heard but also in our consolation, as members
of the same body who all participate in common both in the good and
in the evil which comes to pass. For this reason we want you to know
that, although our body is confined here between four walls, yet our
spirit has never been so free and so comforted, and has never pre-
viously contemplated so fully and so vividly as now the great heavenly
riches and treasures and the truth of the promise which God has made
to His children; so much so, that we seem not only to believe and
hope in them but even to see them with our eyes and touch them
with our hands, so great and remarkable is the assistance of our
God in our bonds and imprisonment. So far, indeed, are we from
wishing to regard our afflictions as a curse of God, as the world and
the flesh wish to regard it, that we regard it rather as the greatest
blessing that has ever come upon us; for in it we are made true chil-
dren of God, brothers and companions of Jesus Christ, the Son of
God, and are comformed to His image; and by it the possession of
our eternal inheritance is confirmed to us. Further, we are bold to
say and affirm that we shall derive more profit in this school for our
salvation than has ever been the case in any place where we have
studied; and we testify that this is the true school of the children of
God in which they learn more than the disciples of the philosophers
ever did in their universities indeed, that it must not be imagined
that one can have a true understanding of many of the passages of
Scripture without having been instructed by the Teacher of all truth
in this college. It is true enough that one can have some knowledge
of Scripture and can talk about it and discuss it a great deal; but this
is like playing at charades. We therefore praise God with all our
heart and give Him undying thanks that He has been pleased to give
us by His grace not only the theory of His Word but also the practice
of it, and that He has granted us this honour which is no small
thing for vessels so poor and fragile and mere worms creeping on
the earth by bringing us out before men to be His witnesses and
giving us constancy to confess His name and maintain the truth of
His holy Word before those who are unwilling to hear it, indeed who
persecute it with all their force to us, we say, who previously
were afraid to confess it even to a poor ignorant labourer who would
have heard it eagerly. We pray you most affectionately to thank our
good God with us for granting us so great a blessing, so that many
may return thanks to Him, beseeching Him that, as He has com-
menced this work in us, so He will complete it, to the end that all
glory may be given to Him, and that, whether we live or die, all may

24

be to His honour and glory, to the edification of His poor Church,
and to the advancement of our salvation. Amen!

We need to learn afresh today and this is a lesson that the Geneva
of John Calvin can teach us that the Church of Christ is not merely
a haven of comfort and security nor a religious club where Christians
may take their ease (though too many regard it as such), but a dynamic
fellowship of the reborn, empowered by the Holy Spirit, and commissioned
to penetrate into all the world with the liberating message of God's free
grace in Christ Jesus.

ON THE ROAD TO DAMASCUS

William C. Robinson

The Testimony That Comes From The Lord's Encounter With Paul.

Acts 26. 15. And the Lord said, I, even I Myself, am

Jesus whom you are persecuting.

Forty years ago the faculty in Columbia, South Carolina invited a newly
elected professor to deliver the opening address there. His theme was, ON
THE ROAD TO DAMASCUS. Providence has graciously granted the
speaker of that occasion forty years of service at Columbia Theological
Seminary and the present faculty has kindly arranged this address on the
same theme. In view of the pressure of time, the introduction is briefer and
the outline simpler. Forty years have not changed the event that occurred
on the Road to Damascus.

Some would explain Paul as a tale of two cities, Tarsus and Jerusalem.
But a rendezvous on the Road to Damascus had more to do with furnishing
the dynamics, the direction and the destiny of Paul than either Tarsus or
Jerusalem. "Paul is one of those people whose lives have been rent in two
by a single event.'* 1 From this encounter comes a mighty witness to the
living God and a gracious revelation of the loving Lord. For only a living
God could have converted Saul of Tarsus, and only a gracious God would
have received him.

Here God spoke first in His glory, then in His grace. He spoke in
a blinding light that smote Paul to the ground and left him unable to see.
But in the scarred face of Jesus the Crucified Paul the Apostle beheld the
light of the knowledge of the glory of God's grace even unto his bitterest
enemy.

I. A Witness to the Living God.

This encounter on the road to Damascus is a mighty witness to the living
God. Here are the opening words, Saul (or Saoul), why are you persecuting
me? That is the living God intervenes in the interest of the little flock of
disciples. Paul the Persecutor was about to destroy the infant Church of
God in Christ Jesus, and God stepped in to defend His own.

1. Dibelius-Kuemmel, Paul, p. 46.

25

That the Church was not crushed in its infancy, that she survived the
Jewish and later the ten Roman persecutions; that she was not lost in Greek
speculation; that her candle was quenched neither by barbarian invasion,
nor by papal autocracy; that she survived atheistic revolutions and national
tyrannies the existence and the persistence of the Church is a testimony
to the living God. That she has weathered the storms of persecution, the
perversions of heresy, and the inertia of lethargy she owes to her Divine Lord.
He has kept her as the apple of His eye. He daily works in her to change
her persecutors into patrons, to forgive her sins, to renew her strength.
Since He is constantly renewing her life, she stands as the pillar and ground
of the truth, the Church of the living God, the witness that her Lord is not
dead. In Germany, the Heil Hitlers have ceased, but the Luther anthem still
resounds,

A mighty fortress is our God
A bulwark never failing . . .

And He must win the battle.

When Altizer's dirge of divine death is done, once again the living God
will have won, and the Wesley paean of praise be but begun:

O for a thousand tongues to sing,
My great Redeemer's praise;

The glories of my God and King,
The triumphs of His grace.
He breaks the power of cancelled sin,
He sets the prisoner free;

His blood can make the foulest clean,
His blood availed for me.

Again the road to Damascus is the sign of the power of the living God
to transform a human life. It is more accurate to describe the event here
recorded as the encounter of the living Lord with Saul of Tarsus than to
speak of it as Paul's meeting with Jesus. The Lord took the initiative. He
set up and accomplished the meeting. He opens the conversation, Saul why
are you persecuting ME? And Saul recognizes the Speaker first of all as
the Lord. For Paul, the "break was not a mere psychological occurrence,
but an intervention by the same God whom he had hitherto served." 2

As an Old Testament scholar Saul was familiar with the theophanies and
at times the appearance to him is described with the same Greek verb,
ophthe Acts 9.17, I Cor. 15.8. In our text Jesus is the predicate, and I even
I Myself, the LORD, is the subject of the sentence. Moses at the burning
bush was arrested first by the glory of God so that he put off the shoes
from his feet to tread on the holy ground of God's presence; and only later
learned that the Holy One was the God of his father, of Abraham, of Isaac
and of Jacob. So Saul a Hebrew of the Hebrews, an Old Testament wor-
shipper first acknowledged the Lord, Who art thou, Lord?; and only later
learned that the Lord whom he worshipped was the Jesus whom he was
persecuting. The Twelve learned that Jesus was the Lord, Paul that the LORD
was Jesus. It is God in living action who accosts and changes the persecuting
apostle of the Sanhedrin into Paul the Apostle of the Lord Jesus. "He casts
Saul of Tarsus, all bruised and wounded into the dust, and draws him behind

2. Dibelius-Kuemmel, Paul, p. 60.

26

His chariot of victory," as He tells Paul what he must do, Acts. 9.6. 3 Thus
in changing the lives of men God shows Himself to be the living God. In
this process he used the witness of Stephen, but the power, the glory, the
change was the act of the living God.

The God who caused a complete about face in the life of Paul and
made of him one of His own chief witnesses and one of the great figures
of all human history, is the God who called Abraham, who wrestled with
Jacob, who appeared to Isaiah, who converted Augustine of Hippo, Bernard
of Clairvaux, Luther, Calvin, Blaise Pascal, John Bunyan, John Wesley,
Jonathan Edwards, Archibald Alexander, William Carey and all those who
make up the marching hosts of Christian soldiers. In every time and from
every clime, out of every nation and kindred and tribe, changed men are
a host of living witnesses to God in action. Today, every day, He is con-
fronting frustrated souls calling them to existential decision for God rather
than for mammon, for Eternity more than for time. He made of Paul the
great missionary to the Gentiles, the formulator of Christian concepts which
have challenged the best minds of two millenia, the man who wrote a Hebrew
book deeper into the thinking of the West than even the philosophy of
a Plato or a Socrates. By the grace of God, Paul the apostle labored more
abundantly and suffered more severely than any of his contemporaries to
establish in the skeptical age of the first century faith in the living God.
Likewise, God turns us from destructive to constructive service according
to His own plan for each of us.

Most of all this encounter on the Road to Damascus is a glorious testi-
mony to the life-giving God who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead.
Saul is so set in his opposition to the disciples of Jesus' Way that only the
appearing to him of the resurrected Christ could make the change. According
to the three accounts in Acts the risen Lord appeared to and spoke with
Saul of Tarsus. Ananias speaks to Saul of Jesus who appeared unto you in
the way, 9.17, of God who appointed you to see the Righteous One, and hear
the voice of His mouth 22.14. That is, the Damascus appearance is no
exception to the rule that the several appearances of the Risen Jesus are
bound to a revelation in words.*

Once the word vision, optasia, occurs, Acts 26.19. Literally this means
the act of exhibiting oneself to view. cf. Acts 1.3. It is not the word horama
which is used in Acts 16.7; 19.9, cf. 23.11; 27.23. W. Michaelis finds
parallels to the appearances of the Risen Lord with the angelophanies, Luke
22.43; Acts 5.19f; 12.7f. which are recorded as actual interventions. Barnabas
relates how Paul had seen the Lord in the way, 9.27. The Lord says, "To
this end have I appeared unto you," 26.14. In First Corinthians, Paul insists
that the risen Redeemer appeared unto him as definitely as He did to Peter
and to James; and that he was to be reckoned an apostle, for "have I not
seen Jesus our Lord?" The active verb horao which occurs here is that used
of the seeing of Jesus in Mark 16.7; Matthew 28.10, 17; John 20.18, 25, 29.*
As in Galatians Paul testifies that "it pleased God to reveal His Son to me,"
so in Second Corinthians the lightgiving Creator shined into his heart to give
the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

3. A. Lecerf, Reformed Dogmatics, p. 240.
* W. Michaelis, TWNT, V.356-358.

27

"Paul's call came from the Lord who had been raised up by God." 4 Thus
he is a personal witness to the resurrection of Jesus. He has, moreover,
preserved the earliest corporate witness to that mighty act of God. In First
Corinthians 15.3f the several appearances of Jesus are listed in quite
evidential fashion. Nor is the mighty witness of First Corinthians 15 to be
set aside by a misinterpretation of the clause "flesh and blood cannot inherit
eternal life." As J. Jeremias has shown, this expression "flesh and blood" does
not refer at all to those who die and are raised, but rather to those who are
still alive at the return of Christ in His glory. Paul accepted and taught
a bodily resurrection of Christ and of all those who die in Him.

In defending, protecting, carrying onward His body the Church, in
changing lives from the destructiveness of Saul the Inquisitor to Paul the
Apostle, in raising the crucified Jesus from the dead and lifting Him to His
own right hand that He might call together and carry through the ages His
Church, and that in His celestial glory He might encounter and make over
the man of Tarsus God shows Himself the living God, working in every
event that occurs, generally through natural means, but also able to inter-
vene supernaturally to accomplish His will both in the armies of heaven and
among men. God is immanent, everywhere present, preserving and govern-
ing all His creatures and all their actions. At the same time He is the
Transcendent Person, the flash of Whose will can marvelously intervene,
who did raise from the dead Jesus our Lord, and on the road to Damascus
did change Saul of Tarsus.

May the Damascus Road witness to the living God inspire us in our
services of worship and in our personal evangelism to magnify GOD IN
ACTION. "The Church is the place where God acts and man serves."
(Barth) Opening the worship with the apostolic salutation, Grace be unto
you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, puts us in
the attitude of looking to the LORD who made heaven and earth for our
help. Instead of introducing the recital of the Apostles 1 Creed merely as
the expression of our faith, why not use some such introductory word as
this, "Let us confess the living God in His great and gracious acts for us
and for our salvation." Paul was converted into an apostle that by his
preaching God might open the eyes of the sin-blinded, turn them from
darkness to light, from the power of Satan to God, forgive their sins and
give them the inheritance of hope. Preaching becomes more effective when
it calls men to behold God working for them than when it scolds them for
not working better for Him. Faith comes by hearing the Gospel of Christ,
for by the proclamation of Christ crucified it pleases God to save. Preaching
is "the apocalyptic event" which "moves the doors of heaven and hell"; 5
when it is "the proclamation of the scriptural message as the Word of the
living God." 6 For the risen Lord Jesus becomes present through the Spirit-
wrought exposition of His Word, evoking trust and obedience in His Church.

God brings us into fellowship with Himself and keeps us in His covenant
of grace by His wonderful work of forgiving our sins. In the Presence of the
HOLY ONE, "a person does not so much confess a bad act or habit as he

4. Dibelius-Kuemmel, Paul, p. 55.

5. H. A. Oberman, Harvard Divinity Bulletin, Oct., 1961.

6. P. E. Hughes, Creative Minds in Contemporary Theology.

28

offers his whole sinful self which is in need of the constant forgiveness of
God." 7 And it is God, God alone who justifies. Let us not be misled into
a pietism which magnifies our spiritual and moral life while it forgets that
forgiveness is an act of God. Then prayer is a pleading with God to do in
and for us what He had graciously promised. With such a hymn as How
Firm a Foundation we praise God's promises to act in us and in our behalf.

Likewise the sacrament is primarily a divine action, making what God
has done in Christ a reality to the believer. The efficacy of the sacrament
depends upon the work of the Spirit and the Word of institution. In baptism
God signifies and seals our engrafting into Christ, the remission of sins by
His blood and of regeneration by His Spirit. The parents primarily confess
that their infant needs from the heavenly Father these blessings which their
earthly parents are unable to give. In the Lord's Supper, Christ is more
active in giving Himself and His blessings to the believer than the minister
is in distributing the bread and the cup to the communicants. "He ac-
complishes in our souls spiritually all that He shows us outwardly by these
visible signs." (Calvin).
II. A Revelation of the Gracious God.

As the event on the Road to Damascus is a mighty witness to the living
God, so is it likewise a glorious revelation of the gracious God. Saul had
despised the disciples of Jesus as uneducated, weak, common people of the
land, First Corinthians 1.27-28. They seemed to be all too earthen vessels,
the very offscourings of the earth. They were on the edge of the law or
even beyond the law. Now Jesus who had gathered about Himself the lost
sheep of the house of Israel identifies Himself with His people, Saoul, Saoul,
why are you persecuting me? In your rage against my disciples, you are
maltreating me.

Now that could mean only one thing: Since Jesus Himself and the essence
of His Gospel is found in the nature of His Church, the very nature of that
Church compelled Paul to realize that what leads men to God is not their
pious deeds, but only Divine grace. Paul was radically converted from
a fanaticism that made salvation to consist in law keeping and limited it
to those who stood in the center of the religion of law. He was forced to
recognize that God had given His salvation to these despised and persecuted
Christians. And that means that salvation is not of law, but of grace.
Salvation is for those on the outskirts of the law, for those outside the law,
even for Gentiles. The living God is the God of grace. Grace means God
for us, God for the lost sheep, even when they are not for Him. God for
the younger brother who had wasted his substance in riotious living; but,
as Saul was about to learn, God also for the conceited, self-righteous older
brother. God for everyone whether living in sin of the flesh or in self-
righteous Pharisaic pride who will look away from self and cast himself
on God's mercy in Christ. God has made the way of law righteousness
obsolete by sending His Son to save those outside the law. By grace are
ye saved and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God. And God, the
God in whom we trust, is the grace-giver: the God of all grace, rich unto
all who call upon Him. Whosoever shall call on the LORD shall be saved!

