Page 5697 – Christianity Today (2024)

Here are twenty-five “how-to” books published since our first such list was prepared (See September 10, 1976, issue, p. 20). Literally hundreds of books appear each year that are intended to provide practical help for Christian living and ministering. Naturally what is new and helpful to one reader may be tried and proven (negatively or positively) to another. There is no claim that this selection is the best of the lot; indeed, given the nature of how-to books, what’s best depends very much on who’s using them. What I have tried to do is mention some books that I think will be of practical assistance to those of our readers who are seeking help in the areas under consideration.

BEGINNING Tens of thousands have become Christians through the preaching of Billy Graham. His basic message is once again available in book form in How to be Born Again (Word). It is being widely publicized and one hopes that its message is taken to heart by many who have not previously come to know the grace of God that brings salvation.

CONTINUING Even as physical birth is only a starting point, so the new Christian needs to grow. Every word in the title of Richard Peace’s Pilgrimage: A Workbook on Christian Growth (Acton House) is significant. We are to be pilgrims, but too many Christians soon become settlers. Although there is plenty of text, Peace gives us a workbook with various devices to force serious interaction. We are to be Christian not merely in doctrine, but also in ethics, not merely in our relationship to the living Lord, but also to our fellow believers and our fellow humans. And Christians are to grow, not just up to a point from which we level off as in physical growth; our whole Christian lives are to be characterized by spiritual growth.

It is paradoxical that in a society where there is so much selfishness and boasting there is a wave of books both secular and Christian on improving one’s self-image or self-esteem. However, it was our Lord who told us to love our neighbors as ourselves. Failure in the former is yoked with failure in the latter. Hence a book like Cecil Osborne’s The Art of Learning to Love Yourself (Zondervan).

Fundamental to continued Christian growth is the persistent, personal study of God’s Word. Better Bible Study (Regal) by A. Berkeley and Alveira M. Mickelsen is a good elementary introduction to the principles and practice of interpreting the Scriptures.

THE FAMILY Last year’s selection of practical books led off with what we considered a pathfinder on explicit sex techniques within a Christian context. Sure enough, others are travelling down the path. But Intended for Pleasure: Sex Technique and Sexual Fulfillment in Christian Marriage (Revell) is not a pale imitation. The authors, Ed and Gaye Wheat, have long had a popular cassette series on the subject and some of their work was incorporated into last year’s book, The Act of Marriage by the LaHayes. Tim LaHaye in turn writes an appreciative foreword to this book. Until something better comes along, one or both of these books should be in every couple’s library.

Sex is not all there is to marriage, and even singles can utilize Open Heart, Open Home (Cook) by Karen Burton Mains. The dust-jacket caption is, in this instance, apt: “how to find joy through sharing your home with others.”

There are so many books (and speakers) telling parents how to raise darling children that I hesitate to mention any. (What would be interesting is a study of the progeny of such authors, or even better. finding out from kids how they cope with “expert” parents.) With apologies for raising guilt-levels still further—things that seem so neat on the printed page turn out so messy in real life—I mention two books: Happily Ever After (Word) by Joy Wilt is, despite its cute title, a very down to earth book on loving children toward maturity. Sample chapter titles: “Mommy, I’m Bored!” and “Talking About You-Know-What” (Clue: go back two paragraphs). It is not as stuffy as its title, but psychiatrist Paul Meier’s Christian Child-Rearing and Personality Development (Baker) does not have a style quite to my taste. Nevertheless I’m sure it can be of help to many parents. Finally in this category I call attention to a book about a very specific, very important, but all too often defective practice: How to Have Family Prayers (Zondervan) by Rosalind Rinker.

THE CONGREGATION Individuals and families are not perfect, so naturally congregations aren’t either. But if the willingness of authors to write, publishers to publish, and the public to buy is any indication, many Christians feel that their congregational life falls far too short of the biblical ideal for comfort. If you are tired of drifting along, and challenged by hearing of vital congregations that really exist elsewhere, here are four books to look into. Survival Tactics in the Parish (Abingdon) by Lyle Schaller might seem too negative. It’s not. Schaller, who has visited more than four thousand congregations in the past twenty years, has a winsome way of giving very practical suggestions for understanding and handling problems that many writers barely mention.

If you missed the first wave of “church growth” books, or if they seemed too unrealistic for your situation, style, or system, take a look at Vision and Strategy for Church Growth (Moody) by Waldo Werning, a Lutheran. (I mention his denomination because it is not usually associated with the church growth emphasis.)

Local Church Planning Manual (Judson) by Richard Rusbuldt, Richard Gladden, and Norman Green, Jr. is very much a workbook with numerous forms adaptable by all types of congregations. It may be too complicated, so don’t consider it unless you are serious about improving your congregation and have learned that life, especially when it involves interpersonal relations, is complex.

For a systematic overview of the subject based on the classroom notes of a veteran seminary professor see Getting the Church on Target (Moody) by Lloyd Perry.

LEADING Ted Engstrom, executive vice-president of World Vision, has prepared two books, the second along with his colleague Edward Dayton, which can be of great value not only to leaders of congregations but in other kinds of organizations as well: The Making of a Christian Leader (Zondervan) and The Art of Management for Christian Leaders (Word). Reading books like these can’t make you a leader, but they can certainly help you be a better one.

COMMUNICATING How Can I Get Them to Listen? (Zondervan) by James Engel is an introductory manual on constructing questionnaires and other ways of obtaining meaningful data on how best to reach a target audience with a Christian message. It has a secondary value for those who will not use it professionally. All of us are bombarded with statistically supported claims; this book can help us be a little discriminating as to which claims we believe.

Another academic specialist in communication, Emory Griffin, writes more for the “common man” in The Mind Changers: The Art of Christian Persuasion(Tyndale). Winning people to Christ and winning believers to Christlikeness is ultimately the work of the Holy Spirit, but the more we know of the ways that our God-given mind-changing mechanisms work, the better persuaders we can be.

PREACHING Here’s a short book for the preacher who feels he should read something but can’t spare the time to pore through a tome. A Guide to Biblical Preaching (Abingdon) by James W. Cox is both comprehensive and concise. It is packed with specific helps.

WRITING Robert Walker, Janice Franzen, and Helen Kidd have compiled and edited The Successful Writers and Editors Guidebook (Creation House). Fully eighty-five chapters by almost as many writers cover almost every aspect of the subject. Names and addresses of potential publishers are included, all of whom, I dare say, would join me in urging would-be writers to digest some of the information in this or similar manuals before rushing to the post office with their handiwork. Publishers are always looking for good and appropriate submissions. (Note well both adjectives as well as the adverb.)

EVANGELIZING Christians seem to be divided between those for whom personal evangelism comes easily and those for whom it comes hard, if at all. The former write books for the latter, which often reinforces the division. But maybe one or more of these will prove to be an exception. His Guide to Evangelism (InterVarsity) consists of eighteen articles first published in His, a magazine for college Christians. The principles are applicable off-campus as well. Redeemed? Say So! (Harper & Row) is by a dentist, Robert Plekker, rather than by a professional minister. I Believe in Evangelism (Eerdmans) by David Watson, a Church of England pastor, treats both theoretical and practical aspects of the subject in a very balanced and readable manner.

COUNSELING Lawrence Crabb, Jr. has a doctorate in psychology and a private counseling practice. But he doesn’t believe that counseling is just for professionals. His book, Effective Biblical Counseling (Zondervan) is aptly described as “a model for helping caring Christians become capable counselors.” His approach is a good balance between those who would leave it all to the professional and those who seem to deny any validity to the counseling profession.

More specifically aimed at the pastor who wants to take this aspect of his ministry seriously is H. Norman Wright’s Premarital Counseling (Moody). He outlines a multi-session approach complete with details on available aids and how to use them.

SERVING This category is last not because it is least. It may be least in the amount of attention it has received in the past few decades compared to other practical topics, but the book I have selected amply demonstrates that it is a subject of enormous importance for the biblical writers. I call attention to Ronald Sider’s Rich Christians in an Age of Hunger: A Biblical Study (InterVarsity), despite disagreements with some of his exegesis and reservations about the practicality of some of his suggestions. If one does not like Sider’s approach, then the challenge is: come up with a better one. He marshalls too much Scripture for the question to be ignored by those who own Christ as Lord. Almost everyone who will read these lines is rich by the world’s standards even though few people think of themselves as rich. The Bible has a lot to say about riches and about the stewardship of wealth by those who are believers.

The other books that I have mentioned have basically been concerned with effectively sharing the riches that we have in Christ, something harder to do than at first appears. Sider’s book is about sharing our riches for Christ’s sake and for most of us this is harder still. But for all of the tasks to which God calls us we have his promise: “God is at work in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure” (Phil. 2:13).

Paul D. Steeves is assistant professor of history and director of Russian studies at Stetson University in Deland, Florida. He has the Ph.D. from the University of Kansas and specializes in modern Russian history.

Commitment, like people, comes in a variety of sizes and colors. A look at recent books about this subject shows the varied approaches toward a fuller life of fellowship with Jesus Christ. Each focuses on some aspect of the deeper life. A few take the over-all approach of bringing life into harmony primarily in our relationships with other people. Another group keys in on Bible study as a way to pull the doctrines together in a harmonious understanding of the Christian life. Some work at an integration of popular psychology with Christian doctrine. A fourth group says, “I have to start with me. Once I’ve got me clear, I can broaden my world.” But whatever the approach, they all aim the reader toward a fuller commitment to Jesus Christ.

Getting It Together With Other People

Perhaps it’s cynicism or middle age, but I’m always dubious about a book that carries a subtitle like William Clemmons’s Discovering the Depths (Broadman)—“Guidance in Spiritual Growth.” That sounds as though the author had finally found the key that unlocks a life of spiritual victory-happiness-maturity-growth. I’m usually very disappointed. But I read it anyway—and I like being wrong about first impressions. Clemmons’s book isn’t the answer to anything, but it offers guidance for personal growth. At the end of each chapter he includes a helpful section called “Meditation Exercises.” Usually when I read books of this type I skip over that part, but Clemmons planned the exercises so well that I read them all.

This book really is about depth in our Christian living, about our responsibilities and our commitment. A lot of religious authors today attempt to integrate the findings of Jung, Rollo May, et al., into their theological positions. Clemmons does it as well as anyone I’ve read. He writes so clearly I almost wanted to ask, “How can you keep it that simple and yet have so much content?” Clemmons is a man with a lot to say. He writes in a challenging, exciting way. I hope this book finds broad coverage; it deserves it.

Unless during the last decade you have stayed away from evangelical writing, particularly the renewal movement, you already know the name of Bruce Larson, former editor of “Faith at Work.” I found The Relational Revolution by Bruce Larson (Word) hard to review. I like Larson; I like his communicative style; and I could probably give him a favorable review if he wrote a book about how to change light bulbs in the church narthex. If you’ve read any of Larson’s books in the past five years you’ve already gleaned a lot of what his present book is about. That’s not a negative comment. The book is not merely a rehash. His previous books have been delightful reading, but they were like buds promising flower. The Relational Revolution is Larson in full bloom. Larson is person-centered. He’s concrete. He writes on a level where most of us live. When I read Bruce Larson it’s like sitting across the room from him and listening to him talk to me. Yet, he doesn’t write theories or tell us what the Church ought to be, could be, should be, or might be. He tells us what it is—and how it grows stronger when people open themselves to other people. Larson, along with writers like Keith Miller and Lloyd Ogilvie, places the emphasis on person-to-person theology rather than abstract ideas. Such words as risk, vulnerable, and listening appear again and again. And these are key concepts. Even when Larson includes theological material he sets it in the context of the current changes in society. It’s a fine book.

When you look at James Mahoney’s Journey Into Usefulness (Broadman) you get into another realm of spiritual growth. He emphasizes God’s will and how it works in our Christian experience—at least that’s what the dust jacket claims. He devotes a lot of space to the gifts of the Spirit. It’s good to see a non-charismatic write positively about the gifts. Most of the books I’ve read have either defended or denied the charismatic gifts. Once an author stated his position, he had told you the whole story. Mahoney, however, tries to straddle the two extremes. He points out that the spiritual gifts are given to Christians for service. He urges readers to discover their gifts—a trend—and then use them.

You might disagree with his classifications of the gifts (as I did in places) but he does a fine job comparing the list from Romans 12 and First Corinthians and then explaining them in light of Christian service today. He calls this “an attempt to provide a spiritual apprenticeship for those who wish to find and follow God’s will.”

Another trend is to live a simpler life, to get back to basics. If that’s your direction, B. Otto Wheeler’s God Can Work Through You (Judson Press) might be worth reading. If you’re just getting started on this road, Wheeler could be helpful. His chapter titles are excellent—the best part of the book.

Pulling It Together From the Bible

Several of the books are really Bible studies. Rick Yohn’s Beyond Spiritual Gifts (Tyndale House) might easily be called “The Fruit of the Spirit.” It’s a rather well-done exposition of Galatians 5:22–23. Yohn’s previous book was Discover Your Spiritual Gifts—which he reminds us of at least eight times. Yohn says, “Only within the past two years have I begun to focus on my real need: character development. The effectiveness of my gifts had increased, but not the maturity of my character.” Yohn’s style disarms the reader. His anecdotes throw you into the core of a passage. He’s not a writer who inserts a story because it’s time for another illustration; the stories actually carry much of the material forward. Yohn writes with clarity and candor. Two chapters stood out for me: “How Can I Love?,” which defines love as doing what is good, and his chapter on joy, which had just the right touch. He deals with a great many believers who see Christianity in negatives (such as no smoking, drinking, attending movies, card playing). He offers a positive, warm, well-written corrective to people who harp on those peripheral issues. It’s the best popular book I’ve read on the fruit of the Spirit.

On the theme of Bible study there’s Fred L. Fisher’s The Sermon on the Mount (Broadman). Don’t let the unimaginative title fool you. This book is anything but ordinary. Fisher writes a sensible book, which is scholarly enough to deal with crucial issues but which avoids being pedantic. Fisher presents a readable and helpful book on the Sermon on the Mount. For a solidly biblical, nontechnical study of Matthew 5; 6; 7, and comparisons with Luke 6, this is the best I’ve seen in recent popular literature. As the author says in his preface, his purpose in writing another book on the Sermon on the Mount was two-fold: many of the best treatments are out of print; and most treatments are either too technical or so practical they ignore the richness of scholarly contributions. Well, Fisher, your book fulfills your purposes.

Studying the same portion of Matthew, Warren W. Wiersbe offers Live Like a King (Moody). Wiersbe writes well. He’s an able theologian who can dig out the meaning of words and phrases and explain them in non-technical ways. He states in the beginning that these chapters were originally a series of sermons he preached during the summer of 1975. Wiersbe says that the Sermon on the Mount has present and future implications, though he concentrates on the present. Wiersbe can’t be faulted in explaining his text or illustrating from Scripture. For every point, a scriptural illustration follows from Abraham, David, or Paul. And that’s my problem with the book. The subtitle “Making the Beatitudes work in daily life” to me means that an author takes us from the first century into the difficulties of twentieth-century living. His principles are right, but I want to see how these truths apply to daily life. He never really grapples with that.

The Christian Life: Issues and Answers and A Handbook for Followers of Jesus are designed for Bible study. The Christian Life by Gary Maeder and Don Williams (Regal) is a topical Bible in outline form. Maeder and Williams attempt to give all views on such subjects as immersion and infant baptism. Their section on evangelism is balanced and there’s a good chapter on church and the state; in that particular chapter I wish they had said more. They deal with such current topics as Satan, drugs, sex, and the baptism of the Spirit. In each of these chapters the authors offer a moderate view. It’s an interesting book. The difference between this and other books of the genre is the topics themselves. These men obviously listen to theological and social issues that the older books didn’t touch. For a good starting Bible study using the topical method, I’d recommend it.

If I were going to subtitle the contents of A Handbook for Followers of Jesus by Winkie Pratney (Bethany Fellowship) I’d call it “a systematic theology for new Christians.” Pratney attempts to present a full picture of theology, beginning with the sin-salvation-growth scheme. For those with limited knowledge of the Christian faith, this book could be helpful. Three features stood out. First, it’s written without a lot of theological jargon. Second, Pratney attempts to deal with the real questions people are asking instead of what theologically-trained minds know a person ought to ask, though readers might find his answers a bit simplistic and authoritarian. But to his credit Pratney certainly grapples with current issues such as sex, revolution, and the occult. Third, his chapters are short, crisply written, and don’t muddle the reader with details or side issues. Young adults should find this appealing.

Putting the Psyche Together

Several books in the psychological-pastoral field deal with a variety of topics from positive thinking to loneliness. A generation ago Norman Vincent Peale’s book on positive thinking appeared. He followed with books in a similar vein, some with even similar titles. His latest is The Positive Principle Today (Prentice Hall). No one surpasses Peale in the religious-self-help book category. He’s a communicator of the first rank. His forcefulness and optimism impress you. How could anyone not like Peale’s style (even if you disagree with his content)? He’d be worth reading if he wrote on the “Patterns of Pigmy Migration in Zaire.” You may not like his operating principles but he hooks you like an Alka-seltzer commercial. For some people he’s not religious enough; others denounce him as putting self-hypnosis and self-help ahead of Jesus Christ. But whatever your attitudes toward Peale’s approach, his writings sparkle and the message keeps coming out that “with God in your life, everything is possible.”

