CONCORDIA THEOLOGICAL QUARTERLY Volume 59: Numbers 1-2 JANUARY-APRIL 1995 Christ the Victor and the Victim RowanA.Greer .......... : ............................................................ 1 The Filioque: What Is at Stake? Avery Dulles, S.J. ................................................................ 3 1 GocE the Son and Hermeneutics David P. Scaer ......................................................................... 49 Johann Sebastian Bach. and Scripture Paul Hofreiter ........................................................................ 67 Three Overtures of the Faculty of Concordia Theological Seminary ...................................... 93 Theological Observer ............................................................... 99 Homiletical Studies . ................ ........ ........ ........................ ............ 105 Book Reviews ................................................................... 125 Indices to Volume 58 (1994) Index of Authors and Editors ................................................. 143 Index of Titles ....................................................................... 144 Index of Book Reviews ........................................................... 145 Books Received .... . . . . .... . . . . .... . .... . ... ... . . ... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 158 Book Reviews LOCI THEOLOGICI. By Martin Chemnitz. Translated by J. A. 0. Preus. St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1989. Shortly after the Pittsburgh Convention of the Missouri Synod I visited my brother, Jacob A. 0. Preus, at Barnes hospital in St. Louis. He had suffered a slight stroke just before the convention and had been unable to attend. He was his old jovial self, alert but tired, a state that would mark the rest of his life. He commented briefly on the election of a new president of the Missouri Synod and then nostalgically reverted to personal reminiscences and to an assessment of his own eventful presidency of the Missouri Synod, a subject to which he would often return before his death in August of 1994. We discussed questions such as these: How would history regard him? What would be his legacy to the Lutheran Church? What was his major contribution to the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod? Would it be his deft politico-ecclesiastical leadership in a synod enmeshed in doctrinal and personal controversy? Would it be his strong and capable suppat of missions and his remarkable success in achieving, almost single-handedly and in spite of an obtuse board of missions, the preservation, by God's grace, of a tenuous fellowship of the LCMS with all the overseas sister- churches which had so often been diverted from their original theology and mission by the politics of a paternalistic and unionistic board of missions or the gift-bearing advances of the Lutheran World Federation? Would it be the investigation of the theology of Concordia Seminary in St. Louis, a bold move, which although it was a policy upheld and practised by Chemnitz and the other Lutheran confessors (as indicated in the Preface to the Book of Concord), was unprecedented in our time, an action which in God's infinite grace brought the LCMS back to its confessional Lutheran moorings? No, none of these conspicuous accomplishments would give J. A. 0. Preus his name in the history of the Lutheran Church, he maintained, but something far less dramatic. He would go down in history as the one who translated the Loci of Martin Chemnitz into English for the Lutheran Church today and in the future. Certainly this Vanslation was no small achievement. But surely it was not my brother's greatest claim to fame. He is too modest, I thought, when he first made this assertion. Others felt as I did. But he was right. He had a keener and longer view of history than others. In his later years, while he was continuing his translating of Chemnitz in retirement, he saw what more of us failed to see: much of what he as president had done to restore the Missouri Synod to its faithful confessional position would not last, just as Chemnitz might have seen the future in the days of glory immediately after 1580. He would be remembered by virtue of what he wrote, not by virtue of what he did. As events transpired, in fact, the 126 CONCORDIA THEOLOGICAL QUARTERLY synod's advance toward a clearly confessional Lutheranism began to wane after J. A. 0. Preus left the presidency. With the enthusiastic, if ineffectual, support of Fundamentalists, Evangelicals, and pietists the Missouri Synod under Preus had retained the organic principle of her theology, the sola scriprura. With the eager support of these same friends, as well as crypto-adherents of Fundamentalism, Evangelicalism, and pietism in her own ranks, the synod may well be losing, impercepti- bly, the material principle of her theology, the sola fide and the sola gratia, the theology of the cross. J. A. 0. Preus saw this development taking place even in the last term of his presidency. And he spoke of the situation often and tried belatedly to address it, but with little success. The pastors and people, even his strong supporters, did not understand his provident concerns. Attacks on the solus Chrisrus, while more serious, are seldom as overt and raucous as those on the sola scriptura. After his retirement he never tried to interfere in the affairs of his successors to stem the tide. Instead he did what was more important and fruitful. He finished his legacy to the church which he served. He translated into English the greatest dogmatics-book ever written by a Lutheran, the Loci Theologici of Martin Chemnitz. The Loci Theologici of Chemnitz is an exceptionally important book and was very popular in its day. Based upon the outline of the more brief Loci Communes of Melanchthon, it was first published in 1591, after the death of Chemnitz, and by 1600 had gone through six editions. It is the longest book which Chemnitz wrote. It discusses extensively all the important loci (themes) of theology, except the person of Christ and the Lord's Supper, topics on which Chemnitz had already written before. Dogmatics to Chemnitz was a combination of church history (including patristics) and exegesis. Since exegesis was both interpretation and application, a dogmatics-book presented both evangelical doctrine and evangelical practice. In those days what we call pastoral theology today was included within dogmatics. Thus, the Loci Theologici of Chemnitz became a popular and useful book in the library of the ordinary pastor in those days. It became a valuable aid in dogmatics, exegesis, pastoral theology, and homiletics. An illustration may help to show how the Loci of Chemnitz filled all these functions. His classic treatment of the article of justification put much weight on word-studies dealing with all the concepts appertaining to the article of justification, such as faith (knowledge, certainty, trust, er cetera), grace (mercy, love, compassion, forgiveness), justification (forgiveness, regeneration), er cetera. The work of Christ (propitiation, Book Reviews reconciliation, salvation, redemption, et cetera) is subsumed, in fact, under the article of justification. Chemnitz, accordingly, made justifica- tion in this broad sense the integrating praecipuus locus in his dogmatics, just as Luther and Melanchthon had done before him. By understanding all these concepts and their relationship to justification, the reader can understand, appreciate, and apply the doctrine of justification more faithfully. The semantic and conceptual studies of Chemnitz, while less complete, are as practical and helpful as the exhaustive word-studies in the Theological Dictionary of the New Testament (edited by Gerhard Kittel and Gerhard Friedrich). They are in a sense more helpful because the TDNT offers only an analytical study of words, whereas Chemnitz presents a synthesis of the concepts making up the biblical doctrine of justification and other articles of faith. There is no way to commend adequately the Loci Theologici of Chemnitz today, except to urge readers who are interested in theology to buy and read it. The translation of J. A. 0. Preus is an excellent one. The inelegant Latin of Chemnitz has been turned into understandable twentieth-century koine English. When my brother and I studied Latin at the University of Minnesota years ago, Professor Ogle, one of the prominent Latinists of the day, warned us emphatically against translating Latin words with English derivatives, since derivatives have a way of changing their meanings over the course of yews. Precisely by virtue, however, of his understanding of the theology involved, the translator in this case realized that Professor Ogle's sound and staid rule had to be abandoned rather consistently. This deviation from normal canons of translation makes for great accuracy. The reader is assured that he is reading Chemnitz and not some revisionist paraphrase of Chemnitz. Yet the reader is able at the same time to read with easy understanding, which is, of course, an equally signal mark of a good translation. If, however, my brother was right and this translation of Chemnitz is his chief legacy to the 'lutheran church in America, will this legacy amount to anything? Will our busy pastors bother to read such a heavy theological work as the Loci Theologici of Martin Chemnitz? And will its reading by our pastors help their ministry and our Lutheran Church? There is, in fact, reason for optimism in this regard. More and more of our pastors-and especially the younger ones-are now returning to the reading of works of solid theology, based on the Bible and the Lutheran Confessions, as opposed to a mishmash of pop-psychology, pop-sociology, and the salesmanship of Madison Avenue. Shortly before his death my brother told me with great joy that his translation of The Two Natures of 128 CONCORDIA THEOLOGICAL QUARTERLY Christ of Martin Chemnitz had sold over five thousand copies. Such a distribution indicates a renewed interest among Lutheran pastors in the reading of classic works on fundamental theological topics. The Loci Theologici which covers all the articles of the Christian faith should now be read with the same avidity. Its readers will certainly be rewarded and blessed-and so will the church at large. And J. A. 0. Preus will be proven right. He will thereby have left a greater legacy to the Missouri Synod than any of its presidents since Francis Pieper. Robert Preus IS THERE A SYNOPTIC PROBLEM? By Eta Linnemann. Translated by Robert W. Yarborough. Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker Book House, 1992. The title is intended to be a rhetorical question and the answer is an unsurprising "no," although nearly all scholars, for the sake of their own thwries, would disagree. The subtitle, "Rethinking the Literary Depen- dence of the First Three Gospels," is a drastic understatement. If Linnemann's theory is correct, this is not a rethinking but a revolution. Here is a detailed work by a reputable scholar of no mean consequence. Before going to Indonesia, Eta Linnemann was lecturer and honorary professor at the University of Marburg, the school associated with Bultmann, who worked out a complex system of interdependency in the gospels. Beginning with its origins in the sixteenth century, Limemann surveys biblical criticism up to Koester, Mamen, and Zimmermann, who are found to be speculative and unscientific. Part 2 lays down five rules for examining interrelations of the gospels (pp. 71-72): (1.) determine material common to the synoptics: (2.) compare their sequence: (3.) locate differences between the common pericopes; (4.) determine the extent of agreement or difference of actual wordings of common pericopes and those with a similar wording; (5.) examine the vocabulary in them. Each task is the subject of a chapter. As to vocabulary, for instance, if Mark is the basis for Matthew and Luke, one would expect that Mark's vocabulary would be found in Matthew and Luke. It is not @p. 131- 