Most of all that grace of God is evident in Saul's own case. He was
Jesus' sworn enemy, His deadliest foe. By this celestial blaze he deserved to

7. John B. Coburn in Summer 1966 Theological Education, S.40.

29

be incinerated. He was blinded, but only that he might realize his own
spiritual darkness and turn to Him who is the light indeed. In those three
days when he saw not, Saul went down into the depths of God's love and
Christ's Cross deeper than any mere man ever has been. Formerly he had
used the law of Deuteronomy (21.23) that the man who is hanged is
accursed of God as occasion to make the persecuted disciples blaspheme
with the words, Jesus be cursed. I Cor. 12:3. Now he saw that Christ had
indeed borne the curse, but the curse of all those who had broken the law
these despised disciples, and also this covetous, envious, hard-hearted
murderous Persecutor, Paul of Tarsus. And now a broken-hearted Paul adds
to the syllables he had been forcing from the lips of weak brethren two
additional words: FOR ME, FOR US. Christ was made a curse for us, for
cursed is everyone that hangs upon the tree. Upon Saul the self-righteous the
law which says, "Thou shalt not covet, Thou shalt not kill," fell like a
prosecuting witness, a judge, and an executioner all in one. Under that
unerring sentence Saul fell to the ground guilty, undone, blind, bleeding,
dying under the wrath of the Law-Giver. And then wonder of wonders.
The Persecuted One revealed Himself as the Ransom, the Propitiation for
the persecutor. On His Cross, Christ took Saul's place, died the death Paul
deserved to die. He, the Judge, gave Himself to take the guilty man's penalty,
to die the sinner's death, to satisfy for his disobedience that Paul might
be forgiven for the sake of that Jesus he was persecuting and have the Spirit
of Christ crying in his heart, Abba, Father. This complete about face on the
Road to Damascus is the sign of the gracious God, the historical witness that
the living God is gracious. And conversely, Paul's view of God who shows
Himself to be righteous and declares him to be righteous who is so out of
faith in Jesus (Rom. 3:26) is of One "who is alive and makes alive." 8

Now the Christ whose saving Cross drank up Saul's curse is also the
loving Lord who in this personal encounter with the Persecutor drinks up
Paul's loyalty and life and love. Souls grow more by contact with souls than
by any other known means. When Paul rises from the ground he is Jesus'
man, the slave of the Lord Christ. "It is no longer I that live, but Christ lives
in me; and the life that I now live I live by the faith of the Son of God who
loved me and gave Himself up for me." The love of Christ constrains us to
live for Him who for our sakes died and rose again. Yes the Road to
Damascus reveals the love that would not let Paul go until he had finished
that which God appointed for him to do, Acts 22.10. Personal loyalty to
the Lord who loved him and died for him carried Paul with the Gospel of
the gracious God from Jerusalem to Rome and beyond.

And our conclusion here? Trust yourself to the God of all grace, to the
Christ crucified for you. Apart from Christ God is our judge, in Christ He
is our Father. Stand in Christ and God forgives your sins, and sends His
Spirit to cry in your heart Abba, Father, so that you may enter the portals
of to-morrow unafraid.

The rendezvous of the risen Jesus with the persecutor Paul on the Road
to Damascus: may it be to you and to me the testimony to the living God,
the revelation of the gracious Father, the light of the loving Lord upon this
academic year.

8. Kaesemann as cited by John Reumann in INTERPRETATION, October 1966,
p. 451.

30

REVIEWS

John Penry and the Marprelate
Controversy, by Donald J. Mc-
Ginn: Rutgers University Press.
274 pp. $9.00.

The author has read widely in the
literature of the Elizabethan period,
and in this work he seeks once again
to substantiate the identification of
the anonymous author of the saucy,
malicious Marprelate Tracts with the
separatist, John Penry.

Unfortunately the author's recon-
struction is marred by errors of fact
and weaknesses of presentation.
James VI of Scotland appears as
James IV (both in the text and the
index). No reference is made to J. E.
Neale's magisterial works on Eliza-
beth I and her Parliaments, and other
significant studies are similarly ig-
nored. This is not to deny that the
author has read widely: it is simply
to assert that he has not read widely
enough. We may also question the
propriety of an author praising him-
self. "It has been authoritatively
stated . . ." we are informed. On con-
sulting the reference index, at the end
of the book, to discover the identity
of the unnamed authority, we learn
that it is the author himself! Cart-
wright, we are informed, "has aptly
been designated the arch-Puritan":
anxious to discover who first used
this "apt" designation, we consult the
reference index, to learn once again
that it is the author himself quoting
his previous book! These things are,
of course, a question of taste: of
greater importance is the fact that
the author tends to misinterpret (or
to misunderstand) basic facts relating
to the history of the period. Eliza-
beth's Prayer Book, for example, was
issued in 1558 and not in 1561: and
it is not sufficient to say that "she
had combined the strongly pro-Catho-

lic First Edwardian Prayer Book with
the equally strongly pro-Genevan Se-
cund into the Elizabethan Book of
Common Prayer." But further particu-
larization would be tedious.

Stuart Barton Babbage

The Origin and Meaning of
Hasidism, by Martin Buber, ed-
ited and translated by Maurice
Friedman: Harper and Row. 254
pp. $1.75.

True to his purpose, the author
traces the origin of Hasidism to the
spiritual vacuum left by the collapse
of the messianic surge connected with
the false Messiah, Shabbathai Zwi. On
the one hand, Jacob Frank endeavored
to rally the spiritual forces of Juda-
ism by a movement destined towards
an expansive esoteric experience, yet
doomed to failure through lack of a
true grappling with the forces of evil
and sin; on the other hand the Baal
Shem Tov, the spiritual father of
Hasidism, was able to contain the
needed balance between the centripetal
and centrifugal forces of Judaism, so
as to identify service to God with
joyful acceptance of service in and
to the world. The seriousness with
which the Hasidic mystics, from the
18th Century onward, faced the prob-
lem of evil, and the way in which they
endeavored to "empty" evil of its
evil, so to say, bring a redemptive
force to bear upon it, makes interest-
ing reading for a Christian.

Buber's treatment of Spinoza's
thought in this connection as well as
that of Zen Buddhism is of refreshing
vitality, and although his apologetic
for his theological view of Christ can
hardly convince the Christian reader,
the warmth and humility with which
he approaches the person of Jesus is

31

impressive for a Jewish thinker of
his calibre. A book well worth read-

ing!

Ludwig R. Dewitz

Allegory, The Theory of a Sym-
bolic Mode, by Angus Fletcher:
Cornell University Press. 418 pp.

In the early centuries the Church
was able to solve many of its inter-
pretative and homiletic problems by
finding allegorical meanings in Holy
Scripture, and few people ever thought
of raising any objections. They be-
lieved that the text of the Bible, like
that of other literature, had several
meanings. "The sense of the divine
utterances is manifold and infinite",
wrote a famous mediaeval Scotsman,
"even as in one and the same feather
of the peacock we behold a marvellous
and beautiful variety of countless
colours. " The mediaeval preacher,
moreover, was as much a master of
illustration as any modern follower
of Fosdick or Stewart, and most of
his illustrations had the merit of being
allegorical as well as interesting for
their own sake. They therefore left
their hearers' minds charged with hid-
den meanings which could tease, tor-
ment or delight them long after the
sermon was over. Occasionally alle-
gory was used to put across political
or social dynamite in the safest way
possible from the preacher's or writ-
er's point of view.

The Reformers brought the Church
right back to the literal and gram-
matical meaning of the Scriptures as
the necessary basis of all interpreta-
tion. They wisely cut out most of
the current illustrations and illustrative
allegories in preaching. But they
recognized that the Bible was, after
all, literature, and they were always
ready to see and use an allegorical
meaning over and above the literal.
Calvin and Luther often presuppose

a manifold meaning in the text of
Scripture.

Since the Reformation, however,
"science" and reason have taken con-
trol of our Biblical interpretation, and
the use of imagination in this sphere
has been frowned upon. Allegory has
become almost a dirty word. We are
warned that we must interpret the
Bible as if it had one sense only
the historico-grammatical.

Under such circumstances it is chal-
lenging and refreshing to read a book
from the non-theological world which
seeks to re-define what allegory is,
and to root out misconceptions about
it. Angus Fletcher here suggests that
the secular world now understands
the human mind better than the the-
ological world, and has cashed in
where the Church has contracted out.
"While allegory in the middle ages
came to the people from the pulpit,
it comes to the modern reader in
secular, but no less popular form. The
modern romance and the detective
story with its solution also carry
double meanings that are no less im-
portant for the completion of the
plots than is the moralitas to the
preacher's parable.'*

Most of us are aware that there is
a good deal of allegorizing in modern
literature especially if we have read
C. S. Lewis or 'The Lord of the
Flies." Those of us who have listened
to Dr. Thomas Altizer expounding
Blake and Melville will appreciate,
too, how ready the human mind is to
"see" the allegorical meaning, and
how easy it is to move an audience
from one sphere of reference to an-
other, and then backward quite quick-
ly. But Angus Fletcher in this book
takes us much farther. He believes
that the "allegorical mode of expres-
sion" characterizes a quite extraor-
dinary variety of literary kinds.
Whether we are reading Zane Grey
for our diversion, or Beatrix Potter
for our children's amusement, our full

32

appreciation and enjoyment of the
work will depend on how far we can
make an exegesis of the allegorical
element in such works. "The whole
point of allegory is that it does not
need to be read exegetically; it often
has a literal level that makes good
enough sense all by itself. But some-
how this literal surface suggests a
peculiar doubleness of intention, and
while it can. as it were, get along
without interpretation, it becomes
much richer and more interesting if
given interpretation."

Perhaps this book from the world
of literary criticism has something to
teach us about Biblical criticism. There
may indeed be a pointer here to an
approach that might give us quite
legitimately a "richer and more inter-
esting" interpretation of the Bible.
Our faith compels us to take the Bible
seriously as being human literature
as well as the Word of God. We must
therefore be ready to find, appreciate,
and even delight in, allegory, not only
in those places where we can classify
the Biblical text as having a purely
allegorical intention, but also where
the primary intention of the writer is
to give a history or story or parable
or some other literary form. It has
always struck me as impoverishing
our Biblical interpretation that we
have so entirely laid aside the doctrine
of the manifold sense of Scripture.
There is a welcome return to typo-
logical interpretation amongst the the-
ologians of both the Old and New
Testaments. This also is a return to
Calvin who. more than any other
scholar, laid the foundation for the
careful development of typology which
took place in the seventeenth century.
But we must distinguish between ty-
pology and allegory. The first is rooted
in the similarities embodied in the
events of salvation history, and is
therefore simply an exposition of the
literal sense. The latter is a common
symbolic mode of great subtlety, and

not easily definable, as any reader of
Fletcher's book will gather. But it is
nevertheless a powerful means of
communication especially in this
age of impressionism and symbolism.

Fletcher's book makes very diffi-
cult reading. It often uses a jargon
that only an expert in literary criti-
cism could be expected to understand.
It presupposes a massive knowledge
of English literature. But it is one
of the best of a series of recent works
on the same subject. These works
should at least be in all our the-
ological libraries. They should be
studied by all who are concerned with
the problems of Biblical interpreta-
tion, and they should draw the atten-
tion of men who are selecting sub-
jects for master's or doctor's theses.
Ronald S. Wallace

The Biblical World: A Dictionary
of Biblical Archaeology, edited
by Charles F. Pfeiffer: Baker
Book House. 612 pp. $8.95.

This volume provides the layman
as well as the theological student and
minister with another excellent tool
for biblical study.

A wealth of material has been as-
sembled all the way from an 18-page
list of archaeologists and their work
to a 4-page article, including illustra-
tions, on Ramesses II of current
interest because of the recent removal
of one of his great monuments to
avoid inundation by Lake Nasser
forming behind the new Aswan dam.

Over 250 maps, drawings, and
photographs of sites and artifacts add
to the interest and value of the book.
They might have been more accessible
had the editor and publisher broken
with custom and indexed them alpha-
betically rather than listing them
simply in order of appearance.

Most of the articles are written by

33

those identified with conservative
Protestantism, but both the content
of articles and appended bibli-
ographies, as well as the subjects
chosen, reflect a careful effort to
give the reader the benefit of primary
sources and of recognized scholarship.
For instance, the article on Joshua's
Jericho corrects Garstang by the more
recent work of Kenyon.

Dean G. McKee

Images of Authority: A Consider-
ation of the Concepts of Regnum
and Sacerdotium, by J. M. Cam-
eron: Yale University Press. 78
pp. $4.00.

The first two of the 1965 Terry
Lectures concern Vicarious Authority
and Regnum. In studying authority,
the Christian is forced to come to
the conclusion that the authority of
both the Church and the State is
vicarious authority, being granted by
God to enable the two institutions to
perform the functions for which they
were created. Institutionally speaking,
both Church and State exist within
and under the regnum Christi. (How-
ever, the Church is not the regnum
Christi, but the sign of this regnum.)
The problem involves the evaluation
of the decisions of the authorities, for
verification of authority must come
from a source independent of that
authority. The answer given by Dr.
Cameron is that nature (or natural
law in the pre-fall sense) provides the
individual with the necessary criterion
for evaluating the actions of the State
just as the Holy Spirit operating in
the Christian authenticates the action
of the Church. The defense of this
view is the bright spot of the book.

The worth of the third and fourth
lectures, entitled Regnum Christi and
The Secular Society, is lessened by
the intrusion of the Roman Catholic

Doctrines of the Church and the
Sacraments, for Dr. Cameron says
that the authority of the Church is
sacramental in that it is vicarious and
that the structure of the Roman
Church is divinely willed. (He does
not explain how the structure of the
Roman Church allows the Spirit oper-
ating in Christians to authenticate the
action of the Church.) The Church of
the Middle Ages lost sight of the dis-
tinction of functions between the
Church and of the State so that the
fusing of the authorities produced a
tyranny, but today, as long as the
functions are separated, tyranny will
not develop in either the State or the
Church. In fact, the current seculariza-
tion of the Church is to be considered
a good thing because this will cause
the Church to concentrate on its in-
tended functions; the Church would
be harmed if the State were to espouse
(as today) "a religion of Christian
standards."

Dr. Cameron's analysis of the
authority of the State is of more value
than his thought on that of the Church
and should be read by anyone inter-
ested in authority. However, the
laborious style will probably repel
most readers.

Richard E. Sanner

Concilium: Theology in the Age
of Renewal. Vol. 13, Rethinking
of the Church's Mission, edited
by Karl Rahner, S. J. Vol. 14,
Do We Know the Others? edited
by Hans Kueng: Paulist Press.
152 and 180 pp. $4.50 per vol-
ume.