This book, Peale says in his foreword, is written because people got the positive principle operating and then hit snags. They wrote and asked, “How do I keep it going?” That’s what Peale writes about: how to keep the positive principle working, or as the subtitle says, “How to Renew and Sustain the Power of Positive Thinking.” What prevents tagging his illustrations and principles as Pollyanish is that they have a ring of authenticity. He documents his stories with names and events of well-known people. Although all the stories say essentially the same thing (“I failed, then took hold of myself, surrendered to God, began to think positively and then I succeeded”), they never get trite or boring when told by Peale.

In the tradition of Peale, Schuller, et al., Dale E. Galloway has written You Can Win Through Love (Harvest House). The type-face distracts with sections of each page printed in capital letters. It looks as though almost every word were written for emphasis so that nothing really sounds emphasized; it gives the book an amateurish look. Yet, there’s some fine material here. His sections on self-love are extremely well done. Galloway’s stories are nearly all happily-ever-after types, leaving the impression that love not only wins, but problems dissipate as the music of life swells to a grand crescendo. Yet life seldom works out so perfectly. Despite this, the book is good and practical.

With a title like Feelings! Where They Come From and How to Handle Them (by Joan Jacobs, Tyndale), how could you lose? Yet I’m not sure this is really a winner. Jacobs’s definition of feelings seems to stretch from emotions to attitudes, as in chapter five where she discusses feelings about the Bible. Chapter six rambles and could have enhanced the book by its omission. Yet there are helpful things, too. In past years we’ve had so much intellectual theology and many have retreated from talking about emotions in the evangelical vein. Jacobs writes unashamedly about feelings and emphasizes their positive value as tools for growing in the faith. She deals lightly, but helpfully, with making feelings respectable. She explains that negative feelings aren’t sinful and that feelings can work toward our wholeness as persons.

I’m not sure Creath Davis always gives you the how in his How To Win (Zondervan), but he does provide a lot of insight. This may be more than you wanted to know in one book about counseling. But it’s useful as a kind of popular self-help reference book. He deals with a wide range of topics: alcoholism, singleness, money, in-laws, old age, and death. Davis doesn’t give glib answers for every situation; and he doesn’t bore you with clarifications and lengthy explanations either. He writes compassionately. For example, in dealing with divorce he says, “It must be emphasized that to fail in a particular aspect of one’s life, such as marriage, does not mean you are a failure as a person. You are not a failure! You failed at being married.” Devotees of pop psychology with a Christian emphasis, buy a copy.

Pick up a copy of Jay Kesler’s The Strong Weak People (Victor Books). You might mumble to yourself, “Adult Sunday school literature.” (The publisher states on the inside front cover that a leader’s guide is available.) But don’t put it down immediately. At least look through this book, written “for those to whom perfection comes slowly.” One of Kesler’s major thrusts is stated near the beginning: “I began to wonder who started the lie that Christians have to succeed all the time.… This technique may be good strategy for sales motivation meetings but it seems to have done great harm to the church.” I admit that most of Kesler’s illustrations have the sweet smell of success about them—but it’s still a neat little book well worth reading. He tries to get beyond simplistic answers to complicated life problems. His easy-flowing, anecdotal style catches you. Don’t let the light touch fool you; he’s got something to say.

If you don’t want to concentrate on the weak and strong, then try the joy trip. Stanley Collins’s Joy All the Way (Regal) tells us how to find and keep real joy. It troubled me that Collins never really defines joy in a way that I could grasp. He dealt with every possible phase of the subject, describing and dissecting but never quite explaining it. He implies that joy is the stellar quality of a charismatic leader, which at least makes me raise an eyebrow. I gulped when I read, “Joy is the common, universal experience of all who come to Christ, whatever their age, ethnic background, or standing in society.” The universal experience? I wondered if Collins doesn’t confuse joy with love, commitment, or zeal. Or perhaps he subsumes all of them under joy. He’s unclear. And he’s a bit dogmatic when he says that “The only destroyer of joy is sin.” However, Collins writes with a style that communicates joy. He says at the beginning of the book that he wants a positive presentation. That he has—perhaps too positive. He’s never dull, and I think some people will find genuine help.

Paris Reidhead’s Beyond Believing (Bethany Fellowship), talks about five great imperatives: the great command, call commitment, leading, and judgment. His title and text tell us that believing isn’t the whole story. Reidhead hits his topics head on, illustrates them well, states his challenge clearly, and then stops. The brevity of the book makes this a helpful challenge toward full commitment.

I dislike books that reprint newspaper or magazine columns. Yet Kenneth L. Wilson’s All Things Considered (Christian Herald) hooked me. Wilson is perceptive, clever, and seems to use so many of the common events of life to bring deeper understanding. For instance, have you wondered why Jesus said we’re the salt of the earth and not the sugar? And the humor? He slips it in slyly. When he writes about witnessing he says, “I am sure that once in a while someone emphasizes that witnessing is not all talk, but from what I have seen and heard, it must be only once in a while.”

William E. Hulme wrote Creative Loneliness (Augsburg) after the death of his oldest daughter. It’s a reflective book on how to handle loneliness, and it emphasizes our need for God and for people. The author works from the premise that all of us experience loneliness. He handles his material well, citing reasons for self-isolation and its consequences. One of his finest sections deals with “Taking Risks to Meet Your Own Needs.” At times you might think the author tried to write a book about everything anyone in the whole world would ever need or want to know about loneliness. He’s not advocating or telling us how to bear our loneliness, but suggests ways to make our loneliness creative. He writes, “We have called loneliness a problem—and it is. But it is also an opportunity. Through exploring this problem we have discussed the entire scope of opportunity for human fulfillment.”

Putting Me Together

Norman Wright’s Improving Your Self Image (Harvest House) started out like fourteen other pop-psychology-with-a-little-religion-added-for-flavor-books. But Wright does a good job in defining words, especially self image, a term that seems to float around today as freely as inferiority complex did a quarter of a century ago. But wait—it’s more than a ho hum kind of book. The second half provides a good guide on understanding and improving one’s self-perception. What’s more, Wright works from a distinctively Christian perspective which is so often absent in many religious books that bow at the shrine of behavioral science.

Halfway through You Count—You Really Do! by William A. Miller (Augsburg), I wanted to write a letter to the author. Mentally I composed one that read, “Mr. Miller, I like your material. Just today I heard a sermon, lasting thirty-two minutes, telling how ‘I’ comes after giving myself to God and others; that ‘I’ am nothing; that the sooner the Christian knows this, the easier it is to follow Christ. I’m glad for your book. Sincerely.” Two chapters stood out for me. After asking why some people have poor self-images, Miller asserts that the only valid answer is, “Because that is what they want.” Disagree? Turn to page fifty-nine and find out why. The other chapter is on how to accept imperfection. A gem. The book’s worth buying for that chapter alone. If you’re really trying to bolster your own self-esteem, I’d recommend this one.

Tired of all those titles that say “Here’s how to make it as a Christian”? Erin W. Lutzer’s Failure: The Backdoor To Success (Moody Press) tries a different approach. He suggests, “Perhaps we need to. Only because we’ve sinned can we truly experience God’s grace.” In one section where the author discusses detours that many people feel irreparably ruin their lives, he writes, “Sometimes we get the impression that the will of God is like an egg, a heavenly Humpty-Dumpty. Presumably, God expects us to do a balancing act as we walk an invisible tightrope. One mistake—or, at the most, two—and no one, not even God, can put Humpty-Dumpty together again.” Lutzer doesn’t negate the significance of sin, but he does point out God’s continued forgiveness and adds “We must remember that God is never finished with any who repents.” This positive book offers help toward building a healthy self-image, as well as encouragement for those who’ve failed and think life’s pretty well finished for them. Really worth reading.

Anthony A. Hoekema tries a reverse procedure in The Christian Looks at Himself (Eerdmans). He begins with the theological aspects of self-image and concludes the book with the psychological view. His book is less experiential than the others and written largely from a theological stance. He has several excellent chapters showing that though we are sinners we aren’t worthless. His chapter on the “old nature” verses the “new nature” is interesting even though you may disagree with his position. And I suspect that even more theological-minded folks will disagree with his position on Romans 7. Hoekema claims the Bible teaches us to have positive images of ourselves and to see ourselves primarily as new creatures in Christ rather than as impotent and depraved sinners. Although I believe strongly in the positive self-image concept, I’m not so sure that one can find it so explicitly in the Bible as Hoekema asserts. The last several chapters center on how I can get it together and how I can help others get it together for positive self-images and for joyful lives in Jesus Christ. Hoekema is not dull reading and uses more biblical support for his assertions than anything I’ve read. Most of the other available material is lightweight theology and overweight experience. So if you want something heavily documented from the Bible, here’s a book to buy.

Paul D. Steeves is assistant professor of history and director of Russian studies at Stetson University in Deland, Florida. He has the Ph.D. from the University of Kansas and specializes in modern Russian history.

One hopes that the phenomenon of Alex Haley’s search for his roots will encourage Christians generally to be more interested in their forebears in the faith. Before mentioning books by topic, I want to highlight ten notable titles representing different kinds of books and varied stances. These books belong in all theological libraries as well as major college and public libraries.

Far and away the most significant book in this area to appear since the last survey was prepared (see September 10, 1976, issue, p. 30) is Eerdmans’ Handbook to the History of Christianity edited by Tim Dowley (Eerdmans). If you only have one church history book in your personal library, this should be it. No other survey so attractively combines accuracy and readability with an abundance of well-chosen illustrations. It will please both those who already like to read about the past and those who never knew how interesting it could be. The format of this volume—short chapters with numerous pictures, maps, charts, and brief sidebars mixed in—makes this a book that will invite browsing at odd moments by the whole family, as well as deliberate reading or using for reference.

One branch of the Reformation is depicted in large brown-and-white photographs in From Luther to 1580: A Pictorial Account by Erwin Weber (Concordia).

Zwingli by G.R. Potter (Cambridge) is a major biography of a Reformer second in significance only to Calvin and Luther but who has not received nearly the same attention.

Naturally an author who attempts to cover the whole field, as does Paul Johnson, former editor of The New Statesman, a British weekly, in A History of Christianity (Atheneum) can be faulted for leaving out much that others rightly consider important. But unlike many surveys Johnson’s is quite readable. His perspective leads him to focus more on the conflicts within the institutional church and to sympathize more with “progressives” (Pelagius rather than Augustine). Nevertheless this is a useful volume for those who already know something about the subject.

Not a history of something, but rather reflections on what history is all about is the volume God, History, and Historians: Modern Christian Views of History edited by Carl Thomas McIntire (Oxford). Twenty-two selections, more of them from theologians than from professional historians, are grouped under three headings, “The Meaning of History,” “The Nature of History and Culture,” and “Historians and Historical Study.”

Five notable titles are specifically related to Christianity in North America. Robert Handy offers A History of the Churches in the United States and Canada (Oxford). It is the first of a projected twenty-volume series, the “Oxford History of the Christian Church” edited by Henry and Owen Chadwick. Handy is to be highly commended for treating Canada as well as the U.S. Such an approach allows for greater perspective and raises questions about why some facets are similar and others different. Many, perhaps most, conservative Protestant and Orthodox bodies maintain close contacts across the border.

One page sketches of 425 influential religious leaders, all now dead, are in Dictionary of American Religious Biography by Henry Warner Bowden (Greenwood). By his selections, the author has been far more representative of the diversity in American religion than surveyors have traditionally been.

It is a pleasure to welcome the appearance of the first volume in a projected multi-volume posthumously published series, Profiles in Belief: The Religious Bodies of the United States and Canada: Roman Catholic, Old Catholic and Eastern Orthodox by Arthur Carl Piepkorn (Harper & Row). This volume is both the most comprehensive, most accurate, and the fairest treatment of the scores of religious denominations (apart from Anglicans) who are led by bishops claiming to be in succession to the apostles. If you want information on such a body, whether large like the Roman Catholic Church or small like the Estonian Orthodox Church or unusual like one of the three divisions of the Liberal Catholic Church, this is the book to consult. Six more volumes are projected for the series.

Most of the founding fathers of the American republic were not orthodox Christians, contrary to widely held views on the popular level. The Enlightenment in America by Henry May (Oxford) is a major study of how the ideas of men like Locke, Hume, Voltaire, and Rousseau came to have a profound effect in various ways in the Revolutionary age. May properly treats the Enlightenment as a religion even though its proponents then, like secularists of our day, did not usually so define themselves.

Evangelical Christianity recovered from the onslaught of rationalism at the beginning of the nation, but a century later a similar threat emerged and this time, so far, has proved to be more successful in capturing control of the older Protestant (and more recently Catholic) institutions. Trying to stem the institutional loss, unsuccessfully, were such men as William Bell Riley and J. Gresham Machen. They and five others are the subjects of more sympathetic scholarly essays than one is accustomed to—Voices of American Fundamentalism by C. Allyn Russell (Westminster).

Before looking at books by topic we mention two books for travellers who wish to combine their sightseeing with increasing their knowledge of the Christian past. America’s Religious Treasures by Marion Rawson Vuilleumier (Harper & Row) describes more than 800 sites of religious significance, arranged by states. Europe on Purpose: The Christian Traveler’s Guide by Robert Baylis (Pilgrimage Press [2398 Telegraph, Berkeley, Cal. 94704]) is an inexpensive “must” for anyone going to Europe. In addition to the descriptions of sites, there is also a capsule history of the church in Europe and a section with practical advice on the mechanics of travel—such as air fares, hotels and hostels, guidebooks.

GENERAL Most history books can readily be classified within one period of time and one geographical area, but in addition to some of those mentioned above as “Notables” there are a few others that roam beyond normal boundaries, and so we group them together here.

Man Through the Ages by John Bowie (Atheneum) is an overview of world history in less than 300 pages that can serve as a useful background for studying the Church’s past. How Should We Then Live? The Rise and Decline of Western Thought and Culture by Francis Schaeffer (Revell) is one prominent evangelical thinker’s interpretive account of change in Western society generally.

The Creeds of Christendom with a History and Critical Notes (three volumes) by Philip Schaff is now available in a soft-cover reprint edition (Baker). It was originally prepared in 1877.

The Catholic Encyclopedia by Robert Broderick (Nelson) can be added to reference collections for consultation along with other volumes when seeking short definitions of Catholic terms. Don’t look for balance in such entries as “Lutheranism.”

Christianity and the arts can be studied in three ways. Sacred Discontent: The Bible and Western Tradition by Herbert Schneidau (University of California) with reference to the Bible’s impact on literature; The History of Our Lord As Exemplified in Works of Art by Mrs. Jameson and Lady Eastlake (two volumes, Gale Research) is a reprint of a nineteenth-century work (no color illustrations) that traces the history of art in depicting other biblical scenes besides events in the life of Christ; Holy Places of Christendom by Stewart Perowne (Oxford) has color photographs of historic churches, monasteries, and the like from around the world.

Particular topics or aspects of Christianity through the ages are treated in Committed Communities by Charles Mellis (William Carey) on the role of disciplined groups in world evangelism, Christian Holiness in Scripture, in History, and in Life by George Allen Turner (Beacon Hill) on the doctrine of entire sanctification, Abortion: The Development of the Roman Catholic Perspective by John Connery (Loyola University of Chicago) on the history of a stance widely shared by conservative Protestants, Christians at Prayer edited by John Gallen (Notre Dame), Women and Religion: A Feminist Sourcebook of Christian Thought edited by Elizabeth Clark and Herbert Richardson (Harper & Row), and Alone of All Her Sex: The Myth and the Cult of the Virgin Mary by Marina Warner (Knopf), a widely publicized book that we mention because it is unreliable as a history of the role of Mary.

Finally we mention in this section Reaping the Whirlwind: A Christian Interpretation of History by Langdon Gilkey (Seabury), a major contribution by an American theologian, and Encounter with Erikson: Historical Interpretation and Religious Biography edited by Donald Capps, et al. (Scholars) with essays on the use of psychology in studying the past.

THE EARLY CHURCH Full publication by Harper & Row later this year of the Gnostic documents discovered at Nag Hammadi will spark renewed interest in this ancient heresy. Two books can be informative for laymen, especially to help make some sense behind the apparently nonsensical Gnostic speculations, but they must be used with caution: The Laughing Saviour by John Dart (Harper & Row) and The Gnostics by Jacques Lacarriere (Dutton).

A History of Christian Thought from Apostolic Times to Saint Augustine (Exposition) is a scholarly survey by John Willis, a Jesuit who teaches history at Boston College and was once a Congregationalist minister. Three specialized studies to note are: Origen and the Jews by Nicholas de Lange (Cambridge), Three Monophysite Christologies by Roberta Chesnut (Oxford), and The Way to Nicea by Bernard Lonergan (Westminster), translated from Latin.

For very helpful background to biblical times and the early church see The Atlas of Early Man by Jacquetta Hawkes (St. Martin’s).

THE MEDIEVAL CHURCH Unlike last year there are no general surveys to mention; however, there were several works of broad interest. Pilgrimage: An Image of Mediaeval Religion by Jonathan Sumption (Rowman and Littlefield) reviews the large amount and variety of travelling that took place during what is sometimes thought a static time. The same publisher offers a short, penetrating essay by Jonathan Riley-Smith, What Were the Crusades?

