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CONCORDIA THEOLOGICAL QUARTERLY Volume 43, Number 1 - JANUARY 1979 ........... A Tribute to Walter E. Buszin Kirby L. Koriath 1 ..................... Faith and Music. M. Alfred Bichsel 12 Abortion: Historical and Biblical ..................... Perspectives John A. Rasmussen 17 The Doctrine of the Word in Or~hodox Lutheranism. ......................... C. George Fry 24 Theological Observer ................................ 45 BooksReceiv ....................................... 75 Book Reviews I. Biblical Studies BIBLICAL PROPHECY FOR TODAY. By J. Barton Payne. Baker Book House, Grand Rapids, 1978. 93 pages. Paper. 82.95. The author of this volume, Professor of Old Testament at Covenant Theological Seminary, St Louis, has also written a major work, The Imminent Appearing of Christ, Revelation in Sequence, all books specifically concerned with Biblical prophecy and Biblical apocalyptics. In this study Dr. Payne has selected one particular area, for to quote him: "My present goal is to cover those prophecies whose fulfillments are happening now or are at least possible within the next few days or weeks. These may be grouped into seventy-two prophetic topics, and they are listed in the order of their fulfillment in an appendix at the end of this book. Here again the aim has been conservative" (p. 6). While Payne has repudiated dispensationalism, he however, is a prernilleridist in his understanding of Old and New Testament passages. Consecfuently, all those in Christendom who consider millennialism an un- ecriptural doctrine will be forced to question many of his prophetic in- terpretations. Difficult passages in Joel, Isaiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, Zechariah and the Book of Revelation are interpreted according to the premillennial system of hermeneutics, and interpretations are advanced which other Biblical scholars will find unacceptable. By interpreting the Biblical books within the perimeters of millennialsim, in turn, also affects Payne's understanding of passages in the Gospels, Acts and the epistolary literature of the New Testament. At times passages are interpreted literally and at other times they are understood figuratively. Many of the internretations given on pages 79-83 other con- servative schokars would consider fanclful because meanings and un- derstandings and interpretations are being read into passages which are un- justified. The reviewer would share with the author his concern that all who read this volume that they ask themselves the timely question: "Am I acceptable to Christ when He comes, whenever it may be?" Christ offers men freedom from guilt, certainty through His written Word, purpose for living, and assurance beyond the grave. The price, our heartfelt commitment to His lordship, is recognizably high, but we are going to have to face up to this reality sooner or later anyway, whether at our death or at His corning ( p. 78). Raymond F. Surburg FIRm AND SECOND KINGS. By Richard I. McNeely. Moody Press, Chicago, 1978. 158 pages. Paper. $2.50. This volume by Professor McNeely, Chairman of Biblical Studies and Related Studies at Biola College, La Miranda, California, is one in a series known as Everyman's Bibk Commentary. Students normdly find the reading of First and Second Kings is not easy reading and they are even frustrated because they find difficulty in keeping the chronological order of the thirty- eight different kings who ruled over the Northern and Southern Kingdoms. In some instances contemporay kings have identical names, which often is very confusing to readers. In comparison with other Biblical books, the two books of Kings do not have the same appeal for the normal Bible student, a fact which probably accounts for the dearth of bibliographical literature existing treating the two King books. Added to this may also be the factor that many readers of Kings do not believe that there are any spiritual principles and values that pervades its history and so make them worthy of serious study. Book Reviews 51 Charles Feinberg in his foreword has pointed out that McNeely has properly shown the importance of First and Second Kings. In this popular commentary the author has demonstrated the fact that the history of the monarchy in Israel and Judah is the backbone of Old Testament Israelite history. Further hfcNeely has explicated the fact that the messages of the prophets, especially those of Elijah and Elisha, are found in the matrix of the history of the kings of Israel and Judah. The contents of these two historical books also underlines the preparation of God for the presentation of the truth that the Messiah would present himself as King. The author of Kings, who may have been Jeremiah, emphasizes and illustrates the spiritual principles embedded in the Mosaic Law and in other Scriptures. The historical events described by the author of Kings stresses God's sovereignity, which controls and directs history. McNeely indicates possible discrepancies together with possible explanations for these discrepancies. Interwoven in their commentary the reader will also find useful historical data regarding the nations with whom both kingdoms were thrust into relationship, either voluntarily or involuntarily, such Near Eastern powers as Syria, Assyria, Babylonia. Geographical information is furnished designed to aid the reader more to easily visualize Adonijah's Rebellion, for example, or Jehu's furious ride. Relevant archaeological data are also included. The bibliography of over thirty books will furnish additional opportunity for those desiring to pursue areas discussed in the commentary at greater depth and length. This volume should be a valuable tool for either the individual Bible student or for group study. Raymond F. Surburg INTERPRETING THE WORD OF GOD. Edit* by Samuel J. Schultz and Morris A. Inch. Moody Press. Chicago, 1976.281 pages $8.95. This is a Festschrift in Honor of Steven Barabas, professor at Wheaton College. Barabas was associate editor for the Zondeman Pictorial Bible Dic- tionary (1963) and of the Zondervan Pictorial Bible Encyclopedia (1975) 5 volumes. For a three-year span he also acted as associate editor for the Evangelical Theological Society. Of Barabas, Tenney says that " he is well read in theology, and that he enjoys a wide bibliographical knowledge." This Festschrift is a contribution by his colleagues in the Bible, Archaeology, and Religion Department of Wheaton College. These friends contributed articles offering insights gained from teaching and sharing the Word of God in the classroom. In commenting on these scholarly studies, Schultz states: To some extent. these contributions reflect questions and problems that emerge as students become involved in studying the Bible at Wheaton. where the Bible is regarded as integrating core for a Christian liberal arts education. Consequently, we recognize that the study of God's Word demands scholarship at its best in the content of a liberal arts curiculum (p. 9). Schultz recognizes that the Bible is so simple that the least learned can understand its saving message, yet it is also so profound that also the most learned scholar will have a problem understanding all statements and books of the Biblical canon. The books of Holy Scripture, covering a period of about sixteen centuries have reached our time having gone through numerous cultural and liguistic changes. The result has been that in the enerations that have lived since the last New Testament book was eompoA, that different understandings have given to the same passages and books of the Bible by theologians and Christian followers. Hermeneutics has become a big problem for twentieth-century Christianity, for both Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, Protestantism, and the various new evengelical and fundamentalist 52 CONCORDIA THEOI,OGICAI, QUARTERLY denominations. Thus the removal of Christians by centuries and millennia from the time of writing has created certain limitations for a complete com- prehension of the Word of God as once given and as intended to be understood by the Bible's readers. This symposium is, therefore, intended to offer insights from a study of culture, history, languages, and interpretations which relate to the writing and transmission of Scriptures in the hope that they will stimulate a constructive approach toward sound Biblical interpretation. Interpreting the Word of God has essays dealing with the following areas involved in Biblical hermeneutics: 1. Archaeology, 2. Old Testament, 3. New Testament and 4. Historical/theological. The following Wheaton scholars have contributed: J. E. Jennings, Alfred J. Hoerth, S. J. Schultz, C. Hassell Bullock, Donald A. Hanger, Gordon Fee, Alan Johnson. Morris Inch, Donald Lake, Robert Webber and Herbert Jacobsen. Steven Barabas furnishes in the last chapter of the symposium a chapter entitled, "Bibliographic Tools of Biblical Interpretat ion. " The type of hermeneutics supported and defended in this volume is not the new hermeneutic of Old and New Testament critical scholarship, but a type that does not undermine the reliability of the Bible as God's inspired and infalliable Word. Readers will find the volume both stimulating and provocative. A worthwhile contribution to the current interest discussions in Biblical interpretation. Raymond F. Surburg THE BIBLE AND ITS WORLD. THE BIBLE & ARCHAEOLOGY TODAY. By K. A. Kitchen. Intervarsity Press, Downers Grove, Illinois 60515, 1978. 168 pages. Paper. $3.95. Kenneth A. Kitchen, Lecturer in Egyptian and Coptic in the School of Archaeology and Oriental Studies at the University of Liverpool he written a nine-chapter book, which Biblical students will find helpful in understanding the Bible against its Near Eastern background. Kitchen correctly reminds his readers that "the study of the physical remains of the enumerable inscriptions from the ancient Near Eastern world is itself a complex and many-sided task." Yet Professor Kitchen declares: "Yet as that world is like the Bible's world, it is a necessary venture in order to see the books of the Bible in their ancient context." Just as in his previous volume, Ancient Orient and Old Testament (InterVarsity, 1966) & in this current volume, Kitchen t.akes issue with long- outdated philosophical and literary theories (especially of 19thcentury stamp). The Bible and Its WorM Kitchen makes use of first-hand sources and evidence from the ancient Biblical world, and concentrates principally upon the periods of Old Testament history prior to the rule of Solomon. The student will find excellent documentation in the footnotes for each of the nine Chapters. This is the first book on Bible and archaeology which makes full use of the sensational discoveries of Matthias and Pettinato at Ebla, modem Mardikh. In the nine chapters of his book Kitchen has travelled far in space and in time. He visits at least a half-a-dozen civilizations. Materials and data from Sumeria, Babylonia and Assyria in Mesopotamia (Iraq) are used. From Anatolia he utilized Hittite and Human evidence; from Egypt and Nubia relevant data relating to the Bible are given, Eblaitic, Ugaritic, Canaanite, Moabite, Philistine and Syria - Palestinian materials are also incorporated. All these different peoples at one time or another were neighbors of the Hebrew and their progenitors. While Kitchen endeavors to show the negative character of many views formerly held and which critical scholarship still endeavors to maintain, he does not always accept the information and assertions as given in The Bible. Where there are statements that he cannot accept, as for example, the age of the ~rediluvian and postdiluvian patriarchs, he claims that here we have Book Reviews 53 problems. He also needs to reject the Biblical chronological data in order to support a 13th-century date for the Exodus. Kitchen treats the major periods of Biblical history. concluding with a final chapter on the New Testament era. The reader will find that the author makes use of direct first-hand evidence from the ancient Biblical world, but con- centrates principally on the periods before Solomon's reign. The documentation for each chapter will aid the student who wishes to pursue matters discussed more in detail. The bibliography limits itself mostly to English-language books. Kitchen has made a worthwhile contribution to Old Testament Biblical studies. Raymond F. Surburg THE GREAT DELIVERANCE. By Edward R. Daglish. Broadman Press, Nashville, 1977. 