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Some Questions Regarding Theological Education John A. Mackay
Prayer and Certitude Emile Cailliet
Betrayal of the Real Presence Paul L. Lehmann
Volume XLIX • January 1956 • Number 3
BOARD OF TRUSTEES
Peter K. Emmons, D.D., President Richard J. Dearborn, Esq., Vice-President
Benjamin F. Farber, D.D., Secretary George W. Loos, Jr., Treasurer
The Hanover Bank, New York, N.Y., Assistant Treasurer
To April, 1956
Stuart Nye Hutchison, D.D., LL.D.
Pittsburgh, Penna.
Walter L. Whallon, D.D., LL.D.
Newark, N.J.
Ralph Cooper Hutchison, Ph.D., D.D.
Easton, Penna.
John S. Linen, Esq.
West Orange, N.J.
Weir C. Ketler, LL.D. Grove City, Penna.
Henry E. Hird, Esq. Ridgewood, N.J.
Richard J. Dearborn, Esq. Bernardsville, N.J.
Charles T. Leber, D.D.
New York, N.Y.
John M. Templeton, Esq. Englewood, N.J.
George E. Sweazey, Ph.D. New York, N.Y.
Minot C. Morgan, D.D.* Princeton, N.J.
♦Died August 14, 1955
To April, 1957
Peter K. Emmons, D.D. Scranton, Penna.
Wm. Hallock Johnson, Ph.D., D.D.
Princeton, N.J.
Benjamin F. Farber, D.D. New York, N.Y.
Major Henry D. Moore Sherrerd
Haddonfield, N.J.
W. Sherman Skinner, D.D. St. Louis, Mo.
Thomas M. MacMillan, M.D. Philadelphia, Penna.
E. Harris Harbison, Ph.D. Princeton, N.J.
Frank M. S. Shu, Esq. Stamford, Conn.
Eugene Carson Blake, D.D. Philadelphia, Penna.
S. Carson Wasson, D.D. Rye, N.Y.
Harry G. Kuch, Esq. Philadelphia, Penna.
To April, 1958
Albert J. McCartney, D.D., LL.D., L.H.D. Washington, D.C.
Arthur M. Adams, D.D. Rochester, N.Y.
Hugh Ivan Evans, D.D. New York, N.Y.
John G. Buchanan, LL.D. Pittsburgh, Penna.
Wilbur LaRoe, Jr. LL.D. Washington, D.C.
Jasper Elliott Crane, Esq. Wilmington, Del.
Mrs. Charles O. Miller Stamford, Conn.
Raymond I. Lindquist, D.D. Hollywood, Calif.
Allan M. Frew, D.D. Detroit, Mich.
Albert J. Hettinger, Jr., Ph.D.
New York, N.Y.
Frederick E. Christian, D.D. Westfield, N.J.
Faculty Committee on Publications Lefferts A. Loetscher, Chairman
Donald J. Butler Edna Hatfield Hugh T. Kerr
Arlan P. Dohrenburg Orion C. Hopper Donald Macleod
Kenneth S. Gapp Edward J. Jurji Bruce M. Metzger
John A. Mackay
Published Quarterly by the Trustees of the Theological Seminary of the Presbyterian Church. Entered as second class matter May 1, 1907, at the post office at Princeton, N.J., under the Act of Congress of July 16, 1894.
The Princeton Seminary Bulletin
Vol. XLIX JANUARY, 1956 Number 3
Donald Macleod, Editor Edward J. Jurji, Book Review Editor
Some Questions Regarding Theological Education with Special Reference to Princeton Seminary John A. Mackay Prayer and Certitude Emile Cailliet
Betrayal of the Real Presence Paul L. Lehmann
The President’s Page
Princetoniana Lefferts A. Loetscher
Alumni News Orion C. Hopper
Memorial Minute re the late Reverend Minot C. Morgan, D.D.
Book Reviews :
The Book of Jeremiah and Lamentations, by Charles R. Erdman
The Book of Isaiah, by Charles R. Erdman Lexical Aids for Students of New Testament Greek, by Bruce M. Metzger
Annotated Bibliography of Textual Criticism of the New Testament, 1914-1939, by Bruce M. Metzger Christ the Conqueror, by Ragnar Leivestad The Apostle Paul, His Message and Doctrine, by Olaf Moe The Fourth Gospel and Its Message for Today, by W. H. Pigg
A Theological German Vocabulary, by Walter Mosse The Life and Art of Albrecht Durer, by Erwin Panofsky The Old Testament and the Fine Arts, by Cynthia Pearl Maus
Everyday Life in New Testament Times, by Adam C. Bouquet
The Good News, by The American Bible Society The School of St. Matthew and Its Use of the O.T., by K. Stendahl
The Drama of the Book of Revelation, by John Wick Bow- man
Edzvard H. Jones Bryant Kirkland
W in. F. Arndt
Floyd V. Filson Otto A. Piper
Howard T. Kuist
Bruce M. Metzger
Jewish Symbols in the Greco-Roman Period: IV, by E. R. Goodenough
Jesus and the First Three Gospels, by Walter E. Bundy Religious Faith, Language, and Knowledge, by Ben F. Kimpel
Religious Symbolism, by F. Ernest Johnson The Protestant Tradition, by J. S. Whale A History of Worship in the Church of Scotland, by W. D. Maxwell
Christ and the Caesars, by Ethelbert Stauffer The Evanston Report, by W. A. Visser ’t Hooft The Douglass Sunday School Lessons, by Earl Douglass Tarbell’s Teachers’ Guide, ed. Frank S. Mead Essential Books for a Pastor’s Library, Union Seminary, Richmond
Teacher of Teachers, by Ambrose L. Suhrie An Adventure with People, by Ferris E. Reynolds What Is Vital in Religion, by Harry Emerson Fosdick To Whom Shall We Go? by Donald M. Baillie How to Preach to People’s Needs, by Edgar N: Jackson
Daniel J. T her on
Elwyn E. Tilden Emile Cailliet Norman V. Hope
J. Christy Wilson
E. G. Homrighausen D. Campbell Wyckoff
Donald Macleod
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In this Issue
Traditionally the January number of The Princeton Seminary Bulletin has featured the highlights of the First Term of the academic year.
RE*
The first article is an address by President Mackay, which was delivered at the opening of the 144th year of the Seminary’s academic history. Con- scious of the many differences between the responsibilities and witness of the confessional as compared with the non-denominational seminaries, Dr. Mackay clarifies for us the underlying issues and problems as they relate to the life and objectives of our own Seminary.
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On the Students’ Annual Day of Prayer, November 16, a sermon, entitled “Prayer and Certitude,” was given by Dr. Cailliet. This address is somewhat of a postscript to his recent book, The Dawn of Personality. It is a matter of much satisfaction to us that among the one hundred outstanding books of the year, selected by the staff of the New York Times’ Book Review Section , Dr. Cailliet’s book was one of the nine religious titles which were chosen.
At the Service of Holy Communion held on the evening of the Day of Prayer, Dr. Paul Lehmann preached a provocative sermon, entitled “The Betrayal of the Real Presence.” We are happy that he has made the copy of it available to us and to a wider reading congregation.
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Our permanent features, “Princetoniana” and “Alumni News,” have been son prepared by Dr. Lefferts Loetscher and Dr. Orion Hopper.
This issue has a considerable number of book reviews among which we hope there will be something of interest to everyone. The reaction of our readers to the type of books we have reviewed would be appreciated by the Committee on Publications.
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SOME QUESTIONS
REGARDING THEOLOGICAL EDUCATION:
WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO PRINCETON SEMINARY'
John A. Mackay
PRINCETON Theological Seminary enters this evening upon a new aca- demic year, the one hundred forty- fourth in its history.
Campus Light and Shadow
Allow me, first of all, to extend some words of welcome. It is fitting that I should welcome officially at this time i the new Dean of the Seminary, Dr. El- mer G. Homrighausen, who presides at this gathering. He has just returned from a sabbatical leave in East Asia where his ministrations made a pro- found impression upon the churches in many lands. For nearly eighteen years now Dr. Homrighausen has been a dear friend and loyal colleague, and we all rejoice that he has come into this influential position in our Seminary life. I wish also to recognize Dr. J. Christy Wilson who, as Dean of Field Service, begins this academic year with a new title for an old task.
I would extend at the same time a most hearty welcome to our distin- guished guest professor from abroad, Dr. C. E. Abraham, the Principal of Serampore College, India. For the first term of the present school year, Prin- cipal Abraham will teach two courses
1 Address delivered by President John A. Mackay at the opening of the Seminary year, September 27, 1955.
as a member of our Faculty. It is thrill- ing to think that he is the first Indian Principal, or President, of the only pri- vate institution of higher learning in India which has a charter to grant de- grees. Serampore College, now Se- rampore University, is the institution founded by the famous William Carey.
Dr. Clarke, our new professor of Homiletics, has been with us for some time. I take the occasion, however, at the opening of a new academic year, to give him and Mrs. Clarke their first official welcome to our midst. May I also greet two other Faculty members just returned from their sabbatical leave? I mean Dr. Kerr and Dr. Leh- mann. I feel I should also welcome, not from sabbatical leave it is true, but, from an annual long journey, Dr. Jones and his Choir of Princeton trouba- dours. All sorts of echoes have come to me of their tour. Once again they have made by their singing a contri- bution of incalculable importance to Christ’s Church and the Christian cause in this country.
In the name of my colleagues of the Faculty and Administration, let me now welcome all students, old and new, very especially those of you who are here for the first time, and you are many. A large number of you come from abroad. I trust you will discover
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THE PRINCETON SEMINARY BULLETIN
in our midst the warmth of a true Princetonian welcome. As regards those of you who do not happen to belong to the Presbyterian Church, U.S.A., you are as welcome as your fellow students who are members of the denomination to which this institution belongs. You will find, I hope, that we try to make this place an expression of the reality of being “in Christ,” where we are all one in Him, as members of His Body, the Church, whatever be our country of origin, or the denomination to which we belong. Lastly, let me welcome the residents in Payne Hall. Some of you are missionaries, or fraternal workers, from this country, some are Christian nationals of other lands. Bring us some spiritual gift as those who have preceded you have done. Welcome, one and all, and bear in mind that all that we have is yours.
And yet, I cannot but give expres- sion to a note of sadness. Miss Edna Hatfield, the much-loved Registrar of Princeton Seminary, has been ill and continues in hospital, although I am happy to learn that there is a likelihood that she will be with us in a short time. This, I believe, is the first Seminary opening Miss Hatfield has missed in forty years.
But the deepest note of sadness is that one of our new students, Richard Armstrong, who has come to Seminary after a brief but brilliant career in the baseball world, has lost a little boy, five years of age, who for years had been progressively dying with leukemia. Our heartfelt sympathy goes out to Richard and his young wife. Their Christian spirit has been a deep inspira- tion to me personally, as it has been to many others. I learned just an hour ago that the little lad has passed beyond.
I come now to the subject of my ad- dress this evening. Let me preface my words, by saying that I have just been through a very unusual experience. What I have tried to say on each open- ing session of a new school year has been inspired for the most part by re- flections or experiences of the preced- ing summer. Until yesterday morning, it appeared that the talk on this occa- sion would be true to type. For the past month, as I journeyed through several European lands, and on the voyage from Naples to New York, my mind was absorbed in the theme, “Glimpses of Shame and Splendor in the Chris- tianity of Today.” Upon that theme I proposed to speak this evening. But in the early hours of yesterday, as I sped on a Pennsylvania express through In- diana to Chicago, where I gave an ad- dress last night under the auspices of the Board of Foreign Missions, I felt very strongly, just as consciousness re- turned, that I should speak upon an- other theme. This I now purpose to do, taking all the risks of doing so. The decision has made me particularly de- pendent upon God’s grace and the in- dulgence of my audience. It seemed to me, however, that I ought to speak on this subject: “Some questions regard- ing theological education, with special reference to Princeton Seminary.”
It is true, of course, that while I de- cided only yesterday to deal with this theme, the thoughts and reflections to which I will give expression have been coming to the birth, or crystallizing in my mind, over a long period. In these days when so much is being thought and written about theological educa- tion, I venture to believe that the Holy Spirit has guided me towards this par-
THE PRINCETON SEMINARY BULLETIN
5
ticular topic. In that faith I will now proceed to open up the matter.
I
The first question regarding theo- logical education which seems to me to be important is the question of institu- tional relationships.
To what, or to whom, does an in- stitution which educates theologically belong? Does it function under the auspices of an independent corporation ? If it does, its principal type is Union ; Seminary in New York. Does it func- tion under the control of an interde- nominational Board? If so, we think immediately of some of the great Union seminaries of the world, the seminaries in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and in Matanzas, Cuba, for example, or those in Manila, in the Philippine Islands, and in Tokyo, Japan. Or, are we think- ing of a seminary governed by the rep- resentatives of a single denomination? In that case, we have Mt. Airy Luther- an Seminary in Philadelphia, or Gen- eral Seminary in New York City, which ecclesiastically is Episcopalian. Or does the institution which teaches theology function, perchance, as a faculty organi- cally related to a great university? If it does, then good examples of that type are the Yale Divinity School and the Harvard Divinity School.
What is the institutional relationship of Princeton Theological Seminary? This institution belongs to one of the great traditional denominations of this country whose ecclesiastical title is the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America. Belonging to this de- nomination, Princeton Seminary comes in that great confessional tradition which is commonly called Reformed. Affiliated with this tradition there are
some forty millions of Christian men and women today. It can be said of the Reformed tradition that it is natively ecumenical ; that is to say, it emphasizes in its confessional standards the Com- munion of Saints. It lays it upon the heart and conscience of all Christians in Presbyterian and Reformed Churches to put Christ’s Church Universal above every secondary interest or loyalty. It is important to bear in mind that, while this Seminary belongs to a great de- nomination in the Reformed tradition, its policies are not controlled directly by the ecclesiastical body to which it is ultimately responsible. It functions un- der the direction of a Board of Trustees which is self-perpetuating, whose mem- bers are elected subject to the approval of the Church’s General Assembly. In this way, however, Princeton Seminary is not at the mercy of current ecclesiasti- cal whims, but enjoys real autonomy within the terms of its own charter, as approved by the General Assembly.
When we review the nearly one cen- tury and a half of our Seminary’s his- tory, we discover that, while it proudly stands in the Reformed tradition, and belongs to a particular denomination, its tradition, spirit and loyalty have been ecumenical from the beginning. Many churchmen belonging to other denomi- nations have been educated here. The late Bishop Matthews of the Episcopal diocese of New Jersey was a graduate of this institution. The present Dean of the Divinity School of Duke University, a Methodist, is another. So, too, is the Dean of Goshen College, a Mennonite institution. The great Kierkegaardian scholar, Walter Lowrie, a fellow Prince- tonian, and a member of the Episcopal Church, graduated from this Seminary in 1893. And so I might go on, re-
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counting similar cases, across this na- tion and around the world. Not only today, but throughout our long institu- tional history, we have welcomed to this campus for study the representa- tives of other denominations ; and never more so than today. I venture to say that, in one respect, we are unique among all the great front-line semi- naries in the world. While belonging to, and being rooted in, one of the great Christian confessions, we have more denominations represented on this cam- pus than any confessional seminary in the world. Last year, the first Coptic Monk ever to take graduate study in the western world was one of us on this campus, and a beloved figure he was. A few days ago I received a let- ter from Father Makary, pouring out his heart in gratitude for what this place had meant to him. I might reciprocate, as I will, and say to him, “Princeton Seminary has owed much to your radi- ant presence in our midst.” And what shall I say about many other churches, the ancient Syrian churches of India, for example, and the recently formed Church of South India, all of which are represented in our student body this year? It is thrilling indeed to feel that while Princeton Seminary is re- lated to one of the great Protestant traditions, we strive on this campus to create ecumenical reality, glorying in the fact that we are all one in Christ Jesus.
This raises an important question. Which type of seminary of those I have mentioned is most relevant to the con- temporary situation, and very especially to the ecumenical situation today ? Is it the church-related seminary, or is it the non-denominational seminary which in many instances is part of a university
structure? I am fully aware that the sentiment exists in some influential cir- cles that the future, as regards theo- logical education, is with the non-de- nominational seminary which is aca- demically related to some university. I venture to differ from this view. I do so, moreover, not through any lack of in- terest in the ecumenical movement, to which I am deeply committed. But I am bound to take cognizance of the fact, and not in any spirit of sectarian exulta- tion, that there exists today a confes- sional resurgence. A rebirth of confes- sional interest, a kind of neo-confession- alism, something quite different from sectarianism, is a creative fact of our time. There is a reborn desire on the part of many Christians to understand their own religious heritage, not in or- der to idolize it or to absolutize it, but to draw from it what it may have of authentic and unique Christian worth, and to make this the contribution of their denomination or confession to Christ’s Church Universal.
Non-denominational seminaries have their own particular contribution to make. On the other hand, they have a very real problem to confront when it comes to transcending the purely denom- inational. It frequently happens in in- stitutions, non-denominational in char- acter, as some close friends of mine who are responsible for the direction of such institutions inform me, that their greatest problem is how to create on the campus the experience of ecu- menical oneness, as distinguished from ecumenical sectarianism. The reason is simple. Those who belong to different denominations tend to become aware of their separate identity within the academic whole. Why is it so? The answer would appear to be this. When
THE PRINCETON SEMINARY BULLETIN
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it is impossible to create the concrete reality of the Church in a theological institution through its lack of rootage in any given tradition, there arises in the student constituency an acute con- sciousness of sectarian separateness, even within a non-confessional atmos- phere. Because students do not find the Church, they become acutely aware of the churches. While I believe that non- confessional seminaries have their place, and an important place, I am commit- ted to the proposition that, in this ecumenical era, and given the fact of resurgent confessionalism, the confes- sional seminary which is ecumenically minded, where confessional boundaries are transcended, has the greatest con- tribution to make in our time to the cause of Christian unity. Why? For the simple reason that you cannot belong to the Christian Church in general, any more than you can belong to the hu- mankind in general, or be an American in general. You become an American through belonging to a locality, a com- munity, a state. And to be truly human, one must pass through all those hu- manizing influences of the home as well as of the community, with its traditions, its folk lore, and its culture in general. A person who says, “I am just a hu- man being,” or “I am just an Ameri- can,” is a pure monstrosity. As things are, we become Christian in a series of Christian relationships through which we grow up into Christ. The truth is, and there is New Testament sanction for the idea, that it requires the con- tribution of many groups and experi- ences to express the fullness that is in Christ. On this campus we strive, and to some degree have succeeded, to cre- ate a sense of belonging locally to the one Church of Jesus Christ. A student
may not be a Presbyterian, nor belong to the Church under whose auspices this Seminary functions ; yet, through his participation in the life of this cam- pus community, and partaking of the Holy Communion as administered by one of the great Christian confessions, he feels himself related concretely to the Church of Jesus Christ.
We in this Seminary have also an- other advantage. We are in the happy position of enjoying close academic re- lations with a great university, even while we are not an organic part of its structure. Between Princeton Univer- sity and Princeton Theological Semi- nary the finest relations exist, both in the sphere of personal and academic relations. The University’s decision to expand the program of its Department of Religious Studies into the graduate realm opens up the way for fruitful co- operation between that Department and the Seminary. Meetings have already taken place to work out a basis for ef- fective partnership. Thus, in God’s providence, we shall have all the ad- vantages of a university connection without any of the disadvantages. We shall remain free to function in our own way and reap at the same time the benefits of an academic relationship with a great sister institution. We shall also be able to make our own positive contribution to the -work carried on by the University’s Department of Re- ligion.
It will be said, however, that any seminary which is church-related is bound to be sectarian. That I deny with all my soul. An institution can be confessionally-related and be, neverthe- less, ecumenically minded. The paradox is strange but true. Speaking personally, I can say unashamedly that I never felt
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THE PRINCETON SEMINARY BULLETIN
myself to be more Presbyterian than today; I can say on the other hand that I never felt myself to be less Pres- byterian than today. And both are true, the Yes and the No. A dialectical situa- tion, if you like, but, for some of us, real and inevitable ! The situation is this. The crucial ecumenical problem of our time is to get the great denomina- tions, or confessions, to establish true rapport and unity in Christ, not merely in ecumenical conventions, but in local communities and in individual institu- tions. Let the future leaders of the Church get the feel of confessional real- ity in an ecumenical atmosphere. The rest can be left to God. I am myself committed to the proposition that the Holy Spirit has not yet exhausted forms of church organization. The Spir- it of God will eventually create an ap- propriate pattern of organization to in- tegrate the confessions. But that pattern will not be a super-church. Happily, the World Council of Churches has dis- avowed any intention of becoming a super-church. The Council does not propose to Romanize Protestantism or non-Roman Christianity in general. True unity, or, if you like the word better, true ecumenicity, does not re- quire “a single unified Church struc- ture” to give it expression. The prob- lem remains, however; how shall con- fessional churches be related creatively to the ecumenical movement? In the so- lution of this problem, institutions which belong to one particular church, but which are nevertheless committed to the Church Universal, which is greater than any denominational expression, have a decisive role to play.
II
My second question concerns voca- tional commitment.
I have spoken about this Seminary community as the “mother of us all,” our Alma Mater, as it will become. But who are we? We are people who are vocationally committed. Committed to what? To God, of course. Otherwise, why should we be here ? What meaning could being here have for any of us, teachers or students, unless we were committed to God, unless we felt we belonged to Him as “Christ’s men and women” ? Do not misunderstand me. I am well aware that some students come to Seminary without this commit- ment having been made. Some, also, have made their commitment on this campus to which they came in wistful quest. Until they found themselves and really knew who they were, their posi- tion was in a sense illogical. Let there be no mistake about this. Christian voca- tion, especially the Christian ministry, has no meaning whatever for uncom- mitted people, or for people who are merely theists, or who have no more than a general religious interest.
