Page 6256 – Christianity Today (2024)

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During the course of 1962 two significant study Bibles, representing two divergent approaches to Scripture, made their appearance. One of these, The Oxford Annotated Bible, contains the text of the Revised Standard Version together with brief introductory articles and numerous footnotes, which, as far as the Old Testament is concerned, are written from the standpoint of the modern “critical” view of Scripture. At the conclusion of the volume there are useful articles on geography and archaeology as well as chronological tables and excellent maps. The other work, the Holman Study Bible, also RSV, has introductory notes to the biblical books written by evangelical scholars, some valuable articles which serve as helps to Bible study, and a concise concordance. From the fact that evangelical scholars have contributed these notes it of course does not follow that they would all give unqualified approval to the Revised Standard Version. Indeed, both of these study Bibles would be greatly improved by notes calling attention to the major weaknesses in the Revised Standard Version, for at least in the Old Testament it is in many respects an inferior version (e.g. Ps. 2:12; Isa. 7:14). Attention should also be directed to The Amplified Old Testament, Part Two—Job to Malachi (Zondervan). The format of the book and its clear type make it easy to use, and it should prove to be a genuine aid to readers of the Old Testament.

As a companion to The Oxford Annotated Bible there has appeared the Oxford Bible Atlas, which is compact, reliable, and beautifully printed. The maps are clear and quite useful, and there is a wealth of archaeological and historical material, accompanied by excellent photographs. The standpoint from which the articles are written is the same as that which characterizes the Annotated Bible.

The Bible and its Background. Perhaps it is not out of place to mention a work that should be in the library of all who love Palestine. We refer to the little volume by Bertha Spafford Vester: Flowers Of The Holy Land (Hallmark Cards, Inc.). Here are 17 reproductions of Mrs. Vester’s original watercolors, beautifully done. He who has heard Mrs. Vester’s “story” and has been to Palestine will derive much enjoyment from this book.

John Gray’s Archaeology and the Old Testament World (Nelson) is a serious, scholarly discussion. The volume is well illustrated, and the author is abreast of the latest discoveries. He writes from the standpoint of the dominant “critical” view of the Old Testament.

Equally scholarly, but representing the views of a Bible believer, is the valuable work The Bible and Archaeology (Eerdmans), by J. A. Thompson. The book contains material which had earlier appeared in three smaller volumes, but which is here brought together, rearranged, and enlarged. The many splendid illustrations greatly increase the book’s value, and help to make it a most helpful compendium of reference for the average reader of the Bible.

One of the needs of our day is for a volume dealing with the philosophy of archaeology and its position in a genuine Christian apologetic. To the best of the present writer’s knowledge, this question has not yet been adequately treated.

Aids to Bible Reading. That portions of the Old Testament are difficult for the average reader cannot be denied. Genuine helps, therefore, are truly to be welcomed. One method of studying the Old Testament is to devote attention to its great personalities. In Women Who Made Bible History (Zondervan), Harold J. Ockenga has done just this. He has given us several penetrating yet popular studies of different women of the Bible, the reading of which should bring profit and a deeper understanding of the Scriptures.

As a help in the study of one of the more difficult periods of Old Testament history, Exile and Return (Baker), by Charles F. Pfeiffer, can be heartily recommended. It is written in language for the layman, is well supplied with helps such as illustrations and maps, and is faithful to the Scriptures.

Two further Bible Guides (Abingdon), Historians of Israel (1), by Gordon Robinson, and Historians ofIsrael (2), by Hugh Anderson, dealing with Samuel–Kings and Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah respectively, present a popular approach to these biblical books. The works are scholarly, well written, and easily readable, but they present an approach to Scripture which is not that of the Bible itself.

A popular approach to Exodus is found in Holy Ground (Baker), by Douglas M. White. One who is not familiar with the Bible should be helped by reading this book. The expositions are practical and devotional. The Making of a Man of God (Zondervan), by Alan Redpath, consists of popular studies in the life of David. The studies are devotional and should be a help in opening up the portions of Scripture with which they deal.

Dr. Herbert Lockyer has followed his many other volumes with another, All the Promises of the Bible (Zondervan). This is a big book (610 pages), and it keeps the Scripture constantly before the reader’s eyes. Its reading can bring much profit.

A Hebrew Grammar. One aspect of Old Testament study seems to bring forth more groans from theological students than any other, namely, the Hebrew language in which the Old Testament is written. Those who wish to do serious work in the Old Testament, however, must study Hebrew. Modern helps, guides, outlines, and so on, are no substitute for a knowledge of Hebrew. But to obtain a competent knowledge of this language is no easy task. Any help in the study of Hebrew is to be welcomed, and the appearance of a twenty-fifth edition of Davidson’s Hebrew Grammar (T. & T. Clark) shows that many have found the book useful. This edition has been subjected to a thorough revision by John Mauchline, who has performed an extremely difficult task in a most capable manner. This reviewer is unable to accept in its totality the approach to Hebrew found in Davidson, but this is by far the best edition of this work to appear.

It is a sign of encouragement that 1962 should see the appearance of a reprint of The Semantics of Biblical Language (Oxford), by James Barr, a book that exposes the fallacious use of Hebrew and Greek linguistic evidence by some modern scholars. It is time that someone should write a book of this kind. Had the author done nothing more than expose the misuse of the Hebrew word dabar (word-matter) by some modern theologians, he would deserve the gratitude of all biblical scholars. At times, it may be, the argument is carried too far, but this is a valuable book, to be carefully read, pondered, and heeded.

Old Testament Prophecy. At the heart of Old Testament studies are the prophets; in interest and significance, at least, they occupy a predominant place. Abraham J. Heschel has written a large volume, The Prophets (Harper), which, although scholarly, can yet easily be followed by the educated layman; it is written in beautiful English, interspersed with frequent quotations from the prophets. Attention is devoted to each of the prophets and also to the great questions which are involved in the study of prophecy. But one could at times wish for more penetration in the treatment of some of these problems. Thus in a note it is declared that four theories of the Servant of the Lord have been presented (p. 149), but among these the Messianic interpretation is not mentioned. Despite the learning which characterizes this work, its thesis will not be acceptable to the Christian who believes that the prophets spoke of Christ.

Perhaps the most significant and profound work on the prophets to appear in our generation is J. Lindblom’s Prophecy in Ancient Israel (Basil Blackwell). Through the kindness of Professor G. W. Anderson the author’s English has been improved, so that the reading of the work is a pleasure. It is no exaggeration to say that this volume will take its place along with Hölscher’s work as a standard reference book. It is nothing if not thorough. The prophets are not discussed individually, as was the case with Heschel’s book, but due attention is paid to their teaching. Despite its profundity and thoroughness, however, the book does not really come to grips with the basic problem in prophetic study. That basic problem is not whether the prophets believed that God had spoken to them—on that point there seems to be little room for doubt—but whether God actually did speak to them. Were they really the recipients of special, direct, propositional revelation from the one living and true God? That is the question to be faced. If God did not give special revelation to the prophets, then they were fundamentally mistaken about themselves. It is no light issue, for the very truthfulness of Christianity is involved, but it is one which neither of the two books under discussion faces squarely.

Historical Study. Because of its importance there is one monograph deserving particular attention. Professor H. H. Rowley has written on the difficult subject of Hezekiah’s Reform and Rebellion (The John Rylands Library), presenting a strong defense of the view that there was only one campaign of Sennacherib. The significance of this will immediately be apparent to every biblical student. Possibly it is time to suggest that biblical students, whatever be their viewpoint, abandon 715 as the date of Hezekiah’s accession and the whole unfounded view of two campaigns of Sennacherib. No serious student should neglect what Rowley has written.

Special Studies. Many will welcome a reissue of H. Wheeler Robinson’s Inspiration and Revelation in the Old Testament (Oxford Paperbacks). The book will not be satisfactory to a conservative Christian, but it is an excellent presentation of a certain viewpoint. Jack Finegan has written a popular exposition of Genesis with practical application, In the Beginning (Harper). The book is abreast of archaeological studies but represents an approach which this reviewer cannot share.

Under the title Israel’s Prophetic Heritage (Harper), 16 scholars have presented essays in honor of James Muilenburg. None of the articles is written from a conservative standpoint, but all are scholarly, and some are particularly thought-provoking, a worthy tribute to the great scholar whom they honor.

Old Testament Theology. Many of the works which treat of the content and teaching of the Old Testament are based on a particular evaluation of the Old Testament represented by scholars such as Alt, Noth, von Rad, and Mowinckel. The following books more or less agree with this point of view, although each is an independent work. But the underlying position is one which, in this reviewer’s opinion, does not do justice to the supernaturalism of the Old Testament.

George A. F. Knight gives an informing discussion of Law and Grace (Westminster) with many challenging ideas to consider. The Old Testament Roots of Our Faith (Abingdon), by Paul J. and Elizabeth Achtemeier, endeavors to show the importance of the Old Testament for Christianity. Even though one may disagree with much in the book, he will yet profit from its reading. John William Wevers has given an interesting and informative study of the Psalms and Wisdom Books in The Way of the Righteous (Westminster). His work is a useful introduction to a certain modern approach to the Psalms. Whatever Gabriel Hebert writes is thought-provoking. His The Old Testament From Within (Oxford) attempts to show the real issues of faith in the various stages of Old Testament history, but the Bible believer will not find it satisfactory. Of particular importance is Murray Newman’s The People of the Covenant (Abingdon). This work shows thorough acquaintance with the writings of some of the scholars mentioned above, but also exhibits considerable originality. It stands out as a book of unusual moment, and may be studied as one of the best available guides to a particular interpretation of Israel’s history.

Three Translated Works from Germany. At last there has appeared an English translation of von Rad’s monumental theology. Old Testament Theology, Volume I (Harper), is a beautifully printed work, and will make the thought of this great scholar available to English-speaking people. Von Rad’s approach is radical, at least as radical as that of Wellhausen, and the basic standpoint adopted is one that cannot be called biblical. Certainly a theology should face up to the question of special revelation from the triune God, but this work does not do so.

A second commentary in Westminster’s “Old Testament Library,” Exodus, by Martin Noth, will be of interest to students of Old Testament history. It builds upon the untenable documentary hypothesis with the result that the supernatural in Exodus is not adequately dealt with. The treatment of the burning bush, for example, is quite unsatisfactory.

Another commentary in this Westminster series is The Psalms, by Artur Weiser. The work presents the same general approach to Scripture as does that of Noth, but the deficiencies of that approach do not seem to make themselves apparent in a commentary on the Psalms to the extent that they do in the treatment of a book like Exodus, where the shadow of the documentary hypothesis is in the foreground. Weiser’s work is profound and filled with useful material. But how much richer are Calvin and Hengstenberg!