143)--a clear case of non-dependency. Linnemann presents all arguments with a devastating, razor-sharp logic. Virtually every synoptic pericope is linguistically dissected and compared. This autopsy removes similarities. The evidence is masterfully statistical, and only a determined scholar will sift through her overpowering data. In part 3 she proposes memory and oral tradition as the basis of indepen- dent origins of the gospels. She does not put forth her own case as convincingly as she devastates her opponents. No mention is made of the theory-f an origin of the gospels in tradition without Wing dependent on each other-put forth by Bo Reicke in Roots of the Synoptic Gospels (Fortress Press, 1986). In chapter 11 Linnemann explains that the reason for four gospels lies in a desire to exceed the necessity of three legal witnesses (Deuteronomy 19:15) by providing four. This explanation is something of a dew ex machina, albeit a monotheistic one. At the end Linnemann develops a scheme with four circles, one for each evangelist, around the deeds, words, death, and resurrection of Jesus, with each of the evangelists leaning in the direction of two of these concerns. Matthew favors deeds and death; Mark, deeds and words; Luke, words and resurrection; and John, death and resurrection. Regardless of what Linnemann can demonstrate through the counting of words, her argument fails to convince. For example, Matthew's five discourses certainly put him in the category of "words." John's signs would entitle him to be listed under "deeds." Linnemann, it must be noted too, defines literary dependency quite narrowly in looking exclusively for one-for-one equations among the gospels. Linnemann uses this narrow definition effectively in opposing much of modem scholarship. Literary dependency can, however, be given a much broader definition. Authors can be dependent on each other without directly copying, following the same sequences, or using identical vocabulary. Dependency can involve influence and simple awareness. Linnemann is right in showing the near impossibility of one evangelist actually copying other manuscripts into his own gospel. She has, however, so isolated the evangelists from each other that she has to introduce a supernatural force to help them shape complementary compositions. If the gospels are designed to serve worshipping congrega- tions, a point Linnemann does not mention, then it is highly probable that one or the other of them helped shape the climate in which the others arose. In fairness to Linnemann, however, it must be said that she wants to take down temples without building her own. We can, therefore, be less than convinced by her proposals on the origin of the gospels without surrendering our enthusiasm for her scholarly iconoclasm in undermining the foundations of self-acclaimed scientific methods. David P. Scaer 130 CONCORDIA THEOLOGICAL QUARTERLY PERSIA AND THE BIBLE. By Edwin M. Yamauchi. Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker Book House, 1990. A knowledge of ancient Persia is crucial for understanding portions of Isaiah, Daniel, 2 Chronicles, Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi, the majority of Ezra and Nehemiah, and all of Esther. Yet many students of the Old Testament have only a passing acquaintance with Persia for two main reasons. First, survey courses often run out of time before presenting a discussion of the Persians, who play an important role toward the end of Old Testament history. Secondly, since Robert North's Guide to Biblical Iran (1956) there has been a striking paucity of works written specifically to inform readers of Scripture about this Persian background. Edwin Yamauchi's Persia and the Bible presents such information in admirable fashion. He treats his subject in a thorough and scholarly manner, in a way which will be understood and appreciated both by the expert and the student fmt learning about Persia After an introduction, in which he describes the land and natural resources of Iran and provides a general outline of Iranian history and archaeology, Yamauchi in chapter one gives a history of the Medes. Next he deals with those Persians who ruled during the Old Testament era' Cyrus, Cambyses, Darius, Xerxes, and Artaxerxes I. Yamauchi then directs his attention to key cities in Persian history: Susa, Ecbatana, Pasargadae, and Persepolis. The subjects of the last four chapters are Persia and the Greeks, Zoroastrianism, the Magi, and Mithraism. As is already evident from this listing of contents, Yamauchi covers more than pertinent biblical passages. Throughout his book he branches out into concise and helpful discussions of many topics not directly related to Scripture. These topics, nevertheless, are relevant to a proper understanding of Persia. This well-organized work will lead the reader to appreciate the significant role that Persia played in the history, culture, and religion of lands stretching from the Indus River to Rome from the ninth century B.C. into the Christian era. With major topics in his book Yamauchi, when appropriate, reviews linguistic data, lists and comments on his written sources, and summarizes the evidence from archaeology. As Yamauchi himself indicates, the information he derives from various ancient authors must always be viewed critically and carefully weighed. These authors vary from one to another in the accuracy of their reporting, and at times they contradict each other. Indeed, there are variations of accuracy within the same author. Herodotus, for example, in many ways the most important Book Reviews 131 narrative source for the Persians, has been shown by recent archaeological discoveries to be reliable at several points, notably in his description of the Scythians and in his use of Persian sources. As Yamauchi points out, however, "Herodotus was above all a raconteur of entertaining stories. The fact that he himself did not believe the account did not deter him from relating an interesting tale" @. 