There is today, in a great English university, the University of Reading, a very remarkable teacher, Professor H. A. Hodges. He is, in my judgment, the most original thinker in contemporary British philosophy. When Hodges was a young agnostic tutor in Balliol Col- lege, Oxford, he passed through a pro- found experience of conversion. He has recently written a book entitled, “Chris- tianity and the Modern World View.” Let me read one or two striking sen- tences on what he calls the “Abrahamic presupposition.” “I shall contend,” he says, “that Christian thinking proceeds
THE PRINCETON SEMINARY BULLETIN
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on a presupposition of its own which I shall call the Abrahamic presupposition, or Abrahamic theism. For the New Tes- tament insists over and over again that Abraham is the model for Jew and Christian alike and that the true Chris- tian is the spiritual child of Abraham ; that is, one whose relation to God is the same as Abraham’s was. Abraham is the story of a man who has commit- ted himself unconditionally into the hands of God, a man who does what God asks of him without hesitation, however paradoxical or self-contradic- tory it may seem, and who accepts God’s promises, however mysterious and incredible they may appear. It is by virtue of this unconditional self- commitment to God that he has won the title of ‘the friend of God.’ But such an attitude evidently presupposes a great deal; it presupposes that merely the existence of God, about which the philosophers have debated so lengthily is not enough, but that God is of a cer- tain character. It presupposes that God has complete control of the world, and the course of events in it, that he ex- ercises this control in a way which is purposeful, that human beings have a place in his design and that he com- municates with them in ways which they can legitimately understand as commands and promises, and by which their lives can be guided. This is the presupposition of Jewish and Christian thinking which I call Abrahamic the- ism ; to work it out in detail, showing how it applies in actual life and thought is the business of theology.”
The Abrahamic presupposition is a basic acceptance of the God of Abraham who is also the “God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.” This means commitment to a God who revealed
Himself in a People and in a Person, a commitment which leads to the calm affirmation : “This God is my God for- ever and ever.” Let me repeat it, lov- ingly but emphatically : There can be no genuine choice of the Christian min- istry as a vocation that does not pre- suppose a commitment of the Abra- hamic kind. This does not mean that we all pass through the same kind of dramatic experience. Let us never for- get that there have been Christians, and great Christians at that, who could not tell the hour, day, or even the year, when they began to love God. The time or circumstances of commitment to God is not the real question. Let me speak in quite personal terms. The question for me as a Christian is whether I, a teacher and administrator in this insti- tution, am today committed uncondi- tionally, not to a great Unknown but to Abraham’s God, to the God of Jesus Christ, the God who came into my life, who made life new for me and who continues to make it a constant adven- ture into the unknown.
The question of personal commit- ment to God is followed by the question of vocational commitment to one’s life work under God. This means commit- ment to the full-time service of God, whether to be a preacher and pastor, a chaplain or a missionary, or to teach in church school, college, or seminary. There are always some in seminary who are not sure of their vocation, of their call to the ministry. Let us look hon- estly at this question. For some of us here, while there is no question about our commitment to God, we are, never- theless, not sure that God wants us to give our whole time to His service. That is the real question, and many doubts may arise in seminary regarding
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it. At this point we have got to be mu- tually helpful to one another. A special Rockefeller Fund now makes it possible for Christian young men and women of outstanding caliber to spend a year in seminary in order to find out whether they feel called to full-time service as Christ’s ministers. Some of those Rocke- feller Fellows are in this chapel. We welcome them and also others like them who want to be quite sure that they are called to the ministry. They are here to find out whether God really wants them to be full-time servants of the Christian Church. Such indecision is not unreasonable. Some of the greatest tasks to be performed today are being performed, and must be performed, by lay men and lay women. And yet there is an unprecedented challenge for the full-time service of Christ. May one not hope that before graduation day comes the question of vocation may become clear and commitment become real for some of you for whom it is still obscure. May every one of us say even- tually, “Here am I.”
And may I add this: Never try to blueprint your life; never say, “I'll do this and nothing else.” Be willing to gamble your life with God in a great adventure. Accept the challenge of the ministry in humble trust that the God of Abraham and of Jesus Christ has a place for each of you. If you but trust Him, He will put you in the place of His choice, whether to minister as an urban or rural pastor, or as a chaplain on a college campus, or with the Armed Forces, or in industry. Some of you he will make teachers in seminaries and in colleges, and ministers of education. The vocation of others will be that of frontiersmen who will go into mis- sionary service at home or abroad, or
whose task it will be to grapple with frontier problems in thought or in life. In every instance, leave yourselves in God’s hands. If personal experience has an authentic note to sound this evening, it is this : The important thing in life is to prepare oneself to the utmost along the lines of one’s capacity, taking full advantage of every opportunity that presents itself. As regards the exact na- ture and sphere of your particular work, leave that with God. Many of Christ’s greatest servants are today en- gaged in types of service they never thought they would have to undertake. What happened ? A voice seemed to speak to them, or a need presented it- self before them, or a path opened up in front of them, and in humble trust they responded ; and they found them- selves in the end where God wanted them to be. If faith in God, if the Abrahamic prespposition means any- thing, it means this ; that God will guide aright the soul that trusts Him.
Ill
I come now to a further important question : the question regarding our educational goal as a seminary.
Institutionally speaking, we have a task which is both theological and voca- tional. We are interested in a structure of truth as well as in a system of train- ing. Being a confessional seminary, we start from a definite position. We take the Bible seriously. We believe that the Bible is, in its deepest essence, a Book about Jesus Christ, that Christ is the core of its message, and the clue to its meaning. We are unashamedly Christo- centric in this Seminary. We believe that true theology is Christ-centered theology. We believe also that theology which is relevant to human need, as well
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as loyal to divine truth, must be both dy- namic and prophetic.
In these last years, Princeton Semi- nary has played an important part in the theological situation. We set ourselves to rehabilitate theology at a time when religion and ethics tended to be dis- cussed with very slight regard to a doc- trinal basis. Nineteen years ago the in- augural address of the new President was on the theme, “The Restoration of Theology.” A few years later we found- ed the summer Institute of Theology to take the place of the old Pastors’ Conference. Subsequently to that, The- ology Today came into being, a quar- terly review which circulates more widely and is more influential than any theological journal in the world today. We set out to look at “the life of man in the light of God,” and we have rea- son to thank God for what has been ac- complished. In this connection, it is im- portant to emphasize that, quite apart from the vocational training which it provides, this institution is interested in making the truth of God’s revelation relevant to every situation in thought and in life. The cultural problem, the social problem, the political problem — in a word, the human problem in its en- tirety and its complexity — is our con- cern. Upon every phase and facet of man’s mortal life, we want the truth of God to shine. But besides and beyond that, we desire, God helping us, to pro- vide the best possible training of a pro- fessional kind for future “servants of the Word.”
IV
The final question with which I wish to deal concerns the corporate life ir Princeton Seminary.
We are blessed by having a campus,
as do most theological seminaries in this country. Students from continental Europe, the seat of Western culture, will appreciate what I am saying. Be- cause we live, most of us, in a campus situation, it is our privilege to enjoy the reality of community life in a way which is denied to theological students and teachers in many parts of the world. The typical American campus offers something even richer than what is found traditionally in the great English universities of Oxford and Cambridge. One rejoices at the same time that unique features in the life and organi- zation of these universities are being incorporated increasingly and creatively into campus life in this country.
It is the cherished ideal of those of us who have already been part of this campus community to give expression to what it means to belong to one an- other because we all belong to Christ. If belonging to Christ is real, we be- come willing captives of His will. The kind of freedom which has meaning in our lives is the freedom which flows from being Christ’s servants and friends. We are not free to do any- thing that is unworthy of Him or of one another, nor yet of the Christian name, the reputation of this institution, or the Christian ministry. The fron- tiers of our freedom are established by Christ. Some of us are teachers, others of us are students. We are free to be- come all that is implicit in our commit- ment whether we teach or are taught. As teachers, let us fulfill our vocation by being true teachers, honest in our work, diligent in our research, thought- ful in our concern for those who learn through us. If we are students, let us take our calling seriously, mapping out our time in such a way that first things
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shall always be first. Let us, one and all, be considerate of one another and rev- erent towards those things that belong by common consent to the structure of our common life. Let us recognize, in a word, that seminary life would be mean- ingless unless it were marked by hon- esty, by friendliness, and by a maxi- mum devotion to academic toil.
On this note of concern, let me bring to an end the several questions I have raised. Colleagues of the faculty, mem- bers of the student body, let us live to- gether as Christians should, as teachers and learners should, as husbands and wives should, whether we be Presby- terians or belong to other Christian communions, whether we be Americans or come from beyond the land or ocean boundaries of this nation. Let us learn from one another, let us talk to one an- other, let us pray with one another. Above all, let us not put labels on one another. Let us constitute here a true fellowship of the Spirit, the kind of fel- lowship which the Holy Spirit alone can create.
That we may know authoritatively
what that fellowship signifies, I will conclude with some words of St. Paul. In the second chapter of his great Let- ter to the Philippians (2:17), Christ’s greatest follower offers us a pattern for our common life. Listen to what he says from his Roman prison: “If there is any encouragement in Christ, any in- centive of love, any participation in the Spirit,” (or as some render it, “If the fellowship created by the Spirit is a reality,”) “any affection and sym- pathy, complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. Do noth- ing from selfishness or conceit, but in humility count others better than your- selves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. Have this mind among yourselves, which you have in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.”
May God make us worthy of our heritage, our task, and of one another.
L. P. Stone Lectures, April 9-12, 1956
“A Theological Restudy of the Canon”
1. The Canon in Current Biblical Study
2. The Old Testament as Christian Scripture
3. The Protestant View of the Apocrypha
4. The Basic Role of the Apostolic Witness
5. The Relation of Tradition to Scripture
Lecturer: Dean Floyd V. Filson
McCormick Theological Seminary
PRAYER AND CERTITUDE
Emile Cailliet
JUST as life implies breathing and breathing life, prayer implies certi- tude and certitude, prayer. It is not only that prayer is conditioned by certi- tude, but certitude naturally issues in prayer. Look at it as we may, when the life of prayer is on the wane, the im- plication is that our certitude has de- teriorated. So we believe, so we pray — or no longer pray as we used to. Noth- ing therefore could be more pertinent at this opening moment of our Day of Prayer than a serious check on the ac- tual state of our basic Christian certi- tude.
We shall be guided in our thinking by the axiomatic statement of the 6th verse of the nth chapter of Hebrews, that great chapter on faith : “He that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.” Not that we mean to ex- haust in these brief moments the whole substance that a thorough exegesis of the text could yield in so rich a context. Our aim this morning is eminently prac- tical. It may even be that we should think in terms of first aid if our situa- tion turns out to be what I am afraid it is. This nature of our need must fur- ther dictate our method, our immediate context being essentially that of the need at hand.
To that context then, let us now turn.
I
Practically everyone in this sanctu- ary remembers the fullness of spirit that hallowed his personal decision to come to this seminary. In many a case,
for example, that decision followed upon a blessed season of retreat at a summer Bible camp or in similar cir- cumstances when an overwhelming awareness of the living God was forced upon him. The grasp of a mighty hand was felt. A decisive word was heard. A profound, total certitude made us truly his with “joy, joy, tears of joy.” At that moment at least, then for a season, we knew “the evidence of things not seen,” we tasted in all its sweetness “the sub- stance of things hoped for.” Prayer gushed forth freely, not as an expres- sion of duty, not as a scheduled exercise in faith, but irresistible as faith itself which is the prayer of the believing heart. The need to worship had come into its own within us as the primary need of man it truly is — to wit the rec- ord of the temptation of our Lord.
Then something, or maybe many things happened. A course in theologi- cal studies was prescribed. The rele- vance of this or that discipline escaped us. Mysteries seemed to degenerate in- to problems, ultimately scientific prob- lems on which Protestant scholars were at work side by side with Roman Catho- lics, Jews, and men who did not profess any form of religion whatsoever. What a confusion of tongues this was for us, what a “free for all” ! We sensed at times something sacrilegious about it.
This distressing situation could not but be reflected to some degree on the seminary campus. Candid men upset in their faith would occasionally react in a mood of “quiet desperation.” Discus- sion became highly emotional and as a
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result was cut short. Christian love lost ground as arguments were polished up in a corner — like so many guns. Exclu- sive theological creeds were all the more loudly proclaimed as a radical uncer- tainty actually inspired their dogma- tism. No man argues more loudly than the frustrated believer who increasingly experiences hell within. And while all this was going on the springs of prayer had been drying up. I need not labor the point and follow to the bitter end a story which in varying degrees is not far from being the story of Everyman. Neither do I mean to imply that some of the ex- tremes just pointed out were the rule. In actual practice they rather turned out to be the exception. It is just that the overall picture should be kept within view at this time. It sadly illustrates the truth that as certitude goes, so goes prayer.
Our question then is : “Must our cer- titude be conditioned at every step by the fluctuations of research work? Should a minister, for example, wait for the latest weather report on the historical scene to know what he may proclaim in his next sermon or say by way of thanksgiving in his opening prayer? Is it, or is it not possible for a man to practice free inquiry and free discussion in the realm of biblical schol- arship without destroying his soul in the process? An age-old question this, yet never so pressing as it has become in our day and age. It strikes at the very heart of a man’s prayer life.
II
Such, as I see it, is the immediate context of our concern as we now turn to Hebrews n :6 for first aid. As we do so we are immediately impressed with the fact that the portion under con-
sideration refers to certitude, to a God- given certitude in a climate of per- fect security for the believer : “He that cometh to God (here, in prayer) must believe that he is, and that he is a re- warder of them that diligently seek him.” We find here at least three basic propositions. Let us consider them one by one.
First, believe that God is. The whole of our prayer life is grounded in the biblical axiom of the reality of God in a genuinely biblical context, the im- plication being that mortal man need never go around this Axiom of all axi- oms— whether in terms of metaphysics, mysticism or religious experience. Any such procedure would turn this funda- mental certitude into some great Per- haps type of religious view. The whole point is precisely that this certitude is the very anchor of our life. To hold on to it must be our initial step if we mean to go any further in our approach to God. This is why the Nicene creed be- gins with the assertion “I believe in one God.”
The second proposition proceeds to single out for emphasis this one at- tribute of God : he is “a rewarder.” There is here no suggestion of merce- nary service for the sake of what you and I may expect to get out of it. Rather the implication is that of a personal God who cares, a most precious impli- cation for us on this Day of Prayer. Here once more, how foolish to retreat from such a blessed assurance into a maze of ontology, esoteric mysticism, or religious experience in general ! I remember one occasion when a learned preacher opened his prayer with a far- fetched apostrophe aimed at some cos- mic nowhere. My neighbor on the bench, a godly pastor of souls whose
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name I shall not disclose because you know him so well, could not help but exhort the preacher in a murmur : “Call him ‘Father’ and ask him for some- thing !” Again we may rest assured that our friend was not thinking of that “something” in terms of immediate profit. His emphasis was on the candor of the asking. Indeed the reason our God is eminently the God of prayer is that he is the personal God who cares — a rewarder.
Yet our text hastens to qualify that word “rewarder” with this third propo- sition : God is a rewarder “of them that diligently seek him.” We like to em- phasize the fact that the Bible is essen- tially the great saga of God’s search for man, and this point is well taken. We would not be seeking God had he not already found us. Each and every act of providence originates in his prior purpose. Yet there always lurks within us the danger of isolating certain fea- tures from what the Bible as a whole teaches. Paul, let us remember, saw no conflict between God’s working his own pleasure in man, and that same man working out his own salvation. And so it is that Hebrews 11:6 urges upon us the duty of seeking the great Seeker. God is ultimately known through God, but he is also known by man who is neither a robot nor a clod of earth. He is known in the context of a universe which continues to depend upon him, the Creator, for its existence. While this world’s sequences are established by him, involvement in them remains a man’s responsibility. It is a sad truth that the mark may be missed by this or that man through his own fault, if not through his deliberate rebellion. Hence the further emphasis on the word “dili- gently” in the phrase, “a rewarder of
them that diligently seek him.” To seek diligently is to seek with a steady, ear- nest, persevering attention, as one who highly esteems the object of his quest. This definition is not far from charac- terizing prayer itself. This is why those who know single out prayer as the most demanding activity of man. It is further so because a man’s genuine quest for God is never isolated from the rest of this man’s activity. It becomes as it were the line of force of his whole life and conversation. Indeed our original certitude of men who know in whom they have believed should dominate and orient every single assent we give or choose to withhold. Yet in actual prac- tice we seem too readily inclined to do just the opposite.
Ill
We have by now come closer to a diagnosis of our trouble. It appears that the reason we suffer our certitude to falter and by the same token our prayer life to deteriorate, is that we allow the fluctuations of human knowledge to condition the certitude of a God-given faith which is the prior fact. In other words, we readily mistake assent for certitude and certitude for assent. It is therefore of vital importance that we should distinguish between the two be- fore we attempt to see how they are re- lated.
First then, as to the distinction. No one, to my knowledge, has better brought it out than Newman in his Essay in Aid of a Grammar of Assent. There he has drawn a dividing line between “assent” which may and does change, and “certitude,” which endures. Such certitude, as he saw it, is essential to the life and destiny of man.
In the context of Newman’s distinc-
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tion, then, let us first realize that as- sent, or the withholding of assent, per- tains essentially to the realm of scholar- ship. In that realm the accepted cri- terion of truth is general agreement among the qualified authorities in the field, whatever their personal feelings may be on the issue under considera- tion. Provided you are not afraid of long words you may characterize the outcome as depersonalization through socialization of thinking. Yet every- body’s truth is in effect the truth of nobody, nay, not even God’s truth. A group of specialists now becomes the measure of all things, at least for the time being. Fresh information being brought forth, the next generation of scholars will revise today’s pronounce- ments. The fact is our learned body finds in this likelihood its greatest source of gratification. Nothing can please a scientist more than the detec- tion of an area of experimentation and critical study likely to prove fruitful of further experimentation and critical study. In his Terry Lectures at Yale University, On Understanding Science, as well as in subsequent writings, James B. Conant has in effect singled out this state of affairs as the most characteris- tic aspect of genuine research.
The main trouble with this situation, however, is that what is tolerable in the scientific realm in general, may, and actually does prove unbearable in that realm where the ultimate destiny of a plain man is at stake. Let our scientist recover his humanity simply by being involved in an automobile accident for example, and he will find out for him- self. Why, his detached speculation and occasional findings may well have lit- tle, if anything to do with the deeper reality of the things that are. He who is
satisfied to exist in the long shadow of Kant has long been resigned to having a ceiling placed above his thinking. Yet even going to the Ethical Society to church will prove of little help to him at the hour of personal need under God’s high heaven. Either God is or is not ; either he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him or he is not — an inescapable alternative even for a scientist in his human capacity or, should we say, especially for him be- cause he has received much and from him much may be demanded. If he turns out to be as responsible a man as a scholar he should ponder the state- ment of a poet and thinker whom no one would accuse of anti-intellectual- ism, Walt Whitman, to the effect that it is ultimately native personality, and that alone (“not culture or knowledge of intellect whatever”) that endows a man to stand in life. Yet we know, do we not, that only a reborn native per- sonality will meet the test. And this is another way of saying that “the just shall live by faith,” proceed from the certitude of faith.
No wonder a frigid academic tran- ; quility at the service of a never-ending inquiry may at times be apprehended as incongruous by a student who is losing his grip on faith. Admittedly such a man can hardly be cheered by that sad, professorial mirth of relaxed gravity which triumphs in a climax of bright-eyed criticism. Far be it from me to disparage scholarship in general and strict logic in particular. The fact is that both can go a long way to re- lieve and help along a man’s dedicated will, once the certitude of faith has di-l lv rected him to the right path. To sayj |f that assent and certitude are different sit
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is far from implying that they are mu- tually exclusive.
Having therefore distinguished be- tween the certitude of faith and deper- sonalized, socialized assent in the realm of scholarship, let us now try to detect their true relationship. One way of do- ing it with special reference to our sub- ject, is to discover why certitude and assent are so easily confused in the first place. When our text states un- equivocally that God is and is a re- warder of them that diligently seek him, there is no doubt in our mind as to the identity of this God. Why, he identified himself to Moses (Exodus 3:14) as | “he who is” — the same God that spoke to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. To us of course he is more especially the God 1 who was in Jesus Christ. What we are saying is that faith in this God belongs in the roaring loom of that particular history which unfolds in the Bible. We believe in God, in this God, because of what he has said and done from time immemorial. As a result our faith in him would seem to rest upon history and this is obviously a serious situation. It is the Gordian knot of our difficulties. But then we should make sure of what the word “history” actually implies.
The misleading element in our situa- tion is that we too readily take “history” to mean — which it obviously cannot — a purely objective record of happenings viewed in their totality. The closest ap- proximation to this I know, would be a tape recording or better, cinemascope type of presentation. Yet, and let this be said reverently, could it have been at all possible to have such a record of the actual life of Jesus, what would it avail the naturalistically-minded unbe- liever ? He would be likely to shrug his shoulders at “the nonsense of it all.”
The testimony of the Bible concerning whatever is most profound, most seri- ous, and most true, is that the normal result of the action of the Word of God is to provoke man to contradiction, and move him to disobedience. Down to this day the Word of God has remained the great divider of men. Out of a group of equally able scholars who had restored the scene of the Cruci- fixion through the same tested methods of investigation, some would take their stand beside the repentant thief and hear in a hallowed moment from lips divine the message of salvation ; others would somehow find themselves on the side of the other thief who did not re- pent, and say to Jesus in their own way: “If thou be Christ, save thyself and us,” because their naturalism would call for objective tests. And so we still stand, all of us, on the place which is called The Skull, as poised upon a dizzying mountain divide. On one side, a world seemingly bereft of God ; on the other, a God-bathed perspective only beheld by those who know that God is, and “is a rewarder of them that dili- gently seek him.” And yet this is all around the same world of Creation viewed from the very point where the Savior’s blood was shed for its redemp- tion. What is constantly “repeated” here, as Kierkegaard would say, is the Drama of all dramas of history — there- fore our own drama also.
In their now classic book The Riddle of the New Testament (how revealing a title this is) Sir Edwyn Hoskyns and Francis Noel Davey feel finally con- strained to admit that even the resur- rection of Jesus Christ is, and I quote, “meaningless and ultimately trivial apart from the belief in the power of the living God and in the ultimate truth
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of what Jesus said and did. It is also meaningless apart from the recognition that a particular historical life and death can have universal and ultimate signifi- cance.” May I suggest that we bracket the preceding “apart from” clauses and sum up their message? What does it amount to? Namely to this : The resur- rection as well as the sum total of his- torical knowledge to which scholars may give assent with reference to Jesus, is meaningless apart from the certitude that a tremendous Act of God was tak- ing place in and through this same Je- sus ; in other words, apart from the be- lief that the God who was in Christ is, and “is a rewarder of them that dili- gently seek him.” Neither is this faith- principle arbitrarily introduced into the biblical record so as to impose its inter- pretation upon the historical pattern in- volved therein. It belongs to the very loom and orientation of the recorded pattern. This in fact is the reason why, push your way back as far as you can into the earliest tradition behind the gospels, you nowhere encounter that colorless type of material one likes to associate with the concept of “objec- tive” history. All you encounter is Chris- tology, a knowledge of Jesus immedi- ately apprehended in the context of the Word of God in action. What is at stake in all this is nothing short of a specifi- cally biblical notion of truth, in terms of a certitude rooted in the reliability and consistency of the Covenanter God who is faithful. Of this potentially ac- tive truth our Lord is the living ex- pression. This is why he can say: “I am the truth.” This is also why a certi- tude proceeding from the reliability and consistency of God can never be sec- ond to the patterns of clues laboriously
worked out in the human realm of as- sent.
