Page 6009 – Christianity Today (2024)

Every evangelical finds himself confronted with the danger of slipping into the ever-hardening attitude of the Pharisee while every theological liberal is confronted with the dangers inherent in the “doctrine” of the Sadducees. These dangers, present in all generations, are perhaps greater today than ever before, as the lines between “conservatives” and “modernists” are being drawn more clearly.

Of the Pharisees our Lord said, “In vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the precepts of men” (Matt. 15:9), while to the Sadducees, questioning him about the resurrection of the dead, his reply was, “You are wrong, because you know neither the scriptures nor the power of God” (Matt. 22:29).

Evangelicals need very much to be warned of the dangers of pharisaism, with its legalism and its negative approach to the Christian faith, and I will write on this another time. For now I am thinking of the growing evidence that many in the major demoninations who hold positions of great power are not far removed from the Sadducees of our Lord’s time.

The chief characteristic of the Sadducees was a type of religious rationalism that denied the realm of the supernatural with its angels and spirits and wholly rejected the doctrine of the resurrection. As has been said by such men as Machen, “Eliminate the supernatural and the miraculous and there is no such thing as Christianity.” How we need to stress this today.

Without the supernatural there is no such thing as the virgin birth, the miracles, the atonement, the resurrection, or prayer. Indeed, eliminate the supernatural and there can be no God, no incarnation of God in the person of His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, and, of course, no Holy Spirit.

In other words, the minute one begins to tamper with God’s supernatural being and his manifestations in supernatural and miraculous ways, he is tampering with the foundational realities of the Christian faith.

The advances made by science stagger the imagination. The Apollo 8 triumph, for instance, has added another dimension to the marvels of modern scientific achievement. But never let us presume to conform God to the limitations of human achievement, for man discovers only what God has created and the laws of the universe that are a part of that creation.

The growing tendency to eliminate the supernatural, or the miraculous, in connection with the Christian faith is one that cannot be countenanced by those who hold to the nature and validity of that faith. Our faith is based, not on man-made dogmas and opinions, but on a divine revelation, supernatural in its nature and miraculous in its effect.

Wherever the natural is substituted for the supernatural or the miraculous nature of the work of the Holy Spirit held in question, effective Christian witness dies. Tragically, we see death in many areas of the Church, because there are those who limit God by their own limitations while they talk and work in terms compatible with those of the secularists and materialists.

The current pressure to secularize the Church is the result of a confusion over both its nature and its message. The need is not to make the Church popular with the world but to show the power of the Holy Spirit to transform lives, and the miracles that take place in the life of one who has had this experience with the living Christ.

Believing neither in the actuality of the Holy Spirit as a Person nor in the supernatural effect he has in the lives of those who have gone through the supernatural experience of being “bom again” (a biblical term that is very unwelcome among many modern Sadducees), many are projecting an image of the Church that is tied to man rather than to God, and to secular activities without reference to this miraculous change.

The modern Sadducee considers himself a realist, in tune with the world and committed to the discoveries and advances of science. The Christian is indeed a realist, but he knows that his faith is based in a supernatural person and that this destiny has no reference to, nor can it be affected by, anything man can do.

I have recently studied intensively the records of the early Church as found in the Acts of the Apostles and in the Epistles of Paul, James, Peter, and John. The Church began in unlikely soil and was confronted by overwhelming obstacles, but not once did the Apostles seek to identify it with the existing social order. It was a supernatural organism existing in a naturalistic world. Its members expected and experienced multiplied evidences of the miraculous character of their faith—faith that changed men and revolutionized the social order, not by secular activism but by the work of the Holy Spirit.

The Church and individual Christians lose their effectiveness as they go the way of the secularist. They also lose the warmth and the light that characterize persons and groups who have had an encounter with Christ.

As was true in our Lord’s day, so today the Church is suffering from those who “know neither the scriptures nor the power of God.” To a tragic number of “Christians” the Bible is a closed book. Regarding it as no longer relevant to this scientific age, they close their minds to its supernatural message and the miraculous effect it has on those who take it as spiritual food and divine wisdom. Furthermore, never having experienced the power of God in their own lives, they ignore its availability for themselves and for those to whom they minister.

Recently, at a student conference dominated by men with a new concept of the mission and message of the Church, a student complained that during two days there had not been one prayer. From the leader he received this reply: “I am sorry that you have not been praying. Everything we do is prayer—cleaning your teeth or any other activity.”

What price secularization!

The Church—and individual Christians—need to rediscover that we are dealing with a supernatural God. Let him speak: “For thus says the LORD, who created the heavens (he is God!), who formed the earth and made it (he established it; he did not create it a chaos, he formed it to be inhabited!): I am the LORD, and there is no other” (Isa. 45:18).

The view of this world from the Apollo 8 capsule was an awesome and thrilling sight to behold. Let the Sadducee stop and remember that we are dealing with the Creator of the universe, the magnitude and complexity of which staggers the mind. This should certainly bring us to our knees in worship.

L. NELSON BELL

“Only the more rugged mortals should attempt to keep up with current literature.” In these words George Ade has pretty well expressed the feeling of those confronted with the vast harvest of books in any one of several fields. But though trying to keep up with today’s tremendous publishing pace may require great stamina, it is a rewarding pursuit.

A review of this past year’s religious publications reveals a number of significant trends: (1) the heavy volume of new books; (2) the increasing difficulty in distinguishing some “religious” books from purely secular volumes; (3) the continuing preoccupation with ecumenicity; (4) the rising popularity of the new morality; and (5) the growing body of material dealing with the nature, authority, and mission of the Church. Evangelicals will want to take special notice of these trends, for they reveal a situation in the Church that evokes concern, and point to opportunities for those determined to proclaim and maintain the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

The great number of books being sold is itself an opportunity for evangelicals to consider. Last year in the United States approximately 20,000 new books were published. In 1966 Americans spent $2,295,000,000 on books. This impressive figure shows that despite competition from television and various other forms of recreation, many Americans are filling their leisure hours with reading. Yet less than 10 per cent of the books Americans bought were religious.

The heavy demand for books is not confined to America or to the English-speaking world. Increasing literacy throughout the world and advances in translation have resulted in a wider market for books all over the globe. And this means that there is now a larger market than ever before for the proclamation of the Gospel through the printed page. Evangelicals must supply this market with books that are sound in theology, thorough and interesting in content, and competent in literary style. Herman Melville once said, “To produce a mighty book, you must choose a mighty theme.” Certainly Christians have a mighty theme to write about. The opportunities for propagating this theme in a myriad of places and a variety of tongues through books may never be greater.

A second factor worthy of note is the growing difficulty in defining a “religious” book. It is only natural that the increasingly hazy distinction between religious and secular in the speculations of the theologians would be reflected in the world of books. Increasing preoccupation with social and political issues has yielded a crop of “religious” books that do not make a distinctively religious contribution.

This phenomenon holds out a twofold challenge to evangelicals. First it issues a call to action in the realm of social issues. Social concern is a legitimate outgrowth of the Christian Gospel. Evangelicals hold that a change in individual hearts through Jesus Christ will lead to change in society and answers to the social problems that confront us. It is time for us to show by our actions that this is so; in the name of Jesus Christ we must give of ourselves to meet both the spiritual and the physical needs of our neighbors. At the same time evangelicals must clearly articulate—verbally and in print—a biblical theology that rejects and refutes “religionless Christianity.” We deal not with an anonymous Christ who confronts men in the structures of society but with Jesus of Nazareth, who died and rose again and calls men to repent and become citizens of the kingdom of heaven through a personal relationship with himself.

A third characteristic of religious publishing today is the great stress on ecumenicity. Although there are signs that the good ship Oikumene may be entering rough waters (see, for example, page 38 of the February 14 issue), many books on the subject continue to appear. And there is a new openness between Roman Catholics and Protestants; houses that in the past published only Protestant writers are now publishing works by Roman Catholics and Catholic houses are publishing Protestant works.

Ecumenical concern is also an area of opportunity and challenge for evangelicals. The biblical idea of unity must be clearly articulated and its practical outworkings investigated. And we must not only define Christian unity but also demonstrate it in our relationships with others of like precious faith. The prevailing mood of dialogue between Roman Catholics and Protestants should call forth the best efforts of evangelical scholarship. As Dr. Bromiley says elsewhere in this issue, the increasing quality of Roman Catholic publications challenges evangelical Protestants “to address themselves to the task of producing a comparable body of historical and theological writings—partly in harmony, partly in dialogue, and partly still in tension, with their Roman Catholic counterparts.”

Other popular areas of discussion during the past year have been the new morality and situation ethics. The weight of popular opinion is on the side of those who deny the necessity or authority of moral absolutes. Some more thoughtful advocates of this view still espouse a high view of morality, but others affirm a freedom that amounts to little more than total license. Although evangelicals must face the real problems raised by this teaching, it is important also that they expose its shaky biblical foundations and faulty logical superstructure.

A fifth trend in religious publication is the Church’s self-examination. Perhaps as never before, churchmen are raising questions about its nature, its mission, and its authority. There is a continuing disenchantment with the institutional church and a growing tendency to see the mission of the Church in purely social categories. But the most basic question at present is that of authority in the Church. Many Protestants have been delighted to see Roman Catholics questioning authority within their church and have acclaimed it as the beginning of a new reformation. But this is not the case. The Reformation of the 1500s was founded upon the authority of Scripture. Today’s reformation is in many instances a rebellion against all authority, including the authority of the Bible. Evangelicals are confronted with the responsibility of affirming the supreme authority of Scripture. Then on this foundation a doctrine of the Church and its mission can be built.

The world of books reflects faithfully the serious problems and errors confronting the Church. But where there are problems there are also opportunities—opportunities for proclaiming the truth of God’s Word through the effective use of the printed page, the powerful affirmation in spoken word, and the faithful witness of consistent Christian lives.

A rash of fatal accidents has afflicted the missionary aviation enterprise. Five accidents claimed seventeen lives in three months.

This series of tragedies calls attention to the question whether single-engine planes are adequate for missionary use. Thus far, missionary aviation has used them exclusively. But a special committee of the United Christian Missionary Society (Disciples), which lost three missionaries in an October crash, now recommends that the replacement be a twin-engine craft. The committee included two missionary pilots.

Cost has undoubtedly discouraged the use of multiengine planes. But many experts in missionary aviation also doubt their desirability on principle. They contend that planes with more than one engine are so much more complex in both maintenance and operation that remote and rugged areas safety may actually be reduced.

One group of evangelicals has been convinced otherwise and has for several years been struggling to build and win certification for a twin-engine plane especially suited to missionary service. The creators of Evangel 4500 may be a bit ahead of their time, but missionary aviation is bound to profit from their experience.

January, February, Et Cetera

If February has sped by faster than other months, it’s not really the fault of shorter days; there are simply fewer of them. But even months luxuriously long (remember January?) never seem to provide enough days for everything demanding attention. And with spring not far behind, those who face special demands on time—ministers, for example—may begin to feel like Henry Reed’s soldier, who sat in class mourning that japonica

Glistens like coral in all of the neighboring gardens,

And to-day we have naming of parts.

Some people respond cavalierly to fleet-footed time:

Gather ye rosebuds while ye may,

Old Time is still a-flying.

Others wonder about the value of trying at all if

Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player

That struts and frets his hour upon the stage

And then is heard no more.

Such futility follows the disintegration of a life not properly timed to itself, to others, or to God. More than 300 days remain in 1969, and each one begins the rest of life. Each of those beginnings requires a rethinking of that day’s priorities and a recognition of that day’s potential, a requirement best fulfilled in reflection. The Psalmist wrote, “Be still before the Lord, and wait patiently for him; fret not.…”

Gun Control And Crime Prevention

The President’s diligent efforts to halt the crime wave in the nation’s capital will be helped measurably if the Congress enacts strong gun-control legislation.

As soon as control of guns is mentioned, fanatics point to constitutional guarantees of the right to bear arms. Need we remind them that this right can be nullified, as was the 18th Amendment? But the choice is not limited to guns or no guns. Restrictive legislation that would keep guns—particularly hand guns, which figure so prominently in bank and store robberies and personal stickups—away from criminal elements is the better solution. There is no valid reason why the sale of hand guns should not be limited on a national basis to persons who have secured a permit and whose guns and fingerprints will be on file with law-enforcement agencies. Nor is there any reason why the use of a hand gun in the commission or attempted commission of a crime should not constitute prima facie evidence of guilt. And surely the possession of a hand gun without a permit should be punishable by a jail sentence.

The tiresome argument that gun-control laws won’t stop criminals from getting and using weapons will remain unconvincing and unprovable until gun control is tried and shown to be ineffective. The right to bear arms need not be infringed for decent citizens, and present constitutional guarantees need not be repealed.

Christian citizens have a high stake in the prevention of homicides, so many of which are caused by hand guns. They should make their opinions known to their congressmen, and thus help to counteract powerful lobbyists who oppose control of these deadly weapons.

Cashing In On Credit

As more and more people rely on credit, interest rates become increasingly a matter of ethics. To draw an absolute line separating the exorbitant from the reasonable is not possible, of course. But who can doubt that innumerable people have been robbed ragged by loan sharks? We can legitimately disagree as to what is a proper rate of interest—say between 5 and 10 per cent. Surely, however, to charge 24 to 36 per cent or more per year is to take unfair advantage of the borrower. If the risk is that high, it ought not to be assumed. Indeed, the impulse buyer whose credit status is risky should not be able to buy on time.

The Old Testament considered loans among the Israelites to be entirely within the framework of charity and neighborliness and ruled out interest charges altogether. The Israelites, however, consistently violated this command. Some Jews even gave their children as sureties. The prophets regularly indicted the money lenders for their wretched practices. Jesus approved of the principle of investment to earn a return, but issued some of his sharpest criticism against those who exploited their neighbors. We are especially concerned over those most liable to be victims—the poor and the uneducated.

Mr. Nixon And The Vatican

A persistent rumor that circulated around Washington after the advent of the new administration was that President Nixon might appoint an American ambassador to the Vatican. The rumor gained strength when it was announced that the President’s European trip would include an audience with Pope Paul VI.

We do not wish to complain about something that is imagined rather than real—unless the rumor was a trial balloon. But this country has enough problems without getting into a hassle over sending an official representative to the so-called Holy See. Increasing numbers of Roman Catholics are challenging the ecclesiastical authority claimed by the Vatican. What good reason is there for a pluralistic society to confer diplomatic dignity upon a religious organization that owns a 109-acre tract of real estate and on this minuscule basis claims political sovereignty?

Latent antipathies could lead to an overt Catholic-Protestant confrontation, as the campaign of the Rev. Ian Paisley in Northern Ireland shows only too well. To appoint an ambassador to the Vatican would badly weaken, if not jeopardize, President Nixon’s “forward together” theme.

Waging War On The Weed

We may be catching our last glimpses of beautiful Marlboro country. That specimen of masculinity who has worn a hole in his shoe walking a mile for a Camel may be able to sit down and rest permanently. Salems may be taken not only out of the country but off the tube.

If the Federal Communications Commission has its way, cigarette manufacturers are down to their last pack in radio and television advertising. In a 6-to-1 decision the FCC has proposed a ban on cigarette commercials. “We are faced,” its statement says, “with a most serious, unique danger to public health.… In the case of such a threat, the authority to act is really the duty to act.”

But the final decision is in the hands of Congress. An act forbidding the FCC and the Federal Trade Commission (which proposed a similar ban last year) to regulate cigarette advertising expires July 1, and unless Congress renews this law, both agencies will be free to carry out the ban. Congress now finds itself in a touchy situation. On the one hand are the clear facts pointing to cigarettes as a menace to public health; on the other hand is the powerful influence of cigarette producers, who spend $244 million a year on television and radio advertising.

Some opponents of the ban claim the FCC has overextended its boundaries (see news, p. 47); they see the action as an entering wedge to government control of all advertising. Yet the FCC has stated clearly that it has no intention “to proceed against any other product commercials.” Its unique action in this case is in full accord with its commission to regulate television and radio broadcasting in the public interest. This bold move is a means of dealing with a clear threat to public health.

It is an indictment of the Church that a government agency has taken the leadership in this vital issue. Strange indeed that in this matter of life and death the voice of the Church has been pitifully weak, if not silent. Churchmen often gather in smoke-filled rooms to draft resolutions protesting the useless waste of life in Viet Nam, only to ignore completely smoking’s heavy contribution to 75,000 deaths a year in the United States—more than twice the number of Americans killed to date in the entire Viet Nam conflict. Here is an opportunity for the clergy to speak out—by example and in action—on an issue directly related to human welfare. In fact, Christians should be leading the way—after all, it’s what’s up front that counts.