Two Evangelical Works. Dealing with the difficult subject of Christ’s second coming, Dr. J. Barton Payne, The Imminent Appearing of Christ (Eerdmans), has defended a premillennial interpretation which is worthy of serious consideration. A second work, Theology of the Older Testament (Zondervan), is of major proportions, and constitutes a serious, scholarly study of Old Testament biblical theology. The book represents a tremendous amount of reading and researching, and is characterized throughout by faithfulness to the infallible Word of God. In a work of this size there are sure to be some areas of disagreement, but even where one cannot follow the author he can learn from him. And Dr. Payne’s gracious method of dealing with those with whom he disagrees might well be emulated by us all. Above all, the presuppositions which undergird this book are true, for they are scripturally grounded. This is the path in which all scholarship must walk, if it will truly come to an understanding of God’s inscripturated Word.

END

Damned

He that believeth not is condemned already.

Who? Who will pluck the blazing brand away

From this the quivering tablet of my soul?

And who will stop this turning wheel

On which my spirit, stretched with eternal straining, cries?

Or who will cool my burning tongue

With but a drop of mercy’s dew,

And speak a word—one little word

Of comfort in my pain perpetual?

Dark is the day—the never-dying day,

Whose dawn I curse; whose close I now despair.

PAUL T. HOLLIDAY

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Sunday morning, December 9, 1962, was a typical Sunday morning in Greenville, Texas, and Bill Betts, pastor of Wesley Methodist Church, seemed a bit brighter and happier than usual. His morning congregation sensed the Holy Spirit’s power upon the message, “The Touch of the Master’s Hand.” In the afternoon the minister disappeared, seeking rest and prayer at the family’s lakeside cabin a few miles away.

As he led the way into the sanctuary for the evening song service, he confided to a church member: “I’ve got to change my sermon for tonight.” To the congregation he said: “This is going to be an unusual service.” He read Galatians 2:20, I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me, in three different translations. “Now,” he remarked, “I would like to give you a free translation that I heard a long time ago.…”

There was a thud and stunned silence. Bill Betts had slumped over, dead. The morning message, unbeknown to him, had been his last message to his people. Somebody had made a tape recording. Here is the third and final point:

“I meet fellows; I ask them to give testimonies of what Jesus means to them.… ‘Well,’ they say, ‘… 35 years ago I met the Lord in a brush arbor meeting.’ I did not say anything about meeting the Lord 35 years ago. I said, what does Jesus mean to you today? What have you given to him over the last 35 years?… What about this week? Is your commitment to Jesus Christ current? Is your experience with Jesus Christ current? I meet people who hang on to prejudices, and hates, and old mistakes, sins and strife, and problems, and a tongue that spreads like fire; I see people hang on to these things as if they were life itself.… Surely, we must meet the Lord. But we must keep our experiences up to date, every day, every minute of every day.”

END

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A chaplain in San Quentin Prison wrote a book, an A excerpt of which appeared recently in the Reader’s Digest. In this selection the chaplain tells of visiting a man who had been confined to Death Row for nearly 11 months. This man—a neurotic and alcoholic—had strangled two women during a drunken orgy.

The chaplain talked with the prisoner for at least 40 minutes before the condemned man went into the gas chamber to die. The two conversed about education, about art, about sports. But the prisoner went to his death with no invitation to God. Nonetheless, the chaplain found himself praying that God would receive the condemned man, found himself wondering if he had witnessed not only a case of retribution, but also a crucifixion.

One disturbing sentence in the chaplain’s account gleams with neon sharpness: “I haven’t mentioned religion.” Then he adds: “Perhaps it is not necessary to speak God’s words in order to serve His purpose. Just being there with Richard Cooper in his last moments may be enough to show him that no man is ever completely cast out, or completely alone.”

With but 40 minutes left of a man’s earthly existence, the chaplain discussed education, art, and sports—but no religion! Of what use are education, art, and sports to a doomed man? Only a few more heartbeats and the man will be finished with all earthly things. Only 2,400 seconds more of time—and they talk about baseball!

Perhaps hundreds of clergymen read this article and silently cried, “Why couldn’t I have been there to speak at least one ‘thus saith the Lord’ to this man poised on the brink of eternity?”

Granted, the Word may have come too late, or the man may have been past the point of acceptance, or he may have rejected the message. But who can tell—he might have found salvation! The thief on the cross had but little time, too! What’s more, whether the condemned man would have accepted it or not, was it not the responsibility of this minister of the Gospel to offer redemption in Christ? While we have no guarantee that men will accept salvation, we are commanded to declare it nonetheless.

Perhaps we have misunderstood the chaplain’s position in this case; he may have omitted certain facts that would alter the record presented. But as the article stands, it symbolizes something that happens quite often. Are we withholding the Word? Do we expect to accomplish God’s work without “speaking God’s words”? “Just being there with” people is not enough. If we bear witness only to ourselves, they may think we have little to offer them. Talking about education, art, sports, or about any of a thousand other things will never confront men with their need of eternal life. These things have their place and their value, but they are powerless to redeem the soul.

Let’s face it. Not only was that San Quentin prisoner going to die—all men are going to die! Unlike Richard Cooper, we in our cosmic death row may not know the appointed time of our demise. But our end is no less sure and inevitable. We march just as inexorably toward the last exit as he did. What assurance have we that the young robust man we speak with today has any more time left than Cooper’s 40 minutes? Shall we discuss with him college, books, drama, athletics, but skip religion?

What we are emphasizing applies especially, perhaps, to the minister of the Gospel. If he knew he were to preach the last sermon of his life, what would a man preach. Suppose he knew that 50 of his parishioners—50 unsaved persons—would die before he stood in the pulpit again: what would he preach? What sin bears greater consequences in the long run than that of withholding God’s truth from man?

Every Christian has a divine mission, that of taking the Gospel to every man in all the world. Because acquaintances may not wish him to fulfill this mission is no excuse for exemption from duty. How often the primitive church was disliked for doing its God-given task!

Even if we perform our mission rather poorly we are to fulfill it nevertheless. Not everyone is qualified to present the truth in expert fashion. Think of those suffering but singing people in the Acts of the Apostles. While they often lacked propriety, they did not lack spiritual power. They were often misunderstood. They were cursed and beaten. But they were people of the Word such as history has seldom seen. And that Word so worked abroad in the world that Rome herself could no longer halt the march of the Cross.

“Perhaps it is not necessary to speak God’s words,” the San Quentin chaplain said. But it is necessary. Our own words are never good enough. Only Spirit-charged truth can penetrate the defenses with which lost men surround their souls. “… The words that I speak unto you,” said Jesus, “they are spirit, and they are life” (John 6:63).

The Word of God is a quick, sharp sword piercing the thoughts and intents of the human heart (Heb. 4:12). It is a gentle rain; falling on barren desert, it makes the dust to burst into bloom (Isa. 55:10, 11). It is a seed; dropping on barren ground it brings forth a golden harvest (Luke 8:11). It is a fire that burns into the soul, a hammer that breaks the resistant stone (Jer. 23:29).

Millions throughout the ages have acknowledged this Word to be the power of God unto salvation. This Word has laid hold of men at the brink of hell and snatched them back. It has changed multitudes of derelicts to messengers of hope. Like the disciples we must say of Jesus’ power: “What a Word is this!” (Luke 4:36).

Are we to replace this wonderful, this terrifying Word with words about secular things and fancies? In a 40-minute period of grace before death Jesus is far better than Hemingway, Paul far better than William James, Isaiah than Rembrandt, Luke than Mickey Mantle!

Especially those called to the ministry are responsible for offering the “word of reconciliation” (2 Cor. 5:19). Said Paul, “… Ye shine as lights in the world, holding forth the word of life …” (Phil. 2:15, 16). Faith comes by hearing, says the Apostle, but by hearing what? “So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God” (Rom. 10:17).

Suppose the Apostle Paul were sitting in a death cell with someone who in half an hour would go to a Roman gibbet. Would he speak about his studies under Gamaliel? about the philosophy of Seneca? Or would he discuss the chariot races in Rome and the wrestling matches in Athens? The answer to these questions is obvious. If the Apostle did use such themes, they served only as launching pads for his Gospel rockets!

A famous missionary once said, “When you put forth God’s Word in your witness the Holy Spirit backs you up.” True! When we give the Word of God to men, it speaks with an authority we ourselves do not possess. While some will reject it and others will be angry at it, still some will be saved by it. Is the rescue of these few by the Word not far better than losing all by conversation about literature, art, basketball, or the atomic bomb?

We may not always wield the sword of the Spirit successfully; it alone, however, is the weapon of victory. In this business of redemption other weapons are of no avail. Our assignment, however ridiculous it may seem to the sophisticated, comes from the Bible: “… He that hath my word, let him speak my word faithfully. What is the chaff to the wheat? saith the Lord” (Jer. 23:28). Chaff may have its purpose and its place, but it is nothing compared to wheat.

When a man has but 40 minutes to live, give him the Word of God! Even if he has 40 years, still give him the Word.

END

Addison H. Leitch

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One of the better publications that crosses my desk is the Union Seminary Quarterly Review. Like some of the readers of CHRISTIANITY TODAY I am a “freeloader”; the Review is passed on to me by a friend. I cannot say, however, that this lessens my pleasure or profit in the reading.

An issue which you simply must read is that of May, 1962. If the editors of the Review would care for my advice, I would like to suggest that this particular issue be put out in book or booklet form. The issue carries articles by James Muilenburg, John Knox, Robert T. Handy, Edmund A. Steimle, Wilhelm Pauck, Roger L. Shinn, and Daniel D. Williams. All these names gathered in one issue of any publication would insure its success, and just for good measure there is a book review (“An Assembly of Solemn Noises”) by Robert McAfee Brown which could serve as the last word for anyone who wants to know how to write a book review.

Interest in this issue involves more than just interest in the authorities who have written, however, and this is the reason why the issue of last May is still “current” in religious thought; these men of Union Seminary have been led to write on subjects of perennial interest which are always “current.” Under the aegis of a man named Thomas Laws and the Student Worship Committee of the seminary, these men gave informal lectures, which were taperecorded for publication, on such subjects as “What I Believe It Means to be Saved,” “What I Believe About the Activity of the Holy Spirit,” “What I Believe About the Way God Answers Prayer,” and “What I Believe About Life After Death.”

The discussions and the articles grew out of a sense of need which I think is common to all our seminaries. Allowing that a seminary is called to serve the faith by solid academic achievements, Thomas Laws, in his introduction to the Review, along with his committee of students “would assert that these intellections do not constitute the whole faith.… Many theological students do have an immediate concern for the more ‘confessional’ elements of the Christian faith.” The Student Worship Committee (I am still quoting Laws) “sensing within the Seminary community a need for explicit discussion affecting personal beliefs decided to sponsor a series of informal Lenten discussion meetings.” Four meetings were planned, and two faculty members spoke quite frankly at each meeting. Where there had been an expectation of 30 to 40 students, the issues were taken so seriously that over 200 students regularly crowded the Social Hall for the meetings. President Van Dusen is quoted as having called these meetings “the finest, most meaningful, and most helpful series of talks by faculty in the past 40 years.