78). Conclusions, therefore, which are based solely on authors who are not always reliable, or on archaeolog- ical evidence which remains meager, must be viewed as tentative. Edwin Yamauchi is to be highly commended for this very useful contribution to the field of biblical scholarship. He has done a great amount of research, assembling for the reader the fruits of his studies in a convenient reference work. Not hesitating to treat controversial points where scholars differ in interpretation, Yamauchi presents each side of the debate in a fair manner and then usually indicates which position he holds and why. The text of Persia and the Bible is complemented by numerous photographs, diagrams, and maps, as well as by extensive indices and a lengthy select bibliography. Walter A. Maier 111 THE MODERN PREACHER AND THE ANCIENT TEXT: INTER- PRETING AND PREACHING BIBLICAL LITERATURE. By Sidney Greidanus. Grand Rapids, Michigan: Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1988. Dr. Greidanus, a professor of theology at the King's College in Edmonton (Alberta), has undertaken a bold task-to bridge in one volume, for two different audiences, the gap between two significant disciplines. As the title implies, The Modern Preacher and the Ancient Text: Interpreting and Preaching Biblical Literature, the book brings hermeneu- tics directly to bear on homiletics. It does so brilliantly. Its only failure is in reaching only one of two intended readerships. The book is promoted as "a valuable resource for preachers as well as an ideal textbook for aspiring preachers." Frankly we would hesitate to call it a textbook, at least in the sense that one provides instruction to beginning students. Greidanus covers some of the homiletical basics, doing excellent work, for example, on the formulation of theme. But he offers little on outlining, illustrating, and other staples of preaching. The considerable worth of this work is, however, its service as a "text-book." It earns its purchase price by bringing the preacher into lively conversa- tion with the text of Holy Scripture. 132 CONCORDIA THEOLOGICAL QUARTERLY Greidanus develops the rich implications of the biblical text being the word by God. He holds to a solidly conservative view of the word, showing fallacies in the assumptions of historical criticism as propounded by Troeltsch and others (pp. 29-36). He sees minimal value for preaching in source-criticism and formcriticism as usually applied. He argues against any atomistic interpretation that isolates individual passages from their place in the canon. Scripture, he afflrms, must interpret Scripture. Yet appreciating the text as being by God, he reminds readers, demands an understanding of how God conveyed His message. Greidanus offers the reader-preacher particularly helpful insights into discovering and making use of the human author's theological purpose, chosen genres, and rhetorical devices. A chapter each is devoted to the specifics of preaching on Hebrew narratives, prophetic literature. the gospels, and the epistles. Greidanus advocates a holistic hermeneutic which examines the text according to its historical, literary, and theological facets. Just as critically, Greidanus maintains, every preaching text must be recognized as the word about God. He bases his entire program of preaching on the kerygmatic nature of Scripture-that it proclaims what God has done and the coming of His kingdom (pp. 20, 266-268). He emphasizes that preaching must, therefore, be truly theocenttic and christocentric, and he demonstrates how easily sermons can become man- centered instead. He shuns, in particular, biographical preaching, that is, using Bible characters as moral models @. 117). While he never discusses the law-gospel dynamic in preaching per se, Greidanus advances a proper balance throughout his book. On preaching the exhortations in the epistles, he writes: "This question is related to the broader question whether one may preach the imperative of exhortations without the indicative of what God in Christ has done for us. The danger of such preaching, clearly, is that it would lead to legalism. Moreover, it is striking that in the epistles the imperatives never function without the indicative. In fact, the indicative constantly precedes the imperative" @. 326). All of the above ingredients are essential, the author shows, for the sermon to be, indeed, the word for God. The preacher speaks with authority only when he speaks what the Lord speaks @. 12). Toward that end Greidanus strongly advocates textual-thematic preaching, allowing text to determine form as well as content. He sees narrative preaching "coming into its own" (p. 148) as one option especially compatible with the wealth of narrative in Scripture. Book Reviews 133 While Greidanus has set his sights on broad horizons, his work is not superficial. It is thoroughly researched. He is obviously versed in the full range of biblical scholarship, and he draws effectively on leading contemporary homileticians such as Craddock and Buttrick. This book will not be a seminarian's primer on preaching. It is for preachers or very advanced students who know the basic points, who have some awareness of "what they are doing" when they preach, and who are ready to move to the next level. To these The Modern Preacher and the Ancient Text will be an extremely useful resource. Carl C. Fickenscher I1 Garland, Texas ST. PAUL AT THE MOVIES: THE APOSTLE'S DIALOGUE WITH AMERICAN CULTURE. By Robert Jewett. Louisville, Kentucky: Westminster-John Knox Press, 1993. While it is absurd on the face of it to look to the pop-culture for spiritual insights, Christians can apply the insights of Scripture even to Hollywood. To a Christian, everything can be seen through the lens of faith. Seeing a good film and talking about it often can lead to deep spiritual and even evangelistic discussions. If the Apostle Paul can quote Greek comedies, he presumably would not be above going to the cinema. As one who enjoys films themselves, the undersigned found himself also enjoying