Such is the scriptural background of the certitude unequivocally stated as a prerequisite in the axiomatic statement of Hebrews 1 1 :6, “He that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that dili- gently seek him.” That certitude condi- tions the very relevance of New Testa- ment scholarship as a whole. It consti- tutes the faith-principle without which the most outstanding historian is bound to miss the mark. Not for one moment that such a historian actually proceeds without any faith-principle. No single historian does. The reason he will miss the mark is that either he does not see zvhat is there, and this is darkness; or he sees zvhat is not there, and this is error. In either case he sins against san- ity which is health of intellect.
Supposing on the other hand that our scholar should proceed in his interpreta- tion from the faith of Hebrews 1 1 :6, every notation that he makes will then nicely fall into place like a gem that is set where it belongs, henceforth pro- ducing the effect it was meant to pro- duce. And so it is ultimately assent which depends upon the certitude of faith for its relevance, and not the other way around. Needless to labor the point that what is true of assent in biblical scholarship is true at all levels of sci- entific and philosophical knowledge, al- though in different degrees according to closeness of relation to God. Far from inviting anti-intellectualism, then, our text calls upon us to become full citizens in the realm of scholarship be- holding the true landscape of God’s reality as a whole, for having been made whole in it.
Stand therefore upon the perfect as-
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surance of Hebrews 11:6. It is basic in a day such as this, and truly decisive. Because it refers to the prior fact which dominates, orients and condi- tions all others, it constitutes a certitude which is entirely immune from the vicis- situdes of assent. And further, because it is so, it stands as the all-sufficient safe- guard against these same vicissitudes. This is why, everything else being equal, the committed Christian student will fare better in the realm of scholarship than any other who does not name the Name of Jesus Christ. As he proceeds through the realm of assent in the light of his certitude, he will be enabled to make his own all that has been well said and done. The right perspective once restored, he will discover what important contributions the sciences and philosophy can make to the knowl- edge of the real universe of nature and of man. For he will no longer excom- municate men of goodwill — only people who are afraid will do that, because they feel insecure. His intellect’s clear vision will help him immeasurably at all points where his certitude used to be hampered, dragging down his prayer life in the process. And mind you, I have been talking all along of conversion.
IV
Could it be that we actually ran into
trouble in this realm of prayer and certitude because our conversion had only been a partial one ? By this I mean : Could it be that in the fervor of that hallowed moment at the Summer Bible camp we had only yielded a few patches of our being that happened to be particularly inflammable ? That once those patches were for the most part restored to the old norm, we merely preserved the memory of the event by wearing a Christ badge on the same kind of suit that is in fashion at the general store? However that may have been we now know it can be so no longer. Our living God claims the whole of a man.
Because the life of prayer is in the last analysis a way of being, then, our whole reborn personality shall emerge in the power of God’s life and light as we allow it to be increasingly guided and carried along by a renewed Chris- tian certitude. Let ours, therefore, be- come a steady, earnest attention to him who “is, and is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.” This morn- ing of our Day of Prayer is a good time to start afresh. Let us begin now then, right where we are, and may the God of that great eleventh chapter of Hebrews bless us, as we at long last take our place among those elders who obtained a good report.
Inauguration
of
The Reverend James W. Clarke, D.D., LL.D. as
Francis Landey Patton Professor of Homiletics January 31, 1956 at 4 p.m.
Subject : “Propriety of Prophecy.”
BETRAYAL OF THE REAL PRESENCE
Paul L. Lehmann
“And when the hour came, he sat at table, and the apostles with him. And he said to them, ‘I have desired to eat this passover with you before I suffer; for I tell you I shall not eat it until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God’. And he took a cup, and when he had given thanks he said, ‘Take this, and divide it among yourselves ; for I tell you that from now on I shall not drink of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes’. And he took bread, and when he had given thanks he broke it and gave it to them, saying, ‘This is my body’.
‘But behold the hand of him who betrays me is with me on the table. For the Son of man goes as it has been determined; but woe to that man by whom he is betrayed 1’ And they began to question one another, which of them it was that would do this thing.
A dispute also arose among them, which of them was to be regarded as the greatest. And he said to them, ‘The kings of the Gen- tiles exercise lordship over them ; and those in authority over them are called benefac- tors. But not so with you ; rather let the greatest among you become as the youngest, and the leader as one who serves. For which is the greater, one who sits at table, or one who serves? Is it not the one who sits at table? But I am among you as one who serves ....’” Luke 22 : 14-27 (RSV).
There is a certain juxtaposition in the passage to which we have just listened, which claims our particular attention tonight, waiting as we are, at the close of this day of prayer and renewal, upon our Lord’s invitation to his Holy Table. It is a juxtaposition which underlines, by our Lord’s own indication, the nature of his real pres- ence among us ; and also the nature of the renewal which we must undergo, if we are not to eat “the bread or drink
the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner” (1 Cor. 11:27); if we have not been praying ourselves today out of his presence but really praying for his presence among us, and in our com- mon life. This is the juxtaposition! Let us hear it again : this time with the con- text for a moment removed, making way for the full force of its impact.
“But behold the hand of him who betrays me is with me on the table. . . . But I am among you as one who serves.”
There they were : our Lord with His first chosen disciples ! Here we are : our Lord — not with others — but with his still chosen disciples — now ! On the night when he was betrayed, Jesus took a cup, took bread — and — not turning his back on them, not choosing others, but giving his very self to them, de- fined in sign and act, His real presence among them, “until the kingdom of God shall come.” So, He does now. “For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you show forth the Lord’s death, till He come” (1 Cor. 11 :26).
“And when the hour came, he sat at table, and the apostles with him.” The hour then was different from the hour which brings us together in his pres- ence ; different as the hour of institu- tion is different from the hour of re- membrance ; different as apostles are different from disciples ; different as real history both separates and joins its successive times and seasons, decisions and events. Whether we, tonight, can enter into the reality of what happened
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then, depends upon the degree to which we avoid merely transferring the set- ting of the past into our present, and grasp instead the sense in which the decisions of that other time are our decisions too. It is not the past by which we live. We live by a certain kind of future ; the kind of future which transforms both our present and our past and in the light of which our ac- tions become signs and seals of faith and hope and love.
“if (touched by love’s own secret) we, like homing selves, into infinite tomorrow steer
— souls under whom flow (moun- tain valley forest) a million wheres which never may become one (wholly strange; familiar wholly) dearest more than reality of more than dream —
how should contented fools of fact envision
the mystery of freedom ? yet, among their loud exactitudes of im- precision,
you’ll (silently alighting) and I’ll sing
While at us deafly a most stares colossal hoax of clocks and calen- dars.”
E. E. Cummings, Xaire, Oxford, 1950, No. 61. (71 poems)
Thus Calvin’s attempt to explain that when the Passover and other fes- tivals happened on the day before the Sabbath, the Jewish law permitted a delay from Friday until Saturday so as not to require two days loss of work, so that Jesus, although he anticipated the Sabbath with a Passover celebra- tion with his disciples was not violating
a particle of Jewish ceremonial law; appears to be, at least a muffled, if not a “loud exactitude of imprecision.” Louder still, however, is the more labored explanation that the betrayal of the Son of man did not mitigate Judas’ full responsibility for the act. The be- trayal, we are told, was part of God’s providential plan of redemption, and that not merely by God’s foreknowledge but by his decree which Luke empha- sizes by using the word, “determined.” (Harmony of the Evangelists, 193, 194; 1 99-201) And certainly the perplexi- ties of the setting of that hour of in- stitution are baffling enough when we recall that there is no clear consensus among commentators as to whether Je- sus was here celebrating a familiar Jewish ritual meal, the Kiddush, or whether indeed it was the Passover, or an entirely new meal, the Eucharist itself. The text too contains the well- known puzzle of “the double cup” which the translators of the Revised Standard Version have conveniently lodged in a footnote ; and which it must be admit- ted, much clarifies the reading of the passage despite the contravention of the weight of the manuscript evidence.
On the other hand, Calvin, approv- ing the marked contrast between Jesus and Judas suggested by Luke’s clear indication that Judas was present at the distribution of the cup and the bread, goes on to declare, “that in the person of Judas, our Lord intended to admonish his followers in all ages, not to be discouraged or faint on account of intimate friends proving to be trai- tors ; because the same thing that was experienced by Him who is the head of the whole Church must happen to us who are members of it.” (Harmony, pp. 198, 199) And from the somewhat
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barren argument about God’s having decreed the death of Christ, Calvin draws the by no means barren conclu- sion that Jesus declares that “the Son of man goes as it has been determined” so that “the disciples, knowing what was done was regulated by the provi- dence of God, might not imagine that His life or death was determined by chance . . . for never are we fully con- firmed in the result of the death of Christ, till we are convinced that he was not accidentally dragged by men to the cross, but that the sacrifice had been appointed — for expiating the sins of the world.” (Harmony, 199, 200) Here the “clocks and calendars” are left behind, and we begin, with Calvin, to “envision the mystery of freedom.” We begin to come in sight of the mys- tery of freedom, the mystery of being and knowing who we are, because this kind of commentary upon our text shuts us off from every avenue of escape and draws us into the orbit of the proceed- ings of that night — -back there — so that, like the disciples, we find ourselves be- ginning “to question one another, which of them it was that would do this thing.”
“But behold the hand of him who betrays me is with me on the table. . . . But I am among you as one who serves.”
II.
This juxtaposition is unique to Luke’s account. Indeed, it is perhaps possible to say that it is the most unique feature of Luke’s account of the night in which Jesus was betrayed. I say, “perhaps,” because the commentaries have noted that Luke, unlike Matthew and Mark, places the declaration of treachery after the supper rather than
before it, that only in Luke are the Passover and the eucharistic accounts intertwined, and that almost every word in the introductory verses of Luke’s narrative differs from the paral- lels in Matthew and Luke. But none of the commentators seems to have re- flected upon the possible significance of Luke’s connection of the dispute about rank with the preceding account of the eucharistic institution and the treachery of Judas. Luther and Calvin are so ab- sorbed by the sacramental controversy of their time that it never occurred to them to look beyond verse 23. And if one starts as they did, with a commen- tary upon a harmony of the gospels, one deals with the discourse about the great- est and the servant where Matthew and Mark deal with it, namely, in a series of discourses on the way to Jeru- salem.
We cannot, of course, be certain that the discourse about rank actually fol- lowed the questioning among the dis- ciples about who should betray Jesus. But then, as Calvin remarks, “we know that the order of time was often dis- regarded by the Evangelists” (198). What intrigues me, however, are two particular features of the Lucan nar- rative. The first is the grammatical in- terrelation between the clauses which convey to us what is involved in the betrayal of the real presence. “But be- hold the hand of him that betrays me is with me on the table” (nXrjv l8ov). This is an adverbial “but,” a kind of modifying obstacle to the course of things, to what precedes and follows. “But I am among you as one who serves” (lyio Se). This is a conjunctive “but,” a particle of connection, which emphasizes by the strongest possible contrast the link with what has immedi-
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ately preceded. More indefinitely to be sure, but no less emphatic in the con- trast, it is a variant of this conjunctive particle, “ ’E yivero St,” (also) which Luke uses to introduce the dispute about rank immediately after his ac- count of the betrayal by Judas.
The other feature of the Lucan nar- rative which emboldens me to venture an intrinsic, may I say, “eucharistic connection” ? — between the treachery of Judas and the dispute about rank is the support which Luke receives from the Fourth Evangelist. As we all know, and as indeed, Dr. Macleod has just read for us all a moment ago, the author of the Fourth Gospel relates the treachery of Judas in the course of an extended account of what the serv- ant-presence of Jesus means with all eucharistic details missing, except the item of the Supper itself. One cannot help wondering what might have hap- pened at Marburg in 1529, if Luther and Zwingli, Melanchthon and Oeco- lampad, and the other, had allowed the gospel of Luke to carry them beyond their synoptic pre-occupations and pre- dilections into the gospel of John. What if Luther had written across the table top at Marburg, not simply and solely, “hoc est meum corpus ” ; but also, and as our Lord’s own commentary upon his own words of institution : “ego (in- tern in medio vestrum sum, sicut qui ministrat ” (But I am in your midst as one who serves) ?
The theological occasions of the six- teenth century are not in all respects our occasions. And this is neither the time nor the place to elaborate upon the revisions of sacramental theory | which might be indicated by a more careful consideration of Jesus’ own commentary upon the nature of His
presence at and in the eucharistic meal. It may be that the dispute about rank alludes not at all to social dining prac- tice among the contemporaries of Jesus and his disciples, but refers instead to a quite specific ecclesiastical-ceremonial one. I am told that among the harvest of insights about the New Testament text coming to us from the Qum Ran Scrolls is the information that among the Essenes there obtained a rigid rule of seniority at Table which greatly ex- alted the leader and required the neo- phytes to observe a strict and lowly deference. To fail to do so was ground for punishment. It may be that in con- nection with his general observation about the kings of the Gentiles, Jesus is here alluding to the specific table practice of a religious community. And what he seems to be saying is that with his own inauguration of a new meal, a new sign and seal of a new com- munity, he was also inaugurating a new order of community life. Contrary to existing political, social, and ecclesi- astical authority and procedure, the community of the kingdom of God, the fellowship of believers in Him would be signed and sealed by the bread and the cup which signified his presence in the community as one who serves. The stoning sacrifice of the sacrificial lamb has been dispensed with and displaced by one oblation, once-offered, one for all. The “sacrifice form,” if we may put it this way, has been superseded by the “servant-form.” The only faithful repetition of the Mass is that the mass of mankind shall become a community of servants. “But not so with you ; rather let the greatest among you be- come as the youngest, and the leader as one who serves. For which is the greater, one who sits at table, or one
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who serves? Is it not the one who sits at table? But I am among you as one who serves.”
III.
If this be, by his own indication, the nature of the Lord’s real presence among us, what of the nature of the renewal which we must undergo, if we are not to eat “the bread or drink the cup in an unworthy manner” ? He who comes to us, as often as we eat this bread and drink this cup, as a servant ; who is among us as one who serves, quickens in us the question of betrayal. “And they began to question one an- other which of them it was that would do this?” Jesus’ self-identification in our midst exposes our actual, hitherto hid- den, identification with Judas. “But be- hold the hand of him who betrays me is with me on the table.” The renewal which we must undergo is the acknowl- edgement of betrayal — in confession and in conduct, in self-awareness and in self-reorienting behavior — with every avenue of escape blocked by his real presence. It is not from the others but from the disciples, not from the com- munity of the world but from the com- munity of believers that the betrayal of the real presence springs.
Let us briefly think on this betrayal as it emerges in our common life in this community ; and then, as our re- sponsibility as members of this com- munity touches the community of the world. The criterion, of course, is clear. It is the servant-presence of our Lord who unmasks the servant-disguises that we wear and throws us back upon our betrayal. Facing this betrayal, puts us on the way of him whose service is per- fect freedom.
You will not, all of you, agree with
me, I know. And I can only hope and ask that those of you who do not, will be offended only as we are all offended in and by each other because we are offended in Him who is among us as one who serves. We do not like the servant form ; the servant role. We like the missionary mask of servant-hood, behind which we move across the world, commissioned and commended by others for sacrifices which we know that we have never made converting or not converting others to a Christ who is always more ours than theirs, in any case, not he whose servant pres- ence comes to us tonight in bread and in a cup. This does not mean that there is no servant-hood in missions, but that missionary servants must always face the possibility of their own involve- ment in this betrayal. We like the academic mask of servant-hood, behind which we debate, or bury ourselves in, or belittle, what is in the books, without meeting each other in discussion, with- out hearing in these tasks the voice and mind and faith of the community of believers from that first Eucharist until now reminding us that the renewal of the mind means the dedication, not the suspension, of its operation in order that ignorance and enthusiasm may not confound the body of Christ. We like the converted mask of servant-hood, be- hind which we move in upon our fellow- Christians, sometimes even with some- thing like totalitarian calculation and shock-troop tactics, believing that we are called not to “civilize” but to “christi- anize” them according to a stereotype which has long since obscured the serv- ant presence of our Lord from count- less of our contemporaries, a stereotype which refuses to abandon the field. To continue in these ways is to continue in
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the betrayal of the real presence. And this is betrayal, whether the listeners be less than a hundred, or more than 20,000. For, as Dietrich Bonhoeffer remarks, “there is only one way of fol- lowing Jesus and of worshipping God, and that is to be reconciled with our brethren. If we hear the word of God and receive the sacrament without first being reconciled with our neighbors, we shall come to our own damnation. I . . . in Jesus the service of God and the service of the least of the brethren are one. He went His way and became reconciled with His brother and offered Himself as the one true sacrifice to His Father.” (The Cost of Discipleship,
pp. II2f.)
You see, if we are not reconciled to one another, we can only wear a serv- ant-mask before those others, those out there, who find only, in Christopher Fry’s phrase, that “The Dark is Light Enough.” Maybe, maybe he who in- vites us to his Table tonight, has al-
ready found out there among them such great faith as is not to be found in Israel. Maybe, they are already on the way of renewal because they have refused to disguise their own betrayal.
“Let us say
We are all confused, incomprehen- sible,
Dangerous, contemptible, corrupt,
And in that condition pass the eve- ning
Thankfully and well. In our plain defects
We already know the brother-hood of man.
Who said that?
You Countess.
How interesting.
I thought it was a quotation. A very, very, indirect one, but very, very authentic one.
“But behold the hand of him who be- trays me is with me on the table. . . . But I am among you as one who serves.”
The Message of Hope
“Our generation cries out for a message of hope. Can the Christian Church give such a message ? The lukewarm reception accorded to the message of Evanston, even among church people, points up the difficulty. It appears to be felt in some quarters that the As- sembly failed to speak the word for which the world is waiting, and as usual, some are in- clined to blame this failure on the theologians. But the question is — what kind of a word is the world waiting for, and is it that kind of word the Christian Church is commissioned to deliver? It is an index of the measure to which our minds are infected with secular utopi- anism that we seem to expect that the Christian hope should present a counter-attraction, capable of competing on their own ground with the idea of progress or the eschatology of communism. The Christian message of hope, paradoxically, is not a message about the fu- ture; it is a message about Him to whom the future belongs.’’
— George S. Hendry, Theology Today, October 1955, p. 290.
THE PRESIDENT’S PAGE
Dear Fellow- Alumni and Friends:
AS I write, the construction of the new Speer Library is under way. Sounds of excavation are being wafted downward to my study in Spring-
dale.
Just a week ago we took final farewell of “Old Lenox.” Its demise, as the walls crumbled apart and the woodwork caught fire, made it clear that this charming building was much more of a firetrap than anyone had supposed. It would have been a constant hazard to any structure into which it became integrated. It became abundantly plain at the same time that our reference library, which has been such a center of controversy, could never have been moved to another place. Its walls were far too fragile to stand the strain of moving. The demolition process revealed that on the inside of the slender stone facade lay wood and pure rubble in an advanced state of disintegration.
For many a year the Board of Trustees had agonized to save this venerated structure. However, after a prolonged study of the problem in all its phases, they and their professional advisers decided that there was no satisfactory way of integrating “Old Lenox” into the new Robert E. Speer Library. Readers of the Bulletin who may have been disturbed by the highly publicized accusation of “vandalism,” which has been directed against the Seminary by a small but well-organized group of aesthetes, will be interested in a state- ment published in the Princeton Alumni Weekly by the distinguished Direc- tor of the University’s School of Architecture, Dr. Robert W. McLaughlin. Taking issue with one of his own colleagues in the Department who had pub- licly accused the Seminary of serious dereliction for having failed to consult members of the opposition group before making the final decision regarding the new library project. Dr. McLaughlin writes:
“I really do have to disclaim Heath Licklider’s statement that I have indicated a ‘firm belief that a good architectural solution to the Princeton Theological Seminary’s much-needed library expansion could be found which would allow Lenox Hall to be preserved.’
“When the question of Lenox Hall was first raised, I was happy to join my good friends in Letters to the Editor, urging full consideration of the charming values of Lenox Hall. I have every reason to believe that the Seminary Trustees and Administration, together with their professional advisers, strove valiantly both to save Lenox Hall and build their library within the resources available. It is only fair to accept their considered judgment after all the evidence had been presented.”
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How thrilling it is to see operations now going forward, and to hail the prospect of having yet another building added to our Seminary campus. In these last days of the year, my heart literally overflows with gratitude to God, and to those who sponsored and supported the Capital Funds Drive of the Presbyterian Church, U.S.A. Before this effort was launched, I had frankly not believed it possible that I should see, during my term of office as President of the Seminary, the erection of this great library-classroom building. But the Capital Funds Drive, together with the devotion of Alumni and friends, and the vision and adventurous spirit of an unusual Board of Trustees, are making a long-cherished dream come true. I am particularly moved by the fact that the new structure will bear the name of a man who, in God’s providence, became a figure of destiny in my own life from the day I heard him speak in 1910, when I was a student in the University of Aber- deen.
Let me take this opportunity to thank each one of you who by dedicated gift or devoted effort has cheered my colleagues and me in our efforts to make Princeton Seminary what we all desire it to be, and what the Church and the world need it to be. With the largest and most diversified student body in our history, from all over the nation and all around the world, we face new problems. These problems call for clear thinking and constructive action, as well as for much prayer.
May I express the hope that any pastor reading these lines who may not yet have led his congregation into full participation in the Capital Funds Drive will be moved to do so now. There is still time, but not too much, in which a congregation can align itself with the thousands of other congrega- tions which have cooperated in the creative endeavor to help our Presbyterian seminaries. May no alumnus of this institution be among those who, when history lifts the veil to ascertain from whence the funds had come, will fail to figure in the roll of honor.
Therefore, in prayer and consecrated endeavor, may we all stand together to make Princeton Seminary the educational instrument which Jesus Christ would have it be in this generation for the upbuilding of His Church and the coming of His Kingdom.
With fraternal greetings,
Yours very cordially,
John A. Mackay
PRINCETONIANA
Lefferts A. Loetscher
The Opening of Seminary
THE current academic year began on Friday, September 23, with the Orientation Program for incoming stu- dents. Various Faculty members spoke on the curricular work of the Seminary, and in the evening the Faculty and their wives were guests at a dinner for the new students in the Campus Center. Numerous meetings and briefings took place, with formal enrolment for courses on Monday and Tuesday. After a chap- el service on Tuesday evening, with academic procession by the Faculty, and an opening address by Dr. Mackay, classes started on Wednesday, Septem- ber 28. A Faculty reception was held that afternoon.