Now the question is: Just why in a theological seminary do students feel the need for this kind of material (and the need is felt in every seminary), when the professors spend their days teaching theology, the things of Christ, the Word which we preach, and like matters? A second question is: Do the intellectual pursuits of an academic institution destroy the possibility of communicating the more “confessional” elements of our faith? These outstanding men of Union, recognized for their scholarship the world over, always have this warmth of personal conviction; yet the students feel the need of meetings outside the lecture hall in order that this warmth of conviction can be communicated.

If you think this is a criticism, then you have certainly missed the point. The problem is present in every seminary, and most professors and most students recognize it; at Union they did something about it. Kierkegaard raised the question long ago whether it is possible to “teach” theology. How does one “teach” redemption, or the presence of God, or the divine-human encounter, or communion in prayer, or the forgiveness of sin? The Swiss psychiatrist Tournier in his The Meaning of Persons shows how contact between doctor and patient is impossible until spirit touches spirit or person meets person, uncluttered by the trappings of “personage.” When C. A. Anderson-Scott returned to replace Hoskyns at Cambridge University, I heard him address his opening session, and I remember these words: “I want to keep one eye on the tripos (the English term for a final comprehensive exam) and one eye on the Kingdom of God, but I propose to keep my good eye on the Kingdom of God.” C. S. Lewis warns us about confusing a map with the journey; we can master the map and never take a trip. Robert Clyde Johnson, the great theologian at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary, has a letter published in a recent issue of “The Pittsburgh Perspective” in which he treats at length this hardy perennial: What is the relationship between theological discipline and spiritual experience? A young minister told me one time, “After three years at the seminary it took me three more years to get my religion back.”

Another question that arises somewhat indirectly from these articles in the Review has to do with the backgrounds of the men who wrote them. It is surprising, or maybe it is not, that so many of them refer to early training in home or college which was limited and narrow in what they think of as the “fundamentalist” approach to the Christian faith. One could do an interesting study on the number of men teaching in theological seminaries who have such a “fundamentalist” background; just to make the thesis more exciting, one might analyze also the religious backgrounds of editors and missionaries, not to mention board secretaries and ecumenical leaders. I resist the temptation to name names, but outstanding men in every denomination come to mind readily. Does this not raise the question (it does for me, anyway) whether we can find men coming into the ministry at all unless there is something of this fundamentalist “seriousness” about heaven and hell, the imminence of the Second Coming, sin and salvation, and the like? The desperate need for men in our seminaries may be related to the disappearance of the family altar, the sophistication of our church schools, the lightheartedness of our summer conference programs, and the reluctance of our church colleges to say anything too challenging about Christ for fear it will be intellectually shameful. Maybe it is time again for some old-time religion.

- More fromAddison H. Leitch

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DEEPER AND DEEPER—The day of the all-around naturalist is over.… Even within a specific discipline, such as genetics, no one person can be conversant with all of the literature in that field. This is an indication of rapid acceleration.… There have been many spectacular breakthroughs.… There has been no such rapid growth of knowledge in any previous period of history.—Dr. IRVING W. KNOBLOCH, “Biology,” Journal of the American Scientific Affiliation, March, 1962, p. 25.

FASTER AND FASTER—A supersonic transport plane that will climb beyond 70,000 feet and cruise at a fantastic 2,000 m.p.h. is being planned by North American Aviation.—Advertisem*nt, The Wall Street Journal, of a joint government-industry project whose development costs are put at $500 million to $1 billion.

DESCENDING INTO THE DEPTHS—A rugged and immobile kind of submarine, the Trieste, has already carried men 6.8 miles down to the bottom of the Pacific. But other men are trying to find ways for the free diver—the Scuba diver—to leave the confines of such machines to swim and work deep down.… Hannes Keller, a young Swiss scientist … has developed a secret mixture of gases which, breathed by the divers, enables them to descend to once-unheard-of depths.—“Death in the Depths, the Price for New Knowledge,” Life, Dec. 21, 1962.

PROBING THE MULTIVERSE—Mariner II has accomplished its mission in a way that constitutes a truly great moment in the history of man’s never-ending quest for more and more knowledge about his own solar system and the multiverse beyond it. In the words of Sir Bernard Lovell, Britain’s renowned astrophysicist, the event certainly deserves to be hailed as “by far the most splendid scientific achievement” recorded to date in the exploration of the boundless reaches of space.… Mariner’s report … will not be thoroughly evaluated for some weeks to come, but there seems to be little doubt at the jubilant National Aeronautics and Space Administration that results will amply justify the fact that this spatial project has involved 2,360 man-years of effort and an estimated outlay of $47 million.—The Sunday Star (Washington, D. C.), Dec. 16, 1962.

INTERNATIONAL EAVESDROPPER—A super-secret American satellite, so sensitive it can eavesdrop on Russian telephone messages, is now orbiting the earth, Newsweek magazine reported.… Newsweek said the satellite, which was developed by Lockheed Aircraft and RCA, can tap Soviet microwave telephone links and pinpoint missile launch sites by their radio guidance signals.—UPI report.

LIFE ON VENUS—Mariner II found no evidence that Venus has a magnetic field. This finding … keeps alive … a theory that Venus is cool enough to support some form of life.… Paul J. Coleman of the University of California … was quick to point out that this did not mean that Venus totally lacks a magnetic field.… There is always the chance that Mariner merely missed detecting a magnetic field.—HOWARD SIMONS, in The Washington Post.

Lost But Still There

Loss of the Self: In Literature and Art, by Wylie Sypher (Random House, 1962, 179 pp., $4), is reviewed by Robert M. Davies, Professor of English, Thiel College, Greenville, Pennsylvania.

The Puritans thought themselves wretched sinners in the sight of God, but without serious qualms they cut off the head of Charles I. This was the paradox that so intrigued Macaulay in considering the Puritans: their almost abject self-denial because they were sinful human beings, yet their self-investiture as political regents for Almighty God because they were his sons.

Is man a little lower than the angels, or is he the dust of the earth? In this highly recommended book, Wylie Sypher follows the great change that has occurred in man’s concept of himself since the early nineteenth century. Then the Romantic hero was at the very center of the universe, and, in a measure of speech, he almost became his own universe. His personal emotions, seeking unbounded personal freedom, knew no restrictions.

But in seeking freedom, he modified and attacked the social and political systems so that increasingly he was swallowed up by the statistical mass man his own liberal statism created.

Building upon this historical background, Sypher shows the recent struggle of literature and art to find the authentic self. The existentialists, says Sypher, always assumed that the self has an identity, but the great question has been whether one is being honest in finding it.

Now, however, we are in post-existentialism, and the question arises: What if the self has only an uncertain existence? Suppose the realities of our situation seem to be more actual than the self on which these experiences are imposed? This is the question treated in what has come to be called modern anti-literature.

It is Sypher’s belief that the great creative artists and writers always reveal, without perhaps knowing why or how, the latest scientific discoveries and theories. In this respect, the dissolution of the Romantic hero occurred at the same time science was beginning to question the law of cause and effect in the physical world. For cause and effect is man’s rationalized selection of certain sequences which he thinks he understands. It is now understood that simple chance may actually be more operative in nature than cause and effect. The law of entropy, furthermore, asserts that the universe is constantly drifting toward an unstructured state of equilibrium that is total.

These laws find expression in modern literature to the effect that the destiny of man is obliteration, and our life only a brief rebellion against the randomness into which things are ebbing.

Yet surprisingly, says Sypher, modern anti-literature with its anti-heroes and nihilism and emphasis upon man’s absurd condition cannot really escape an affirmation: even after the self has shriveled, the human remains. “To repeat: we have an existence, however unwillingly, after we have lost an identity; and we do not seem to be able to diminish this existence below a certain point” (p. 154).

It is not likely that readers of CHRISTIANITY TODAY will agree at all with the efforts Sypher then makes to set up some kind of humanism assimilating various strands of Hindu de-personalization, Martin Buber’s I-Thou philosophy, and Camus’ existentialism. But they will find in this book an admirably lucid account from a non-theological point of view of many of the spiritual implications in the crosscurrents of modern literature, art, science, philosophy, and political science.

ROBERT M. DAVIES

Cambridge Shocker

Soundings: Essays Concerning Christian Understanding, edited by A. R. Vidler (Cambridge, 1962, 268 pp., $3.95), is reviewed by J. D. Douglas, British Editorial Director, CHRISTIANITY TODAY.

An intentional shocker. Ten collaborating theologians, “concerned about the dangerous complacency in the religious world,” tackle such topics as the Bible, the function and value of prayer, the malaise of natural theology, and the science-religion issue. H. E. Root refreshingly outlines the dilemma of philosophical theology confronted by the pitfalls of metaphysical speculation, but after a sly dig at “fashionable biblical theology” (undefined further), the shock treatment begins with: “It is by no means clear that anything like Christian faith in the form we know it will ever again be able to come alive for people of our own time …” (page 6). J. S. Habgood observes: “Theologians want to find a position which is secure against any possible advances in scientific knowledge,” and G. W. H. Lampe makes the misleading statement: “… The religious axiom that God ‘will by no means clear the guilty’ has been dramatically disproved.” Yet H. W. Montefiore unquestionably accepts the Virgin Birth (p. 170).

H. A. Williams is the debunker par excellence of old-time morality. After showing that man’s unworthiness before God has been overstressed in the Book of Common Prayer (the Romans do it better), he argues that the individual who refuses to steal under certain circ*mstances is not moral but just plain chicken. In citing two incidents from recent films, he approves fornication as a healing agency glorifying to God. About lust he writes: “The practice of religion can be a form of lust.… First of all, I make an idol which I call Jesus of Nazareth or the Ascended Lord. Then I try to give myself value by identifying myself with the idol I have made. When the living me at times bursts through, and I become more than my own idol, I consider that I have sinned” (p. 89). Williams goes on to give “Our Lady” a tendentious boost and says he regularly “asks for her prayers.” Prudently he declines to “identify her place in the scheme of salvation.” On page 78, after attributing to Freud a theory formulated earlier and better by Dostoevsky, he strikingly points out we use so much energy keeping in fetters the demon lurking inside us that we experience “the dullness and deadness of many good Christian people.”

The writers have a yen for labyrinthine sentences which leave precise meanings obscure, and even shorter ones baffle, chiefly through ambiguity—e.g. this from G. F. Woods’s essay on “The Transcendent”: “Invincible ignorance of what is not there to be known is not a reasonable ground for depression.”