this book by Robert Jewett, a professor at Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary. hs attempt, however, to relate theology to film- criticism proves ultimately frustrating, both theologically and critically. The book attempts to set up a "dialogue" between St. Paul in his cultural context and eleven popular films from our cultural context (Star Wars, Amadeus, A Separate Peace, Tender Mercies, Grand Canyon, Tootsie, Ordinary People, Empire of the Sun, Pale Rider, Red Dawn, and Dead Poets Society). Jewett is not studying the religious themes in the cinema as such. Rather, he starts with a text from St. Paul (such as the exhortation to be "soberminded" in Romans 12:3), then links it up to a film that illustrates this quality (in this case, Steven Spielberg's Empire of rhe Sun). The approach is not so much analytical as sermonic, expanding on a biblical text with an illustration from the cinema The author's preface relates what he is doing to contemporary hermeneutics and to the need to interpret St. Paul in terms of American culture. He wants "to free Pauline theology from the burdens of its traditional, Eurocentric formulation" and to develop "a fully indigenized 134 CONCORDIA THEOLOGICAL QUARTERLY view of Paul's theology." The end-result amounts to an Americanized, politically-correct Apostle, preaching his gospel of "inclusiveness" to a sexist, mist, and violent society. The author has a very attenuated view of the authority of God's word, which has a way of hammering the superficialities of the pop-culture (and liberal theology) to smithereens. Setting aside the theological problems, the author's readings of the cinema are often maddeningly off-target. Sometimes he uses the films as moral authorities (as with the gender-inclusiveness of Tootsie), and sometimes he censures them (as in the case of Star Wars with its Jedi Knights representing a violent and hierarchical society). He neglects the importance of symbolism in interpreting a work of art (missing the significance of the gun-slinging preacher's five wounds in Pale Rider and the apocalyptic imagery that points not to personal vigilantism but to divine judgment--not to the first half of Romans 129, as Jewett maintains, but to the second half). Even in the case of films that deal seriously and explicitly with religious themes, the author often seems to miss the point. Amadeus is not so much about sin as about the unmerited grace poured out on Mozart-whose middle name "Amadeus" means beloved by God-as opposed to Salieri's hypocritical works-righteousness. Tender Mercies, by Horton Foote (a film-maker known for his religious themes), is a straight- forward portrayal of Christian conversion. Jewett sees the film as being about the elusiveness of God and srresses how the camera never shows us God's mercy acting in the character's life. Yet the climax of the film is the character's baptism! What more could any camera show of spiritual regeneration than the visible means of grace connected with regeneration? Those interested in the cinema and those interested in developments in contemporary theology may well enjoy this book. Whether St. Paul would enjoy it is another question. Gene Edward Veith Mequon, Wisconsin CHURCH AND MINISTRY: THE ROLE OF CHURCH, PASTOR, AND PEOPLE FROM LUTHER TO WALTHER. By Eugene F. A. Klug. St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1993. For over thirty years Eugene Klug has been teaching systematic theology at Concordia Theological Seminary and especially the theology of Luther. An active participant in international congresses on Luther over the years. Professor Klug has also contributed to the world of Book Reviews scholarship in articles and books, in which he has demonstrated the ongoing relevance of sixteenth-century Lutheranism. In From Luther to Chemnitz on Scripture and the Word (1971), for example, he addressed one of the most important (and contentious) issues of the day-the nature and authority of Scripture-from the perspective of the founders of Lutheranism in the hopes that this approach might help their contemporary followers to resolve current difficulties. And in his present work, Klug does it again by tackling another current issue, church and ministry. In the sixties and seventies of this century the great debate of the day for the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod concerned the Bible-its inspira- tion, inerrancy, historicity, and the like. But today other questions are troubling the synod, among them, most notably, the doctrine of the ministry. What is a pastor, and what is his relation to the people he serves? How does a pastor receive his call, and when can a congregation terminate it? Why is it wrong to ordain women? Which of the pastor's tasks should laymen perform-reading lessons, teaching Bible classes, administering the sacraments? Are other church-workers, such as teachers, seminary professors, and district presidents, in the office of the ministry and in the same way a pastor is? The list goes on and on. From a historian's perspective it is relatively easy to explain the emergence of such questions as the result of social change. The increased level of lay education helps to account for questions about expanding the responsibility of the laity in 'church-work. The collapse of traditional distinctions between the sexes explains the new questions about women in the ministry. If, however, we want to find answers to such questions, we need theol- ogy-good theology. The virtue of Klug's new book is that it returns us to the first principles of church and ministry and so lays a foundation upon which we can address the multitude of questions facing us. Yet Klug's approach is also historical, since his argument is that the principles are not new but are rather the inheritance of the Lutheran Church, beginning with Luther himself. And, indeed, Klug's citations from the great Reformer are voluminous (over a hundred in the fmt chapter alone!) and from every period of his career, since Klug contends that