Evangelism In The Air

An encouraging number of American evangelicals are realizing anew the urgency of working together for evangelism. This is seen, for example, in the enthusiasm being shown toward the U. S. Congress on Evangelism, scheduled for Minneapolis September 8–14. More and more Christian people sense the great potential of corporate planning in the perennial battle to win men to the Saviour. We hope that each denomination holding a convention this year will see fit to give evangelism priority status. Adequate consideration of the topic is certainly a pressing matter.

Evangelism Under The Southern Cross

Billy Graham’s health prevented him from fully carrying out evangelistic commitments in New Zealand and Australia a year ago. Now he has returned to make good his promise to conduct mass campaigns in both countries. He and his team will hold meetings in Auckland February 27-March 2, in Dunedin March 9, and in Melbourne March 14–23.

No one can dictate how the Spirit of God should work, nor is it possible to predict the manner in which he chooses to do so. Yet the desperate need for a spiritual awakening around the world is obvious. God has done it before and can certainly do it again. And if a fire is lighted in Australia, we can pray that Graham will bring some of the same fire back to New York City’s Madison Square Garden in June.

The Therapy Of Lent

Some Christians dismiss Lent as a legalistic accretion to the Christian calendar. They feel that if something is worth doing, or doing without, then the practice should not be limited to forty days in the year.

To be sure, if one approaches Lent out of a sense of duty or obligation, the spiritual effectiveness of the exercise will be diminished. If on the other hand the Christian sees the approach of Easter as a reminder to think more seriously of his behavior, then Lent can be something more than cottage cheese and hot cross buns.

The therapy of Lent can be physical and mental as well as spiritual. Most of us eat too much and meditate too little. At the very least, Lent is a good time to begin correcting the imbalance.

Ending Campus Chaos

The dreary tale of illegal student and non-student occupation of university properties has been repeated on the campus of the University of Chicago. May we recommend that any student who engages in this pastime be expelled at once; that any non-student be arrested and sentenced to jail; that no other institution admit any student who has been expelled for such activity unless he post a $10,000 good-conduct bond guaranteeing that he won’t repeat his indiscretion. Such measures might enable academia to return to the pursuit of knowledge and encourage the use of processes created to bring about peaceful change rather than strong-arm tactics.

Liberating Women

Another “sex barrier” fell this month when Diane Crump made her debut as a jockey at Hialeah Park. Think what this means. Housewives can at last find exciting and creative fulfillment at the local track—provided they can keep their weight down. Can’t you just see our young mother quickly bundling off the kids to school so she can iron her silks in time for the first race?

Among other things, the Civil Rights Act sought to guarantee equal opportunity regardless of sex. This seems a laudable enough objective, but one that common sense tells us has its limitations. Let’s face the fact that there are jobs for which women can theoretically “qualify” but which they cannot reasonably perform as well as men—and vice versa. To pressure employers to give people work for which they by nature are ill equipped to handle only introduces confusion. Blurring God-given distinctions between male and female will ultimately add to the despair of both.

Inclusive But Exclusive

Christianity is at the same time the most inclusive and the most exclusive religion in the world. John 3:16, one of the most familiar verses in the Bible, makes it clear that it was God’s love for the world—all mankind—that motivated him to send Christ to the cross. No man is beyond the boundaries of God’s love; there is no respect of persons with him (Acts 10:34). He does not regard one man more highly than another on the basis of ethnic origin, economic status, or even moral behavior. Those who are the least likely objects of God’s affection—the publicans, the harlots, the sinners, the “lost”—Jesus came to seek and to save (Luke 19:10). We are reminded that it was “while we were yet sinners” that God demonstrated his love by sending his Son in our behalf (Rom 5:8).

The Scriptures make it clear that any man who responds in faith and obedience to the person of Christ will know the forgiveness and life God offers to all. Jesus said, “Him that cometh unto me I will in no wise cast out” (John 6:37). Both Peter and Paul stated that “whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved” (Acts 2:21; Rom. 10:13). No one is excluded from this invitation.

On the other hand, the Christian faith is radically exclusive. The man who comes to God must come on God’s terms—he must come through Jesus Christ. The same verse that speaks of God’s love for the world limits eternal life to “whosoever believeth in him” (John 3:16). Jesus said, “No man cometh unto the Father but by me” (John 14:6). Repeatedly Jesus indicated that one’s attitude toward him determines one’s relationship to God. (e.g. John 5:30–47; 8:42–47). John states that “whosoever denieth the Son, the same hath not the Father” (1 John 2:23), and “he that hath not the Son of God hath not life” (1 John 5:12). Peter proclaimed, “Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved” (Acts 4:12).

It may seem narrow and unloving to speak of the exclusiveness of Christianity. But is it unloving to warn a man who is in danger? Dare we deceive needy men by distorting the truth of God to accommodate their vanity? If we really love men we must faithfully confront them with the truth—that there is no way to God that bypasses Jesus Christ, no approach to the Father that avoids the Son. To offer any other hope is to deceive and to destroy.

The narrow way that leads to life is open to all; but it is narrow, and a man can set foot on it only through Jesus Christ.

The almost overwhelming flow of religious books continues to pour forth from the publishers. It appears that 1969 will be another banner year, certainly insofar as quantity is concerned. The following list is prepared from information provided by the publishers and is intended to give the reader an overview of the religious publishing field as well as to call his attention to individual volumes that may be of particular interest to him.

Topics that have been in the spotlight during the past year—ecumenics, social issues, situation ethics, the nature and authority and mission of the Church, the historical roots of the Gospels—continue to be priority items.

Evangelical readers will be delighted at the prospect of further works from such outstanding writers as S. Barton Babbage, G. C. Berkouwer, F. F. Bruce, Vernon Grounds, Carl F. H. Henry, J. W. Montgomery, Leon Morris, Bernard Ramm, Francis Schaeffer, J. R. W. Stott, and Cornelius Van Til.

Although we will be able to judge the quality of this year’s crop only as the books begin to appear, we have indicated with an asterisk the volumes that publishers consider their most significant religious publications.

AESTHETICS, ARCHITECTURE, MUSICCONCORDIA: Organ Handbook by H. Klotz and Christian Art in Africa and Asia by A. Lehmann. FUNK AND WAGNALLS: *Churches of the Holy Land by G. Bushnell, O.F.M. HARPER & ROW: Environmental Man by W. Kuhns. HERALD: The Mennonite Hymnal. JOHN KNOX: The Now Generation by D. Benson. MACMILLAN: The Two Hands of God by A. Watts and The Anthem in England and America by E. Weinandt and R. Young. PRINCETON: Christian Iconography: A Study of Its Origins by A. Grabar. WORD: Seekers after Mature Faith by E. G. Hinson and In Search of Balance by V. M. Kott.

APOLOGETICS, PHILOSOPHY, SCIENCEABINGDON: Openings for Marxist-Christian Dialogue edited by T. Ogletree, and Science, Secularization, and God by K. Cauthen. BAKER: Conflict and Harmony in Science and the Bible by J. Sears and Therefore Stand by W. Smith. BETHANY: Twentieth Century Prophecy: Jean Dixon, Edgar Cayce by the Christian Research Institute. BRUCE: Future of Man by E. Bianchi. COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY: *The Religious Significance of Atheism by A. MacIntyre and P. Ricoeur. CORPUS: The Reasonableness of Faith by D. Allen and Responsibility in Modern Religious Ethics by A. Jonsen. EERDMANS: Christian Letters to a Post-Christian World by D. Sayers. GOOD NEWS: *Conquest of Inner Space by L. Dolphin, Jr. HARPER & ROW: Evolution: The Theory of Teilhard De Chardin by B. Delfgaauw, Identity and Difference by M. Heidegger, A Place to Stand by E. Trueblood. HARVARD: Early German Philosophy by Beck and Late Latin Writers and Their Greek Sources by P. Courcelle. HERDER AND HERDER: Love Alone by H. Urs von Balthasar, Faith and Reflection by H. Dumery and Hearers of the Word by K. Rahner. INTER-VARSITY: *Death in the City by F. Schaeffer, Philosophy and the Christian Faith by C. Brown, and Runaway World by M. Green. JOHN KNOX: Fifty Key Words in Philosophy by K. Ward. MCGILL UNIVERSITY: Standing and Understanding by S. Frost. MACMILLAN: A Search for God in Time and Memory by J. Dunne, The Historian and the Believer by V. Harvey, and On Death and Dying by E. Ross. MOODY: Protestant Christian Evidences by B. Ramm. OXFORD: New Essays on Religious Language edited by D. M. High. PRESBYTERIAN AND REFORMED: Organic Evolution and the Christian Faith by J. B. Davidheiser, Education in the Truth by N. De Jong, Christian Theory of Knowledge by C. Van Til, and Zen-Existentialism by L. S. Chang. SCRIBNER: Integral Humanism by J. Maritain and Existence and Love by W. A. Sadler, Jr. SHEED AND WARD: The Death in Every Now by R. Ochs, S.J., Christian Anthropocentrism by J. Metz, and Logic: The Art of Inference and Prediction by D. Kane, O.P. UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO: Religious and Anti-Religious Thought in Russia by G. Kline, Philosophy by K. Jaspers. WORLD: Humanism and Christianity by M. D’Arcy. ZONDERVAN: The Faith of a Scientist by G. Glegg, Where Is History Going? by J. W. Montgomery, and The Vacuum of Unbelief by S. B. Babbage.

ARCHAEOLOGY BAKER: The Dead Sea Scrolls and the Bible by C. Pfeiffer (revised reprint), Babylon and the Bible by G. Larue, and *Baker’s Pictorial Introduction to Biblical Archaeology by B. Boyd. KNOPF: Historical Archaeology by I. Hume. WORD: An Archaeologist Looks at the Gospel by J. Kelso.

BIBLE COMMENTARIES, DICTIONARIES and TRANSLATIONSABINGDON: Young Readers Dictionary of the Bible. BAKER: Exposition of Daniel by H. Leupold. BEACON HILL: *Beacon Bible Commentary, Volume I. BROADMAN: The Broadman Bible Commentary, Volume I: Genesis and Exodus, and Volume VIII: Matthew and Mark. CORPUS: Dictionary of the Council, edited by J. Deretz and A. Nocent. EERDMANS: *Theological Dictionary of the New Testament, Volume VI by G. Kittel and G. Friedrich, Obadiah: A Critical Exegetical Commentary by J. D. W. Watts, and Wesleyan Bible Commentary, Volume III edited by C. Carter. FORTRESS, HERDER AND HERDER: Taizé Picture Bible, adapted from the Jerusalem Bible. HERDER AND HERDER: New Testament for Spiritual Reading edited by J. L. McKenzie. MACMILLAN: Four Prophets by J. B. Phillips. MOODY: Daniel, Ezra, and Nehemiah by G. Luck. VANDERBILT UNIVERSITY: *Translating for King James edited by Ward Allen. ZONDERVAN: *The Zondervan Pictorial Bible Atlas by E. M. Blaiklock et al.

BIBLICAL STUDIES, GENERALABINGDON: If Man Is To Live by B. Currin, The Bible and History edited by W. Barclay, and Taking The Bible Seriously by L. Keck. AUGSBURG: In Search of Ultimates by W. Streng, The Bible Speaks Again by the Dutch Reformed Church, and Creation, Fall, and Flood by T. Fretheim. BRUCE: Questions about Jesus by J. Hichl. CHRISTIAN LITERATURE CRUSADE: The Lord’s Prayer: The Living Word by R. Snowden. CONCORDIA: Earth with Heaven by R. Kaemmerer. EERDMANS: New Testament Development of the Old Testament by F. F. Bruce. HERDER AND HERDER: On the Grace and Humanity of Jesus by J. Martin. SCRIBNER: The Growth of the Biblical Tradition by K. Koch. WESTMINSTER: The King and the Kingdom by W. Barclay. WORD: The Bible, the Supernatural and the Jews by M. Phillips. ZONDERVAN: The Bible—the Living Word of Revelation by M. Tenney et al., Holy Bible: The New Berkeley Version (revision), and All the Trades and Occupations of the Bible by H. Lockyer.

BIBLICAL STUDIES, OLD TESTAMENTABINGDON: Amos and Isaiah: Prophets of the Word of God by J. Ward. CHRISTIAN LITERATURE CRUSADE: A Man Just Like Us by H. Fife. DOUBLEDAY: Jews, Justice and Judaism by R. St. John and The Worship of Israel: A Re-assessment by W. Harrelson. EERDMANS: The Prophet of Israel by H. Ellison and Proverbs—Isaiah 39 by A. Cundall. FORTRESS: Luther and the Old Testament by H. Bomkamm and The Theology of the Book of Ruth by R. Hals. HARPER & ROW: Myth, Legend, and Custom in the Old Testament by T. Gaster. HARVARD: *From Shadow to Promise by J. Preus. JOHN KNOX: Tradition for Crisis by W. Brueggemann and A Guide to the Prophets by S. Winward. JUDSON: Contemporary Old Testament Theologians by R. Laurin. LOIZEAUX: *The Prophecies of Daniel by L. Strauss. MOODY: An Introduction to Old Testament Prophets by H. Freeman, The End Times by H. Hoyt, The Jew and Modern Israel by M. Lindberg, and Prophecy of Ezekiel by C. Feinberg. PAULIST: Bibletime Series by M. Bouhys. SHEED AND WARD: Path to Freedom: Christian Experiences and the Bible by J. Corbon. VANDERBILT UNIVERSITY: A Rigid Scrutiny: Critical Essays on the Old Testament by I. Engnell. WESTMINSTER: Isaiah 40–66, A Commentary by C. Westermann. WORD: Psychology in the Psalms by M. Inch.

BIBLICAL STUDIES, NEW TESTAMENTABINGDON: The Deeds of Christ by H. Bosley, Mark the Evangelist by W. Marxsen, and Interpreting the Gospels by R. Briggs. AUGSBURG: Handbook to the New Testament by C. Westermann. BEACON HILL: That Ye Sin Not by N. Mink. BIBLICAL RESEARCH PRESS: The New Testament Church by E. Ferguson. BROADMAN: The Practical Message of James by H. Colson and Studies in the Epistle of James by A. Robertson (reprint). CONCORDIA: The Books of the New Testament by H. Mayer. CORPUS: I Saw a New Earth: An Introduction to the Visions of the Apocalypse by P. Minear. EERDMANS: Jesus and the Twelve by R. Meye and Studies in the Fourth Gospel by L. Morris. FORTRESS: What Can We Know About Jesus? by Bornkamm, Hahn, and Lohff and The Beginnings of Christology by W. Marxsen. HARPER & ROW: An Outline of the Theology of the New Testament by H. Conzelmann and The New Testament Speaks by Barker, Lane, and Michaels. HERALD: The Christian Way by J. Miller. HOLT, RINEHART AND WINSTON: Is It I, Lord? by Uleyn. INTER-VARSITY: Philippians by B. Boyd. JUDSON: Paul and Philippians by J. Berkeley. KREGEL: Behold, He Cometh! by H. Hoeksema. PRENTICE-HALL: The New Testament Themes for Contemporary Man by R. Ryan, C.S.J. REVELL: Hidden Meaning in the New Testament by R. Ward. SCRIBNER: Saint Paul by C. Buck and G. Taylor. SHEED AND WARD: The Gospel Parables by E. Armstrong. TYNDALE: Contemporary Commentaries (Mark) by R. Wolff and Greatest Life Ever Lived and Promises of Jesus, both by K. Taylor. WESTMINSTER: According to John—The New Look at the Fourth Gospel by A. M. Hunter. WORD: *The Children’s New Testament translated by G. Ledyard and The Hope of Glory by M. Loane. ZONDERVAN: Plain Talk on John by M. Gutzke, John the Baptist by M. Loane, and Jesus—Human and Divine by H. McDonald.

BIOGRAPHYEERDMANS: Captive to the Word (Martin Luther) by A. S. Wood. HARPER & ROW: The Life and Death of Dietrich Bonhoeffer by M. Bosanquet. HARVARD: Coleridge and Christian Doctrine by Barth. HERDER AND HERDER: Pentecost Comes to Central Park by R. York. JUDSON: Axling, A Christian Presence in Japan by L. Hine. REVELL: I Remember, I Remember by L. Glenn with C. Smith. SCRIBNER: Erasmus of Christendom by R. Bainton. UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO: Dwight L. Moody: American Evangelist, 1837–1899 by J. Findlay, Jr. WARNER: Giants Along My Path by D. Oldham. WORD: God Owns My Business by S. Tam, as told to Ken Anderson, and The Gutter and the Ghetto by D. Wilkerson. WORLD: Richelieu by D. P. O’Connell. ZONDERVAN: M. R. DeHaan—The Country Doctor Who Went Global by J. Adair, Not Made for Defeat—The Authorized Biography of Oswald J. Smith by D. Hall, and By Life or by Death (Viet Nam martyrs) by J. Hefley.