“Not everyone will agree with the authors’ viewpoints,” says the publishers’ announcement, complacently. Just so. That such self-consciously radical thinking should come from the arid fastnesses of Cambridge University is not surprising-academic freedom is a cherished principle; that it (except for one essay) should have come from Anglican clergymen who have subscribed the Thirty-nine Articles is incredible.

J. D. DOUGLAS

With Notes

The Oxford Annotated Bible, edited by Herbert G. May and Bruce M. Metzger (Oxford, 1962, 1544 pp. plus maps with index, $7.95), is reviewed by Samuel Schultz, Professor of Bible and Theology, Wheaton College, Wheaton, Illinois.

The Oxford Annotated Bible (RSV), with cross references and running commentary in the form of notes placed at the foot of each page, is designed to aid the layman in reading and study to gain a fuller understanding of the Bible. The format is excellent. Special features in this edition include: articles on how to read and understand the Bible, the history of the English Bible, and the geography, history, and archaeology of the Bible lands; chronological tables of rulers and tables of weights and measures; and new full-color Bible maps with a three-dimensional effect. This edition represents the scholastic efforts of an impressive list of prominent biblical scholars.

The documentary theory provides the framework for the interpretative helps offered the layman in his study of the Bible. With biblical criticism in a state of flux, this theory of documents as reflected here has shifted from Wellhausenism and literary criticism to individual units of tradition as projected in current biblical studies in the light of ancient near-eastern documents discovered in recent decades.

On the basis of this theory, the reader is carefully instructed that the opening chapters of Genesis are “not to be read as history” nor to “be dismissed as childish myths”; that the patriarchal narratives “contain genuine historical memories” preserved “not for history but for religion”; that in the story of the Exodus and the settlement in Canaan we come nearer to historical light, though we are still dealing with idealized history “into which the legal sections of the Old Testament have been fitted”; that in the books of Samuel “we have much good history”; and that in the “stories of Elijah and Elisha there are legendary elements.”

This viewpoint of the theory of documents is reflected in the footnotes and introductions as follows:

1. Predictions are dated after the events occurred: Deuteronomy 28:47, 48 reflects the fall of Jerusalem in 586 B.C.2 Samuel 7:1–29 is a late theological commentary inserted into an early historical source; Nathan the prophet is used as a mouthpiece of the author, who may have been dreaming of a literal restoration of the kingdom of David. 1 Kings 13:2 is dated after Josiah’s time. Isaiah 9:2–7, filled with borrowed phrases referring to the Davidic monarchy, is a passage which may originally have celebrated the accession of a Judean king, perhaps Hezekiah. In the present context it describes the coming Messiah as the ideal king (the king [v. 6] representing the best qualities of Israel’s heroes).

2. Miracles are regarded as projections of the writer’s beliefs: Joshua 10:11—“There were more who died because of hailstones” is a characteristic expression of the writer’s belief that Israel’s victories were miracles accomplished by the Lord’s intervention rather than by the people’s skill in warfare. 1 Kings 17:1–24—the element of the miraculous in the stories (of Elijah and Elisha) must be accepted as an integral part of the writer’s method. 1 Kings 4:1–8:6—in ancient times, miracle stories were considered to be one of the best ways of portraying the importance of a religious leader; we are fortunate in having preserved for us this fine collection of prophetic lore.

3. Events and conditions portrayed in a historical setting in the Bible are frequently regarded as the ideas of late writers reflecting their own times: Exodus 25–31; 35–40; Leviticus 1–27; Numbers 1–10—this material, Document P, comes from priestly writers from the time of the Exile, although the “compiler … has relied upon independent source materials, such as the so-called Holiness Code, and upon numerous traditions which reach back to ancient times.” Numbers 1:5–15—this old name list reflects the twelve-tribe organization instituted in Joshua’s time (Josh. 24). Numbers 2:1–34—the priestly writer conceives the congregation as arranged symmetrically around the tent of meeting. 1 Chronicles 13:1–4–in the time of David, the distinction between priests and Levites did not exist. 1 Chronicles 15:1–24—note the emphasis on the Levites who did not exist as a special class in David’s time; the musical arrangements here set forth were largely drawn from the practice in the chronicler’s own day. Daniel 1–12—this book appears under the name Daniel; the author was a pious Jew living under the persecution of Antiochus Epiphanes, 167–164 B.C.; the six stories and four dream-visions, which come from times of national or community tribulation, are not actual history but, rather, symbolic interpretations of current history.

4. Dogmatic interpretations are based on the assumption that the documentary theory is essentially sound: Ezra 3:1—the law of Moses is not our Pentateuch but the body of laws associated with Moses’ name. Joshua 1:8—“this book of the law” means the legal provisions of the book of Deuteronomy. 2 Kings 22:8–10—the scroll almost certainly contained the earliest form of our present book of Deuteronomy, as subsequent references in this and the following chapters will show.

Constructively the reader of this Annotated Bible is advised that “in this book are the living oracles of God, which may speak to and nourish our spirit when we approach them in true devotion and humility.… In both Testaments God is revealed as compassionate and saving.… The saving character of God was revealed in bringing Israel out of Egypt; but it was revealed on a new level at Golgotha” (p. 1515). In these aspects this study Bible represents a marked improvement over the use of Scripture of several decades ago by the Wellhausenist scholars.

SAMUEL SCHULTZ

Reading for Perspective

CHRISTIANITY TODAY’S REVIEW EDITORS CALL ATTENTION TO THESE NEW TITLES:

★ Preaching for Tethered Man, by Theodore Heimarck (Augsburg, $3.75). Twelve sermons which show the path of freedom to men tethered by fear and darkness.

★ The Teaching Office in the Reformed Tradition, by Robert W. Henderson (Westminster, $6.50). A historical survey of what happened to “Calvin’s” ecclesiastical teaching office in Scottish and American Presbyterianism.

★ The Natural and the Supernatural Jew, by Arthur A. Cohen (Pantheon, $6). Author defines the theological Jew as one aware of his divine calling, and searches for him in the writings of such men as Martin Buber, Will Herberg, Abraham Heschel, and Mordecai Kaplan.

A Pioneer Work

World Civilization, 2 volumes, by Albert Hyma (Eerdmans; Volume I, revised, 1962, $5; Volume II, 1961, $5; also in paperback at $2 and $2.50 respectively), is reviewed by Milford F. Henkel, Chairman, Division of Social Science, Malone College, Canton, Ohio.

When a professor of history at a secular university attempts to write a work on world history from a Christian viewpoint, it is indeed news. This is one of the few serious attempts to interrelate a Christian world view with the facts of history produced in this century. In view of this purpose, then, one does not expect Dr. Hyma to write from an objective historical viewpoint. He does not profess to do so and would seriously question whether such a position is possible for anyone, and especially for a Christian.

Dr. Hyma is not a novice in the field of history and world history. He has taught history at the University of Michigan for many years and has produced more than 30 volumes, including the world history books in the “College Outline Series.” He is a co-author of The Growth of Western Civilization by Boak, Hyma, and Slosson, for many years a standard college textbook. These scholarly works lacked what Dr. Hyma felt was a Christian world viewpoint. His first world history book which approached this was World History, A Christian Interpretation (Eerdmans, 1942), which was designed as a textbook for junior and senior Christian high schools. His new work, the two-volume, 1,200-page World Civilization, is intended for the college level and for the serious student.

In his writing Hyma allows his personality and viewpoints to be known to the reader. Because of this his style is never dry, but is vigorous and interesting. He carefully documents what he says. He sharply differs with some historians, and does not always present his opponents in the best possible light. It is this style which makes his writing so readable—causing his friends to chuckle and his enemies to be perturbed. A good example of this is his reference to Professor Jan Huizinga (Vol. I, Part 2, p. 199). Hyma speaks of Huizinga’s “greatest error” and tells the reader that Huizinga “wrote the following nonsense.” This reviewer agrees with Hyma in rejecting Huizinga’s position, but wishes he had selected a different tone in his writing. Yet the statements are typical of Hyma, and those who know him can almost hear him speaking.

Many authors of secular world-history books reflect their bias in ignoring the God of creation, in favoring evolution as the only view, in their treatment of Jesus Christ, and in ignoring the contribution of religion to history. Dr. Hyma avoids all these errors. At the same time, all authors have a personal bias, and Dr. Hyma is no exception.

Hyma is committed to the theory of a 24-hour creation day as seen in his textbook and in his recent article in CHRISTIANITY TODAY (Sept. 14, 1962). Many evangelicals might wish he had been broader and had allowed for the possibility of other theories of creation. Is Hyma correct in considering all other viewpoints as compromises with the “Darwinian school”? (See Volume II, Part 5, page 300.)

Any survey, even one 1,200 pages long, must of necessity be selective, and this selectivity often leads to over-simplification. It is relatively easy to note such over-simplifications in any book, but this certainly does not negate the value of the work.

This book lends itself to a Christian interpretation of history far more easily than do other books, and is without doubt the best textbook on the market for a Christian professor of history.

Hyma’s mysticism or neo-Platonism could raise some question: he speaks of the spiritual creation of plants before the earth (Vol. I, Part 1, p. 2), “the double God Elohim” (Vol. I, Part 1, p. 30), and parapsychology (Vol II, Part 5, pp. 281 ff.).

World Civilization is a vigorously written pioneer work which attempts to set forth a Christian approach to history and is one of the best works in its field. The careful scholar would do well to consider Hyma’s views as expressed in this book.

MILFORD F. HENKEL

Communism Unraveled

A Study of Communism, by J. Edgar Hoover (Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1962, 212 pp., $3.95), is reviewed by Harold John Ockenga, Pastor, Park Street Church, Boston, Massachusetts.

This study by J. Edgar Hoover is a most welcome analysis of the entire Communist movement—its philosophy, its strategy and goal, and the danger which it poses to the United States. It is far superior to the author’s previous work, Masters of Deceit, and the study of it should alert many Americans to this world conspiracy. Mr. Hoover, whose knowledge of Communist literature is thorough, has written with great factual accuracy, with astuteness as to Communist teaching and principles, and with appreciation of the Communist purposes. The one weakness we would point out in the book is the lack of footnotes to substantiate the statements made.

The author presents the philosophy of Communism as a system of thought which attempts to determine the reason for man’s existence and man’s relationship to his existence. He points out that Communism, in seeking ultimate truth, embraces a materialism which explains man in terms of dynamic matter alone, thus regarding matter as self-sufficient, self-developing, and self-perpetuating. This rules out a Supreme Being as creator, sustainer, and lawgiver of the universe; rejects the spiritual nature of man, the existence of his soul, and the idea of immortality; and derives moral codes from circ*mstances rather than from spiritual imperatives. Communism teaches historical materialism. This is the Hegelian dialectical method turned upside down, substituting matter for spirit or mind and applying it to the class conflict which, according to Marx, has existed throughout the ages. The dialectic will end when Communism becomes the final and perfect form of society. Peace is conceived as the victory of Communism over all opposites.