the early and late Luther are in essential agreement on these issues. Yet, as the subtitle suggests (The Role of Church, Pastor, and People from Luther to Walther), Klug's analysis depends also on Missouri's own C. F. W. Walther. Klug does so, indeed, in a very direct way by adopting Walther's theses on church and ministry, from his Kirche und Amt, as the 136 CONCORDIA THEOLOGICAL QUARTERLY framework for his own treatment in the present work. Moreover, Klug both acknowledges this dependence and justifies it by contending that Walther was right: "I will be quick to state that I have found nothing in my research which would demonstrate that Walther either missed any of Luther's accents, or in any way left an incomplete or distorted picture. The facts are rather that one consistent theologian stood firmly on the shoulders of another, Walther on Luther" (p. xi). In other words, an important goal of Klug's book is to demonstrate the essential agreement between Luther and Walther on church and ministry. But will everyone be convinced? Of course not, as Klug well knows; so he has gone the extra mile by including a special section entitled "Reflections," in which he recounts the reactions of over thirty European experts on Luther to theses in which Klug summarized his conclusions regarding Luther's teaching. For the most part, as Klug demonstrates, these scholars-including such well-known figures as Edmund Schlink, Heiko Oberman, and Gerhard Ebeling-greed with Klug's statements regarding Luther's teaching. This is a fascinating part of the book and shows Klug's familiarity with the secondary scholarship as well as with Luther himself. Although one hesitates to criticize a work of such obvious erudition, there are two points that need to be mentioned, both involving what Klug has not done rather than what he has. One is simply that this work hardly exhausts Lutheran theology on the locus of the church from Luther to Walther in spite of its subtitle. Klug does incorporate the work of other theologians (e.g., Melanchthon and Chemnitz) as a kind of chorus to confirm what Luther says, but really this is a work about Luther's theol- ogy. Other works will need to be written to see just how faithful Luther's followers have been to Luther's insights. A second quibble has to do with the current points of tension regarding church and ministry. Klug does address some of them but perhaps not as thoroughly as the reader would like. A good example is his critique of the official position of the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod. On at least six different occasions, Klug registers disagreement with that position but he does so in the footnotes of his text and without actually quoting advocates of the doctrine of WELS. A more convincing approach may have been simply to write a brief excursus in one place for the airing of issues that Klug sees as serious points of contention between Luther's heirs in Wisconsin and Missouri on church and ministry. Here again Klug has left opportunities for others to take the theology of Luther and apply Book Reviews 137 it to the issues of our time. In a sense, of course, such criticisms are really compliments to the work at hand, since good scholarship always raises questions in addition to the ones it has answered. Eugene Klug's Church and Ministry is an excellent example of such scholarship. Not only does it tell us a great deal about the thought of Martin Luther but it does so in a way that is immediately relevant to the challenges of the contemporary church. One could hardly ask for more. Cameron A. MacKenzie LANCELOT ANDREWES THE PREACHER (1555-1626): THE ORIGINS OF THE MYSTICAL THEOLOGY OF THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. By Nicholas Lossky. Translated by Andrew Louth. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1991. Although Lancelot Andrewes is not well known today, in his own times -as a bishop of the Church of England and as an advisor to the king-he was a very important figure, famous as a preacher and theologian, a defender of the established church against the great Jesuit polemicist, Robert Bellmine. His most famous work is probably the Preces Privatae, a collection of prayers that has been translated and reprinted frequently since the time of their composition. His sermons have not enjoyed quite the same degree of popularity; nevertheless, they too have been periodically rediscovered and so reprinted-most recently, for example, in 1967 by G. M. Story. T. S. Eliot was second to none in his appreciation of Andrewes and said of his sermons that they "rank with the finest English prose of their time, of any time." Not everyone would agree with Eliot. At the very least, Andrewes's sermons are an acquired taste, for they are a Ijrime example of what is often called "metaphysical" preaching, fashionable in the seventeenth century and characterized by verbal cleverness-plays on words, paradox, overly meticulous analysis of the text, and copious quotations of the Latin and Greek. A notorious example of this method, cited by Lossky (p. 59), is Andrewes's comment which plays on the divine name, Immanuel: "And if without Him there-if it be not Immanuel, it will be Immanu-hell; and that and no other place will fall, I fear me, to our share." Andrewes goes on, however, to rejoice in the incarnation, as a result of which we have everything, "lmnu-el and Immanu-all." Although Lossky himself can explain and defend such rhetorical 138 CONCORDIA THEOLOGICAL QUARTERLY excesses, his main purpose is not to analyze Andrewes's style but his doctrine, to present "the great theological themes of Andrewes's preach- ing. . . . the most fundamental intuitions, around which all the rest are ordered (p. 2). To that end, after a brief biographical sketch, Lossky presents successive chapters on Andrewes's sermons for Christmas, Lent, Easter, Whitsun, and the "political" festivals, such as Guy Fawkes Day. For each series of sermons, according to Lossky, there are certain doctrinal themes that Andrewes develops especially for that season of the ecclesiastical year. So, for example, in connection with the Christmas sermons, Lossky discusses the incarnation; with the Pentecost sermons, the Holy Spirit: and with the political sermons, the nature of a Christian state. Lossky's work reveals a very close reading of Anrewes's sermons that makes persuasive a rather startling thesis, namely, that Lancelot Andrewes recaptured the heritage of the Greek Fathers as well as the Latin for his seventeenth-century English hearers. According, indeed, to Lossky's presentation. Andrewes's'affinities for the East are often stronger than for the West. For example, in discussing Andrewes's soteriology, Lossky makes free use of the term "deification" and quotes copious examples of Andrewes's description of the divine exchange, "God has become man, that man might be able to become God" @. 