These are two volumes in a most
ambitious program of theological
writing by Roman Catholic scholars
in a wide variety of areas of theology,
especially in the light of Vatican
Council II. Each volume contains

34

articles written by most competent
authors, mostly Catholic, dealing with
various phases of the subjects indi-
cated by the titles of the volumes.
They give an excellent insight into
the thinking of Catholic scholarship.
They give us some idea of what was
really done in Vatican II. The Catho-
lic Church is still the Catholic Church,
but it is making some very signifi-
cant changes, especially in the recog-
nition of the primary authority of
Scripture, and also in an openness
toward other Churches. We can not
only see what they are doing, but we
may well be able to learn some most
helpful lessons for our own Church
work from these and other similar
volumes.

S. A. Cartledge

The book still stands as the defini-
tive contribution to an important topic.

Charles B. Cousar

The Eucharistic Words of Jesus,
by Joachim Jeremias: Charles
Scribner's Sons. 278 pp. $5.95.

Students of the New Testament
have been indebted to Joachim Jere-
mias primarily for his book The Par-
ables of Jesus. A less known but
equally significant contribution has
been his study of the origins of the
Lord's Supper, first published in Eng-
lish in 1955 and ably translated by
Norman Perrin. Now, eleven years
later, a thoroughly revised edition
of The Eucharistic Words of Jesus has
appeared, taking into account later
material and answering a number of
critics.

The arguments of the previous edi-
tion come in for a fresh evaluation
and in some cases are re-affirmed
(e.g., his interpretation of "in remem-
brance of me"), in other cases are
more tentatively stated (e.g., the pri-
ority of the Markan account and the
contribution of astronomy to the dat-
ing of Jesus' death), and in still other
cases are given a new explanation
(e.g., Jesus' vow of abstinence).

Church Growth in Central and
Southern Nigeria, by John B.
Grimley and Gordon E. Robin-
son: William B. Eerdmans Pub-
lishing Co. 386 pp. $3.25.

This volume, sponsored by the In-
stitute of Church Growth, is a mine
of information resulting from the re-
search and experience of two mis-
sionaries from Nigeria. Missionary
candidates would find it required
reading; missionaries in that land and
adjacent countries would find it il-
luminating. Mission minded people
at home would be inspired and chal-
lenged by the progress as well as the
problems confronting the cause of
Christ in that area.

Recent upheavals in Nigeria reflect
the complex problems that have con-
fronted the missionary from the be-
ginning Moslems in Northern Ni-
geria, a South with a substantial
Christian group, and a Central belt
with a largely pagan population. The
splintered tribalism in the center, the
400 or more languages and dialects in
the whole land, the isolation of many
parts, and the recent social and
political upheavals make this a field
of great difficulty as well as oppor-
tunity.

The historical chapters tell many
stories of heroic missionary pioneer-
ing in areas afflicted by the slave
trade, human sacrifice, and cannibal-
ism. Many mission agencies shared
in sending workers up the Niger River
and its tributaries. One reward has
been an indigenous church. Many
maps and graphs assist in telling the
story. But the evangelization of the
land has only begun. This is the chal-
lenge the book leaves with the reader.

Dean G. McKee

35

The Theology of the Resurrec-
tion, by Walter Kunneth: Con-
cordia Publishing House. 302 pp.
$5.00.

Walter Kunneth's The Theology of
The Resurrection has been a standard
work on the subject in German since
its first publication in 1933. Only in
1965 did the first English translation
appear.

The translation is based on the re-
vised German edition of 1951 which
takes into account treatments of the
resurrection which have appeared
since the beginning of the second
World War. Throughout the book, for
instance, Kunneth carries on a pro-
vocative polemic against Rudolf Bult-
mann and his existentalizing interpre-
tation, an interpretation which the
author feels constitutes a major threat
to the objective reality of Jesus' resur-
rection. The later edition also provides
the occasion for a helpful treatment
of the connection between Jesus' rising
from the dead and the development of
Christian eschatology.

The book is no bed-time story and
thus will be of use primarily to those
wishing to consider the topic in depth.

Charles B. Cousar

The Secularization of Modern
Cultures, by Bernard Eugene Me-
land: Oxford University Press.
163 pp. $4.75.

The material in this book is based
upon The Barrows Lectures for 1964-
65 which were delivered at the Uni-
versity of Calcutta and the University
of Poona under the joint auspices of
the American Institute of Indian
studies and the University of Chicago.
Dr. Meland, Professor Emeritus and
Visiting Professor in Theology, The
Divinity School, University of Chi-
cago, explores the various ways in

which modern societies, in their at-
tempts to come to terms with present-
day political, technological, and moral
demands, are moving away from his-
toric guidelines provided by religious
sanctions and sensibilities. Although
reference is made to various awaken-
ings, attention is focused principally
upon modern India and the West.

Secularization can be understood
only within the context of the state
in which it exists; the secularization
of totalitarian states differs markedly
from the secularization occurring in
democratic societies. Dr. Meland ex-
amines the differences with a view
to understanding their respective ways
of dealing with religious as well as
historical values conveyed through
philosophy, literature, and the arts.

Following this, Dr. Meland shows
how historical sensibilities are being
dissolved in modern societies on a
wide front. He relates this process of
dissolution to the current dissolution
of religious sensibilities, giving special
consideration to the fact that this dis-
solution is occurring in an increasingly
scientific and technological society.

This book should be read by all
persons involved in the current
thought concerning secularization.
The author treats the subject with apt
scholarship yet with a minimum of
wordiness. The major weakness is a
failure to show the incisive nature of
Christianity in comparison with other
religions, the result, undoubtedly, of
the lectures being delivered in India.

Richard B. Sanner

The Revolution of the Saints: A
Study of the Origins of Radical
Politics, by Michael Walzer:
Harvard University Press. 334
pp. $6.95.

In this learned study we are given
a fresh interpretation of puritanism
in sociological terms. "All forms of

36

radical politics," the author explains,
"make their appearance at moments
of rapid and decisive change, moments
when customary status is in doubt and
character (or 'identity') is itself a
problem." It was the great merit of
Puritanism, he says, that it provided
what he calls an "ideology of transi-
tion." The puritans, who lived in a
period of rapid social change and
political danger, boldly met the threat
of disorder by seeking to create a holy
commonwealth. Walzer asks the ques-
tion: "What lay behind the warfare
of the Saints?" and he replies: "Two
things above all: a fierce antagonism
to the traditional world and the pre-
vailing pattern of human relation and
a keen and perhaps not unrealistic
anxiety about human wickedness and
the dangers of social disorder. The
saints attempted to fasten upon the
necks of all mankind the yoke of a
new political discipline impersonal
and ideological, not founded upon
loyalty or affection, no more open
to spontaneity than to chaos or crime."
The keynote of their system, he af-
firms, was repression.

The author is heavily indebted to
Weber's pioneer study, The Protestant
Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism
("the most adventurous of all the
books on puritanism"). "My chief
intention," he confides, "was to pur-
sue an analogous but not identical
line of thought, studying the relation
of puritanism not to economic but to
political activity."

This is an important book. The
author argues his case with cogency
and analytic power. The terms "way-
faring and warfaring" provide us, he
suggests, with the key to puritan poli-
tics.

And yet, in spite of the brilliance
of the author's presentation, there are
grounds for legitimate complaint.
What is conspicuously lacking is imag-
inative empathy and sympathetic un-

derstanding. Commenting on the Cal-
vinist "tender conscience" he observes:
"the word 'tender' in this important
phrase does not mean 'easily injured'
or 'sensitive' but rather 'scrupulous',
'exacting'. The Puritan conscience does
not so much receive God's imprint, as
reproduce his tyranny and willfulness."
"Calvin's views," he writes, "did not
differ from those both Luther and
Bucer had expressed many years
earlier, though his statement probably
benefited from his superior powers of
equivocation." What is regrettable is
that the author should allow crude
prejudice to distort scholarly ob-
jectivity.

Stuart Barton Babbage

The Concept of Prayer, by D. Z.
Phillips: Schocken Books. 167
pp. $4.95.

The author is a professional phi-
losopher in England. In this rather
technical book he keeps present espe-
cially the Logical Empiricism of
Wittgenstein (for whom philosophy
could meaningfully say what science
says) but he also gives great impor-
tance to Simone Weil (for whom in
prayer our thought should be empty,
waiting, not seeking anything but
ready to receive naked truth, p. 155).
The conclusion is that philosophy
alone will not bring the blind to see
(p. 160).

As a follower of Calvin, I remem-
ber that Calvin said that in prayer
we seek the mind of God. For me
higher Christianity and true philoso-
phy are one and the same thing. In-
deed, since philosophy is the love and
pursuit of truth and wisdom, and
since God is love, truth and wisdom,
it follows that true philosophy and
true religion are identical.

Paul T. Fuhrmann

37

Mani and Manichaeism, by
George Widengren. Translated by
Charles Kessler: Holt, Rinehart
and Winston. 168 pp. $6.00.

Born in Mesopotamia in 216 A.D.,
Mani experienced a heavenly revela-
tion in which the Living Paraclete
disclosed to him a mystery of Good
and Evil. Mani preached his Gnostic
gospel in the East and there died a
martyr's death. His new religion was
once wide spread.

Dr. Widengren, professor at the
University of Uppsala, does not seem
to raise the question, but some his-
torians suspect that St. Augustine,
who had been once attracted by Mani-
chaeism, quite unwittingly introduced
Manichaean moods and ideas into the
Church. To make matters worse, in
suppressng the Cathari, the Church
unconsciously fell victim to a further
dose of Manichaeism. Were some
gloomy and sad Puritans half Mani-
chaean? When a "Christian" is
scared, is not his fear a belief in two
universal powers instead of One?
When "Christians" are today trembling
in their shoes, are they not believing
that an evil power other than God
may after all prevail?

Paul T. Fuhrmann

The Early Christian Church, by
J. G. Davies: Holt, Rinehart and
Winston. 314 pp. $8.50.

The author's presentation is chrono-
logical rather than topical. The result
is that students are able to keep in
focus those events in the life and
thought of the church which are
necessarily interrelated and contem-
poraneous.

The great merit of this present work
is its comprehensiveness. It is difficult
to think of any other work which, in
the compass of a single volume, covers
so adequately so many different facets
of the life of the church. The author
rightly stresses the importance of the-
ological questions but these theological
questions are set firmly in the wider
context of the developing worship and
witness of the church. Thus, in re-
lation to each succeeding century,
what we are given, with scholarly
expertise, is a vivid picture of the
pagan background, an account of the
extant literary sources, a summary of
the expansion and development of the
church, with descriptive information
about beliefs, worship and social life.

This new volume forms a notable
and impressive addition to the His-
tory of Religion Series edited by E. O.
James.

It is to be hoped that the later
history of the church will be por-
trayed, on a like scale, in subsequent
volumes.

Stuart Barton Babbage

38

SHORTER REVIEWS

The Thought of Teilhard de Chardin:
An Introduction, by Michael H. Mur-
ray: The Seabury Press. 177 pp. $4.95.
The late Teilhard de Chardin, Jesu-
it scientist and theologian, is said to
be the most exciting influence on
younger priests and thinkers in the
Roman Catholic Church. His in-
fluence among Protestants is also con-
siderable. To understand him, even
in an elementary way, may be entre
to understanding much of the future
development of theology. This book
gives a very readable and clear in-
troduction to him.

Religious Faith and Twentieth-Century
Man, by F. C. Happold: Penguin
Books. 181 pp. $1.25.

Twentieth-century man does not
have to give up his intelligence or his
scientific orientation in order to be
deeply and profoundly religious. This
Pelican paperback explains how a
mystical but realistic approach to
faith can be an alternative to un-
belief. The author challenges much
of our religious thought with this
summary of mysticism: "He who sees
not God everywhere, sees him truly
nowhere."

Ernest Hemingway: A Reconsider-
ation, by Philip Young: The Pennsyl-
vania State University Press. 297 pp.
$5.95.

The author prefaces this highly in-
telligent critical study of Hemingway
with a fascinating account of his cor-
respondence with Hemingway over the
propriety of its publication. Heming-
way was nervously defensive: no man,
he explained, wants to be portrayed
as a "neurotic". It was characteristic
of Hemingway that he finally relented,
giving the author carte blanche.

This study, newly revised, is by far
the most helpful study yet to appear.

Of particular interest is the parallel
that the author traces between the ex-
periences of Huckleberry Finn and
those of Hemingway's first "hero" 1
Nick. And he has a convincing ex-
planation of Hemingway's obsessive
preoccupation with death.

Prayer in Sixteenth Century England,
by Faye L. Kelly: University of Flor-
ida Press. 69 pp. $2.00.

Beginning with an interest in the
prayers, oaths and curses of Shakes-
peare's history plays, the author has
turned to a study of the place of
prayer as reflected in the publications
of Elizabethan England. Her interest
is sociological and literary rather than
theological and devotional. There was,
she suggests, religious literature for
every taste. This is to ignore the fact
of censorship (a matter to which no
reference is made): religious literature
was freely produced provided it was
neither papist nor puritan.

The Night Battle: Essays, by J. M.
Cameron: Helicon Press. 243 pp.
$4.95.

The author describes himself as "a
Catholic of the Left": in these essays
he discusses the paranoia that distorts
the thinking of multitudes today. An
earlier work Scrutiny of Marxism was
justly praised: these essays have the
same admirable quality of incisiveness.

William Faulkner: Art in Theological
Tension, by John W. Hunt: Syracuse
University Press. 184 pp. $5.00.

The author, in this extended discus-
sion of three major novels, finds both
Stoic and Christian concepts in Faulk-
ner's artistic vision. "Stoic courage,"
he explains, "is heroic, while Christian
courage is humble; Stoic endurance
is a human achievement, while Chris-
tian endurance is a gift of forgiving

39

love." He then asks the question: "Do
Faulkner's bedrock virtues of courage,
endurance, pride, and love ultimately
have a Christian or a Stoic reference?"
He concludes "that his religious cen-
ter is essentially Christian humanism
and that the humanistic side of his
Christian religiousness arises from his
Stoicism."

The Search for God, by Robert W.
Gleason. S. J.: Sheed and Ward. 311
pp. $5.00.

Is God absent or just silent? For
increasing numbers of people this is
the alternative, and in this book a
Jesuit professor of theology at Ford-
ham University explores this problem.
In a most stimulating way he probes
and analyzes the question with his-
torical, psychological and theological
insight.

The Measurement of Delinquency,
by Thorsten Sellin and Marvin E.
Wolfgang: John Wiley and Sons. 423
pp. $9.95.

As the title suggests, this book is
concerned with the problem of meas-
uring crime and delinquency. The
authors begin by describing and chal-
lenging accepted methods of measur-
ing criminality and delinquency. Then
they describe their own research and
what they feel to be a more sensitive
method. The problem they attack is
one that needs attacking.

Howel Harris 1714-1773: The Last
Enthusiast, by Geoffrey F. Nuttall:
University of Wales Press. 87 pp.
12s. 6d.