140 pages. Paper. This book is announced as "a concise exposition of the book of Exodus." The author is professor of Old Testament and religion at Baylor University. This study guide begins with a discussion of the importance of Exodus, its historical setting, its meaning, and its religious antecedents. In four chapters trace the history of Israel from Egypt, through the great deliverance, and on to Sinai. This is not a verse by verse commentary. In the preface Daglish informs the reader that he in his exploration of Exodus will have pointed out to him problems that critical scholars have dealt with as they have worked with Exodus, a book important for the un- derstanding of the faith of Israel. The publishers state that in this guide "recent scholarship here speaks to the earnest student." And what does that mean? It involves operating with different contradictory sources, thus for example we have two different accounts of the call of Moses. The majority of books in the selected bibliomaphy are written from the critical viewpoint. That Daglish, who has written 400 articles for Interpreter's Dictionary of the Bible, should in most places where critical scholarship has challenged the reliability of the historical accounts in Exodus, take the same is not surprising. The Exodus took place during the reign of Rameses I1 according to the author. This dating goes against the data of the Massoretic text as found in I Kings 6:4; Exodus 12:40 and historical references in Genesis. Joseph and Jacob did not come down to Egypt during the Hyksos reign but arrived during the period of the 12th Egyptian dynasty. Moses is depicted by the author as not knowing the name Jahweh, even though in Exodus 3 Yahweh is depicted as speaking with Moses and states: "I am the God of your fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. " Relative to the ten plagues, Daglish states that they were a series of natural disasters. "As individual natural events they cannot be viewed as uniquely preternatural, The miraculous element. The miraculous element lies rather in their concentration in time and their forecast by Moses. (p. 43). He claims that the plagues are theological interpretations. However, does such an assertion really set for what truly happened? Each part of Daglish's presentation has a part called "Theological Reflec- tion," which represent a Christian approach to the particular material under review. Raymond F. Surburg SOLOMON ON SEX. By Joseph C. Dillow. Thomas Nelson, Inc., New York/Nashville, 1977. 197 pages. Cloth. $6.95. This book is a commentary on The Song of Songs, and purports to be : "A Biblical Guide to Married Love." The book has two appendixes, Appendix I presents "New Approaches to Sexual Disfunction ( pp . 158- 182). Concerning Solomon's Song Dillow asserts: "Amid the current deluge of mamage manuals ana sensational gUlQeS ta llberatea lovemaking, one small book deserves all the 54 CONCORDIA THEOLOGICAL QUARTERLY attention the others are clamoring for, but it lies misunderstood and largely neglwted. Few people realize the one who created us male and female also provided us with specific instructions as to how we best respond as men and women" (p. 7). Dillow holds Solomon as the author of the eight chapter The Song of Songs. In this writing the author claims we have a form of lyric idyll, a kind of love song, in which speeches and events do not necessarily follow in chronological order. Dillow compares the book to " a movie with several flashbacks; the story is suspended while the audience remains temporarily suspended while the audience views a scene from the past. This explains the lack of chronological sequence in the song ( p. 8). The Song of Songs is held by him to be a series of fifteen reflections of a married woman,Solomon's queen, as she looks back at the events leading to her marriage with Solomon, to the wedding night as well as their early years together. The following is the way that Dillow envisions the background for the story behind the Song of Songs. Near the foothills of the Lebanon mountains close to Baalhamon on one excursion while Solomon was visiting a vineyard, there the tenth-century king met a Shulamith, who captured his heart. After pursing the Shulamith fir some time and making periodic visits to this area, Solomon finally proposes marriage. After some consideration, she accepted the king's proposal. Solomon sends a weddin pxpssion t? es-rt his new bride tp % Jersudem. Chapter i opens with t e situation, m whlch the Shulamith is getting ready for the wedding banquet and the wedding night. In the first half of the book the details of the wedding night are tastefullly and chastely described. The second half of the book sets forth the joys and problems of married life. One night she refuses his sexual advances and the king leaves. Realizing that she had acted foolishly, she follows him and after long searching finds him, and they joyfully embrace again. While residing at the palace in Jerusalem, the Shulamith yearns for the country of Lebanon where she had grown up. She asks hiomon to take her back there on a vacation. The king agrees and they return and on the note of their enjoyment of sexual love the book ends. Page 197 give Dillow's outline of the Song of Songs In Appendix I1 the King James text is used and an interpretative outline is provided with the speakers indicated and suggestions endeavored to show and cupport Dillow's sexual interpretation of the Song of Songs. The author and his wife are co-directors of a marriage seminar ministry, Inherit-a Blessing, Inc. At present he is a doctoral condidate at Dallas Theological Seminary and seems to be influenced by the views of S. Craig Glickman, A Song for Lovers (Intervarsity Press, 1976). The allegorical and typological schools of interpretation are rejected by the author who insists the normal interpretation is the natural and correct one. In order for Dillow to interpret the Song of Solomon as he does, he has to make certain assumptions to begjn with, otherwise his entire interpretation is incorrect. This reviewer still believes that the allegorical and typical schools are not to be thrust aside as had become the trend among a number of evangelical scholars. Raymond F. Surburg JOB. By Roy Zuck. Moody Press, Chicago, 1978.192 pages. Paper. $2.50. This is one of the commentaries in the series, Everyman's Bible Com- mentary, published by the Moody Press. The author is the Assistant Academic Dean and Assistant Professor of Bible Exposition at Dallas Theological Seminary, Dallas, Texas. His previous publications were in collaboration with other writers in the field of Christian Education. Zuck admits that the Book of Job is not easy to understand. However he has written a popular commentary which will greatly help the average Book Reviews 55 Christian reader to understand the purpose and the argumentation of this Biblical book, which has been recognized as fascinating for two reasons: its unusual structure and its poetic richness. Zuck is acquainted with the divergent schools of interpretation which have appeared in the last century. A look at his "selected bibliography" (p. 192) shows that he has surveyed and consulted commentaries representing divergent points of view. The practical aim of this commentary is to deal with the oft-asked question: "Why did this happen to me?" Over the centuries Jews and Christians have cried out in pain and weeping from grief, have asked "Why must I and my family suffer like this?" Zuck is persuaded that it is to this global question of suffering that Job addresses himself, dealing especially with the problem of unmerited suffering, which has been a global experience of men and women. The Book of Job also treats the question, "Will a man serve God for no personal gain?" In dealing with the isagogical questions inherent in the exposition of Job, Zuck had adopted the position of conservative Biblical scholarship. He holds to the historicity of Job, that Job had the experience recorded in the prologue, that Eliphaz, Bildad and Zophar visited him, that Elihu rebuked Job and his friends. The author's interpretation of the most famous passages in Job 19:25- 27 this reviewer believes is not altogether adequate. Zuck claims that Job said he would see God in the afterlife," but not in a resurrected body" (p. 91). Over against modem critical scholarship Zuck finds Satan, not as a helper of God, but as a spiritual personality seeking man's harm. Martin Luther called Job "magnificent and sublime as no other book of Scripture." Victor Hugo called the book of Job the greatest masterpiece of the human mind. Pastor and laity will want to grapple with this Old Testament book. This commentary can help in the study of this profound canonical book. Raymond F. Surburg JESUS IN THE FIRST THREE GOSPELS. By Millar Burrows. Abingdon, Nashville, 1977. 304 pages. Cloth. $11.95. It might have been easier if the Holy Spirit had provided us with only one Gospel and not four. This would have prevented the never ending quest for the historical Jesus. Millar Burrows' claim to fame comes from his Dead Sea Scrolls and More Light on the Dead Sea Scrolls. Now in his twilight years he can reflect on the person of Jesus. In the preface Burrows offers a few ex- planations. The original manuscript had to be severely condensed and the scholarly apparatus excised. Dibelius and Bultmann, the founders of forms criticism, are given a word from gratitude, yet form criticism is not prominently used. Burrows also mentions that his book may be disturbing to some readers, but his real goals are to "help others to reach a truer un- derstanding of Jesus and devotion to him." One has to search the text at great length to find anything really disturbing or shocking. If one did not know the oopyright year was 1977, one dd easily conclude that the book was taken right out of the middle of the last century with its frenzied search for the historical Jesus. without sacrificing a devotional romanticism. Burrows of course rules out the miraculous, but manages to recover a Jesus whose characteristics and words we know. 1n comparison with Bultmam, Burrows is radically conservative! Along with the majority of scholars, Burrows sees little historical value in John and follows the Marcan priority. (Bultmann would see no historical value in any of the Gospels!) ln spite of his own expressed lack of appreciation of the historical quality of the Fourth Gospel, references to it are made throughout the text. Burrows writes in the portrait style of the nineteenth century exegetes. It is the style of embellishment. The disciples at Emmaus are spoken of as urging Jww to have supper with them. The readers are even told that there may be assumed that there is "some historical basis for this incident" (p. 2731, but 56 CONCORDIA THEOLOGICAL QUARTERLY without any commitment to the resurrection. This reviewer gets the impression that Burrows would very much like to believe that much of the story about Jesus is really true, but the doubts of intellect do not permit him to go that far: The sad dilemna facing Burrows cannot be told better than in his own words. "The question whether Jesus came back to life cannot be an- swered by historical evidence. It is outside the area accessible to the historical research. In all probability the Christian church would have never existed or survived without the conviction that Jesus had risen from the dead. It is hard to believe that the whole history of Christianity is grounded in a delusion, but we cannot prove that it was not so. Each person's position on that question necessarily depends on his presuppositions, his understanding of the kind of universe we live in and God's relation to it. "On that basis, speaking only for myself, I cannot believe that Jesus came back to life with the body that had been crucified and buried. (p. 278). (Italics added.) Two questions should be addressed to Burrows. If he is willing to accept the Gospels in regard to certain historical details, why does he feel obligated to amputate the miraculous? What prevents him from following Bultmann and dismissing everything? Perhaps Burrows provides the answer himself. He is so influenced by his own presuppositions that he cannot extricate himself from them. But isn't this the mark of a true scholar, one willing to sacrifice his own presuppositions in the face of the evidence? David P. Scaer THE NEW TESTAMENT TEACHING ON THE ROLE RELATIONSHIP OF MEN AND WOMEN. By George W. Knight, 111. Baker Book House, Grand Rapids, Michigan. 