CHURCH HISTORYABINGDON: Preaching in American History edited by D. Holland. AUGSBURG: The Lutheran Free Church by E. Fevold. COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY: Peter in Rome: The Literary, Liturgical, and Archaeological Evidence by D. O’Connor. CORPUS: The Church as Enemy: Anticlericalism in Nineteenth Century French Literature by J. Moody. DOUBLEDAY: The Last Years of the Church by D. Poling. EERDMANS: The Early Christian Church by H. Chadwick. FORTRESS: Jewish Christianity by H. Schoeps, Patterns of the Reformation by G. Rupp, and Luther’s Works, Volume 42. HARCOURT, BRACE AND WORLD: The Counter Reformation by A. G. Dickens. HARPER & ROW: The Catholic Reformation by J. Olin. HERDER AND HERDER: The Reformation in Germany by J. Lortz. HOLT, RINEHART AND WINSTON: Pre-Columbian American Religions by Krickeberg and The Roman Catholic Church by McKenzie. JOHN KNOX: The Churchmanship of St. Cyprian by G. S. M. Walker. JUDSON: Baptist Successionism by W. M. Patterson. MACMILLAN: The Oxford Conspirators by M. O’Connell. MOODY: MBI—The Story of Moody Bible Institute by G. Getz. OXFORD: The Story of the General Theological Seminary by P. M. Dawley and The First Christian Century: Certainties and Uncertainties by S. Sandmel. PRINCETON: Tradition and Authority in the Western Church, 300–1140 by K. Morrison. SEABURY: Can’t You Hear Me Calling?, by L. Carter. STANFORD: The Fathers of the Latin Church by H. von Campenhausen, translated by Manfred Hoffman. YALE: Development of Christian Doctrine by J. Pelikan.

DEVOTIONALABINGDON: Daily Readings from the Works of Leslie D. Weatherhead edited by F. Cumbers, The Person I Am by G. Asquith, and Trails and Turnpikes by C. Price. AUGSBURG: Safe in His Arms by H. Wislöff. BAKER: Devotions for Children by M. Larson, We Need You Here Lord: Prayers from the City by A. Blackwood, and A Very Present Help by D. Elliot. BEACON HILL: Lift Up Thine Eyes, a compilation from Come Ye Apart. BETHANY FELLOWSHIP: Reigning with Christ by F. J. Huegel. BROADMAN: The Faces of God by S. Schreiner. CONCORDIA: Hosanna in the Whirlwind by O. P. Kretzmann, and God Is No Island by O. Hoffmann. FORTRESS: Uncovered Feelings by H. Brokering. INTER-VARSITY: Ten Great Freedoms by E. Lange, The Greatness of Christ by J. Paterson, This Morning With God, Volume II edited by Carol Adeney. JOHN KNOX: Moving the Earth—for a Song by M. Gaillard, JUDSON: The Cross in Hymns by F. Rest, My Window World by E. Whitehouse, and Faithlifters by J. Lavender. KREGEL: Fully Furnished. The Christian Worker’s Equipment by F. Marsh and The Structural Principles of the Bible by F. Marsh. LIPPINCOTT: So Who’s Afraid of Birthdays? by Anna B. Mow and Prayers to Pray Wherever You Are by J. Struchen. LOIZEAUX: Living Wisely: A Devotional Study of the First Epistle to the Corinthians by J. Blair and Sins of Saints by H. Lockyer. MOODY: Spiritual Maturity by J. Sanders. PAULIST: That Man in You by L. Evely and Before the Deluge by S. Moore and A. Hurt. REVELL: Eight Keys to Happiness by W. Hamby and Trustful Living by C. Holtermann. TYNDALE: When You Pray by H. Lindsell, and Words Fitly Spoken by D. G. Barnhouse. WARNER: Devotions You Can Lead by R. Swisher and God in My Family by D. Haskin. WORD: Sprint for the Sun by L. D. Young, A Man Talks With God and Earth, Moon, and Beyond both by B. Parrott. ZONDERVAN: Sourcebook for Mothers by E. Doan, New Every Morning by P. Howard, God Still Speaks to Women Today by Eugenia Price, and Guidance by God by J. H. Jauncey.

DRAMA, FICTION, POETRYAUGSBURG: What Did Jesus Do? and Chancel Dramas for Lent by W. A. Poovey. BEACON HILL: Going on Seventeen by M. F. Boggs and Joy in the Morning by K. B. Peck. BROADMAN: Drama for Fun by C. McGee, Ironing Board Altars by M. A. Bohrs, and Return to Heroism by R. A. Johns. CONCORDIA: Never Underestimate the Little Woman by C. Start. EERDMANS: “Contemporary Writers in Christian Perspective” series—Marianne Moore, by Sister Therese. Spender, MacNeice, Day-Lewis by D. Stanford, C. S. Lewis by P. Kreeft, and Evelyn Waugh by P. Doyle. FORTRESS: Dark Side of the Moon by P. Naylor. HARPER & ROW: The Fantasy Worlds of Peter Stone and Other Fables by M. Boyd and A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Heaven by G. Freeman. HERALD: The Outside World by L. E. Bender. Night Preacher by L. Vernon, and Lucy Winchester by C. C. Kauffman. KNOPF: In the House of the Lord by R. Flynn. LIPPINCOTT: New Moon Rising by Eugenia Price. MACMILLAN: False Gods, Real Men by D. Berrigan. MOODY: Lost City by C. E. Gruhn and Then I Am Strong by F. Arnold. REVELL: Favorite Christian Poems compiled by D. T. Kauffman. WARNER: Egermeier’s Bible Story Book (a new revision) by E. Egermeier and A. Hall. WORD: No Man in Eden by H. L. Myra. WORLD: Are You Sure You Love Me? by L. W. May. ZONDERVAN: Beside Still Waters by P. Michael and The Fragmented, The Empty, The Love by P. Bard.

ECUMENICS, INTER-FAITH DIALOGUEABINGDON: John Wesley’s Letter to a Roman Catholic edited by M. Hurley, S.J. and Methodism’s Destiny in an Ecumenical Age edited by Paul M. Minus Jr. AUGSBURG, PAULIST: *Luther: Right or Wrong? by H. J. McSorley, C.S.P. and Church in Fellowship, Volume II by P. E. Hoffman and H. Meyer. BROADMAN: Meet the American Catholic by P. Scharper. BRUCE: Forms of Christian Life by F. Schlosser. FUNK AND WAGNALLS: Men of Dialogue: Martin Buber and Albrecht Goes edited by E. W. Rollins and H. Zohn. HARPER & ROW: Phenomenology of Religion by J. Bettis and Attitudes Toward Other Religions by O. Thomas. JOHN KNOX: Power Without Glory: A Study in Ecumenical Politics by I. Henderson. MACMILLAN: The Christian-Marxist Dialogue by P. Oestreicher. PAULIST: Dare to Reconcile by J. O. Nelson. SHEED AND WARD: The One Bread by M. Thurian and Reconciliation: The Function of the Church by E. C. Bianchi. ZONDEVAN: Ecumenicity, Evangelicals and Rome by J. W. Montgomery.

ETHICAL, SOCIAL, ECONOMIC, CULTURAL STUDIESABINGDON: Young People and Their Culture by R. Snyder, The Church and the New Generation by C. E. Mowry, Black Power and Christian Responsibility by C. F. Sleeper, The Young Adult Generation by A. J. Moore, and The Dialogue Gap by T. J. Mullen. AUGSBURG: Modern War and the Christian by R. Moellering. BAKER: Make Up Your Minds! Challenges for Young Christians by J. D. Baumann and Who’s Out of Focus by D. R. Seagren. BEACON HILL: Pilgrim’s Progress, a paraphrase by J. K. Grider, Share My Discoveries by K. Johnson and We Also Build by E. Lewis. BROADMAN: One Plus One Equals One by K. Arvin, Persons in Crises by R. Hudson, and Christian Communicator’s Handbook by F. A. Craig. BRUCE: The Gospel According to Madison Avenue by R. Hutchinson, Quality of Life by C. P. Kindregan, and New Morality or No Morality edited by R. Campbell. CONCORDIA: Ethics and Social Responsibility in Business by H. Gram, Crime in American Society by R. Knudten, and Power Structures and the Church by D. Schuller. CORPUS: Nonviolent Direct Action: American Cases—Social-Psychological Analyses edited by A. P. Hare and H. H. Blumberg and *Controversy: The Birth Control Debate 1958–1968 by A. Valsecchi. DOUBLEDAY: Catholic Education Faces Its Future by N. G. McCluskey, S.J., TheAbortion Decision by D. Granfreld, O.S.B., and Catholics and Divorce by R. G. Carey. EERDMANS: They Dare to Hope: Student Protest and Christian Response by F. Pearson and Black Reflections on White Power by S. Tucker. FORTRESS: God’s Basic Law by K. Hennig and Children—Choice or Chance by K. Wrage. GOOD NEWS: Sex Through the Looking Glass by L. Dolphin Jr. and C. E. Gallivan. HARPER & ROW: College Ruined Our Daughter by W. Shrader and The Search for a Usable Future by M. Marty. HERALD: The Church and the Single Person by F. Bontrager, World Hunger by C. F. Bishop, Soldiers of Compassion by U. A. Bender, and The Problem of Nationalist in Church-State Relationships by J. E. Wood Jr. HERDER AND HERDER: Lovers in Marriage by L. Evely and From Faith to Fantasy by W. Kuhns. HOLT, RINEHART AND WINSTON: Politics of the Gospel by Paupert. JOHN KNOX: War and Moral Discourse by R. B. Potter, Freedom City by L. Howell, *The Liberated Zone by J. P. Brown, and Disturbed About Man by B. E. Mays. JUDSON: The Black Vanguard by R. Brisbane, Cybernetics and People by C. Hall, and *Ashes for Breakfast by T. J. Holmes. KNOPF: The Divine Order by H. B. Parkes. LIPPINCOTT: Christian Ethics by D. H. C. Read. MACMILLAN: A Punishment for Peace by P. Berrigan, The Catholic Case for Contraception by D. Callahan, On Not Leaving It to the Snake by H. Cox, *The Delta Ministry by B. Hilton. MOODY: Christian Etiquette by D. Martin and Come for Coffee by M. Wise. OXFORD: College Talks by H. F. Lowry, edited by J. R. Blackwood and Religion and Social Conflict edited by R. Lee and M. E. Marty. PAULIST: Catholicism U. S. A. by G. H. Tavard, A.A. and Catholic Pentecostals by K. and D. Ranaghan. PRESBYTERIAN AND REFORMED: Commission versus Creation by F. N. Lee and Communism and the Reality of the Moral Law by J. Bales. REVELL: We’re Holding Your Son by G. R. McLean and God’s Turf by B. Combs. SCRIBNERS: The Religious Experience of Mankind by N. Smart and The Judgment of the Dead by S. G. F. Brandon. SEABURY: *Violence: Reflections from A Christian Perspective by J. Ellul, Civil Disobedience and the Christian by D. B. Stevick, and Black Theology and Black Power by J. H. Cone. SHEED AND WARD: “Move Over”: Students, Politics, Religion by F. Carling and Alienation, Atheism and Religious Revolution by T. F. O’Dea. TYNDALE: *Birth Control and The Christian, a symposium by the Christian Medical Society. UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO: Myths and Symbols: Studies in Honor of Mircea Eliade edited by J. M. Kitagawa, and *The Quest: History and Meaning in Religion by M. Eliade. WESTMINSTER: China—Yellow Peril? Red Hope? by C. R. Hensman and Theology and the Church in the University by J. Hartt. VANDERBILT: Controversy in the Twenties edited by W. B. Gatewood Jr. WARNER: Cry Over Me by J. Testerman. WORD: Seven Who Fought by W. Crook and The Cutting Edge compiled by H. C. Brown Jr. WORLD: Still Hungry in America, text by R. Coles and All to the Good: A Guide to Christian Ethics by R. B. and H. D. McLaren. ZONDERVAN: The God-Players by E. Jabay, The Compulsive Christian by D. Mason, Love in Action by W. Becker, The Urban Crisis by D. McKenna et al., The Lord Is My Shepherd But … by B. Jurgensen, The Vacuum of Unbelief by S. B. Babbage, Where Is History Going? by J. W. Montgomery, Guiding Teenagers to Maturity by J. H. Waterink, Learning for Loving by J. Burton, and Purple Violet-Squish by D. Wilkerson.

LITURGY, WORSHIPABINGDON: Bless This Mess and Other Prayers by J. Carr and I. Sorley, Prayer and the Living Christ by F. S. Wuellner, Look at Us, Lord! by R. M. Haven, Liturgies in a Time When Cities Burn by K. Watkins, and Reality and Prayer by J. B. Magee. BRUCE: Prayer and the Creative Christian by D. J. Foran. HARPER & ROW: The Centering Moment by H. Thurman. SEABURY: Word and Action edited by J. Kirby.

MISSIONS, EVANGELISM, CHURCH OUTREACHABINGDON: A Church Truly Catholic by J. K. Mathews, Include Me Out! by C. Morris, and The Theology of the Christian Mission edited by G. H. Anderson. AUGSBURG: Anutu Conquers New Guinea by A. C. Frerichs. BAKER: The Little General: The Story of J. T. Bach by T. Watkins, Jr. BEACON HILL: Christ’s Evangelistic Imperatives by E. S. Colaw, and Entering the Kingdom by G. F. Owen. BETHANY: *Current Mission Trends compiled by M. Mardock. BROADMAN: The New Times by A. McClellan. CONCORDIA: The Holy Infection by P. Bretscher. EERDMANS: The Spread of Christianity: A Bibliography by K. S. Latourette, Church Growth in Sierra Leone by G. W. Olson, Understanding Church Growth by D. McGavran, Repaid A Hundredfold by C. Leonard, Our Guilty Silence by J. R. W. Stott, Post-Christianity in Africa by G. C. Oosthuizen, and Jesus and His Nice Church by E. J. Richter. FORTRESS: Reviving the Local Church by D. Ernsberger and The Renewal of Preaching by D. J. Randolph. GOOD NEWS: Where the Action Is by D. Hillis. HARPER & ROW: Hammered as Gold by D. Howard. HERALD: Learning to Understand the Mission of the Church by E. Waltner and Evangelization and Social Responsibility by V. C. Grounds. JOHN KNOX: The Quality of Mercy by J. Steensma. JUDSON: The Reconciling Community by O. Tibbetts. MOODY: Footsteps to Freedom by L. Keidel and Beyond Combat by J. M. Hutchens. PAULIST: Modern Mission Dialogue: Theory and Practice edited by Pro Mundi Vita. REVELL: Dry Bones Can Live Again by R. E. Coleman and How In the World? by C. E. Johnson. WARNER: Go Man, Go, by F. Gardner, Carroll Dale Scores Again by D. Harman and C. Dale, and The Total Life by M. Crimm. WORD: House by the Bow Tree by R. Seamands, Don’t Sleep Through the Revolution by P. Rees, Doctor in An Old World by H. Raley, Christianity in Communist China by G. Patterson, Struggle For Integrity by W. Knight, and Neither Black Nor White by D. Shipley. WORLD: Take It to the People by H. E. Mumma. ZONDERVAN: By Life or by Death by J. C. Hefley and Heartcry for Revival by S. Olford.

PASTORAL THEOLOGYABINGDON: Stability Amid Change by G. Harkness, Pastoral Authority in Personal Relationships by S. Southard, Ferment in the Ministry by S. Hiltner, The Multiple Staff Ministry by M. T. Judy, and The Impact of the Future by L. E. Schaller. BEACON HILL: Making Prayer Dynamic by G. Cove. BIBLICAL RESEARCH PRESS: *Preaching to Modern Man by F. Pack and P. Meador, Jr. BROADMAN: When He Calls Me by W. W. Warmath and Has God Called You? by H. Barnette. BRUCE: The Priesthood in Crisis by J. J. Blomjous, Contemporary Pastoral Counseling by E. Weitzel, The Priest as Manager by J. Deegan Jr., and Authority and Institution by James Drain. EERDMANS: The Contemporary Preacher and His Task by D. W. Yohn. FORTRESS: Ministering to Prisoners and Their Families by Kandle and Cassler and Counseling the Childless Couple by Bassett. HERALD: *Meditations for the Newly Married by J. Drescher, After High School—What? by A. Beechy, and several additions to the “Hospital Pamphlet Series.” JOHN KNOX: In Quest of a Ministry by J. P. Love. JUDSON: Strategic Planning for Church Organizations by R. Broholm, The Deacon in a Changing Church by Thomas, and The Pastor Deals with Crucial Human Situations by Oates and Lester. KREGEL: Last Words of Saints and Sinners: The Art of Dying by H. Lockyer. MACMILLAN: A Church Without Priests? by J. Duquesne. PAULIST: Priesthood and Ministry by R. J. Bastian and A Handbookfor Lectors by W. M. Carr. PRENTICE-HALL: Introduction to Religious Counseling: A Christian Humanistic Approach by R. P. Vaughan, S.J. REVELL: Kindlings by I. Macpherson and Man, Have I Got Problems by D. Wilkerson. SEABURY: Up From Grief by V. Kreis and A. Pattie and Demands on Ministry Today by G. W. Barrett. SHEED AND WARD: *Religious Values in Counseling and Psychotherapy by C. A. Curran and The In-Between: Evolution in Christian Faith by M. McMahon and P. A. Campbell. WARNER: Marriage in Perspective by H. Streeter. WORD: The Centrality of Preaching in the Total Task of the Ministry by J. Killinger. WORLD: Creative Churchmanship by D. W. Bartow and Church Politics by K. R. Bridston. ZONDERVAN: The Challenge of the Church by S. M. Lockridge.