An engaging portrait of one of the
lesser-known leaders of the Evangeli-
cal Revival, who numbered among
his friends George Whitfield in Eng-
land and Jonathan Edwards in Amer-
ica. Of Howel Harris, Whitfield wrote:
"May I follow him, as he does Jesus
Christ! How he outstript me! Fye up-
on me, fye upon me."

Notebooks, 1935-1942, by Albert
Camus. Translated from the French,
and with a Preface and Notes, by
Philip Thody: The Modern Library.
224 pp. $2.45.

In an interview Camus explained
his writing procedure: the accumula-
tion of "notes, scraps of paper, reverie
. . . Then, one day, I have the idea
of conception that makes all those
isolated fragments coagulate together.
There then begins a long and painful
putting them in order." These Note-
books contain themes, experiences, and
ideas, relating to the years 1935 to
1942.

Notebooks, 1942-1950, by Albert
Camus. Translated from the French,
and annotated by Justin O'Brien:
Alfred A. Knopf. 274 pp. $5.00.

We have, in these Notebooks, tenta-
tive drafts of future stories, random
reflections, epigrammatic quotations.
One of the last entries reads: "I used
to long at times for a violent death
a death which excuses one from cry-
ing out at the tearing away of the
soul." His wish was granted when
the oar in which he was being driven
by a friend crashed at 90 m.p.h.

The Fall, and Exile and the Kingdom,
by Albert Camus. Translated from the
French by Justin O'Brien: The Modern
Library. 361 pp. $2.45.

Man, Camus insists, is in exile (the
exile of loneliness and self-isolation)
and he seeks a kingdom in which he
can be at home.

Secular Salvations: Rites and Symbols
of Political Religions, by Ernest B.
Koenker: Fortress Press. 220 pp.

$3.75.

With a wealth of documentation the
author illustrates the way in which,
in this twentieth century, ideologies
tend to be transformed into idolatries.

40

On Graves and Epitaphs, by Kenneth
Lindley: Hutchinson. 171 pp. 50s.

This book (handsomely illustrated
with sketches and photographs) indi-
cates something of the fascination
which is to be found from an examina-
tion of the monuments of a bygone
age. They were, the author points out,
erected not merely to commemorate
but also to warn:

My time is come Next may be thine
Prepare for it whilst thou hast time
And that thou mayst prepared be
Live unto Him who died for thee.
Not the least attractive feature of this
study is its period flavor.

Ezekiel: Prophecy of Hope, by An-
drew W. Blackwood, Jr.: Baker Book
House. 274 pp. $4.50.

The author makes a commendable
effort to explain the prophet's ob-
scure and complex symbolism, and to
find, in the prophet's message, en-
couragement and hope for today. The
following is a characteristic comment
(on Ezekiel 8:12): "They had not
ceased to believe that God exists but,
far worse, they had decided that God
does not care. The sorrows that be-
fell Israel led them to think that God
had forsaken the land, rather than
leading them to wonder if they had
forsaken God."

Robust in Faith: Men from God's
School, by J. Oswald Chambers:
Moody Press. 219 pp. $3.50.

The General Director of the Over-
seas Missionary Fellowship has an
international reputation as a Bible
teacher, and his books are now avail-
able in nine different languages. These
biographical studies of Bible char-
acters are a happy combination of the
expository and the devotional.

An Introduction to Christian Educa-
tion, Edited by Marvin Taylor: Abing-
dom Press. 412 pp. $6.50.

This volume contains thirty-two
chapters dealing with many aspects of

Christian education. There is also a
useful bibliography of recent works
in the field. There is specific help here
for those dealing with youth, young
adults, the public school issue, the
family and our sociocultural setting.
This is a book which should be in
every church library, and many chap-
ters should be read by pastors.

Christian Faith and History, by Thom-
as W. Ogletree: Abingdon Press. 236
pp. $4.00.

The author makes a critical com-
parison of the historicism of Ernest
Troeltsch with the Christological ap-
proach to history of Karl Barth. Pro-
fessor Ogletree finds points of mutual
concern and suggests ways in which
the insights of both men can be useful
in developing a Christian understand-
ing of history.

God and Incarnation in Mid-Nine-
teenth Century German Theology (G.
Thomasius, I. A. Dorner, A. E. Bildcr-
manri) Edited and translated by
Claude Welch: Oxford University
Press. 391 pp. $7.00.

A Library of Protestant Thought,
of which this volume is a part, has as
its purpose to illumine and interpret
the history of the Christian faith in
its Protestant expression by making
available selections from the pens of
significant writers. Professor Welch
has thrown light on a portion of Ger-
man nineteenth century theology
which has generally been neglected.
By drawing from the works of Thom-
asius, Dorner and Biedermann, Welch
is able to focus upon the problem of
the period as well as to illustrate the
interest of the times in history, piety,
true scholarship and religious experi-
ence. These men wrestled creatively
with the question of the being of God
in the historical person of Jesus Christ.
In Thomasius we have a Lutheran
theologian; Dorner represents the
"meditating" thinkers of the time; and

41

Biedermann gives us an illustration of
a bold and rigorous "speculative" the-
ologian.

Claude Welch introduces the book
with a brief but penetrating essay; he
also furnishes us with an introduction
to each of the texts he so ably trans-
lates.

Religious Currents in the Nineteenth
Century, by Vilhelm Gronbech. Trans-
lated from the Danish by P. M.
Mitchell and W. D. Paden: The Uni-
versity of Kansas Press. 201 pp. $4.50.

The nineteenth century was an age
of spirituality and splendor. The
author's life work (as he defined it
in 1922) was "to show how vast the
human being is, and how awesome in
his vastness, and thus to spur on his
contemporaries to reach deeper with-
in themselves for unity."

Personal Religious Disciplines, by
John E. Gardner: William B. Eerd-
mans Publishing Co. 134 pp. $3.00.

The disciplines suggested border on
being pietistic "rules" for self-sancti-
fying human conduct, but frequent
references to the individual's needed
participation in Christ relate these
Christian disciplines to how God wills
man to live.

The Apostolic Fathers: A New Trans-
lation and Commentary. Volume 2:
First and Second Clement, by Robert
M. Grant and Holt H. Graham. 138
pp. $4.00. Volume 3: Barnabas and
the Didache, by Robert A. Kraft:
Thomas Nelson & Sons. 188 pp. $5.00.

What we are given, in this series,
is an able summary of the consensus
of scholarly thought in relation to the
way in which each work attained its
present form: its place of origin, its
authorship, its ethos and purpose, its
theology. The text of each work is
newly translated with appended com-
mentary.

Aristotle's Poetics and English Liter-
ature: A Collection of Critical Essays,
Edited, and with an introduction by
Elder Olson: The University of Chi-
cago Press. 236 pp. $2.45 (Paper-
back).

A collection of important articles,
dating from 1744 to 1965, revealing
how Aristotle has been interpreted
(and misinterpreted) by exegetes and
scholars.

Man's Nature and his Communities:
Essays on the Dynamics and Enigmas
of Man's Personal and Social Ex-
istence, by Reinhold Niebuhr: Charles
Scribner's Sons. 125 pp. $3.95.

In a disarming introduction Niebuhr
confesses that these essays are in-
tended to summarize, and to revise,
previously held opinions. He admits
to an increasing sympathy for the
other two great traditions of western
culture, Judaism and Romanism, and
to an increasing uneasiness in regard
to Protestant individualism and per-
fectionism.

Niebuhr charges that Southern
Christianity has been largely congre-
gational in character and polity, al-
most universally dominated by the
mores and viewpoints of its congrega-
tion. "Thus," he explains, "neither the
congregation, usually under the aegis
of a White Citizens' Council, nor the
traditional emphasis on individual con-
version, could root out social evil of
long standing."

Shakespeare: An Existential View, by
David Horowitz: Hill and Wang. 134
pp. $4.00.

The author's insights (derived from
Buber) helpfully illuminate the work
of Shakespeare.

Worser Days and Better Times, by
J. Mason Brewer: Quadrangle Books.
192 pp. $5.00.

These Negro folk tales, sometimes
grave, sometimes gay, illustrate man's

42

indomitable capacity to redeem the
tragic by the comic.

God and World in Early Christian
Theology, by R. A. Norris, Jr.: Sea-
bury. 177 pp. $4.95.

The author illustrates the way in
which the early Fathers sought to
express the Christian faith in the
thought forms of Greek philosophy.
"Biblical principles and philosophical
terminology did not always march
comfortably in step," he explains, and
as a consequence, the early Fathers
found themselves involved in "a proc-
ess of continual dialectical adjust-
ment." This study suggests something
about the nature of our apologetic
task today.

Athens or Jerusalem? A Study in
Christian Comprehension, by L. A.
Garrard: George Allen and Unwin.
183 pp. 21s.

The author (a former editor of the
Hibbert Journal) believes that the
church today is too exclusively de-
voted to its biblical inheritance. "It is
not easy," he willingly concedes, "to
fix the limits beyond which syncret-
ism must not be allowed to pass."

The Christian Intellectual: Studies in
the Relation of Catholicism to the
Human Sciences, Edited by Samuel
Hazo: Duquesne University Press. 179
pp. $4.50.

The mission of Catholic higher
learning, the editor explains, is "to
synthesize the tradition of human
letters and the Judaeo-Christian tradi-
tion."

himself with the aid of God and
Friday, Gulliver's Travels is a power-
ful rebuttal to such optimism. Swift
answers no, it is not in the nature of
man: his experience will be far other-
wise."

A valuable pioneer study.

Living With Sex: The Student's Dilem-
ma, by Richard F. Hettlinger: Sea-
bury. 185 pp. $4.50.

The author discusses, for a male
readership, some of the inescapable
problems relating to sexual morality
today. The discussion is compassion-
ate and understanding.

Ihe Modem Tradition: Background of
Modern Literature, Edited by Richard
Ellmann and Charles Feidelson, Jr.:
Oxford University Press. 953 pp.
$13.75.

This encyclopaedic volume is con-
cerned with various facets of modern
literature. The concluding section, de-
voted to "Faith", has a series of
descriptive sub-sections: Christianity
and Christendom, Deified Man, Poet-
ized Religion, Paganised Christianity,
The State of Doubt.

This is essentially a reference book.
The authors are to be congratulated
on collecting, within the compass of
one volume, a wealth of diversified
material.

Hamlet and the Eternal Problem of
Man, by Arthur G. Davis: St. John's
University Press. 227 pp. N. P.

A sensitive study of the "soul" of
Hamlet, as a mirror of the soul of
man.

Swift's Use of the Bible: A Docu-
mentation and a Study in Allusion,
by Charles Allen Beaument: Univer-
sity of Georgia Press. 68 pp. $2.50.

"If Defoe felt he was showing how
an average, reasonably good, English
Protestant will survive when cast
adrift in strange lands to fend for

Samuel Johnson: A Collection of
Critical Essays, Edited by Donald J.
Greene: Prentice-Hall, Inc. 185 pp.
$3.95 (Clothbound). $1.95 (Paper-
bound).

The selected articles in this volume
are percipient and informative. Again
and again we are reminded that what

43

is still required is a thorough exam-
ination of Johnson's religious beliefs.
"No one," Herman W. Liebert ob-
serves, "who has read the Prayers and
Meditations can ever doubt the stark
reality of that anguished soul. Di-
vided in spirit but single in his ab-
sorption with man's happiness here
and salvation hereafter, Johnson re-
mains one whose character stimulates
continued analysis, whose moral in-
fluence dynamically persists."

A History of Christian Thought {Vol-
ume 1), by Otto W. Heick: Fortress
Press. 509 pp. $8.75.

The present work is not a work of
original scholarship; it is, nevertheless,
a discerning account of the develop-
ment of theological thought down to
and including the post-Reformation
controversies. The author associates
himself with the judgment of Flaccius
who, in his pioneer work, characterizes
"the period following Leo the Great
as a continuous process of becloud-
ing specifically evangelical doctrines,
with an occasional witness to the truth
incapable of arresting the fatal de-
velopment."

William Temple: Twentieth Century
Christian, by Joseph Fletcher: Sea-
bury Press. 373 pp. $7.50.

Temple, at the height of his powers,
was a towering ecumenical figure;
today, his theology is a thing of the
past. "He who marries the spirit of
the age," Dean Inge sagely observes,
"must expect to find himself widowed
in the next."

Those who knew and admired
Temple (particularly for his social
concern) will be glad to have access
to his thought in this compendious
volume.

The World of Witches, by Julio Caro
Baroja. Translated from the Spanish
by O. N. V. Glendinning: The Univer-
sity of Chicago Press. 313 pp. $6.50.
"There is a dangerous tendency to
accept magic, which needs to be

strongly countered. For a world which
accepts magic is, above all, a world
which accepts slander." The author
illustrates his thesis by a variety of
historical cases, many drawn from
Spain. This book is a sad and dis-
turbing reminder of man's inhumanity
to man.

Essays in Modern English Church
History in Memory of Norman Sykes,
Edited by G. V. Bennett and J. D.
Walsh: Oxford University Press. 227
pp. $5.75.

As the editors say in their preface,
Norman Sykes "was in his day the
most considerable of modern English
church historians." He wielded an in-
fluence on the discipline of historio-
graphy which was as profound as it
is likely to be lasting. The nine essays
in this volume, contributed by univer-
sity teachers who were his friends,
form a fitting tribute to his memory,
and one which would have pleased
him. They will be read with both
pleasure and profit.

Miracles: Yesterday and Today, by
Benjamin B. Warfield: William B.
Eerdmans Publishing Co. 327 pp.
$2.25.

It is nearly fifty years since this
work was first published, under the
title Counterfeit Miracles. Its republi-
cation is welcome both because its
contents were originally delivered as
the Thomas Smyth Lectures in 1917
at Columbia Theological Seminary
(then situated at Columbia, South
Carolina). The chapters deal succes-
sively with the cessation of the charis-
mata, patristic and medieval marvels,
Roman Catholic miracles, Irvingite
gifts, faith-healing, and mind-cure.

Religious Studies, Volume 1. Number
1. October 1965: Cambridge Univer-
sity Press. $5.50. Annual subscription
$9.50.

Finely produced though this new
periodical is, the price is formidable.

44

Its purpose, however, is commendable,
namely, to provide a medium for dis-
cussion of religious questions with
particular reference to contemporary
trends in philosophy, psychology, so-
ciology, and anthropology. By its na-
ture Religious Studies will be of most
value to the student and the specialist.
It has made an auspicious beginning.

A Select Liturgical Lexicon, by J. G.
Davies: John Knox Press. 146 pp.
$1.50.

"Ecumenical Studies in Worship" is
a series designed to keep pastors and
laymen abreast of new developments
and research in the field of worship.

This new volume is a short lexicon
with entries that include terms most
frequently encountered by the student
of liturgy. In some instances only a
simple definition is given; in other
cases a description with a brief his-
tory is provided. Bibliographical ref-
erences are provided for the main
items.

Presbyterian Authority and Discipline,
by John Kennedy: John Knox Press.
118 pp. $1.50.

This volume will help church mem-
bers understand the biblical and the-
ological rootage of authority and disci-
pline, and ways that they can be
exercised in true Presbyterian fashion.