1978.76 pages. Paper. $3.95. Knight, a professor at Covenant Seminary, St. Louis, offers a forceful Biblical argument against the ordination of women pastors. His treatise is targeted to the conservative or evangelical churches in which this issue is still up for discussion. Most large mainline churches have officially endorsed the practice. Proponents of the ordination of women must either work with a restricted doctrine of Scriptural infallibility or relegate Paul's directives in this matter to culturally conditioned commands, according to Knight. After outlining the current debate in the first chapter, the author gives an exegesis of the per- tinent passages, 1 Timothy 2:ll-15, 1 Corinthians 11:l-16, *and 14:33b-38. Central to Knight's thesis is that while male and female are equal heirs of salvation, the submission of the female to the male, as outlined in Genesis, remains valid in the home and church organization. This position is of course the same one adopted by the Missouri Synod. The application of this principle to various church organizations, including boards, voters assemblies, and conventions would make a lively topic of discussion. Knight's writing style is well suited for the lay audience. The more intricate exegetical arguments are placed in the footnotes. Complete Biblical and subjects indic~ makes the treatise quite usable in adult study groups. Lutherans will not want to get involved in Knight's distinction between preaching and ruling elders (pp. 63f. 1, a system which Presbyterians find binding. This fine treatise might be rounded out in a second edition with a discussion of the imagery of Christ as the bridegroom and the church as the bride. Such imagery would, however, suggest a certain ecclesiology. With the major Protestant and Lutheran church bodies ordaining women pastors, this issue will plague the Missouri Synod for at least another generation. Knight's book brings the data compactly together. David P. Scaer Book Reivews 57 THE SERMON ON THE MOUNT. By D.A. Carson. Baker Book House, Grand Rapids, Michigan, 1978. 157 pages. Cloth. $6.95. The author, now dean at the Baptist seminary in Vancouver, returned to Cambridge where he received his Ph.D., to present a series of lectures which he then developed after further editing into the present book. The Sermon on the Mount is strategically placed in Matthew's Gospel as perhaps the most important words of Jesus, but there has hardy been any unanimity in their meaning and intent. Carson's treatment of the Beatitudes is traditional in that he assumes that they are descriptions and goals of the Christian life. Righteousness of the fourth beatitude is explained as conformity to God's will. Thus the person who hungers after righteousness desires to do God's will. But there is an exegetical problem here. Each of the Beatitudes explains that the person is already blessed and therefore he is already in a state acceptable to God. In the Beatitudes the reward is in the future, not the condition of the person described. The impression is given that the writer read the Beatitudes and took them at face value without delving into the background of each. Another route must be discovered for the study of the Sermon on the Mount and especially the Beatitudes. The traditional method has given ua the picture of Jesua as the moralistic teacher. David P. Scaer QUESI'S FOR THE HISTORICAL JESUS. By Fred H. Klooster. Baker Book House, Grand Rapids, Michigan, 1978. 88 pages. Paper. $3.95. The reader wilI recognize immediately that the title is a reworking of AIbert Schweitzer's famous Quest for the Historical Jesus which brought 19th century scholarship in this area to a dead end. The author surveys the search for the Jesus of history by dividing the last two centuries into four periods: The Old Quest; The No Quest; The New Quest; and The Now Quest. The Old Quest covers the period covered in Schweitzer's work. The Jesus of this period was more often than mt fashioned in the appearance of the researcher. The No Quest aptly describes Karl Barth who left history behind and went looking for Jesus in the kerygma and revelation. Bultmann and his followers are seen in part as revivals of the Old Quest. The author provides the interesting data that Bultmann found the birth of Jesus during the reign of Augtustus, his life within the time of Herod, his ministry in Galilee, and his death under Pontius Pilate to be historically reliable (p. 53). This information was gathered from a lecture to his former students in Marburg in 1954. Frequently debated is the issue of what Bultmann considered reliable from the Gospels. This reviewer is somewhat amazed to find a Bultmann who is that conservative! Bultmann and his students could not see themselves through the problem of the resurrecbion. The Now Quest discusses Pamenberg's discovery that the resurrection does belong to researchable History, but this historical fact is not satiefactorily related to the kerygma. Klooster's book and chapter titles are accurate and catching. The novice ia easily introduced to a complex period of New Testament research and the scholar is given a satisfactory overview. The author as does this reviewer also sees a change for the better in the approach of Pannenberg. It is refreehing after the ahistorid approach of the Barthians. The question of whether or not Pannenberg reab holds to the resurrection remains. By making the resurrection of Jesus the Basis of history and theology, is Pannenberg again placing it outside of history as did Barth? Since the truth of the matter will only be solved in the future, it can hardly be a certainty now. Perhape Klooster could follow up with a chapter that would set forth at length his own views. David P. Scaer 58 CONCORDIA THEOLOGICAL QUARTERLY 11. Thcdogical-Hi6torkal Studies THE CHRISTIAN FAITH: An Introduction to Christian Thought. By Dallas M. Roark. Baker Book House, Grand Rapids, Michigan, 1977. 352 pages. Paper. $4.95. Baker Book House is making available through reprints original first editions which had limited circulation. Roark's popular dogmatics first ap- peared in 1969. A dogmatical textbook that cwers most of Christian doctrine in less than 400 pages in a very readable style is an accomplishment. The author's permive is fundamentalist and Baptist, but tries to reach out for the audience. Roark could not avoid remarking that the Lutheran doctrine of the real presence in the Lord's Supper is contingent on the cornrnlrnicatio idiomaturn. Roark is sufficiently acquainted with Luther to know that central to his doctrine were simply the words, "This is my body. " The Lutheran doctrine is also branded a modern view (p. 131). The book is divided into fourteen chapters with an appendix on the charismatic movement. Roughly the first one hundred pages covers the con- cepts of belief in God, and religions in general. Lutheran do-tics would have a difficult time discussing God and religion in the abstract without moving quickly to the concept of God's revelation in Christ. Roark's approach might definitely be more effective in an age when God and religion are no longer necessarily seIf-understood principles. In the discussion of each doc- trine, brief historical references are to past opinions and heresies. bark marshals strong arguments against millennialiam (pp. 311-22) and of the charisamatic movement he says that it possesses "an unusuaI doctrine of the Holy Spirit" (p. 329). Biblical and subject indicea are also included. The style, the kngth, the breadth are all right. Roark's dogmatics is well geared for college religion and seminary theology courses. Lutherans are stin lacking a comparable volume. David P. Scaer RESURRECTION. Biblical Testimony to the Resurrection: An Historical Examination and Explanation. By Ulrich Wilckens. Translated by A.M. Stewart. Kwx, Atlanta, 1978. 134 pages. 86-95. There are a number of good things to commend this book. Wilcken upholds the facticity of Jesus' resurrection and repudiates views like those of Willi Marxsen which speak of "Jesus' resurrection simply as one means of ex- pression of the experience of faith." (121) It is more than a proclamation or kerygma of slogan (so Bultmann). With Kuenneth, Wilcken can be counted among those who hold that "the sense of the resurrection was in the reality of its having happened." (122) Only in this way is it possible, or intellectually honest, to say that the proclamation of the Easter event is important, becam here then God's great might has been revealed ad Christ's Lordship decisively attested. Wilcken is weak, however, in affirming the evident proof for Christ's deity through His resurrection, as well as the forgiveness of sins and justification of sinners sealed thereby. In a kind of final summary he mdy states that "what they (the apostles) saw in their risen Master was essentiany the eternal vindication of bve as the final deciding might." (129) That can mean all sorts of things and not necessarily what the Scriptures plainly teach. In his introduction Wilcken mtes that his book will mean little to thoae "Who are of the firm opinion that acceptance of the Biblical testimony of the resurrection of Jesus just simply can no longer be expected of a modern person" and to those, on the other hand, "who consider it a sacrilege to expose to scientific examination the testimony of faith in Biblical revelation." His purpose is to serve those "who are anxious to find out as precisely and thorou~hly as m&le what the earliest Christians really meant when thy spoke of the resurrection of Jesus." To accomplish this he dissects piece by piece Book Reviews 59 the resurrection narratives, adopting many of the so-called scientific and higher critical techniques and judgments. Thus the Gospels get poured through a structured sieve, a sort of psycho-analytic study. Mark's thoughts and purposes, then Paul's, and so on down the line, are in turn juggled, tossed one against the other, and then finally shaped to conform to the sense or meaning which W ilcken believes they must have had then and must have for us now. He realizes the difficulty involved in this pursuit, but somehow arbitrarily dismisses the possibility that the text has an inherent, evident, and clear meaning of its own, not requiring, nor indeed welcoming, sophisticated surgery some twenty cen- turies later. This is not to downgrade Wilcken's scholarship but to underline the fact that every exegete of Scripture approaches his task with certain presup- poritions: either the text is the inspired, authoritative Word of God given through His own chosen penmen and has something that God wants to say plainly, or it is a collage of writings spun together from individual pieces by writers who had their own ideas about certain events (which may, or may not, be historical and true), unclear, ambiguous, requiring clever exegesis. The latter stance is the one more or less taken for granted as the scientific, scholarly ap- proach and the one that enjoys the widest acceptance today in scholarly circles. But the fundamental question which remains unanswered is whether it maintains integrity towards the thing being examined, the Scriptures themselves. Wilcken, as others, fails to satisfy his readers on this score. E. F. Klug GETTING INTO THE STORY OF CONCORD. A History of the Book of Concord. By David P. Scaer. Concordia, St. Louis, 1977. 