The total enrolment of students for the academic year, 1955-1956, to the date of the present writing is 468. Of these, 101 are graduate students, 95 are seniors, 132 middlers, and 128 juniors, and twelve are special students. These figures include twenty-eight candidates for the M.R.E. degree distributed over the various classes. Of particular in- terest is the national distribution of the student body. Not counting mission- aries in residence, there are 45 students from abroad, coming from seven lands in East Asia (China, Formosa, India, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, and Thai- land), one country of the Near East (Israel), South Africa, Canada, Latin American countries (Argentina, Chile, Cuba, and Guatemala), and four Eu- ropean countries (Ireland, Germany, The Netherlands, and Scotland). The
student body is of truly ecumenical character.
The Faculty
This autumn the Seminary com- munity has had the pleasure of wel- coming two new ladies to the Faculty circle. On August 20, Dr. Theron and Miss Ruth King were married in Hart- ford, Connecticut, and on October 15, Dr. Hofmann and Miss Emilie Scott Wells were married in Lake Forest, Illinois. The Seminary’s friends join in wishing the greatest happiness to Dr. and Mrs. Theron and to Dr. and Mrs. Hofmann.
It has been the custom for some years to hold a joint Trustee-Faculty dinner on the occasion of the fall meeting of the Board of Trustees. The procedure was varied somewhat this year in favor of a more definitely pointed program. Instead of a full meeting of both bodies, a dinner meeting of the Curriculum Committees of the Faculty and of the Trustees was held. This gave oppor- tunity for a co-operative overview of various curricular matters at the time when the Faculty is considering some adjustments in the curriculum. Discuss- ing together common interests in this practical way gave fuller opportunity for members of both Board and Faculty to become better acquainted with each other. The plan is to hold similar joint meetings of other committees of Trus- tees and Faculty in the future.
With the increased size of the Faculty in recent years, and with the very ex- tensive expansion of course offerings,
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the Faculty Club has been serving a very welcome and useful purpose in giving Faculty members the opportunity of closer personal contact and friend- ship, and also of discussing informally many questions related to their common duties. Five meetings of the Faculty Club are scheduled for the current aca- demic year. The first meeting, held on November 5, was a kind of happy pot- pourri of travelogues by those P'ac- ulty members who had been abroad during the summer. The exchange of ex- periences and impressions proved stim- ulating. On December 1 Dr. C. E. Abra- ham, Principal of Serampore College, India, who is Guest Professor in Ecu- menics this year, addressed the Club in a very informative way concerning theological problems and opportunities in India today.
Student Life
Student life on the campus is led by a Student Council which now consists of twenty-five members. In addition to the conventional offices of president, vice president, secretary, and treasurer, and representatives from each class, the graduate students, each of the three dormitories on the main campus, and from North-South Hall and Tennent Hall on the new campus, there are chairmen of the various “special in- terest” activities — athletics, intersemi- nary, publicity, religious activities, so- cial, evangelistic, missions, social edu- cation and action, theological society, and Campus Center. In addition there are representatives from the off-campus students and the Wives’ Fellowship group. The council meets regularly and makes an important contribution to student life and work.
Recent years have seen a great ex-
pansion of “special interest” groups among the students. Each group has its activities and programs, sometimes in- volving the bringing of special speakers to address the group. Thus a recent meeting of the Social Education and Action group discussed the problem of alcoholism and ways in which the min- istry can cope with it. The Evangelistic Fellowship sends out teams each week in response to invitations from churches and student groups. The World Mis- sions Fellowship recently put on an International Music Night with music supplied by students from abroad, and with the offering going towards helping foreign students to attend the forth- coming Quadrennial Conference of the S.V.M. in Athens, Ohio, December 28-31. A Theological Society was or- ganized a few years ago, and interest in its program has been maintained. The meetings often feature a panel, sometimes with a Faculty member or members participating. Under the lead- ership of the campus Interseminary Committee about thirty students recent- ly attended the annual fall conference of the Middle Atlantic Area of the In- terseminary movement at Union Semi- nary, New York. There is some inter- est, too, in athletic activity, with an “intramural” program among the dor- mitories in touch football, basketball, and softball. In the winter a “varsity” basketball team usually emerges which does the rounds of a few of the neigh- boring seminaries and other local teams. This last fall a series of Friday recrea- tion evenings were held in the White- ley Gymnasium.
A Faculty Committee on Campus Life helps to provide closer liaison be- tween Faculty and students. For some time now this committee has been hold-
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ing semi-annual joint meetings with the members of the Student Council. A spirit of friendliness and frankness pre- vails, and there has been a tendency in recent years to increase the number of these joint meetings to three or four a year.
A student activity of a quite different sort is the fellowship, Koinonia, which is limited to candidates for the Th.D. degree. Papers, often of a quite spe- cialized and technical sort, are read and discussed by fellow students and by any Faculty members who may happen to be present.
Worship and Devotional Meetings
The corporate spiritual life of the Seminary centers in the daily chapel service, conducted four days a week — Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday — from 9 to 9:20 A.M. It is led by a Faculty member on Tuesdays, usu- ally by a missionary or other guest on Thursdays, and by two students co- operatively on Wednesdays and Fri- days. Different student choirs — one day a week the Women’s Choir — lead the music and often supply special anthems. The same order of service is usually fol- lowed, with Processional Hymn, Call to Worship, Invocation, Scripture Read- ing, Prayer, and Recessional Hymn. Occasionally different orders of service are substituted, sometimes from the Presbyterian Book of Common Wor- ship, copies of which are in all the pews. Recently, for example, a double anti- phon Advent service was used. “Watch- man, tell us of the night” was sung antiphonally by choir and congrega- tion; the prayer which followed was a litany ; and the minister and choir joined in an antiphon for Advent. There is no sermon or sermonette in
these brief services, but they are found very helpful, and attendance, which is never recorded, remains consistently high.
The Seminary has other times, too. of corporate worship. Special services of worship are held at the opening and closing of the academic year, and a Communion Service with preaching at the opening of the second and third terms. Special preachers are invited by the Faculty for one Tuesday evening in each term. On two days a year — the Day of Prayer and the Day of Convoca- tion— classes are cancelled and special meetings are held, with Faculty mem- bers leading the former, and a guest from outside the latter. “Retreats” to out of town places are held, leaving late Friday afternoon and returning Satur- day. Three have been held for Juniors in addition to retreats scheduled for Middlers and Seniors. Students now assume responsibility for administrative details such as securing Faculty lead- ers, transportation, student attendance, etc. Retreats have played an important role in the life of the Seminary in re- cent years. In addition to these more formal services, there are numerous in- formal groups which meet for inspira- tion and prayer.
Presbyterian Council on Theological Education
The annual meeting of the Presby- terian Council on Theological Educa- tion was held at Buck Hill Falls, Penn- sylvania, on October 24-26. The Coun- cil consists of representatives of all of the Presbyterian seminaries in propor- tion to their undergraduate student en- rolment, delegates from the Boards of National and Foreign Missions and Christian Education, and members
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from the Church at large. The Council renders a great service to theological education by bringing Church and seminaries closer together. Recent years have seen a greatly increased interest taken by the church in its seminaries, and the seminaries acquire a growing realization of their responsibilities to the Church and opportunities of service in it. Currently the Council has been drafting curricular suggestions which it plans to discuss with the faculties of the respective seminaries.
Field Work
The purpose of field work is not only to render service to the churches con- cerned but also to acquire skills under directive guidance. M.R.E. as well as B.D. candidates are required to fulfill certain minimum field work require- ments before graduation. Currently a number of M.R.E. candidates are serv- ing in churches which are fully organ- ized with directors of Christian Educa- tion. The student is incorporated for a time in different classes and age groups, participating in their meetings and in planning programs, and then moves to another group, thus acquiring a broad range of understanding and experience. Miss Kirkwood has charge of the field work for M.R.E. candidates, and they discuss with her in detail experiences and problems from the field. Another M.R.E. student is directing a program of Christian education at the New Jer- sey State Home for Girls in Trenton. Under her direction twenty students and students’ wives lead weekly Bible study groups in the ten girls’ cottages. Other M.R.E. students on different projects serve as advisers to youth groups in churches and help in church school work. The supervisor of field
work visits the student in his or her field of work, a weekly report from the student is required, and all must at- tend a weekly “practicum” where prob- lems connected with field service are discussed.
The whole field work program is headed by Dr. Wilson, Dean of Field Service. A number of students are as- sisting chaplains in Philadelphia hos- pitals. Six are at the General Hospital, where the chaplain is the Rev. James J. Reeb of the Seminary Class of 1953 and four (three men and one woman) are helping at Presbyterian Hospital where the chaplains are the Rev. Rob- ert G. Foulkes of the Class of 1950 and the Rev. Samuel J. Lindamood, Jr., of the Class of 1955. There has been a growing interest among students of the Seminary in various types of chaplaincy service, not only in the armed forces of the United States, but also in industry, mental hospitals, and penal institutions. One student is doing field work in the East Harlem Protes- tant Parish. The work here is largely with Negroes and Puerto Ricans.
Two students are working with stu- dents at Columbia University under the Westminster Foundation director, the Rev. Walter E. Wiest of the Class of 1944, while eight are working with the Princeton University Westminster Foundation of which the Rev. Lewis S. Mudge, Jr., of the Class of 1955, is director. Another is with the West- minster Foundation at Bryn Mawr, and still another is working at the Women’s Medical College in conjunction with the Westside Presbyterian Church, Germantown. More than a hundred students are working in churches with young people and as assistants to pas-
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tors. About thirty are currently serving as student pastors.
Pastors under whom students have recently been doing field work were in- vited to the campus on November 28, and a total of seventy-five came from New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, and Maryland. There was general discussion of the work and an evening address by Dr. Clarke.
Seminary Publications
The Biographical Catalogue of the Seminary, recently published under the editorship of the Alumni Secretary, Dr. Hopper, will be a very useful reference work. Under preparation for two years, it gives biographies of more than 7,000 alumni, of whom more than 4,000 are living. All responsible for the Catalogue are to be congratulated on the com- pletion of this extensive piece of work
The most recent publication in the Princeton Pamphlet Series is a valuable contribution by Dr. Mackay, entitled, Protestantism, a reprinting of his con- tribution to the symposium edited by Dr. Jurji under the title The Great Re- ligions of the Modern World. This pamphlet is the tenth in a distinguished series.
In addition to the Seminary Bulletin, published three times a year and the Catalogue, published annually, there ap- pears from time to time a ten-page printed sheet prepared by students, The Princeton S eminarian. The current is- sue, for example, contains everything from an editorial to a prize-winning student sermon, comments on world af- fairs, evaluation of the campus as an experiment in Christian community, and summertime reminiscences of “The Fuller Brush Man.” It is produced by a student Editorial Board and Staff,
and is representative of various shades of opinion and aspects of campus life.
For the third year now the Princeton Theological Seminary Handbook has been published with pictures of all Fac- ulty and Staff members, students, office, and maintenance personnel. In the case of students, the Princeton address, home address, and college are given. This is a fine “get-acquainted” medium and is appreciated by the greatly enlarged Seminary community.
Alumni Conference
Dr. Theodore O. Wedel of the Col- lege of Preachers, Washington Cathe- dral, led this year’s Alumni Conference on Wednesday and Thursday, Septem- ber 21 and 22. “Our Bewildered Pulpit Today,” “Jesus, Master or Savior?” and “A Clue to Biblical Theology” were the titles of Canon Wedel’s three ad- dresses. The series proved to be a stimu- lating start for the fall’s work for the alumni who attended.
A very interesting letter came from New Zealand in response to the Alumni Roll Call. The Rev. Thomas A. Speer, born, reared and ordained in Ireland, transferred his ministry to New Zea- land in 1926 where he is now pastor of a church at Takapau. He writes, in part :
“Though it is full forty years since I trod the Seminary Campus I can as- sure you that my sense of gratitude for the very profitable and pleasant time I spent among you all is as keen as when I said Goodbye. I rejoice continually when I think of the increasingly im- portant part the Seminary plays in the topsy-turvy world of today, and the dis- tinguished leadership given by your es- teemed President, John A. Mackay.
“I just cannot say how much I ap- preciate the fact that my name has been
THE PRINCETON SEMINARY BULLETIN
33
privileged to be on the mailing list for the Seminary Bulletins for so many years. It would be no more than the barest truth to state that nearly every issue — through some reference to per- sons, places or events — opens for me the floodgates of memory and I am back again in Hodge Hall in 1913- 1914. As for Theology Today it is as necessary every quarter as breakfast every morning, and I, among others, am profoundly grateful for its stimula- tion and inspiration.”
The Saturday Evening Post for No- vember 26 ran a full-length story on Raymond A. Nott of the Seminary Class of 1953, under the title “The Pas- tor of Bighorn Basin.” “The people of this remote little Wyoming town ex- pected a minister from the bottom of the clergyman barrel. But they got a surprise that changed their life when they met the pastor of Bighorn Basin.” The parish covers 15,000 square miles with groups meeting at seven widely scattered points. Each group has a Sun- day school meeting every Sunday and a church service once a month. Some of the towns are overchurched, but the rural areas where Mr. Nott’s ministry lies have been almost destitute of an on-the-field minister. The work some- times involves as much as 300 miles of driving on a Sunday. The Princeton Seminary choir visited here on a recent tour and sang to a capacity congrega- tion. The Post article is an interesting description of rural church life in ranch- ing and oil sections of Wyoming and does credit to the ministry which it de- scribes.
Leadership Training School
The Princeton Leadership Training School, held under the auspices of
churches of this area, and enjoying the hospitality of the Seminary, had its largest enrolment last autumn, a total of 307. The School has been growing steadily. It met for five Thursday eve- nings from October 13 through No- vember 10 in Stuart Hall. It met each week for two one-hour periods, with a selection of three courses the first pe- riod and four the second. This year Dr. Fritsch and Dr. Gard were among those who gave courses. The various courses deal with both content and method of teaching. This year Dr. But- ler, who has served as Dean of the School, was on sabbatical leave from the Seminary during the first term, and his place as Dean of the School was taken by Miss Kirkwood.
The New Library
As this goes to press the old Lenox Library is rapidly coming down, board by board and stone by stone. For some- days a sizable bonfire was kept burning alongside of the building to consume old wood which could not be profitably salvaged by the contractor. For some time construction was delayed by a bor- ough zoning ordinance, and the prob- lem of securing “easement of light and air.” Difficulties were removed when the Borough Council granted the Semi- nary exemption from this ordinance, and on November 28 work was started by the Turner Construction Company of Philadelphia, which also built the Firestone Library of the University. It is expected that the new Library will be complete before the opening of Semi- nary in the fall of 1957.
During the summertime there is al- ways much work done on the campus grounds and buildings. Among other things, some of the equipment in Brown
34
THE PRINCETON SEMINARY BULLETIN
and Alexander Halls was modernized. The house purchased by the Seminary a few years ago just around the corner from the Payne Hall missionary apart- ments, at 21 Dickinson Street, con- tinues to be used as an overflow dormi- tory. The former Friar Club property, on the opposite side of Dickinson Street, is used for apartments. The for- mer Benham Club on Mercer Street is a professor’s residence.
Theology Today
Dr. Emil Brunner is the author of the devotional article in the January is- sue of Theology Today. Dr. Piper has an article on “The Transforming Pow- er of the Gospel.” “The Rise of Marian Theology” is discussed by Dr. Barrois, and the Lady Margaret Professor of Divinity at Cambridge University, Pro- fessor C. F. D. Moule, has a sermon entitled “Reach and Grasp.” Professor H. H. Rowley, Professor of Old Testa- ment Language and Literature at the University of Manchester, explores the relation between the Old Testament’s teaching concerning individual respon- sibility and concerning God’s interest in Israel as a people. It is an address which he delivered at Princeton Semi- nary and it is here published under the title “Individual and Community in the Old Testament,” shedding light on a very pressing problem of mid-twentieth century. There are also other articles and features of great interest in this issue of Theology Today.
The Choir
The Seminary Choir is planning its 1956 summer tour to cover some of the central and south central states, Mexi- co, and part of Central America. It will leave Princeton on June 5, cross Penn-
sylvania, southern Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois, and then travel southwest through Missouri, Oklahoma, Texas, and New Mexico, entering Mexico at El Paso, Texas. Then their route will lead through Chihuahua, Durango, Gua- dalajara to Mexico City. After about a week in Mexico, the group will move on to Guatemala and possibly the other Central American countries, returning through Mexico to Laredo or Browns- ville, Texas. The return trip through the States will take the choir through Texas, Arkansas, Tennessee, Virginia, and Maryland.
This tour is planned to cover areas from which many requests have already come. The choir, as usual, will sing on the average of twice a day and will visit as many churches and other institutions as possible. Inquiries may be sent to David Hugh Jones at Princeton Theo- logical Seminary, Princeton, N.J., and definite dates will be offered soon after March 15. In so far as possible requests will be honored in order of receipt.
At the request of Dr. Alfonso Rodri- guez, the Seminary has granted a leave of absence of three months to Dr. Jones to give him an opportunity to develop a choir at the Seminario Evangelico de Teologia in Matanzas, Cuba.
Dr. and Mrs. Jones left the lat- ter part of December to fill this en- gagement. It is hoped that a choir pro- gram similar to our own can be de-j veloped in Cuba to help promote the work of the Protestant seminary. Stu- dents from many Latin American coun- tries will participate in this choir and every effort will be made to discover among the group talented musicians who will be able to carry on the work after Dr. Jones returns to Princeton.
THE PRINCETON SEMINARY BULLETIN
35
In Memoriam
The Seminary community and the great host of his friends were deeply shocked to hear of the death of Dr. Minot C. Morgan on August 14 in an accident caused by floods in eastern Pennsylvania. He was a graduate of
the Seminary in the Class of 1900 and a member of the Board of Trustees since 1911. Deepest sympathy is ex- tended to Mrs. Morgan and to the other members of the family. A me- morial minute adopted by the Board of Trustees appears elsewhere in the pres- ent issue of the Bulletin.
Justification By Faith
“The doctrine of Justification by Faith has been called the formal principle of Protestantism. Its meaning is this: man is saved, not by ethical striving or achievement, but by the joyous acceptance of God’s gift of salvation. Good works do not save men ; they are the fruits of men who are saved. God offers to man the complete redemption which was wrought out for him in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. To the reality of this redemption, man gives his assent, acquiescing in the fact that he owes salvation not to his own goodness, but to the goodness of Another. By an act of consent or commitment, he gives himself to that Other, the living Christ, with whom he identifies himself in thought and in life.”
— John A. Mackay, Protestantism, Princeton Pamphlets, No. 10, p. 17.
Non-Conformity
“The independent mind is becoming rare. Conformity is more the order of the day, in- evitably bringing with it that subservience to prevailing fashions of thought, values, and behaviour. ‘Whoso would be a man must be a non-conformist,’ said Emerson. This is utterly true, and it is a true Christian principle, irrespective of the consequences.”
—Norman V. Hope, The Upper Room Pulpit, October 1955, p. 28.
ALUMNI NEWS
Orion C. Hopper
Alumni Associations
Greater New York : The Alumni of the Greater New York area met at the Madison Avenue Church, New York City, on November I. President Dan C. Thomas presided. The Reverend James W. Clarke, D.D., Professor of Homiletics, was the guest speaker and took as his theme, “The Magnificence of God.”
Dr. Hopper conveyed Dr. Mackay’s greetings and sincere regrets for not being able to attend the meeting. He also referred to Dr. Homrighausen as the new Dean, the announcement in the New York Times about the new Robert E. Speer Library, the visits of members of the Faculty to vital world areas, and the publication of the Bio- graphical Catalogue.
The following officers were elected for the ensuing year : President — Jo- seph C. Dickson, pastor of the Pres- byterian Church of Upper Montclair, New Jersey; Vice President — Hugh M. Miller, pastor of the First Memori- al Church at Dover, New Jersey; Sec- retary— Luther B. Hollister, pastor of the Presbyterian Church at Stony Point, New York; and, Treasurer — Olin McKendree Jones of New York City. Kenneth V. Brown of New Hyde Park, New York; Frederick E. Chris- tian of Westfield, New Jersey; and Dan C. Thomas of New Rochelle, New York, were elected members-at-large to the Executive Committee.
W estern Pennsylvania : The annual meeting of the Pittsburgh Alumni As- sociation was held in the East Liberty
Church on November 14. President Mackay was the guest speaker. He re- ferred to the conspicuous places that Princeton Seminary graduates were holding in our own land and across the world. He called attention to members of our Faculty who have recently vis- ited vital world areas. Reference was made to the new library and the high enrolment of students. He concluded his message with some observations re- sulting from his visit to the British Isles and the European Continent this summer. He expressed concern over the rise of the Marian Cult in Roman Catholicism and, at the same time, re- joiced in Protestantism’s recovery of an awareness of the power of the Holy Spirit.
Dr. Hopper reported on the Fall Conference and presented statistical in- formation about the Biographical Cata- logue. He also extended greetings in behalf of Dr. Quay, together with a message concerning the financial situa- tion of the Seminary.
The following were elected as the Pittsburgh group for the ensuing year : President — Vernon P. Martin, Jr., of Pittsburgh; Vice President — Frederick R. Hellegers of Washington, Pennsyl- vania; and Secretary-Treasurer — Mel- vin J. Best of Pittsburgh.
Synod Meetings
At the last meeting of the Alumni Council, the importance of gatherings of our Alumni attending Synod meet- ings was emphasized. The Alumni Sec- retary is most anxious to be of service in the promotion of such fellowship.
37
THE PRINCETON SEMINARY BULLETIN
Because of the crowding of synod meet- ings into the spring season of the year, we hope soon to contact certain of the Alumni, who may help in promoting such meetings. Wherever it is possible, Faculty and Administration representa- tives will be available.
New Jersey Synod Meeting On October 18 Princeton Alumni at-
tending the meeting of the Synod of New Jersey resumed the annual Prince- ton Seminary Luncheon which was held at the Hotel Madison. The Rev- erend Walter L. Whallon, D.D., ’03, presided and brief addresses were given by Dean Homrighausen and Dr. Quay. One hundred and fifty-five mem- bers of the Alumni were present.
The Dawn of Personality
At the invitation of the publishers, Dr. Mackay wrote the following appraisal of Dr. Cail- liet’s recent book :
“In his latest volume, The Dawn of Personality, Professor Cailliet is at his superb best. A mind well-versed in the learning of the schools, and sensitive to the problems of living men and women, deals with profound human problems in language which is a model of simplicity.