The Future of John Wesley's Method-
ism, by Henry D. Rack: John Knox
Press. 80 pp. $1.75.

This slender volume (one of an
important new series "Ecumenical
Studies in History") is a rich digest
of Methodist origins. Brief but pene-
trating pictures of Wesley and suc-
ceeding leaders show the way this
tradition has grappled with changing
times.

The Unsilent South: Prophetic Preach-
ing in Racial Crisis, Edited by Don-
ald W. Shriver, Jr.: John Knox Press.
169 pp. $2.25.

This is a volume of sermons by
Presbyterian, U. S. ministers. Each
sermon was preached in a tense local
racial situation when many arguments
could have been made for being silent.
Some of the congregations refused to
tolerate this kind of preaching and
the preacher had to "move on."

Every minister in the South has
to debate "the wisdom" of preaching
a sermon such as these represent. In
every situation certainly more than
courage is called for, but God be
merciful to us if we try to pass off
a failure of nerve as wisdom!

Most of all, we looked to see if, in
these sermons, pastoral concern was
as prominent as prophetic courage: in
most instances we were sure that it
was.

Martin Luther: Creative Translator,
by Heinz Bluhm: Concordia 236
pp. $8.00.

German Bibles Before Luther, by
Kenneth A. Strand: William B. Eerd-
mans Publishing Co. 64 pp. $4.00.

Luther's German Bible is a genuine
masterpiece reflecting the native geni-
us of the Reformer himself and his
splendidly dynamic view of Scripture.
In this book of unusual interest Dr.
Bluhm's method is that of examina-
tion and analysis of selected passages
as illustrative both of Luther's devel-
opment as a translator and of his in-
fluence on the shaping of the English
Bible.

Dr. Strand tells the story of fourteen
High German editions of the Bible
prior to the appearance of Luther's
version. It is a scholarly well docu-
mented monograph.

45

Witches' Sabbath, by Maurice Sacks.
Translated from the French by Rich-
ard Howard: Stein and Day. 315 pp.
$7.50.

This is a work of unusual literary
distinction, with passages of lyric
beauty and descriptive power. The
author tells the sordid story of his
life: born a Jew he became a Roman
Catholic (under the influence of
Jacques Maritain); subsequently, in
America, he became a nominal Pres-
byterian when he married the daughter
of a former Moderator.

There is bitter poignancy in a con-
cluding entry: "I no longer want to
be great, or famous, or perfect Oh
Candor! but I want to go where I
can be, in obscurity, a man who
doesn't disgust himself."

Speaker's Resources from Contemp-
orary Literature, Edited by Charles L.
Wallis: Harper and Row. 282 pp.
$4.95.

This collection has a depressing pre-
ponderance of extracts from the writ-
ers of so-called "religious" fiction.

Plato On Immortality, by Robert Leet
Patterson: The Pennsylvania State
University Press. 141 pp. $4.50.

This extended essay is a careful ex-
position of Plato's arguments for the
immortality of the soul. We are com-
pelled, Plato points out, to sail the
seas of darkness and doubt on the
frail "raft" of reason, "not without
risk ... if a man cannot find some
word of God which will more surely
and safely carry him."

Tennessee Williams and Friends: An
Informal Biography, by Gilbert Max-
well. The World Publishing Co. 333
pp. $5.95.

Those who enjoy inconsequential
anecdotes and gossipy chitchat will
delight in this book. Written by Ten-
nessee Williams' longtime friend and
fellow writer, it provides a feeling

account of the vicissitudes and frus-
trations of authorship.

Mental Health and The Bible, by
Carroll A. Wise: Harper & Row. 168
pp. $1.45.

Written by an authority in the mat-
ter, this book relates the insights of
the Bible to the recent findings of
depth-psychology and medicine. Let us
hope that this book will help us to
see the morbid elements found in
certain local and tribal "religions"
and lead us to a wholesome Christian-
ity which practices forgiveness and
love.

The Showing Forth of Christ: Sermons
of John Donne, Edited by Edmund
Fuller: Harper and Row. 230 pp.
$5.00.

This volume is a collection of six-
teen sermons representative of the
important themes on which Donne
based his sermons. Amazingly modern,
they reflect his genius as a literary
craftsman and his faithfulness as a
biblical preacher. Most compelling is
his style, so rich in striking figures of
speech with images forged from fields
of medicine and law, cosmology and
agriculture, travel and commerce.
"They are not sermons for one cen-
tury, but for all centuries."

Christ and the New Humanity, by
C. H. Dodd: Fortress. 35 pp. 75c.

A reprint (in the "Social Ethics
Series") of the Burge Memorial Lec-
ture, "Christianity and the Reconcilia-
tion of the Nations" (1951). and the
William Ainslie Memorial Lecture.
"The Gospel and the Law of Christ"
(1946).

What Christians Stand For In the
Secular World, by William Temple:
Fortress. 35 pp. 75c.

Originally written for The Christian
Newsletter, the late Archbishop's dis-

46

cussion has more than historical in-
terest. If anything, it is even more
contemporary and significant today
than it was twenty years ago.

Legal Responsibility and Moral Re-
sponsibility, by Walter Moberly: For-
tress. 55 pp. 75c.

In the Riddell Lectures of 1951 Sir
Walter Moberly explores the implica-
tions of treating the criminal as a
sick man rather than a sinner. In this
penetrating and humane study the
author analyzes the juridical, the psy-
chiatric and the Christian attitudes to
crime.

A Private and Public Faith, by Wil-
liam Stringfellow: William B. Eerd-
mans Publishing Co. 99 pp. $1.45.

An acerbic attack on the role of
the church in the life of America
today. "The clergy have been invited
to decorate public life, but restrained
from intervening significantly in it.
They have been relegated to the literal
periphery the invocations and the
benedictions of secular affairs." First
published in 1962.

Protestantism and Progress: A Histori-
cal Study of the Relation of Prot-
estantism to the Modern World, by
Ernst Troeltsch. Translated by W.
Montgomery: Beacon. 210 pp. $1.45.

Students will be grateful for a new
edition of this classic work first pub-
lished in 1912 by the eminent his-
torian of religious ideas.

A History of the Warfare of Science
with Theology in Christendom, by
Andrew Dickson White: Dover. Vol.
ume I 415 pp. Volume II 474 pp.
$2.00 each.

These volumes recall the unhappy,
and sometimes unedifying, story of
"old unhappy far-off things/And bat-
tles long ago." Written by one of
the founders of Cornell University
and later its President, these volumes

(which first appeared in 1896) are
still a fascinating mine of recondite
information.

History of Dogma, by Adolph Har-
nack. Translated from the third Ger-
man Edition by Neil Buchanan. Seven
volumes bound as Four. Volume I 362
pp. $2.50. Volumes II and III 380 pp.
and 336 pp. $2.75. Volumes IV and

V 353 pp. and 331 pp. $2.75. Volumes

VI and VII 317 pp. and 328 pp. $2.50.
Harnack was, by general consent,

the outstanding patristic scholar of
his generation. Theologically a Ritsch-
lian, Harnack regarded metaphysics
as an alien intrusion into Christian
theology from Greek sources. These
volumes are works of epic scholar-
ship.

The Diaries of Franz Kafka 1910-
1913, Edited by Max Brod: Schocken.
345 pp. $1.95. The Diaries of Franz
Kafka 1914-1923, Edited by Max
Brod: Schocken. 343 pp. $1.95.

It is an incontrovertible fact that,
with the passage of the years, Kafka's
works gain in compelling urgency.
Here we see something of his extra-
ordinary powers of introspective self-
analysis.

Franz Kafka Today, Edited by Angel
Flores and Homer Swander: The Uni-
versity of Wisconsin Press. 290 pp.
$1.95.

This is the third reprinting of a
work first published in 1958. The
last word on Kafka has not yet been
spoken, but these selected contribu-
tions indicate something of the quality
of the work that is being done.

The Renaissance: A Reconsideration
of the Theories and Interpretations of
the Age, Edited by Tinsley Helton:
The University of Wisconsin Press.
160 pp. $1.65.

These lectures were occasioned by
the centenary of Jacob Burckhardt's

47

The Civilization of the Renaissance in
Italy (1860). A distinguished panel of
scholars seek to examine the validity
of Burckhard's thesis that "the Renais-
sance, through its anti-Christian, anti-
authoritarian, and highly individual-
istic and experimental spirit, repre-
sented a distinct and abrupt break
with the Middle Ages and ushered in
the modern world."

On History and Historians, by Jacob
Burckhardt. Translated by Harry
Zohn, with an introduction by H. R.
Trevor-Roper: Harper and Row. 280
pp. $1.60.

Burckhardt refused to believe in
the doctrine of infinite progress: it
seemed to him unwarranted, im-
mature, half-baked: not an idea, but
a parrot cry. "I know too much his-
tory," he repeated, "to expect any-
thing from the despotism of the
masses but a future tyranny." These
disjointed, but characteristically opin-
ionated, lecture notes were first pub-
lished in English in 1958 under the
title of Judgments on History and
Historians.

The Epic of Russian Literature from
its Origins through Tolstoy, by Marc
Slonim: Oxford University Press. 369
pp. $2.25.

Originally published in 1950 as the
first volume of a trilogy, and subse-
quently corrected and revised, this
work sets the Russian writers firmly
in the context of their time. The
author tells us that he has sought to
be both historian and critic. He has
admirably fulfilled his self-appointed
goals.

Spiritual Values in Shakespeare, by
Frnest Marshall Howse: Abingdon.
158 pp. $1.25.

This book illustrates graphically
the way in which it is possible to
use Shakespeare for homiletic pur-
poses. Originally delivered as sermons

to student audiences, these addresses
were first published in 1955.

War In Heaven, by Charles Williams:
William B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.
Paperback, $1.95. Descent Into Hell,
by Charles Williams: William B.
Eerdmans Publishing Co. Paperback.
$1.95.

Charles Williams, in attempting to
chart the unknown world of the soul
of man in these two "novels", voyages
into an esoteric sea of imagination,
his own.

The Descent of the Dove: A Short
History of the Holy Spirit in the
Church, by Charles Williams: William
B. Eerdmans Publishing Co. 245 pp.
$1.95.

Williams' refreshing insights and
novel vocabulary bring spice to church
history and invite fresh reflection on
the "Order of Coinherence" which
is the open secret of Christianity.

Christianity and the Problem of His-
tory, by Roger Lincoln Shinn: The
Bethany Press. 302 pp. $1.95.

A masterly analysis of Christian
answers to the problem of history.
First published in 1953.

The History of the Church from
Christ to Constantine, by Eusebius.
Translated, with an introduction, by
G. A. Williamson: Penguin Books.
429 pp. $1.95.

An indispensible work of reference
for every serious student of church
history.

The Soul of Prayer, by P. T. Forsyth:
William B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.
92 pp. $1.45. The Cruciality of the
Cross, by P. T. Forsyth: William B.
Eerdmans Publishing Co. 104 pp.
$1.45.

Reprints of books which were pub-
lished in 1909 and 1916, respectively,
and which are as timely and as
trenchant today as they were then.

48

The Golden Sequence: A Fourfold
Study of the Spiritual Life, by Evelyn
Underhill: Harper and Brothers. 193
pp. $1.25.

A study of the spiritual life based
on the words of the ancient hymn,
Veni, Sancte Spiritus. "It represents,"
she explains, "the precipitation of my
own thoughts, as they have moved to
and fro . . . along a line which has
the spiritual doctrine of St. John of
the Cross at one end, and the philoso-
phy of Professor Whitehead at the
other."

Shakespeare's Tragic Frontier, by Wil-
liam Farnham: University of Califor-
nia Press. 288 pp. $1.95.

The author discusses the fatal flaw
which, in Shakespeare's tragic heroes,
overwhelms the protagonist in dis-
aster. Each chapter represents a pro-
found and compassionate analysis of
character.

The Person and Place of Jesus Christ,
by P. T. Forsyth: William B. Eerd-
mans Publishing Co. 357 pp. $2.25.

This profound work is still a power-
ful antidote to all humanistic re-
interpretations.

From Tradition to Gospel, by Martin
Dibelius: Charles Scribner's Sons. 311
pp. $1.65.

A pioneer work in the field of
form criticism.

Love Declared: Essays on the Myths
of Love, by Denis de Rougemont:
Beacon Press. 235 pp. $1.75.

Eros and Agape symbolize, the
author says, divergent patterns of life.
Eros is adulterous passion, subversive
to marriage, in love with love rather
than the beloved, forever sad, suicidal
and unsatisfied. By contrast, Agape is
Christian love. Eros is a love of death;
Agape is a living communion. The
concept of Agape originates with the

New Testament; that of Eros with
the medieval legend of Tristan and
Iseult.

Camus: Revised Edition, by Germaine
Bree: Harcourt, Brace and World.
280 pp. $2.25.

Germaine Bree, in this revised edi-
tion of her former book, provides a
factual and informative account of
Camus' literary achievement.

The Thought and Art of Albert
Camus, by Thomas Hanna: Henry
Regnery Co. 264 pp. $1.25.

The author, who took his doctorate
at the Chicago Divinity School, at-
tempts, in this illuminating study, a
theological interpetation of Camus.

Life in Christ Jesus: Reflections on
Romans 5-8, by John Knox: Seabury.
128 pp. $1.25.

The author is concerned that Chris-
tians should possess their possessions.
"We have been forgiven; let us accept
our forgiveness. Peace has been won
for us; let us rest in it and enjoy it.
Let us have peace."

The Stammering Century, by Gilbert
Seldes: Harper and Row. 414 pp.
$2.45.

This book is an effort to interpret
nineteenth century America in terms
of minor movements, cults, manias,
fads, sects and religious excitement.
The book ably conveys the temper and
spirit of the age.

Ulrich von Hutten and the German
Reformation, by Hajo Holburn. Trans-
lated by Roland H. Bainton: Harper
and Row. 209 pp. $1.60.

Although by training and instinct
a humanist and a poet, von Hutten
proved a doughty and resourceful con-
troversialist. A man of judgment, he
finally broke with Erasmus and
sought refuge with Zwingli.

49

A Reformation Debate: Sadoleto's
Letter to the Genevans and Calvin's
Reply, Edited, with an introduction,
by John C. Olin: Harper and Row.
136 pp. $1.25.

The text of the classic debate be-
tween Cardinal Sadoleto and the
Genevan Reformer, together with a
helpful theological and historical in-
troduction.

An Intellectual and Cultural History
of the Western World, by Harry El-
mer Barnes. Third Revised Edition:
Dover. Volume I {From Earliest
Times Through the Middle Ages);
Volume II {From the Renaissance
Through the Eighteenth Century)-,
Volume III {From the Nineteenth
Century to the Present Day). 1,381
pp. $2.00 each.

The author rightly laments the de-
cline of humane ideals. He sadly com-
ments: "We have not advanced from
where we stood two generations ago
when H. G. Wells correctly described
the human future as a race between
Education and Catastrophe."

The author explains the rise of
Christianity in sociological terms. The
resulting reconstruction, with its em-
phasis upon all things secondary and
its neglect of the one thing needful,
lacks conviction.