100 pages. $1 -95. "Some will object to this kind of celebration because they consider it devotion to a book, bibliolatry;" but as Dr. Scaer notes in answer: ''Our celebration of the 400th anniversary of the Book of Concord is not merely noting a historical marker, but it is our involvement in the faith confessed there. " ( 11) While it is true today that not all Lutherans feel themselves bound by these Confessions, the fact remains that within all Lutheran churches the Confessions still work as a kind of gyro steadying the ship, a feature which no other section of Christianity can claim in quite the same way. Conservative Lutherans express an unqualified subscription, because they believe that these Confessions correctly expond Scripture's teaching on the articles presented, most of which had been in dispute in times past somewhere in the church at large. Dr. Scaer presents a lengthy background to the rise of confessions in the church, particularly their Biblical precedent. All eIeven documents in the Book of Concord are described, as to historical background and content, starting with the three ecumenical creeds. The Augsburg Confession gets due prominence as the respected centerpiece of the Reformation. Perhaps the Apology to the Augsburg Confession comes in for disproportionately short treatment. It was the longest confession and played a vital role in Lutheran theology. Of its twenty-eight tuticles Dr. Scaer rightly focuses on its greatest, the fourth, on justification. The unique role of the catechisms, especially the Small Catechism, is seen in the influence they had in having "shaped Lutheran theology, thought, and expression for 450 years. " Ah descriptively covering the Formula of Concord as to its history and content, Dr. Scaer concludes by posing the possibility "that the church is now ready for another confessional awakening" specifically addressed to the modem (19th and 20th century) attack on the Bible as the inspired, authoritative Word of God, for the church, he observes, "is under obligation from her Lord to respond." A couple of small pruofreading booboos appear in the text. On p. 14 the upcoming 200th anniversary year of the American Constitution is given as 1983; undoubtedly this was M be 1987, to correspond with the Constitution's completion in 1787. The reference on p. 80 to "a story which will be tald on 60 CONCORDIA THEOLOGICAL QUARTERLY pages 146-148 should undoubtedly be pages 86-87. The book includes a set of questions as an appendix, geared to serve as discussion starters. Thus it has value also for group study besides being a fine, short historical survey of the Confessions in the Book of Concord. E. F. Klug GETTING INTO THE THEOLOGY OF CONCORD. A Study of the Book of Concord. By ltobert Preus. Concordia, St. Louis, 1977. 94 pages. $1.95. The serious student of Lutheran theology, lay or clergy, win have to agree after reading this book that it is excellent. To be able to treat profound truths of the Christian faith in such a way that the average person understands and delights in them is not everyone's ball of wax. Dr. Preus has this singular gift, not only when it comes to writing but also in the essays or chapel addresses which he delivers. Nobody can miss his meaning. The so-called "moderate" and liberal in theology may not agree with him, but he can never say that he did not understand. In true Luther-like way bus' doctoral degrees (Edin- burgh and Strasbourg) have not made him opaque to the listening or reading audience. Besides, he stands high in scholarly circles for his competence in the area covered by the book, the period of the Lutheran Confessions, and then also the 17th century theologians. His performance here, as he himself suggests, is partly owed to the 20 or so years he has devoted to teaching seminary students on the Confessions and their theology. Thus the reader is the beneficiary of the expertise. Along with his heavy administrative responsibilities as president of Concordia Theological Seminary, Ft . Wayne, Dr. Preus has kept his scholarship alive, both in classroom teaching and in writing. By no means should the impression be left that these 18 chapters, which cover the main topics of the Christian faith, are child's play. The chapters are short, to the point, and clear. But Dr. Preus has beefed them up with many references for the reader to look up in the Confessions, thus allowing the more serious reader, including college and seminary students, to dig into the sources. These alone, drawn from years of work on the Confessions, make the book worth much more than the reasonable price asked. It is a true guide to the theology of the Confessions, which themselves are a most wonderful road map to the truths of God's Word. Which Lutheran worth his salt dare throw the map away? In an ecumenicaliy shallow and superficial age, known more for sickly sentimentalism than sound, loyal Biblical theology, this book is like a fresh, green oasis. It can guard the pilgrim from the dangers of fruitless, aimless t heolo- meanderinas. "To answer for Lutheran lay people," what it means to be a Lutheran Christian, this is the author's single purpose. Christian doctrine has always been interesting to serious-minded Christians, because they know that it is given of God, honors His name, serves true concord, and pertains directly to their salvation. That is the book's platform: "The Gospel we preach, teach and confess is set forth in the Scriptures and normed by them, " Preus states, and "at the same time, the Scriptures, impired by God, were written for the sake of the Gospel." (27) Aware of natural man's abhorrence for admitting original sin Preus states: I suppose if an unbeliever were to reach this chapter he would find it all tembly hard to accept. With all the cruelty and stupidity and corruption in the world, man must possess some redeeming quality. Perhaps the best answer I could offer such a person is what Luther states in the Smalcald Articles (III,i,3): "This hereditary sin is so deep a corruption of nature that reason cannot understand it. It must be believed because of the revelation in the scriptures (Ps. 51, 5; Rom. 5. 12ff; Exd. 33, 20: Gen. 3, 6ff.)" Then in a very pastoral way the author adds: "And thew the matter stands. Book Reviews 6 1 But I would want to tell every unbeliever about God's remedy for his spiritual depravity and his slavery to sin. And that's what the rest of this book about our Confessions is all about." (38f. Theological terms come in for special clarification, also in an index at the back of the book. In addition Preus takes special paips to make certain things which are often misunderstood crystal clear, e.g., on reconciliation, that God's reconciliation with sinners as a result of Christ's atoning sacrifice preceded the Word of reconciliation which now goes out to the world to be reconciled with God by believing His Gospel. (45) The great article on Justification rightly stands in the center of the book. Discussion questions related to each chapter are appended at the end of the book. The book can be put to multiple use in our homes, schools, churches, study groups. It is another fitting product of CPH during these 400th anni~ersary.~ears of the Formula of Concord, 1577, and the Book of Concord, 1580. E. F. Klug I BELIEVE: A STUDY OF THE SMALKALD ARTICLES. By Bjarne W. Teigen. Lutheran Synod Book Company, Bethany Lutheran College, Mankato, Minnesota. 25 pages. Paper. $1.00. If Lutherans fail to mark the 400th anniversary of the confessions in proper fashion, they will probably never have another opportunity in this or the next generations to get their congregations acquainted with these foundat ion documents of their faith. Here is a contniution that will make this celebration a reality. Teigen's study document on the Smalkald Articles is speciffically designed far congregational use as are his first two study guides on the Ecumenical Creeds and the Formula of Concord. Effectively used are photographs, illustrations, and paintings of the period so that the reader can picture in his mind the historical surroundings connected with the document. Eight chapters discuss the Smdkald Articles and a final and ninth chapter discusses Meanchthon's Treatise on the Power and Primacy of the Pope, which even the Formula of Concord erroneously attributed to Luther as part of the Smalkaid Articles. The first two chapters present introductory historical material. Professor Teigen singles out justification as the central theme of the Smalkald Articles and relates it to Luther's judgement that the papacy is the Anti - Christ. The author is hardly negative in handling the Roman Catholic Church and strongly commends it for its understanding of the Natural Law. Placed alongside the chapters on the means of grace and confession is the Lucas Cranach altar painting from the Wittenberg City Church. The theology of the Smalkald Articles is related to the four painted panels: Luther preaching and pointing to the crucified Christ; Melanchthon baptizing an infant; Christ celebrating the Last Supper with His apostles along with Luther and his colleagues; and Bugenhagen absolving and retaining sins. Ordinarily one would expect that Professor Teigen would have followed his study on the creeds and the Formula with the Augsburg Confession, the Apology, Luther's catechisms and then finally the Smalkald Articles with Melanchthon's Treatise. Teigen explains that in the documents of the Book of Concord, the Smalkald Articles are the only ones written by Luther expressly and only for confessional purposes. It should be rescued from obscurity. Study questions accompany each of the chapters. Pastors looking for innovative material for their adult classes will find it here. At every point the author involves the lay audience. Occasionally he does appear to be straining in this effort. Frequently and rightfully commended is the Saxon Elector John Frederick, who provided the political backbone for the bagw of Smaikald, Commending the elector as a layman is however a debatable point. The Lutheran princes assumed certain episcopal respon- sibilities in absence of the regular church administrative structures. Medieval princes were not only secular lords, but also spiritual guardians. In turn 62 CONCORDIA THEOLOGICAL QUARTERLY bishops were also secular rulers. The Smalkald Articles were adopted and signed at Smalkald not by the laymen but by the pastors and theologians. It was another "layman" Philipp of Hesse who helped scuttle a fuller discussion of Luther's Articles at Smallrald. Teigen's assertion that because the bishops refused to ordain Lutheran pastors, "Luther recommends lay -ordination", cannot be defended from the Smalkald Articles or Luther's other writings and own practice. Perhaps before the end of 1980 the series will be completed so that all the confessions can be studied. For the present, Professor Teigen has provided some readily usable material for the people. Only by studying the confessions can