Communism teaches economic determinism: that the nature of society at any given time is the direct result of the means of production; that morality, culture, and the state are derived from the means of production and distribution; and that the forms of society change with the economic upheavals. It advocates violent revolution in which the workers seize control of the state, liquidate their so-called former exploiters, and establish a dictatorship of the proletariat. From then on all efforts are to be directed toward the building of internal state socialism and the bringing about of the world revolution to establish Communism. The final utopian state will be a Communist society of “from each according to his ability and to each according to his need” in which there will be no government, no rulers, no classes, and no exploitation.

Mr. Hoover points out the errors in the principles and practices of Communism. Among those errors are: (1) No explanation is given for the origin of matter and the cause of its motion. To call matter eternal is obviously to endow it with the attributes of deity. (2) There is failure to recognize that for centuries millions of people have acted upon moral codes derived from spiritual values. The ideals of truth, justice, love, and honor are not illusions. (3) Nothing is explained by the so-called dialectic; it merely describes a condition. It does not tell why motion is upward, or why there is struggle, negation of forces, and the emergence of new forms. (4) It is an error to believe that all of life can be explained in economic terms. The motivation of idealism plays a very important part. (5) In the theory of surplus value no consideration is given to such factors as ingenuity or management, the application of technical or scientific refinements in production, and the use of capital. Actually surplus value is not the only source of society’s wealth other than natural resources. (6) Ignored is the fact that many workers own stock in great companies and have improved their conditions by unemployment insurance, minimum wage regulations, a short work week, Social Security, and numerous other gains; they are not so exploited as they once were. (7) No regard is given to the nature of man, in which egoism is a motivation for both labor and creativity. Communism will break up ultimately upon its erroneous conception of the nature of man.

Mr. Hoover adequately contrasts the philosophy of a free Western society with the Communist view, showing that Western culture is built upon belief in God and in the unique value of man, an absolute standard of morals, and humanitarian, idealistic goals. In discussing the danger to the United States from the Communist party within, the author tells how Communist propaganda is embraced by many who are not Communists or fellow-travelers but are used for the advancement of the party’s purpose. He sees resurgent Communism as an especially great threat to our college youth. He relates the Communists’ methodology in penetrating all phases of American life and sends forth a ringing call to Americans for dedication to freedom, to what we may call Christian principles, and to our historio American philosophy.

This book should have a wide circulation. We unqualifiedly commend it as a correct and accurate presentation of the philosophy of Communism, the danger we face from it, and the necessity of meeting it.

HAROLD JOHN OCKENGA

What One Looks For

Israel in Prophecy, by John F. Walvoord (Zondervan, 1962, 138 pp., $2.50), is reviewed by Charles De Santo, Assistant Professor of Old Testament, Wheaton College, Illinois.

Dr. Walvoord believes that the Abrahamic Covenant is unconditional and has a definite application to the nation of Israel. Since the Jews have already returned to Palestine and the “powers of the north” (Russia and China) have increased their diabolical influence in the world, Dr. Walvoord looks forward to the consummation of things in the immediate future.

The reviewer, however, found only the first chapter of this book to have any validity. In it the author gives a good summary of the new state of Israel with all its military, economic, educational, and religious gains. The rest of the book gives cause for numerous objections. In the Preface Dr. Walvoord says: “The discussion has centered in Biblical exposition rather than in a comparison of works and ideas of theological and Biblical scholars.” Dr. Walvoord does just this, but he confines himself to the framework of premillennial exegesis and refers only occasionally to amillennial exegetes. He completely ignores the host of modern exegetes who have written on this subject. Many of the so-called “prophecies” which he applies to the Parousia and the Millennial Kingdom, when considered in their historical context, were, in part at least, fulfilled in Old Testament times. Many others, such as Isaiah 35:5, 6, were quoted by our Lord in Matthew 11:5, 6 as having been fulfilled during his earthly ministry.

On several occasions Dr. Walvoord says that he sees no reason why Scripture and prophecy should not be taken in their literal sense. He objects to what he calls “spiritualizing”; yet this is precisely what he does when he “interprets” the Old Testament. He takes Old Testament passages and applies them to Christ. This is what the amillennialist does, also. They differ merely in their “interpretation.” Dr. Walvoord has a convenient hermeneutical system which permits him to interpret Scripture to suit his system. For example, he says that God promised that there would always be a Davidic descendant upon the throne, but he is embarrassed by the absence of Davidic kings during and subsequent to the captivity. Fortunately Hosea prophesied that this would happen (3:4, 5). On pages 91 and 92 he cites a passage in Acts 15:14–18 which is quoted from Amos 9:11, 12. It seems clear to the reviewer that this has direct bearing on the problem of Gentile admission into the Church, and James employs it in this manner. James’s meaning and not Amos’ contextual meaning is the one the passage should retain.

Dr. Walvoord’s thesis will not hold up apart from his “special non-historical hermeneutical” approach. That there are passages in the Old Testament and the New Testament which refer to the restoration of things after the Parousia of our Lord cannot be denied—this he makes clear. Unfortunately, this reviewer cannot agree with Dr. Walvoord’s treatment of “Israel in Prophecy.”

If one is looking for the Dallas premillennial dispensational position on prophecy, this is a good book to read. It states this clearly and concisely.

CHARLES DE SANTO

‘Get Your Program Here’

Religion in American Public Schools, by R. H. Dierenfield (Public Affairs Press, 1962, 115 pp., $3.25), is reviewed by William G. Reitzer, editorial department, CHRISTIANITY TODAY.

The author, associate professor of education at Macalester College (St. Paul, Minnesota), sent questionnaires to a select 4,000 school superintendents throughout the nation asking about Bible reading, prayer, religious courses, lunchtime blessing, holiday observances, released time, distribution of religious literature on school premises, and other religious practices in their school systems. The replies he received from the 54.57 per cent who responded provide the main ingredients for this volume. The remainder of the book consists of brief histories (1) of religion in American schools, (2) of legislation in the states, and (3) of state and federal court decisions.

Clear, concise, and containing 27 full-page charts, the book will be found to be easily digestible by Mr. Average Citizen. He will learn many helpful facts, such as the extent of homeroom devotional periods (in 33.16 per cent of the school systems), the extent of Bible reading (41.74 per cent), and the extent of Bible courses available (4.51 per cent).

It does appear that the case for complete separation of church and state is more fully stated than the case for limited separation. And in the section “State Court Decisions,” the recent important opinion of Maryland’s highest court favoring Bible reading (Murray v. Curlett) goes unmentioned, whereas the important Pennsylvania case taking an opposite view (Schempp v. Abington Township—Schempp is misspelled “Schlempp” in the book) receives a prominent paragraph. Perhaps it is only because the reviewer stands on the “pro” side of the released-time issue that the chapter on this subject appears to give preponderance to the evidence and sentiment for the “con” side (where Dierenfield seems to stand). Nevertheless, Dierenfield’s presentation has a commendable measure of objectivity.

In view of the three “religion in public school” cases currently before the United States Supreme Court, Professor Dierenfield’s little book will serve as an excellent “program” for all who are being drawn to the sidelines of this crucial religio-political contest now in a most decisive stage.

WILLIAM G. REITZER

Book Briefs

The Star over the Kremlin, by William P. Strube, Jr., (Baker, 1962, 108 pp., $1.95). Popular, anti-Communistic inducements; more excited than exciting.

Natural Theology, by J. F. Doncell, S. J. (Sheed & Ward, 1962, 178 pp., $3). A Roman Catholic philosophical textbook in which one Roman Catholic shows how he demonstrates God’s existence by unaided reason.

Men Aflame, by David R. Enlow (Zondervan, 1962, 120 pp., $2.50). A story not so much about the Christian Business Men’s Committee International as about the results of individual businessmen’s witness to Christ.

Trumpets in the Morning, by Reuben K. Youngdahl (Augustana, 1962, 167 pp., $3). Sermons, about as good as sermons without texts can be.

Strangers No Longer, by Peter Day (Morehouse-Barlow, 1962, 174 pp., $3.95). A study of the Church regarded as the dialectical product of the encounter between the Kingdom of God and the world.

The Life of Christ, by Charles L. Allen (Revell, 1962, 157 pp., $2.50). The rearrangement of the four Gospels into one story in the belief that only thus is the story complete.

Recent Studies in Philosophy and Theology, by David Hugh Freeman (Presbyterian and Reformed, 1962, 150 pp., $3.75). A lucid examination of the relationship of theology and philosophy in the Neo-Thomism of Gilson and Maritain, the Neo-Augustinianism of Dooyeweerd, and the Neo-Existentialism of Tillich.

Altar Prayers for the Church Year, by Clemens Henry Zeidler (Augsburg, 1962, 200 pp., $6.50). Altar prayers for the entire liturgical year; suitable for use in the pulpits of less liturgical churches. A fine production.

Ecce hom*o, by Joseph Jobé (Harper & Row, 1962, 189 pp., $15). The life of Jesus as seen by artists through the centuries and the world over. The book itself is a thing of fine craftsmanship.

Paperbacks

Mark—Gospel of Action, by Ralph G. Turnbull (Baker, 1962, 86 pp., $1). A bird’s-eye view of Mark. Excellent for study groups.

Our Church Plans for Adults, by Joseph John Hanson (Judson, 1962, 112 pp., $1.25). A manual of valuable suggestions and advice on how to promote adult Christian education in the church.

Current Books and Pamphlets (Missionary Research Library, 1962, 36 pp., $.50). A selected list of books and pamphlets added during the first six months of 1962 to the Missionary Research Library of New York.

No Other Foundation, Commemorative Essays on Menno Simons, by Walter Klaassen and others (Bethel College, North Newton, Kan., 1962, 76 pp., $1.50). A series of lectures which contribute to the rediscovery of the Anabaptist-Mennonite heritage occurring in our time.

If You Marry Outside Your Faith, by James A. Pike (Harper & Row, 1962, 159 pp., $1.25). A provocative discussion of mixed marriages with special reference to Protestant-Roman Catholic combines. Revised edition of 1954 publication.

Understanding Communism, by James D. Bales (Baker, 1962, 88 pp., $1). A quite objective and serviceable study manual for church groups. Marred by unpolished writing.

Communism: Who? What? Why?, by Henlee H. Barnette (Broadman, 1962, 64 pp., $.95). Two hundred questions and answers about the strategy, the tactics, and the historical, factual situation of Communism at home and abroad, by an author who knows his field, spent a month in the U.S.S.R., and interviewed Khrushchev for 2½ hours.

Reprints

What Americans Believe and How They Worship, by J. Paul Williams (Harper & Row, 1962, 530 pp., $6). Covers too much and too little. No mention is made of Reformed churches but Alcoholics Anonymous and Beat Zen are included. The author’s evaluations are cavalier and careless. Revised and enlarged; first printed in 1952.