RELIGIOUS EDUCATIONABINGDON: Cycles and Renewal by W. M. Ramsey, Christian Education in Local Methodist Churches by J. Q. Schisler, and Christian Word Book by J. S. Hendricks et al. BETHANY FELLOWSHIP: Happy Moments with God by M. Anderson. BROADMAN: Leading Dynamic Bible Study by R. A. Pierce. BRUCE: The Human Dimension of Catechetics by A. McBride, For Adult Catholics Only by T. W. Guzi, S.J. and Living, Loving Generation by D. and R. Lucey. CONCORDIA: Power Beyond Words by Johamann. HAWTHORN: The Fourth R: What Can Be Taught About Religion in the Public Schools. HERDER AND HERDER: Faith and Spiritual Life by Y. Congar. HOLT, RINEHART AND WINSTON: To Build a Church by Morse. INTER-VARSITY: Encounter with Books edited by Harish Merchant. JUDSON: Knowing the Living God by R. Hazelton and Discussion Starters for Young People, Series Two by A. Billups. PEGASUS: *The Politics of Religious Conflict: Church and State in America by R. Morgan and Religion, The State and the Schools by J. M. Swomley Jr. WARNER: “Foundations” series on church-school administration and teaching pre-elementary, elementary, youth, and adults. WORD: Biblical Sunday School Commentary, 1970.

SERMONSABINGDON: The Journey That Men Make by J. Armstrong, We Dream—We Climb by D. N. Franklin and The Wind of the Spirit by J. S. Stewart. AUGSBURG: The Call of Lent by J. G. Manz and What Did Jesus Do? by W. A. Poovey. BAKER: 150 Brief Sermon Outlines edited by C. Zylstra and 600 Sermon Illustrations by W. J. Hart. BEACON HILL: The Rich Treasures in Life by D. M. Parish. BIBLICAL RESEARCH PRESS: The King and His Kingdom by R. Lemmons. CONCORDIA: The Bitter Road by J. H. Baumgaertner. FORTRESS: How Modern Should Theology Be? by H. Thielicke. JUDSON: Dialogue Preaching by Thompson and Bennett. KREGEL: Easy-to-Use Sermon Outlines, Revival Sermon Outlines, and Evangelistic Sermon Outlines, all by C. R. Wood. REVELL: Where Now Is Thy God? by J. W. Hamilton and Sermons for Today edited by A. H. Chappie. E. J. WORD: God’s Everlasting “Yes” by I. T. Jones and The Spirit in Conflict by W. Warmath. WORLD: A Word in Its Season by A. H. Silver. ZONDERVAN: Preaching at the Palace by W. A. Criswell, Simple Sermons on Heaven, Hell and Judgment by W. H. Ford, The Preeminence of Christ by J. H. Gwynne, and Last Things by H. L. Eddleman et al.

THEOLOGYABINGDON: Contours of Faith by J. Dillinberger, His End Up by V. Eller, Perspectives on Death by L. O. Mills, *Sense and Nonsense in Religion by S. H. Stenson and Contemporary Continental Theologians by S. P. Schilling. AUGSBURG: A New Look at the Apostles’ Creed by G. Rein, Berdyaev’s Philosophy of Hope by C. S. Calian, and Interpreting Luther’s Legacy by F. W. Meuser and S. D. Schneider. BAKER: Tongues, Healing and You! by D. W. Hillis. BEACON HILL: Personal Renewal Through Christian Conversion by W. C. Mavis and Mother Goose’s Gospel by E. Wells. BROADMAN: The Christian Faith: An Introduction to Christian Thought by D. M. Roark, Why I Preach that the Bible Is Literally True by W. A. Criswell, The Second Cross by J. M. Carter, Faith that Works by B. J. Chitwood, and Signs of the Second Coming by R. G. Witty. BRUCE: Spectrum of Catholic Attitudes edited by R. Campbell, Understanding the New Theology by Cooney, O.S.B., and Contemporary Protestant Thought by P. J. Curtis. CORPUS: The New Obedience: Kierkegaard on Imitating Christ by B. R. Dewey, The Church in the Theology of Karl Barth by C. O’Grady, and Man Yearning for Grace: Luther’s Early Spiritual Teachings by J. Wicks. DOUBLEDAY: The Crisis of Faith by F. Sontag. EERDMANS: Life in One’s Stride: Dietrich Bonhoeffer by K. Hamilton, The Creative Theology of P. T. Forsyth edited by S. Mikolaski, The Sacraments by G. C. Berkouwer, The Problems of Religious Authority (essays by E. J. Carnell) edited by R. Nash, All Things Made New by L. Smedes, and Henry James, Sr., and the Religion of Community by D. W. Hoover. FORTRESS: Theological Ethics Volume II: Politics by H. Thielicke, An Exodus Theology by G. Wingren, and Sacra Doctrina by P. E. Persson. HARPER & ROW: Faith and Understanding by R. Bultmann, Religion and Change by D. Edwards, An Apology for Wonder by S. Keen, What Is Religion by P. Tillich, and Do We Need the Church? by R. McBrien. HARVARD: St. Augustine’s Confessions: The Odyssey of a Soul by R. J. O’Connell, S.J. and King Alfred’s Version of St. Augustine’s Soliloquies by T. A. Carnicelli. HERALD: We Believe by P. Erb. HERDER AND HERDER: Man’s Condition by W. C. Shepherd and Kerygma and Dogma by K. Rahner and K. Lehmann, JOHN KNOX: Bench Marks by J. Farkas, Sören Kierkegaard by R. L. Perkins, Alfred North Whitehead by N. Pittenger, and Christian Doctrine by S. C. Guthrie Jr. LIPPINCOTT: The Promise of Kierkegaard by K. Hamilton, The Promise of Buber by L. Streiker, and The Promise of Bultmann by N. Perrin. MACMILLAN: Christus Victor by G. Aulén, New Theology No. 6 by M. E. Marty and D. G. Peerman, and Mahayana Buddhism by B. L. Suzuki. MOODY: Existentialism and Christian Belief by M. D. Hunnex, *Faith at the Frontiers by C. F. H. Henry, and Law and Grace by A J. McClain. OXFORD: The Christian New Morality: A Biblical Study of Situation Ethics by O. S. Barr and The Knowledge of Things Hoped For: The Sense of Theological Discourse by R. W. Jenson. PAULIST: New Ways in Theology by J. S. Weiland, Do You Believe in God? by K. Rahner, and A New Approach to Faith and Doctrine by G. Baum. PEGASUS: Christianity and Paradox by R. W. Hepburn. PRESBYTERIAN AND REFORMED: Warfield’s Shorter Works edited by J. Meeter. SCRIBNER: Systematic Theology: A Historicist Perspective by G. Kaufman and Religion, Revolution, and the Future by J. Moltmann. SCRIPTURE PRESS: *The Bible and Tomorrow’s News by C. C. Ryrie. SEABURY: History as Myth: The Import for Contemporary Theology by W. T. Stevenson and Death by M. McC. Gatch. SHEED AND WARD: Is Original Sin in Scripture? by H. Haag and God and Man by E. Schillebeeckx. STANFORD: Theology and Meaning: A Critique of Metatheological Skepticism by R. S. Heimbeck. WARNER: A Responding People by G. Newberry and The Soul Under Siege by J. E. Massey. WESTMINSTER: The Whole Man, A Study in Christian Anthropology by R. G. Smith, The Church Is Not Expendable by G. B. Noyce, and Theology and the Kingdom of God by W. Pannenberg. WORD: Jesus and the Kingdom (reprint) by G. E. Ladd. WORLD: Morality Without Law by W. F. Ewbank. ZONDERVAN: Fundamentals of the Faith edited by C. F. H. Henry, Systematic Theology by J. O. Buswell III, The Devil—Our Adversary by J. D. Pentecost, and Beliefs That Are Basic by H. Shannon.

The past year was a publishing record-breaker, especially for significant works in English on the Old Testament. The 118 titles to be mentioned here far outshine the sixty-one selected as worthy of note during 1967. Those that are marked with an * reflect a high view of the Scriptures. Here they all are, then (including a few of last year’s that came in too late for mention then), arranged in five categories. The twenty chosen as the year’s best are numbered.

Reference Tools

1. For sheer usefulness, especially for Americans who find it difficult to keep abreast of British publications, the nod for a reference work must go to G. W. Anderson’s editing of the 1957–66 annual book lists of the Society for Old Testament Study, in A Decade of Bible Bibliography (Blackwell, 1967). Each year’s books are divided into twelve categories, and there is an index of authors. Harvard Library’s six-volume Catalog of Hebrew Books shows the catalog cards for its 40,000 books in Hebrew (especially rabbinics). Three specialized Bible dictionaries appears in 1968: W. Duckat’s Beggar to King: All the Occupations of Biblical Times (Doubleday), and H. H. Rowley’s handy Dictionary of Bible Personal Names and Dictionary of Bible Themes (Basic Books). Harper & Row’s Illustrated Family Encyclopedia of the Living Bible has fourteen volumes.

Biblical Setting

2. The year’s best work on HISTORICAL BACKGROUND was K. Katz, et al., From the Beginning: Archaeology and Art in the Israel Museum (Morrow). With attractive design and sixty-four full-color plates, it depicts this institution’s progress since its founding in 1963 and includes a survey of artifacts from the early Stone Age to the Crusades. Also on historical background were: L. Keylock’s translation of Egypt and the Bible (Fortress), by P. Montet; and Letters from Mesopotamia (University of Chicago, 1967), by L. Oppenheim, mirroring official and private life from Sargon in 2300 to Persian times. Old Babylonian Letters and Economic History, by W. F. Leemans (Brill), presents other such documents, plus additions to the author’s 1960 volume on foreign trade in Babylon. Oriental and Biblical Studies: Collected Writings of E. A. Speiser (University of Pennsylvania, 1967), edited by J. J. Finkelstein and M. Greenberg, offers thirty-six of Speiser’s articles plus a complete biography of 152 articles he wrote. Pertaining to a later period are J. B. Peckham’s The Development of the Late Phoenician Scripts (Harvard), covering the eighth to first centuries B.C.; and S. K. Eddy’s The King Is Dead (University of Nebraska), on the resistance to Hellenism that appeared in the former Persian Empire from 334 to 31 B.C., much being due to native theologies of kingship.

3. A third book of the top twenty represents more distinctively BIBLICAL BACKGROUND: Y. Aharoni and M. AviYona, The Macmillan Bible Atlas, 176 pages, but, would you believe, 262 maps—especially of battles and also of commerce and economic resources—plus pictures, translations of ancient sources, and chronology! The narrative attempts to be objective but generally neglects conservative views. From a more Bible-trusting approach are M. T. Gilbertson, *Uncovering Bible Times: A Study in Biblical Archeology (Augsburg), and. J. L. Kelso, *Archeology and the Ancient Testament (Zondervan), twenty-seven chapters covering Adam to Malachi. As an illustrated archaeological history comes A. Jirku’s The World of the Bible (World).

4. Selected as best for specific BIBLICAL HISTORY is P. R. Ackroyd, Exile and Restoration (Westminster), with thorough documentation of sixth-century B.C. Hebrew thought. Though under literary sources for the exile he includes much that evangelical scholars would place elsewhere (e.g., P, the Deuteronomic history, and Second—but not Third—Isaiah), Ackroyd’s opening up of one of the less appreciated Old Testament periods is welcome. A paperback by B. Rendtorff, Men of the Old Testament (Fortress), traces out history through the lives of such figures as Abram, Moses, and Joshua, at least as far as the oral sources about them were understood in later times. Other publications, in historical order, include: a translation of A. Parrot, Abraham and His Times (Fortress), holding to JEDP but also asserting that Genesis is “anchored in history”; the first three volumes in J. Rhymer’s series, “The Bible in History”—(1) Abraham, Loved by God, (2) Isaac and Jacob, God’s Chosen Ones, and (3) Moses and Joshua (Hastings), all by Henri Gaubert and all readable and well illustrated; H. Rolston, Personalities Around David (John Knox), twenty-four of them, plus David himself; E. W. Heaton, The Hebrew Kingdoms (Oxford, Volume III of the “New Clarendon Bible”); and Jacob Myers, The World of the Restoration (Prentice-Hall, “Backgrounds to the Bible” series), down to Alexander, with commendable archaeological notes.

Introductory

5. On GENERAL INTRODUCTION, a landmark volume, since it includes a full discussion of inspiration, canon, and also text, is N. L. Geisler and W. E. Nix, *A General Introduction to the Bible (Moody). Significantly, it distinguishes between the twofold canonization of the Old Testament law and prophets and its threefold categorization into Law, Prophets and Writing. It is comprehensive on the modern versions, both foreign and English. Among new English versions, one must note R. S. Hanson, The Psalms in Modern Speech (Fortress), negative in its critical introductions but interesting in its attempt to preserve Hebrew meter and to encourage readings by cantors and choirs; and K. Taylor, *Living Lessons of Life and Love (Tyndale), a paraphrase of Ruth, Esther, Job, Ecclesiastes, and Song of Solomon. Another title related to general introduction is the reissue, now in paperback and with a slightly changed title, of H. F. Vos, editor, *Can I Trust the Bible? (Moody), nine chapters by eight evangelical scholars on such topics as science, text, canon, and historicity.

6. The year’s top selection on TEXT alone is S. Jellicoe, The Septuagint and Modern Study (Oxford), supplementary to, but by no means a replacement of, H. B. Swete, Introduction to the Old Testament in Greek (reprinted by Ktav in 1968). Jellicoe’s is the first major post-Qumran study of the ancient versions and is perhaps the most important Old Testament book of the year. After surveying modern editions and the scholarly situation, it presents a much needed book-by-book analysis of the entire Greek Old Testament. More specialized are the works of J. D. Shenkel, Chronology and Recensional Development in the Greek Text of Kings (Harvard); and J. D. Purvis, The Samaritan Pentateuch and the Origin of the Samaritan Sect (Harvard), in which he proposes a late second-century B.C. origin for the Samaritans as a distinct sect, as shown by comparing their Pentateuchal text with those at Qumran. Not to be slighted are Ktav’s reprints of J. W. Etheridge, The Targum of Onkelos (1862); S. Frensdorff, Massora Magna (1876); and E. Levita, Massoreth Ha-Mas-soreth, with the Introduction of Jacob Ben Chayyim to the Rabbinic Bible of 1525.

7. In the area of comprehensive SURVEY AND SPECIAL INTRODUCTION, 1968’s outstanding volume is unquestionably G. Fohrer’s Introduction to the Old Testament (Abingdon), which includes a significant discussion of literary form (Formgeschichte) before each major part: history, poetry, wisdom, and prophecy. The criticism is radical (e.g., Chronicles “completely distorts the history of the monarchy”), but the bibliographies are superb. Less ambitious critical surveys, all Roman Catholic, include: J. Jensen’s paperback, God’s Word to Israel (Allyn and Bacon); G. A. Larue, Old Testament Life and Literature (Allyn and Bacon), a textbook in beautiful format and “without strong theological bias”; N. Lohfink, Christian Meaning of the Old Testament (Bruce), stressing its enduring “inerrant” aspects as opposed to its more “marginal” matters; How Does the Christian Confront the Old Testament?, by P. Benoit et al. (Paulist; Volume 30 of “Concilium: Theology in the Age of Renewal”), with nine articles by Catholic scholars, mostly European, and seven more on the sacred writings of other religions; and Wellsprings of Scripture (Sheed and Ward), by J. M. Ford, a survey that brings out the types of biblical literature.