we celebrate their anniversary properly. Discount prices are available. David P. Scaer NIKOLAUS VON AMSDORF. By Robert Kolb. B. De Graaf, Nieuwkoop, Net herlands, 1978. (Volume XXIV in Bibliotheca Humanistica & Refor- matorica) 296 pages. It's been said before but probably bears repeating: Most doctoral disser- tations, like old gererals, do not die, they just fade away, on dusty out-of-the- way library shehes. There are exceptions. This deserves to be one of them. Amsdorf was born the same year as Luther (1483), stood by him as one his most loyal supporters on the Wittenberg faculty, and lived through most of the troubled era after Luther's death, dying (1565) a few years before the settlement- brought by the Formula of Concord, 1577. Some thought that Amsdorf. rather than Melanchthon, should have been the one on whom Luther's mantle of leadership fell. Kolb's general assessment of Nikolaus von Amsdorf (he was the one nobleman in the inner circle of Reformation figures around Luther) is that "modem scholarship has paid Amsdorf less attention than he appears to deserve," but "on the other hand, he seems to promise the modern student more than he delivers." (16) It is Kolb's thesis to try to prove both points. This grandpa figure, who on his mother's side was the nephew of Staupitz, states Kolb, was no great, original thinker but an extremely loyal supporter of Luther. He was present for many of the key events in Luther's life-Leipzig debate, Diet of Worms, Luther's "kidnapping," and so on. He played a leading role in making Magdeburg one of the Reformation's strongholds and showplaces in reform of the churches and the schools. When Melanchthon began to lean more and more in the direction of synergism with regard to the power of the human will in conversion, Amsdorf firmly upheld Luther's position, both before the Reformer's death and after. Amsdorf was also in the forefront opposing the notorious Interims (Augsburg and Leipzig) which were stuffed down the throats of the defeated Lutheran party in 1548. He stood with Flacius against the Philippists, and supported FIacius against the wily Strigel and his synergism. Amsdorf in the process also got himself embroiled with Flacius in defining original sin as part of man's essential being, and in the Majoristic Controversy he ended up on the other end of the pendulum against George Ma'or, arguing that good works were detrimental to salvation, a even as Major ha argued that they were necessary to salvation. The hst error did not make the first right, of course. Through all, however, Amsdorf's one obsession was to keep Lutheran theology free from the pitfalls of synergism in any way. But he lacked the overall breadth and balance of his mentor, Luther, and was unable to cope with each assault with Luther's khd of competence. Kolb's chapter on the Majoristic controversy is especially helpful. He has done careful research and documenting. It is unclear to me, however, just where Kolb stands on the question of objective justification in view of a statement like this: "Luther believed that God gives this salvation to those who receive the gift of faith in Christ. . . . . . Luther presented a relationship established by the freely-given Book Reviews 63 mercy of a gracious God through the gift of faith. He summarized that relationship in the concept of justification by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone. "(18) Lacking is the crystal-clear precision with which Luther addressed the faith accompli of Christ's atoning sacrifice as the Gospel con- tent, in his famous lectures on Galatians, for example. In this anniversay period of the Formula of Concord and Book of Concord, 1977 and 1980, it is good to have this study added to the list of studies that help the English reading public fill in missing links in the story of the Reformation and post-Reformation years. E. F. Klug THE SOVEREIGN GOD AND GOD THE REDEEMER: Foundations of the Christian Faith. By James Montgomery Boice. Volume I & 11. Inter- Varsity Press, Downers Grove, Illinois. 252 pages and 272 pages. Paper. $5.25 each. Here are the first two volumes in a four volume series depicting the Calvinistic perspective of the Christian faith by one time Christianity Today staff member and now Philadelphia Presbyterian minister James Montgomery Boice. In recent years Intervarsity Press has arisen from obscurity to provide conservative and fundamentalist Christianity with a wide variety of publications ranging from evaluation of comtemporary exegetical methods to a representation of traditional dogmatics. If sixteenth century Reformation theology is going to survive beyond the twentieth century, the type of books being produced by Boice comes close to being absolutely necessary. The author is committed to Calvin's Institutes for his theology but not for his style and format. Wherever possible contemporary English headings replace the classical dogmatical titles which might have frightened off the lay reader at first glance. The prolegomena section, entitiled "0 Knowing God," is the shortest, but in the present religious crisis in which God's existence is questioned, this section should have been the longest. The next major section, "The Word of God," treats the traditional topics of inspiration and inerrancy along with topics on Biblical criticism and hermeneutics. A short section on canonicity might be added in a second edition, as the collection of the Biblical documents is not an infrequent topic. The attribute of God's sovereignty receives as many pages as does the Trinity, but this is expected in any author whose loyalties lie with the Reformed. Some space should have been used to explain the distinctive at- tributes of the divine persons and less space for analogies of the Trinity which present more problems than they resolve. "God's Creation" forms the fourth major section of the first volume. In the second volume Boice has four sections covering sin, law and grace, and Christ's person and work. Lutherans will be surprisingly. comfortable with sections on Christ's deity and the vicarious though not universal atonement. The entire xmtter of the interchange of divine and human attributes within Christ's person is missing. Boice is both a theologian in the classical sense and a writer in the popular editorial style. He is not afmid to take the reader into the Old Testament background works for the New Testament concept of redemption. He does not suffer from the scholarly condesending attitude that some issues should simply not be presented to the laity. The reader can never escape Boice's commitment to Calvinism. Don't expect to find the universal atonement or love (p. 217). In the matter of the salvation of the Old Testament saints, the matter of the election creeps in before Boice comes down firmly in favor of faith and against salvation through the law or ceremonies. The subject index of the first volume contains no references to either election or predestination topics so essential to the Reformed, beginning with Calvin. This reviewer found 'predestination' nowhere mentioned. Election creeps into the section of love. The two concepts are understood in connection with each other (p. 216-8). Boice may feel a little uncomfortable with this aspect of Calvin, but it would have been helpful if he 64 CONCORDIA THEOLOGICAL QUARTERLY had been open in stating that God in fact does not desire to save all men. The differences between the Lutheran and Reformed simply do not have to do with the sacraments alone. The remaining two volumes in the series should demonstrate the cleavage even more clearly. What Lutherans need are popular dogmatic volumes in the style and theological erudition of Boice. Boice's volumes are destined to go through several printings and to be around for some time. David P. Scaer LIBERATION AND CHANGE. By Gustavo Gutierrez and Richard Shaull. Edited and introduced by Ronald H. Stone. Knox, Atlanta, 1977. 200 pages. $4.95. In 1976 Pittsburgh Theological Seminary devoted its Schaff lectures to a dido e between Gustavo Gutierrez and Richard Shaull. The first is a Bra&., widely known as one of the leaders in the theology of liberation movement; the second, an American, spent five years as a missionary in Brazil and has syrnpa thetic leanings towards the same theology. There is evident convergence in the thinking of the two, even though Shaull says that he began his work as a critique of liberation theology. "The question of politics has now become a religious question," he avers in virtually full agreement with Gutierrez. (149) The important thing now, says Shaull, is that we tackle the cultural, social, economic, political contradictions that afflict our society, that we be on guard lest past liberalism ends with a total backlash in convervatism, and that, as a result, we find ourselves in more Vietnams and in still more bitter social, political upheavals. Much of this is the apocalyptic message which Gutierrez has been proclaiming in his native Brazil as the "saving gospel." For him political and social freedom is necessary for religious truth, "the underlying condition of access to truth." (6) He sympathizes with the old notion, propounded by Tertullian, Lactantius, and later by the Scholastics, that there is salvation for persons outside the Christian faith "who have lived according to the Word." (7) He likes to quote Augustine's principle, cwdere non potest nisi vokns (to believe is a matter of the will), in order to stress the free character of the act of faith. Like with most synergists, whether Romanist or Protestant, the so- ded free decision of faith is of the very essence in his thinking. Gutierrez' chief target is the bourgeois class that grew out of the 18th century's revolutionary spirit and meanwhile transformed history, society, economics and politics with its ideology, an ideology which, according to the Brazilian advocate of revolutionary reform, was the exploitation of the poor and the toleration of evil towards the non-Christian. Salvation thus lies in liberation in tune with the people's needs of today, the freeing of the masses, the poor, from further exploitation."That discovery, however, is only made in a revolutionary stmggIe which radically questions the existing social order and postulates the need for power for the common people in order to construct a truly equalitarian and free society." (76) That is the definition of liberation theology, "a theology of salvation incarnated in the concrete historical and political condition of today" (86), a "gospel read from the perspective of the poor and exploited classes and with an understanding of the militancy which has been evident in their struggles for liberation, . . . a Church which is born from the people, from a people who rip the Gospel from the hands of the powerful of this world." (93) Obviously none can discount the suffering, the hunger, the oppression presently endured by countless millions today. There is need for help and reform. But how? If we are to accept the message here offered it is to be by radical revolutionary action and uprisings in the name of Christianity. But the sword of the Spirit, the Word of God, by which Christ's disciples "conquered" the nations and transformed society, has never belonged with the mld steel of Book Reviews 65 the sword of power, even though the authors seem to suggest that it may. The "gospel" they preach thus appears to come closer to Lenin's than to any other. It is a travesty. no matter how gross the neglect of the church of the masses and their needs in the past, to try to hitch liberation theology to the Christian flag. The saving Gospel for the poor of this earth is for every sinner, rich or poor, bond or free, whatever condition. God has never promised a heaven on earth, though Christians ought not be so heavenly minded that they are of no earthly good in helping the man in need. Neither Gutierrez, nor Shaull, has the answer for what the world needs most and now, or what the church needs to be doing first and foremost. It is the Lord's pleasure to say, according to Luther: "I shall not allow My Christians to defend themselves with arms and violence and the tumult of war, for they will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into scythes." (LW 20, 139) The Word is key here and not revolution. The Word may work revolutionary changes, but it does so by transforming man's heart, not by radical social and political measures. God ' 6 wages war" and changes society by proclaiming the Gospel of forgiveness of sins and peace in Christ. E. F. KIug THE SHAKING OF ADVENTISM. By Geoffrey J. Paxton. Baker, Grand Rapids, 1978. Paperback. 