A Modern Philosophy of Religion, by Samuel M. Thompson (Regnery, 1962, 601 pp., $7.50). A philosophy of religion which is admittedly committed to theism and carries the reader through the development of a positive argument. First published in 1955.

Ben Mabais

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Since the Tambaran meeting of the International Missionary Council, a difficult word has become popular. Wherever one moves in Africa and Asia or takes up a book on missions, the word “indigenization” crops up.

Since Tambaran there has been a growing stress that the Christian church, especially in Africa and Asia, must become indigenous, must become more fully rooted in the local soil and fit into each country’s or area’s specific cultural milieu. Somehow the Church is to reflect more fully than hitherto the human heritage of those among whom it has appeared, although basically it can be rooted only in Christ.

It was felt at the time of the council and is still felt that in most cases the Gospel was unnecessarily “foreign” not primarily because of its inherent foreignness but because it was presented in completely Western cultural garb to the peoples of Africa and Asia. Realization that the Church was often unnecessarily foreign and had too little understanding of or contact with the everyday life and heritage of specific peoples was long overdue. The Church’s liturgy, hymns and music, and sometimes even its language were strange. It was patterned after some Western mother church in Europe or the United States. The genius and the heritage of the people concerned had no opportunity for expression in the rigid form of a Church transplanted from Europe or America. Most missionary leaders agree that this state of affairs must change if the Church in Africa and Asia is to have a future. The change is especially necessary in an age when many African and Asian countries are experiencing a rising national conciousness. Too often we have failed to let these peoples share their “riches” with us; we have prescribed all the patterns in church life. Writing on the Church’s problems in Africa, T. S. Trimingham makes the following pointed observations: “Protestant Christianity has carried with it opposition to the basic elements of African religious expression. Its antipathy to emotionalism, its divorce from art, its lack of true understanding of ritual through which the African apprehends religious truths … are only a few of the things which have led to the arrest and sterility of the African religious genius. In consequence local churches are introverted in their life and deaf to the call of missionary encounter and outreach, hence, too, the birth of pathological forms of African religions.” He then asks how this type of Christianity can possibly counteract Islam, for example, which is expressed as a laymen’s religion, and also the African Separatist movements which, as the existing socio-religious structures break up, will flourish more than ever in rural Africa.

The history of the Church indicates at least five classical reactions to culture:

1. That of men like Tertullian and Kierkegaard can be described as Christ against culture.

Problems of Resettlement

But the trouble signalled by the war cries stirred by the gallant band of soldiers is expected in resettlement programs stressed by the various church refugee agencies.

It took a year and a half to really launch the resettlement programs. It seemed impossible that the stream of refugees could continue for any length of time, let alone continue to swell. And, at first, many felt Castro’s downfall was imminent. So the Catholic Relief Services agency, the 18 denominations represented in the Protestant Latin American Emergency Committee and working through Church World Service, the Hebrew International Aid Society, and the International Rescue Committee were not set up to do much but offer emergency food, clothing, and medical and housing aid to the Cubans.

The attitude of the refugees themselves was that they could wait right in Miami for their relatives and friends, be on hand to return to their homeland as soon as Castro was overthrown, be among people whose customs and language were the same, and enjoy a climate just like home. They were disinterested in, or afraid of, being resettled in another part of the country where, among other things, their federal aid checks would be cut off.

Nationally, churches were slow to recognize the problem. Locally, churches were reluctant to lose the opportunity for evangelization of the newcomers or to deplete the new Spanish congregations by resettling established members.

But the continued flow of refugees at the rate of 2,000 a week, an increasing problem of unemployment in the city of Miami, and a growing threat of friction with the native population because of it, finally triggered programs for resettling the Cubans in other parts of the country.

Now more than 50,000 Cubans have been resettled, some going to every state except Alaska. A majority of them—30,000—have been resettled through Catholic agencies. Protestants have resettled more than 8,000, Jews nearly 2,000, and the non-denominational International Rescue Committee nearly 12,000.

Resettlement had reached a peak of nearly 1,000 persons a week—as compared with 2,000 refugees a week still pouring into Miami—just before the Cuban missile crisis changed the picture again.

The first effect was the end to twice-a-day commercial plane flights from Havana, which always had full loads of refugees. Some few other refugees still are managing to escape the island. Among the most recent is Dr. Pascual Herrera, director of the Baptist Hospital in Havana, who was forced by the government to stay on the job there. He escaped by boat to join his family, who had been in Miami for more than two years.

The most telling effect of the crisis, however, particularly since the release of the prisoners of war and the renewed talk of invasion, has been an almost complete halt of the resettlement program. Sensing a new hope of returning to their homeland soon, the Cubans are not willing to leave Miami.

Catholics Take the Limelight

The drying up of the pool of refugees willing to be resettled is bringing to the surface some of the frictions between Catholic and Protestant agencies in dealing with the whole problem.

The Catholic Church at first opposed resettlement; it felt it was easier to care for the refugees all from one center and to utilize the more than 100 Spanish-speaking priests and other religious persons who were among the first to be exiled. The large numbers concentrated in the one center also made a more dramatic story to encourage aid.

It was mainly the Catholic Church, along with city officials, that got the federal government interested in aiding the refugees. But Protestants resented the fact that government officials—in the beginning-talked only to local Catholic agancies and set up joint offices with the Catholic refugee center. Francis Cardinal Spellman was photographed handing a $10,000 check to President Eisenhower on the Augusta golf course for surplus food for the Cubans, and it was a front-page picture across the nation. But the same week the Southern Baptist Convention gave a similar amount of money through regular church channels and so got only a couple of lines in local papers.

Since a majority of the Cuban people are nominally Catholic (less than two per cent are Protestants), most of them would have registered for aid with the Catholic agencies anyway. Because of the way in which the government agency was set up at first, however, it was difficult for the Cubans to register with any of the other agencies. This situation was changed with time, and to date 68 per cent of the 150,000 refugees who have registered have registered with the Catholic welfare agency, 8 per cent with Church World Service, 2 per cent with HIAS, and 22 per cent with the International Rescue Committee.

Significantly, while the Catholics have registered nearly 70 per cent of the refugees, they have handled just 60 per cent of those resettled. Protestants have resettled more than 15 per cent, while registering only 8 per cent.

When Church World Service inaugurated the “flights to freedom,” in which planeloads of refugees were resettled in other cities, the Catholics would not make it a joint project and derided the whole idea as impractical publicity-seeking. Now the Catholics have their own “flights to freedom.”

Protestant spokesmen have charged that they could step up their resettlement considerably, but the Catholic agencies are reluctant to let refugees registered with them be resettled through Protestant-sponsored projects. The Protestants themselves have run out of eligible people of their own to resettle. Many of those registered are too old or unskilled to be resettled, or are wives and children who are waiting for husbands and fathers still in Cuba.

Dr. O. G. Grotefend, director of the Protestant Latin American Emergency Committee, emphasized, “We do not attempt to ‘buy’ new church members by assisting them to resettle. But in all honesty, we must admit that a generosity of opinion is generated toward our church by our actions and many of these people are joining Protestant communions. However, this is a result and not a motive of Christian action.”

Hugh McLoone, director of the Catholic refugee center, hotly denied that his agency has ever stood in the way of Church World Service in resettling any Cubans. “We have transferred without question as many as 10 or 12 cases involving 20 or 25 people a day. But many times cases we transferred come back to us after several weeks because they have not been resettled.”

A Successful Program

Despite the friction in the mechanics of resettlement, the resettlement of the Cubans themselves has proved to be highly successful. Both the Cubans and the American communities where they have been relocated are pleased.

Miami’s Protestant churches—particularly the Episcopalians and Methodists—are doing an outstanding job of preparing refugees for resettlement. They are teaching them English (the principal requirement for getting employment) and how to cook American foods, and are giving them medical aid and clothing.

More than half the Cubans aided in this manner are nominal Catholics who heard by word of mouth of the opportunities offered. Some did not know that the Protestant church even existed in their homeland, and others had been told that Protestants were worse than Communists. The Protestant centers do not push religion on the refugees, but they do make it clear that spiritual aid is available and stress that the centers themselves are spiritually motivated.

On the other end, it is the churches in the cities where Cubans are being resettled which are making the programs possible. Members of congregations take complete responsibility for the refugee families. They provide a house and furnishings, a job, friendship, and the promise of continued help until the Cubans become established members of the community.

The resettlement program has so impressed American communities that Grand Rapids, Michigan, for example, has a waiting list of homes who want to take in refugees, even though the Christian Reformed Church already has brought three groups of the Cubans to the city.

So it has been throughout the nation. More than 13,000 refugees have been resettled in New York, nearly 6,000 in New Jersey, nearly 3,000 in California, and more than 2,000 in Illinois. The only bad taste came with an early, poorly organized project in Cleveland which later worked out smoothly through the efforts, mainly, of the Protestant churches of the area.

Meanwhile the Miami churches have been rather successful with their type of local resettlement programs, integrating many of the more than 100,000 remaining refugees into the permanent population. Dozens of churches now have at least one Cuban in a position of leadership.

Nearly 300 Protestant families have provided foster homes for Cuban children separated from their parents. The Miami Diocese of the Catholic Church is aiding five times that number of children with an orphanage-type arrangement at three major centers. The Episcopal refugee center has provided college scholarships to 24 Cuban young people of all denominations, including one youth who will study for the Episcopal priesthood and whose Catholic priest teachers in Cuba told him the Anglican church did not exist in his homeland.

But the major portion of the Cubans still in Miami depend on the church refugee centers mostly for food, clothing, and medical aid to supplement the basic support they receive from the U. S. government—which, incidentally, foots the travel expenses of resettlement.

With the Cuban crisis still with us, 1963 promises to be a year of continued demand upon the chinches to aid and resettle the refugees. The Episcopal church alone has asked its members to contribute not less than $450,000 this year for this work. Baptists are asking their churches in each state to take one month in which they will contribute $10,000 cash plus clothing and food for Cuban relief. Other denominations have budgeted similar amounts for the work.

In addition, Presbyterians, with the aid of the National and Florida Councils of Churches, have prepared a series of radio and television programs to instruct local refugees as to what aid is available, encourage them to relocate, and offer them a spiritual lift. Other programs are designed to prepare other communities across the nation to join in the project and receive Cuban refugees. But the question now is whether the refugees will be willing to be resettled in the light of their hope that an imminent, U. S.-supported invasion will free their homeland so that they can return, many of them to a deeper spiritual life and more vigorous church life than their nation has ever known.

A. T.

LEISURE IN AN EVANGELICAL ATMOSPHERE

The “evangelical market,” associated mostly with literature and insurance, broke new ground last month.

In Miami Beach, a ten-story oceanfront hotel opened its doors to a teetotaler clientele.

In Detroit, a “Christian supper club” promised the best in sanctified entertainment.