8. The year’s leading SPECIAL AREA INTRODUCTION is unquestionably H. E. Freeman, *An Introduction to the Old Testament Prophets (Moody), with 133 pages on prophetism, followed by book introductions that react well with critical problems and take up such issues as Hosea’s marriage (literal), Isaiah 7:14 and Daniel 9:25 (specifically Messianic), Joel-Obadiah (ninth century), and Daniel’s seventieth week (futurist). Other particularized studies are: M. H. Segal, The Pentateuch: Its Composition and Its Authorship and Other Biblical Studies (Oxford), anti-Wellhausen but still with post-Mosaica; E. W. Nicholson, Deuteronomy and Tradition (Fortress, 1967), on trends since 1900, with the conclusion that it must be a seventh-century product based on earlier traditions; and W. H. Whybray, The Succession Narrative: A Study of Second Samuel 9–20, First Kings 1–2 (Allenson), in which the public events are held to be historical, but the private, imaginative—a historical novel, for political purposes, based on the wisdom movement, with Egyptian influence.

9. Whybray thus serves to introduce FORM CRITICISM: that never-never land of Old Testament study: not that the study of literary forms as related to the Bible may not be helpful—witness Kitchen’s and Kline’s defense of Deuteronomy, because of its second-millennium covenant form—but that most of today’s proliferating Formgeschichte seems aimed at creating new alternatives to the Bible’s own teachings about its composition and validity. If then a ninth in the year’s top twenty books be assigned to this area, it would be Koch’s general study, The Growth of the Biblical Tradition: The Form-Critical Method (Scribner), with definitions and examples, embracing oral traditions and the characteristics of Hebrew poetry. Specific studies include: R. Clements, Abraham and David, Genesis 15 and Its Meaning for Israelite Tradition (Allenson, 1967), which explains Genesis 15 as the result of successive warpings by cultic transmission, political propaganda, and priestly reconstruction; E. Nielsen, The Ten Commandmentsin New Perspective (also Allenson), with a similar traditio-historical approach; G. W. Coats, Rebellion in the Wilderness (Abingdon), which explains how the “murmuring motif” must have arisen out of conflicts between the divided kingdoms of Israel; L. Bronner, The Stories of Elijah and Elisha (Brill), which sees these as wonder tales designed to expose the inadequacy of Baal worship; and, really the granddaddy of Formgeschichte, H. Gunkel’s The Psalms, A Form Critical Introduction (Fortress, 1967), old (1930), but the first time in English for this basic study of the Gattung, or form.

10. A particularly fruitful area in 1968 has been SURVEY OF THE PROPHETS, with top billing going to S. J. Schultz, *The Prophets Speak (Harper & Row). Based on the “unreconstructed (by negative criticism) text” of the Old Testament, it first defines the prophetic movement and its themes and then takes up the individual prophets. See also: J. C. Reid, *We Spoke for God (Eerdmans, 1967), vivid first-person retellings of Isaiah, Jeremiah, and six of the Minor Prophets (but not Ezekiel, Daniel, or Zechariah?), a companion volume to his We Knew Jesus; H. Staach, Prophetic Voices of the Bible (World), the personalities and messages of the Minor Prophets; S. Winward, A Guide to the Prophets (Hodder and Stoughton; due for release in the United States by John Knox in 1969), their historical settings and their teachings applied to today; G. von Rad, The Message of the Prophets (SCM, from the German of 1967), a simplified version of part of Volume II of his 1966 Old Testament Theology; and the new edition of R. B. Y. Scott, The Relevance of the Prophets (Macmillan), completely updated after twenty years.

Commentaries

11–12. Two of 1968’s top Old Testament books belong with WHOLE BIBLE commentaries. As anticipated last year, the Old Testament portion of *The Wesleyan Bible Commentary, edited by C. W. Carter (Eerdmans), is now out, at least Volumes I (Parts 1, Pentateuch, and 2, Historical) and II (Poetry). With ASV text and double-column notes for each paragraph, it is a tool for the minister or teacher. Also, with the appearance of Volume II (Historical Books), the *Beacon Bible Commentary (Beacon Hill) is now almost complete, lacking only the first volume. Evangelical Calvinists will find little to consider theologically distasteful in either of these major commentary sets. The same cannot be said, however, for I. Asimov (a science and science-fiction writer), Asimov’s Guide to the Bible, Volume I, Old Testament (Doubleday), with its outmoded chronology, dependence on JEDP and the Anchor Bible, and discoveries of residual polytheism (e.g., in Gen. 3:22 and 11:7). Nor can it be said of R. E. Brown, J. Fitzmyer, and R. E. Murphy, editors, The Jerome Bible Commentary (Prentice-Hall), by fifty Roman Catholic professors of the United States and Canada, with their “assured results of literary and historical criticism” (e.g., JEDP).

13. Among commentaries on the PENTATEUCH, attention focuses on F. D. Kidner’s *Genesis in the new “Tyndale Old Testament Commentary” (Inter-Varsity). The warden of Tyndale House here maintains the unity of Genesis as opposed to “rival traditions competing for credence”; and, while some may question his suggestion of the book’s final editing under Samuel (rather than Moses) or his noncommittal attitude toward evolution, all will here recognize 224 pages of solid evangelical interpretation. Leviticus and Numbers, by N. H. Snaith, first volume in the new edition of the “Century Bible” (Nelson of London, 1967), on the other hand, is just as obviously JEDP, à la Noth or Von Rad, but with helpful rabbinic references. R. Clements, God’s Chosen People: Deuteronomy, A Commentary (SCM) has a topical arrangement, with stress upon theology, history, and the canon.

14. Top rank among the HISTORICAL BOOKS likewise goes to Tyndale, *Judges-Ruth (Inter-Varsity), by A. E. Cundall and L. Morris, respectively. Emphasis falls on exegesis, with critical questions generally limited to the introductions and footnotes. Judges is seen as complementary, not contradictory, to Joshua and as dependent upon a Mosaic Pentateuch. Ruth has a verse-by-verse treatment, with its Davidic date and place in the canon well presented. Three paperback series are these: (a) from England, the “Scripture Union Bible Study Books” (Eerdmans), popular paraphrases for daily reading; in Joshua-Second Samuel, H. L. Ellison assumes considerable freedom on the order of events and in First KingsSecond Chronicles, I. H. Marshall designates the latter’s figures as “incredible”; but J. S. Wright, *Ezra-Job, maintains Scripture’s full validity; (b) the “Bible SelfStudy Series” (Moody) presents practical lessons with maps and charts, with I. L. Jensen serving as reviser for *Joshua, *Judges and Ruth, *First and Second Samuel, *First Kings with Chronicles, and *Second Kings with Chronicles; and (c), in the “Shield Bible Study Series” (Baker), R. G. Turnbull, *The Book of Nehemiah, is primarily homiletical and topical. A more ambitious series, designed as a family resource, is the new “Concordia Commentary,” a seven-year, twenty-seven-volume project, with RSV text and an easy-reading narrative commentary, on paragraphs. R. Gehrke, First and Second Samuel (Concordia), which is one of the three initial volumes in the series, speaks on the one hand of verbal inspiration but on the other of “stories” and “varying traditions … shaped by a later temple liturgy.”

15. In 1966, M. Dahood’s first volume of the Anchor Bible Psalms won a top listing on the POETIC BOOKS, and again in 1968 his contribution, Psalms, II:50–100 (Doubleday), ranks as one of the leading twenty, again for its effective use of parallel Ugaritic data. Other commentaries and interpretations of the poetic books include: H. Kent’s paperback, *Job Our Contemporary (Eerdmans), with existential relevance, but a little harsh on Elihu; P. S. Sanders, editor, Twentieth Century Interpretations of the Book of Job: A Collection of Critical Essays, ten essays dating from Peake in 1905 through Toynbee’s myths and philosophy in 1934 to recent studies; R. Guardini, *The Wisdom of the Psalms (Regnery), with comments on thirteen selected psalms, exhibiting a German Catholic’s concern for liturgy; and I. L. Jensen, *Psalms (Moody, “Bible Self-Study”) and H. L. Ellison, The Psalms (Eerdmans, “Scripture Union Bible Study”).

16–17. It’s rare to get two solid, evangelical commentaries on the same Old Testament book in one year, but 1968 did, in the category of PROPHETS: H. C. Leupold’s * Exposition of Isaiah, Chapters 1–39 (Baker) follows the format of his previous “Expositions”—detailed notes on each paragraph—and the late E. J. Young’s *The Book of Isaiah, Volume II (Eerdmans), covering chapters 18–39, continues this pilot publication in the “New International Commentary on the Old Testament,” with a similar approach. In fact, this was something of an Isaiah year, among the also-rans being: J. L. McKenzie, Second Isaiah (Doubleday, “Anchor Bible”), on chapters 34; 35; 40–66, and with a liberal perspective (he states, for example, that the idea of the Suffering Servant as a historical figure in the future “is defended by no one today except in a few fundamentalist circles”); F. W. Bennett, * Christian Living from Isaiah (Baker), practical, with 7:14 and 9:6 firmly Messianic; C. T. Francisco, Isaiah (Baker, “Shield Series”); J. L. Green, God Reigns: Expository Studies in the Prophecy of Isaiah (Broadman); I. L. Jensen, *Isaiah-Jeremiah (Moody, “Bible Self-Study”), and P. H. Kelley, Judgment and Redemption in Isaiah (Broadman). Other commentaries on the prophets were: N. Habel, Jeremiah and Lamentations (“Concordia Commentary”); W. Brueggemann, Tradition for Crisis: A Study in Hosea (John Knox), in which Hosea is seen as an interpreter of the Mosaic covenant (with post-Mosaic modifications) rather than as an innovator; J. K. Howard, * Among the Prophets: Amos (Pickering and Inglis, 1967; Baker, 1968), background and a commentary with practical relevance; and T. M. Bennett, The Book of Micah (Baker).

Teachings

18. In the area of WORDS, a first-of-its-kind volume is J. Barr, Comparative Philology and the Text of the Old Testament (Oxford). Employing Arabic, Aramaic, Akkadian, and Ugaritic, Barr traces out lexigraphical history and degrees of agreement. In the same category are P. Ackroyd and B. Lindars, editors, Words and Meanings: Essays Presented to David Winton Thomas (Cambridge), fifteen of them, including B. Albrektson on the syntax of Exodus 3:14 and O. Eissfeldt on Old Testament renamings; and B. Hartman, et al., Hebraische Wortforschung [word investigation] in Honor of Walter Baumgartner (Brill, 1967, Vetus Testamentum Supplement XVI), including G. R. Driver on Hebrew hom*onyms and two studies on “believe” in Genesis 15:6.

19. On matters of more extensive INTERPRETATION, the recommendation goes to J. J. Davis, *Biblical Numerology (Baker), who recognizes the abuse of this subject by cranks and proceeds to classify and define principles for interpreting numbers: only the 7 shows any degree of symbolic use, in Scripture, he says. Also appearing in 1968 were: J. P. Lewis, *A Study of the Interpretation of Noah and the Flood in Jewish and Christian Literature (Brill), more of an anthology than an evaluation; M. G. Kline, *By Oath Consigned (Eerdmans), on circumcision as an ordeal sign; evangelist C. E. Autrey’s paperback, * Renewals Before Pentecost (Broadman); H. M. Orlinsky, The So-Called ‘Servant of the Lord’ and ‘Suffering Servant’ in Second Isaiah (the title speaks for itself) and, with N. H. Snaith, Isaiah 40–60: A Study of the Teachings of the Second Isaiah and its Consequences (Brill, 1967, together forming Vetus Testamentum Supplement XIV), the “Servant” being originally only Jehoiachin’s exiles; H. J. Van Dijk, Ezekiel’s Prophecy on Tyre (Pontifical Biblical Institute), on its unfulfilled predictions; and O. Plöger, Theocracy and Eschatology (John Knox), explaining by radical criticism how the prophetic spirit came to be lost in Maccabean (Daniel) apocalyptic.

20. Finally, in the broader field of THEOLOGY, the year’s twentieth choice book is C. J. Vos, *Women in Old Testament Worship (Judels and Brinkman, Holland), which proposes that, except for the priesthood, women participated equally with men and suggests (?) that they may serve as teaching ministers today. Other important studies include: J. S. Chesnut, The Old Testament Understanding of God (Westminster), a nontechnical work that defines the covenant as “man’s making an agreement with his God” (!) and finds Christology in the Old Testament “only by a strained exegesis”; R. C. Dentan, The Knowledge of God in Ancient Israel (Seabury), an unoriginal survey of the Old Testament’s central idea that God acts in history; W. F. Albright, Yahweh and the Gods of Canaan (Doubleday), a historical analysis of these two contrasting faiths; E. M. Baxter, The Beginnings of Our Religion (Judson), unreconstructed liberalism that fails to find much difference between the two; R. Patai, The Hebrew Goddess (Ktav, 1967), similar, hypothesizing considerable polytheism in the Old Testament; R. S. Kluger, Satan in the Old Testament (Northwestern University, 1967), with a stress on Jungian psychology, and presupposing that the spiritual equals the mythological; J. Plastaras, Creation and Covenant (Bruce), on creation and other doctrinal themes in Genesis-Exodus (the Bible is considered primarily Israel’s religious literature, though with something important to say today); J. Jocz, The Covenant (Eerdmans), in which a systematic theologian finds the critically reconstructed covenant doctrine as the key to revelation and to the unity of Scripture; H. H. Rowley, Worship in Ancient Israel (Fortress, 1967), which includes the temple, sacrifice, prophets, and psalmody, all with excellent documentation; and N. W. Porteous, Living the Mystery (Blackwell, 1967), a reprint of twelve articles (1948–67) on God’s maintaining the Jewish community by his presence, as men obey him.

In the field of Old Testament, at least, 1968 was a “year for the books”!

Last year’s book survey had cause to complain that 1967 was a lean year for the New Testament interpreter. This time there is cause to rejoice, for 1968 was a year of plenty, both in quantity and quality.

Worthy of first mention is once again the latest volume in the English translation of Kittel’s wordbook. Thanks to the indefatigable labors of Geoffrey Bromiley, volume five takes its place on the shelf in the growing treasury of the Theological Dictionary of the New Testament (Eerdmans). By now it is superfluous to praise this massive work, or to commend it to the alert student and pastor; just the announcement of publication should be enough to send him scurrying to the bookstore. This volume covers the Greek words whose initial letter is xi, omicron (in full), and pi (in part). Thus we are given full data, in typical Kittel style, on such important words as hodos (way); oikos (house, with cognate forms such as the verb to build); hom*ologeo (to confess); hoplon (weapon: this article is much wider than the single word; it passes on to consider all the New Testament terms that deal with militia Christi and will prove especially useful in the study of Ephesians 6); horao (to see: here again the article extends its scope and takes in all the New Testament words of vision with their various nuances); orge (wrath), given a worthy treatment that does not bypass the theological issues of God’s wrath; parabole (parable); parakletos (where the rendering “advocate” is preferred to clarify our appreciation of the Holy Spirit’s office); pater (father, with excellent studies of family life in Judaism and New Testament teaching, and of the rich seam of truth of the divine fatherhood). But the longest article is also the best. In cooperation with Zimmerli, who contributes on the Old Testament side, J. Jeremias reproduces the lines of his cogent study on pais theou (servant of God) and with a wealth of erudition tells probably all there is to know about the meaning of Isaiah 53 and its background in Jewish and New Testament theology. The picture of Jesus as the suffering Servant is sketched in bold relief in this fine essay. One further observation on this volume: for the first time in the encyclopedia use is made of the evidence of the Dead Sea Scrolls. This is one sign that post-World War II volumes are now being translated.

The past year has been a good one for the study of the Gospel of John, with at least three significant books expounding the deep themes of the “spiritual gospel,” as Clement of Alexandria aptly named it. High on the list of these commentaries, in this or any year, must be R. Schnackenburg’s The Gospel According to St. John (Herder; Burns and Oates [for some books mentioned in this survey we list both an American and a British publisher]). This commentary in a projected multi-volumed coverage of the entire Gospel consists of a long introduction and an exegesis of chapters 1–4. Its treatment is all that an ideal commentary should be; it is marked both by an extensive knowledge of the relevant literature (and there is enough to fill a library) and by a depth of penetration and exegetical skill. The label “magisterial” would not be out of place. But the real significance of Schnackenburg’s work is that it offers for the first time a viable alternative to Bultmann’s commentary, which also is being translated into English. Throughout his pages and particularly in a number of excursuses, Schnackenburg is in running debate with Bultmann, preferring to maintain, with powerful reasons to support his case, that John is to be understood on an Old Testament—Jewish background rather than a Hellenistic-Gnostic.