172 pages. $3.95. One may rightly wonder about the ultimate purpose of Geoffrey Paxton (occasional collaborator with Robert Brinsmead, editor of Present Truth) in writing a book like this on the Seventh-day Adventist movement. is it to prove that Seventh-day Adventists are after all evangelical-and therefore to be classified within the Christian pale of churches rather than as a legalistic, Old Testament-ceremonial. cult? His introductory words, that "Seventh-day Adventists believe in salvation by grace through faith alone as fervently as do most evangelicals" (17), do not seem to correspond to his conclusion that most Adventists "insist that righteousness by faith means justification and sanc- tification" (148), a fact which he explains as "the attempt within Adventism to place sanctification in the article of righteousness by faith (in) an effort to avoid antinomianism. " ( 155) Apparently at this present moment, if Paxton is right, there is no doctrinal unanimity within Adventism. That is par for the course in every cultic group, built as they are on the soundings or revelations of a central prophetic and charismatic figure, in this case Mrs. Ellen G. White (1827-1915). With her husband. James, and others, she was chiefly responsible for salvaging what was left of the abortive date-setting movement of William Miller after the debacle that tried to predict the visible return of Christ for the cleansing of the sanctuary, fust in 1843, and then 1844. Mrs. White was an enigmatic sort of "~rophetess," possessing considerable magnetic talent and personality, as well as remarkable familiariw with the Bible, as had Miller also. However, to try to claim her for the Reformation's stance on so& gmtia, so& f&, sob Scripturn, is a venture destined to failure wen before it begins. Nonetheless this is the avowed purpose, it seems, of Robert Brinsmead, the Australian Adventist scholar: and Paxton, in turn, seems dedicated to the task of rehabilitating Brinsmead as a kind of Lutheran-Seventh-day Adventist, if there be such a thing. I have had opportunity to read Brinsmead's unpublished manual which struggles to make Mrs. White look like a supporter of Luther's doctrine on justification by faith. It is unconvincing. But one can also un- derstand, at least in part, the reason for the numerous articles, based on Luther's writings, in Brinsmead's Present Truth. In fairness it must be stated that he, with a few others within the SDA group, stand for a view which seeks to place justification and sanctification into a right relationship. Brinsmeed personally has studied Luther and the Lutheran Confessions rather carefully, it seems, as has Paxton: and they have benefited from such study. as their 66 CONCORDIA THEOLOGICAL QUARTERLY writings show. But when all is said and done, sanctification, or good works according to legalistic demands, or perfectionism, still are to be seen "as the higher stage in the salvation process" for most SDAs, Paxton admits. (72) Theological rumblings and disagreements have been a part of SDA history right from the start, on Christology , soteriology , eschatology, the authority question, etc. Mrs. White herself left America for Australia, 1891, "ticked off' apparently by disagreements within her fold. Among the leaders during this troubled period was Dr. J. H. Kellogg, of corn flakes' fame in Battle creek, Michigan. Paxton's argument is that at this time she was resisting the move toward legalism and perfectionism, striving rather to uphold the forensic sense hteousness which is imputed unto faith. Brinsmead shares that opinion. ;:%IS day. he apparently remains within Adventism's fold, though on the &. Paxton meanwhile is an Anglicml, also an Australian, of a strongly evangeIical and conservative bent. I personally remain unconvinced that either Mrs. White, or Brinsmead, or for that matter Paxton have completed them reIigious odyssey all the way back to Luther's Biblical stance. The publishers' back-cover summary describes Paxton's work as a "thoroughly documented account of the terrific tussle over justification by faith now going on in the Adventist community." That it is. It apparently also is true that Adventist theology is being shaken somewhat, both on the teaching-voice authority of the church's administration and also on the central article of works-righteousness and perfectionism. On both counts, as Paxton rightly notes, it resembles Rome so very much. It is a good book all right for the purpose delineated above, but hardy "as exciting as an Agatha Christie mystery," as the publishers daim, except perhaps to Adventists, students of the sects, and the author himself. Brins- mead's change of direction from arch SDA doctrine towards Luther's stance 19, or course, a noteworthy phenomenon to be happening with a group like the Adventists. On the other hand, the confessors at Augsburg, 1530, contended that their doctrine was the confession of faith of every devout child of God whose faith was grounded, not on men, but-on the Word of God, Holy Scriptures. Such believers were everywhere to be found, in spite of official church bodies' doctrinal aberrations. It will be worth watching, to see whether Brinsmead's influence will be strong and consistent enough to turn the Adventists toward sound, Luther-like theology, or whether he in conscience will find himself complled to leave a church whose theology compromises what sppears now to be his own strong, Luther-like pronouncements, at least on the central article of justification. History points to the second. E. F. Klug THE PIETY OF JOHN CALVIN: An Anthology Illustrative of the Spirituality of the Reformer. Translated by Ford Lewis Battles. Music edited by Stanley ,Tagg. Baker Book House, Grand Rapids, Michigan, 1978. 180 pages. Cloth. $9.95. In terms of the human dimension. Calvin has suffered in comparison with Luther. The former was more careful and precise and the latter was a per- sonality impossible to retain with bounds. Professor Battles of the Calvin Theological Seminary has isolated selected sections from Calvin's Institutes, liturgies. and homilies to give us an inner spiritual picture of the SOU] of the reformer of Geneva. The picture of CaIvin standing in awe before God is reinforced by this picture. After a historical introduction by the editor seven chapters toIlow: (1) The Spiritual Pilgrimage of CaIvin; (2) The Kernel of Calvin's Life; (3) Calvin on Christian Life; (4) Calvin in Prayer; (5) Prayers of CaIvin; (6) Metrical Psalms; (7) Prose-Psalms adapted from Calvin. It is impossible for this reviewer to avoid making a comparison between the two reformers. Each's rendering of Psalm 46 might demonstrate the point. Luther in his hymn A Minhtv Fortress reconnizes Christ as God's valiant chamuion. Book Reviews 67 In Calvin's rendition the Christological motif is simply missing. The kingdom is to be found here on earth. God is One who is strong in battles. Calvin can view God apart from Christ, something which Luther could never do. Hymna of the Reformed tradition including Calvin'a center very little on Christ if at all and they stress the majestic, transcendental God, the God who has not yet revealed Himself mercifully in the person of Jesus Christ. Baker Book House ia to be congratulated for its fine edition of The Piety of John Calvin. Those who want to broaden their understanding of htestant worship life can make a sound in- vestment. The musical renderings of chapter six are available for $1.95. Lutherans will however not fed comfortable with a stern Calvin as a spiritual guide. David P. Scaer TRANSCENDENTAL MEDITATION: A Mystic Cult of Self-intoxication. By Lit-sen Chang. Presbyterian and Reformed Publishing Co., Nutley, N. J., 1978. 92 pages. Paper. $2.95. The author, a former practitioner of T. M., Transcendental Meditation, sets forth its religious philosophy and method of this now popular form of eastern mysticism. Written in layman's terms, the pastor could easily put this book to use in teenage and adult religious discussion groups. In some places T. M. has taken on epidemic proportions and several pastors might want to direct specific sermons to the problem. The dangers of T. M . , as the suthor sees them, are its amoral attitude, its negation of the rational functions of the mind, and its inherent pantheism. HOW long T. M. will remain popular among Americans cannot be determined. It is however a religion in spite of the protestations of its advocates to the contrary. Autobiog~aphical notaFions about the author's own spiritual pilgrimage with hs strong emphml8 on personal experience detract from this otherwise eminently useful~booklet. David P. Scaer BIO-BABEL: Can We Survive the New Biology?.By Allen R. Utke. John Knox Press, Atlanta, 1978. 247 pages. Cloth. 811.25. An accompanying letter from the publishers describes Bio-Babel as "must reading for all conscientious persons who are concerned about their own future, as well as the future of those who follow." The author, a professor of chemistry and a Lutheran layman, gives an up to date report of scientific advances in the hope of awakening ethical discussion among Christians as they face a future that cannot even be imagined. The first part discusses biological advances in reproduction, physical modification, mental modification, prolongment of life, and creation of life. Man has been put in a position where he can control areas of life which before were off limits either through his own lack of knowledge or through assignment to providence. The possibility that man may live to 800 years, that senility can he averted, that memory and intelligence can be increased, and that genetic controls can oe imposes, all boggle the mind. Imagination's realm is becoming incarnate into dty. Utke's purpose is to awaken the church's wmcience, either individually or collectively, to provide some sort of ethical response. He may have awakened the church to the brave new world, but he has provided very few answers. This may not have been his goal. Even in the matter of abortion which has been the center of controversy for some time, the author gives w firm direction. If Utke has Jerted us to the problems the church will be facing, he has performed an important service. The job left undone of providing the answers will be the more difficult. David P. Scaer ARCHIVES AND HISTORY: Minutes and &ports of the 13th Archiviets' and Historians' Conference. Edited by August R. Such. Deprhent of CONCORDIA THEOLOGICAL QUARTERLY Archives and History, The Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod. 1975. 