“Taking as his theme the basic question which contemporary man puts to himself with increasing poignancy, ‘What does it mean to be truly alive? — What does it mean to be a true man?’ the author has produced an entrancing volume. The book is a perfect literary unity in which thought moves in smooth logical sequence and with glowing poetic imagery, from one great issue to another.
“In this book a scholar, who has had a background of life on three continents, makes the wisdom of the ages relevant to human need today. A man deeply versed in literature, philos- ophy, and theology, speaks as a layman to laymen regarding life’s central question and Chris- tianity’s basic answer.”
ALUMNI
[ 1909 ]
Herbert Booth Smith is serving as interim pastor of Memorial Church, Midland, Mich.
[ 1917 ]
George J. Kilgus has been called to the pastorate of the Vicco Community Church, Vicco, Ky.
[ 1919 ]
Leroy Y. Dillener has been called to the pastorate of Muddy Creek Church, Car- michaels, Pa.
Edward S. Hendrickson is now the as- sociate minister in the Presbyterian Church of Lakewood, Ohio.
[ 1924 ]
Edwin Ray Cameron is now pastor of the Hillside Church, Denver, Colo.
[ 1925 ]
Hardigg Sexton is now serving as the as- sistant pastor of Point Loma Community Church, San Diego, Calif.
Edward J. Masselink has been called to the pastorate of Central Avenue Christian Reformed Church at Holland, Mich.
[ 1926 ]
Frederick Bronkema has been called to the pastorate of the Madison Avenue Church, Elizabeth, N.J.
[ 1929 ]
Ernest W. Sihler is directing the work of the “Lutheran Minority Missions of Min- neapolis,” a reclamation project by the Evan- gelical Lutheran Church to minister to In- dians who have left the reservation and now dwell in cities.
[ 1930 ]
Paul Louis Stumpf has been called to the pastorate of First Church, Arlington Heights, 111.
Clarence Erb Ulrich is now serving as pastor of St. Mark’s Evangelical United Brethren Church, Mount Joy, Pa.
[ 1933 ]
Raymond I. Lindquist has been elected President of the Board of National Missions, Presbyterian Church, U.S.A.
NOTES
A
Stephen M. Reynolds has been appointed r< Professor of Bible, Davis and Elkins Col- lege, W.Va.
[ 1935 ] C
William Foster McClain has been installed S as pastor of the Presbyterian Church at
State College, Pa. p;
[ 1936 ] c
Charles H. Moffett is now pastor of First Church, Pikeville, Ky.
[ 1937 ]
Paul R. Winn has been appointed Profes- , sor of English, Meiji Gakuin, Tokyo, Japan.
[ 1938 ]
B. Ross Cleeland is doing graduate work at Arizona State College, Flagstaff, Ariz.
R. J. Wray has been called to the pastorate of the First Church, Prince Rupert, British Columbia.
[ 1939 ] 1
William F. Logan, Jr., has been installed pastor of the Hillside Church, Orange, N.J. J
Keith H. Sackett has been called to the pastorate of the Seward and Utica Churches, Nebraska.
r t 0
[ 1940 ]
Franklyn D. Josselyn has been appointed p Chaplain and Associate Professor of Re- ligion at Occidental College.
Robert H. Philips has been called to the pastorate of First Church, Rochester, Pa. P
Richard L. Schlafer has been installed in the pastorate of the Central Church, Hunting- " ton, Long Island, N.Y.
George H. Winn is now serving as pastori of the Reformed Church, Ellenville, N.Y.
[ 1941 ]
g
Howard W. Blackburn is associate rector of Grace Episcopal Church, Tucson, Ariz.
[ 1942 ]
J. Lawrence Burkholder has been ap- |( pointed Associate Professor of Bible and j Philosophy, at Goshen College, Indiana.
Samuel D. Crothers has been called to the pastorate of St. Paul’s Church, San Fran- cisco, Calif.
THE PRINCETON SEMINARY BULLETIN
39
Samuel H. Moffett is now serving at the American Presbyterian Mission, Seoul, Ko- rea.
[ 1943 ]
John Louis Crandall has been appointed Director, Westminster Foundation, Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio.
Paul C. Dickenson has been called to the pastorate of First Church, Athens, Ala.
Otto Gruber has been appointed Executive Director of Southern California Presbyteri- an Homes, Inc.
Gordon M. Ruff has been elected Execu- tive Secretary of the Kolhapur Church Council of the United Church of Northern India.
Joseph Samuel Willis has been appointed Director of United Student Christian Fel- lowship, University of New Mexico, Al- buquerque.
[ 1944 ]
Frank G. Carter has been called to the pastorate of First Church, Lee’s Summit, Mo.
J. Louis Hutton has been called as pastor of the Capitol Hill Church, Washington, D.C.
Robert Clyde Johnson, Jr., is now As- sistant Professor of Theology, Western The- ological Seminary, Pittsburgh, Pa.
Donald W. Ruth has been called to the pastorate of First Church, Muskogee, Okla.
[ 1945 ]
James L. Hill is now serving as associate pastor of First Church, Oak Park, 111.
James F. Lundquist has been called to the pastorate of the Westminster Church (U.S.) Alexandria, Va.
[ 1946 ]
Leslie M. Gonnsen has been called to the pastorate of the House of Hope Church, El- gin, 111.
Alan G. Gripe is now serving as pastor of the First Church, Westfield, N.Y.
John F. McCIoy is now serving as pastor of the Milden, Campbell Memorial and Wes- ley Churches of the East Hanover Pres- bytery (U.S.).
[ 1947 ]
David C. Jacobsen has been called to the pastorate of Silverlake Community (Pres- byterian) Church, Los Angeles, Calif.
William Pierce Lytle is now serving as Sunday School Missionary in Corona, New Mexico.
[ 1948 ]
Blanche E. Robertson is now serving as Director of Christian Education at the Wyn- newood Church, Dallas, Texas.
Charles Henry Jester, Jr., is now serving as assistant pastor of Calvary Church, South Pasadena, Calif.
[ 1949 ]
Gerald Edgar Hollingsworth has been called to the pastorate of the Church at Waynesburg, Pa.
William B. Rogers has been appointed Minister to Students and Professor of Bible at Texas State College for Women and North Texas State College, Denton, Texas.
Fred M. Sevier is taking graduate work in the Psychology of Religion at Boston University School of Theology.
[ 1950 ]
Sue Ollie Burt is doing graduate work at Princeton Theological Seminary.
Cecil A. Thornton has been called to the pastorate of First Church, Tiffin, Ohio.
Malcolm S. Vandevort, Jr. is now sta- tioned at the American Mission, Addis Aba- ba, Ethiopia.
[ 1951 ]
George F. Gillette has been called to the pastorate of First and Fraser Churches, Ublv, Mich.
Donald C. Hawthorne is the organizing pastor of Christ Church (United Presby- terian) La Mirada, Calif. Mrs. Hawthorne is the former Elene Roussey (’51).
Phillips Brooks Henderson has been called to the pastorate of the First-Calvary Baptist Church, Lawrence, Mass.
Virginia Jean Mould is now stationed at Tainan, Taiwan, Formosa.
[ 1952 ]
Glenn J. Bixler is the pastor of the newly organized Thornton Church, Denver, Colo.
William H. Cohea, Jr., is now serving as Executive Director of the “Pittsburgh Ex- periment,” an Ecumenical Ministry to the Work Community.
Robert E. Coleman has been elected to the McCauless Chair of Evangelism, Asbury Theological Seminary, Wilmore, Ky.
40
THE PRINCETON SEMINARY BULLETIN
Charles A. Darocy is pastor of the Bed- ford Park church, New York City and not the Bedford, New York, church as reported in the October issue of the Bulletin.
Charles DiSalvo is now serving as Chap- lain at the Veterans Administration Hospi- tal, Lyons, N.J.
James Vandegrift Johnson has been called to the pastorate of First Church, Natchez, Miss.
Chong-Soung Kim has been called to the pastorate of the Harlow Memorial Church, Hanford, Calif.
George Wayne Plummer has been called to the pastorate of the North Shore Church of Great Neck, Long Island, N.Y.
Roland R. Reed is now serving as Boys Extension Secretary, Y.M.C.A., New York City.
Jean McRae Ross is doing student work, Montana School of Religion, Montana State University, Missoula, Mont.
Jay Warren Rowen has been installed as pastor of the Arlington Church, Arlington, Va.
[ 1953 ]
Prentice Harmon Barnett has been ap- pointed Field Director, Board of Christian Education, Synod of Texas.
Phillip C. Hiller is now serving as Min- ister of Education, Our Saviour’s Lutheran Church, Milwaukee, Wise.
Dale F. Dickey is instructor in Speech- Dramatics at Bluffton College, Blufifton, Ohio.
David Eugene Rule is now serving as pas- tor of First Church, Stanton, Ky., and as Sunday School missionary in Powell Coun- ty under the Board of National Missions.
David Edward Erb has been called to the pastorate of First Church, Reynoldsburg, Ohio. Mrs. Erb is the former Glenna B. Freeland (’55).
Kenneth E. Grant is now the assistant pastor of the First Church, San Diego, Calif.
Robert E. Hoffman is stationed in Ko- rea under the Board of World Missions, Presbyterian U.S.
Willis H. Newton, Jr. is now serving as Base Chaplain at the Bordeaux Air Base, France.
John Karol Sefcik has been installed as pastor of Christ Church, Catskill, N.Y.
[ 1954 ]
Frank R. Burgess is the organizing pastor of a new Presbyterian Church at Bellevue, a suburb of Seattle, Wash.
John W. Folta is serving in Kwangju, Korea, under the Board of World Missions, Presbyterian U.S.
James Houston Hodges has been called to the pastorate of the Church at Whitesboro, Texas.
Alice Hope McFeely has been married to Richard Eugene Meloy (’53). Mr. Meloy is pastor of the church at Reedsville, Pa.
Lawrence W. McMaster, Jr. is now serv- ing as pastor of the Presbyterian Church, Oxford, Pa. Mrs. McMaster is the former Anna F. Postlethwaite (’54).
Eugene M. Grier and Mina Seipel were married September 9, 1955. Mr. Grier is a Chaplain in the Navy, stationed at San Diego, Calif.
Paul D. Peck is taking graduate work at Yale University.
E. Jack Roof has been called to the pas- torate of the Greentree Community Church (Presbyterian) Pittsburgh, Pa.
Paul F. Smith is the pastor of the First Church, Stillwater, Minn.
George Calvin Stulting has been installed as pastor of the First Church, Sebring, Fla. (Presbyterian U.S.).
Harold O. Tollefson has been appointed pastor of Faith Lutheran Church, Min- neapolis, Minn.
Tames F. Clark was married to Miss Mary Delores Craig on June 14, 1955. Mr. Clark is one of the pastors of the Larger Parish of Washington Presbytery and resided at Waynesburg, Pa.
Robert J. Tollefson is pastor of the First Church, Vesta, and the Ashford Church, Mil- roy, Minn.
[ 1955 ]
William C. Demarest has been called to the pastorate of First Church, Teague, Texas.
Hubert S. Goss, Jr. is now pastor of First Congregational Church, San Francisco, Calif.
Eleanor L. Kirtland is now Mrs. R. G. Calvin, Beaver, Pa.
Gerald Durand Lyman has become the as- sistant pastor of the Church of La Crescenta, Calif.
Flora Victoria Mott is serving as Director
THE PRINCETON SEMINARY BULLETIN
41
of Religious Education at the First Church, Fort Lauderdale, Fla.
A. Donn Robb has been called to the Beu- lah, Copeland and Nebo Churches, Athens, Ala.
Jane Warren Savage is the Associate Di- rector of the Christian Student Foundation at Michigan State College, East Lansing, Mich.
Joseph J. Skelly is now serving as assist- ant pastor of Knox Church, Los Angeles, Calif.
Richard Alan Symes is a member of the staff of the Dodge Community House, De- troit, Mich.
Jerome Lane Wilson is now serving as Curate of Grace Episcopal Church, St. Louis, Mo.
James A. Guyer has been appointed the organizing pastor of the new Covenant Church, Oklahoma City, Okla.
John Latourette Silvius has been called to the pastorate of Knox Church, Berkeley, Calif.
On the Sacratncnt of Baptism
Ever since Karl Barth raised some pointed questions concerning the Sacrament of Bap- tism (see The Teaching of the Church Regarding Baptism) and Oscar Cullmann replied in his essay, Baptism in the Nciv Testament, several denominations have set up commissions to re-examine and re-study their doctrinal position and point of view. Just recently an In- terim Report of the Special Commission on Baptism of the Church of Scotland has been made available in pamphlet form (Church of Scotland Office, 121 George Street, Edin- burgh 2. Price 2/ — ). Also the Commission on the Christian Faith of the United Church of Canada has published a pamphlet entitled The Doctrine and Practice of Infant Baptism (United Church Publishing House, 299 Queen Street West, Toronto, Canada. Price 10 cents).
TRUSTEE MEMORIAL MINUTE
The Reverend Minot C. Morgan, D.D.
A few weeks ago we were shocked and grieved to hear of the tragic death of Minot Canfield Morgan, one of the best known and most loved of the Alumni of this Seminary.
Dr. Morgan was the son of Minot Spaulding Morgan, a graduate of Princeton Seminary in the Class of 1875. Minot Canfield was born Sep- tember 17, 1876, graduating from
Princeton University in 1896, and from this Seminary in 1900. For a year he served as Assistant Pastor of the Tenth Presbyterian Church of Philadelphia and then became pastor of the Presby- terian Church of Far Rockaway, Long Island.
On the site of the unpretentious little church where he began his pastorate now stands the Russell Sage Memorial Church erected by Mrs. Sage to the memory of her husband, also in recog- nition of the young men from this Sem- inary who ministered there during her residence in Far Rockaway.
In 1903 Minot Morgan became pas- tor of the Central Church of Summit, New Jersey. It was during his eventful ministry in Summit that this church assumed the position of leadership in the Synod which it has maintained through all the years that followed.
In 1911 he married Miss Margaretta Webb Holden, who, with their three sons, survives him.
From Summit he went to the Fort Street Church of Detroit, and later served as Associate Pastor for seven years of the Fifth Avenue Church of New York. His last pastorate was in Greenwich, Connecticut. In every church to which he ministered as
preacher, pastor, teacher and church administrator, he adorned in all things the doctrine of God, his Saviour.
His sympathy with younger minis- ters, wrestling with the problems and discouragements of their first pastor- ates, and his willingness to give them of his time and counsel, are the precious memories of many in the Church. He was a soul-winning pastor who pointed the way to God for many perplexed souls and who walked with them along their new paths.
For many years he was an active member of this Board. In times of con- troversy and difference of opinion among church leaders, his patience and Christlike spirit were as the “Shadow of a great rock in a weary land.” Few men in the long history of the Church have served their generation by the Will of God more faithfully than Minot Canfield Morgan.
The distinguished President Emeri- tus of the Reformed Presbyterian The- ological Seminary said when the news of his death came, “I never visited Princeton without calling on Minot Morgan. He was the most perfect Chris- tian gentleman I have ever known.”
His memory to all who knew him is a heritage laid up in heaven for the resurrection of the just.
He died in the Pocono Mountains on August 14.
“And so he passed over and all the trumpets sounded for him on the other side.”
(This Memorial Minute was adopted by a rising vote of the Board of Trus- tees at the October meeting, 1955. Pray- er was offered by the Reverend Walter L. Whallon, D.D.)
BOOK REVIEWS
The Book of Jeremiah and Lamen- tations, by Charles R. Erdman. Revell, New York, 1955. $2.00.
Those of us who were privileged to sit under the inspiring teaching of Dr. Charles R. Erdman, Professor Emeritus of Practical Theology at Princeton Theological Seminary, Princeton, New Jersey, will rejoice in the latest of his voluminous writings — his new commentary on “The Book of Jeremiah and Lamentations.” With a gift for clarity of expression, he is able to interpret difficult passages of Scripture in such simple lan- guage that even a layman can understand.
Jeremiah, oftentimes referred to as the “weeping prophet,” uttered dire warnings of doom against Judah because of their sinful- ness, apostasy, and idolatry. Dr. Erdman gives a graphic picture of the times in which Jeremiah prophesied, and his unpopularity, his imprisonment, his enforced exile in Egypt, because he predicted the downfall of Judah. His outline of the book sets forth “The Call of the Prophet,” “The Condemnation of Ju- dah,” “The Promise of the Restoration,” “The Guilt and Destruction of Jerusalem,” “The Judgment Upon the Nations,” and “Captivity and Release.”
This volume is another book every minister will wish to add to his library from the facile pen of Dr. Erdman. His seventeen book commentaries on the New Testament, and his commentaries on “The Pentateuch” and “Isaiah” afford rich studies for the mid- week prayer service or special Bible study groups.
Under the “Condemnation of Judah” Dr. Erdman first lists “General Denunciations and Warning” because of Judah’s unfaithful- ness to her Lord. This unfaithfulness is in two forms — worshipping false gods and seek- ing alliances with pagan nations. It is pic- tured by an arresting figure of speech, namely, “the infidelity of a wife to her hus- band.” Then follows “Charges Against the Rulers” and “The Design and Duration of the Exile.”
As one who has been greatly helped and blessed by the books of Dr. Erdman through
30 years of my ministry, I commend this new volume, first, to those who sat at the feet of Dr. Erdman in the class room, but more particularly to those younger ministers who never had that rich privilege, but seek for a fuller understanding of God’s Word.
Edward H. Jones
First Presbyterian Church Norfolk, Virginia
The Book of Isaiah, by Charles R. Erdman. Revell, New York, 1954. Pp. 160. $2.00.
The feature of Dr. Erdman’s Old Testa- ment Commentaries is that they read with consecutive ease and attraction for the novice as well as for one more accustomed to the cumbersome “mining operations” of the usu- al word by word commentary. Here is ex- position in the “vista-dome” style where a panorama of the main features can be seen in one sweep. Yet, nothing of the color or detail is lacking.
Isaiah has been called “The Evangelical Prophet.” Such a motif controls the book so largely concerned with the coming of Him whose name is wonderful. The commentary is evangelical in tone as it deals with the majestic mercy of God. Here is a refreshing commentator who synthesizes the vibrant hope and good news implicit in the Old Tes- tament and explicit in the New. Quick and easy references can be made to correspond- ing or relevant New Testament passages because they are indicated by parentheses.
Many will enjoy thoroughly the artistic selections of Isaiah which are printed in full with the comments. They can be read with- out reference to another volume. Those who know Dr. Erdman’s spirit will understand the high fidelity quality of the passages chosen, and will hear the universal tones they sound. Just a reading of the italicized portions at a sitting is refreshing.
The book is full of radio-active ore that will stir anyone’s homiletical geiger-counter. The suggestions come in two forms chiefly : time worn categories of spiritual instruction which are struck off in atomic age relevancy
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and then moral propositional sentences of enduring quality.
The structural quality of the book is in keeping with modern literary architecture. It moves in straight lines without interruption to the pinnacle. There are three main sec- tions : Prophecies of Fulfillment, The His- torical Section, Prophecies of Restoration. Each of these sections is subdivided into rea- sonable chapters with a unifying theme.
Another value of Dr. Erdman’s style of commentary is that he uses a condensation technique. He summarizes long portions and links them to the pivotal point of the proph- ecy. This makes the volume useful as a text as well as a tool.
Anyone in search of new devotional ideas will find many in passing, cast off as sparks from an anvil. Here is a fresh appeal to an arid subject like “Sabbath observance” or “idolatry today.”
Dr. Erdman’s book is more like a travelog than a time-table. It is an accurate, refresh- ing exposition by a spiritually minded man of perception. Hence, it is a book worth read- ing privately or in wider distribution in a church’s imaginative program of Bible edu- cation.
Bryant Kirkland First Presbyterian Church Haddonfield, New Jersey
Lexical Aids for Students of New Testament Greek, by Bruce M. Metz- ger. Enlarged Edition. Published by the Author, Princeton, N.J., 1955. 118 pp. $1.25.
As everybody knows, Greek has fallen on evil days in the colleges ; it is being crowded out to an alarming degree and theological seminaries realize that if they wish to see their students read the N.T. in the original, they themselves have to teach this language. Dr. Metzger is one of the men who not only see and deplore the unfavorable aspect of the situation, but who do something about it. The unpretentious book before us, whose purpose is to help the student acquire a working vocabulary of the Greek N.T., was first issued in 1946. That it has done yeo- man’s work and become popular in theologi- cal schools is apparent from the fact that it
now has been printed six times. When the sixth printing was undertaken the author used the opportunity for sending the book out in a new edition.
The work consists of two parts, the first one of which presents N.T. words classified according to their frequency. The words are arranged in groups, the first one containing those occurring more than 500 times, the second those that occur 201 to 500 times, and so the groups continue to file past us till the last one is reached which lists the words oc- curring 10 times. The total number of words appearing 10 times or more is 1055. Here we evidently have the backbone of the N.T. vocabulary ; whoever has become familiar with these words will not have too much trouble in reading the N.T. section of the Book of Books. He will of course still have to use a lexicon because there are 5594 dif- ferent words in the N.T., but the drudgery of the task will be gone. The student will rather feel like the botanist who roaming in familiar fields here and there finds a new flower, which he is happy to classify. The vocabulary has been made interesting by frequent addition in parentheses of English derivatives from the Greek word in question.
The second part presents N.T. words clas- sified according to their root. After some valuable explanatory remarks, dealing with the formation of words, lists are given in which words that have the same root are grouped together. Thus, the first group we meet consists of 20 words that have the root 'ay — . Part Two does not submit all the words, or only words, of Part One. But it, too, occupies itself with vocables of comparative frequency, no word being included which occurs less than five times. It is obvious that the student here is furnished an insight into what may be called the mechanics of Greek, and unless he is totally devoid of imagination, he cannot help being fasci- nated. There are five appendices: the first one gives concise, interesting information on the Indo-European family of languages ; the second treats of prepositions in composi- tion with verbs ; the third presents a table of correlative pronouns and adverbs ; the fourth (added in this new edition) submits the principal parts of some important verbs ; the fifth (likewise new) brings a list of feminine
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nouns of the second declension. Mention should be made too, of the constant endeavor to “associate the old with the new, the strange with the familiar” (p. vii), and to make rules meaningful by adding examples. Of various other features that could be men- tioned, it must suffice to allude to the enu- meration of the standard lexicons in this field. Altogether it is surprising how much worthwhile information is here given in small compass. The esteemed author intro- duces his volume with a Greek slogan which in Latin is rendered, Non multa, sed multum; and we state gratefully that he actually has given us multum in parvo.
William F. Arndt
Concordia Seminary St. Louis, Mo.