Art in the Early Church, by Walter
Lowrie. Second Revised Edition: Har-
per and Row. 229 pp. $2.75.

The late Walter Lowrie had two
great interests: Kierkegaard and early
Christian Art. And he was a pioneer
in both fields. This illustrated volume
(first published in 1947) reveals the
range of his scholarship. A work of
loving piety.

The Bible and Social Ethics, by Hen-
drik Kraemer: Fortress. 38 pp. 75c.

These two lectures, originally given
at the Ecumenical Institute, are here
reprinted in the "Social Ethics Series"

of Facet Books. The veteran the-
ologian of Christian Missions insists
that "the theological task ... of the
present hour is to formulate a new
doctrine of man and a theology of
common life."

The Spirit of Tragedy, by Herbert J.
Mullen Washington Square Press. 362
pp. 75c.

A lively account of the history and
significance of tragedy from the point
of view of an avowed and ardent
humanist.

Chekhov and Other Essays, by Leon
Shestov, with a New Introduction by
Sidney Monas: The University of
Michigan Press. 205 pp. $1.95.

The essay on Chekhov is a brilliant
piece of interpretative analysis (Chek-
hov, the author suggests, was infatu-
ated with death, decay, and hopeless-
ness); the discussion of Dostoievsky
is impressionistic and idiosyncratic.

The Scope of Demythologizing, by
John Macquarrie: Harper and Row.
256 pp. $1.60.

This work is a careful assessment
and evaluation of Bultmann's the-
ology and methodology. Pastors and
laymen who are trying to keep up
with and understand the theological
debates going on in the academic
world will find this a clarifying book.

God Is Not Dead, by Gordon H.
Girod: Baker Book House. 125 pp.
$2.95.

This Reformed pastor accepts and
vigorously proclaims the Calvinistic
or Biblical position in sharp anti-
thesis to other views, and does so in
incisive fashion. He affirms the living
God and the sanctity of His command-
ments. Salvation is of God's grace,
through the imputation of Christ's
righteousness to those brought to faith
by regeneration.

50

Letters of C. S. Lewis, Edited, with
a memoir, by W. H. Lewis: Geoffrey
Bles Ltd. 308 pp. 30s.

These are intensely human letters.
They reveal, better than anything else,
the depth of C. S. Lewis's personal
commitment to Christ. To a Christian
lady he writes: "Though I'm forty
years old, I'm only about twelve as a
Christian, so it would be a maternal
act if you found time sometimes to
mention me in your prayers." On the
question of churchmanship he com-
ments: "To me the real distinction
is not between high and low, but be-
tween religion with a real supernatur-
alism and salvationism on the one
hand, and all watered down and mod-
ernist versions on the other." Concern-
ing the fact that he was being con-
tinually sought for counsel from
persons known and unknown, he ob-
serves: "The reason I am saddled with
many people's troubles is, I think,
that I have no natural curiosity about
private lives and am therefore a good
subject. To anyone who (in that
sense) enjoyed it, it would be a
dangerous poison."

And so one might go on, finding
rich nuggets embedded in the com-
monplace soil of a voluminous cor-
respondence. It was part of Lewis's
greatness that he answered letters
punctiliously (would that we did the
same!) with courtesy and with care.

Movies, Censorship and the Law, by
Ira H. Carmen: The University of
Michigan Press. 339 pp. $7.95.

A careful and intelligent case study
of Supreme Court decisions from 1915
to 1965 relating to the right of free
expression under the Constitution, to-
gether with an examination of censor-
ship procedures in various States and
cities. The author pleads for a system
of regulation and classification as a
substitute for existing censorship pro-
cedures. It is difficult to contradict

the cogency of the author's conclu-
sions.

Thomas More and Erasmus, by E. E.
Reynolds: Fordham University Press.
260 pp. $6.00.

Of Sir Thomas More Erasmus
wrote: "When did nature ever create
a character more gentle, endearing
and happy than that of Thomas
More?", and it was to More that
Erasmus dedicated The Praise of
Folly.

This book is a valuable addition to
the already considerable corpus of
literature relating to More and Eras-
mus. It is not only a sympathetic bio-
graphical study of two men: it is,
above all, the impessive record of an
unclouded and unbroken friendship in
the cause of Christian humanism. If
the portrait of Erasmus is perhaps
idealized, the main outline is clear.
The narrative is helpfully illustrated
by extensive quotations from the let-
ters and writings of both men.

Voices of Despair: Four Motifs in
American Literature, by Edward
Stone: Ohio University Press. 240 pp.
$5.00.

The author discusses the imagery of
American literature in relation to the
use of certain motifs: in the opening
chapter he explores the significance of
animal imagery; in the second, the use
of white as an image of horror and
nothingness; in the third, Edward
Eggeston's progression from faith to
agnosticism; finally, the theme of
despair as it is represented in the
Naturalists' use of the word "nothing-
ness."

This is a book of formidable learn-
ing and massive documentation. The
author, quite properly, quotes ex-
tensively: at times, because of the pro-
fusion of the material, it becomes
difficult to discern the developing
theme.

51

What the author has done, in this
highly original study, is to blaze the
way for further exploration.

The History and Religion of Israel,
by G. W. Anderson: Oxford Univer-
sity Press. 210 pp. $3.75.

Here is an exceedingly compact sur-
vey of Israel's history, the develop-
ment of Hebrew religion, and the in-
troductory notes necessary to an un-
derstanding of the books of the Old
Testament. The volume includes some
illustrations, amazingly detailed in-
dexes, and a four page historical
chart, depending on John Bright's
chronology, which lists the principal
secular sources for the illumination
of the history.

The Restless Quest of Modern Man,
by William Graham Cole: Oxford
University Press. 110 pp. $3.50.

The author invites us to accompany
him in a pilgrimage from "The Age
of Meaninglessness" to life in "The
New Community." The author says
little new, but nevetheless he says it
pleasantly.

Schleiermacher on Christ and Re-
ligion: A New Introduction, by Rich-
ard R. Niebuhr: Charles Scribner's
Sons. 267 pp. $5.95.

"There is no gainsaying that Schlei-
ermacher was a gigantic revolutionary
figure," the author points out, "and
the most influential figure since Cal-
vin." Today, however, there are many
men who "deplore the motives, the
methods, and the results of his revolu-
tionary activities." Niebuhr, in this
magisterial work, suggests that criti-
cism has not always been based on
"an intelligent consideration of the
issues and the first principles in-
volved"; too often it has been "nothing
more than the noise of 'schools' and
parties clashing."

Niebuhr is concerned to insist, in
the first place, that "the study of the

man's mind is eminently worthwhile,
if only because it forces the imagina-
tion out of the provincialism and
parochialism of the present and re-
quires us to think the perennial prob-
lems and affirmations of Christianity
from a standpoint other than that from
which we are accustomed to proceed";
secondly, he compels us to face the
proper relation between theology and
philosophy; thirdly, he connects
preaching and theological thinking.

Of course, Schleiermacher needs to
be read with judicious discrimination.
Niebuhr is not uncritical: Schleier-
macher, he points out, has an exag-
gerated fear of anthropomorphism and
his doctrine of God is inadequate.
Nevertheless, Niebuhr makes it abun-
dantly plain that "whoever reads
Schleiermacher will find himself in-
structed not only in the doctrines of
Christianity but also upon the mean-
ing of Chrst and Christianity for man
as a religious being."

Who is Jesus of Nazareth? Concilium
Volume II, Theology in the Age of
Renewal: Paulist Press. 163 pp. $4.50.

It is incontrovertible that some of
the most creative and exciting the-
ological study is taking place at the
present time within the Roman
Church. This volume is a further
demonstration of this fact. Yves Con-
gar discusses, with luminous clarity,
the significance of recent Christologi-
cal study. Today, we frankly recog-
nize, he writes, "the Reformation as
a radical criticism of a 'naive realism'
practiced in the later Middle Ages,
and an awareness of the personal,
dramatic and paradoxical relationship
between my salvation (created by the
beneficient act of God which is Jesus
Christ) and myself the sinner in whom
the faith, wrought in me by God, has
affected this salvation." There are, of
course, in this symposium, areas of
profound disagreement (e.g. "The
Significance of Christ's Descent into

52

Hell") but also much for which to
thank God and take courage.

The Church and the Liturgy. Concil-
ium Volume 2, Edited by Johannes
Wagner: Paulist Press. 191 pp. $4.50.

The Church Worships. Concilium Vol-
ume 12, Edited by Johannes Wagner
and Helmut Hucke: Paulist Press. 175
pp. $4.50.

These volumes develop and apply
principles stated in the documents of
Vatican Council II. Ways of worship
evolve from concepts of the nature
of the Church and here such concepts
are explored in relation to the people
assembled for worship, church archi-
tecture, music, orders of service. Of
special interest are the reports of
regional experiments with native
music and the excellent essay on
church music by Dr. Hucke in the
second volume.

Sexual Inversion: The Multiple Roots
of Homosexuality, Edited by Judd
Marmor: Basic Books, Inc. 358 pp.
$8.50.

"Although innumerable explana-
tions can be found in psychiatric and
psychological literature for the origins
of specific cases of homosexuality,"
the Editor explains, "there is as yet
no single constellation of factors that
can adequately explain all homosexual
deviations." This symposium provides
a wealth of factual up-to-date infor-
mation, both clinical and statistical.
It is the opinion of the psychoanalysts
(with one exception) "that homosex-
uality is definitely an illness, to be
treated and corrected." A valuable
book of reference.

Paul Tillich, by J. Heywood Thomas:
John Knox Press. 48 pp. $1.00.

This title inaugurates a new series
entitled, "Makers of Contemporary
Theology." The author judiciously ob-
serves: "Paul Tillich is a difficult the-

ologian, but he repays critical reading.
If some of the popularity he has re-
cently gained has been due to the
rash employment of some of his more
obscure ideas it is to be hoped that
a fuller and more informed under-
standing of his thought will issue in
clearer and richer theology."

Rudolf Bultmann, by Ian Henderson:
John Knox Press. 47 pp. $1.00.

A warmly appreciative, but not un-
discriminating, account of the life and
thought of Bultmann. The author
quotes Barth's penetrating observation
that Bultmann has reduced christology
to soteriology. A helpful introduction.

The Beginning of Christianity: Part h'
The Acts of the Apostles. Volume IV,
Edited by F. J. Foakes- Jackson and
Kirsopp Lake: Baker Book House. 420
pp. $7.95.

What we have, in this volume, is
an English translation and commen-
tary on the Acts by Kirsopp Lake and
Henry J. Cadbury. It is an established
classic (first published in 1932): a
product of encyclopaedic learning, ex-
haustive research, and meticulous
scholarship.

The Drama of Comedy: Victim and
Victor, by Melvin Vos: John Knox
Press. 125 pp. $1.95.

The author's thesis is "that the
structure of dramatic comedy and the
structure of Christ's passionate action
bear an analogical relation to each
other and that a study of these two
orderings of experience may deepen
our perception at once of the essential
meaning of comedy and of the Chris-
tian account of human experience."
The author's interpretation of comedy
is intriguing: he illustrates his thesis
by detailed reference to Wilder, Iones-
co and Fry. A challenging pioneer
study.

53

The Sins of the Fathers: Hawthorne's
Psychological Themes, by Frederick C.
Crews: Oxford University Press. 279
pp. $6.75.

The author joins issue with those
who see Hawthorne as primarily a
dispenser of moral advice. His writing
was, he suggests, the product of psy-
chological necessity, not of conscious
virtue. Hawthorne, with Freudian in-
sight, admitted: "Truth often finds
its way to the mind close muffled in
robes of sleep, and then speaks with
uncompromising directness of matters
in regard to which we practice an
unconscious self-deception during our
waking moments." His outward life
was exemplary, but his inner life, the
author argues with cogency and pow-
er, was twisted and tormented. "We
must," he says compassionately, "ad-
mire the art and separately regret the
life."

Successful Calamity: A Writer's Fol-
lies on a Vermont Farm, by Edmund
Fuller: Random House. 239 pp. $4.95.

Some years ago Edmund Fuller
angrily attacked "glandular writing"
in a book entitled, Man in Modern
Fiction. This present book is very
different: it is an autobiographical
account of the author's migration from
the hazards of city life to the very
different hazards of life on a Vermont
farm. Light reading.

Shakespeare and the Comedy of For-
giveness, by Robert Grams Hunter:
Columbia University Press. 272 pp.
$7.50.

The forgiveness of sins is a central
concern in the religious drama of the
Middle Ages. The paramount ques-
tion, the author insists, is that of
God's forgiveness of sinful humanity.
In Shakespearean comedy the basic
pattern is perpetuated: an action in
which a central figure sins, repents
and is forgiven. "Within these plays,"
the author writes, "as within the

nature of God, are forces which de-
mand justice and forces which plead
for mercy, and it is the reconciliation
in forgiveness of these forces that
permits the comedies to end happily.
Furthermore, that forgiveness, like
God's, is freely given by the offended
party and it is merited, as it is in the
miracle and morality plays, by con-
trition." A study of luminous depth.

Three Modes of Modern Fiction:
Ellen Glasgow, William Faulkner,
Thomas Wolfe, by C. Hugh Holman:
University of Georgia Press. 99 pp.
$3.00.

The three writers chosen are dis-
cussed as representatives of three dif-
ferent regions of the South. All, how-
ever, share "a sense of evil, a pes-
simism about man's potential, a tragic
sense of life, a deep-seated root of
the interplay of past and present . . ."
Nevertheless, there are differences of
emphasis and interpretation: Miss
Glasgow is a realist and her approach
is ironic; Faulkner is a romanticist
and his approach is symoblic and
mythic; Wolfe is an epic lyricist and
his view is satiric. The discussion is
scholarly and suggestive.

The Reformation In Essex to the
Death of Mary, by J. E. Oxley: Man-
chester University Press. 320 pp.
$8.00.

Documentary records for Essex are
particularly abundant, and it is these
records which the author has used to
good effect in his careful account of
the sequence of events in this part of
England. He shows that Lollardy was
a continuing tradition, and that it was
among the Lollards that the move-
ment for reform first began. The
author concludes his account with a
description of the Marian reaction in
a chapter entitled, "Fire and Faggot."
This is a meticulously documented
survey, and a valuable contribution
to our understanding of the English
Reformation.

54

On the Boundary: An Autobiographi-
cal Sketch, by Paul Tillich: Charles
Scribner's Sons. 104 pp. $3.95.

"The age-old experience of man-
kind," Tillich writes feelingly, "that
new knowledge can be won only by
breaking a taboo and that all autono-
mous thinking is accompanied by a
consciousness of guilt, is a fundamen-
tal experience of my own life." In this
engaging exposition Tillich discusses
the dominant motifs of his thought
against the background of his youthful
training in Lutheran pietism.

Christianity and the Encounter of the
World Religions, by Paul Tillich:
Columbia University Press. 97 pp.
$1.25 (Paperback).

In relation to the religions of the
world, what is required, Tillich
argues, is "not conversion, but dia-
logue." "It would be a tremendous
step forward," he suggests, "if Chris-
tianity were to accept this." What he
seeks to oppose is "particularity." It
would be a mistake to ignore the fact
that Tillich's philosophy is synthetic
if not syncretistic.