194 pages. Mimeographed. $3.50. This volume contains the proceedings of the thirteenth regular meeting of Missouri Synod archivists andxhistorians. Contained here is a wide assortment of materials all the way from the devotions presented to the technical mechanics of searching through old church records. Two items should attract wide interest among Missouri Synod pastors. Jerrald K. Pfabe provides much of the background for curtent Missouri Synod attitudes to evolution in his carefully documented '"I'heodore Graebner is sympathetic, appreciative, and still critical of a man whose knowledge of science was not that of a professional. Whatever Graebner's short comings may have been, his views and attitudes are still standard today. A more personal essay is written by Ruth Fritz Meyer of her father in "Big John : Glimpses Into the Life and Work of Dr. John H. C. Fritz." "Dean Fritz" as he is generally known in the Missouri Synod set the tone for many preachers with his work on pastoral theology and his studies in homiletics. Mrs. Meyer does not cover the theological method of her father, but describes her father's home life and ministry. Dean Fritz's father was not a member of the Missouri Synod, but served many synods including what is now the LCA, ALC, and Wisconsin Synod. Many who have been influenced by Dean Fritz whether through his classroom teachings or his Pastoml Theology will take the opportunity to learn more about him. The LCMS is old enough to have a history which can now be divided up into periods. Only through understanding the roads on which we have traveled will we be able to make plans for the journey ahead of us. Archives and History helps us in this task. It can be ordered from the Con- cordia Historid Institute. David P. Scaer THE PROMISE OF THE COMING DARK AGE. By L. S. Stavrianos. W. H. Freeman and Company. San Francisco. 1976. 21 1 pages. Cloth. $8.95. Summer vacation is supposed to be a time of leisure-reading. Usually it is. The summer 1978 turned up an exception. THE PROMISE OF THE COMING DARK AGE proved to be such a provocative volume that I read it quickly and immediately reviewed it for the CTQ. Historian L. S. Stavrianos is familiar to the academic community for his excellent work on "globalization," the process in which a planet of separate civilizations-as the West, India, China, Islam-underwent a process of amalgamation in the past five centuries to form today's world civilization. In this controversial book, however, Stavrianos turns his attention from the recent past to the near future. Instead of an interpretation of what has hap- pened, he offers a projection of what will happen. Taking his cue from such writers as Jacques Barmn and Robert Heilbroner, who predict a Second Dark Age, Stavrianos immediately agrees. Four marks of such a Dark Age are evident, he contends: (1) economical imperialism, (2) ecological degradation, (3) bureacratic ossification, and (4) a flight from reason. But Stavrianos goes beyond a lamentation for the death of Western Civilization to a celebration or what he regards the emerging new order. For Stavrianos there is much promise in the Coming Dark Age. Why? Because Dark Ages are times of reconstruction as well as disin- tegration. The initial Dark Age (411-100 AD) is interpreted by Stavrianos as a time of significant techno lo^ development and massive leaps in the cause of human liberty. He concludes: "By the tenth century the Western European serf was enjoying a level of living significantly better than that of the proletarian during the height of Augustan Rome" (p. 5). Elites may suffer, the people will prosper through the collapse of ancient institutions-that seems to be his thesis. ID the current Dark Age, Stavrianos has identified four hopeful signs for Book Reviews 69 "the people" or "the masses" (industrial workers and Third World farmers): (1) a movement from aristo-technology to demo-technology, or a radical reversal in the go& of science, so that reswrch will serve the interests of the masses rather than making for the few; (2) a movement from boss-control to worker control of the means of production; (that means that workers run the factories); (3) a movement from representative democracy (the election of officials) to participtory democracy (direct action by the people); and (4) a movement from self-subordination to self-actualization (the refusal of the ordinary person to "pray, pay, and obey" and the insistence on "doing it my way"). Because of "the Law of the Retarding Lead," Stavrianos contends that the least developed nations- Marxist China and the Third World- will dominate the New Dark Age, and that consumer societies and the US and Soviet Union are destined to cohpse. This is a significant and provoc~ttive book (1) in terms of its philosophy of history [based, I think, on Jean Jacques Ruusseau, who thought man was basically good, only he is corrupted by bad institutions), (2) its economic priorities (and values), (3) its relegation of religion to the periphery of human experience (except for Liberation Theology), and (4) its Radical revisionist view of the future. But it poses many questions as well: (1) Who can really say what is a Dark Age (after all, the generations of the Renaissance thought they were entering one!),? (2) Could one not say that from a Christian perspective, any Age without the Word of God is dark, and if the VCrord is preached, then surely there will be children of light? And that prwIamation, in a world ap- proaching 8 billion people, is our most urgent task, if we are to avoid a Spiritual Dark Age. C. George Fry GOD AND THE UNIVERSE OF FAITHS. By John Hick. Fount Paper- backs (World Publishing Company), Cleveland, Ohio, 1977. 201 pages. Paper. $2.95. John Hick was educated at Edinburgh and Oxford and then taught at such places as Cornell University and Princeton Theological Seminary before be- coming H.G. Wood Professor of Tholow in the University of Birmingham. Perhaps he is most familiar to readers of the Concordia Theological Quarterly for his earlier writings, which included Fa-th and Knowledge, Evil and the God of Love, Arguments for the Existence of God, and Christianity at the Centre. In an interesting aside toward the end of this volume he confesses what has been self-evident for a least a hundred pages: "I have more sympathy with the new theologians than with the old theologians" (p. 183). This sympathy is derived from his conviction that new day is dawning in theology: I regard the contemporary breaking of long-established re11grous thought forms as good, and as having inaugurated a period in which there are exciting possibilities of reconstruction and challenging scope for originality ( p. 183). This position is not merely one born of conscience or of intellectual argumentation, but also of open confrontation with more traditional theologians. Hick recounts that: I have even, when I was in the United States, been involved in a heresy case, when a very conservative minority sought to exclude me from the ministry of the United Presbyterian Church for declining to affirm one of the more manifestly mythological aspects of the christian tradition. (p. 183) (The lower-case "c" in Christian is that of Dr. Hick. In this matter he is coa~istent in this volume). The many novelties in this volume will indicate ~y the Rev. Mr. Hick was accused of heresy. This book, gleaned for Hick's earlier writings in such places as Retigiom Studks, Theology Today, and The Scottish Journal of Theology, is concerned 70 CONCORDIA THEOLOGICAL QUARTERLY with what the author regards as "Theology's Central Problem" in our times. The iasues, in his thinking, are four-fold: (1) "the non-coercivenees of theistic belief in vbw of the fact that one need not refer to God in order to explain the workinge of nature" (the universe can be explained in purely naturalistic terms, he contends; Hick also deals with the problem of "God-language" in this section); (2) "the ancient and griely problem of evil" (evil is necessary in order that persona might have the opportunity to develop character); (3) "is the judaicchrhtisn concept of God coherent?" and (4) "the conflicting truth claims of the di-nt world religions" (which dawned on him while living in a multi-national, multi-cultural, multi-racial, and multi-rdigious community; how can one religion be true when valid "experiences" of the Ultimate seem to be present in all Higher Faiths, unless all religions are true?). Students of philosophid theology will find a pot-pourti of opinions. ancient and modern, few of them Evangelical or Catholic (in spite of Hick's claim to follow in the footsteps of St. Iremeus, in opposition to Augustine of Hippo, I fail to be persuaded); pastors will find one who dissents from the recent view that death is the end (Hick assures us we can believe in something after the grave; and that hell will ultirriately be empty; but a kind of purgatory is still there, temporarily); missiologists will find that evangelism is only effective among less-developed folk and is not needed among Muslims, Hindus, Bud- dhists, etc.; those who miss deism will firad it revived in a bit of original verse: They call it Jahweh, Allah, Krishna, Param Atma, And also holy, blessed Trinity: The real is one, though sages name it variously (p. 140). Hick deals with cutting issues-and his answer ought to be an invitation to Evangelical authors to deal with them better. C. George Fry LIVING RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD: OUR SEARCH FOR MEANING. By Carl Hermann Voss. William Collins and World Publishing Company, Cleveland, Ohio, 1977. 192 pages. Paper. $2.95. Many of us in both the parish and the academy have long recognized the need for a good one-volume study of the world's major religions. It was, therefore, with a sense of expectancy that I requested, received, and read LIVING RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD: OUR SEARCH FOR MEANING by Carl Hennann Voss, a graduate of Union Theological Seminary (New York) and the University of Pittsburgh, a minister, professor, and administrator. It is, however, with very mixed feelings that I review this volume, for, I am persuaded, as never before, that it must be extremely difficult to write a satisfactory introductory text about the earth's leading faiths. Vcws attempts in 172 pages of narrative-analysis to survey humanity's religious experience from animism to existentialism, giving major attention in Part I to the faiths of the East (Hinduism, Jainism, Buddhism, Conducianisrn, Taoism, and Shinto) and, in Part 11, to the faiths of the West (Judaism, Christianity, and Islam). Perhaps that, in itself, is an impossible assignment. Omissions occur (Martin Luther and John Calvin are only mentioned in passing in one sentence; little attention is given to the theological reasons for the Reformation), questionable interpretations appear (as the assertion that if the Turks had been victorious at Vienna in 1683 "an of Europe would doub- tless have become Moslem" - I know of few historians who would accept that evaluation of the event; or this one, that Islam's growth is "at least ten times as swiftly as Christianity's" in Black Africa, a statement I find hard to reconcile with the reality of the rapid expansion of Christianity in sub- Sahamn Africa, for most missiologista now see Black Africa as Christian, not Mwlim, by 2000), errom of fact intrude (as the statement that Islam has a "sabbath," when, in reality, the notion of prayer five times daily for Sumi M& is intended to take the place of a specifically "ay day" or "day of Book Reviews 71 rest" like the Jewish saturday or the Christian Sunday; Friday, to a Muslim, is another work day), misprints emerge (as p. 148, "A Moslem calls God 'Father, and thinks of him as 'love". . . .Surely this is a misprint; seldom would any Muslim, let alone an Orthodox one, describe Allah as Father, for such would be blasphemy), historical inaccuracies creep in (p. 136, the teaching that the Fall of Constantinople triggered an exodus of Greek scholars to the West that served as a major influence in the Italian Renaissance; historians today date the Byzantine influence on the European Renascence much earlier than the Turkish occupation of Istanbul). Perhaps most disheartening is the emphasis on religion as essentially man's searching (rather than discovexing or experiencing), a human enterprise rather than God's revealing (or disclosing; yet the notion of "revelation" is central to many World Faiths), the- un- derstanding of faith as evolving (with a rather simplistic picture of the "emergence" of "religion" in ancient times), and a stress on the convergence of the World Religions in their sense of morality (as if religion consisted essen- tially of ethics - but here we are provided with the "Golden Rule" given in ten versions from as many philosophies and faiths). What of religion as mystery? This book is strongest, in my opinion, in its succinct and helpful surveys of the East Asian religions, and weakest in its narration and interpretation of the Abrahamic Faiths. I wish I could find a book on the history of religions that I could recommend wholeheartedly to my readers. In spite of the many fine titles coming from Collins-World, this is not a text of that stripe. Sorry. C. George Fry AUSZUG DER ACHTHUNDERT. By Ingerose Paust. Evangezieche Verlagsanstalt, Berlin. 