Annotated Bibliography of the Tex- tual Criticism of the New Testament 1914-1939. Compiled by Bruce M. Metzger. Copenhagen: E. Munksgaard, 1955. Pp- xviii + !33- 24 Danish kr. (circa $3.60)
This is a valuable tool for scholars who work in the field of New Testament textual criticism. They will find it based upon wide linguistic competence and systematic schol- arly research. It exhibits comprehensiveness and careful organization.
Professor Metzger’s annotated “bibliog- raphy is a list of books, monographs, studies, dissertations, and articles which deal with the textual criticism of the New Testament and which appeared between 1914 and 1939 inclusive” (p. ix). Dr. E. C. Colwell notes in an appreciative Foreword that the author has searched 236 periodicals and serials (87 yielded nothing for his purpose, and he merely lists them to spare other scholars the need of making the same fruitless search). He has worked in eleven different modern languages, and found the means to get at the essential content of writings in half a dozen more. The result is a bibliography of about 1200 relevant items, arranged under nine main divisions, some of which are fur- ther subdivided under convenient subheads. To a large proportion of these items is added a summary or concise characterization of the content.
This is not a work for the ordinary reader, or even for the pastor. It is a reference work which will long serve certain needs of serious students of New Testament textual criticism. It covers a subject and a period for which there had been no comprehensive biblio- graphical survey. So it fills a wide gap in its field, and those who know Professor Metzger’s competence and resourcefulness in bibliographical work will use his results with confidence and appreciation.
Floyd V. Filson McCormick Theological Seminary Chicago, 111.
Christ The Conqueror, Ideas of Con- flict and Victory in the New Testament, by Ragnar Leivestad. S.P.C.K., Lon- don, 1954. XI, 320 pp. 25 s.
Recent publications have made plain that a renewal of Christology is not to be ex- pected from new speculations in the field of systematic theology but merely from new impulses originating in a renewed study of the New Testament. Dr. Leivestad, a young Norwegian theologian, will open many an eye to the amazing hold the dogma has had on the Biblical scholar, and the narrowed perspective which has resulted from that fact.
Taking up hints which Bishop Aulen in his book Christus Victor had thrown out the author makes a systematic survey of the various ways in which the motifs of conflict and victory appear in the literature of the Intertestamental period and in the New Testament. He classifies them as dy- namistic, traditional-apocalyptic, moral-mar- tyrological, forensic and dramatic-mythical. In a painstaking analysis of the principal groups of New Testament books he singles out all the passages — and there are many — in which those motifs appear. On the basis of a careful exegesis he reaches the conclu- sion that there is no unified view of them, and that the various motifs do not constitute a single “species” (p. 285). Nevertheless, in his summary he states that all of them are integrated in the symbol of the Cross, in which love is proclaimed as triumphing over all opposition.
With this scholarly study, Dr. Leivestad
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has ingratiated himself deeply to all the students of the New Testament. The book is an invaluable collection of material stud- ied in the light of modern scholarship, and a challenge further to investigate the theo- logical implications of his results. On the basis of this work it can no longer be denied that in the New Testament “all phases of the existence of Christ from his appearance on earth until the last Judgment are connected with aspects of conflict and victory” (p. 241). One regrets only that the author was not able to make use of the recently discovered Dead Sea scrolls. They would have shown him, e.g., that the apparently static contrast of truth and falsehood, light and darkness, life and death in John’s Gospel is a literary device that hides but does not deny the on- going fight.
This reviewer also feels that there is at times an uncertainty in the author’s mind as to the exact nature of the conflict. He in- sists, e.g., that the moral conflict in Jesus’ Temptation and in the exorcism of the de- mons were of an entirely different character (e.g. p. 51, but modified p. 293). But this judgment is based upon the erroneous view that Jesus was depicted in the Synoptic Gos- pel as being a Jewish exorcist operating with a power outside himself, whereas the Gospel stories make it clear that it was by means of his being the Son of God that the demons were moved to leave those whom Jesus had elected for himself. In discussing 1 Pet. 3 : 18-20 the author engages in highly sagacious hypotheses concerning the moment of time when Jesus descended into Hades. In my opinion the most plausible explanation of that mysterious passage is found when, in agreement with Jewish and early Christian thought, Jesus in his death went to the abode of the dead. Since it was there that he was raised again to life the miracle of the Resur- rection was a proclamation of comfort to all the other departed ones telling them au- thoritatively that for them, too, there was the hope of a new life.
Orro A. Piper
The Apostle Paul, His Message and Doctrine, by Olaf Moe. Engl. Tr. by L. A. Vigness. Augsburg Publishing
House, Minneapolis, Minn. 1954. XIII, 489 pp. $4.75.
This is the second volume of the Nor- wegian theologian’s work on St. Paul (see PTS Bull. XLIV, 3 [1950-51]. p. 69). The work shares all the fine features of its prede- cessor, the conscientious attention paid to detail, the fair hearing given to various interpretations, the breadth of learning, the sober scholarship, the careful documentation and the simple and readable style. Over against the majority of the nineteenth cen- tury scholars who started from the anti- Jewish ideas of Paul Dr. Moe rightly looks first for what is basic in the Apostle’s writings. Thus he begins with Paul’s mis- sionary message, which, as he points out, was substantially in agreement with that of the Primitive Church. He furthermore dif- ferentiates between what is now commonly called the kerygma and the didache. While the book is mainly devoted to a discussion of Paul’s theology, the author states emphati- cally, nevertheless, that apart from its back- ground in kerygma and didache Paul’s the- ology is unintelligible. In other words, Paul’s theology is not an end in itself but rather it is a means by which he expresses his message and witness.
Methodologically, this arrangement of the material of the Epistles is a master stroke. This differentiation into various strata en- ables the scholar to do full justice historically to the Pauline literature without neglecting the purpose for which it was written. Un- fortunately, however, the actual presentation is somewhat disappointing. One would expect that all the theological topics referred to or discussed by Paul would be shown in their relation to a foundational experience or a central idea by which they were given coherence and unity. Instead the author fur- nishes a very detailed list of theological ideas, which, helpful as it is for reference purposes, depicts a Paul who looks like a Lutheran systematic theologian of the sev- enteenth century. This treatment has a two- fold disadvantage. It fails to explain the greatness of Paul the missionary and the ferocity of Paul the fighter. At the same time this picture of Paul lacks the strange- ness which recent scholarship has detected
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in the Apostle’s writings, and by which those, who take it seriously, are enabled to discover the real message of the man of Tarsus behind the familiar formulae of their Protestant setting. Far from detracting from the value of Paul’s theology, a truly modern treatment would have made Paul genuinely relevant to our age, whereas Dr. Moe’s study offers hardly more than a collection of theological proof texts for a type of systematic theology whose value has become questionable to our generation.
Otto A. Piper
The Fourth Gospel and Its Message for Today, by W. H. Rigg. Lutter- worth Press, London 1952. 285 pp. 15 s.
To judge from the publishers’ lists, no other book of the New Testament is more popular in England than John’s Gospel. One explanation of that fact may be that the last of the gospels is the most catholic one, i.e. less controversial than any other of the canonical writings. Archdeacon Rigg, of Bodmin, Cornwall, does not intend to give a new exegesis of John. His work rests solidly upon the English tradition, and not- withstanding the fact that the first chapter surveys the interpretations given by the school of Comparative Religion, his own presentation in the bulk of the book hardly refers again to the problems raised by those scholars.
The archdeacon’s main purpose is to indi- cate the relevancy of the basic topics of the Gospel. He discusses successively the Glory of God, Eternal Life, Sin and its Atonement, the Reception of the Eternal Life by Faith, the Church and the Sacraments, and he ends with a few concluding remarks on the author of the Gospel, who in his view was a dis- ciple of Jesus and an eyewitness, and thus most likely the Son of Zebedee, and on Johannine irony. A comparison with C. H. Dodd ( The Interpretation of the Fourth Gospel, Cambridge 1954) is most instruc- tive. Such topics as Sin, Atonement, Faith, Witness, Church and Sacraments, which are treated in great detail by Rigg, are men- tioned only incidentally by Dodd. In turn, Dodd’s chapters on the Knowledge of God,
and Truth, have no equivalent in Rigg, and whereas the person of Christ is discussed under the heading “The Glory of God” by the Archdeacon and, as the clue to the whole gospel, is assigned the opening chapter, the Cambridge professor has four chapters on the titles of Christ, yet only at the end of his great work.
It is obvious that to Dodd the Fourth Gos- pel represents a kind of gnosis, whereas Rigg sees it as destined to call forth personal faith. The latter viewpoint, though perhaps less interesting than the former one, provides definitely more solid food for the nurture of the spiritual life. Furthermore the evangel- ist’s theological ideas are thereby given their adequate setting. The atoning work of Christ is correlated with Sin, eternal life is con- trasted with the wrath of God and punish- ment, and the knowledge of God is the fruit of rebirth. It should not be overlooked, however, that in his desire to make the Fourth Gospel relevant for our age the author seems at times to be more interested in intra-ecclesiastical problems than in the questions by which the layman is vexed in these days.
This reviewer would hold that measured by the exegesis of the Reformers the modern interpretation of John’s Gospel suffers from the theologians’ unwillingness or inability to probe deeply into the spiritual realities which the evangelist wants to proclaim. As a result, John is at times taken to task for not agreeing with the student’s philosophy, and at other times is placed on the level of a modern revival evangelist. Don’t we see that in the Fourth Gospel a man is address- ing us who is anxious to divulge the deep mysteries of God?
Otto A. Piper
A Theological German Vocabulary, by Walter Mosse. Macmillan, New York, 1955. VIII, 148 pp. $2.50.
Anybody trying to learn a new language will soon realize that no less important than the mastery of its basic vocabulary is the knowledge of the technical terminology ap- plying to the special field in which he is interested. Unlike doctors, engineers, avia- tors and scientists, the theologians lacked
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such special list of words in the German language. Dr. Mosse, who for many years has successfully initiated the graduate stu- dents of Princeton Seminary no less than those of a number of other seminaries into the finer points of theological German, has now filled that gap. Based on his rich ex- perience the selection has been made suf- ficiently comprehensive to enable the student to acquire a satisfactory reading knowledge without encumbering his mind with rare and antiquated words. Quotations from the mod- ern version of Luther’s Bible illustrate many of the words and thus offer admirable helps for memorization. As a rule, theological terms derived from Latin and Greek roots are not listed, since they do not differ greatly from those used in the works of theologians writing in English. The booklet should prove to be equally valuable for language classes and self-instruction.
Otto A. Piper
The Life and Art of Albrecht Diirer, by Erwin Panofsky. Fourth edition. Princeton University Press, Princeton, N.J. 1955. XXXII, 317 pp. and 325 ill. $10.00.
Among experts, Dr. Panofsky’s book on Diirer has long become a standard work, since it is not only the first comprehensive monograph in English on the German artist, but also one of the most erudite works on the epoch. This popular edition comes very timely, because notwithstanding its some- what technical character the book deserves the attention of wide circles. Its author is one of those rare scholars in the history of Art who combines technical knowledge and aesthetic appreciation with a profound un- derstanding of the spiritual life, which is the source of all genuine art. Dr. Panofsky, who came from Germany and is now a member of the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton, had previously focussed his main interest on the art of the Renaissance, which included both its medieval roots and its survival in the art of the seventeenth century.
In the work under review, Diirer’s art emerges not as the mere product of the artist’s personal mind but rather as the fruit
of a life spent in the world of the Renais- sance but reaching back to the German Mid- dle Ages and extending into the early years of Luther’s reformation (1471-1528). His greatness is shown to lie in the thorough- ness with which the master of Nuremberg attempted to combine the new aesthetic standards of the Italian school with the spiritual wrestling and groping of a typical German. For one thing, this book makes clear beyond doubt, how wrong the Anglo- Saxon art historians were in neglecting al- most completely the contribution of the Ger- man masters of the sixteenth century, who had had no contacts with the British Isles.
A good many of Diirer’s drawings, etch- ings and woodcuts are devoted to Biblical or religious subjects, best known of which are his two sets of illustrations of the Pas- sion and the grandiose woodcuts of the Apocalypse. Their special interest for the theologian lies in the original interpretation that Diirer gives to the Biblical texts. While, as the learned author demonstrates, Diirer followed well established traditions in hun- dreds of minor details, the total conception of each picture was entirely his own and fully original. Here is a layman’s theology whose significance has been far too little appreciated. The only other painter who matches him in exegetical depth and warmth, is Rembrandt.
It is especially in the Apocalypse that Diirer shows how deeply he is in love with this beautiful world which he praises in hundreds of his drawings. Yet he also inti- mates that this is a world which is com- pletely under God’s control and judgment, because everywhere powers of evil and de- struction are at work in it. If anything can give the reader an idea of the way Ger- many was prepared for Luther and the Reformation, it is Diirer’s early religious art.
Otto A. Piper
The Old Testament and the Fine Arts, by Cynthia Pearl Maus. Harper and Brothers, New York, 1954- 826 pp. $5-95-
Everyday Life in New Testament Times, by Adam Coates Bouquet.
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Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York,
1954. 236 pp. $3.50.
These two books are very much unlike in content and form, yet they are strikingly alike in function. Each in its own way is designed to be a resource for interpreting the Bible. Miss Maus presents an anthology of pictures, poetry, music, and stories cov- ering the Old Testament ; a companion vol- ume to the already well-known Christ and the Fine Arts, first published in 1938. Mr. Bouquet gives the reader an array of fac- tual details ordinarily to be found in a Bible Dictionary but presented here in a much more panoramic and readable fashion. Miss Maus shows what an extraordinary impact the Bible has made upon art, literature, and music. She then goes on to indicate how these vital relations between the Old Testa- ment and the Fine Arts can be used ad- vantageously as visual or auditory aids in teaching or preaching. By providing the twentieth-century reader with the everyday facts of the first-century Mediterranean world, Mr. Bouquet introduces him to the essential first-hand information for under- standing the social and economic background of New Testament thought and life. Taken together these two books practically comple- ment each other as invaluable implements of Biblical interpretation.
Miss Maus makes no claim to original scholarly research. She leaves such matters to Old Testament or cultural specialists, and she quotes generously from them. Her work has been to compile and to arrange a great wealth of available cultural materials which have been inspired by or which illustrate the stream of life out of which the Old Tes- tament has come. She has presented these materials as highlights of the Pentateuch, the periods of Joshua and the Judges, the Kingdoms of Saul, David and Solomon, the Kingdom of Israel, the Kingdom of Judah, and the Fall of Judah, the Exile, and the Return. Carefully prepared indices at the end of the volume classify these materials by titles and composers. Thus the reader is given ready access both to specific scriptural data as well as to significant interpretations of the data drawn from the vast wealth of the fine arts. Along with these excellencies one might well wish that the art master-
pieces, or at least a few of them, might have been reproduced in color. Of course this would have increased the price of the book materially. As it is any reader who desires a reproduction better than the black and white provided by the book can likely secure it elsewhere. He usually will find the author’s interpretation of the pictures help- ful although, together with the story inter- pretations of the Old Testament situations, these parts are the least valuable contribu- tions of the book. The musical selections from the spirituals, hymns and oratorios as well as the accompanying descriptions of their historical settings are very appropri- ately included. But why did Miss Maus omit the first verse of the great Russian Hymn, which begins, “God, the Omnipotent!” (p.
304) ?
Mr. Bouquet’s work is the result of three years of research including a protracted pe- riod of residence in the Middle East. The text is accompanied by 102 illustrations most of which are line drawings of objects, peo- ple and scenes described in the text, and are done by Mrs. Marjorie Quennell. Also included are some black and white reproduc- tions of on-the-spot paintings of J. J. Tissot, 16 photographs and 4 maps. The book is addressed to English young people. Un- fortunately no attempt has been made in the American edition to alter the references to money and measures into terms most familiar to American readers.
The total picture presented by Mr. Bou- quet gives an instructive cross-section of everyday life in Palestine in New Testa- ment times. It includes for instance well- written descriptions of fauna and climate, racial varieties, taxation, relations of Jew and Gentile, the Roman army, houses, water supply, baths, drains and sanitation, lighting, pottery, costume, meals and food, country life, roads and travel, letters and letter-writ- ing, books and libraries, distribution of news, weights and measures, coinage, procedure in law courts, births, marriages, death, slavery, education, medicine, dentistry, mechanical ap- pliances, amusements and recreation, re- ligious worship, and so forth. In short this book sketches a close-up, intimate picture of everyday life of the Bible world in the first century. Mr. Bouquet vivifies his treat- ment by a personal epilogue in which he
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shows why the picture of the ancient world which he has drawn has such vast meaning for us today.
Howard Tillman Kuist
The Good News. The New Testa- ment of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. In eight 32 page portions, with 566 photographs and with 14 maps. The American Bible Society, 450 Park Avenue, New York, N.Y. 1955. $2.00.
Since 1951 the American Bible Society has been issuing separate rotogravure bro- chures of the Gospels. Luke was published under the title of The Good Neivs; Matthew, The Light Of The World; John, He Gave His Only Son; The Acts appeared under the title Into All The World. To these now have been added the other New Testament documents, thus making a single volume : Mark, Souring The Seed; Romans, I and II Corinthians, More Than Conquerors; Ga- latians through Hebrews, A Cloud Of Wit- nesses; and James through The Revelation, Out Of Death Into Life.
The volume is bound in attractive 8 14 x 11 inch covers. The front cover carries the title and two full-color photographs, one of the river Jordan, and the other of the Sea of Galilee. The back cover includes four quar- ter-page color pictures of Athens, Corinth, Rome, and the Island of Patmos. Five years of planning and research and travel were required to complete the publication. Some of the photographs involved negotiations with governmental and air ministries, or ex- tensive museum searches. The text is pre- sented in three columns. Chapter and verse divisions have been eliminated except in parentheses beside paragraph or segment titles. Photographs of scenes or artifacts accompany the text in striking proximity. They provide vivid illustrations of the Bib- lical content and help to vivify both narrative and discourse for the reader.
One rather strange feature of this book is the fact that thirteen of the New Testa- ment documents are printed in the King James Version, while fourteen are in the Revised Standard Version. No indication is given for the choice of either text. But it
goes without saying that, whatever the ver- sion, the format of this New Testament is one of the most attractive and instructive ever to be issued in the English language for personal reading, or for use in the home, library, or class room.
Howard TillmaJt Kuist
The School of St. Matthew and its Use of the Old Testament, by Krister Stendahl. (Acta seminarii neotestamen- tici Upsaliensis, vol. XX.) Lund: C. W. K. Gleerup, 1954. Pp. 249. Price, 18 Swedish crowns.
This dissertation by one of the younger men who were trained by the late Anton Fridrichsen of Uppsala reveals all of the meticulous scholarship which has been char- acteristic of that school. Dr. Stendahl, who is now Assistant Professor of New Testa- ment at Harvard Divinity School, has made a significant contribution to the investiga- tion of the background and composition of the First Gospel.
Starting from von Dobschiitz’s conclu- sions that the author of the Gospel accord- ing to Matthew was a rabbi — probably trained in the school of Jochanan ben Zak- kai — who had become a Christian teacher and who made use of his Jewish training in presenting the Christian Gospel, Stendahl goes on to consider the kind of audience or pupils whom the author served in his teach- ing activities. That is, Stendahl investigates the question whether the type of work which Matthew undertook was a unique feature in the primitive Church ; whether his methods of teaching and handling of tradition as well as Scripture were merely a remnant of his previous training; or whether there was in the Church where he lived and served any counterpart to his old milieu.
In a very interesting fashion, Stendahl makes out a case for regarding the Gospel according to Matthew as a handbook is- sued by a school for catechetical purposes (in the widest sense). This “school,” he finds, was a kind of brotherhood ( chaburah ) which went back in its roots to the group of disciples, or learners, who addressed Jesus as “Rabbi,” or teacher. The author restricts his study chiefly to a painstaking
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examination of the quotations of the Old Testament which are found in the First Gospel. He discovers that, particularly in quotations which are introduced by a formula and which have no parallels in the other Gospels, Matthew “wrote Greek and ren- dered the O.T. quotations along the lines of various traditions and methods of interpreta- tions. ... In distinction from the rest of the Synoptics and the Epistles with what seems to be their self-evident use of the LXX, Matthew was capable of having, and did have, the authority to create a rendering of his own’’ (p. 127). When one compares Matthew’s method of citing the Old Testa- ment with what may be called the pcsher manner of interpretation followed by the Sect at Qumran as disclosed in the recently discovered Habakkuk Commentary,, several similarities as well as dissimilarities are apparent. Among the former are certain “features of text interpretation of an actu- alizing nature, often closely associated with the context in the gospel” (pp. 200f.). For example, the reason why Matthew, unlike the other Evangelists, stresses the two asses in Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem (Matt. 21:5), is that he knew a tradition which spoke of Jesus’ use of two asses and therefore he em- phasizes this feature even more than does the Septuagint rendering of the prophecy (Zech. 9:9), which to Matthew was fulfilled in a very exact way. Contrary to the theory popu- larized by Rendal Harris, Stendahl finds no evidence that Matthew depended upon a so- called Book of Testimonies, i.e., a list of Old Testament prophetic proof-texts with their fulfillments in life and work of Jesus.
Even where one may disagree with de- tails in this learned and carefully wrought out dissertation, seldom does the reader fail to be stimulated by the suggestiveness of Stendahl’s rich and rewarding investigation.
Bruce M. Metzger
The Drama of the Book of Revela- tion, by John Wick Bowman. Philadel- phia: The Westminster Press, [1955]. Pp. 159. $2.50.
One of the most abused books in the Bible is the Revelation to John. Although von Harnack professed to believe that it is
the easiest book of the New Testament to understand, most readers have had a dif- ferent opinion. Because of its special charac- teristics involving visions that are narrated by means of elaborate symbols, the key to some of which is unknown today, this book of Scripture, on the one hand, has had a special fascination for a certain type of reader, but, on the other hand, has been neglected by the majority of Christians to their own spiritual detriment.
Professor John Wick Bowman of San Francisco Theological Seminary here pre- sents the text of Revelation, which he trans- lates anew, in the framework of a drama. Many authors have previously pointed out certain dramatic elements in this book, but few have made such a consistent attempt to' bring everything in the book under this rubric. Bowman arranges the material into seven acts of seven scenes in each act. As to format, he places the Scripture text and his brief comments so that they face each other on opposite pages, making it a con- venient book to study.
The translation, or (as it frequently turns out to be) the paraphrase, usually follows Nestle’s well-known Greek text, although at numerous points Bowman departs from that text to adopt a wording that, as he says, “in my judgment better represents the proph- et’s mind” (p. 8). As a result, it is some- times difficult to decide whether a given rendering is a loose paraphase of Nestle’s text, or whether here Bowman has chosen to adopt a variant reading.