The other titles on the shelf marked Johannine are J. N. Sanders, The Gospel According to St. John (Harper & Row; Black), and E. Käsemann, The Testament of Jesus (SCM). The former is a work published posthumously and edited and completed by the author’s former pupil, B. A. Mastin. It stands in the characteristic British tradition of sober exegesis and a high regard for gospel history; therefore the commentator’s verdict on authorship will hardly be expected, for he offers in all seriousness the novel view that the evangelist John is none other than John Mark, writer of the second Gospel and composer of the Revelation. There are obvious difficulties with this identification, not least the problem of how the varying styles of writing are to be accounted for. The second book from a post-Bultmannian scholar is novel in a far more thoroughgoing fashion. Indeed, his conclusion (if it had any semblance of plausibility) would give most readers a violent trauma. Käsemann holds that the Johannine Christ is scarcely a human figure at all. He is presented as a God who walks on the earth but whose feet are two inches off the ground all the time. The evangelist has succumbed to heretical thinking that denies the Lord’s true humanity, and offers his Gospel as a protest against orthodox, catholic Christianity. The logical outcome of Käsemann’s argument, which has a fragile base indeed, is that the fourth Gospel was received into the canon by mistake, “by human error and divine providence.” Any attempt to understand John’s Gospel that leads to this monstrous conclusion is suspect from the start.

Our preference for a more straightforward way of looking at John must not pre-empt discussion of other New Testament books that pose testy problems. Here we think of Ephesians, judged by many Christians to be the high-water mark of the Pauline letters. The liturgical cast of this epistle has long been appreciated; both its language and style are in keeping with the idea that it is not a pastoral letter sent out to meet a local situation but a prose-poem dedicated to the theme of Christ in his Church. Now a Canadian scholar draws the inference that it is not a letter at all but a joining together of a eucharistic prayer and a sermon based on a discourse taken from the liturgical readings of the Feast of Pentecost. The combination of these elements of early worship suggests to J. C. Kirby in his Ephesians: Baptism and Pentecost (SPCK) that the document we call Ephesians finds its natural setting in a baptismal service. This is suggestive, but not all the evidence falls into the pattern.

Another recent effort to reopen a part of the New Testament closed for some time is made by A. T. Hanson. In Studies in the Pastoral Epistles (SPCK) he tries to use these letters to throw light on a dark-tunnel period of Christian history between the death of Paul and Bishop Ignatius. Some of his exegetical findings are worthwhile, but the overall thesis of a second-century dating of the epistles runs into serious trouble.

Finding the most likely “life-setting” of the New Testament documents is an occupational hobby of some scholars, who eagerly seize upon such letters as Second Peter and Jude for this purpose. Not so with E. M. B. Green, whose Tyndale commentary on these epistles (Eerdmans) brings the series almost within sight of completion. Green offers a stout defense of the letters’ authenticity and unity, and gives a careful review of the debate before opting for a conservative conclusion. His explanatory notes on the text well maintain the proven value of this unpretentious series of commentaries.

A commentary with a wider field to cover is that by C. K. Barrett on The First Epistle to the Corinthians (Harper & Row; Black). Last year’s survey was hesitant about this author’s attitude toward gospel history; no such reserve need be injected into a commendation of this major work on the liveliest of all Paul’s letters. The commentator has a judicious comment on each problem text and, with a touch of distinction visible again and again, brings to life the Corinthian situation and the inspired apostle’s handling of it. A first-rate piece of work, this book makes us impatient for Barrett’s promised commentary on the companion espistle.

Two large offerings on the life and teaching of Paul have appeared this year, but unhappily neither of them would merit a place among the great books on the Pauline shelf. E. W. Hunt calls his treatment Portrait of Paul (Mowbray). It follows conventional lines marked out by traditional Anglo-Saxon scholarship and breaks new ground only by proposing that its subject may be described in musical terms. Paul’s message is likened to the movements of a symphony. Brahms’s First Symphony is in mind, with its musical representation of the victory of good over evil. But even more addicted to the textbook approach to Paul and his doctrine is L. Cerfaux’s The Christian in the Theology of St. Paul (Chapman). This final product of a recently deceased Roman Catholic scholar crowns the exegetical work of a lifetime, coming as the last member of a trio of books on Christ and the Church in the apostle’s thought and experience. Its chief usefulness will be as a repository of biblical verses rather than as a new insight into Paul’s life and labors. For some fresh insights we need to turn to Paul and Qumran (Chapman), edited by J. Murphy-O’Connor. This composite volume performs the valuable service of making available in English some scholarly articles that in recent times have appeared in learned journals in French and German. They have a common interest in seeking to throw light on Paul’s teaching from the data of the Dead Sea Scrolls. The Pauline themes they illumine are central and decisive, such as justification by faith, mystery, the link between Ephesians and the Qumran texts, and truth. The claims made are advanced cautiously, and the book is marked by sobriety and sound judgment.

Discussion of the historical Jesus has not been much furthered in this year’s list. The Catholic writer X. Léon-Dufour has found a translator for his book now available as The Gospels and the Jesus of History (Collins). Though based on an erudite French treatment, this version makes few claims as a technical work of theology. But it will fill a space as a popular assessment of modernday trends from a conservative stance within the Catholic Church. Telltale signs of the author’s adherence are seen in his attitude to the pre-Synoptic tradition with a reliance on oral testimony, and his support of the quest of the Jesus of Galilee. Three supplementary books may be mentioned as they touch upon the very matters that are highlighted in Léon-Dufour’s book. The authorship of Matthew’s Gospel and its claim to apostolic authority are much to the front in the classic Catholic solution of the Synoptic problem. Liberal Protestants and form critics take an opposite and skeptical view. Now, in a highly competent and detailed study, R. H. Gundry seeks to have a second look at the matter. The Use of the OldTestament in St. Matthew’s Gospel (Brill) will do much to enhance the reputation of conservative scholarship in an area where it has a congenial contribution to make, namely, textual analysis and appraisal. Gundry examines the 148 Old Testament references in Matthew and discusses their textual affinities. An upshot of his treatment is the submission that the Apostle Matthew may well have been responsible for collecting the Lord’s words and be the author of the gospel book that bears his name. Another younger American scholar, Douglas R. A. Hare, in The Theme of Jewish Persecution of Christians in the Gospel According to St. Matthew (Cambridge) builds on the contrary assumption that this Gospel reflects the theological interest of an unknown Christian at a time when the Church and the synagogue had parted company. His distinctive thesis that Matthew’s Gospel came out of a situation in which the mission to Israel had failed and the Jews were treated as rejected by God founders on such a verse as 23:39 and is almost incredible.

A book that touches a nerve center of apostolic Christianity is not to be overlooked because it is small. Otto Betz in his What Do We Know About Jesus? (SCM) turns to the witness of the Qumran scrolls as well as to that of the Synoptics to face the issue, Was Jesus simply a man who knew himself to have a divine commission, who could represent God himself but without any particular office such as Messiah-Son of God? Betz’s response to this deep question does not share the agnosticism of much modern gospel study.

A logician takes a close look at some of the cherished presuppositions of gospel study in H. Palmer’s The Logic of Gospel Criticism (Macmillan). In a difficult but rewarding essay he subjects the four disciplines of textual, documentary, source, and form criticism to some perceptive analyses and comes up with surprising results. The overall impression of his book is a fresh understanding of the gospel writers, who cannot be properly evaluated if we persist (as many form critics do) in viewing them as “telegraph operators, camp-fire raconteurs, or Boy Scouts standing in a line.” In an indirect way Palmer contributes to the demise of a literary and form criticism that sees the evangelists as mere collectors of an anonymous tradition or the faceless men of an ecclesiastical school. He supports the latest vogue in gospel study, which is dignified by the descriptive tag Redaktionsgeschichte (“editorial history”); if this term seems mystifying, one can find a whole treatise devoted to its meaning in J. Rohde’s Rediscovering the Teaching of the Evangelists (Westminster; SCM). This volume, based on a dissertation in East Germany, is little more than a summary of current research in a field largely in the hands of German scholars, so its value is mainly one of transatlantic communication. But Anglo-Saxon scholars have not been slow to catch on, and already we are able to greet a study of John the Baptist from the standpoint of “editorial criticism” that takes seriously the claim of the evangelists as historians and theologians in their own right. W. Wink surveys what may be known of the Messianic herald in John the Baptist in the Gospel Tradition (Cambridge). The bridge between John and Jesus is well established in this interesting study, and fresh direction is given on the road back to the historical figures of the gospel narrative.

Two introductions to the New Testament may be bracketed only for convenience, for they have little in common. W. Marxsen’s Introduction (Blackwell) looks at the documents through Bultmannian spectacles and finds traces of an omnipresent Gnosticism at every turn of the page. A valuable corrective is at hand, however, in R. McL. Wilson’s Gnosis and the New Testament (Blackwell). Much more durable is the contribution of Oscar Cullmann in his popular survey, The New Testament (SCM). Although offered only as a sketch, it does a remarkable work of mediating the results of a “middle of the road” scholarship to a wide audience and refuses to surrender to either a blind obscurantism or the latest critical novelty. A postscript locates the genius of the New Testament in the conviction that through the historical events of Jesus of Nazareth, the past, present, and future are gathered up in a story of salvation that “has Christ as its meaning and apex.”

Among other published titles are:

GENERAL. Christian History and Interpretation, a Festschrift for J. Knox, edited by W. R. Farmer, C. F. D. Moule, and R. R. Niebuhr (Cambridge); Soli Deo Gloria, a Festschrift for W. C. Robinson, edited by J. M. Richards (John Knox), and The Pattern of New Testament Truth, by G. E. Ladd (Eerdmans).

THE GOSPELS. The Beginning of the Gospel (Mark), by C. F. Evans (SPCK); The History of the Synoptic Tradition (revised and corrected ed.), by R. Bultmann (Blackwell); An Aramaic Approach to the Gospels and Acts (third ed.), by M. Black (Oxford); Jesus in the Church’s Gospels, by J. Reumann (Fortress); Jesus and the Power of Satan, by J. Kallas (Westminster); History and Theology in the Fourth Gospel, by J. L. Martyn (Harper & Row); The Open Heaven: Revelation of God in the Johannine Sayings, by W. H. Cadman (Blackwell); According to John, by A. M. Hunter (SCM); and Gospel According to St. John, by J. Marsh (Pelican).

PAUL. Theology and Ethics in Paul, by V. P. Furnish (Abingdon); Paul’s Concept of Inheritance, by J. D. Hester (Oliver and Boyd); Another Jesus: A Gospel of Jewish-Christian Superiority in Second Corinthians, by D. W. Oostendorp (Kok); and First and Second Corinthians, Galatians, by R. P. Martin (Scripture Union).

THE EARLY CHURCH. More New Testament Studies (mostly reprints), by C. H. Dodd (Manchester University Press); and The Resurrection of Christ, by S. H. Hooke (Darton, Longman and Todd).

THEOLOGY. The Significance of the Message of the Resurrection for Faith in Jesus Christ, edited by C. F. D. Moule (SCM); The Pre-existence of Christ, by F. B. Craddock (Abingdon); An Introduction to the Theology of Rudolf Bultmann, by W. Schmithals (SCM); and The New Temple: A Study of the Church, by R. J. McKelvey (Oxford).

The year 1968 was a fruitful one, particularly in historical and historico-theological studies. Choosing twenty works that for different reasons seem especially significant has been difficult. Those selected are not quite the same as the twenty best evangelical books, of course, nor the twenty with the widest public appeal. On the other hand, the value of a book for an esoteric coterie of specialists is not the only criterion.

1. Corpus Reformatorum, by H. Zwingli, Volume XCIII, 2, Numbers 20–22 (Verlag Berichthaus). This first work is admittedly specialized. It is the continuation of the Zwingli writings in the great Reformation series that set out many years ago to give definitive editions of the great reformers. The Zwingli set was incomplete at the outbreak of World War II and since then progress has been slow. Yet the work goes on, and the high standards of the earlier volumes are being maintained. Unfortunately there is little hope of an English translation, but it is most important that these writings from the final years of Zwingli’s ministry be readily available in this form.

2. John Cotton on the Churches of New England, edited by L. Ziff (Harvard). Another writer of whom much is heard but whose works have been less accessible than they deserve is the Puritan John Cotton. This reproduction of original texts is very welcome, and Cotton emerges as a more significant writer than many second-hand studies and extracts would suggest. The importance of the early New England period, both politically and ecclesiastically, needs no further emphasis.

3. Religious Issues in American History, edited by E. S. Gaustadt (Harper & Row). The year was a good one for those interested in religious and secular relations in American history. This collection of eighteen paired texts provides further documentation, with introductory material by the editor. Scholars and publishers today seem to have caught the importance of making primary materials available both for their own sake and for that of giving basic information, and readers unaccustomed to handling such materials might well begin by sampling this kind of collection.

4. From Sacred to Profane America, by W. A. Clebsch (Harper & Row). As though to offer a commentary on the previous selection, Dr. Clebsch has written a fascinating study of the way in which, at certain points, the sacred affected the profane, but in so doing spent itself. Clebsch draws his own conclusions, but perhaps the real warning is that secularization may easily leave us with nothing to secularize. In a postlapsarian world (Thielicke), a prophetic ministry, like any other, needs constant renewal.

5. The Cambridge Platonists, edited by G. R. Cragg, and Ferdinand Christian Baur, edited by P. C. Hodgson (Oxford). The fifth selection is a double-header, since it is hardly possible to exclude either of these two additions to the series the “Library of Protestant Thought.” This excellent series of documents (translated where necessary) begins where the “Library of Christian Classics” leaves off. One may find out here what Baur actually said, what he was after, what is good and bad in his contribution, and how it is reflected in theology today.

6. Works of John Owen, Volumes 8, 9, 10, 16 (Banner of Truth Trust). Everybody knows about the Puritans, but who reads them? Perhaps their works have been hard to come by, but that excuse is no longer valid in view of these new editions. Or perhaps it is difficult to get through to their style and thought. This comes only by trying; the rewards are at least commensurate with the effort, far more so than in the case of many of our even more unintelligible modern authors.

7. Liberal Protestantism, edited by B. M. G. Reardon (Stanford University Press), in the series “Library of Modern Religious Thought.” Before leaving the extensive field of sources we should note this useful volume of extracts from the greater liberals, including Ritschl, Hermann, and Harnack. Some will welcome this book for the support it may give resurgent liberalism, but the real point is again that exact presentation replaces second-hand portrayal, and a proper assessment of the good and the bad may thus be made. An alternative or companion volume is the Harper Torchbook The Liberal Era, and by way of counterblast see The American Evangelicals, 1800–1900, both from Harper & Row.

8. The Byzantine Empire, II, edited by J. M. Hussey (Cambridge), Volume IV of the “Cambridge Medieval History” series. Through the years this series has shown its worth, and the current revision will undoubtedly extend its usefulness. This volume has quite a few sections dealing with religious aspects of the Byzantine world. This world may seem chronologically and geographically remote, but the matters dealt with are by no means dead or irrelevant. Who dares say that the Balkans and the Eastern Orthodox churches are of no interest to us?

9. The Early Vasas, A History of Sweden 1523–1611, by M. Roberts (Cambridge). Talking of remoter areas reminds us of another excellent study that fills in what is for many a very skeletal outline, that of Swedish history during the crucial Reformation period. Since the Scandinavian countries are small it is easy to overlook the important role they played at this juncture, their contribution to the making of modern America, and the pivotal place of the Lutheran Church of Sweden in the ecclesiastical world today. This very good work fills a real need.

10. Sacramentum Mundi, An Encyclopedia of Theology, Volumes I and 11, edited by Karl Rahner (Herder and Herder). From the Roman Catholic world comes one of the great productions of the century, the new encyclopedia that has been in preparation since Vatican II and is published in French, German, Dutch, Italian, and Spanish as well as English. Among the renowned contributors are Rahner, Küng, Baum, and Schillebeeckx. What can one say of a work of this kind? It is an encouraging reflection of the new trend, sets the pace for comparable evangelical work, gives tremendous emphasis to the Bible, and yet also gives evidence that the new look contains at least the sinister possibility—may it never be more!—of becoming a new modernism.

11. Dictionary of Biblical Theology, edited by X. Leon-Dufour (Chapman). This, too, is a Roman Catholic work, a single-volume dictionary published some years ago in French and now made available in English. It offers a less expensive and more compendious alternative to Sacramentum Mundi with a particular reference to biblical themes and with all the grace and clarity of French style. The articles are refreshingly biblical, though the irreformability of Roman Catholic definition casts a long shadow at some points.

12. An Introduction to the Theology of Rudolf Bultmann, by Walter Schmithals (SCM). For those who find it hard to read or understand Bultmann’s own works but are suspicious of tendentious representations, this translation of Schmithals’s work is a handy guide. Schmithals is a former pupil and not entirely unbiased. Yet his aim is correct and orderly presentation rather than evaluation. He writes in order that general students may make their own judgment on the basis of solid information instead of engaging in naïve applause, misdirected application, or ill-informed condemnation. He performs this task admirably, and an alert student will come away with far better reasons for the necessary repudiation of Bultmann’s theology.