Both enterprises use converted facilities. The Miami Beach hotel, the Biltmore Terrace, was purchased by Chicago builder A. Harold Anderson, whose renovation program featured substitution of a citrus juice counter for the liquor bar.

Anderson, a layman of the Evangelical Covenant Church of America, arranged daily chapel services, but seeks to avoid the Bible conference approach. He said the hotel merely caters to those who prefer a non-alcoholic atmosphere, whether they be Christians or not.

Charles Pitts, noted Toronto builder and active Christian layman, is experimenting with a similar hotel venture in Fort Lauderdale.

The Christian restaurant in Detroit was the inspiration of Ed Darling, former leader of that city’s Voice of Christian Youth (Youth for Christ affiliated). It is known as the Crossroads Supper Club. Darling also hoped to begin a breakfast club broadcast for Christian women.

“We have labored all night and taken nothing.” So said some Roman Catholic bishops shortly before the Second Vatican Council suspended its labors until next September, after two months of work during which not one full decree or constitution was adopted. At first blush some may consider this a poor performance for what had been billed as the “best prepared” council in history. Even preparatory work of the past two years will be completely overhauled in the next nine months. The pope has created a control commission which will coordinate activity of the working commissions in the interim.

Only four drafts reached the council floor. These were the liturgical schema, the schema on the sources of revelation, the schema on mass communications, and the project, “On the Church,” which was discussed only briefly and in general.

Of the liturgical draft, the amended preface and the first chapter were voted on. Bishops with the approval of the Holy See may now change many parts of the Mass from Latin into the vernacular. The non-controversial draft on mass communications was quickly approved in principle and sent back for further study.

The schema on the sources of revelation—reportedly a high point of the council from the viewpoint of dramatic debate—was, in effect, rejected by a nearly two-thirds vote. Pope John’s intervention is regarded as a significant turning point. The question has been referred to a special mixed commission which has been enlarged by the addition of a co-chairman and a number of bishops who had been working with the commission for Christian unity. The place of tradition in regard to revelation is at issue.

Despite an apparent slowness of movement, Father Robert A. Graham, Religious News Service special correspondent, considers council developments “positive and encouraging.” He describes the “most important milestone” reached as the “clarification, scope and purpose” of the council. “Debates registered a dominant pastoral orientation of the Council Fathers. This concentration was sanctioned by Pope John in his directive of norms issued in the last days of the first session.”

Graham speaks also of “startling structural changes” witnessed by the church in council. One is the “tacit acceptance of the existence of national hierarchies acting as groups during debates on the liturgy. For instance, many bishops spoke on the need of allowing regional Church leaders to determine for themselves, even if with approval of the Holy See, what applications and modifications need to be made in liturgy conformable to specific needs of their respective peoples and faithful.”

A “most important structural evolution” of which “the record does not speak,” observes Graham further, “is the new relationship between bishops and the Pope. Hitherto, bishops’ contacts with the Holy See have been theoretically with the Pope but actually with the Papal Congregations or the administration of the Roman Curia.… At the Council this has changed, probably for good, as the Fathers now find themselves associated directly with the Pope in great decisions affecting the Church.”

Observers have noted hopefully the ready acceptance of the trans-Alpine prelates and their influence on the council. And the Protestant delegate-observers have been impressed by the fraternal treatment accorded them—as if they were members of sister churches. (No official position, however, has been taken to that effect. It is easier to fail to repeat an action than to revise a dogma.) Roman Catholics have in turn been impressed by the visitors’ “admirable discretion in delicate circ*mstances strange and unprecedented for all concerned.” The pope is said to have taken the side of liberal forces which wish to stress the affirmative side of matters rather than delivering anathemas. Thus the health of Pope John, who in 1962 became the first religious figure to be designated Time’s “Man of the Year,” could have vital bearing on the council’s future. As recess came, he said: “One year is a long time. I may not be here. If I am not, there certainly will be another Pope.”

Some have asked whether historical differences loom larger than theological, due to the current lack of significant interchanges between Romanism and Greek Orthodoxy, the latter being theologically closer to Rome than Protestantism. The situation is obscure, but ecclesiastical tensions are said probably to be due more to Athens than to Istanbul, Moscow, or Rome.

Protestants have their fingers crossed in regard to the whole field of Mariolatry, including the introduction of St. Joseph into the Mass—the council has not yet acted. And permissible marriage of priests and communion under both kinds are regarded as yet several councils away.

Protestant ecumenists are actually not expecting too much. They sense a danger of rising Catholic expectations that Protestants will return to union with Rome because of friendly treatment.

In the area of public relations, Protestants in general have been rather discouraged by the Roman policy of secrecy in matters of council deliberation. But the cloak has not been sufficient to hide the fact of internal Roman controversy. An eminent Protestant theologian has noted that the generous treatment given the Protestant delegate-observers has rendered it tactless for them to tell the world of “the tremendous contrasts and even hostilities they have observed.” But a Catholic bishop returning home told him of his surprise at the wealth of different opinions, and spoke of a prelate who went to the council with very definite orthodox views but had since changed his mind completely. This Protestant theologian comments that the Roman problems are those troubling churches everywhere: Scripture and tradition, Scripture and Church, inspiration and inerrancy. “The fight between Cardinals Ottaviani and Bea is paralleled by that between the fundamentalist and critical—not ‘modernist’ for modernism was ousted by Pius X—interpretations. ‘Critical and Catholic’: this program of Bishop Gore and the people around Lux Mundi would correspond to the Pontifical Biblical Institute. It will be a tremendous job for the newly-appointed commission to prepare statements which in the fall of 1963 will please all bishops, or at least a substantial majority. It is one of the most crucial years of the history of the Roman Church.”

And if the Roman prelates have grave problems in reaching agreement among themselves in this area, the orthodox Protestant who would like to look hopefully upon the council begins to envision the necessity for a few centuries of councils before agreement could possibly be reached on such great evangelical principles as:

(1)The authority of Scripture alone, which leaves no room for the Roman elevation of church tradition and “the living mind of the Church,” nor for the papacy either.

(2)Christ as sole Mediator, which renders superfluous a system of priestcraft, Mariolatry, and hagiolatry.

(3)Justification by faith alone, which means that while good works have a place in one’s salvation, they have nothing to do with his justification.

The anathemas directed by the Council of Trent at Protestant theology have never been withdrawn.

F. F.

The Brink Of Violence

Police moved in swiftly last month when an “anti-proselytizing” outburst in Jerusalem threatened to get out of hand. The incident occurred at a center operated by the Hebrew Evangelical Society, a Protestant group, in the Mushara section of the Israeli city. The area is densely populated by Orthodox Jewish immigrants, mainly from Morocco.

Trouble arose after Yaacov Goren, director of the center, and an official named Elzam, both converted Jews, had invited neighborhood children to a Chanukah celebration, reportedly without the consent of their parents who were attending a local synagogue.

When the parents emerged from the synagogue and began looking for their children, they found them chanting Chanukah and Christmas songs. Stones were thrown, and one of them struck Goren’s wife, Leah, wounding her slightly. Order was restored when police arrived and took two men into custody. During the ensuing weekend, the mission was placed under strong police protection.

Another minor incident occurred when a man said to be drunk tried to interfere with a Christmas celebration to which about 50 Indian-born Jews had been invited.

In an editorial on the earlier incident, Yediot Aharonot, an evening newspaper, called on the government to put an end to “missionary soul-hunting.” This came after the National Religious Party had made special mention of the missionary society in a strong attack against the “unholy alliance” between missionary groups and other elements opposed to religious reform in the Jewish state.

The Hebrew Evangelical Society, founded in 1931 by Arthur Michelson, has its headquarters in Los Angeles. It was registered in Palestine in 1946. It is not affiliated with the United Christian Council in Israel which represents about 20 major Protestant communities and societies. Dr. Maas Boertien, secretary general of the council, has on several occasions criticized “tactless, aggressive” methods used by certain missionary groups.

Since the establishment of the state of Israel, the Hebrew Evangelical Society has been engaged mainly in distributing clothes and food parcels to new immigrants. Allegations that it engaged in blackmarket operations have been made. One official, Ralph Bong, was deprived some time ago of his temporary residence permit.

In an interview, Goren praised the “correct” attitude of the police after the stone-throwing incident. At the same time, he denied reports that the children who came to the Chanukah party had done so without their parents’ consent.

“Indeed,” he said, “some of the parents attended the party.”

Claiming that the mission center’s relations with the people in the neighborhood were “quite good,” Goren said the “trouble-makers” had come from out-the area. He added that the children’s party was in a “strictly Jewish style” and no attempt was made to mingle Christmas and Chanukah observances.

Goren stressed that he did not mix philanthropic activities with his missionary work. He said that he did not have a congregation in the strict sense of the term and that he belongs to a Baptist church.

The Alternate Course

A Jewish-born Catholic monk, whose petition to claim Jewish nationality under Israel’s Law of Return was rejected, applied last month for the status of permanent resident as a non-Jew.

Father Daniel, 40-year-old Carmelite born of Jewish parents in Poland, applied for an Israeli identity card at Haifa as a first step toward possible application for citizenship by naturalization.

Automatic Israeli citizenship is granted Jews under the 1950 Law of Return. The high court, in a 4–1 decision, ruled that the law does not apply to Jews who abandon Judaism for another religion. However, the court said, it does apply to Jews who profess atheism.

A government official indicated that Father Daniel’s application for resident status would be granted. He would be registered as Catholic by religion, but the nationality section in his identity card would be left blank, the official said.

Father Daniel, who was born Oswald Shumel Refeisen and who came to the Haifa Carmelite monastery three years ago from Poland, had petitioned the court to grant him citizenship on the basis of his being Jewish in the national, rather than the religious, sense.

There was widespread press controversy over the court’s rejection of his petition, with some publications siding with Judge Haime Cohen, the lone dissenter in the majority ruling. Judge Cohen had upheld Father Daniel’s claim, stating that Jewish nationality should be defined without regard to religion.

A guiding principle on Jewish identity was given by the Cabinet to the Interior Minister on July 20, 1958. It stated: “One who in good faith declares himself to be a Jew and is not a member of another religion shall be registered as a Jew.”

Cohen, in dissenting, held that the Cabinet had exceeded its authority in including in its definition the phrase “and is not a member of another religion.” He said: “If the Legislature wished to restrict the compass of the law to Jews who are not members of another religion … it could and should explicitly have said so. Since it has not said so, the law must be interpreted and implemented literally, in a manner that does not inform the term Jew with any religious content or attach to it any religious reservations.”

The majority opinion, on the other hand, declared that “a Jew who has gone over to another religion has excluded himself not only from the Jewish religion but also from the Jewish nation and has no place in the community of Israel. In the mind of the Jewish people, a Jew and a Christian cannot dwell within one person.”