186). Similarly, with respect to original sin and free will, Lossky concludes that Andrewes is no Augustinian: Andrewes does not deny that human nature is corrupt, but he insists strongly at the same time on the freedom that man exer- cises in order to sin and on the will he must exercise in order to turn away from sin. . . . one sees that for Andrewes the end of the controversial verse from the Epistle to the Romans [5:12] . . . must be taken to mean "because all have sinned" and not as Augustine understood the Vulgate's . . . "in whom [Adam] all have sinned." Lossky argues carefully, to be sure, and in a nuanced fashion, as in describing Andrewes's presentation of redemption as a "balanced" one between Anselm and "cosmic drama" @. 182). Sometimes, nevertheless, one fears that the author is guilty of special pleading. The clearest example is Lossky's contention that, in spite of Andrewes's explicit affirmation of thefilioque and his frequent identification the Holy Spirit with "the essential bond of love in the bosom of the Trinity" in the Pentecost sermons (pp. 229,247). his doctrine of the Spirit is really closer to Athanasius than to the Carolingian or scholastic theologians or even to Book Reviews 139 Augustine. On this point Lossky's evidence is simply not so persuasive as he supposes. There is one other weakness in Lossky's analysis that needs to be noted, namely, its lack of context in the seventeenth century. Although Lossky readily resorts to the Early Fathers for understanding Andrewes, he does not so readily cite Andrewes's contemporaries, such as John Donne and William Perkins. The former, of course, was himself a masterful preacher at the beginning of the seventeenth century; and the latter, a Puritan theologian at Cambridge, wrote an important preaching manual. In order fully to appreciate Andrewes's place in the story of Anglicanism, Donne and Perkins are perhaps more important witnesses than the Cappadocians. What Lossky does, however, he does excellently; and the wealth of data he cites as well his close reading of Andrewes's sermons readily convinces the reader that in Andrewes one can see theological results from the patristic renaissance in sixteenth-century England. Anyone seriously interested in either the late English Reformation or the ongoing influence of the Early Fathers in church history will profit greatly from Lancelot Andrewes the Preacher (2555-1626). Cameron A. MacKenzie PHILIP SCHAFF: CHRISTIAN SCHOLAR AND ECUMENICAL PROPHET. Centennial Biography for the American Society of Church History. By George H. Shriver. Macon, Georgia: Mercer University Press, 1987. Most readers of this journal should find the name of Philip Schaff familiar. His monumental collection, the Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, remains an excellent avenue of access to the fathers of the church for English-speaking theologians. Yet the greatest contributions of Schaff to theology stem more from other aspects of his work. This biography offers an introduction to the life and thought of Schaff. It touches on all the major events of his brilliantly diversified career and outlines the general contours of his theology. Shriver divides the life of Schaff into three sections: "Roots," "Body," and "Crown." The fust section details the birth of Schaff in Switzerland and his education in Germany. The description by Shriver of Schaffs studies at the great universities of Germany, under the most illustrious professors, provides the reader with an overview of the chief theological schools of mid-nineteenth-century Germany, as well as their adherents and 140 CONCORDIA THEOLOGICAL QUARTERLY ways of thinking. TUbingen exposed Schaff to the concept of the organic development of Christianity. Berlin, and especially Augustus Neander, instilled in him the idea of "evangelical catholicism." Other familiar names under whom he studied include F. A. G. Tholuck and E. W. Heng- stenberg. Schaff's move to Mercersburg Seminary (in Pennsylvania) and work there outline the second division of his life. It was during his time at Mercersburg that Schaff was most theologically creative, publishing his primary theoretical works (The Principle of Protestantism, What Is Church History?, and History of the Apostolic Church), in which he sought to introduce the United States to German theology. In the Principle of Protestantism he argued that Protestantism was neither a revolution nor a restoration to early Christianity; the church developed through the ages, and Protestantism evolved out of the medieval Roman Catholic Chmh. Schaff, with his colleague at Mercersburg, John W. Nevin, advocated this stance, which would later influence Lutheranism in America through Charles Porterfield Krauth. He also applied his theology through the liturgy of his church. Schaff believed in the axiom lex orandi lex credendi and felt that only through liturgical renewal would the Mercers- burg Theology take root and positively affect the life of the church. Shriver tells, finally, of the resignation of Schaff from Mercersburg and his move to New York City, first to head the New York Sabbath Committee and then to serve as