A leading authority’s lectures on church-state relations in the East were published as The Byzantine Theocracy by Steven Runciman (Cambridge). The West was featured in several essays in honor of C.R. Cheney, Church and Government in the Middle Ages, edited by Christopher Brooke et al. (Cambridge). East and West are both treated in a major study by Deno John Geanakoplos, Interaction of the “Sibling” Byzantine and Western Cultures in the Middle Ages and Italian Renaissance (Yale).

What is a year without a book on St. Francis? Anthony Mockler in Francis of Assisi: The Wandering Years (Dutton) focuses on the impact of environment on Francis rather than vice versa. In the process he offers explanations of long standing paradoxes.

A comprehensive account of the period is provided by Malcolm Lambert in Medieval Heresy: Popular Movements from Bogomil to Hus (Holmes and Meier). Protestant libraries in particular should be interested in this well-documented book that includes helpful maps.

Students of monasticism will welcome Medieval Monasticism: A Select Bibliography by Giles Constable (University of Toronto [33 E. Tupper St., Buffalo, N.Y. 14203]).

Six specialized studies to note: The Exclusion of Women from the Priesthood by Ida Raming (Scarecrow), an investigation of the pertinent canon law, The Bible in Early English Literature by David Fowler (University of Washington), Tamers of Death: The History of the Alexian Brothers from 1300 to 1789 by Christopher Kauffman (Seabury), Thomas Aquinas by Frederick Copleston (Barnes & Noble), Simoniacal Entry into Religious Life from 1000 to 1260: A Social, Economic, and Legal Study by Joseph Lynch (Ohio State University), and The Spirituality of Western Christendom edited by E. Rozanne Elder (Medieval Institute, Western Michigan University).

THE MODERN CHURCH For our purposes this period starts about 1500. Because there are so many books, separate categories for the major geographical areas follow this general section. Warren Wiersbe, pastor of Moody Church, Chicago, offers two major historical approaches to preaching. Walking With the Giants (Baker) has sketches of nineteen British and American preachers, plus bibliographies for studying about preaching as well as helps for preachers. Treasury of the World’s Great Sermons (Kregel) ranges beyond Anglo-Saxondom to include 123 sermons selected from two earlier ten-volume collections. Both of these volumes belong in libraries that serve preachers.

A worldwide survey of the Lutheran movement is conveniently available in The Lutheran Church Past and Presentedited by Vilmos Vajta (Augsburg). Reflections on its principal confessions are in Lutheranism: The Theological Movement and Its Confessional Writings by Eric Gritsch and Robert Jenson (Fortress). Specialists should know of Action and Person: Conscience in Late Scholasticism and the Young Luther by Michael Baylor (Brill).

A very useful survey is available in Introduction to the Reformed Tradition by John Leith (John Knox). Both the Vajta and Leith volumes should be available in every theological library. Worthwhile essays within the conservative Reformed tradition (which is somewhat slighted by Leith) were published in Soli Deo Gloria edited by R.C. Sproul (Presbyterian and Reformed), in honor of John Gerstner; Exploring the Heritage of John Calvin edited by David Holwerda (Baker), in honor of John Bratt; and The Christian and the State in Revolutionary Times by Graham Harrison et al. (Westminster Conference [75 High St., Huntingdon, Cambs., England]). A country-by-country overview of much conservative Reformed activity is provided in The World Survey of Reformed Missions, Third Edition (Reformed Ecumenical Synod [1677 Gentian Dr. S.E., Grand Rapids, Mich. 49508]). Better understanding of Calvin is conveyed in Calvin and Classical Philosophy by Charles Partee (Brill).

Baptists in general are represented by a brief, popular overview, The Baptist Heritage by Edward Cole (Cook). Reflections on Methodism’s ministry over the centuries are in Informed Ministry by Egon Gerdes (Institute for Methodist Studies [2121 Sheridan Rd., Evanston, Ill. 60201]). The same institute also prepared A Checklist of Wesleyan and Methodist Studies, 1970–1975. The Exclusive branch of a movement much smaller than those previously mentioned, the Plymouth Brethren, is the subject of Backgrounds to Dispensationalism by Clarence Bass (Baker, reprint). The influence of Dispensationalism has spread far beyond the small movement that first promoted it. Bass is critical but his documentation allows others to check for themselves. A rather different kind of widespread influence has resulted from the Society of Jesus. For a sympathetic overview see An Introduction to Jesuit Life: The Constitutions and History Through 435 Years by Thomas Clancy (Institute of Jesuit Sources [3700 W. Pine Blvd., St. Louis, Mo. 63108]).

The fastest growing and most widespread Christian movement in our century is undoubtedly the pentecostal-charismatic movement (or is it movements?). Besides innumerable first-person testimonies there were several studies for those who want a better understanding of what’s going on. Giving somewhat more emphasis to the Protestant expression is The New Charismatics: The Origins, Development, and Significance of Neo-Pentecostalism by Richard Quebedeaux (Doubleday). Several viewpoints are represented by essays in Perspectives on the New Pentecostalism edited by Russell Spittler (Baker). Robert Culpepper, a Baptist missionary to Japan, attempts a dispassionate, largely theological approach in Evaluating the Charismatic Movement (Judson). A popular autobiography of one of the best-known globe travelling Pentecostals is A Man Called Mr. Pentecost by David du Plessis (Logos). Franker than the usual autobiography is The C.M. Ward Story (New Leaf) by an Assemblies of God leader. Also more revealing than one is accustomed to is Oral: The Warm, Intimate, Unauthorized Portrait of a Man of God, on Oral Roberts by Wayne Robinson (Acton), a former vice-president in Roberts’s organization. Although laudatory, two popular biographies of one of the best-known women in the charismatic movement reveal more of her shortcomings than used to be the case in this genre. Daughter of Destiny: Kathryn Kuhlman, Her Story by Jamie Buckingham (Logos) is longer and more “official” than Kathryn Kuhlman by Helen Hosier (Revell).

Almost half of those attending the recent huge charismatic gathering in Kansas City were Roman Catholics. For background on this movement see Catholic Pentecostalism by René Laurentin (Doubleday), Catholic Pentecostals Now edited by J. Kerkhofs (Alba), Which Way for Catholic Pentecostals? by J. Massyngberde Ford (Harper & Row), and Sounds of Wonder: Speaking in Tongues in the Catholic Tradition by Eddie Ensley (Paulist). The last-named is a popular survey of precursors ever since the early church.

No other modern movements call forth as much writing as the charismatics. The Nuns by Marcelle Bernstein (Lippincott) is a journalistic account on the variety of nuns around the world. Jesus, the Living Bread edited by James Talley (Logos) is an illustrated account of the international Catholic eucharistic congress held last year in Philadelphia. A famous speculative theologian is the subject of a biography by Mary Lukas and Ellen Lukas, Teilhard: The Man, the Priest, the Scientist (Doubleday). Challenge to the Church: The Case of Archbishop Lefebvre by Yves Congar (Our Sunday Visitor) is about a man who shows that Catholicism, like so much of Protestantism before it, is able to be very tolerant of radical innovators in its midst but not nearly so tolerant of those who wish to keep believing and practicing as they always have.

A very interesting reflection on continental European theology in this century (with far too few references to English-speaking theologians) is offered by one of the leading conservative dogmaticians in A Half Century of Theology by G.C. Berkouwer (Eerdmans).

In a popular vein, Gerald Strober gives us a close-up glimpse of one of the world’s best-known Christians in Graham: A Day in Billy’s Life (Doubleday). The same author tells young people about Billy Graham: His Life and Faith (Word). Finally an informative personal account of missionary radio is given by Philip Booth in Slim Fingers (Christian Literature Crusade).

CONTINENTAL EUROPE Besides Zwingli and From Luther to 1580, mentioned in the introduction, there were a few other titles from the Reformation period. Women of the Reformation: From Spain to Scandinavia by Roland Bainton (Augsburg) is a sequel to his two earlier volumes on women in France and England and in Germany and Italy. Sketches of twenty-nine women are presented.

Renaissance Rome: 1500–1559 by Peter Partner (University of California) is especially interesting because it seeks the explanation of how the city’s artistic creativity and urban renewal coexisted with the religious and political upheaval.

Two specialized studies: Mysticism and the Early South German-Austrian Anabaptist Movement, 1525–1531 by Werner Packull (Herald Press) and Domesticating the Clergy: The Inception of the Reformation in Strasbourg, 1522–1524 by William Stafford (Scholars). Numbers six through nine of the Sixteenth Century Bibliography series appeared, of which Annotated Bibliography of Luther Studies, 1967–1976 by Jack Bigane and Kenneth Hagen would be of widest interest (Center for Reformation Research [6477 San Bonita Ave., St. Louis, Mo. 63105]).

An interesting postscript to the Reformation is a readable and reliable account of the return in 1689 of the Waldenses to their homeland by Walter Utt, Home to Our Valleys! (Pacific Press [1350 Villa St., Mountain View, Cal. 94042]).

Christianity in Russia is the subject of several studies. Of more scholarly interest are Russian Mystics by Sergius Bolshakoff (Cistercian Publications [1749 W. Michigan Ave., Kalamazoo, Mich. 49008]) and The Great Revival: The Russian Church Under German Occupation by Wassilij Alexeev and Theofanis Stavrou (Burgess). For a proper background on the present plight of Soviet Protestants a good history of the pre-Communist period is The Meek and the Mighty: The Emergence of the Evangelical Movement in Russia by Hans Brandenburg (Oxford). Popular, reliable narratives of the present scene are in Young Christians in Russia by Michael Bourdeaux and Katharine Murray (Bethany Fellowship) and A Song in Siberia by Anita and Peter Deyneka, Jr. (Cook). Contemporary documents from within the country are translated and compiled in Religious Liberty in the Soviet Union edited by Michael Bourdeaux et al. (Centre for the Study of Religion and Communism [Keston, Kent, England]).

From Soviet tyranny we turn to a tyranny that is past but whose repercussions are still very much with us. Auschwitz: Beginning of a New Era? Reflections on the Holocaust edited by Eva Fleischner (KTAV) contains the papers given at an international symposium; Christian attitudes to Jews, before and after the Nazis, are a major theme. Nazism and the Pastors by James Zabel (Scholars) is a study of the ideas of some of the pro-Hitler (the majority) Protestants. A leading Catholic ethicist was a medic in the German army during the war. His memoirs of that time are published as Embattled Witness by Bernard Häring (Seabury). (The massive biography of Dietrich Bonhoeffer by Eberhard Bethge is now in a Harper & Row paperback.)

THE BRITISH ISLES A distinctive format is used by Edward Hindson, editor of Introduction to Puritan Theology (Baker). An essay on each of twelve divisions of systematic theology is selected from the writings of twelve prominent Puritans.

Much of English religious history could be gleaned from this past year’s output of specialized studies: Religious Controversies of the Elizabethan Age: A Survey of Printed Sources by Peter Milward (University of Nebraska). The Godly Man in Stuart England: Anglicans, Puritans, and the Two Tables, 1620–1670 by J. Sears McGee (Yale), Reason, Ridicule, and Religion: The Age of Enlightenment in England, 1660–1750 by John Redwood (Harvard), Religion and Respectability: Sunday Schools and Working Class Culture, 1780–1850 by Thomas Walter Laqueur (Yale), and The Call to Seriousness: The Evangelical Impact on the Victorians by Ian Bradley (Macmillan).

Scholarly studies of individuals who have been involved with Christianity in the British Isles in a variety of ways include: William Blake: A New Kind of Man by Michael Davis (University of California), C.H. Dodd: Interpreter of the New Testament by F.W. Dillistone (Eerdmans), Oliver Plunkett: His Life and Letters by Tomás Ó Fiaich and Desmond Forristal (Our Sunday Visitor), Ian Ramsey: To Speak Responsibly of God by Jerry Gill (Allen and Unwin), John Charles Ryle: Evangelical Bishop by Peter Toon and Michael Smout (Reiner), and Wesley in the Christian Tradition edited by Kenneth Rowe (Scarecrow). Here is also the place to commend Banner of Truth for reprinting the Letters of George Whitefield for the Period 1734–1742.

Regrettably, the biggest continuing religious story from the British Isles in our time concerns the conflict in Northern Ireland. Among the many titles in this area, university libraries should consider The Protestants of Ulster by Geoffrey Bell (Urizen), Northern Ireland: The Orange State by Michael Farrell (Urizen), Children in Conflict by Morris Fraser (Basic Books), and the Origins of Ulster Unionism by Peter Gibbon (Rowman and Littlefield).

NORTH AMERICA: GENERAL In addition to the five notable titles on the United States and Canada mentioned at the beginning of this survey, there were a few titles treating some aspect of American religion from earlier to more recent times. (Separate categories for twentieth-century America and for the earlier centuries follow.)

The most general was a revised edition of Historical Atlas of Religion in America by Edwin Scott Gaustad (Harper & Row). The revision is major enough that libraries will need to acquire this edition. It should be a collateral resource for any course in American religious history.

Also wide in scope is Denominationalism edited by Russell Richey (Abingdon). The ten essays look at what is a key distinctive of North American religion as compared to Latin America and Europe where one “church” usually dominates in any given place and the dissenters are divided into several small “sects” or as compared to Asia and Africa where, generally speaking, all Christian groups are small with none dominating.

Libraries will want The Howard University Bibliography of African and Afro-American Religious Studies compiled by Ethel Williams and Clifton Brown (Scholarly Resources [1508 Pennsylvania Ave., Wilmington, Del. 19806]). A valuable feature is the indication of libraries where the more than 13,000 entries can be found.

Of more popular interest is Major Black Religious Leaders, 1755–1940 by Henry Young (Abingdon). Twelve men are introduced. Five well-known white men are the subjects of Profiles of Revival Leaders by W. Glyn Evans (Broadman).

The Bicentennial saw a large number of books of celebration. Here is a list of some of the ones more given to reflection and minus illustrations. Three collections of essays that deserve wide circulation: An Almost Chosen People: The Moral Aspirations of Americans edited by Walter Nicgorski and Ronald Weber (Notre Dame), The American Religious Experiment: Piety and Practicality edited by Clyde Manschreck and Barbara Brown Zikmund (Chicago Theological Seminary), and A Nation Under God? edited by C.E. Gallivan (Word). Seven titles by single authors: The Old Religion in the Brave New World: Reflections on the Relation Between Christendom and the Republic by Sidney Mead (University of California) by one of the foremost American church historians, Without Help or Hindrance: Religious Identity in American Culture by Eldon Ernst (Westminster), Religion and the American: The Search for Freedom Under God by Christopher Mooney (Westminster), Day Dawns in Fire: America’s Quest for Meaning by Merrill Abbey (Fortress), The Political Pulpit by Roderick Hart (Purdue University), on American civic piety, and two titles from Broadman on the impact of religion in American life: Nationhood and Kingdom by James E. Wood, Jr., and Faith, Stars, and Stripes by Ronald Tonks and Charles W. Deweese.

One of the more significant books on American religion focuses on the ideas and practice of missions, both within the country and in other lands. Eleven papers by missiologists are in American Missions in Bicentennial Perspective edited by R. Pierce Beaver (William Carey).

Sometimes denominational histories are of interest to outsiders. If you have ever wondered about the origins and nature of the Church of God (Anderson, Indiana), which seems like a rather strange name for a world-wide fellowship, then see A Brief History of the Church of God Reformation Movement by John W.V. Smith (Warner Press). If you want to have a detailed account of one of the more vigorous of the smaller branches of Methodism, see Conscience and Commitment: The History of the Wesleyan Methodist Church of America by Ira F. McLeister and Roy S. Nicholson (Wesley Press [Marion, Ind. 46952]). This is an enlarged edition bringing the story down to the 1968 merger into the Wesleyan Church from the group’s origins in 1843 because of strong anti-slavery sentiments. Another branch of Methodism very much affected by slavery is surveyed in Dark Salvation: The Story of Methodism as It Developed Among Blacks in America by Harry Richardson (Anchor).

Topical essays rather than chronological narratives are presented in Baptists and the American Experience edited by James E. Wood, Jr. (Judson). A more specialized story is told in Mission to America: A Century and a Quarter of Southern Baptist Home Missions by Arthur Rutledge (Broadman).

Now back in print is an important aid to the study of Presbyterianism: The Presbyterian Enterprise edited by Maurice Armstrong, Lefferts Loetscher, and Charles Anderson (Westminster). Libraries building black studies collections will want The Rise and Decline of the Program of Education for Black Presbyterians … 1865–1970 by Inez Moore Parker (Trinity University).

NORTH AMERICA: BEFORE TWENTIETH CENTURY Kenneth Clark’s renowned television series, “Civilisation,” should have increased our awareness of the importance of architecture in understanding the past. A splendid collection of photographs by John de Visser of early church buildings from coast to coast in what is now the United States and Canada has been published as Pioneer Churches (Norton) with text by Harold Kalman. “Pioneer” refers to being among the earliest (extant) in its region or of its denomination. A valuable collateral reference for any course in North American religious history.

The most massive biography this past year was Orestes A. Brownson: A Definitive Biography by Thomas R. Ryan (Our Sunday Visitor). It needs to be in all major libraries; its nearly 900 pages will serve as a sourcebook for future studies of this extraordinarily complex and controversial convert to Catholicism.