13. What’s New in Religion?, by Kenneth Hamilton (Eerdmans). Why one must make this repudiation, though not just of Bultmann, is clearly and trenchantly shown in this new little book by Professor Hamilton. In it he tackles the new theologies and moralities of such men as Robinson, Tillich, Cox, and Fletcher. To thorough knowledge he adds an understanding that enables him to expose the vital weaknesses of the neologies, and to both he adds an entertaining style that makes him readable and strengthens rather than weakens his plea for a true theology.

14. The Reality of Faith, by H. M. Kuitert (Eerdmans). Another effective reply to current neologies is the work by the professor of ethics at the Free University of Amsterdam. Kuitert rightly grasps the essential objectivity of Christianity, yet also sees that this does not mean a handling of Christian doctrines merely as metaphysical truths. The objectivity is that of history, the history that of God at work among men. Hence theology is a pointing to reality. It also involves doing as well as believing and speaking. The book thus becomes more than a reply. It is a positive statement to lead us beyond the false dilemmas of the last few centuries.

15. Pelagius: Inquiries and Reappraisals, by R. F. Evans (Seabury). Heresies are stubborn. This is especially true of Pelagianism, which perhaps enshrines man’s most deep-seated resistance to the Gospel. Yet Pelagius is better known for what became of his teachings than for what they initially were. This fresh investigation, the first in a series, is thus a timely one that should interest historians, dogmaticians, and indeed all Christians. It helps to get the picture in clearer focus. It also brings the focus on the British (and American!) heresy that finds representatives in almost every theological group.

16. The Christian Understanding of the Atonement, by F. W. Dillistone (Westminster). The year was not very rich in dogmatic studies. The atonement, however, rightly continues to claim attention, and Dr. Dillistone has made a scholarly and thoughtful contribution in his latest book. In some sense all works on the atonement are disappointing; who can grasp its fullness? Hence it is easy enough to find defects in this new study. Yet God’s reconciliation is so full that there is something to learn from every positive discussion. Although perhaps no one will agree with all that is said, no discerning reader should leave this work without some profit.

17. John Knox, by Jasper Ridley (Oxford). In biography, too, the year was a poor one. Jasper Ridley, however, has added to previous books on Ridley and Cranmer this full-scale account of the Scottish reformer John Knox. Ridley is an experienced historian who has been able to dig up some new materials, check out previous biographies, and make new suggestions, all within the compass of a well composed and well written narrative. His greatest weakness is a lack of dogmatic flair or training, which reduces the value of the theological exposition and evaluation, so important in relation to the reformers. But the work is worthy of attention as a straightforward biography.

18. The Theses Were Not Posted, by E. Iserloh (Chapman), and Martin Luther’s 95 Theses, by K. Aland (Concordia). Some historians have a curious taste for debunking the dramatic in history, and the nailing up of the Ninety-five Theses, now an integral part of Hallowe’en for Protestants, has recently been relegated to the other world of the vigil by Dr. Iserloh. Good Lutherans, who have already had troubles with the inkpot, cannot allow this to happen to the Theses too, and the doughty champion K. Aland has come forward to defend a real posting. (So far the composition has not been challenged.) All quite entertaining, but one fears for the burning of the papal bull—a bad precedent in these days of university disturbances.

19. The Lord’s Day, by W. Rordorf (Westminster). Pastorally this study of Sunday deserves attention for its methodology, its solidity, and the essential—if to some people unwelcome—soberness of its findings. Rordorf sees that proper practice depends on a proper basis, and his work is devoted mainly to biblical and historical study. The greatest weakness is the failure to bring together the themes of worship and rest in the discussion. Rordorf then shows what proper observance involves on this foundation. Those who defend a cavalier treatment of the Lord’s Day by sophistries about Law and Gospel or cultural diversity might do well to read a work of this kind. Those who sense its inadequacies might provide the theological basis for the position they commend.

20. New Oxford Dictionary of Music, Volume 4: The Age of Humanism, edited by G. Abraham (Oxford). Church music is an important pastoral field, and almost all Christians are affected or interested in some way. This is a good reason for musical education among organists and pastors who insist in having a hand in musical selection. A series like the “New Oxford Dictionary” is an important tool in this regard, especially in so far as it deals with church music. It might even help to provide basic material for the education of congregations, whose appreciation at least can surely outrun their capabilities. This is a primary work for “choirs and places where they sing.”

In conclusion brief note may be made of some other significant 1968 works. Among documents are The Antinomian Controversy, edited by D. D. Hall (Wesleyan University), and The Beginnings of Dialectical Theology, edited by J. M. Robinson (John Knox). Historically W. H. C. Frend writes with his usual distinction on Martyrdom and Persecution in the Early Church (Doubleday), Gordon Donaldson handles the Scottish Kings, and C. G. Bolam et al. present The English Presbyterians (Allen and Unwin). Institutional problems engage J. Pelikan in Spirit Versus Structure (Harper & Row) and H. Küng in Structures of the Church (Notre Dame). An important book is that of E. Schillebeeckx on God—The Future of Man (Sheed and Ward). J. Jocz of Toronto has a new and stimulating study of The Covenant (Eerdmans). H. Küng has put together some of his lecture material in Truthfulness (Sheed and Ward), while J. Knox is still worrying about Myth and Truth (Carey Kingsgate). A tribute of interest to evangelicals is paid in The Philosophy of Gordon Clark, edited by R. H. Nash (Presbyterian and Reformed). The problem of anti-Semitism has produced two informative studies, one on The Vatican Council and the Jews, by A. Gilbert (World), the other on The French Enlightenment and the Jews, by A. Hertzberg (Columbia University). Pastors will find much food for thought in the original essays of O. Hartman on Earthly Things (Eerdmans), and for Roman Catholics K. Rahner digs into The Theology of Pastoral Action (Herder and Herder). Finally, Roman Catholic uneasiness about papal infallibility has found amazingly open expression in Francis Simons’s book entitled Infallibility and the Evidence (Templegate): the amazing thing here is that this Roman Catholic bishop in India does not think the evidence provides any true support for infallibility. The increasing quantity, the vigor, and the quality of Roman Catholic publications are among the most striking features of this whole field of theological literature today. It is a challenge to liberal Protestants to turn their talents back to serious theological work in place of the dominant neologizing, and to evangelical Protestants to address themselves to the task of producing a comparable body of historical and theological writings—partly in harmony, partly in dialogue, and partly still in tension, with their Roman Catholic counterparts.

The year 1968 was an exciting one for Canada—politically, ecclesiastically, and socially. We had a general election that, for the first time in a long period of political malaise, gave us a majority government. With this gift we also received a new Prime Minister, Pierre Elliot Trudeau. He swept to power on a wave of Trudeaumania that for a people so generally phlegmatic as Canadians seemed somewhat frightening.

Peter Newman, political correspondent for the Toronto Star, has an unusual facility in writing “instant history,” and he has done so again in his book The Distemper of Our Times. Here is a chronicle of five years in Canada’s history by a journalist who was close to the political scene all the time. It is an angry journal, a distillation of behind-the-scenes actions in one of the most frantic periods in this nation’s history. Here for the first time we are given the basic material from which to draw accurate judgments and assess the trends, the people, and the events that shaped the nation’s course. There are few heroes here, unfortunately. And worse, there is very little evidence of dependence on God or on the conviction that righteousness exalts a nation.

Newman’s summary may be overly simple, but it is nonetheless disturbing:

The Diefenbaker years resembled nothing so much as the voyage of the Titanic—an inevitable rush to disaster, with the ship of state sinking at the end in a galaxy of fireworks, brass bands playing and the captain shouting hysterical orders to crewmen who had long since jumped overboard. The Pearson period, in contrast, was more like the voyage of some peeling, once proud, now leaky excursion steamer, lurching from port to port, with the captain making up the schedule as he went along, too busy keeping the ship afloat to spend much time on the bridge.

The great question remains. Is the ship of state today in safer and wiser hands? There is great room for doubt. The phenomenon of Trudeaumania is still with us. But there are better ways than popular acclaim to judge this man whose meteoric rise to power has so astonished the chancelleries of the world. It is not without interest that both the Toronto Telegram and Life magazine reported that our Prime Minister, on a recent visit to United Nations Secretary U Thant in New York, found time also to take in the Broadway rock musical Hair and pop artist Andy Warhol’s film Flesh. Without presuming to judge, one can only say that the cause of righteousness may face challenges in Canada that this nation has not yet known. Trudeau’s great presentation is “the just society”—yet when some months ago he was asked what Canada intended to do about the agony of Biafra, he asked: “Where is Biafra?”

In the ecclesiastical realm, one can report a positive and exciting development in 1968. The movement toward integration of evangelicals has gained in cohesion and velocity, and the development of the Evangelical Fellowship of Canada in the past twelve months has been quite dramatic. It may yet appear that along with the other events that have shaken Canada in the past year, the rise of the Evangelical Fellowship was of major significance.

Admittedly, it did not seem like this at the convention in Winnipeg. Indeed, some rather unworthy reporting gave the impression that the last convention amounted to little less than a total disaster. But God has planned otherwise. In his sovereignty, the council has been welded together into a striking team of great force, and a new magazine, Thrust, has appeared. For now this is to be a quarterly journal. Several issues have already come from the press, and reviews have been heartening. The magazine is being sent to the study of every evangelical minister in Canada.

In a country as large as Canada, emphasis on news is very desirable, and Thrust is giving considerable space to this. Every effort is being made to provide accurate assessment of ecclesiastical and social movements in all the provinces. With this in view, the lead article in the first issue was on “Poverty and Mr. Trudeau’s Just Society.” The lead article in the second issue tells of a very interesting new development in Christian scholarship, the opening of Regent College in Vancouver in the summer of 1969. These issues are of prime importance to evangelicals in our land, and the leaders of the Evangelical Fellowship intend to provide adequate coverage of such matters. The magazine is of Reader’s Digest size, carries advertising, and sells for twenty-five cents per copy. It has already been called “a magazine worthy of the space age”—the format is quite unusual. Interested readers may obtain copies by writing to Box 878, Terminal A, Toronto 1, Ontario, Canada.

This is only part of the program being developed. The 1969 convention will be held March 5 and 6 in Knox Presbyterian Church, Toronto, and will deal with “Reality and Relevancy.” The intention is to have ministers and laymen from all across Canada face the tremendous question of the relevance of the evangelical message to the crises of our times. The social order of our land, the communications media, the role of evangelism and the evangelist in the ongoing work of the Church, the revolt of youth, the social conscience of the Christian—all these will come before major seminars.

One of the questions often asked about the Evangelical Fellowship of Canada is: What are its goals? The answer is very simple. The goal is nothing less than the quickening of the people of God to an awareness of their high privileges and responsibilities through God’s grace.

The need for revival is beyond question. We may have the best of programs, but what are they if the breath of the Holy Spirit is not upon them? The plain fact is that we evangelicals of Canada have not loved the Lord with all our heart and mind and strength, and we have certainly not loved our neighbors as we love ourselves. We have refused to pray and as a result have fallen into temptation. There is little evidence of an abundant, joyous life in Christ. And joylessness is sin.

Under God the Evangelical Fellowship of Canada can play a great role in recalling the land to God and in reminding its political leaders that only with the help of God can they succeed. There is undoubtedly a special duty for Canadian evangelicals in this critical hour, and we intend to carry it out. We seek only the glory of God and the exaltation of Jesus Christ. We believe that his is a solitary throne and that he is the only answer to the problems of our day. If ever God grants great revival to Canada, its effects will be known in every corner of the globe. We have no lesser aim than this. And we are confident that, as we follow the pattern outlined in the Holy Scriptures, God will indeed break in upon us and allow us to see his power and glory manifested to all flesh.

WILLIAM FITCH

Retrospect is good, but sometimes prospect is even better. It is the lot of an editor to keep looking ahead. He has little time to look backward except as he smarts over his mistakes—things he didn’t do that he should have done and some he did but shouldn’t have. But the future is bright.

Coming up shortly will be two essays, pro and con, on the issue of government aid to parochial schools. We have an excellent essay on academic freedom that will surface shortly. In the works also is a paper on tongues from a Pentecostal perspective. Paul Rees is writing an Easter article that our readers will appreciate. Ascension Day comes along and except for those who watch the church calendar it attracts little attention. We have a solid treatment of that subject ready to go. Readers will be interested also in a forthcoming essay on sexual deviation in relation to the Word of God and the law of the land. For the scientifically minded we have on tap a splendid paper from Australia on biology and faith. So there are good things in store for our subscribers who want to be where the action is and know what God is saying in response to man’s perennial search.

The U. S. Supreme Court January 27 issued the century’s most important ruling on church property. The gist of the decision: the nation’s secular courts must steer clear of any church-property disputes that involve religious judgments.

The court uttered this declaration of independence over the attempt of two Georgia congregations to pull out of the Presbyterian Church in the U. S. (“Southern”), and keep their local property. The unanimous decision, written by William Brennan, Jr., the court’s only Roman Catholic, is likely to discourage many dissidents from trying similar withdrawals.

The court handed the case back to Georgia courts to settle on grounds of property law alone. It said “there are neutral principles of law, developed for use in all property disputes, which can be applied.…” So next time around the case will hinge on whether paragraph 6–3 of the Book of Church Order means property goes to a pull-out congregation or to the denomination.

The previous Georgia rulings were based on the contention that the Southern Presbyterian Church had departed significantly from its original doctrines, thus breaking the “implied trust” of denominational affiliation. At issue were such things as ordination of women, political pronouncements, and liberalizing theology.

(Justice John Harlan added a brief concurring opinion that if someone “expressly” gives money to the church on the condition that it will never ordain women, for instance, then civil courts could hold that he “is entitled to his money back.”)

The main opinion called the denomination “a hierarchical general church organization,” a matter which some may dispute. And it noted that the local churches made no effort to appeal the presbytery ruling against holding property to the Synod of Georgia or to the annual General Assembly, the denomination’s own supreme court.

Under the new ruling, that’s all a local church can do—if some general issue of legal property rights is not involved. The court recognizes a proper state role in resolving property disputes but says “special problems arise … when these disputes implicate controversies over church doctrine and practice.”

In particular, they run against the First Amendment guarantee that government won’t hinder “free exercise” of religion. The logic of an 1871 Supreme Court ruling on a northern Presbyterian church in Louisville, the 1969 document says, “leaves the civil courts no role in determining ecclesiastical questions in the process of resolving property disputes.” But Twentieth-century Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox cases have established “some circ*mstances in which marginal civil court review of ecclesiastical determinations would be appropriate,” such as fraud or arbitrariness. All church-property suits in civil courts do not necessarily inhibit “free exercise.”

But in cases like Presbyterian Church in the U. S. et al. v. Mary Elizabeth Blue Hull Memorial Presbyterian Church et al.:

“First Amendment values are plainly jeopardized when church property litigation is made to turn on the resolution by civil courts of controversies over religious doctrine and practice. If civil courts undertake to resolve such controversies in order to adjudicate the property dispute, the hazards are ever present of inhibiting the free development of religious doctrine and of implicating secular interests in matters of purely ecclesiastical concern.… Hence, States, religious organizations, and individuals must structure relationships involving church property so as not to require the civil courts to resolve ecclesiastical questions.”

The U. S. Supreme Court objected because the Georgia county-court jury and State Supreme Court had had to decide whether the denomination was changing substantially, then whether change was on such an important matter that legal trust was terminated. This “departure-from-doctrine element,” it said, violates the First Amendment and is a legal standard created by the state, not by church law itself.

Both sides claimed victory in first reactions to the ruling. The Savannah Presbytery executive who has been trying to retain the properties for the denomination, J. Lehmon Brantley, was “pleased” and said the argument that ecclesiastical matters should be settled in church courts “is consistent with what our position has been throughout.” Denominational attorney Charles Gowen, who hadn’t yet read the text, said he assumed the local property now must revert to the presbytery.

But the Rev. Todd Allen of Eastern Heights Church, which withdrew with the Blue Hull Church, said, “We still own the property. If the denomination wants the property they will have to enter a [civil] suit. We are back where we started.” He hopes the denomination now “will let us live in peace. I hope they are tired of fighting us in court and are tired of gouging us out of our property.”

Church Panorama

Recent goings-on in church include: A hip eucharist at arty St. Clement’s Episcopal Church, New York City, in which barefoot and blindfolded communicants went into the basem*nt for the general confession, and had sins symbolically flushed away in the bathroom. A reading by poet Leroi Jones at Trinity Episcopal Cathedral, Cleveland, taken over by black militants who threw out whites in the audience under threat. And a production of “Paradise Now” in a Unitarian church near Madison, Wisconsin—after it was banned at a theater—that featured swearing, spitting, and a “flesh pile” for sexual revolution, and ended with seven members of the audience shedding all their clothes.