Professor at Union Seminary. At Union Seminary he held four successive professorships, published twenty-eight books, including Creeds of Christendom and History of the Christian Church, and organized the meeting in 1873 of the Evangelical Alliance, the forerunner of the modem-day ecumenical movement. Ultimately the reader gains a picture of Schaff as a scholar who worked indefatigably to actualize his idea of "evangelical catholicism." He remained firmly convinced to the end of his life that the study of church history would aid the ecumenical process. Philip Schaff is a marvelously captivating portrait that quickly tells the story of one of the most important church historians of the nineteenth century. One only wishes that the price of the book ($19.95) was not so restrictive. Still, it is a work that should appeal to a wide audience. Exposure to the life and ideas of Schaff can only work to increase one's appreciation of the importance of church history today to the pastor. Lawrence R. Rast, Jr. Nashville, Tennessee Book Reviews 141 THE DEMOCRATIZATION OF AMERICAN CHRISTIANITY. By Nathan 0. Hatch, New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1989. The Democrarization of American Christianity studies the "wave of popular religious movements that broke upon the United States in the half century after independence." Hatch treats five movements: Methodists, Baptists, Mormons, non-denominational "Christians," and independent African-American congregations. He finds that at the close of the American revolution these groups were scarcely present; fifty years later they had done "more to Christianize American society than anything before or since" (p. 3). The purpose of Hatch is to determine why these groups grew quickly and simultaneously. He fmds commonality in their new understanding of leadership. Hatch studies and emphasizes the work of the leaders, the "evangelical firebrands" who helped to bring about the democratized form of Christianity characteristic of the United States. In his view, religious leaders were the ones most responsible for the dynamic popular move- ments that arose in the first part of the nineteenth century. The leaders, however, were lay preachers, not the historic clergy, and they were the most effective agents in constructing a Christianity that appealed to both the revivalistic and republican sentiments of the people of this age. It was in the churches, argues Hatch, that the people forged their fundamental ideas about the nature of individual responsibility. The preachers of the day stimulated this defining process by seizing for themselves the opportunity to lead. They expressed their leadership primarily through the organization of religious movements "from the ground up." The means they employed to achieve this end were vernacular sermons based on the life experiences of their hearers, popular literature and music, protracted meetings, and, perhaps most importantly, new ideologies that both denied the hierarchical structure of elitist religions and promised to exalt those of lower status to at least an equal level with their supposed superiors. Freedom from the domination of the historic clergy required three steps. First, the new preachers refused to defer to the seminary-trained theolo- gians. Secondly, they empowered the laity by taking seriously their religious practices, affirming and validating the experiences of the people. Finally, they exuded enthusiasm about the potential of their movements, and the people were drawn to the vision. "They dreamed that a new age of religious and social harmony would naturally spring up out of their efforts to overthrow coercive and authoritarian structures" @p. 10-1 1). 142 CONCORDIA THEOLOGICAL QUARTERLY Acceptance of the leaders by the people resulted from the challenge of the leaden to the ordinary folk to take their personal destiny into their own hands, to oppose centralized authority and hierarchical conceptions of society. They empowered the people by giving them a sense of self- trust that formal religions denied them. As the people learned to trust their religious impulses, they in turn spoke out boldly in defense of their experiences. The resultant transformation of the self-conception of the common people revolutionized the American church. Yet, while Hatch seeks to show "how the ordinary folk came to distrust leaders of genius and talent and to defend the right of common people to shape their own faith and submit to leaders of their own choosing" (p. 14). one must question his dependence upon the leadership in drawing such conclusions. He states that the leaders came from the rank and file and that, although they were labeled outsiders, they were merely assertive common people. A problem presents itself here: When does one cross the line between doing history from above and from below? Hatch seems to want to have the best of both by claiming that the leadership was part and parcel of the common folk. The fact remains, however, that the ordinary people invested the leaders with their trust and a new status that set them above their hearers. As a result, the station of the leader differed qualitatively from those they represented. Methodists retained bishops. and Mormons were extremely patriarchal. Thus, while the work of Hatch offers excellent insights into the new democratic leadership, more work needs to be done to get down through these leaders to the beliefs of the common people. The Democratization of American Christianity, however, is well worth its price and the time required to read it. It speaks directly to the situations faced by Lutheranism today. The polity of the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod runs both with and against the grain of democra- tized Christianity as described by Hatch. This work can at least provide pastors in American congregations an idea of the historical background of the challeqes which they presently face as Lutheranism confronts the American rell&yous scene. Lawrence R. Rast, Jr. Nashville, Tennessee