Other biographies: Benjamin Wisner Bacon: Pioneer in American Biblical Criticism and Frank Chamberlain Porter: Pioneer in American Biblical Interpretation both by Roy Harrisville (Scholars), Jonathan Edwards the Younger by Robert Ferm (Eerdmans), Wheat Flour Messiah: Eric Jansson of Bishop Hill by Paul Elmen (Southern Illinois University) on the Swedish-born founder of a utopian community in Illinois, Richard Mather of Dorchester by B.R. Burg (University Press of Kentucky), on a first-generation Puritan leader who was father of Increase and grandfather of Cotton, Joseph Smith: The First Mormon, by Donna Hill (Doubleday), a lengthy, documented narrative by a believing descendant of Mormon pioneers who provides useful insights while sidestepping crucial questions, and Benjamin West: The Context of His Life’s Work with Particular Attention to Paintings with Religious Subject Matter by John Dillenberger (Trinity University). For more than fifty years prior to his death, West lived and worked in England but managed to continue to be thought of as American.

The first two (out of seven) parts of Cotton Mather’s Magnalia Christi Americana, completed in 1700, are now available in a far more accurate edition than ever before, edited by Kenneth Murdock and published by Harvard, the college over which Cotton’s father, Increase, had presided. This is obviously an essential tool for the study of New England Puritanism. Other studies, undertaken from a more distant vantage, include: Puritan New England edited by Alden Vaughan and Francis Bremer (St. Martin’s), containing twenty essays published in scholarly journals since 1960, Redeem the Time: The Puritan Sabbath in Early America by Winton Solberg (Harvard), Valley of Discord: Church and Society along the Connecticut River, 1636–1725 by Paul Lucas (University Press of New England), God’s Messengers: Religious Leadership in Colonial New England, 1700–1750 by J. William T. Youngs, Jr. (Johns Hopkins), What Must I Do To Be Saved? The Great Awakening in Colonial America by J.M. Bumsted and John Van de Wetering (Dryden), and Moby-Dick and Calvinism: A World Dismantled by T. Walter Herbert, Jr. (Rutgers).

The various religious traditions of German-speaking immigrants are as fascinating as are those of the English-speaking ones to whom more attention has been given. It could be argued that the original English vision for the kingdom of God has been modified along German-American lines, and vice versa. Five books to note: Continental Pietism and Early American Christianity edited by F. Ernest Stoeffler (Eerdmans) has essays on pietism in seven denominational expressions. The Brethren in the New Nation edited by Roger Sappington and The Old Brethren by James Lehman (both Brethren Press) are in-depth looks at the movement now divided into Church of the Brethren, “Grace” Brethren, and other branches; the former collects documents illustrating the period from 1785 to 1865, the latter is an informal reconstruction of what it was like to be among the “Dunker” Brethren in the 1840’s. The Pennsylvania Dutch by William Parsons (Twayne) is about the earlier German settlers and their descendants, both from the Lutheran and Reformed churches as well as from the smaller bodies including the “Plain Folk.” (German immigrants after 1835 had a basically different development.) ‘Twas Seeding Time by John Ruth (Herald Press) is an informal account of how Mennonites were affected by the American war for independence.

Sons of the Fathers: The Civil Religion of the American Revolution by Catherine Albanese (Temple University) is an important contribution.

Four studies of frontier religion: Religion in Antebellum Kentucky by John Boles (University Press of Kentucky), Road to Augusta by Joe Burton (Broadman), on the formation of the Southern Baptist Convention, Equality on the Oregon Frontier: Jason Lee and the Methodist Mission, 1834–43 by Robert Loewenberg (University of Washington), and Massacre at Mountain Meadows by William Wise (Crowell) on the murder of a party of some 120 persons in Utah in 1857 for which one Mormon was tried and executed. The author tries to make a case that Mormon leaders were involved and that the massacre was a logical expression of their views.

Following the Civil War, fervor for helping blacks waned, especially in the face of rapid urbanization and industrialization. See Immigrants and Religion in Urban America edited by Randall Miller (Temple University), The Philadelphia Quakers in the Industrial Age, 1865–1920 by Philip Benjamin (Temple University), Salvation in the Slums: Evangelical Social Work, 1965–1920 by Norris Magnuson (Scarecrow), and Knights of the Golden Rule: The Intellectual as Christian Social Reformer in the 1890s by Peter Frederick (University Press of Kentucky).

NORTH AMERICA: TWENTIETH-CENTURY Martin Marty argues in A Nation of Behavers (University of Chicago) that our religious groupings (such as mainline, evangelicalism and fundamentalism, ethnic) are better described in terms of how the people in them behave than what they say they believe. More formal social scientific studies include The American Catholic: A Social Portrait by Andrew Greeley (Basic; see the same author’s Communal Catholic: A Personal Manifesto [Seabury] for his pungent distinctions between institutional and communal Catholicism), Symbol and Conquest: Public Ritual and Drama in Santa Fe, New Mexico by Ronald Grimes (Cornell), Sunday Morning: Aspects of Urban Ritual by Michael Ducey (Free Press) based on four white, middle-class churches in a Chicago neighborhood, Out of the Cloister by Helen Rose Fuchs Ebaugh (University of Texas) on the changes in orders of nuns, The Growth Crisis in the American Church: A Presbyterian Case Study by Foster Shannon (William Carey), and The Church Emerging: A U.S. Lutheran Case Study edited by John Reumann (Fortress).

Religion and politics is calling forth numerous books aimed at the general public. Among them we mention: The Man From Plains: The Mind and Spirit of Jimmy Carter by David Kucharsky (Harper & Row), The Religion of President Carter by Niels Nielsen, Jr. (Nelson), Rebirth in Washington: The Christian Impact in the Nation’s Capital by Wallace Henley (Good News), and Religion at the Polls by Albert Menendez (Westminster). In the latter several campaigns, not just the most recent, are investigated.

Two autobiographies of prominent religious figures are Thus Far on My Journey by E. Raymond Wilson (Friends United Press), long-time secretary of the Quaker lobby on Capitol Hill, and A Canterbury Tale by John Cogley (Seabury), prominent Catholic journalist who became an Episcopalian near the end of his life.

Studies of early twentieth century Protestants included R.A. Torrey: Apostle of Certainty by Roger Martin (Sword of the Lord), The Significance of J. Gresham Machen Today by Paul Woolley (Presbyterian and Reformed) and Ordained of the Lord: H.A. Ironside by E. Schuyler English (Loizeaux).

Three somewhat different forms of evangelical activity are surveyed on a popular level in The Faith Healer by Eve Simson (Concordia), on the wide-ranging phenomenon under that name, Moody Bible Institute: God’s Power in Action by Dorothy Martin (Moody), and Flames of Freedom by Erwin Lutzer (Moody), on a Saskatchewan-launched awakening in our decade. The Evangelicals: What They Believe, Who They Are, Where They Are Changing edited by David Wells and John Woodbridge (Baker) is a slightly enlarged and revised edition of a book first issued in 1975 and that gives a good overview, with numerous references for further reading, of a movement that is more in the news of late.

From Mars Hill to Manhattan by George Papaioannou (Light and Life) is a study of Greek Orthodoxy in America especially as related to its longtime archbishop, later patriarch of Constantinople, Athenagoras. The Days of Our Pilgrimage by Paul Westphal Thomas and Paul William Thomas (Wesley Press) is a history of the Pilgrim Holiness Church from 1897 until it helped form the Wesleyan Church in 1968.

The Lutheran Church, Missouri Synod has been much in the news of late. Preus of Missouri and the Great Lutheran Civil War by James E. Adams (Harper & Row) is an outside journalist’s attempt at fair reporting and analysis that is useful but hardly the last word. No Room in the Brotherhood: The Preus-Otten Purge of Missouri by Frederick Danker (Clayton [Box 9258, St. Louis, Mo. 63117]) is a long account by an insider from the perspective of what appears to be the losing side organizationally, while Anatomy of an Explosion: Missouri in Lutheran Perspective by Kurt Marquart (Concordia Theological Seminary [Ft. Wayne, Ind. 46825]) is by someone on the winning side. Exodus From Concordia (Concordia Seminary [St. Louis, Mo. 63105]) is the official report by the school’s trustees. It was in protest of their actions that the majority of the faculty and students withdrew in 1974.

John Gordon Melton has compiled a list of more than 1,200 groups in A Directory of Religious Bodies in the United States (Garland) including twenty-three kinds of Mormons, a dozen branches of Episcopalians, and seven kinds of black Jews.

LATIN AMERICA The Lost Paradise by Philip Caraman (Seabury) is about an oft-studied seventeenth-century Jesuit republic in what is now Paraguay. Pentecostalism in Colombia by Cornelia Butler Flora (Fairleigh Dickenson University) is a scholarly study of the non-trinitarian United Pentecostal Church and its rapid growth. Theology of the Crossroads in Contemporary Latin America by Orlando Costas (Humanities Press) is a major interaction by an evangelical with much of the recent theological and ethical discussion in Latin American Protestantism.

AFRICA Besides the previously mentioned and fundamental Howard University Bibliography of African and Afro-American Religious Studies we call attention to God’s Higher Ways by Clarence Duff (Presbyterian and Reformed) on the Orthodox Presbyterian work in the troubled land of Ethiopia, Church Growth in Burundi by Donald Hohensee (William Carey), Church Planting in Uganda: A Comparative Study by Gailyn Van Rheenen (William Carey), Uganda: Fire and Blood by Elain Murray Stone (Logos), on severe persecution in that land during the 1880’s, I Love Idi Amin by Festo Kivengere (Revell), on severe persecution in the same country now, and African Christianity by Adrian Hastings (Seabury), a brief overview of the common issues around the continent.

ASIA-PACIFIC For all three “third world continents” there are many more interesting testimonies available, usually about missionaries, sometimes about nationals, than we have room to mention. Studies on specialized topics that should be of somewhat wider interest include: The Deep Sea Canoe: The Story of Third World Missionaries in the South Pacific by Alan Tippett (William Carey), The Korean Pentecost and the Sufferings Which Followed by William Blair and Bruce Hunt (Banner of Truth), Hewn From the Rock: Origins and Traditions of the Church in Sydney by Marcus Loane (Anglican Information Office [507 Kent St., Sydney 2000 Australia]), and Light in the Far East by Edward Fischer (Seabury), on Catholic Archbishop Harold Henry’s forty-two years in Korea.

Also for those interested in the church in Asia and the Pacific, see The Kalimantan Kenyah: A Study of Tribal Conversion by William Conley (Presbyterian and Reformed), a scholarly study of an Indonesian tribe, Our Ordered Lives Confess: Three Nineteenth-Century American Missionaries in East Shantung by Irwin Hyatt, Jr. (Harvard), an account of widely differing reponses to life in northeast China, When Blood Flows, the Heart Grows Softer by Jeanette Lockerbie (Tyndale) on Christianity in the tragic land of Cambodia, Evangelical Awakenings in the South Seas by J. Edwin Orr (Bethany Fellowship), fourth in a series of five books and misleadingly titled since islands such as Madagascar and Indonesia are included as is Australia, and Crucial Issues in Bangladesh by Peter McNee (William Carey).

Finally theological reflection growing out of historical experience characterizes the essays compiled by Roy Sano in The Theologies of Asian American and Pacific Peoples (Asian Center for Theology and Strategies [1798 Scenic Ave., Berkeley, Cal. 94709]).

Paul D. Steeves is assistant professor of history and director of Russian studies at Stetson University in Deland, Florida. He has the Ph.D. from the University of Kansas and specializes in modern Russian history.

Two Tragedies In Two Weeks

The father is a Christian leader.

The son is in his mid-teens, a wholesome boy emerging into young manhood. And most importantly, he is a Christian, largely through his parents’ influence. He spent the past month at a Christian camp.

Last week the father had a phone call from the camp director. “I have bad news for you. Your son drowned this afternoon. He was in a canoe …”

The father wept.

The father is a Christian leader.

The son is in his mid-teens, a wholesome boy emerging into young manhood. And most importantly, he is a Christian, largely through his parents’ influence. He spent the past month at a Christian camp.

This week he arrived home. “I have bad news for you,” his father said. “You know that your mother and I haven’t been getting along very well. So I’m divorcing her.… She wants to stay together, but …”

The son wept.

EUTYCHUS VIII

Surpassing Coverage

James Hefley’s coverage of the Southern Baptist Convention (“Southern Baptists: Tension and Togetherness, July 29) surpassed by far that appearing in any of the half dozen or so state Baptist publications I read.… He is quite correct in stating that “inerrancy is still a live issue” in the SBC, and I hope it will remain so for as long as the Convention exists.

WORTH C. GRANT

President

Southern Baptists for Bible Translation

Washington, D.C.

Viewing Inerrancy

Since the recent critique of my article on inerrancy by John Warwick Montgomery (Current Religious Thought, “Whither Biblical Inerrancy?”, July 29) could lead to misunderstanding regarding my position, I would like to take this opportunity to restate my adherence to the historic view of inerrancy. My purpose was not to “redefine” the doctrine but rather to apply it to historical research, particularly in the Gospels. I am certain that Montgomery would not claim that in the Gospels we have the exact words of Jesus. For one thing, he spoke in Aramaic rather than Greek; for another the evangelists differ in their quotes. We do, however, have the exact teaching of Jesus, and this comes through the inspired interpretation of his teaching by the evangelists. For a further clarification of my position, I would like to point to my article, “The Evangelical and Tradition Criticism,” in the forthcoming The New Testament Student: Critical Issues, ed. by John H. Skilton.

GRANT R. OSBORNE

Trinity Evangelical Divinity School

Deerfield, Ill.

Montgomery scores Norman Geisler by suggesting that the “concrete facts” of history, science, and law are more useful to a correct view of scriptural inerrancy than philosophy. I think Montgomery forgets a point made by one of the best apologists of this century. C. S. Lewis warns us that the only problem with trying to rely solely on facts is that they must be interpreted … What, for example, nature “teaches” is a function of the philosophy brought to her, and of course the same holds true for history and law. That is why controversies continue to rage in the academy as well as the courts. Facts are our building blocks; we get nowhere without them. But philosophy is prior because we cannot build to any extent without a structure and primary because it determines the direction we go with those facts. Attending to philosophy does not affect whether we rely on facts or on philosophy but it does affect the consistency and soundness of that philosophy.

TERRI WILLIAMS

Portland, Ore.

While there can be no objection to any reasoned discussion of the inerrancy question, Montgomery exceeds the boundaries of reason and Christian charity in his assertions that evangelicalism might gain rather than lose from a division over this issue, and that the progressives are the lukewarm who can only be spewed out of Christ’s mouth.… Most of us out here in the greater evangelical community have everything to lose if the cooperative base we have so carefully won over the past thirty years is destroyed by senseless polemic war.… The argument from Christ’s supposed view of Scripture to comprehensive biblical literalism is a very slender mainstay for Montgomery’s polemics, and even if valid would not make one’s view of Scripture a fundamental and divisive doctrine. On Montgomery’s logic, C. S. Lewis must be held to reject the lordship of Christ because of his refusal to embrace Montgomery’s inerrancy position—“If he is not Lord of all, he is not Lord at all.” One doesn’t have to fit very many names of prominent evangelical or orthodox Christians into Montgomery’s formula to get ludicrous results—and potentially tragic results if any of us really begin to disfellowship one another on this basis.

JAMES A. HEDSTROM

Madison, Tenn.

What a pity, what a solemn pity to see the philosopher-prince John Warwick Montgomery throw himself on his own sword in an unnecessary and futile defense of biblical inerrancy. If evangelicals are delighted, with good cause, to the application of scientific criticism to the Book of Mormon, knowing that the truth about that volume will set many Mormons free, then, to be consistent, we will be equally as delighted by the application of scientific criticism to the Bible—for precisely the same reason: the truth sets people free. Montgomery blusters like a man who has something to hide or who, himself, may be hiding. In the end, it will not be the sealing wax around our hermeneutics that saves us, but the compelling ring of truth in the kerygma, redacted or not, that continues unceasingly to move and transform us. After all, it is the Gospel, not our defense of it, that is the “power of God unto salvation.”

GARY STARKEY

Beulah Missionary Church

Elkhart, Ind.

On The List

I am writing in reference to the July 29 news story, “Graham and the Press: New Look at Ledgers.” The article concerned stories Mary Bishop and I wrote for The Charlotte (N.C.) Observer about the World Evangelism and Christian Education Fund, a heretofore unpublicized arm of the Graham ministry. Your article dealing with reaction to the Observer’s revelation of this fund’s existence would have been more complete if the list you printed of groups receiving money from World Evangelism had included the group that ranks number three in terms of gifts from World Evangelism, namely, CHRISTIANITY TODAY.

ROBERT HODIERNE

Knight-Ridder Newspapers

Washington Bureau

Washington, D.C.

• You are correct that, as a non-profit corporation, CHRISTIANITY TODAY received substantial contributions from 1972 to 1974 toward its ministry.—ED.