In general the comments, though at times too brief, will be found to be both discrimi- nating and helpful. Bowman’s exegesis falls into the “philosophy of history” type of in- terpretation which was represented, for ex- ample, by William Milligan’s classic con- tribution to the Expositor’s Bible.
Perhaps Bowman himself feels that he has forced sections of Revelation into the rigorous mold of a drama, for he concludes his Introduction with the words, “Though the reader remain unconvinced that John conceived of his book as a drama in the grand style of the prophetic rhapsody as herein proposed, yet its message is clear. For it breathes its author’s strong faith in the Church’s triumphant march to victory
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and in God’s eventual fulfillment of his sav- ing purpose relative to mankind” (p. 13). Bowman has caught something of the majes- ty of the book of Revelation, and his volume, despite its rather mechanical insistence upon the trappings of drama, will doubtless be found useful by many in pointing the way to a sane and sensible interpretation of the last book of the Bible.
Bruce M. Metzger
Jewish Symbols in the Greco-Roman Period : Volume 4, The Problem of Method [and] Symbols from the Jew- ish Cult, by Erwin R. Goodenough. (Bollingen Series, XXXVII.) New York: Pantheon Books, Inc., 1954. Pp. xiii -(- 235 -f- 1 17 illustrations. $7.50.
The first three volumes of Professor Goodenough’s monumental project were re- viewed in this Bulletin two years ago (Vol. xlvii, no. 4; May, 1954) ; the present vol- ume contains Parts V and VI of the work. Presupposing the archeological information supplied in the earlier volumes, Part V deals with methods of interpreting the archeologi- cal data ; Part VI deals with the symbolism of certain Jewish cult-objects.
In chapter one of Part V Goodenough as- siduously collects various Talmudic references to contemporary Jewish iconography. The rabbis only grudgingly tolerated the pres- ence of pictorial representations which seemed to run counter to the commandment against images. Chapter two is the most controversial in the whole volume. Here the author attempts to interpret the mentality and religious concepts which found expres- sion in this hellenized Jewish art. He rejects the philological approach (p. 26), yet more than once, quite inevitably, makes partial use of this method. His chief technique, how- ever, is modern psychological analysis. Al- though Goodenough avers that the main “dif- ference between a ‘great’ religion and a sect . . . [is that] the great religion offers many roads, the sect few, or only one” (p. 43), he chooses to interpret the multifarious types of Jewish symbols within the narrow con- fines of a single school of psychology — the
Freudian. With more rhetoric than clinical evidence, he writes in o priori fashion re- garding the basic satisfactions of the life urge, namely eating and sexual expression (pp. 50 ff.). The symbols which Jews bor- rowed from paganism are supposed by Good- enough to represent a submerged nostalgia in the fulfillment of the great life urge, sub- limated to a desire for mystic union with the Mother-Father. The original erotic aspects of symbolism in the fertility cults became obscured until, by means of Goodenough’s analysis, their primitive meaning is presum- ably once again disclosed.
The second part of the volume deals with native Jewish symbols which are found so widely throughout Jewish art of the hel- lenistic age: the Menorah (lampstand), To- rah shrine, lulab or ethrog (palm branch and citrus fruit), shofar (ram’s horn trum- pet), and incense shovel. According to Goodenough, these representations were Jew- ish substitutes for pagan symbols, and car- ried mystic and eschatological interpreta- tions.
Throughout this volume the reader will find a mingling of many archeological data with quite dubious assertions regarding the interpretation of hidden symbolic motifs. All readers will be grateful to Goodenough for having assembled a great deal of evidence of the prevalence of artistic representation in hellenistic, and even Palestinian, Judaism in the Greco-Roman period. On the other hand, the utilizing of a psychological method cur- rent a generation ago, and the reliance upon a purely phenomenological approach to a philosophy of symbolism, raise, to say the least, very serious doubts as to the validity of Goodenough’s conclusions in the sphere of religious interpretation.
Bruce M. Metzger
Jesus and the First Three Gospels, an Introduction to the Synoptic Tradi- tion, by Walter E. Bundy. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Mass. 1955- pP- xxiii-598. $7.50.
This volume is a sequel and companion to an earlier work by the same author, Sylla- bus and Synopsis of the First Three Gospels (Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, 1932). It of-
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fers the reader an extremely detailed and highly critical study of the Synoptic Gospels, Matthew, Mark, and Luke. The author scru- tinizes the genuineness, the place in the life of Jesus, and the source of each section. He remains aware of the possible influence of each Gospel-writer’s plan and purpose on the way in which he arranged and presented his material.
The book begins with a critical study of Luke’s Preface. Luke’s claim to a careful study of the material is dismissed as a mere formality in keeping with the custom of that day. Consequently the Preface should be taken cum grano sails. Luke has a super- natural view of history and a didactic pur- pose. He wrote Christian propaganda.
With these assumptions the first two chap- ters of Matthew and Luke are examined and found contradictory, e.g., according to Mat- thew Jesus was born during the reign of Herod the Great, which could not have been later than 4 b.c., but according to Luke he was born at the time of the census which Bundy dates a.d. 6-7. Bethlehem is regarded in the spirit of Bruno Bauer as a birthplace of “dogmatic assumption.” “The birth stor- ies,” it is concluded, “are impossible. As fic- tion, they are admirable and merit careful study” (p. 38).
The time and place settings and the details of many of the incidents reported in the life of Jesus are regarded as questionable edi- torial material added to make a story.
Bundy finds Mark rather fond of exorcisms which would be “questionable dramatized dogma.” The conversation between Jesus and the unclean spirit of Mark 1 :23-27 no one ever saw or heard. The validity of the rela- tionship between Jesus and John the Baptist is doubted and the temptation of Jesus is re- garded as legendary. The intervention of Pilate’s wife is a probable insertion of the final redactor of Matthew and has little to support its claim to historicity. The account of the malefactor on the cross is legend. With Strauss Bundy deems the resurrection with- out historical verification. Man’s aspiration for a life beyond created this incredible story in the early Church.
The question then arises, How is it with the words of Jesus? Siding with Klausner, Montefiore, and others, the author regards the Sermon on the Mount as a compilation
of sayings, some of which may have a rab- binical background or a rabbinical origin. As the Sermon now stands, it is the result of Matthew’s own literary work and compila- tion, an expansion of about three or four times of what he found in Q. It is futile to attempt to reconstruct the possible form in which it was spoken by Jesus.
Some parables underwent a change of mean- ing, others were created. So, e.g., the parable of the tares might have been built on an original of Jesus, but it could also be “the out-and-out creation and invention of Mat- thew” (p. 232). In determining the authen- ticity of sayings attributed to Jesus, Bundy examines whether they have a Jewish or non-Jewish undertone to them. Perhaps one should keep in mind that at the time of Jesus, Palestine had seen three centuries of Hel- lenism, and one must assume absolutely wa- tertight compartments of Jews and Gentiles to validate this criterion.
The author concludes that the Synoptic ma- terials “fall within the category of tradition, and not that of history or biography ” (p. 579). As such the Gospels contain fact and fancy, and would not fall in the realm of what would commonly be called “truth.” This raises the question whether such a tradition can be substituted for truth, but the book does not seem to be concerned about this problem.
The author revived many of the doubts of the liberal schools of the previous century held by Strauss, Bruno Bauer, etc. The book is a member of the Formgeschichte family, an excellent example of how this school of thought roots far back into the previous cen- tury. Like others of this school the author sometimes fails to motivate adequately his rejection of material as unauthentic. It hardly seems sufficient, e.g., to dismiss Luke’s report of the Galileans slain by Pilate (13:1-5) by merely stating that a passage “reads like a pure literary composition which never ex- isted in oral form” (p. 365f.).
The author’s work lacks constructiveness, but it contains a great deal of research in the Synoptic Problem, and the student can bene- fit greatly from it. However, it is regrettable that he did not summarize his findings in this respect so that they are easily digestible.
Many a reader will be radically at variance with Bundy, but his skeptical attitude and
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critical presentation will stimulate thought and re-investigation.
Daniel J. Theeon
Religious Faith, Language, and Knowledge ( A Philosophical Preface to theology), by Ben F. Kimpel. New York: Philosophical Library, 1952. Pp. 162. $2.75.
This is a closely reasoned philosophical essay by the professor of Philosophy, Drew University. The author’s main purpose is to uncover the limited character of the claims to knowledge of philosophies based on Em- piricism. If you commonly meet men and women trained in modern science and con- cerned to discuss Christianity, or rather concerned with Christian intellectual posi- tions, this book has something for you. Kim- pel does not write with the needs of the pastor in mind, however. He maintains a strictly professional philosophical vocabulary, style and point of view. Probably the issues he discusses are beyond the range of interest of most pastors. That is a pity. There are many laymen on the fringes of our churches who are deeply troubled by theories of knowledge that are incompatible with Chris- tianity. Kimpel discusses the problems of such people on their own ground.
The sub-title, “A philosophical preface to theology,” correctly limits the scope of the book to philosophy not theology. The last chapter, “The Criterion of Religious Knowl- edge-Claims,” was, for me, the least satis- fying chapter in the book, because of the au- thor’s intent to refer to theological matters without discussing them. After the very slow pace of the earlier chapters, the rush in the last one is considerable. As a result, ques- tions of a theological sort go unanswered or half-answered, or half-asked. Kimpel’s dis- cussion of the problems of faith and reason, for example, might be interesting.
In general, Kimpel has lessons in the use of words, but many of his sentences are exacting. There is mental exercise in hang- ing onto the thought of such a sentence as this on the origin of the idea of causation : “But this analysis of the idea of what is causally connected does not account for the sequence of experiences whose regularity con-
stitutes the very motive in an analysis of experience for proposing an explanatory prin- ciple which is other than experience” (page 40). I believe, however, that something has dropped out of the text on pages 35, 38 and 142.
Elwyn E. Tilden, Jr.
Lafayette College Easton, Pa.
Religious Symbolism. Edited by F. Ernest Johnson. New York: Harper and Brothers, 1955. ix-263 pp. $2.50.
This new publication of the Institute for Religious and Social Studies is based on lectures given at tne Jewish Theological Seminary of America during the winter of 1952-1953. Each of the fourteen chapters in this volume corresponds to an individual paper. While the editor has managed to achieve a certain amount of organization in the order of presentation, no attempt has been made to formulate an organic approach to the subject of religious symbolism. The resulting diversity of views is emphasized by an extreme variety of points of view. It is not only that Jewish theologians appear side by side with Roman Catholic and Prot- estant scholars in the field, but the sym- posium brings forth the insights of a philos- opher, a psychologist, a dramatist, an archi- tect and even a dancer. And it is very well thus, because each and everyone has the most original contribution to make on a subject which defies systematization. As a rule, symposia have a rather bad press, yet there is a place for them in this age of in- creasing specialization, especially in the study of symbols and their contribution to expres- sion, communication worship, and the media- tion of higher truth. Again, the unevenness which too often weakens symposia is notice- ably absent from these pages. The result is a book rich in fresh information as well as in the most precious insights. Indeed the or- ganizers of this present series are to be con- gratulated on a unique selection of lecturers.
Just as every man participating in this symposium has been allowed full freedom of individual presentation, every reader should be expected to explore these pages on his own, so as to discover what is truth
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for him on a subject which proceeds mostly upon an existential concern. Thus it appears that in spite of what Webster has to say on the meaning of the word “symbol,” it is evident that the various authors have their own views as to what the definition of that word should be. Cyril C. Richardson in the opening paper considers the symbol as a sort of fountainhead from which a great variety of meanings and relationships flow, and this truly constitutes an understatement on his part. Later coming to the considera- tion of the sacred fish in the catacombs and in the collective notions of the early church, he is forced to the conclusion that its sym- bolism means practically everything. As may be expected, a Roman Catholic like Daniel J. Sullivan takes more formal views. He wants to distinguish between the illustrative values of words, signal flags, traffic signs on the one hand, and truly liturgical sym- bols on the other. His methodical approach to the subject is as thorough as it is highly competent. His short paper on “Symbolism in Catholic Worship” is a model presenta- tion. Yet one should welcome a more de- tailed preliminary consideration of the ways in which the symbol proper is to be dis- tinguished from such near equivalents as sign, emblem, type, allegory, metaphor, para- ble, simile — to name only a few parallel categories. In Chapter VI, “Theology and Symbolism,” Paul Tillich coming to grips with this same issue brings out the need of such differentiation, yet merely to illustrate the fact that every symbol points to some- thing beyond itself. In Chapter VIII, Arland A. Dirlam, an architect, sums up the situation we still face as he terms “symbolism” “per- haps the most loosely employed word” in the entire vocabulary of his field.
The same variety, if not conflict of opin- ion, comes into view with reference to the relevance of religious symbolism. To Abra- ham Joshua Heschel, the most powerful sym- bolism proves futile to the religious man who lives in the immediacy and depth of certainty. The clamor for symbols through- out the whole history of religion would seem to suggest an eternal pursuit of idols. Seen in this light symbolism constitutes an allur- ing trap (Chapter IV, “Symbolism and Jewish Faith”). Another Jewish view on “The Future of Religious Symbolism”
55
(Chapter XII) echoes this same concern. Having given a summary of Jewish ritual practice, Mordecai M. Kaplan exposes its manifestations as responsible for the aliena- tion of many Jews from traditional religion.
Ne> wonder a prophetic Protestantism takes a similar attitude. It is a fact that the Reformed tradition continues to harbor a deep suspicion against liturgy and its sym- bols. And yet one may wonder how and why a Christianity which takes pride in constantly referring to the early Faith as the prototype can discriminate against its undeniably sym- bolic forms of expression. As the opening chapter points out, the Christianity of the catacombs and of the primitive church sought the highest expression of its life on a whole realm of sacramental symbolism. This be- ing the case, any true Protestant revival should imply a liturgical revival. In his paper (Chapter II) on “The Liturgical Re- vival in Protestantism,” Marvin P. Halver- son goes as far as speaking of the loss of that liturgical dimension in the Reformed tradi- tion, ascribing to it a loss of coherence and integrity, with the result that our patterns of worship appear for the most part as frag- mented, distorted and vestigial forms. Present attempts at a revival may be welcomed ac- cordingly as signs of a healthy reaction. In his already quoted paper, Tillich is more outspoken still. As he sees it, we need sym- bolization “as full and rich as possible” by the same token as we need demythologiza- tion against the confusion of liberalism with symbolism. He even goes as far as saying that finding the means of such realization constitutes the great problem of Protestant- ism after the same has gone through four hundred years of historical criticism. Even the gentle, scholarly Stanley Romaine Hop- per, in the searching concluding section XIV (“The Future of Religious Symbolism — a Protestant View”) is hard put to it to do justice to this Protestant Protest against Protestantism. Yet his well-informed in- sights into the future invite nothing short of a revolution in outlook and strategy.
Turning to this order of consideration, one labors under the feeling that the whole in- quiry should be thrown open to fresh con- tributions if constructive solutions are to speak to our condition. Such feeling, no doubt, was shared by the organizers of this
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symposium. The realm of new possibilities is well outlined by Daniel J. Fleming in Chapter V, “Religious Symbols crossing Cul- tural Boundaries,” and in the pungent Cath- olic view of Father John LaFarge in “The Future of Religious Symbolism” whose di- rectness is truly admirable. There looms up a glorious widening of our horizon in Chap- ter VII (“A Psychologist’s View of Re- ligious Symbols”) as Goodwin Watson opens up fascinating possibilities of renewal for the religious symbolism of tomorrow. Again there is a fresh approach to the crea- tiveness of symbolism in the construction of new churches, to wit the churches of Good- hue and his followers, in Chapter VIII, “Symbolism in Contemporary Church Archi- tecture,” which concludes with a moving profession of faith. Chapters X and XI on “Symbolism in Contemporary Literature” by Nathan A. Scott and “Religious Drama” by Marion Wefer enrich the secular part of the contribution, and they are beautifully done.
Since after all the present symposium shunned any systematic approach, it might just as well have opened with the highly de- lightful paper contributed by the “dancer,” Ted Shawn (Chapter IX, “Religious Use of the Dance”). Here is a variation on a rare theme : how a man can be led by cir- cumstances to do the unexpected thing or become what he did not mean to be in the first place. Thus St. Justin told us of old in his Dialogue with Trypho, how and why he became a Christian philosopher. Playwrights occasionally seized upon this type of theme to draw comic effects. Moliere for example has staged the case of that commoner who became “a physician in spite of himself.” Chapter IX then opens with the confession of a man who, from early childhood, had the fixed idea of becoming a Methodist preacher. Having been quarantined for months by diphtheria, he felt induced to think for himself to a point where he bravely made a truly Cartesian decision to believe only that truth which he would make his own. In or- der to counteract a state of paralysis result- ing from his illness he subsequently took to the therapy of dancing, later witnessing a dance which to him was a true form of worship. Hence a genuine conversion ex- perience which drew his attention to the
Bible’s glowing testimony to dancing as an expression of the ineffable in religious life. And so he danced hymns, even a benediction, and proceeded to the richest forms of sym- bolic expression in and through the dance. So true it is that the highest realities cannot be spoken but have to be acted. Progressively he was introduced to a genuine understanding of Christian ritual, liturgy and worship, to the conception of Christian congregations on the move. This modern version of the medie- val juggler of Notre Dame goes a long way to show the desirability of new ap- proaches to the meaning and relevance of religious symbolism in our day and age.
In the necessarily limited space at his dis- posal this reviewer has hardly begun to sug- gest the wealth of insight made available by the symposium under consideration — one of the most rewarding and refreshing volumes that he has come across in recent years. As such it should prove precious to those of us who feel that the time is long overdue when theologians and churchmen should open doors and windows on the inviting horizons extending beyond the confines of the confessional ivory tower.
Emile Cailliet
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The Protestant Tradition, by John S. Whale. Cambridge University Press, New York, 1955. Pp. 360. $3.75.
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Dr. John S. Whale is well known for his book on Christian Doctrine, published in 1941, which has been widely hailed through- out the Protestant world as a lucid and suc- cinct introduction to Christian theology. In this, his latest book, he seeks to review three main types of Reformation churchmanship, and in the light of his exposition of them, to deal with some problems which urgently concern Protestant Christianity at the present day.
Dr. Whale begins with Luther, whose teaching he sums up in a series of paradoxes — that of law and gospel, that of justification by faith alone, that of the believer’s assur- ance, and that of the relation of good works to Christian faith ; and he concludes by ex- pounding Luther’s doctrine of the Church. Of Calvin Dr. Whale says that his "first creative achievement was the book, the In-
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THE PRINCETON SEMINARY BULLETIN
57
stitutio ; and his second was a city, Geneva” (p. 163). So he treats the great French re- former as a system-maker, theologian, churchman, and creator of the Genevan the- ocracy. Thirdly, Dr. Whale analyzes the left wing radical movement of the Reforma- tion, which he calls “Dissent,” a movement of which, on the European Continent, the Anabaptists were the best known represent- atives during the 16th century. Their dis- tinctive beliefs he sums up as consisting of three main principles: (1) the personal prin- ciple, i.e., the view that a true Christian must always be a personally committed and dedicated follower of Jesus Christ; (2) the voluntary principle, i.e., the belief that groups of such Christian believers should be inde- pendent of any external control in respect of their congregational activities; (3) the spiritual principle, i.e., the conviction that Christian believers should and must live their life under the direct guidance of the Holy Spirit. In the second part of his book, Dr. Whale goes on to consider three questions of contemporary importance, which arise di- rectly out of his treatment of traditional Protestantism — the question of religious tol- eration, with particular reference to the at- titude of the Roman Catholic Church ; the question of the proper relation between the Church and the state ; and the question of the ecumenical movement as it seeks to unify the divided churches of non-Roman Christen- dom.
Though this book lacks the jeux d’esprit with which Christian Doctrine was studded, it is clear and well written, and based on abundant knowledge both of primary and secondary sources. It should be added that even where the author is severe in his judg- ments— as he is, for example, on the Roman Catholic Church for its attitude to religious toleration — the evidence which he adduces abundantly justifies his verdict. If Christian Doctrine showed his ability as a dogmatic theologian, this book will enhance his repu- tation as an interpreter of church history. It can be confidently recommended to all who wish to have a fuller knowledge and deeper understanding of the Protestant tradi- tion and its contemporary relevance.
Norman V. Hope
A History of Worship in the Church of Scotland, by William D. Maxwell. Oxford University Press, New York. 1955. Pp. 190. $2.40.
For some years Dr. William D. Maxwell has been recognized as one of the foremost liturgical scholars in the English-speaking world. Not only has he written general books on the subject of Christian worship — such as “An Outline of Christian Worship” and “Concerning Worship” — but he has published the fruits of his researches into the liturgical practices of John Calvin and John Knox. Here in this volume — the Baird Lectures for 1953 — he presents in outline the history of worship in the Church of Scotland, of which he has been a parish minister for several years.
In successive chapters of his book Dr. Maxwell describes worship as it was carried on during the various stages of Scotland’s colorful ecclesiastical history. First he deals with the church of Ninian, who introduced organized Christianity into Scotland. Then he gives an account of worship in the Celtic Church, as established by Columba and his fellow-missionaries from Ireland during the sixth century. In the eleventh and twelfth centuries the Church of Scotland was Ro- manized by Queen Margaret, wife of Mal- colm Canmore, and her sons, who succeeded her husband on the throne : and Dr. Maxwell describes the increasing ascendancy of the Sarum rite in church worship under this influence. The Reformation brought great changes in Scottish worship as it did in vir- tually every other aspect of church life. Dr. Maxwell characterizes the Reformers’ ideal of worship, not as the desire to exalt preach- ing at the expense of everything else in the service, but as the wish to set up a meaning- ful pattern of liturgical worship in which preaching might have its important and even central place. This lasted until the seven- teenth century, when King James I and his son Charles I tried to assimilate the worship of the Church of Scotland to that of the Church of England. They were defeated in this aim ; and by way of reaction, Puritan influence so increased as to produce a de- cline into liturgical barrenness and aridity from which Scotland was to suffer until the
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latter half of the eighteenth century. Since then, as Dr. Maxwell shows in his chapter entitled “The Renascence of Worship,” there has been something of a liturgical revival, marked by greater reverence in public wor- ship, more frequent celebration of the Lord’s Supper, increased observance of the Christian Year, etc.