Readings in Christian Thought, Edited
by Hugh T. Kerr: Abingdon Press.
382 pp. $7.95.

This selection ranges all the way
from Justin Martyr to Pope John
XXIII. The author's selection is cath-
olic and discriminating. He divides his
material into five main periods ("Or-
thodoxy and Heresy in the Early
Church" to "The Contemporary
Quest"), and provides selected pas-
sages from representative writers in
each period. A biographical sketch
precedes the work of each writer.
Calvin is represented by seven extracts
taken from the Tracts, the Commen-
taries and the Institutes.

It would be difficult to improve on
this splendid selection which is cal-
culated to meet a real need. The
volume is handsomely produced.

Milton and the Modern Critics, by
Robert Martin Adams: Cornell Uni-
versity Press. 231 pp. $1.95.

The author's object has been to cut
through the jungle of critical inter-
pretation (Jungian, Freudian, Rab-
binic, etc.) to rediscover the un-
corrupted Milton. This vigorous, un-
abashed, polemical book was first
published in 1955.

From the Renaissance to the Counter-
Reformation. Essays in Honor of Gar-
rett Mattingly, Edited by Charles H.
Carter: Random House. 437 pp. $7.95.

Garrett Mattingly of Columbia Uni-
versity died in 1962. He was a gifted
writer and an accomplished scholar.
In this volume an international band
of scholars has joined hands to honor
his memory. The essays, related to the
field of his special interest, are a fit-
ting tribute. Christopher Hill con-
tributes an important paper on the
role of the people ("the many-headed
monster") in seventeenth century Eng-
land.

The Social Gospel in America 1870-
1920, Edited by Robert T. Handy:
Oxford University Press. 399 pp.
$7.00.

"The story of the rise, spread, in-
fluence, and decline of the social
gospel in America is one of the most
distinctive and fascinating chapters in
the history of Protestant social con-
cern." The Christian social movement
in the United States, the Editor con-
tinues, was fundamentally indigenous.
It flowered, he points out, at a mo-
ment when many middle class Ameri-
cans were exhibiting an unusual de-
gree of moral idealism and exuberant
optimism and were ready to respond
to pleas for social reform. But the
movement never recovered from the
general disillusionment consequent up-
on World War I.

This volume contains extensive quo-
tations from Washington Gladden

55

("the father of the social gospel"),
Richard T. Ley, and Walter Rauschen-
busch. "A study of representative se-
lections from the voluminous writings
of these three men," the Editor rightly
suggests, "can be a very profitable
approach to the theology, the ethics,
and the program of an important
movement in the history of Protestant
thought."

Lux in Lumine: Essays in Honor of W.
Norman Pittenger, Edited by R. A.
Norris, Jr.: The Seabury Press, 186
pp. $4.50.

These essays were written to honor
Norman Pittenger on the completion
of thirty years teaching at General
Theological Seminary, New York.
The Editor describes the book as "a
token payment of an immense collec-
tive debt." Prominent among the dis-
tinguished contributors are the names
of John Knox and Joseph Fletcher.
A bibliography of Pittenger's volumin-
ous works and articles is appended.

The Disappearance of God: Five
Nineteenth-Century Writers, by J. Hil-
lis Miller: Schocken. 367 pp. $2.45.

The disappearance of God in the
nineteenth century, the author argues,
paved the way for the death of God
in the twentieth. In a series of brilliant
literary analyses the author traces this
process. "I have chosen," he explains,
"to approach five writers from a the-
ological perspective because in De-
Quincey, Browning, Emily Bronte,
Arnold, and Hopkins, theological ex-
perience is most important and de-
termines everything else." This is a
work of exceptional penetration and
power.

Deliverance to the Captives, by Karl
Barth: Harper & Row. 160 pp. $3.00.

These sermons were delivered main-
ly to the inmates of a Swiss prison.
John Marsh, in a felicitous preface,
writes: "Barth knows that when he

preaches to prisoners he is but preach-
ing to himself, to them and to himself
as dying sinners and yet as men re-
deemed from death by the gracious
act of God." These faithful, simple,
expository sermons are wonderfully
addressed to the heart as well as the
head.

Mind and Heart: Studies in Christian
Truth and Experience, by Ronald A.
Ward: Baker Book House. 144 pp.
$3.95.

Ronald Ward is a scholar with a
warm evangelic faith. In these ad-
dresses he discusses helpfully and
practically the great doctrines of the
faith.

Shaw in his Time, by Ivor Brown:
Nelson. 212 pp. $6.00.

Ivor Brown's concern is to set Ber-
nard Shaw firmly in the context of
his time. He admirably succeeds in
his task. "Once," he relates, "Shaw
was horrified to find himself on an
anti-vivisection platform surrounded
by wealthy women wearing the furs of
trapped animals and plumage of
slaughtered birds. He could not share
a humanitarian spirit so limited in
scope." One chapter is devoted to
"Things Believed."

The Poetry of Michelangelo, by Rob-
ert J. Clements: New York University
Press. 368 pp. $10.00 (Cloth). $3.95
(Paperback).

Michelangelo's painting, sculpture
and architectural monuments have
long been objects of universal admir-
ation, but only after a period of com-
parative obscurity is his poetry re-
ceiving the attention, and admiration,
it deserves.

The religious poems are the expres-
sion of a pure and fervent faith.
Michelangelo, who could make of
verse a kind of anxious prayer, im-
precation, or monologue to God as the
Saviour, belongs to the ranks of the

56

baroque poets. The author testifies:
"He appeals to Christ to strengthen
his faith and tear away the icy veil
of doubt, he prays to be spared from
the Saviour's upraised and wrathful
arm, at the Last Judgment to receive
assurance of salvation these appeals
constitute some of the finest pages of
religious verse ever written." Just be-
fore his death he penned these poig-
nant lines:

Painting and sculpture satisfy no
more

The Soul now turning to the Love
Divine,

That oped, to embrace us, on the
cross its arms.

Light from the Ancient East: The
New Testament Illustrated by Re-
cently Discovered Texts of the Graeco-
Roman World, by Adolf Deissmann,
Translated by Lionel R. M. Strachan:
Baker Book House. 535 pp. $7.95.

Baker House are to be congratulated
on The Limited Edition Library, the
purpose of which is to reprint editions
of scholarly works now rare or un-
obtainable. Deissmann's celebrated
work has long been in this category.
First published in German in 1910,
it was extensively revised and trans-
lated by Lionel Strachan while in-
terned as an enemy alien. Deissmann
was a pioneer in biblical philology,
utilizing, for this purpose, the wealth
of newly discovered papyri and ostraca
rapidly coming to light.

This erudite work is still topical,
supplying an abundance of fascinat-
ing detail.

The Burned-Over District: The Social
and Intellectual History of Enthusi-
astic Religion in Western New York
1800-1850, by Whitney R. Cross:
Harper & Row. 383 pp. $2.45.

First published in 1950 by Cornell
University Press this work is a defi-
nitive study of some of the bizarre
expressions of early nineteenth century
revivalism.

The Reformation Crisis, Edited by
Joel Hurstfield: Harper & Row. 126
pp. $1.25.

Originating in a series of talks over
the BBC, this symposium numbers
among its contributors such eminent
authorities as Gordon Rupp and A. G.
Dickens. What we are given, in cap-
sulated form, is a lively and authorita-
tive introduction to various aspects
of the Reformation.

In the Footsteps of Martin Luther,
by M. A. Kleeberg and Gerhard
Lemme: Concordia Publishing House.
223 pp. $3.95.

This pictorial history provides a
lively account of the great Reformer.
By means of photographs, woodcuts
and sketches it illuminates the major
events in Luther's life and career.
Excellent value.

The Life of Jesus for Everyman, by
William Barclay: Harper & Row. 96
pp. 95c.

The chapters of this book were
given over television for the Scottish
BBC. The addresses are deceptively
simple: William Barclay wears his
learning lightly. It is a deft, polished
performance; at points one could wish
for greater attention to the theological
issues involved.

Psychotherapy and the Christian Mes-
sage, by Albert C. Outler: Harper &
Row. 286 pp. $1.75.

A welcome reprint of a pioneer
study.

The Diary of Michael Wiggle sworth.
1653-1657: The Conscience of a Puri-
tan, Edited by Edmund S. Morgan:
Harper & Row. 125 pp. $1.25.

An austere puritan document dating
from the earliest years of New Eng-
land. Invaluable for students and his-
torians.

57

Liberty and Reformation in the Puri-
tan Revolution, by William Haller:
Columbia University Press. 410 pp.

$2.45.

A worthy successor to the author's
brilliant study The Rise of Puritanism,
this work (first published in 1955)
was soon recognized as a definitive
study. It will not scon be superseded.

Thomas Carlyle: On H?roes, Hero-
Worship and the Heroic in History,
Edited, with an introduction, by Carl
Niemeyer: University of Nebraska
Press. 255 pp. $1.75.

"No one better than Carlyle epit-
omizes the nineteenth century," the
Editor writes, "with its moral fervour,
its courage, its blindness to the future,
its mingled complacency and dissatis-
faction with the present, and its de-
votion to strange causes."

History, Carlyle affirms, is the bi-
ography of great men. The difficulty
about this concept is its lack of defini-
tion: that is why the doctrine of the
hero easily degenerates into the doc-
trine of the drillmaster. As a guide,
Niemeyer suggests, Carlyle is unsafe;
as an exhorter, he is unsurpassed.

Gnosticism and Early Christianity.
Revised edition, by Robert M. Grant:
Harper & Row. 241 pp. $1.75.

The author has added to his earlier
study (published by Columbia Uni-
versity Press in 1959), an additional
chapter: "Beyond Judaism and Chris-
tianity: The Gospels of Thomas,
Philip, and Mary," for this new edi-
tion in Harper Torchbooks. This
authoritative study, on a complex sub-
ject, is welcome. Dr. Grant's thesis
is that Gnosticism was the result of
a reaction to the failure of Jewish
apocalypticism with the Fall of Jeru-
salem in A. D. 70.

A Serious Call to a Devout and Holy
Life, by William Law. Introduction by
G. W. Bromiley: William B. Eerd-
mans Publishing Company. 313 pp.
$1.95 (Paperback).

This spiritual classic played a sig-
nificant role in the conversion of
Samuel Johnson, who called it the
"finest piece of hortatory theology in
any language," and in the life of
John Wesley, who was led by it to
an "explicit resolve to be all devoted
to God." The Editor of the present
edition testifies: "Here is a work
which, by the sheer power of inde-
pendent greatness, bears eloquent tes-
timony to the influence of the written
word and the efficacy of spiritual
operation."

Pascal: Pensees, Translated, with an
introduction by A. J. Krailsheimer:
Pengiun Books. 359 pp. $1.65.

This is an edition of the Pensees
as they were left by Pascal at the
time of his death in 1662. It was
Pascal's pious ambition to write a
great work of Christian apologetics:
what we have here, in draft form, are
Pascal's initial notes and reflections.
The pattern of Pascal's thought, as
the Editor rightly explains, "is the
stark contrast between man in his
state of fallen nature and in a state
of grace."

The Editor's introduction, as well
as the translation itself, from the point
of view of scholarly excellence, is all
that could be desired.

Jonathan Edwards: Freedom of the
Will, Edited by Paul Ramsey: Yale
University Press. 494 pp. $7.50
(Cloth). $2.95 (Paperback).

Paul Ramsey, in an impressive pref-
ace, describes Jonathan Edwards "as
the greatest philosopher-theologian yet
to grace the American scene." Into
this work, he says, Edwards "poured
all his intellectual acumen, coupled
with a passionate conviction that the

58

decay to be observed in religion and
morals followed the decline in doctrine
since the founding of New England."
What we are given, in this historic
study, is a persuasive presentation of
classic Calvinism.

The Vision of God: The Christian
Doctrine of the Sum mum Bonum, by
K. E. Kirk: Harper & Row. 582 pp.
$2.95.

This unabridged reprint of Kenneth
Kirk's celebrated Bampton Lectures is
to be warmly welcomed. This book
deservedly ranks as a classic: no other
work explores, with a like thorough-
ness, the vexed problems of rigorism
and formalism in the life of the church
down the ages.

Foxe's Book of Martyrs, Edited and
abridged by G. A. Williamson: Little,
Brown and Company. 476 pp. $7.50.

For generations Foxe's Book of
Martyrs occupied a place of honor
alongside of the Bible in the homes
of English Protestants. Long regarded
as a monument of Protestant hagiog-
raphy, its worth as a mine of accurate
and reliable historical detail is being
increasingly recognized. Nevertheless,
it is true to say that, as a book, it is
better known than read. The most re-
cent edition was published over a
century ago: the Victorian edition con-
sisted of eight bulky volumes. (The
original work contained over four mil-
lion words.) G. A. Williamson has
achieved a skillful task of condensa-
tion: and he has also supplied a valu-
able explanatory introduction which is
a model of scholarly competence.

Luther's Works: Volume 41: Church
and Ministry HI, Edited by Eric W.
Gritsch, with an introduction by E.
Gordon Rupp: Fortress Press. 412 pp.
$6.00.

Fortress Press and Concordia are
sharing in the joint publication of
a monumental edition of Luther's

major works in fifty-five volumes. It
is a publishing venture of incalculable
importance and, in keeping with the
occasion, the volumes are being hand-
somely and worthily bound and
printed.

The present volume consists of three
occasional writings: On the Councils
and the Church (1539), Against Hans-
wurst (1541), Against the Roman
Papacy, an Institution of the Devil
(1545). In these writings Luther af-
firms the limited utility of Councils:
"We for our part have never desired
a council to reform our church. God
and the Holy Spirit already sanctified
our church through his holy word . . .
so that we have everything (God be
praised) pure and holy the word,
baptism, the Sacrament, the Keys, and
everything which belongs to the true
church without the additions and
filth of human doctrine."

Gordon Rupp contributes a brief
introduction which provides helpful
background information about the
circumstances which prompted these
particular works. Two of these
treatises have not previously been
translated into English.

Luther s Works: Volume 8: Lectures
on Genesis Chapters 45-50, Edited by
Jaroslav Pelikan: Concordia. 360 pp.
$6.00.

Luther's lectures on Genesis were
given over a period of ten years,
during a time of increasing bodily
weakness. The commentary concludes
with words of deep poignancy: "God
grant that after me others will do
better. I can do no more. I am weak.
Pray God for me that He may grant
me a good and blessed last hour."
Three months later he was dead. The
Editor points out that Luther's final
lecture on Genesis was thus "not only
the last lecture of his massive work of
Biblical exposition but the last lecture
of his professional career."

59

The great value of these com-
mentaries is that they enable us to
enter into Luther's heart and mind.
We are reminded that Luther's skill as
a dialectician never obfuscates or
smothers his determination to preach
the gospel of Jesus Christ with un-
remitting forcefulness and clarity.
Though he attacks and refutes his
opponents with many darts, yet his
heart overflows with Christian love.
To the very end his mind was razor-
sharp and instantly alert.

The Unbelievers: English Agnostic
Thought 1840-1890, by A. O. J. Cock-
shut: New York University Press. 192
pp. $5.00.