Throw Out The Band Aids

Dr. Richard Strauss’ article, “The Family Church: Any Place for Singles?” (July 29) is typical of a growing band-aid philosophy in the church regarding divorce. We apply more energy and time in smoothing over the sin of divorce in our congregations than we do in stressing the biblical precepts that would prevent its occurring. We are alarmed at the increasing emphasis being placed on making divorced persons feel “comfortable,” loved, and accepted, and the decreasing exposition of the Word, instructing each of us to seek restoration of relationships marred and broken by sin. We dare not presume to help troubled divorced persons establish a “close relationship with the Lord” if we have failed to urge repentance and reconciliation prior to the marriage break.

DOUGLAS AND ROSE MARY FONCREE

Jackson, Miss.

This is our fall book issue. In it we offer guidelines to help readers decide what to read in certain areas. Christians, after all, should be well read.

We also carry a large number of book advertisements in this issue. The publishers want you to know what they have available. Our acceptance of an advertisement does not mean editorial endorsement either theologically or literarily.

With the end of summer and the promise of indoor weather, we urge our readers to pick up a book and practice the reading habit.

Are the Ten Commandments still valid for Christians? For everybody? Or is it merely tradition that we still carry them along when they should have been sent long ago to the antiquary dealing with the religious history of the ancient Near East?

Some speakers in prominent Christian positions have come close to the conclusion that it is impossible to draw up a catalogue of eternal norms for individuals in ever-changing situations. And you cannot put down such norms as guidelines for the ethics of law and society. The Ten Commandments were a nomad law, these people add, and as such are altogether unsuitable for the technical age. Even more so for the Church, which by its very nature could not be tied to the law of the Sinai covenant.

We are living in a day where it is more important than ever to ask, Why? If we don’t, we tend to forget the reasons for Christian doctrine and morality and end up in some pious idolatry of traditions handed down to us by former generations. But no one else is being convinced. So, why the Decalogue? Much can be said about the importance of the Decalogue for all men: the Ten Commandments recommend themselves to every man and nation as an admirable definition of the good and just, and as a sensible exposition of the Golden Rule.

At this moment, though, we wish to stress the validity of the Ten Commandments for Christians. There is a paramount need for clarity in the churches.

The Decalogue remains valid for the people of God. In studying the Bible, one of the first rules is to take into account context, circumstances, and direction of a given text. The Decalogue was addressed to a certain generation in the history of the nation of Israel. Even the sons and daughters of those present at Mount Sinai already asked questions about the general applicability of these words. They were taught that God’s covenant and its law pertained to all generations of Israel because the nation was to be understood as a corporate personality (Deuter. 6:20).

But of course, the opening words of the Decalogue, referring to the liberation of Israel from Egypt, prove that the Ten Commandments were given to the nation of Israel. Surely as Christians we are not biologically part of Israel. Also, when we became Christians we were not incorporated into this nation. Nevertheless we form part of the true Israel, in the history of salvation. Paul explains this with a parable: “Branches of a wild tree, you have been implanted into the good olive tree and thus have become partakers of the richness of the same root” (Rom. 11:17). The Decalogue reveals God’s will for all members of the one people of God, and also for Christians as the true sons and daughters of Abraham (Gal. 3:29).

As Luther always pointed out: the authority of Moses does not in itself oblige Christians. It is through the authority of Christ that the Ten Commandments are valid for his followers. Christ accepted the Decalogue with utmost sincerity. He quotes it as the fundamental directive to eternal life in his encounter with the rich young ruler (Matt. 19). He refers to the Decalogue when he speaks of “God’s Commandments” as opposed to the human traditions of scribes and elders (Matt. 15). In the Sermon on the Mount, he begins with the Decalogue; his new teaching revitalizes the contents of the old commandments. It is wrong, too, to argue that Christ demanded the right mental attitude only and was no longer interested in the moral act and its results. He warns us not to form a wrong opinion.

Some contemporary theologians think that Jesus’ attitude toward the Sabbath showed the deliberate breach of a commandment. They take this as approval to break other commandments if the situation demands it.

As always, Christ here fights against religious traditions that have obscured the God-given commandment. He goes back to the original commandment, to the roots, the revelation. The motivations given with the Sabbath commandment show that rest and relief are the aims of this commandment. The healing of a woman from an eighteen-year-old illness is therefore particularly apt to take place on a Sabbath. “To do good and to save life” (Mark 3:4)—an interesting little phrase that shows the core of Christ’s ethos—surely must be allowed on the Sabbath day. So Jesus is in full harmony with the Ten Commandments; “For verily I say unto you, till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled. Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven: but whosoever shall do and teach them the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven” (Matt. 5:18–20).

Dare we know better than our Lord? For all those who have become his disciples the Decalogue remains in force “until heaven and earth pass.” This can be seen also in the fact that the commandments recur in the letters of the early church, and that it takes up the commandment of setting aside one day of the week for rest and rededication to God’s kingdom. The God of Israel is the father of our Lord Jesus Christ: his nature, sanctity, and righteousness do not change.

Karl Barth wrote that “the Decalogue is the basic event in the history of Israel, the program of the whole history of this nation, and implicitly of the whole history of his chosen Church.… Not by mistake it happened therefore, but rightly so that the Decalogue was received among the main articles of the Christian catechism. It is the basic statute of the merciful covenant of God, valid for all times.”

On the authority of Christ, the Ten Commandments remain valid for the people of God today, as in the remote past: as the framework, the basis for God’s communion with his people and their communion with God. Observing it will spell blessing, neglecting it will bring the curse of the eternal upon men.

Moratorium, cultural revival, and human rights have been much-debated issues in some African church circles the last three years, but the week-long trienniel general assembly of the Association of Evangelicals of Africa and Madagascar (AEAM) held July 28 to August 3 in Bovake, Ivory Coast, passed them all upfora less sensational but more practical topic—the Christian home.

When the theme was announced, some critics said AEAM was shying away from Africa’s major issues. The emphasis, however, turned out to meet an African-felt need that also spoke to the major issues of the day.

“We are not running away from current issues,” declared AEAM president Samuel O. Odunaike, a 43-year-old Nigerian oil company personnel manager, in his opening address. “It would be irresponsible for us to fail to raise our voices against issues plaguing the continent. We cannot pretend what is taking place in Zimbabwe [Rhodesia] and South Africa is none of our business. It would also be wrong for us to be ‘evangelically silent’ on the brutalities in Uganda—especially as evidence gives credence to the allegation that the senseless killings are mainly directed against Christians. However, nothing could be more relevant today than the Christian home. It is the bedrock of the nation—the expression of a people’s cultural, political, and social values, and God’s center-piece for evangelism, revival, and renewal. May this assembly swing the pendulum of the African Christian home back to the heart of God.”

A discussion on polygamy continued late one night in dormitory rooms after Gottfried Osei-Mensah, a Ghanaian who is executive secretary of the Lausanne Committee for World Evangelization, questioned the practice of withholding baptism from a polygamist who has become a true believer. Osei-Mensah’s address did not condone polygamy, and some who responded to it agreed that methods other than withholding baptism should be found to emphasize the wrong of plural marriages.

African church leaders were more opposed to the suggestion than most foreign missionaries. “We can see the scriptural point,” they explained, “but we have to face the practical effects on our churches. We might have men waiting until they have three wives before asking for baptism.”

Other clashes of tradition and Christian concept emerged in discussions about the custom of having uncles rear one’s children and about the servant role of women in the household.

Terry C. Hulbert, Dean of the Columbia Graduate School of Bible and Mission, pointed out the importance of household evangelism and discipling by families to arrest the disintegration of the home in Africa’s turbulent social changes.

“This is the time for action, not talk,” pleaded Isaac Simbiri, secretary of the Evangelical Fellowship of Kenya. “As pastors, let’s start now to pray, to plan, to proceed. Churches grow when families grow.”

“This family emphasis is just what we need now in Ethiopia,” stated one delegate. “Our Christians don’t know which way to turn as Marxist ideology takes over.”

The issue of human rights did not have to be listed separately on the agenda, for delegates who had been denied their rights were present. Concern rather than bitterness marked their reports.

“One hundred years after our pioneers were martyred, persecution has returned,” stated Daniel Kyande, who recently fled Uganda.

“God has a purpose in the troubles in our land,” an Ethiopian said. “He is sifting His church. It will not fail.”

Moratorium—the banning of Western missionaries—received only passing mention; delegates obviously did not agree with the concept and did not feel it worth a resolution. “The growth of the Body of Christ in any environment does not call for either moratorium or segregation,” said D. Marini-Bodho of Zaire. In a paper on “The Family of God” he called for “unity and understanding” among Christians of all races.

The Christian home theme had been proposed by Byang H. Kato, a Dallas Seminary graduate who was AEAM general secretary before his death in a drowning accident in Mombasa, Kenya, in late 1975. Kato had also helped to set in motion several other projects that took shape at the assembly.

The Evangelical Theological Society of Africa was launched by the AEAM Theological Commission. Announcing its objectives, Richard France, until recently a professor in Zaria, Nigeria, stated: “African theology has come to represent liberal theology. Seminary text books are from North America or Europe. They must come from Africa. We need men who can declare what African evangelical theologians think. This was another of Doctor Kato’s visions.”

The Accrediting Council for Theological Education in Africa (ACTEA) was also formally launched at Bovake. Led by coordinator W. Paul Bowers, thirty theological educators from across Africa set up standards and procedures for accrediting post-secondary level theological institutions. Four key schools, representing Sierra Leone, Nigeria, Zaire, and Kenya, were accepted as candidates for ACTEA accreditation before the assembly ended.

Paul White, dean of AEAM’s new Bangui Evangelical School of Theology, reported that the school will open next month with thirty-five students and offer a program leading to a Master of Theology degree. Studies will be in French.

There were two “firsts”: this was its first meeting in French-speaking Africa, and the assembly elected an all-African executive committee for the first time. The average age of the members is 38 years. President Odunaike was returned to office; Pierre Yougouda (Central African Empire) became vice-president; Isaac Simbiri (Kenya), secretary; Godfrey Mulando (Zambia), treasurer.

To fill the post left vacant by Kato’s death, the assembly elected another Nigerian, Tokunboh Adeyemo, as acting general secretary of the AEAM. The doctoral candidate (Dallas Seminary) will assume office at the end of this year. Tite Tienou of Upper Volta was appointed as executive secretary of the theological commission.

The African family spirit came to the fore as the assembly dedicated the offices to God’s service. Aaron Gamedze, Swaziland’s chief of protocol and the mover of the original motion which brought AEAM into existence, chaired the closing service. He called several delegates to encircle each officer as prayers were offered. Kato’s widow was among them. The feeling of strong spiritual community was dramatic.

“This has been a much different general assembly from our first meeting in 1966,” Gamedze remarked. “AEAM has come of age. Evangelicals in Africa are a force to be reckoned with—and liberals are beginning to respect our position. The liberal viewpoint no longer goes unchallenged.”

The Passing Of a Byzantine

“Don’t forget that Makarios is a Byzantine,” a fellow Cypriot once said of his president. “What he says is one thing; what he means is another; what he does is something else.” No criticism was intended.

Having occupied for seventeen years the dual role of president and archbishop in the pocket-sized Mediterranean republic, Makarios died of a heart attack earlier this month. He was within ten days of his sixty-fourth birthday.

Born Michael Mouskos and early introduced to monastic life, he took the name Makarios (“Blessed”) on being made deacon in the Orthodox Church. He studied theology and law in Athens. Later he went to Boston for post-graduate work on a World Council of Churches grant, a pursuit that was interrupted when he was summoned home in 1948 to become bishop of Kition.

Cyprus was then under British rule, and the new bishop was soon prominent in the struggle for independence. In 1950 he was elected archbishop and spiritual leader of the island’s 78 per cent Greek majority. For suspected collaboration with the colony’s increasingly violent freedom fighters Makarios was forced into exile for three years, but he was allowed to return in 1959, and he was the obvious choice as president when independence came in 1960. He was 47.

The job was no sinecure; he came under fire from different quarters. He was less than conciliatory with the 18 per cent Turkish (Muslim) minority, against whom such strong measures were taken that a London newspaper called him “a priest with bloody hands.”

His more powerful adversaries, however, were those who wanted Enosis (union with Greece), a cause which they considered Makarios to have betrayed. His three senior bishops, all committed to that cause, declared him deposed as archbishop. His dual role, they claimed, was against canon law, the public good, and the gospel injunction against serving two masters. Makarios rejected the proceedings, and in turn drafted a collection of bishops from the Arab world to depose the dissidents. The archbishop promptly donned his presidential hat to ensure that the dismissals were enforced by the civil arm.

This and other opposition from fellow-Greek sources he chose to regard as plotting against national security. To protect himself he stored Czechoslovak arms in the archbishop’s residence, an action in itself not in accordance with any interpretation of canon law. He was notably tolerant to the republic’s small but influential Communist party. He threatened appeal for Russian aid against the periodically menacing mainland Turks, and he established good relations with Arab leaders. To the world he often appeared an enigmatic figure, perhaps because it suited him.

He survived several attempts on his life, one when his helicopter was crippled by gunfire just after takeoff. Finally in July, 1974, encouraged by the Athens junta, mainland Greek officers of the Cypriot National Guard spearheaded a coup against him, and he narrowly escaped with his life to a British air base. Cyprus Radio, indeed, reported his death, an error that gave scope to Makarios’s mordant wit.

But the coup went wrong. The result was not union with Greece but the toppling of the Athens government, the invasion and over-reaction by Turkey to aid the minority community, and the loss to the Greek majority of nearly 40 per cent of the island, which Turkey still holds.

Makarios returned to Cyprus five months later. Just this summer it seemed likely that he was about to make reluctant concessions to the Turks, whose leader he had met for the first time in fourteen years.

He died with no obvious successor, certainly none who could continue the double leadership of church and state, even if this were desirable. His departure leaves a dangerous vacuum.

They buried Michael Mouskos on a mountain slope in the Troodos range. He had chosen the grave himself, in a place just above the monastery where he had been a novice forty years ago.

J. D. DOUGLAS

A Visitor From the Middle East

Patriarch Elias IV of the Antiochian Orthodox Church had never been to America before. Nor had any of his 163 successors in Syrian Orthodoxy’s See of Antioch. So when he came to the United States this summer his visit to the faithful of his church was an event of special significance. Thousands turned out to greet the prelate, who, for his followers, is on an equal footing with Roman Catholicism’s Pope.

The unprecedented visit was climaxed by the patriarch’s appearance last month at the annual convention of the church’s North American archdiocese. A special stained-glass sanctuary of Orthodox icons was set up in the Washington hotel where the meeting was held. Some 3,000 persons from the Antiochian community’s churches (there are just over 100 in the United States and a handful in Canada’s principal cities) participated. The North American constituency is reported at 350,000, including non-communicants who attend church events occasionally. The archbishop, Philip Saliba of New York, told a reporter there are about 50,000 “dues-paying” members.

Among the special events lined up by the convention leaders was an interview with President Carter for the visiting prelate. Elias came away from the Oval Office vowing to go home to “light a candle” for the American chief executive in one of the ancient churches near his Damascus home. Carter requested his prayers, the patriarch told journalists. And he in turn requested Carter to keep working on a settlement in the Middle East.

Palestinian politics was a principal topic when the prelate met reporters during the convention. Jews, he declared, have little “historic connection” with the territory of the current state of Israel. When one of the newsmen suggested that the “whole weight” of Scripture was on the side of the Jews on this issue, Elias calmly replied, “As far as we Christians are concerned, we are the new Israel. The coming of the Messiah fulfilled all the Old Testament prophecies.”

He insisted that Jews and Christians lived at peace with Muslims in the area until modern times. He said that his own residence is in the Jewish quarter of Damascus, and that his relations with his neighbors are good. His relations with the Muslim leaders of Syria and other Arab states are perhaps better than with the Jewish neighbors. He is the only Christian leader who has ever been invited officially to Saudi Arabia, and at a meeting in Pakistan once he became the only Christian leader ever invited to address a preponderance of the world’s Muslim heads of state. While he was in Washington, Elias and his North American hierarchy were the guests of honor at a dinner given by ambassadors of the Arab states.

Bolstered by his presence and his outspoken position on the Middle East, the delegates to the convention passed a series of tough-stance resolutions. One statement condemned the action of the Israeli government in legalizing three “additional Zionist-Israeli settlements on occupied Arab lands in violation of international law” as well as other “previous illegal establishment of settlements.” The resolution asked President Carter to persuade Israel to avoid “encroachment upon Arab territories.”

The delegates also advocated “American Christian-Islamic dialogue,” more balanced news media coverage of the Middle East, settlement of the Lebanese conflict with “peace and justice” for all, and relaxation of U.S. and Canadian immigration regulations to allow the admission of Lebanese refugees.

While the Syrian Orthodox faithful were meeting in Washington, the government back in Syria relaxed its own regulations on behalf of some of its Jewish residents. President Assad gave his consent for “proxy” marriages of twelve women to members of the Syrian Jewish community in New York. The women, then considered married under Syrian law, boarded planes for America to meet their husbands and to get married under American law. Most were going to Brooklyn’s Ocean Parkway section, sometimes known as “Little Syria.” It has the largest concentration of Jews of Syrian origin in the United States, nearly 25,000, according to the New York Times.

Chile Cover-Up?