1972. 2. Auflage 1977. 356 pages. Cloth. 6,80 Mark ( East Germany). "Emigration of the Eight Hundred" is a novel of the Saxon immigration, which forms the basis of the Missouri Synod. Amazingly, the novel comes out of East Germany and tells the story in a sympathetic manner. Perhaps it should not be so amazing, when the persecution of religion under communism is considered. There could be many behind the iron curtain who would be remdy to sacrifice much to follow their faith into the land of the kee. Ingerose Paust has had the rare privilege of studying the sources and knowing the original places in Germany, from which the Saxons departed. For one who has read most of what has been written about this story, Ingerose Paust writes a satisfactory novel aa to historical accuracy. It remains a novel, however, in which many situations are recreated in a representative and symbolic manner. Not everything could be told. The pastors are introduced by their names. The rationalist Landeskirche is accurately described. The story of Martin Stephan is fully told. Perhaps the author was too intent upon artistic justice in the description of the end of Stephan. This reviewer appreciates an arm of the cross as a souvenir, which adorned the steeple of the church at Horse Prairie for a century, near which its pastor, Stephan, lies buried. The story of the eight hundred sailing on the ebers. the Amalia. the Republik, the Johann Georg, and the Copemikus is graphically told. The steamer tugs at New Orleans were the Tiger and the Hudson. The DoRy and the Selma were the river steamers, which brought the Saxons to St. Louis. The novel k welcome upon the church scene in the seventies of this century in the Missouri Synod in the light of more recent developments. The apron of the book tells this in a striking manner: "Rationalistic theology holds sway in their home churches. The Bible is no longer UPPermoSt, but reason is in control, and the church administration is d~~~ to cause the new inteUectual viewpoint to dominate in the ~~WWlPtions, using whatever means are available. Anyone who holds faithfub to Holy Scripture is accounted a fanatic and must expect 72 CONCORDIA THEOLOGICAL QUARTERLY repressive measures. Bible classes are forbidden. Under false pretences the pastors, who uphold the Bible. are taken to court. . . People believe that they cannot continue in their faith in the home country, they believe that the day of judgment is close. In America they hope to make a new beginning. " Carl Ferdinand Walther is given a fine characterization as one early offering resistance to Martin Stephan. He declares that he is not emigrating as a follower of Stephan. Walther also becomes the leader in synodical matters. This novel was graciously left as a hospitality gift by Frau Gottfried Hoffmann when the doctor lectured here. Otto F. Stahlke 111. Practical Studiee PREACHING LAW AND GOSPEL. By Herman G. Stuemfle, Jr. Fortress Press. Philadelphia, 1978, Paper. 95 pages, $3.50. The author maintains that we have claimed more for preaching theologically than it was able to deliver experientially. This volume intends to help that situation. Following Heinrich Ott, the author suggests that the substructure of the sermon must include man's sin and wretchedness, the redemption wrought on our behalf by God through Christ, and the obligations of gratitude which God's redeeming act lays upon us (p. 14). The Law is to be preached both as hammer of judgment and mirror of existence. As hammer, the Law accuses. Its target is the conscience. It Produces guilt and makes men cry out for help. As mirror of existence, in Paul Tillich's terms, the preaching of Law speaks of Law is not so much to accuse as to expose. The target of Law is not so much the conscience as the con- sciousness of the true situation in which man stands. "If we cast the Law dimension of our sermons only in terms of sin and guilt, we rqks those who do not see themselves first of all as sinners and neglect areas of experience which are vividly real even for those who do" (p. 29). "It should be stated that the purpose of this analysis has not been to set one mode of viewing Law over against the other. Law as 'hammer' and Law as 'mirror are not mutually contradictory" (p. 26). The mode in which we preach the Law must find its's correlate in the mode in which we preach the Gospel. Forgiveness answers to guilt. We should try to taIk about forgiveness in the modern idiom, since words like atonement, redemption, propitiation, and justification are taken from foreign cultures. I believe, how ever, that theological language properly explained, may be used. The preaching of Law as "mirror of existence" requires the preaching of Gospel as "antiphon to existence." Alienation calls for Gospel as recon- ciliation; anxiety calls for Gospel as certitude, despair calls for hope; and transciency for homecoming. In preaching the call to obedience the following is helpful: 1) we will sound the calI to obedience as a consequence of grace and not its cause; 2) we will articulate the call to obedience with concreteness; 3) we will point to spheres ot obedience in the public as well as the private sector. Hemy J. Eggold THE PREACHER'S WORKSHOP SERIES. Richard Kapfer, Series Editor. Co .rdia Pub 'ship House. St. Louis, 1977. 9 books. Paper. $16.50. v %s set o mne paperbacks of 40-50 pges each covers the f~ld of homiletics and gives the student and pastor a good course in the art of semonizing . Book Reviews 73 In Book 1, "The Mighty Word," Alton Wedel declares: "The death and resurrection of our Lord-this is the Mighty Word: Power and Purpose of Preaching. This is the key that snaps the padlock of the Holy Scripture, opens minds to understand, and kindles flames of faith in opened hearts" (p. 16). In "Letting the Word Come Alive, " W. A. Poovey pleads with the preacher to grasp the uniqueness of each text through a study of the text itself, the mood of the writer, the time when written, and the context. Don Deffner, "The Real Word for the Red World," analyzes modem man as he is reflected in modem literature to help the preacher become sensitive to human need. He advises: "Don't speculrrte about what your people's needs are, ask them" (p. 10). The author is on firm ground when he says: "We are ac- cordingly driven back to the Gospels, there to discover who we are, and whose we are-whence we come and where we are going. And there we meet Him who is the Person we are to become, and the Power to be that new creation-our Blessed Lord Himself' (p. 28). In "The Lively Skeleton", Gerhard Aho surveys the various ways in which the preacher may cast his outline for greater variety in sermonic form. H. Gerard Knoche pleads for creativity in the writing of the sermon. "For preachers, creativity is seeing relationships between two Biblical texts, the Biblical text and life situations, theological ideas and secular ideas, that have not been seen beforeJ' (p. 12). Writing on "The Sermon as Part of the Liturgy," Paul Bosch declares: "We insist on acting out our deepest instincts ritually-and we call that 'liturgy"' (p. 7). He pleads that in the service of worship we give some attention to all the arts as "languages" for communication. In his book on the delivery of the sermon, Paul Hanns quotes Albert Mehrabian's formula to assess the emotional impact of any message: total impact equals 7 percent verbal, plus 38 percent vocal, plus 55 percent facial (p. 37). The author shows how the use of body language, control of the voice, eye contact, and the preacher's emotional response can help to foster a sense of ommunication between speaker and hearer. Eldon Weiswt discusses the use of visual aids -movies, filmstrips, ~~eri~ead projector, slides, sound recordings, object lessons, and drama - not as a substitute for good preaching, but as an aid. "Self-examination is a blessing, self-preoccupation is a curse," says Lowell Erdahl (p. 6). He proceeds to discuss ways in which the pastor can use his laity in helping both to prepare and and to evaluate his semom. Feed-in groups reflect upon the text with the pastor. Feedback groups meet to discuss the sermon after it has been preached. Erdahl offers four forms which may be distributed to the congregation for the purpose of evaluating the sermon. For getting fresh ideas for preaching, I recommend that you purchase the nine books. Henry J. Eggold "FOR EXAMPLE" ILLUSTRATIONS FOR CONTEMPORARY PREACHING. By Richard Anderson and Donald L. Deffner. Conda Publishing House, St. Louis, 1978. 221 pages. Paper. $5.95. The over 400 documented sermon iIlustrations of this volume are taken from classic and contemporary literature, history, and human experience in the drama of life. Besides containing a subject index, the volume offers an index of suggested texts in the three-year lectionary cycle to which each illustration might be appropriate. Every reader will find some illustrations to which he responds and which be can use to put windows into his sermons. Henry J. Eggold 7 4 CONCORDIA THEOLOGICAL QUARTERLY OUR PRICELESS TREASURE. By Henry George Hartner, D.D. Vantage Press 1978. 157 pages. Cloth. $6.50. The thirty-three sermons in this book were written and delivered by a Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod pastor who died in 1976 at the age of 77. Pastor Hartner delivered these sermons in churches, on radio, and in specml services. Although maw of the sermons are organized quite loosely, they are refreshing in ;heir naturalness and unpretentiausness. The text is dowed to speak for itslt mthout labored argumentation by the preacher. The in- troductions gernerally meet the hearers where they are and move directly and pointedly to the theme. The hearers of these sermons must have appreciated the explicit, coherent development of the theme as the main idea of each sermon. The author has a knack for making profound concepts understandable. He clearly distinguishes between faith and hope, for example (p. 77). Other concepts come alive through apt iflustration. T_he language is redably free from jargon. Hartner says: "She lights a candle and looks all over the place. She grabs a broom and sweeps out every nook and comer until she finds it. That's a picture of God seeking all these sin-& coins of men's eouls, once stamped with His own image and sumption, but lost through centuries of corruption . . . " (p. 54) Or again, "We are not only to have one foot in heaven, but we are to have one eye on the sky, looking and longing for the day when Jesus shall come again" ( p. 70). The author is conscious of his obligation as a Christian preacher to glorifv Christ. Whether he is convicting the hearers of their sins, guiding tuem in Christian Iiving, or encouraging them in trials the Gospel orientation is ob- vious. These are clear, down-toearth, Christexalting sermons. Gerhard Aho