In a series of vivid biographical
sketches the author discusses what he
calls "the old guard of English ag-
nosticism, those strong, simple, im-
mensely energetic, confident, moral-
istic men who never heard of Freud,
and ignored Marx and Kierkegaard
and Nietzsche, the makers of the
world we know." Their besetting error,
he suggests, was Pelagianism: "that is,
they not only merely said people
ought to be unselfish and good, but
that it was natural and easy for them
to be so." The author is to be con-
gratulated on a brilliant reconstruc-
tion.

Zwingli and the Arts, by Charles Gar-
side, Jr.: Yale University Press. 190
pp. $7.50.

This is an important pioneer study.
The author writes: "There exists, to
my knowledge, no book on the subject
of Zwingli's attitude toward the visual
arts and music prior to this one." By
a careful study of the original docu-
ments the author has recreated the
sequence of events in Zurich which
led to the abolition of all music and
singing from public worship and then
to the removal of images and other
works of art. "Insofar as it was pos-
sible, Zwingli eliminated everything

sensuous from worship. Music, vest-
ments, incense, ritual gestures, and
images all were of no avail because
faith . . . had nothing to do with the
senses." One consequence of this, the
author points out, was the rapid secu-
larization of art.

This is a work of impeccable schol-
arship. It is, beyond doubt, the most
illuminating study yet to appear on
the work of Zwingli.

Toward a Theology of Involvement:
The Thought of Ernst Troeltsch, by
Benjamin A. Reist: The Westminster
Press. 264 pp. $6.00.

In this work of judicious scholar-
ship the author provides us with a
critical account of the thought and
achievement of Ernst Troeltsch.
Troeltsch insisted that the history of
Christianity is the history of the com-
promises of the church with the world:
the author further relates this insight
to the work of such contemporary
thinkers as Paul Lehmann, Peter Berg-
er and Harvey Cox. This is a highly
informative study.

The Other Victorians, by Steven Mar-
cus: Basic Books. 292 pp. $5.95.

The Associate Professor of English
at Columbia University seeks to un-
derstand the significance of mid-Vic-
torian pornography as an historical
phenomenon. It was, he argues, a sub-
culture, a negative analogue, a reverse
image of the morality of upper-class
society. That society, we now know,
tended to equate ignorance with in-
nocence. The consequence was much
hypocrisy and much guilt. The
author's stance is a happy combination
of critical objectivity with psycho-
analytic understanding.

God Is Dead: The Anatomy of a
Slogan, by Kenneth Hamilton: Wil-
liam B. Eerdmans Publishing Co. 86
pp. $1.25.

This book is essentially a tract for
the times. With skill and grace the

60

author succeeds in a brilliant task of
analysis and clarification. But he
avoids smugness. "Conservative the-
ology," he cautions, "tends to substi-
tute nostalgia for 'the old time re-
ligion' for wrestling with the task of
making theology face the contempo-
rary human situation so as to present
faith in a form that really speaks to
man, challenging his intellect and his
imagination." This also needs to be
said, and it is to the author's credit
that he says it frankly.

of the Roman Catholic Church that
this volume contains a contribution
by the Quaker, Roland Bainton, and
that the bibliographies reveal a close
familiarity with contemporary Prot-
estant writing. This symposium dis-
cusses such vital topics as religious
freedom, poverty, pacificism, and the
population explosion. The discussion
is frank and forthright. Would that
Protestants could discuss the same
subjects with a like openness and
maturity!

Contemporary Existentialism and
Christian Faith, by J. Rodman Wil-
liams: Prentice-Hall, Inc. 180 pp.
$3.50.

In this book (an expansion of a
Convocation lecture at Austin Semi-
nary) the author discusses Sartre, Jas-
pers, Heidegger, Tillich and Bultmann
in relation to the Christian faith. Stu-
dents will appreciate the author's
synoptic analyses: the fruit of much
industrious labor.

The German Church Conflict, by Karl
Barth: John Knox Press. 77 pp. $1.75.

These miscellaneous essays, dating
from the years 1933 to 1939, were
written as forewords and articles, and
are here reprinted as the first in a
new series, entitled Ecumenical Stud-
ies in History. This collection of es-
says, as the translator (T. H. L.
Parker) freely acknowledges, adds
little to our knowledge of the church
conflict, but the collection "has a
certain historical value in having been
written by a leading participant of
the calibre of Barth."

War, Poverty, Freedom: The Christian
Response. Concilium Vol. 15, Edited
by Franz Bockle: Paulist Press. 163
pp. $4.50.

No one can fail to be impressed by
the intellectual ferment that is taking
place within the Roman Church: and
it is indicative of the new openness

Worship: Its Theology and Practice,
by J. J. von Allmen: Oxford Univer-
sity Press. 317 pp. $6.50.

Professor von Allmen of Neuchatel
here provides a thorough examination
of the meaning of worship. The basic
questions that frequently engage and
divide Christians who discuss this sub-
ject are explicated: worship's Christ-
ological basis, Christ's presence in
worship, the nature of the worshipping
community, the necessity for the cult.

No other contemporary book deals
so helpfully with this subject. For the
reader who seeks the why rather than
the how superficial reading will not
suffice. This is meat, not milk. Pres-
byterians need this volume as they
evaluate materials currently before
them. Before adopting or rejecting
patterns and orders let us discover
their meaning; before we argue about
cultic practice let us know what the
Christian cult is. This work enables
us to know.

The Soul of the Symbols, by Joseph
R. Shultz: William B. Eerdmans Pub-
lishing Co. 198 pp. $3.95.

Joseph R. Shultz, Dean of Ashland
Theological Seminary (Church of the
Brethren) has a high Christology and
a high view of the importance of the
Christian symbols. His insistence upon
foot-washing as a sacrament will not
bear Reformed scrutiny, but his study
of its relationship to cleansing in the

61

Old Testament rites is provocative.
Impressed again with the breadth of
the liturgical reform movement this
reviewer anticipates that Shultz's
thought may well make worship
among the "plain people" (Brethren)
no longer plain.

Foreign Policy in Christian Perspec-
tive, by John Coleman Bennett:
Charles Scribner's Sons. 160 pp. $3.50;
(Paperback) $1.25.

Dr. Bennett's distinguished record
as scholar, teacher, author and ad-
ministrator qualifies him to write on
this important theme. He here ex-
amines, from the Christian point of
view, such topics as the Cold War,
the nuclear age, Communism and
Communist China, Vietnam, the Uni-
ted Nations and the necessity for
ethical criticism of all governments
in the making of foreign policy. Being
a realist, this author holds in sound
common sense that the Christian
should take a stance which is political-
ly possible. He states his conviction
that "no government responsible to
an existing nation can adopt a policy
based on pacifist convictions." This
slender volume represents the mature
thinking of an informed Christian
who is deeply concerned about the
foreign policy of our nation in these
so dangerous days just ahead.

Religion and Social Conflict, Edited
by Robert Lee and Martin E. Marty:
Oxford University Press. 193 pp.
$5.00.

Though we try to escape it or
minimize it, conflict has positive func-
tions as well as negative ones. To
develop this thesis ten authors probe
various areas of social conflict as
they impinge on religious institutions,
technology, religious group formation,
racial protest movements, right wing
and left wing extremism, religion and
politics, church-state relations, inter-
religious group conflict, and the role

of the pastor in social conflict. The
minister or laymen, concerned about
social conflict, or theatened by it, can
profit from this study.

The Art of William Golding, by Ber-
nard S. Oldsey and Stanley Weintraub:
Harcourt, Brace and World. 178 pp.
$4.50.

The authors of this composite work,
have written what they modestly call,
a "critical progress report." But it is
far more than this: it is a brilliant
piece of elucidatory analysis.

Immortality and Resurrection. Four
essays by Oscar Cullmann, Harry A.
Wolf son, Werner Jaeger, and Henry J.
Cadbury. Edited and with an introduc-
tion by Krister Stendahl: The Mac-
millan Co. 149 pp. $1.45 (Paperback).
A reprint of Cullmann's celebrated
Ingersoll Lecture; together with the
subsequent Ingersoll Lectures by a
classicist, a philosopher, and a New
Testament scholar, criticizing and
commenting upon Cullmann's thesis.

Existentialism and Alienation in
American Literature, by Sidney Fink-
elstein: International Publishers. 314
pp. $2.25 (Paperback).

Sidney Finkelstein uses the insights
of Marxism to launch a massive at-
tack on the moral decadence of the
West. Commenting on Henry Miller
he scathingly observes: "What these
writers can be described as doing,
figuratively, in their gloating natural-
ism of coition, perversion, toilet, drug
addiction and mental and bodily dis-
solution, is forcing this society to
eat its own excrement, as if to admit
that this is its truth." It is difficult
to deny the justice of this indictment.

Teen-Agers and Sex, by James A.
Pike: Prentice-Hall. 146 pp. $3.95.

On one occasion Bishop Pike was
approached by a woman, deeply dis-
tressed about her unmarried daughter's

62

pregnancy. "Her sense of distress and
shame," he writes, "centered around
the fact that her daughter had com-
mitted fornication. But when at the
mother's request I saw the daughter
(principally to talk about whether or
not the couple should be married),
wrongly or rightly I immediately
zeroed in on this question, 'How could
the two of you seniors in college
have been so irresponsible as not to
have taken precautions?' " "This,"
Bishop Pike explains, "seemed to me
the immediate existential ethical
question."

Two persons, in deep perplexity,
sought guidance and advice; what they
received was a lecture on contracep-
tion. God help us!

Albert Camus: The Artist in the
Arena, by Emmet Parker: The Uni-
versity of Wisconsin Press. 245 pp.
$6.00.

Emmet Parker illustrates, in this
pioneer study, the varied nature of
Camus' journalistic activity. In his
Nobel Prize Acceptance Speech Cam-
us said: "A writer has two trusts that
constitute the nobility of his calling,
the service of truth and the service of
freedom."

Man in the Modern Theatre, Edited
by Nathan A. Scott, Jr.: John Knox
Press. 100 pp. $1.00 (Paperback).

A quick and lively introduction to
four modern dramatists: T. E. Eliot,
Eugene O'Neill, Bertolt Brecht, Sam-
uel Beckett.

Four Ways of Modern Poetry, Edited
by Nathan A. Scott, Jr.: John Knox
Press. 95 pp. $1.00 (Paperback).

A companion booklet which ex-
plores questions of belief in the poetry
of Wallace Stevens, Robert Frost,
Dylan Thomas, W. H. Auden. "A
good poem," Robert Frost suggests,
"like love, ends in a clarification of

life not necessarily a great clarifica-
tion, such as sects and cults are
founded on, but in a momentary stay
against confusion."

Studies in Seventeenth-Century Poetic,
by Ruth Wallerstein: The University
of Wisconsin Press. 421 pp. $2.95.

The latter section of this study is
devoted to a detailed examination of
the work of Andrew Marvell; the
earlier (which is of more immediate
interest), to an examination of the
funeral elegy. Donne (who was pre-
occupied with the fact of death and
the meaning of saving faith) imposed
on the traditional poetic form a meta-
physical pattern.

The Mystery of Death, by Ladislaus
Boros, S. J.: Herder and Herder. 201
pp. $4.50.

The author (a disciple of Teilhard
de Chardin and Karl Rahner) radi-
cally reinterprets the traditional un-
derstanding of death in Christological
and personalist terms. The author
writes persuasively, but not all readers
will be able to accept his dogmatic
presuppositions.

Russian Literature and Modern Eng-
lish Fiction. A Collection of Critical
Essays, Edited by Donald Davie: The
University of Chicago Press. 244 pp.
$1.95 (Paperback).

"It would be absurd to deny," the
Editor forthrightly affirms, "that the
Russian novelists have exerted a pow-
erful influence on virtually every
serious British and American prose
writer in the twentieth century." The
validation of this claim is to be found
in the essays that follow the editor's
introduction. With much skill he has
gathered together a series of critical
and interpretative articles. Students
will appreciate access to these helpful
studies.

63

Introduction to Russian Realism, by
Ernest T. Simmons: Indiana Univer-
sity Press. 275 pp. $6.50.

"Realism in fiction," the author
explains, "is a literary artist's way of
looking at life." "I am," Dostoevsky
confesses, "a realist in the higher
sense; that is, I portray all the depths
of the human soul." In the Patten
Lectures the author, who has pre-
viously written a number of admirable
biographical studies, illustrates his
thesis by fresh and illuminating stud-
ies of Pushkin, Gogol, Dostoevsky,
Tolstoy, Chekhov, and Sholokhov.

The Power of Life and Death, by
Michael V. DiSalle with Lawrence G.
Blochman: Random House. 214 pp.
$4.95.

This book, by the former Governor
of Ohio, with its carefully docu-
mented case studies, is devoted to the
thesis that the death penalty is "im-
moral, ineffectual, inhuman, unjust
fin that nobody with money is ever
executed), and uneconomic." On the
ground of justice, if not of humanity,
he urges that in the home of the brave
and the land of the free, we should
heed the example of practically every
civilized nation in the world and
abolish the death penalty. "When Cain
killed his brother Abel and lied about
it," he sagely observes, "the Lord did
not see fit to take Cain's life in re-
turn. Instead, he marked Cain as a
fratricide and exiled him for life."

Art and Action, by C. H. Sisson:
Methuen. 166 pp. 21s.

The author of these miscellaneous
essays invites us to accompany him
as he wanders down some of the
highways and by-ways of literature.
"The subjects of these essays," he con-
fides, "reflect the interests of a mind
concerned with the possibilities of
accommodation between literature and
. . . 'practical life'." He proves an
amiable guide as he reflects on the

recurrent themes of "the church, the
crown, the clerc."

Historians Against History: The Fron-
tier Thesis and the National Covenant
in American Historical Writing Since
1830, by David W. Noble: University
of Minnesota. 197 pp. $5.00.

It is the author's contention that,
"from 1830 to the present, each gen-
eration has seen the emergence of a
historian who has become a public
philosopher as he differentiates be-
tween the timeless harmony of the real
America and the intrusion of artificial
and alien patterns from abroad." From
Bancroft to Boorstin, the author
argues, historians have sought to pre-
serve inviolate the concept of America
as a nation living under a covenant.
Students of historiography will find
food for thought in this study of the
perpetuation of the American myth.

Zwingli: Third Man of the Reforma-
tion, by Jean Rilliet. Translated by
Harold Knight: The Westminster
Press. 320 pp. $6.00.

This volume presents the life and
thought of the chief founder of the
Reformed Church. Zwingli (1484-
1531) was no medievalist: he loved
the new learning offered by the Ren-
aissance. Not being an obscurantist,
he admired Erasmus who taught that
the world was overloaded with ob-
scure dogmas invented by obscure
class-room theologians. Zwingli, too.
was an enlightened, up-to-date man.
interested in a new Christianity issuing
from a fresh study of the New Testa-
ment. Zwingli's Exposition of True
and False Religion (1525), however,
does not separate religion from phi-
losophy.

Zwingli admired "the richness and
splendor of Plato," "the finesse and
erudition of Aristotle," and placed
these great philosophers in heaven.

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