Roger Vekemans, the Jesuit sociologist sent to Chile two decades ago to “rescue” that country for Roman Catholicism, is not talking about the money he got from the United States for alleged covert activities. He is now in Colombia, involved in preparations for a 1978 meeting of Latin American bishops.

Enough of Vekemans’s former associates and friends are talking, however, to raise serious questions about his management ability if not about his integrity. The lay-edited National Catholic Reporter (NCR) last month reported that the priest had once been in danger of criminal prosecution for mismanagement of some of the $5 million he got from the U.S. Agency for International Development (AID). The major expose in the weekly paper again raised questions about the Belgian Jesuit’s connections to the Central Intelligence Agency (see October 10, 1975 issue, page 62).

Vekemans left Chile when Marxist Salvadore Allende became president in 1970. Long before that, officials of Chile, the United States, and various Roman Catholic agencies were suspicious of the effectiveness of the Jesuit’s operations, according to the special report by NCR Washington correspondent Richard Rashke. By 1971 an AID audit showed mismanagement of at least $400,000, according to documents unearthed by Rashke.

An internal AID letter dated September, 1971, obtained recently by NCR indicated that the then-U.S. ambassador to Chile, Edward M. Korry, advised against full-scale investigation and prosecution of the priest. Korry told NCR that Vekemans had asked him to call off the auditors even though he claimed that he could “account for every nickel.”

Korry, according to the 1971 letter, concluded that “a criminal action against Father Vekemans would specifically contradict our objectives in Chile.” The reason he cited was that publicity about criminal activity by the priest would be grist for the Communist propaganda mill. Vekemans was identified in the public’s mind not only with the Roman Catholic Church but also with the anti-Communist Christian Democratic Party of former president Eduardo Frei.

According to NCR, President Kennedy and then-attorney general Robert Kennedy took a special interest in Vekemans’s projects in the early 1960s to increase support for Frei’s party. The Jesuit was a guest in the Kennedy White House and reportedly bragged to a friend after one visit that he had picked up $10 million for his Chilean projects. Frei was elected president over Allende in 1964.

Vekemans refused an interview with NCR on the new charges, Rashke reported. The correspondent was also unable to get some pertinent government documents declassified.

Meanwhile, the World Council of Churches’ press service reported that Chile’s current government (which toppled the Allende government in September, 1973) has recognized a “National Evangelical Coordinating Center” to handle liaison between itself and “junta-friendly” churches. The WCC report said President Pinochet’s policies regarding churches was “discriminatory” and “may be designed to bring about formation of a ‘Protestant State Church.’”

Deaths

ABRAHAM J. FELDMAN, 84, nationally known Reform Jewish leader and ecumenist; in West Hartford, Connecticut, after a brief illness.

MURIEL S. WEBB, 64, former Episcopal Church executive and since 1974 the director of the relief and refugees commission of the World Council of Churches; in Greenwich, Connecticut, of cancer.

The WCC: Supporting A New Order

One of the themes that grew out of the 1975 assembly of the World Council of Churches at Nairobi was “the search for a just, participatory, and sustainable society.” By the time the council’s policymaking Central Committee ended its Geneva meeting this month, the meaning of that theme was much clearer.

Committee members learned, for instance, that inherent in commitment to a just, participatory, and sustainable society (JPSS) is support for the “new international economic order.” They were told that since Nairobi the council has initiated or strengthened programs to express “solidarity with the efforts of people’s movements to build countervailing power” and to build awareness among “church constituencies about the issue of a new international economic order.”

Closely related to this question, the 134 WCC policy-makers were told, is the issue of transnational corporations. They learned that two high-level consultations have already been held and a staff task force formed to deal with transnationals.

Creation of another transnational corporation of its own, a “world bank” known as the Ecumenical Development Cooperative Society, was announced during the two-week Geneva meeting. It began operations in July after receiving notification from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission that the SEC had no objection to the investment of the funds of American church agency trusts in the bank. The new WCC-sponsored financial institution began with an operating capital of just over $1 million. Some $190,000 of that cannot be used, however, until the Charity Commissioners of the United Kingdom agree to the investment of British funds in the venture. The bank is domiciled in the Netherlands and will make low interest loans to projects in the developing nations. The executive director is a Sri Lankan, and so far some 30 per cent of the investment has come from the Third World. The wealthy, tax-supported German church has not yet joined as a shareholder, but it is studying the matter. An American representative has been named to the staff to encourage U.S. church agencies to invest.

Another WCC intervention in world issues, related to the “sustainable” aspect of the JPSS theme, was its representation at the International Conference on Nuclear Power and its Fuel Cycle at Salzburg, Austria, in May. Delegates were primarily representatives of governments, but the WCC team was one of few non-governmental delegations there. In the debate, the WCC spokesman emphasized ethical and moral concerns related to the expansion of nuclear power and refused to give a wholehearted blessing to either the anti-nuclear or pro-nuclear forces. The WCC’s presence in the Salzburg sessions was hailed in Geneva as a triumph for the council.

The committee approved plans for a major international conference in 1979 on the JPSS theme. It will seek to bring together all the various sub-themes now being developed in various WCC units, highlighting WCC concerns in a variety of areas. There would be some 300 official participants, with the majority nominated (but not finally elected) by member denominations of the council.

Proving that it is sustaining itself currently, the committee adopted a 1978 Budget of $14 million, up about $1 million from the current year’s spending formula. Included in the amount is additional funding for the Ecumenical Institute outside Geneva, which was once in danger of being closed for lack of financial support. Its new board has now submitted a balanced budget, and additional outside funding has been pledged. Because of the recent uncertainty, much of the staff has been lost. The director, John Mbiti, will step down next year and resume a teaching role.

In another money matter the WCC announced additional grants from its Special Fund to Combat Racism during the central committee meeting. This year’s allocation, the seventh since the fund was established in 1970, is $530,000, bringing to $2,6 million the total disbursed so far. Various organizations on six continents are the recipients of the 1977 grants. Eleven of the thirty-five groups are getting the WCC money for the first time.

In addition to the JPSS theme, the committee also studied another theme, “The Confessing Community.” Under this heading, a 1,300-word letter was sent to member churches, calling for self-examination and prayer. The letter was the subject of vigorous debate in the meeting, and when the vote was taken on a show of hands, seven members opposed it and seven abstained. Speeches were made by thirty-seven delegates from twenty-five countries during consideration of the letter. It went through three drafts at the meeting but was still criticized for being applicable only to the developed nations. There was also criticism that it did not communicate directly to congregations. A Cuban pastor, Francisco Norniella, said it was too pastoral and not prophetic. Bishop Henry Okullu of Kenya complained that the whole process of drafting and discussing it diverted the energies of the committee away from more pressing matters.

Taking action on some of the “more pressing” matters, the committee:

• Condemned white minority governments of southern Africa for perpetrating “grave and blatant injustices … in the name of Christian civilization.”

• Expressed concern that some white South Africans were planning to emigrate to Bolivia to transfer racism there.

• Declared that “torture is epidemic” in today’s world and urged churches to expose it.

• Authorized further revision of statements on baptism, eucharist, and ministry in the hope that there can be agreement on a theological document on these subjects at the next WCC assembly.

• Approved establishment of an advisory group on human rights (see September 10,1976, issue, page 69), with the hope that it will begin work within the next six months.

• Accepted four churches as full members and two as associate members, bringing to 293 the number of affiliated denominations.

Religion in Transit

ABC-TV says it is remaking parts of the first two episodes of its controversial comedy series, “Soap,” scheduled to premiere this fall. The series was attacked sharply after church and secular previewers published analyses. Some observers, including a number of executives of ABC affiliates, still have reservations: they fear the clean-up will not be thorough enough, and they suspect that moral barriers will be under continual assault as the series progresses.

The United Presbyterian governing body of churches in Orange and Los Angeles counties in California, voted against admitting graduates of the charismatic-oriented Melodyland School of Theology as candidates for the ministry within its territory. Neo-Pentecostalism is not part of Presbyterian and Reformed tradition, the presbytery said.

Young Life staff member Robert Mitchell has been appointed executive director of the organization, succeeding the retiring president, William S. Starr. Young Life, headquartered in Colorado Springs, has more than 1,100 clubs involving 100,000-plus teen-agers, 600 staffers, and 6,000 volunteers in the United States, Canada, and thirteen foreign nations, according to leaders of the group.

Guy Charles, a former leader in the gay-rights movement, resigned as president of Liberation in Jesus Christ, a Virginia-based evangelical “ministry of healing” for homosexuals. Personal problems and board pressure preceded the move.

Street evangelist Arthur Blessitt led more than 1,000 Christians in a witness encounter on crime-ridden Hollywood Boulevard in Los Angeles last month. He gave them training in a week-long “street university” along with crash instructions the night before on a Christian television channel. The evangelist has been carrying a large wooden cross around the world (he recently spent two months in Israel where, he says, the response was “phenomenal.”) He is spending the summer preaching in California before embarking for South America.

Pastor James G. Harris of University Baptist Church in Fort Worth, Texas, a past president of the Southern Baptist Foreign Mission Board, died at age 64 of an apparent heart attack while jogging shortly before a Sunday morning worship service.

About 600 delegates took part in the Ghana Congress on Evangelization at Kumasi last month. Stronger ties of unity were forged among the participants, who came from a variety of denominational and nondenominational backgrounds. Reports given at the congress on the “New Life for All” movement indicated that the outreach campaign was having significant impact in the churches: there were remarkable conversions, healing of divisions, and increased giving for mission support. The delegates themselves took part in evangelistic crusades throughout the area during the final three days of the congress.

At last month’s ceremonies of her million-dollar American Atheist Center in Austin, Texas, Madalyn Murray O’Hair announced that she intends to step up her attack against religion in America’s public life. Two of her objectives: the removal of “In God We Trust” from coins and of “under God” from the Pledge of Allegiance. A local law firm confirmed that a suit is being prepared seeking to have the motto on coins declared improper.

“Atheists’ human rights are being violated,” declared the 58-year-old woman who in 1963 successfully argued before the Supreme Court against prayer in public school. “We’re all being forced to carry a symbol of God in our pockets.”

Ms. O’Hair said she plans to sue the government to compel strict enforcement of the prayer ban. The ban must extend to parent-teacher associations, she added (she had a spat in May over an invocation at her local PTA meeting). She wants federal funds withheld from school systems where there are “continuing violations of state-church separation.” In line for special attention from her is the Dallas school system, which teaches the creation story in science classes.

Jimmy Carter’s election has been a “boon to atheists,” said Ms. O’Hair. “He keeps smiling and putting his foot in his mouth and quoting those idiocies, because the Bible is an idiotic book,” she railed. But, she added, it has caused a lot of atheists to come out of the closet and support her. “Things are going so well,” she said, “that if I weren’t an atheist, I might even say, ‘God is with us.’”

Some things weren’t going well, however. A few days after the big American Atheist Center sign went up, the insurance company dropped its policy on the building, and the mortgage company called in the mortgage, Ms. O’Hair disclosed. Nevertheless, she said, the group now had enough money to pay it off.

In a curious development this month, Ms. O’Hair teamed up with Southern Baptist evangelist Bob Harrington of New Orleans in a barnstorming tour designed to permit both to get their respective messages across—but with the crowd advantage decidedly in Harrington’s favor. The pair had debated each other before in more than a dozen television appearances, but now, said the publicity, it was a “fight to the finish.”

The “fight” began in Chattanooga, Tennessee, just down the road from where the famous Scopes “monkey trial” was staged in 1925. Harrington, a master phrase-maker known widely as “The Chaplain of Bourbon Street,” paid $5,000 in advance to rent the 5,000-seat municipal auditorium and flew in for a day-long publicity blitz to help promote attendance. He appeared first on Harry Thornton’s morning TV talk show. Thornton, who is also a professional wrestling referee, had agreed to moderate the public confrontation between the evangelist and the atheist that night. Thornton said he couldn’t understand why several prominent local ministers had told their people to stay away. “Everybody who believes in Bob and his work should be at the auditorium tonight,” he asserted.

“If God’s people don’t wake up,” warned Harrington, “America-one-nation-under-God will become America-one-nation-under-atheism. I want people to see how dedicated this demon-directed damsel is. Then they’ll want to help me stop her.”

As for Ms. O’Hair, she said she wanted to show that “Bob Harrington is stupid and [to] get the atheists out of their closets to support me.”

About 4,500 showed up at the auditorium. Atheists were hard to find. From the moment Thornton welcomed the crowd to “this history-making event” until Harrington’s farewell almost three hours later, the auditorium reverberated with cheers for the preacher and boos for the unbeliever.

A down-home gospel group, “Little Richie Jarvis and Our Brother’s Keeper,” warmed up the crowd with foot-stomping, hand-clapping music. A chorus of catcalls greeted Thornton’s introduction of Ms. O’Hair. “You’re very rude,” she scowled, “but that’s to be expected from Christians.” A fog-horn voice boomed back, “Praise the Lord!” And so it went for the next half hour, with Ms. O’Hair trading barbs with the audience while contending that America’s founding fathers (“all anti-Christian”) never intended for the country to be a Christian nation.

When Harrington’s turn came, the crowd gave him a standing ovation. “I’m glad Madalyn is here,” he said. “I believe the more we expose her to you, the more America will shun atheism and turn to God.” Instead of answering Ms. O’Hair’s charges, he chided the audience: “While you were out having fun being saved, this woman went to the Supreme Court and got prayer and Bible reading taken out of our schools. She’s done more to set God back in America than anyone before. But she’ll never do it again.”

The debate portion of the program itself was mostly a case of Harrington baiting O’Hair and O’Hair baiting the audience. “Are you trying to get converts?” asked Harrington? “O my God, no,” exclaimed the atheist. The crowd screamed in glee at the apparent lapse in her unbelief. “I program that into my speeches,” she explained quickly. “It always sets you hypocrites off.” (Her son William Murray, the subject of the 1963 Supreme Court case and presently the executive vice-president of Ms. O’Hair’s atheist center, says that his mother’s reflex vocabulary is affected by the conditioning of her Presbyterian childhood but that they are “working” on the problem.)

At one point, Ms. O’Hair said that her 12-year-old daughter Robin was “tormented,” roughed up, and given the silent treatment by pupils at “a stinking Christian public school” in Austin. Her description evoked shouts of “Praise the Lord” and “Tell her about Jesus.” Harrington said he was sorry the Austin pupils didn’t “share some love” instead. Replied Ms. O’Hair: “Oh, they shared Christian love all right. They shared hatred, rejection, intolerance. That’s all that Christians have ever shown to the world.”

Thornton called an intermission. Volunteers passed offering buckets. Printed checks on offering envelopes could be designated to “Bob (God and country) Harrington” or “Madalyn (no God, no country) O’Hair” (representatives of both sorted the envelopes). Then the evangelist called attention to his $10 “victory bags” available in the lobby (they contained books, records, and literature), and Ms. O’Hair handed out subscription forms for the American Atheist magazine, a slick-paper monthly in full color with a reported paid circulation of 10,000. The event ended with written questions from the audience.

William Murray insists that “the big checks” in the offering were designated for Ms. O’Hair from professionals and executive types while Harrington’s gifts were mostly small ones. He says this was true in meetings in Nashville and Huntsville, Alabama, too. Capacity crowds of 2,000-plus attended in both cities.

The debate tour was Harrington’s idea, and he pays all the bills. Ms. O’Hair (she gets no fee from the evangelist) went along with the idea in order to get the public exposure, says Murray. (The annual gross income of her American Atheist Center has grown from $75,000 five years ago to $500,000 presently, according to Murray.)

Although Harrington succeeded in getting a lot of people aroused over the issue of atheism, there were some backfires of sorts. In Huntsville, some main-line church people left the meeting early, expressing disgust at the conduct of the majority in the audience. A number of pastors declined to promote the meetings. Some said they didn’t think such a platform ought to be given an atheist. Others objected to the sensationalism. Still others refused to cooperate because of personal issues involving the evangelist.

Several of these issues came up in a press conference at Chattanooga. In response to a question about his business affairs, the evangelist placed his organization’s net worth at $3 million and his personal net worth at $250,000. (A source close to the organization said its income has averaged about $200,000 a month during the last two or three years. Revenues include sales of books and records, rally offerings, mailed contributions, and sale of a motivational course entitled “The Total Man,” authored by Harrington.) Harrington said his board consists of himself, three staffers, his lawyer, and a former Southern Baptist pastor who now sells insurance. He added that he is a member-in-good-standing of the Southern Baptist Evangelists’ Association, and that he is a member of First Baptist Church in New Orleans (he has not attended for more than a year, however, according to a church source).

In reply to another query he acknowledged that he and his wife of thirty years are separated. The couple have two married daughters in their twenties. He attributed the split to incompatibility and extensive travels away from home. Harrington, who will be 50 next month, left his wife in November. He meanwhile had established a relationship with a staff member, Zonnya LaFerney, a divorcee, according to sources close to Harrington. In protest against the affair, his sons-in-law resigned from their staff positions with Harrington. The next day the evangelist fired most of the other staff members, retaining his mother and father, a retired Methodist minister who looks after a counseling chapel in rented quarters on Bourbon Street in New Orleans. A year earlier, evangelist David Wilkerson had spotted Harrington and Miss LaFemey allegedly drinking together on a plane between Toronto and Dallas. Wilkerson “rebuked” Harrington, the sources say. Harrington denies the drinking and illicit; liaison changes.