The Presbyterian Church in the U. S. (“Southern”) appeared headed for approval of merger with the Reformed Church in America January 30. Thirty-four of the needed fifty-eight presbyteries had voted in favor, nine opposed.

The Chicago Conference on Religion and Race’s tri-faith employment project found jobs for more than 20,000 unemployed adults last year.

Faced with discord over a shift to emphasize social involvement and an immediate debt of $6,000, the Louisville Council of Churches issued an emergency fund appeal to keep going.

The Rev. John Coventry Smith, one of the presidents of the World Council of Churches, predicts the Roman Catholic Church will join the WCC within a decade.

Personalia

The Rev. Ray Wolfe, called to a church in Hulbert, Michigan, is believed to be the first Negro pastor of a white congregation in the Southern Baptist Convention. Wolfe served two decades in military service, retired from a Michigan air base, and had been an active church worker.

Newsmen Drew Pearson and Willmar Thorkelson joined speculation that Lyndon Johnson will become a Roman Catholic soon.

New Orleans Baptist Seminary theology teacher Robert Soileau resigned under protest, then complained to the regional and seminary accrediting agencies. He says the school has taken a conservative turn and blames it largely on colleague Clark Pinnock, though his public statement didn’t mention the name.

Dr. John W. Snyder, 44, Lutheran seminary graduate and board president of the Institute for Advanced Christian Studies, was named chancellor of the main Bloomington campus of Indiana University. Snyder, a Presbyterian layman, is a specialist in ancient history, and has been acclaimed one of the Big Ten’s “most exciting teachers” by the Chicago Tribune Magazine. (See his essay, “Presenting Christian Truth at University Level,” February 16, 1968, issue.)

Two years after noted Catholic writer John Cogley left as New York Times religion editor, the Rev. Edward B. Fiske, a religion reporter on the paper for three years, has been given the title. Young Fiske is a Phi Beta Kappa who served as assistant minister of a United Presbyterian church in Harlem. Another Princeton Seminary graduate, the Rev. Russell Chandler, assumed the same post at the Washington Evening Star six months ago.

A Quaker, a Methodist, and a Presbyterian were fired by the University of Kansas Medical Center after they refused to sign a required loyalty oath.

Dr. Joe K. Menn, just 34, was named president of Texas Lutheran College, affiliated with the American Lutheran Church.

Dr. George Bird, former graduate journalism director at Syracuse University and a Christian and Missionary, Alliance layman, is globe-hopping to run journalism workshops for Evangelical Literature Overseas.

A “t” and sympathy to Baptist pastor Ellis Eklof, Jr., whose church ad in the Minneapolis Star listed his sermon topic as: “I Believe in Immorality.”

Jewish law forbids an unmarried girl to be alone with a boy and inaccessible to a third party, so Ruth Friedman jumped twenty-five feet off a ski lift where she was stranded with a date. Now New York State seeks to recover $35,000 awarded for her injuries in a damage suit.

Miscellany

Benjamin Glick was seated on the jury for the Sirhan Sirhan murder trial after denying his “religious background” would prejudice him against the Arab defendant.

B’nai B’rith says “raw, undisguised” anti-Semitism, “unchecked” for two years, has reached a crisis level in New York City public schools, sparked mainly by “black extremists.” And a mayor’s committee concludes that the school decentralization dispute has surfaced “an appalling amount” of racial and religious bias. Meanwhile, Rabbi Marc Tanenbaum of the American Jewish Committee says Arab propagandists are trying to “penetrate” Christian agencies, including the National and World Councils.

Presbyterian backers upset over use of the interdenominational campus center at San Francisco State College by student strikers forced it to close January 29 pending an objective investigation.

The 3,200 public-school students in Clairton, Pennsylvania, because of public demand, are again beginning the day with prayer and Bible-reading, in apparent defiance of the 1963 Supreme Court ruling.

The Gallagher Report, a newsletter for corporation executives, says former clergymen form a talent pool to offset the expected shortage of executive personnel in the 1970s.

Canada’s Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau returned from an audience with Pope Paul confirmed in his interest in selling the nation on sending an ambassador to the Vatican. Leaders of the United Church of Canada and other Protestant groups are against the idea.

India’s home minister V. C. Shukla warned that the government wants to replace all foreign missionaries with nationals and is keeping a close watch to expel any missionary engaging in politics. In the next three years, the Roman Catholic Church could have to replace as many as 2,000 foreign clergy and nuns.

Church and state: San Antonio County church colleges must now pay taxes on faculty homes. Florida’s Supreme Court ruled tax-exempt a Baptist church parking lot used commercially during the week. Kentucky’s attorney general ruled legal the Louisville area plan in which public-school teachers instruct Catholic pupils in classrooms the public systems rent from Catholic schools.

The Fort Lauderdale (Florida) city council passed a p*rnography ordinance so explicit in language that most papers (including this one) won’t quote it.

They Say

“When one wonders what type of man Mr. Nixon is and which direction his political program is going to take, one could well suggest that his choice of religious figures dramatized the coming political years. Since Cox, Moody, Altizer, Bennett, Boyd, Brown, and Father Groppi were absent from the Inauguration doings, we can almost conclude that the next four years will not be ‘swinging years’ politically unless the important events of the day catch up with the Washington processional and force a re-evaluation of priorities and needs.”—The Rev. Frank A. Sharp, director of press relations, American Baptist Convention.

DEATHS

W. Y. CHEN, 70, last living bishop of China’s mainland Methodists, imprisoned 1950–59 and under house arrest since; in Chungking, of cancer and liver failure.

KAROL KOTULA, 84, bishop emeritus of Poland’s Lutherans; in an auto accident.

DAVID C. BROWN, 34, Bible Presbyterian minister and radio preacher; shot in Seattle while meeting in a home with church elders; police charged Rodney Mahaffey, son of a state legislator.

WILLIAM A. LAWRENCE, 79, former Episcopal bishop of western Massachusetts; in Springfield, after a heart attack.

An unseasonably warm sun parted rain clouds over Memphis one day in January as America’s ecumenical elite marched to the Lorraine Motel to pay tribute to the late Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Weathermen had announced a 70 per cent chance of showers, but the rain never came. It was a bit of good fortune in an otherwise melancholy four-day meeting of the National Council of Churches’ General Board.

“The honeymoon is over for the ecumenical movement,” the board was told by a Roman Catholic priest, and most members seemed to feel it. The issues of black power, violence, Biafra, and the Middle East pressed in upon the meeting, but the board had not a prophetic word about any of these. There simply was no consensus.

One resolution adopted by the 250-member board reaffirmed an earlier statement condemning Soviet-led intervention in Czechoslovakia. The reaffirmation was introduced by United Presbyterian Stated Clerk William Thompson after the board’s executive committee sought to derail consideration of the Czech question on grounds that NCC specialists had not given the matter enough study. The new statement tempers the previous one by “acknowledging that our country itself has been guilty of oppression.” A five-man delegation from the Russian Orthodox Church in Moscow witnessed adoption of the resolution.

Other guests at the meeting included a denim-clad black-militant group known as “The Invaders,” who sought to capitalize upon the opportunity by demanding $51,000 for a program among local poor people. When no immediate promises of the money were made, an Invader leader took the floor to hurl obscene epithets at churches in general and the NCC in particular.

Traditionally the NCC has sought to be in the vanguard of social movements, but direct alignment with separatist black-power causes would mean repudiation of much that the council stood for in the fifties and sixties. A pronouncement adopted by the NCC General Assembly on December 5, 1957, declared that community practices that segregate or discriminate on the basis of race, color, or national origin “are contrary to the Christian principle that all men are beings of worth in the sight of God.”

The most heated exchange on the floor of the General Board was produced by charges that the NCC had not done enough for oppressed blacks in Memphis and in Wilmington, Delaware. The Rev. Charles S. Spivey, Jr., who heads the council’s racial efforts, denied that the NCC had not participated in confrontations in those cities.

NCC officials also refused to be drawn out on the political and economic issues behind the struggle in Nigeria/ Biafra, though it was announced that more than $3,000,000 had been raised for relief work there. Middle East tensions and growing animosity between Jew and black in the United States were also ignored.

The Rev. Eugene Carson Blake acknowledged the adverse effect of current social problems upon the Church in a conciliatory speech before the board. The general secretary of the World Council of Churches noted “great theological confusion today, and a plethora of second thoughts about ecumenism in many quarters,” but said he saw no reason to expect any “radical change of direction or any great decrease of momentum” in the conciliar-ecumenical movement.

Blake said he had conferred with Pope Paul VI in January only to have the pontiff deliver two “anti-Protestant speeches” in the days immediately following. Blake added in jest that he wondered whether he ought ever to undertake another Vatican visit.

It was disclosed in Memphis that the NCC had dispatched a seven-member team to Paris for four days in January to confer with peace-conference delegates from both North and South Viet Nam. In a report to the board they asserted that nationalism is “the driving spirit” in North and South, that “its dominance over every consideration is consistently present.” They charged that “the present regime in Saigon does not represent many important segments even of that part of South Viet Nam which it controls.” The report contended that the United States should encourage a third political force in South Viet Nam, opposed to both the present Saigon government and the Communist Viet Cong. This group obviously was not in Paris, and how the NCC representatives learned enough of such a phenomenon to promote it was not immediately clear.

The dejected mood of board members was perhaps inadvertently encouraged by the playing of blues records as prelude and postlude to a “service of praise and intercession” at the opening session. The selections were said to have been in recognition of the 150th anniversary in 1969 of the founding of the city of Memphis, where W. C. Handy wrote the famous “Beale Street Blues.”

To make matters worse, the board heard a none too encouraging financial report. President Arthur Flemming chided members for adopting idealistic goals and then failing to get their denominations to fund programs adequately. “I don’t want to be associated with organizations that just pass resolutions,” he said.

The gap was underscored by Mrs. James Dolbey, president of Church Women United, who said that unless denominations are willing to pool their resources for more joint action, “we should call it quits.”

Some orthodox notes managed to surface. An unsigned analysis of missionary work from the NCC’s Division of Overseas Ministries talked of the necessity of “an underlying and intentional spiritual purpose.” This reference to “spiritual” things drew criticism from one woman board member whose concept of religious relevance seemed to be confined to the materialist and activist dimension. Another board member hailed the emphasis, saying the words should be “underlined, italicized, and shouted from the rooftops.”

REMEMBERING DR. KING

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., would have been 40 on January 15, and the day brought announcement of a “Memorial Center” for him in Atlanta. The two center sites—one near his Ebenezer Baptist Church, the second near the Atlanta University Center—will cost up to $40 million, from foundation, corporation, and private gifts. Meanwhile Governor Nelson Rockefeller and New York Mayor John Lindsay joined the campaign to make the fifteenth a national holiday, and Washington Cathedral said it would put a likeness of King next to its statues of Luther and Calvin. Also last month King’s widow was on a world tour. After a Vatican audience with Pope Paul, she praised U. S. Catholic efforts for racial justice, and backed non-violence. Then on to India, land of King’s idol Gandhi, to receive the Nehru Award for International Understanding in her husband’s name. Tears welled in Prime Minister’s Indira Gandhi’s eyes as Mrs. King sang, “We Shall Overcome.”

Memphis Trial Murmurs

The judge in the James Earl Ray murder trial says the Rev. James Bevel of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference can’t join the defense counsel for Ray, accused of killing SCLC’s Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Bevel, who asserted he knew that Ray didn’t do it, visited the defendant in prison last month as the Memphis trial got under way.

Episcopal Convergence

Evangelicals and Anglo-Catholics in the U. S. Episcopal Church find their interests converging in opposition to church union and, in particular, the Consultation on Church Union. This, plus their adherence to the historic creeds and Episcopal liturgy, formed major themes of last month’s third convention of the Foundation for Christian Theology in New Orleans.

The foundation supports worthy causes within the denomination. Its Christian Challenge magazine, now seeking to upgrade its lackluster format, has grown to 20,000 circulation.

Broadcast Yeas And Nays

“Let your communication be yea, yea, nay, nay … anything more or less is evil,” admonished Federal Communications Commission Chairman Rosel H. Hyde to the annual National Religious Broadcasters convention in Washington, D. C., last month. Hyde, an FCC member since its inception in 1934, implored the 300 broadcasters from thirty-three states and four continents to sound a call to “reason … idealism, reverence, and moral standards” and noted approvingly President Nixon’s call to “stop shouting at one another.”

Other convention speakers observed that religious and other media are fast proliferating, sometimes duplicating efforts, and—occasionally—shouting at each other.

Mormon Hyde also declared radio and TV stations now carrying antismoking public-service ads would not be required to carry cigarette ads in order to show “fairness.”

Hyde himself has been the subject of fairness attacks. The week before the convention the FCC renewed without a hearing the TV license of Mormon Church-owned KSL in Salt Lake City. The six FCC members split evenly and bitterly on the issue. A cab-driving protester and his wife had charged—and KSL denied—that the station showed “dominant influence by the economic corporations” owned by the church.

“Pirate Bishop” A. W. Goodwin Hudson of London described the government stranglehold on religious broadcasts in Britain, where you can’t even buy air time to advertise sales of the Bible. What’s offered is “tepid religious rice pudding,” said the bishop caustically. The “pirate stations” on radio ships in international waters were squelched, after Hudson had successfully wafted the Gospel to merrie England, often in rock ‘n roll format.

RUSSELL CHANDLER

Vs. Church-State Sloganizing

Americans United for Separation of Church and State, whose monthly Church and State spends much time attacking alleged abuses of the Roman Catholic hierarchy, met for two days in New York last month. Speakers included separationists of various theological persuasions, from the Unitarian pastor Donald Harrington (who is president of New York’s Liberal party) to the National Association of Evangelicals’ Clyde W. Taylor.

Most speakers strongly condemned “increasing clericalism” and the use of public funds to support religion in any manner. But there was a moderate element represented by William Pinson, Jr., of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary and U.S. Senator Mark Hatfield, also a Baptist. Pinson stressed that in taking a stand for separation, Americans United should not forget that the “issues are too complex” for sloganizing. He warned those assembled against assuming an extremist posture that misuses freedom in terms of appeals to anti-Catholic prejudice, personal slander, and slanted reporting of events.

Hatfield’s keynote speech reiterated the need for positive statements by Americans United, to encourage people to practice their faith within the freedoms of the Bill of Rights. He defended the Supreme Court by saying it has allowed for more freedom of religion by its removal of particularized religion from the schools. “We’re not going to solve the secularism of the age with pious amendments to the Constitution,” said Hatfield. He thinks it’s time for those of faith to live by that faith by listening to the disadvantaged and projecting their faith with words and action into the now world.

JOHN EVENSON

Wesley’S Faith Rides Again

Those dissident Evangelical United Brethren who didn’t want to join the Methodists would have felt right at home at the first national evangelism council of the merged denomination last month in Kansas City. The meeting proved a kind of victory for United Methodists who desire an evangelical approach to mission.

Council President Ira Galloway, district superintendent from Fort Worth, said his own “theological stance is in the first decade.… The Gospel is still relevant. It works in our day. There is nothing wrong with the faith—we’ve left the faith as a people. Because of a lack of living faith, thousands of young people are turning from the Church.”

Galloway spoke of his own “coming to faith,” and criticized the secularist movement, which he considers heresy. “The pure secularist wants simply to share the affluence without also sharing the meaning of a personal relationship with God.”

The convention surpassed its registration goal of 400 by half again that many.

The delegates came from 117 of the 150 United Methodist conferences, at their own expense. Most delegates stayed in town over the weekend for a lay-witness mission. The original hope was that at least six laymen could be assigned to each area congregation for follow-up evangelism. As it worked out, some churches had twenty visiting lay witnesses, and one had fifty. Rarely had so many persons been involved in a denominational lay-witness program.

The Rev. George Fallon, a Board of Evangelism executive, contributed to the mood of the meeting by denying that God is dead or the Church obsolete.

“Man is trying to play God, and this contributes to a neurotic society,” added another Methodist evangelical speaker, Billy Graham associate Dr. Akbar Abdul-Haqq. And Alabama layman Charlie Phillips, district manager for an electrical equipment firm, spoke of his past life, “working real hard being a Christian, but without Christ.”

But such evangelistic pronouncements did not go unchallenged. General Secretary Joseph H. Yeakel of the evangelism board, who held the same post in the EUB Church, was more disturbed that men are living without Christ than that they are dying without him. He spoke of the “potential of the ecumenical,” and the Church’s need to listen to the world. “The Gospel is always social,” he concluded.

In other business, a resolution asking ministers to restrict their purchases from the Methodist Publishing House until it joins the fair-employment code of Project Equality failed to pass. And the Rev. Ford Philpot, well-known evangelical from Kentucky, was elected president of the National Association of Conference Evangelists.

JAMES S. TINNEY