The Park At Katerini

In the picturesque Aegean seaport of Katerini, the Greek Evangelical Church is appealing to the courts an order for seizure of a park which has been the basis of a long-standing dispute. To the 600 families which make up the evangelical community in that town of approximately 30,000, the park is an all-important symbol of their religious freedom. The evangelicals have indicated several times that they will fight to protect their claim to ownership. Latest incident last fall saw evangelical women and children swarm into the park to challenge armed police carrying out the seizure order. The women subsequently set up a round-the-clock vigil to thwart any further seizure attempts. Tents were erected to protect them from the rain. Authorities held up the seizure attempt pending a court decision expected March 5.

Meanwhile, a furious attack against the persecution was undertaken by the only two local newspapers, both published by evangelicals. Their opponents, lacking a medium for rebuttal, decided to publish a newspaper of their own at the biblical city of Thessalonica, some 65 miles to the north. Returning to Katerini late one night with a cargo of opposition newspapers, Constantine Papatheodorou, editor-publisher, was burned to death with two companions following a highway accident.

“This misfortune deeply grieved the evangelical people here,” said the Rev. Athanasios Elias, acting pastor of the Greek Evangelical Church. “They have learned to pray for their enemies and have never missed the opportunity to offer help to those who persecute them.”

A leading state official, a Greek Orthodox, was not as kind:

“The Lord looked upon their injustice and burned them alive.”

Relief In Spain

The Spanish Embassy in Washington advised the National Association of Evangelicals last month that steps have been taken to relieve the situation which led to the court martial last year of a Protestant soldier, Jose Cabrera Romero, for failure to kneel during a Roman Catholic mass he was obligated to attend as part of his military duty.

Missionary News Service reported that in reply to an inquiry, Alonzo Alvarez de Toledo, secretary of the embassy, said:

“While pertinent legislation is being studied, the Spanish government, desirous of avoiding further inconveniences to non-Catholic soldiers, has directed that in the future non-Catholic soldiers will be excluded from duty involving ceremonies of the Catholic faith. Furthermore, a new wording of the pledge of allegiance to the flag has been drafted that will not offend the religious beliefs of non-Catholics.”

“Although these measures have not yet been enacted as law,” the secretary added, “they have already been put into practice.”

Meanwhile, a report made public in Madrid by the International Commission of Jurists said that the Roman Catholic Church in Spain enjoys freedom of expression and association, but that other religions have only a limited freedom of worship.

The report declared that while the Catholic Church has a “strong position,” this is exceptional, since any general exercise of the freedom it possesses “has for years been rendered impossible” by legislation under the Franco regime.

Charges in the 153-page report, entitled “Spain and the Rule of Law,” were promptly denied by the Spanish government. A dispatch from Madrid said the government branded it as “another useless bomb in the anti-Spanish campaign,” while Minister of Information Manuel Fraga Iribarne said it was “plagued” with errors.

The International Commission of Jurists is a non-governmental, non-political organization holding consultative status with the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations. It is supported by some 40,000 lawyers and judges in about 90 countries.

The Catholicity of the Spanish state and the position it bestows on the Catholic Church “inevitably weaken constitutional guarantees of religious freedom,” the commission’s report declared.

“Something even more open to criticism,” it said, “is that freedom of conscience, meaning that none shall be molested on account of his religious beliefs, is not firmly respected.”

The report said ample evidence of the Catholic Church’s strong position was provided by its criticism of the state’s social policy, and the support given by Catholic organizations to the strike staged by the Asturian miners last April.

“The Church,” it said, “did not even hesitate to postulate the act of striking, under certain circ*mstances, as one of the rights of workers, even though legislation for the protection of the state has equated a strike with a military rebellion.”

“The Church’s intervention in social policy discussions,” the report went on to note, “is based on the encyclical, Mater et Magistra. This encyclical, which met with an enormous response in Spain, enables the Church to claim undisturbed propaganda of Catholic social doctrine as part of its apostolate, the free exercise of which was guaranteed by Article 34 of the concordat (between Spain and the Vatican).”

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It comes as a shock to a minister to learn that a pulpit committee has overlooked his dedicated endowments and rejected him, considering him to have a negative personality. Church leaders recognize that an unattractive personality hurts a cause, and they dislike to recommend to any field a man who has neither a balance of good traits nor a graciousness of spirit. They seem to know that the personality and the preacher are not separable identities, that the man rises or falls, emerges to new heights or sinks to levels far beneath his capacity, because of the enhancement or the neglect of his identifying qualities. And it brings one up with a start to realize that his worth to his Lord is measured by the factors in his makeup.

So many aids to pastors fix attention on sermon preparation, administration, or program development that we are tempted to overlook the factor which often makes or breaks a minister—the effective use and enhancement of his personality. Until recently even divinity schools have failed to realize that an unconsidered and undeveloped personality may militate against all that they have sought to develop in their students. Today, in the midst of terrific competition for the minds, bodies, and souls of people, serious attention should be given to the person and the presence of the minister. For the man of God, it may be a time for soul culture—a big, personal landscaping operation.

“You either have it or you don’t!” is far too simple an appraisal of the personality. “Either a preacher’s got it, or he hasn’t” fails to consider that many ministers are not only making the most of what they have, but are zealously building personalities which enrich the trust given to them. Beecher admonished the young man with ministerial aspirations that the vision of “P.C.” which he claimed to have seen in the sky may have meant “Plow corn,” rather than “Preach Christ,” but plowing corn might be the foundation upon which to build a distinguished ministry. Memorable, enduring personalities are made.

Prima donnas exist, those who fulfill every whim of the congregation—that is, for a time—but these have no lasting place in the ministry. We are not pleading that the church raise up a breed of these. But men with marked identifying traits, whose gracious manners match their devotional life, whose bearing and presence bring dignity and honor to any occasion, whose physical appearance and strength of being bring confidence and hope—these are the need of the churches today.

Developing Desirable Traits

The theme of this article, however, is here: this inestimable, important characteristic in a minister—a balanced, attractive personality that appeals to, and impresses others—can be developed. If it is true that “life is a landscaping job,” then a minister’s life is a total of qualities that have been carved out of rugged and often unyielding terrain. The difficulty lies in the fact that no one seems to tell the preacher so. No institution attempts to provide the pastor with a training-school for this important phase of life.

The pastor steps into his field with high hopes, only to stumble upon such distressing appraisals as, “Oh, if he’d only have his clothes pressed,” or “Where was he brought up? His conduct is so crude,” or “People quit coming to hear him; his pulpit manners are atrocious,” or “He expects us to send for him when his bedside presence is obnoxious.” How many have been offended for whom Christ died!

It is dead wrong to conceive that personality traits cannot be improved on the part of those who have been long in the ministry. Perhaps it is a little more difficult to alter those ingrained traits which distress a congregation. Even here, however, one can be made a new creature in Christ Jesus. It is true that some of the brethren come from such crude backgrounds that they have considerably more improving to do, but there are often qualities so precious that the greater effort to uncover them is rewarding.

Members of a congregation often pause before calling attention to a minister’s fault because of his sensitivity. One obvious reason why personality limitations are not brought to the attention of the pastor is the member’s fear that the minister will think the person to be “against the program.” Furthermore, too often the pastor will shut off all channels for personal improvement by little but quite vicious defense mechanisms. These only penalize those who are near to him and who would seek to befriend him by a suggestion. He becomes “conditioned” to his unhappy patterns of action and behavior, and woe be to the one who would help him.

How fortunate is that man of God who comes from a background that is steeped in good manners! Such homes, where gentle ways are expected and practiced, make their basic contribution to the Kingdom of God. But since so many of the brethren, as is expected, come from backgrounds which are unacquainted with the qualities essential to a minister’s effectiveness, the average pastor has a lot of soul-sculpturing to do. And since these unfortunate traits are unrecognized by the man himself, indeed are often held to tenaciously, their uprooting is difficult at the least.

“He’ll always be crude, because he won’t put forth the effort to replace his graceless, tactless ways with manners which mark a gentleman,” was said with such finality that a pulpit committee went to the next name. Pathetically enough, here was a man who might have given to that field a magnificent service. And just as pathetic was the fact that nowhere along the line of the man’s training was he taught the laborious task of substituting gentle virtues for crude ones. It is as though those influences which build men for the ministry had conspired to withhold the disciplines and corrective measures which might have made brilliant a diamond from the rough.

Said one of the most prominent ministers of this generation, “It seems that I make the same grammatical errors my mother made before me, and, believe it or not, down the years of my preparation no one, or no class work, either pointed these out or impressed upon me the importance of their correction. And what pains me is that my entire ministry has been adversely affected.”

Many people—for whom Christ also died—simply do not like and will not tolerate a crude minister. Tragically enough, the minister who gives every evidence of poor breeding can’t interpret his own plight. Moreover, he interprets his rejection as something far remote from anything displeasing in his nature.

If only a fraction of the time that a theological student spent on his Greek or his mathematics could have been given to structuring his personality, so much of what now offends congregations would have been eliminated.

As a result, if a preacher is to learn the more beautiful and attractive qualities which will enhance his ministry, he must do it the hard way: wrest it out by himself. By God’s help, and through ruthless searching, this tool of the spirit may be made more worthy. Where, then, are the areas of the personality which may be in need of landscaping?

A List of Virtues

Pulpit Manners. How often should one be told by his instructors in speech that a minister should keep his feet on the floor! Fidgeting and wiggling are inexcusable. The gestures should be deliberate, measured, and eloquent. In the pulpit—as everywhere—the minister should be a gentleman.

Speech. The minister must deliberately take himself in hand and weed offensiveness from his conversation and public speech. The task is not an easy one.

Appearance. People like to be proud of their pastor. They will not tolerate an inexcusable appearance for long.

Bedside Manner. A gracious, well-mannered call will be a blessing to the sick. The fitting, cheerful word will be in order, and brevity will be the rule.

Conversation. If there is one thing psychology may teach the minister in human relationships, it is to let the other person do the talking. There is enormous skill in drawing the other person out, that he may be at his best in expression.

Emotions. There are some who wear their emotions on their sleeves. Let us learn the beauty to be found in restraint.

Friendliness. If all these personality hallmarks demand discipline, certainly this one does: the art of being friendly. It is a beautiful trait.

Mood. “Be of good cheer!” is the theme of the Gospels. The negative mood, with its attendant attitude, can be a devastating influence upon a whole congregation.

Snobbery. Of all of the personality characteristics attributable to certain ministers, this one is most difficult to whip.

These are some of the negative characteristics which have unbecomingly clung to ministers. They have not only hurt the man but the cause he represents. Unfortunately, their opposites are not learned in the divinity school. They have to be wrought out on the hard anvil of experience. It is, however, a part of soul cultivation and a place where the man of God may set the example for his flock and for his fellows. F. B. MCALLISTER Cincinnati, Ohio (Retired Baptist pastor)