Miss LaFerney, who often travels with the evangelist, is described as Harrington’s business manager, director of public relations, and director of his “Total Man” program.

Sources close to the Harrington family describe Joyce Harrington as a deeply spiritual woman who still loves her husband and is praying for him to return “to the Lord and to his family.”

News of the evangelist’s domestic situation has spread widely, and as a result, a number of his speaking engagements have been canceled. This reportedly prompted him to discuss with the board recently the possibility of his moving into a broader, more secular-oriented “ministry.”

JAMES C. HEFLEY and EDWARD E. PLOWMAN

Two Planes Are Down

Two fatal crashes last month involving Missionary Aviation Fellowship planes claimed the lives of both pilots and seven other persons. Bad weather figured in the accidents. In each case the accident occurred while the plane was landing.

At Bota-Victoria in Cameroon, Africa, veteran pilot George Wall, two missionaries of the Basel Mission (Switzerland), and a staff member of the Presbyterian Church in Cameroon were killed. Another national was injured. Wall, of Reedley, California, is survived by his wife Kathy and four children.

Pilot Chris Davidson and four of five members of a Dutch Christian and Missionary Alliance family were killed at Tagma in Irian Jaya, Indonesia. Pieter and Nell Akse, their son Henerik, 5, and their daughter Marleen, 3, are survived by a third child, Ellen, age 7, who was away at school at the time of the crash. Davidson, a former Marine Corps pilot, is survived by his wife Nancy and three children. His father is pastor of First Baptist Church, Chanute, Kansas.

Another CMA missionary, H. Myron Romley, witnessed the crash, but he was unable to approach the burning wreckage for more than two hours.

Disclosure Is Closer

It may not come this year, but some veteran legislators think it is a certainty by the end of 1978. “It” is a federal law requiring financial disclosure by charitable organizations—including religious groups—that solicit the public for funds.

The possibility that such legislation will emerge from Congress appeared to be stronger than ever before as the House of Representatives began its August recess. H.R. 41, a disclosure bill that has been criticized by several religious leaders (see May 6 issue, page 61, and May 20 issue, page 26) won approval of a subcommittee just before the recess. In its amended form it could be taken up by the full Post Office and Civil Service committee as early as next month. The measure, introduced by California congressman Charles H. Wilson, cleared the subcommittee on a close 4 to 3 vote after the author agreed to amendments that would limit the power of the Postal Service in its enforcement of the law. The version of the bill now going to the full committee also exempts from disclosure certain organizations that solicit only their own members, trustees, alumni, and their families, but it is still generally applicable to all groups using the mails to request or receive contributions from the general public.

If H.R. 41 becomes law, it would require all covered organizations that solicit funds through the mail to include with the solicitation a disclosure statement (including the percentages of receipts used for the group’s announced “charitable purpose” after deduction of fund-raising and administration costs). It would also force organizations asking television viewers or radio listeners for mailed gifts to broadcast such information as a part of the solicitation.

When first introduced, the Wilson proposal was opposed by what seemed to be a solid front of religious leaders from a broad spectrum. After the subcommittee action that front seemed to be less than solid, with some now ready to accept some kind of disclosure requirement.

Taking the lead in the strategy to get a law that might eliminate fraudulent operators while not unduly burdening legitimate religious groups is Senator Mark Hatfield, one of Capitol Hill’s best-known evangelicals. He said, “The fact is that there is a great need for legislation to discourage the kind of fraud and misrepresentation which often occurs under the sponsorship of apparently legitimate religious organizations. On the other hand, of course, we need to be careful not to burden worthwhile agencies with a great deal of paperwork.”

The Oregon Republican predicted that the Wilson bill faces an “uphill fight,” but he suggested that he was considering the introduction of “alternate legislation” of his own to “provide essentially the same benefits” but without some of the “impossible demands” of H.R. 41.

One of the organizations that has not decided that legislation in this area is inevitable is National Religious Broadcasters. NRB’s executive secretary, Ben Armstrong, said all of the organization’s members are being asked to express their concern to their congressmen. An NRB statement called the Wilson bill “abhorrent” and “a threat to religious freedom in the United States.”

NRB is particularly concerned with a section of the bill that regulates fund appeals over radio and television. But even if this were dropped, said Armstrong, “the basic threat to religious freedom would still remain. As part of the religious community, NRB advocates the defeat of this bill in its entirety.”

Although some Christian-college presidents and fund-raisers are not convinced yet that a federal disclosure law is inevitable, others are. A lawyer working with one group of colleges has prepared draft legislation to shift responsibility for enforcement from the Postal Service to the Treasury Department. No member of Congress has introduced that alternative yet, however.

One Washington lobbyist observed that several proposals have been advanced to exempt certain categories (churches, schools, health care institutions, or broadcasters) from the disclosure bill, but he said the current public interest in disclosure would dictate a bill with few exemptions.

A number of organizations, meanwhile, were taking new looks at their codes of ethics and accounting practices in an effort to demonstrate that they are self-policing and need no government regulation. Leaders of Catholic orders, for instance, have drafted new guidelines for fund-raising. Among them are prohibitions against vesting all control of an order’s funds in any one person and soliciting for “undefined future needs.” The new guidelines are being submitted for approval to the nation’s bishops at their fall meeting.

All of the action on the disclosure front is not at the national level. Some state and local governments have also moved into the field, and legislation is now pending in a variety of jurisdictions. One national religious organization that solicits the public has already been required to comply with such regulations in thirty-eight different states or counties.

Missouri Synod Aftermath

“We are over it. We are going to enter into a new era. We’ll be lifting up our voices in praise to the Lord.”

That’s how President J. A. O. Preus, 57, of the 2.8-million-member Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod (LCMS) sized up the state of the church in a speech to an LCMS laymen’s auxiliary this month in Denver. He based his views primarily on the outcome of the LCMS biennial convention in Dallas in July.

The convention was belabored by as much discussion about dollars as about doctrine—in distinct contrast with the past three conventions. It marked the end of a stormy period in LCMS history during which time conservatives under the banner of biblical inerrancy took over the denominational machinery, installed one of their own as president (Preus), ousted theological liberals and moderates from LCMS schools and places of leadership, and made it virtually impossible for the so-called moderate movement to regain power for at least the next two or three decades.

In the only jolt of sorts for Preus he failed by two votes to be reelected president on the first ballot (546 were needed), but he won easily on the second ballot. A last-minute challenge had been mounted by some of the same hard-core conservatives who succeeded in wresting the presidency for him in 1969. Missouri pastor Herman Otten and his Christian News weekly tabloid led the challenge. The Otten camp accused Preus of having become too soft on the liberals and of not being hard-nosed enough in relationships with other Lutheran bodies, especially the American Lutheran Church (ALC), with whom the LCMS has had altar and pulpit fellowship since 1969.

To show they meant business, the dissidents promoted the candidacy of seminary teacher Walter A. Maier, an LCMS vice president, for Preus’s seat. Maier came in third on the first ballot (with 168 votes), after district president Charles Mueller (with 279). On the second ballot, Maier lost forty-nine votes, presumably to Preus.

The two key doctrinally oriented issues centered around continued fellowship with the ALC and approval of a joint Lutheran hymnal.

By a substantial vote the some 1,100 clergy and lay delegates passed a resolution placing the LCMS’s fellowship with the ALC in a state of “protest.” They called for a study that could lead to a cessation of fellowship in 1979 if the main issues of contention are not cleared up. These include the ALC’s more liberal stance on interpretation of Scripture, the ordination of women (practiced by the ALC but considered heresy by many in the LCMS), the ALC’s ecumenical ties, and its views of the nature of fellowship (not as confined as the LCMS’s views).

By a closer vote the delegates decided not to accept the proposed joint hymnal but to study it instead until the 1979 convention. There were insinuations but no documented proof that the hymnal was doctrinally impure. Ironically, it was the LCMS in 1965 that persuaded the ALC and the Lutheran Church in America (LCA) to join in the common-hymnal venture. Following the vote at Dallas, ALC officials were furious.

“We took out some of our hymns that the Missouri Synod didn’t want in the hymnal,” complained ALC president David Preus (a cousin of the LCMS Preus). “Now we’re stuck with Missouri-Synod hymns in it that we don’t want.” (Both the LCA and ALC already have given the hymnal preliminary approval; they will probably publish it jointly early next year, which means the LCMS likely will have to take it or leave it as is in 1979.)

David Preus used the time given him for fraternal greetings to offer the LCMS delegates some stem pastoral advice instead. He expressed sadness at the fellowship-of-protest action and said it was “incomprehensible that our churches, which share allegiance to Christ and his church, to the Scriptures and the Lutheran Confessions, should be sidetracked from mutual fellowship.” He said the sidetracking resulted from “poking away at matters which are not directly addressed in either the Scriptures or the Confessions”—a slap at recent LCMS actions requiring specific doctrinal conformity in certain areas of interpretation. He said there was little serious effort on the part of the LCMS to show the ALC that alternative positions on ecumenism and women’s ordination, for example, are preferable. “No,” he said, “there has only been a handful of people telling us that this is the way the LCMS sees it, and unless we see it like you do, there will be an end to fellowship.”

The ALC president said his church believes the “entire Scripture to be the inspired and authoritative word of God.” But, he added, the demand that all should agree that biblical inerrancy means “just exactly what some Missouri-Synod theologians say it means” sounds to ALC members like “ecclesiastical pride and tyranny.”

Many observers believe the ALC will make no major changes to accommodate the LCMS any further, and they predict official fellowship therefore will cease by vote of the next LCMS convention.

In other actions, the delegates:

• Called for increased evangelistic efforts among Jews and members of cults.

• Adopted budgets of $30 million and $32.9 million for the next two years.

• Warned against “false teaching” practiced by “some” (a word added by amendment) in the charismatic movement.

EDWARD E. PLOWMAN

Easing the Pains In Plains

It took the wisdom of Solomon for President Carter to manage a Sunday visit in his hometown this month without offending anyone. It was his first trip to Plains, Georgia, since Plains Baptist Church split in June (see July 8 issue, page 37). Carter was a member and Sunday-school teacher of the church for years before he left for Washington (where he joined First Baptist Church), and he has relatives and friends on both sides of the schism. The split, preceded by the forced departure of pastor Bruce Edwards, occurred after months of feuding over issues of race, politics, and pastoral policies.

Carter solved his dilemma by attending Sunday school at Plains Baptist and the morning worship service at the forty-member breakaway Maranatha Baptist Church, which is housed five miles outside of town in a 110-year-old white frame building once used by Lutherans.

At Plains Baptist, where Carter was baptized in 1935, teacher Clarence Dodson of the men’s Sunday-school class welcomed his former co-teacher back and told him the church has missed his influence and drawing power (“there’s been many a vacant seat since you left”).

Waiting outside was the man over whom the simmering differences came to a head on the Sunday before last November’s election: Clennon King, a black minister and political gadfly from Albany, Georgia, just back from creating a scene at Edwards’s newest pastorate in Hawaii. King had demanded admission as a member at Plains Baptist, setting off a fight—led by Carter and Edwards—to overturn the church’s ban on black members. The policy was changed, but the congregation later voted not to accept the non-resident King as a member.

King was all but ignored as the presidential entourage hurried out of the Plains church and sped off to Maranatha Baptist. Carter was welcomed there by Maranatha’s pastor, Fred Collins, who had preceded Edwards as pastor at Plains Baptist. It was the second birthday of Carter’s grandson Jason, so the congregation sang “Happy Birthday,” and the boy plopped two pennies into the collection plate. Collins preached on the doctrine of election during the hour-long service, then called on the President to give the benediction. Carter’s prayer reflected the conciliatory spirit he tried to impart to his friends at both churches:

“O Father, bless this small and new church, separated, we all pray, not out of a sense of estrangement or alienation or division or hatred, but out of a sense of love and rededication to thee. Let all the tensions be alleviated and disharmonies be removed, and let there be a genuine search for reconciliation when needed. May there be a permanence about this church based on love and forgiveness and dedication. And those in the Plains Baptist Church—let it not be a sign of weakness in thy kingdom but the strength of having two churches instead of one.”

Afterward, he commented to reporters: “I think it’s a healthy thing to have two strong churches. They’re both good churches.… I want both of them to grow and flourish.”

Then the President was whisked away to a reunion of wife Rosalynn’s family in the fellowship hall at Plains United Methodist Church.

Dying And Death

Death, Dying, and the Biological Revolution, by Robert M. Veatch (Yale, 1976, 323 pp., $12.95), Death, Dying and the Law, edited by James T. McHugh (Our Sunday Visitor, 1976, 88 pp., $1.75), Who Shall Live?, by Leonard J. Weber (Paulist, 1976, 138 pp., $3.95), and Should Treatment Be Terminated?, by Thomas C. Oden (Harper & Row, 1976, 93 pp., $2.95), are reviewed by Robert A. Case II, associate in ministry, McLean Presbyterian Church, McLean, Virginia.

Every seminarian learns of the Babylonian epic of Gilgamesh, the ancient pagan myth of Edenic morality. Gilgamesh, half-god and half-man, searches for immortality only to have the hope taken from him when he least expected to lose it. The moral theme of this story is that since Gilgamesh cannot escape from death, he must come to terms with it. These four books seek to bring us mortals to a similar point.

We seem to think that medical science has thrust upon us new moral choices with which our ancestors did not have to wrestle. Such arrogant foolishness! Do we really think that during the plagues of Egypt there was no anguish in the Egyptian families as their loved ones died excruciatingly painful deaths? Are we to suppose that during the horrible bubonic plague years in Europe family members never thought of suicide or homicide (“mercy-killing”) in the face of the terrible suffering? Death and its attendants, sickness and suffering, have dogged mankind since the Fall. Francis Schaeffer has rightly noted the profundity of Genesis 5:5.

Since 1969, when Elisabeth Kübler-Ross’s seminal work On Death and Dying appeared, an entire literature on death has developed. These four books fit into that genre and are above average in clarity and usefulness.

Robert Veatch has written perhaps the benchmark volume on death and medical science. It deserves a place on every serious Christian counselor’s bookshelf, not because its author is an evangelical (he is not) or does any exegesis, but because he has given us the most comprehensive discussion of death now in print. Unlike the other three books, this one is heavy going. It is for the reader with the time and stamina to do some detailed study in the area of death and could well be considered a companion volume to Kübler-Ross’s work.

Seeking to define death, Veatch concludes that it occurs when all spontaneous respiratory, circulatory, and cerebral functioning has irreversibly ceased. The patient (or family) will set the criteria in the final analysis, he says, and the death-pronouncing physician shall not have conflicting interests (i.e., the possibility of transplanting organs from the patient after death).

Veatch moves through chapters dealing with the patient’s (or family’s) right not to “prolong dying” and to refuse treatment. Underlying these chapters is the clearly stated assumption that the physician is an agent of the patient and must respond in a way that benefits the patient. As he points out, “The right to refuse medical treatment, for any reason, is well established in the Western legal tradition.” Veatch has a tendency to beg the question in these chapters by using such quality-of-life rhetoric as “prolong the dying process” and “death prolonging treatment.” He calls such treatment in some cases “torture,” and a judge who allowed such “torture” to be stopped (and the patient to die) “compassionate.” Unfortunately, he has not proven his ethical reference points well enough for those characterizations to be valid.

Veatch spends a good deal of space differentiating between “death prolonging treatment” and “lifesaving treatment.” His conclusion is that it is really the patient’s choice how long and under what circumstances he or she wants to continue life.

In the last half of the book, Veatch makes specific proposals for public implementation of the conclusions he drew in the first half. The first half, therefore, has the best chance of retaining its importance, since after the current legislative season the last chapters may be passé. He discusses the mechanics of decision-making (e.g., ad hoc committees and “living wills”) and the legislating of a decision-making structure. He stresses the need for truth-telling in the near-death situation, but before doing this he gives a helpful survey of the argument over this point, which is currently getting a lot of attention in the medical community. He devotes a chapter to organ transplants and ends the book with a call for a national public policy committed to the goal of extending life as long as possible and yet enabling death to be as uncomplicated as possible. In the end, the Judeo-Christian ethic continues to be persuasive, even in thanatology (the science of death); Veatch concludes that we need to affirm “simultaneously that death is an evil and yet certain deaths ought to be accepted.”

James McHugh, a pro-life priest in Washington, D.C., has compiled four essays into the little volume entitled Death, Dying and the Law with the intention of illuminating the legal and medical issues surrounding euthanasia. Although the authors are Roman Catholic, they do not use the standard casuistic approach to their morality. James Doyle notes three reasons for the current interest in death: new medical technology, the advancing “art” of transplantation, and the contemporary “rights” movement. McHugh calls us a “comfort-oriented society” that rejects physical suffering as an inhuman indignity. Ned Cassem gives us five reasons why the “death with dignity” movement has met with well-founded opposition: (1) the moral domino theory; (2) the difficulty of defining irreversible illness; (3) the fear of being accomplices to suicide; (4) the fact that it limits care for the sick; (5) the distrust of human nature. The final essay, written by McHugh and Michael Taylor, makes the crucial point that laws defining death must deal with the death of a human being, not simply the cessation of vital functions of cells, tissues, or organs. They write, “Human life exists in a human person, and the absence of certain qualities or the inability to perform certain functions does not reduce a human being to the animal level or to being nothing more than a ‘human vegetable.’”