As might have been expected, in this book Dr. Maxwell has presented a compact, well- documented, and authoritative account of the development of worship in the Church of Scotland. In so doing he has not hesitated to express his personal views on certain as- pects of his theme. For example, concerning the eighteenth century Moderates he says this : “Is it not time we had a good word to say for them?” (p. 158). Again, he speaks about the position of pipe-organs in certain churches thus : “with their aggressive and intruding pipes blatantly occupying a central place in the sanctuary instead of being mod- estly housed in the west gallery or at the west end where they properly and tradi- tionally belong” (p. 164) ; and pipe-organs generally he describes as “a formidable fea- ture in Scottish churches” (p. 168). This kind of thing may not add much of value to Dr. Maxwell’s historical exposition ; but it lends piquancy to his narrative and makes interesting reading.
Norman V. Hope
Christ and the Caesars, by Ethelbert Stauffer. Translated by K. and R. Gre- gor Smith. The Westminster Press, Philadelphia, 1955. Pp. 293. $4.50.
This volume consists of a series of sixteen historical essays by the well-known German theologian and numismatist Dr. Ethelbert Stauffer, Professor of New Testament Learn- ing at Erlangen University since 1949. Though these essays do not profess to have any unifying theme, they almost exclusively deal with three main questions : (a) the set- ting up of the Roman Empire under Octavian (Augustus), Julius Caesar’s adopted son and legal heir, following his triumph over Mark Antony at the battle of Actium in 31 b.c. ; (b) the almost contemporary emergence of the Christian religion in Palestine, which had been annexed to Rome by Pompey in
63 b.c., and (c) the struggle between these two great world forces for mastery. Dr. Stauffer points out that in the nature of the case Christianity and the Roman Empire were bound to be mortal enemies, since both made what today would be called a totalita- rian claim upon their adherents. Here lay the main reason for the persecution of the Church by the Roman government — persecu- tion which reached a pitch of furious in- tensity under Decius in 250-51 and under Diocletian and his successors between 304 and 313. Finally, after a terrible blood-let- ting the proud Roman Empire surrendered to the Christian faith, giving it first legal toleration, then a preferred status, and even- tually sole establishment and endowment.
The questions with which Dr. Stauffer deals in these essays are not new : in fact they have been the subject of much study during recent years. Some of his statements are open to question — for example, the fol- lowing: “Jesus uttered his call in the name of God. But his people said No. Jesus knew this from the beginning” (p. 105). But his treatment of his subjects, enriched as it is not merely by literary but also by numismatic evidence, is fresh and interesting, and makes his book well worthy of serious attention by students of the first three centuries of the history of the Christian Church.
Norman V. Hope
The Evanston Report: The Second Assembly of The World Council of Churches 1954. Edited by W. A. Vis- ser ’t Hooft. Harper and Brothers, New York, 1955. 360 pp. $5.00.
The Second Assembly of the World Coun- cil of Churches, which met at Evanston, 111., in August, 1954, has already been the sub- ject of several interpretative articles and studies, such as J. H. Nichols’ Evanston: An Interpretation, and Harold A. Bosley’s What Did the World Council Say to You? Here is the official report of its proceedings, edited by the General Secretary of the World Council, Dr. W. A. Visser ’t Hooft.
The Evanston Assembly lasted for 17 crowded days. During that time the delegates took part in worship services, including serv- ices at which the Lord’s Supper was cele-
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brated. They also listened to addresses by such leaders as President Dwight Eisen- hower and Mr. Dag Hammarskjold, Secre- tary General of the United Nations. The bulk of their time, however, was devoted to the transaction of certain types of business appropriate to such a gathering. This busi- ness was of three main kinds. First, the As- sembly heard the reports of certain commit- tees which dealt with what may be called the organizational set-up of the World Coun- cil. Of these committees the most impor- tant was that on the Structure and Func- tioning of the World Council. This commit- tee had been appointed by the Central Com- mittee of the World Council in 1951, and after three years of careful deliberation pro- duced a report which made certain proposals for the more efficient organization and work- ing of the World Council. This report was presented to the Evanston Assembly, and, with certain modifications, approved. Sec- ondly, the main theme of the Assembly — Christ, the Hope of the World — had been decided upon in 1950; and for four years an Advisory Commission debated it. This Com- mission presented a report to the Assembly which, after making certain changes, adopted it. Thirdly, members of the Evanston As- sembly were appointed to one of six dif- ferent “sections,” each of which discussed some theme of major interest to such an ecumenical Christian gathering. Those themes were (1) Christian Disunity; (2) Evangel- ism; (3) Social Questions: The Responsible Society in a World Perspective; (4) Inter- national Affairs : Christians in the Struggle for World Community; (5) Inter-group Re- lations : The Churches amid Racial and Eth- nic Tensions; (6) The Laity: The Christian in his Vocation. Each section prepared a re- port on its theme for presentation to the whole Assembly, which after discussion re- ceived these sectional reports and com- mended them to the churches for study.
A reading of this book suggests three com- ments. First, the subjects discussed at Evan- ston were wide-embracing in their scope. They show quite clearly that the Christian churches of the World Council are not con- tent to concentrate merely on their own in- ternal ecclesiastical affairs : on the contrary, they are determined to claim the whole range of human activity, individual and corporate,
for Jesus Christ, the Lord of all good life. Secondly, these churches of the World Coun- cil are mature enough to be able to speak to one another with refreshing frankness. This comes out particularly in the discussion of racial tensions. The report of the section which dealt with this subject, stated quite clearly that “segregation denies to those who are segregated their just and equal rights and results in deep injuries to the human spirit, suffered by offender and victim alike” (p. 1 53 ) ; and it calls upon the churches “to declare God’s will both in words and deeds” (p. 154). Thirdly, quite recently the World Council has been the subject of certain criti- cisms. For example, The Christian Century of August 31, 1955, quotes the comment of Bishop J. W. C. Wand of London, that the World Council has “too much American money, too much German theology, and too much Dutch bureaucracy” ; and it adds that of a Jesuit who suggested that the Council is an agency of “English churchmen operat- ing with Reformed theology and Lutheran money.”
This report will enable its readers to assess such criticisms at their proper value.
Norman V. Hope
The Douglass Sunday School Les- sons— 1956, by Earl L. Douglass. Mac- millan Co., New York. Pp. 494. $2.95.
This commentary on the International Sun- day School Lessons by Dr. Douglass has become a classic and an institution in the libraries of many pastors and Bible teachers. First of all there are audio-visual aids sug- gested for most of the lessons throughout the year. Then the treatment of each lesson is homiletical in form, so that there are seed- thoughts for many sermons as well as a mine from which any pastor with imagination and initiative may arrange a series of Bible les- sons or studies for mid-week services.
Dr. Douglass has now for a number of years been giving his full time to religious writing and journalism. His professional knowledge and gifts as an editor are evident throughout the volume. Though he no doubt has others to help in gathering material the touch of the master-hand is evident. On each page there are paragraphs of special interest
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THE PRINCETON SEMINARY BULLETIN
and importance printed in bold-face black type ; for fast readers this makes the scanning of a page for quotations or illustrations both rapid and easy. In all ways this is one of the best volumes on the International Les- sons for the use of ministers and theological students, as well as teachers and superin- tendents in the church school. Dr. Douglass is also the author of “Strength for the Day” featured by many daily papers as well as syn- dicated articles week by week on the Sunday School lessons printed in more than a hun- dred newspapers.
In addition, we feel that the study of Luke’s Gospel for two quarters and selected great Scripture passages for the balance of the lessons in 1956 is a most happy combination. May this commentary long continue to be an inspiration and a guide to the study of God’s Word throughout the Christian Church.
J. Christy Wilson
Tarbell’s Teachers’ Guide — 1956.
Edited by Frank S. Mead. Fleming H. Revell Co., Westwood, New Jersey. Pp. 432. $2.50.
For nearly half a century Ida Tarbell was a name to be conjured with when one thought of books on the Sunday School lessons. Tar- bell’s guide for teachers has now entered the second half-century of its publication. Though Miss Tarbell is gone her book has not lost its power in any sense of the word. It is continued under the very able editorial direction of Frank S. Mead and the objec- tive opinion of the writer is that it has ac- tually improved. Though the treatment of the lesson has been changed to some extent it still gives an outline, which is most help- ful to teachers ; then, “notes on the printed text” ; “suggestions for teachers” ; and a separate treatment of the lesson for young people and adults, then intermediates and seniors. Something new has been added in the suggestion of “visual aids” such as mov- ies, Kodachrome slides and filmstrips for many of the lessons.
Though the number of volumes on the In- ternational Lessons seems to increase year by year, teachers will no doubt continue to depend upon what has been known as “The
big three.” After fifty years of leadership in the field this book continues to offer valu- able help in the understanding of the text and many fine illustrations.
J. Christy Wilson
Essential Books for a Pastor’s Li- brary, by the Faculty, Union Theologi- cal Seminary, Richmond, Va. Pp. 54. 1 955. Second Edition. 75 cents.
The widespread need for such a pastor’s bibliography has demanded a second edition of this excellent guide. The members of the Faculty at Union Theological Seminary in Richmond, Virginia, have collaborated in producing something that can help the min- ister build up his library with books which are considered “essential” and indispensable.
The contents indicate that the selection has been made from all the fields of theology : Bible (Old Testament, The Inter-testamen- tary Period, New Testament) ; Church His- tory (including The Ecumenical Church, Christian Sociology, Comparative Religions, Communism) ; Doctrinal Theology ; and Pas- toral Theology (under which caption the entire work of the minister and Church is subsumed). Reference books are also in- cluded in the theological and general field, as are devotional classics, periodicals, and so-called “tools.”
One can only commend the authors hearti- ly and gratefully for their careful selection listed in this “must” guide for every pastor who would take his study seriously.
E. G. Homrighausen
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Teacher of Teachers, by Ambrose L. ' Suhrie. Richard R. Smith Publisher, t West Rindge, N.H., 1955. Pp. 418. s $5.00.
In his autobiography, Teacher of Teachers, j Ambrose L. Suhrie has given us more than his own life story. Although he does not ( attempt systematically to review develop- ments in American education over the past three-quarters of a century, his career was so much a part of them that the reader gains a perspective on them that could not be provided by a less personal account. Teacher
THE PRINCETON SEMIN ARY BULLETIN
of Teachers is a first-class primary source material in the history of education in the United States.
Dr. Suhrie’s decision to become a teacher was made at the age of fourteen, partly as a result of an accident that incapacitated him for farming. The last three years of his schooling in a one-room rural school in Western Pennsylvania were spent “boning up” on the subjects he would be expected to teach. With six weeks of special training he passed the necessary examinations and was assigned to teach at seventeen in the school in which he had grown up. His rapid rise from rural teacher to city principal is painted against a vivid background of the educational situation of the times. One is im- pressed with the vision of many of the in- dividuals he knew, and their devotion to the raising of educational standards, that teach- ers might be better trained and children and youth better served. This in spite of the then pitifully low and discouraging es- tate of public education.
His consuming passion for good teaching inevitably led to his entering the field of teacher education. His own education was eked out during his summers and in part-time study, but culminated in his being granted the doctorate by the University of Penn- sylvania, where characteristically he helped to develop a program of apprentice teacher training in the Philadelphia area. He spent six years in up-hill work as principal of the Cleveland Normal School and School of Edu- cation. At the age of fifty he assumed the post of chairman of the department of Teach- ers-College and Normal-School Education in New York University’s rapidly developing School of Education. No man to settle into a chair, he immediately undertook the organiza- tion and direction of the Eastern-States As- sociation of Professional Schools for Teach- ers, which he built to the point where it in- cluded every eligible school (exactly one hundred) in its membership. New York Uni- versity’s pattern of graduate teacher educa- tion to a large extent reflects his mature philosophy of education. Now in his ninth decade, he still travels and lectures extensively and serves as educational consultant to the Southern Missionary College in Tennessee, and to the whole system of Seventh- Day Ad-
61
ventist schools and colleges in the United States and Mexico.
He draws no “morals,” but certain facts stand out. The professional educator is most effective when he comes up from the ranks. He must spend a great deal of his time traveling, observing, and speaking. His is essentially a missionary service. He must get out with his students in field supervision. He must work in dedicated fashion for the establishment of high standards of educa- tional service and public understanding and support. Administrative problems must be at- tacked courageously and directly after care- ful study and planning. He must see and know his pupils as individuals and be in- terested in and follow the development of each of them. He must make administrative organization adequate to serve the needs of institutions, teachers, and pupils. He must en- list his teachers-in-training in cooperative en- terprises for mutual betterment. One of the outstanding assumptions that this eminent educator makes is that teaching is a calling, and for him a Christian calling.
Considering his active participation in Christian education work, it was disappoint- ing that his experiences and reflections on the field were not developed more fully. Yet his scattered comments on Christian educa- tion problems (e.g., pp. 1 19-120) are pene- trating and to the point.
There is also a poignancy about this book; its currents run deep. The central figure emerges clearly and honestly. Failure and success are related candidly, but without de- tachment. One is told briefly of deep and long personal tragedy, but also of abiding joy in Christ. This is a fascinating, inspiring, and splendidly informative story.
D. Campbell Wyckoff
An Adventure zvith People, by Fer- ris E. Reynolds. Christian Education Press, Philadelphia, 1954. Pp. 96. $1.50.
An Adventure zvith People, by Ferris E. Reynolds, is the kind of simple but effective guidebook on methods of teaching that many ministers, directors, and superintendents will find very useful with inexperienced church school teachers. After systematic study of
62
THE PRINCETON SEMINARY BULLETIN
this book, and observation of a good teacher at work, the novice should be able to under- take the teaching task with some prospect of success. The section on motivation for teaching is not too satisfactory, but Dr. Rey- nolds gets down to brass tacks when he deals with the use of questions, stirring up interest, using illustrations, developing the lesson plan, and dealing with the trouble- some problems of order, over-talkative pupils, assignments, and the like. A useful schedule for self-examination is included. The book is not applicable to nursery or kindergarten teaching, and of doubtful value at the primary level. It applies to the kind of problem and need faced by the average junior, junior high, or senior high teacher.
D. Campbell Wyckoff
What Is Vital in Religion, by Harry Emerson Fosdick. Harper & Brothers, New York, 1955. Pp. 238. $3.00.
What the initials G. B. S. are to drama and S. K. to theology, H. E. F. are to con- temporary preaching. Once Dr. Blackwood said, in reference to Harry Emerson Fos- dick’s sermons, “If any young man wishes to learn what to preach, he may look else- where; if he would learn hoiv, he should tar- ry here.”
Here is a new volume of twenty-one ser- mons by one whom we might designate as the dean of American preachers. This is not his greatest book, but it takes on an added significance when he says in the Preface : “This is my last book of sermons, and with it goes my inexpressible gratitude to the many friends whose encouragement has sus- tained my ministry over half a century.” Any book, however, by a controversial figure is usually hailed as an event. And what event of this nature does not invite a few general reflections?
An editorial in The Christian Century some years ago said: “Until some new figure of comparable stature arises, the historian of the American pulpit will have to say that the three names which shine brightest are those of Henry Ward Beecher, Phillips Brooks, and Harry Emerson Fosdick.” In- deed, when Bishop Brilioth of Sweden dis- cusses American preaching in his Donellan
Lectures, Fosdick is among the six or seven names whom he regards as sufficiently pivo- tal to deserve mention. In view of these estimates, can anyone offer at least a few rea- sons to account for this tremendous impact and influence which Fosdick has had upon American preaching these past forty years?
Doubtless, one of the secrets of Fosdick’s sustained influence and power was his well- organized study habits. From the outset of his ministry at Montclair, New Jersey, he never let up in a steady, persistent pro- gramme of reading and purposeful study. What is more, so much of it was basic : the classics in the original, English literature, history, and sociology. This explains why he became eventually, what Wm. G. Shepherd called, “a preacher who reaches the heart through the intellect.”
The trait, however, which some overlook in Fosdick and which ought never to be for- gotten, is his intellectual integrity. Disagree with his premises and point of view as much as you will, but in the last analysis, you must grant that Fosdick is always honest with himself. And furthermore, he has never been the type who would run away from controversy. While cudgels were being hurled at him prior to his resignation from First Presbyterian Church, New York City, he held on tenaciously to what he considered to be his indispensable credo. Throughout all of those bitter debates, no one could fail to admire his consuming conviction and his doughty championing of what he believed. Although many of us may take exception to some of his theological points of view, yet his rugged intellectual honesty has won con- sistently our admiration and in the broader perspective of our times we notice that Fos- dick won more skirmishes than he lost.
Among his pulpit techniques, the most ef- fective— and in this recent book it is still obvious — is his concern for people. As he said not long ago, his aim has been “always to talk sense in the pulpit.” He has respected the common sense of his hearers and has been anxious to meet their moral needs. His strategy in sermon construction has been uniquely his own and has leaned not at all upon the classic forms of the rhetoricians. In his own words to an interviewer, this was his suggestion: “Tell them the truth you want to tell them right off. . . . Climax is
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63
achieved by showing them the Matterhorn in the beginning, re-showing it, re-showing it — and each time the Matterhorn gets big- ger.”
Friends and devotees of Dr. Fosdick will receive this new book with eagerness and deep appreciation. Several sermons are of the same stature as we have learned to ex- pect from him at his best, while others seem to come from the after-glow of a great ca- reer. But this does not matter seriously when some two dozen earlier volumes testify to the vitality and fertility of his pen.
Donald Macleod
To Whom Shall We Go? , by Donald M. Baillie. Introduction by John Dow. The Saint Andrew Press, Edinburgh, 1955. Pp. 199. 15s.
With the publication in 1948 of his book on Christology, God Was In Christ, Donald M. Baillie joined ‘‘the front rank of world theo- logians.” This was his magnum opus, but with the appearance of another volume pub- lished posthumously we are now further in his debt. In response to insistent demands from many friends, twenty-five of his ser- mons have been selected and published, along with a brief biographical introduction by Dr. John Dow, professor emeritus, Em- manuel College, Toronto.
Books of doctrinal sermons, which have been published since the times of J. D. Jones, W. M. MacGregor, and R. W. Dale, have been few and generally rather undernour- ished. This makes Baillie’s new book an event of considerable importance in homileti- cal circles.
These addresses, for the most part, were given in the University Chapel at Saint An- drews and therefore have the directness of pulpit presentations. Although it is obvious that he had the student interests in mind, yet his topics show no tendency to cater to the passing whim or superficial notion, rather they are suggestive of courageous grappling with high themes. The Table of Contents lists such provocative subjects as “Why Did Jesus Die?” and “Intelligent Christianity,” along with more colorless themes as “The Conversion of St. Paul.” There is no at- tempt to give an exhaustive series, but here
we find some able preaching upon such doc- trines as Immortality, Election, the Trinity, Grace, Sin and Forgiveness. In all of these twenty-five sermons, Dr. Baillie clarifies through adequate definitions many terms that have become commonplace by constant use in the pulpit and he shows us new mean- ing in phrases such as “reality in religion,” “individualism versus individuality,” or “glo- rify God.” Always he attempts to get at what is basic and with sobriety and balance he delineates the place of the mind, heart, and will in the religious life. He never appeals disproportionately to the intellect in defer- ence to his University audience, yet he has- tens to warn those “who never put their minds into their religion” (p. 61). Foremost in his message is the Gospel. And in a time of resurgence among pagan religions and of indifference of many nominal Christians who see equal good in “any and every re- ligion,” Dr. Baillie arranges in splendid ar- ray all his arguments for the finality of Christ for faith. These sermons make stimu- lating reading and although from the Ameri- can point of view, he frequently takes much for granted, yet he shows us how doctrine can be made vital with meaning for con- temporary living.
Dr. Dow’s biographical introduction is done in bonny fashion and in that same rare style we associate with his intimate sketches of Principals Davidson and Gandier.
Donald Macleod
How to Preach to People’s Needs, by Edgar N. Jackson, Abingdon Press, Nashville, Tennessee, 1956. Pp. 191. $2.75.
Here is a piece of work which, strangely enough, no one had thought of doing hereto- fore. Dr. Jackson, who is pastor of the Meth- odist Church at Mamaroneck, New York, and President of the New Rochelle Guid- ance Center, has blazed a new trail and has set down his findings in a very sensible book. Indeed, it is the only adequate volume on Life Situation preaching that has ap- peared to this date. Following Dr. Fosdick’s theory that “preaching is personal counselling on a grand scale,” this author has brought together two disciplines which experts on
64 THE PRINCETON SEMINARY BULLETIN
both sides had unintentionally kept apart.
In the course of sixteen chapters, Dr. Jackson names and diagnoses as many prob- lems of our human nature, such as guilt, sorrow, fear, alcohol, loneliness, defeat, an- ger, doubt, inferiority complexes, etc. Then, at the end of each chapter, he gives sum- maries or digests of three or four sermons by outstanding preachers who have tried to give the answer of the Christian Gospel to these life situations.
Not only is the author’s scheme or strategy good, but he is to be commended for his un- usual insights into these human problems. He is no novice in his diagnoses ; he knows whereof he speaks and gives ample evidence that he has read and studied widely in his field. Coupled with his professional skills is a natural ability in understanding human foibles and of seeing personal concerns from the vantage point of the congregation.
A book of this type usually suffers from one weakness for which the author can scarcely be blamed. The late Henry Sloane Coffin once enlarged upon Brooks’ definition and said that “preaching is truth through personality to persons.” This defines Life Situation preaching at its best. But when one tries to write a book about it, it seems impossible to go any further than “truth through personality to types.” Nevertheless, as a textbook for guidance in preaching to human situations, this book will be ex- tremely useful. In study or classroom it would be an exercise of lasting value to read these diagnoses carefully and then to search the
New Testament for the antidotes and cures.
Another suggestion about the author’s scheme : summaries of sermons rarely catch fire or provoke interest. Maybe one or two full length sermons would have been better, even though they would not cover all the facets of the problem which was raised. It was disappointing, moreover, not to have as a reply to Doubt Dr. Fosdick’s great ser- mon, The Importance of Doubting our Doubts, and to Tension, Dr. Buttrick’s able sermon, The Peace Christ Gives.
Several errata occur : “illustrated” (p. 44) and “valiant” (p. 137) are misspelled; “in” should read “an” (p. 83) ; “brings” should be “bring” (p. 112).
Donald Macleod
Note: Some correspondence has come in response to a review of Harrison Ray Ander- son’s book, God’s Way, in the October issue of the Bulletin. It has been brought to the attention of the reviewer that some of the strictures contained in the review were based on a misunderstanding. The reviewer deeply regrets any pain that may have been occa- sioned to the author on this account. The reviewer wishes to assure those who took exception to his appraisal of the book that there was nothing personal in the whole matter and by no stretch of the imagination should it be interpreted as a reflection upon the great personal ministry Dr. Anderson has exercised in Chicago. The critique was based upon matters of form and in no instance was directed to the basic message of the book or the personality of the author.