There are several appendixes dealing with legislation and euthanasia. Although written in 1976, this section is already dated, in view of the recent developments in California, New Jersey, and Tennessee. There is also a limited but useful bibliography of books and films.

The Leonard Weber book deals with medical intervention in cases of deformed infants. Like McHugh, Weber is a Roman Catholic who does not emphasize the casuistic approach to moral problem-solving. His book is eminently readable and instructive. He clearly sees the logical extension of the question of the minimal criteria for humanness (the question being asked in the abortion context)—that if the question is asked with the unborn, it will in time be asked of the born also. Indeed, Joseph Fletcher has already asked (and answered) the question. Incidentally, Weber claims that the minimal requirement for humanness is the ability to reflect consciously.

The author sees two prevailing points of view in the current discussion of death and medicine. One view sees life as a possession that the possessor can handle however he or she wants (Veatch), while the other sees life as a gift with certain limits on what can be done with it (Weber). He also sees three main categories of “value-of-life” positions: one claiming that life counts for everything; one claiming that life counts for much; and one claiming that only a life free from suffering and pain counts for anything.

In the chapter entitled “The Debate,” Weber outlines six current positions on treating the handicapped newborn infant and sees that their proponents can be roughly divided into those who want to decide in terms of the child’s interest (as they see it) and those who want to decide in terms of society’s interest.

Other chapters in this small volume cover such topics as who should make the decision to treat the child and the “role of the public” in this matter. There is also a profound chapter entitled “The Value of Life,” in which the author moves with eloquence through the moral landmines of death and medical technology. He writes in one place, “The fight against discrimination has been made by insisting that, once you get beyond the individual differences, we are all equally good. The quality-of-life ethic (as opposed to the sanctity-of-life ethic) says that once we get beyond the circumstances there is nothing of value whatsoever.” In another place he writes, “To say that life is good and that its value is not man’s to give or take or decide upon is to stand before life with an attitude of acceptance rather than one of control.” Finally, he draws the bottom line when he states, “For an adult who has long had a grasp on life, success may be interpreted in terms of the fullness of life; for the infant who has never really had much of a grasp on life, just to be alive may be a great success.”

Thomas Oden is a Protestant ethicist who in Should Treatment Be Terminated? posits forty-two ethical guidelines to help families of the seriously ill deal with their traumatic situation. Putting himself in such heady company as Ramsey, Vaux, Gustafson, and Thielicke, Oden argues for the sanctity of life. And yet his list of seven factors to be considered in each case of serious illness lacks an important eighth factor, the philosophical appreciation of life. Furthermore, in an amazing bit of ethical game-playing he used a computer and some colleagues to develop an order of priority for his twelve guidelines for determining when to withhold treatment from a deathly ill patient. Between them, the academicians and the computer relegated “religious beliefs or moral convictions” to last place on the death-determining dozen.

Despite the omission on the list and the grotesquely absurd computer game, Oden shows himself elsewhere to be a person of moral courage and sensitivity. For instance, he notes that a severe temporary depression may come on a patient during major illness or surgery and that the physician, knowing this, has an obligation to the patient to prolong his or her life during this phase, despite the expressed desires of the distraught patient.

He also notes that there is almost complete freedom for any person to control his or her last days outside a hospital but that the hospital, by moral necessity, assumes a degree of surveillance and medical control over the person committed to its care. Oden correctly states that consensus ethics is foolhardy ethics and yet that poll-taking does give us an idea of what will constitute workable legislation.

He later writes, “There is a serious danger that ‘quality of life’ can inadvertently become an upper-class elitist concept. ‘Equality of life’ is more likely to be preferred by the poor as a principle for making treatment judgments.” Oden calls the practice of applying the term “vegetables” to deathly ill or comatose patients “a pejorative, prejudicial, and dehumanizing use of metaphor.” A target hit!

Oden waits until the last chapter to open the Scriptures, but when he does so he takes them seriously and knowingly. He brings the Word of God to bear at several crucial points in his sanctity-of-life position. I wish he had given us the benefit of his exegesis throughout his book.

My recommendation on these four books is this: if you are a Christian counselor by profession, you need the Weber, Oden, and Veatch books. If you are a pastor doing counseling, then Oden and Weber ought to be in your study. If you are a layperson who wants to begin a study of death, then Weber is your best bet.

Recent Religious Education

Foundations for Christian Education in an Era of Change, edited by Marvin J. Taylor (Abingdon, 1976, 288 pp., $5.95 pb), is reviewed by Kenneth O. Gangel, president, Miami Christian College, Miami, Florida.

The tip-off is in the table of contents: we see that the chapter on “Simulation-Games Theory and Practice in Religious Education” is nearly twice as long as the chapter on “Theology and Religious Education.” James Michael Lee, representing the Roman Catholic position in this compendium, surely speaks for the majority of the contributors when he says, “There appears to be an emerging trend—sometimes explicitly stated, more often implicitly enacted—among religion teachers, curriculum developers, and administrators toward the social-science approach to religious education and away from the theological approach.”

The feeble efforts of Sara Little in the chapter on theology are only brief flickers in this otherwise dense theological fog. Evangelicals would surely agree with Little’s concluding sentence: “In the final analysis, then, whatever the shape of the future, the ‘health’ of religious education is intertwined with that in theology.” But, Little’s theology is relative; she rejects the “theology as norm” approach.

To be sure, she refuses the alternative that “theology is irrelevant.” She wants to see theology related to psychology and the social sciences but not as any more crucial in the scheme of religious educator than any of these other disciplines. Theology, like Toynbee’s Christianity, is among the great influences but is not essentially superior to any of them.

One brightens up at the beginning of chapter four, when H. Edward Everding, Jr., states: “My thesis is that hermeneutics provides the proper frame of reference within which to develop educational theory.” But though some useful material appears in this chapter as Everding discusses such important matters as the linguistic context, literary context, and historical context, he ultimately pits “traditional historical interpretation” against “existentialist interpretation,” opts for the latter, and raises again the dusty Bultmannian banner with new stripes offered by the works of Pannenberg and Jurgen Moltmann.

Consequently, we are not surprised to learn that “the Bible is interpreted as the unrepeatable primal form of the historical emergent, Christian existence, as well as the occasion for trajectories of meaning into the present, Christian tradition” and that “there is, then, no absolute and unchanging interpretation, for each person’s interpretation is correct since it is his own.”

There are, of course, bright spots, such as Wyckoff’s chapter on “Curriculum Theory and Practice” and Snyder’s refreshing “Worship as Celebration and Nurture.”

Evangelicals are thrown a sop in the form of one chapter, and we can be grateful that this chapter was written by Hayes, whose scholarship and articulateness make him a good spokesman for the evangelical side. Hayes emphasizes the theological commitments of evangelical Christian education. He does, however, give a somewhat more positive nod to psychological relationship than I think it deserves (“A proper ‘I—thou’ relationship, ‘I’m OK, you’re OK’ attitude is essential”).

Marvin Taylor’s “Selected Bibliographies Since 1966” is very disappointing. Of its 253 entries, fewer than 10 could be called evangelical.

Evangelical educators need to know what’s going on in liberal religious-education circles, and this volume can be useful in showing them. It makes it clear that there is no return to any kind of serious biblical position. It also shows the continuing bias (which is anything but “liberal”) against evangelical institutions, publishers, and scholarship. Really, Taylor ought to know better. He is associate director of the Association of Theological Schools in the United States and Canada and so has a firsthand view of numerous flourishing evangelical seminaries.

Barth’S View Of Politics

Karl Barth and Radical Politics, edited by George Hunsinger (Westminster, 1976, 236 pp., $6.45 pb), is reviewed by Jack Buckley, teacher, Covenant Circle, Berkeley, California.

Karl Barth was a socialist.” With that thesis, Friedrich-Wilhelm Marquardt began a flurry of revisionist theologizing among German professors and churchmen in 1972. Marquardt is professor of systematic theology at the Free University of Berlin. Even those who sympathize with his interpretation of Barth’s sociopolitical stance grant that when Marquardt pried into Barth’s politics he was motivated not a little by the socialist students’ challenge to the relevance of the church.

Modern theology is known for its faddish fickleness. One of the contributors to this book laments that “American theologians continue to ignore Barth. His influence, if even acknowledged at all, is viewed with suspicion. At best his thought is accorded only historical interest; one phase in the evolving theology of the modern period.” Marquardt in Germany and now George Hunsinger in America aim to revive his credibility and to move the church leftward in keeping with the spirit of our times. Barth’s famous name, they seem to hope, will help.

Hunsinger, a Ph.D. candidate at Yale in religious studies, has gathered together some essays on Barth’s socialistic concerns. We are given a translation of an address on Jesus Christ and the movement for social justice that Barth delivered in 1911, Marquardt’s 1972 essay, and five response pieces (three by Germans, two by Americans). While Marquardt comes in for some criticism, especially from his Berlin colleague Hermann Diem and from Dieter Schellong of Münster, none of the contributors doubts his basic theme that Barth’s theology was organically related to a socialist praxis. Each, in one way or another, accepts it as given and works to develop it as today’s hope for tomorrow’s church in the world.

One wonders how it was that Barth-as-socialist was not discovered long before liberation theology came into vogue to unsettle the already restless post-death-of-God theologians. These essays suggest that no one was really looking for him. Barth’s social conscience is well known, from his anger at the German intelligentsia’s endorsement of World War I to his opposition to Hitler and rallying of the Confessing Church in the 1930s. But he was strenuously criticized for his refusal to speak out against the Russians during the Cold War. Former friends supposed that he was not so much politically motivated as perhaps emotionally involved in the German crisis. Certainly, they saw no clear connection between his theology and his social thought.

Hunsinger et al. maintain that Barth’s biography must be known if one is to understand just how directly his dogmatics and his social praxis affected each other. It is a fact that in his Safenwil pastorate Barth was a member of the Swiss socialist party, and that he joined the German Social Democrats in 1932. Marquardt and Hunsinger trace his development from old liberal (theologically) to neo-orthodox radical (politically), insisting that his radical doctrine of God inevitably fed his radical outlook on how society might be made more just by means of socialism.

If these writers are right, the interesting question arises: Did Barth’s concept of God and his transforming work in Christ convince him of socialism as a way of life, or did his political leanings give birth to the great volume of new theology for which he has been famous these many years?

Many theologians, to Barth’s left and right alike, might be inclined to wonder what difference it really makes. But those who contributed to this book obviously put a great deal of hope in their rediscovery of Karl Barth’s affinity with the political left. If they have their way, Barth’s influence within and outside the Christian community is far from dead.

Briefly Noted

Fine, vivid poems by a Christian are offered in The Secret Trees, by Luci Shaw (Harold Shaw Publishers, 80 pp., $3.95).

Self-esteem is often thought to be somehow unchristian, but there is nevertheless a command from Jesus to love our neighbors as ourselves. See Loving Ourselves, by Ray Ashford (Fortress, 104 pp., $3.50 pb), The Art of Learning to Love Yourself, by Cecil Osborne (Zondervan, 154 pp., $5.95), and Celebrate Yourself, by Bryan Jay Cannon (Word, 138 pp., $3.95 pb). For a short, colorfully illustrated attack on the vultures of self-put-down, see Vulture by Sidney Simon (Argus, 72 pp., $1.95).

Freedom through forgiveness of oneself and of others is explored in Come Clean, by Charles Keysor (Victor, 155 pp., $1.75 pb), and Start Loving: The Miracle of Forgiveness, by Colleen Townsend Evans (Doubleday, 119 pp., $4.95). Keysor, of Asbury College, uses Psalm 51 as a springboard for discussing confession and total surrender to God as the key to removing guilt. Evans offers an easy personal account of learning how to forgive.

Readings in Third World Missions (294 pp.) and The How and Why of Third World Missions (248 pp.) both by Martin L. Nelson (William Carey, 1977, $6.95 ea., pb), are two excellent source books for the student of current missiological thinking. They follow up a 1973 survey of Third World churches. Case studies and extensive bibliographies are included. The later book draws especially on the author’s Korean experience.

Christian Politics: False Hope or Biblical Demand, edited by James W. Skillen (available from the editor at Gordon College, Wenham, Mass. 01984, 85 pp., $3.95 pb), contains five short, scholarly essays on politics and government, American civil religion, American political parties, and the idea of progress from a Reformed perspective. Thoughtful and challenging.

Pius Wakatama in Independence For the Third World Church (InterVarsity, 118 pp., $2.95 pb) seeks to end the employer-employee relationship between the missionary and national church through a “selective” moratorium that limits American missionaries to those particularly qualified to train nationals for future responsibility. Wakatama also makes a good case for furthering indigenous Christian publishing.

You Must Be Joking, by Michael Green (Tyndale, 220 pp., $1.95 pb), tells how to take the offensive in answering “hard” questions most commonly asked by those who want to avoid commitment to Christ.

Moishe and Ceil Rosen of Jews for Jesus explain how to witness sensitively to Jewish friends with an understanding of their presuppositions in Share the New Life With a Jew (Moody, 80 pp., $1.50 pb).

How to Conduct Backyard Bible Clubs, by Pamela R. Prichard (Moody, 72 pp., $1.50 pb), tells how to supplement more traditional VBS in reaching unchurched children in the neighborhood.

Sharing the Gospel of Christ is the priority of today’s minister and he is constantly searching for ways to expand his outreach. Thousands of missionaries, pastors, and evangelists use the radio to teach and preach. Television, though much more expensive than radio, is being used by others in their attempts to reach people.

One medium, the newspaper, is often ignored by pastors. It can become the means through which a ministry can explode beyond the walls of a church. And the syndicated newspaper column is the way to do it.

Several years ago I tried to find ways to evangelize the person who did not attend church or read religious books and articles. I got copies of newspapers from several states and searched them carefully for the type of material published most often. Religious columns appeared frequently. Sunday School lessons, question-and-answer columns on a number of subjects, and various church-oriented articles were abundant. But one thing was missing—a human interest column with a moral punch-line.

I discussed my interest in writing a column of this type with a local newspaper editor. He said, “I’ll be happy to publish your column if you will dig in and get the material to me each week.” He told me that his experience with some people wanting to write columns was not a happy one. As the newness wore off, and the pressure of meeting a weekly deadline mounted, most aspiring columnists gave up. So, I wrote several samples of a column for his evaluation. We selected the name “Mountain Moments” to try to capture the attention of a large segment of readers.

I keep the column simple. I don’t write on theological subjects nor do I preach. However, the strong overtones let the reader know that there is something deeper here than just the subject discussed. A recent column tells of a trip to Washington, D.C., and an interview with Pat Boone and Charles Colson. Woven into the story is a meeting with Cleavant Derricks, who has written hundreds of gospel songs, and the column closes with the punch-line: “And once again we are reminded that sometimes ‘just a little talk with Jesus makes it right.’”

My name was unknown outside the area where I lived so I bought a copy of “Editor and Publisher” and methodically wrote a personal letter to each newspaper in my home state offering them the column. I then wrote a similar letter to editors in adjoining states. For those outside the mountains the name “Country Clipboard” was used to avoid regional identity. The material, however, is the same. I use human interest stories, incidents from my background, and items of folklore, but each column contains a moral.

When the requests for the column were returned on the postage paid card I had enclosed, I sent a news release, a picture, and four columns to the newspaper. The news release gave personal information and announced that the new column was to be a weekly feature.

Most of the cost of the column is for envelopes (printed with my logo) and paper. I can mail at least two articles at one time and I send them by first class mail. The columns are mimeographed and mailed a month in advance. A copy is dated and filed as part of the permanent record.

At the end of each column a tag identifies me and I frequently request readers to write to me. I have received several hundred letters since the column first appeared. Some simply offer compliments, others request additional information, and a few suggest topics for a future column. Sometimes I use the letters themselves in a column.

“Mountain Moments” and “Country Clipboard” now appear in 192 newspapers in seventeen states each week. I am able to speak to hundreds of thousands of people who may never see me or hear me preach. Through the newspaper I can regularly visit in many homes.

Every pastor has the same opportunity to syndicate a newspaper column. Here are some suggestions.

1.Design a good letterhead. Editors can’t see you in person, so you must invest some thought and money to have a simple, yet attractive letterhead. Don’t forget envelopes, either.

2.Learn how to write a good letter. Address it to a person. Letters addressed to nobody are thrown in file 13. Offer your idea or column in as few words as possible. Never send out form letters.

3.Be sure to enclose a self-addressed stamped envelope or card. If you don’t, you may never see your material again. Editors are swamped with promotional material so make yours easy to return.

4.Begin small. Don’t try to land a large daily. Write for a weekly or a small daily. Get an article with your name on it and send reprints to other editors.

5.Be an expert. Write about something you know. Do research if necessary, but don’t go out on a limb and write about something you’re not sure of.

6.Wait on the Lord. Don’t be impatient. A lack of space will be the most common reason for rejection, especially if the feature is untried. However, one thing leads to another and editors want to publish popular material.

You can be a newspaper columnist. A minister has the most important product in the world to sell, so why not use the newspaper column to share your faith.—K. MAYNARD HEAD. Director of Public Relations, Clear Creek Baptist School, Pineville, Kentucky.