Full Text for CTM Book Review 1-3 (Text)

Qrnurnrbiu aig. 288 Seiten 4% X6. ~teill: M. 2.50. IJRit brei !fietfen Qluguftinll finb 1llit nn~er belannt ge1llotben burd) eigene ~eftlite. ~all ift etftenll ball befannte !fietf De Doctrina Ohristiana, bie nUefte S';)etmeneutH, ~fagogU unb S';)omiletif, 1llie man et1lla fagen lonnte; fob ann De Owitate Dei, ein monumentalell !fier!, in bem Qluguftinull ball ([~tiftentum gegen ben lllot1llutf betteibigt, ben innmn unb nujimn llletfaU !Rom!! betfd)ulbet au ~aben, unb liber ben ~tlimmetn bet !fieUftabt bie e1llige @otte!!ftabt fid) et. ~eben fie~t, eine@efd)id)t!ll>~ilofol>~ie im ~od)ften Sinne bell !fiortes; unb bann bie betli~mten Bonfeffionen obet ~efenntniffe. ~iefe!l lettm !fied lam unll c fdJon in unfern Stubentenia~ten in bie S';)nnbe, unb a1llat gliidlid)er1lleife in bet fd)onen, mit Qlnmedungen betfe~enen Qlullgabe bon Bad bon !Raumet, bet biefell !fierl mit einem Bteill feinet Stubenten au lefen l>flegte unb ell bann fUt 1lleitete Bteife mit feinen ~tUntungen ~etaullgab. Seitbem ~abe id) oft aud) unfete Stubenten aUf biefe!l !fied aufmetffam gemad)t, bon bem iett eine neue, biUige 236 Book Review. - ~itetatut. ~u~gabe botliegt. JDet gtoue .Rhd)enmann, 1m aUf ~ut~et fo geroaltig eingeroidt ~at, fte~t ba in fetnen offenen, tUd~altlofen @5elbftbefenntnifien bot unll, unb roie oft gute ~utobiogta~~ien, fo ift bot anbetn biefell ~ud) etn !illed bon unbetgling~ ltd)em !illett. JDa~ ~atein ~uguftinll ift nid)t f d)roet, unb man lieft fid) leid)t ~inein. JDie botliegenbe~ullgabe ift flat gebtudt unb im %afd)enfotmat ge~alten. !illiU man ball !illetf in beutfd)et @5~tad)e Ie fen, fo tft ell f~ottbiUig in lReclam~ Untbetfalbibliot~ef au befommen. ~bet bie fd)Bnfte ~ullgabe, Me roit tennen, ift Me aroeibiinbige bon !ill. !illattll in bet befannten Loeb Classical Library, roo aUf bet einen @5eite ball lateinifd)e ,original unb aUf bet anbern bie englifd)e frbet~ fetung fid) finbet. ~. {Y. Luther and the Reformation. By James Mackinnon, Ph. D., D. D. Vol. III: Progress of the Movement (1521-29). Longmans, Green & Co., London. 1929. 338 pages, 5%X8%. Price, $6.00. The excellencies found in the former volumes of Mackinnon's great biography are again evident in this, bringing the history of the Reforma- tion from the Diet of Worms in 1521 to the Marburg Conference in 1529. Again the author gives proof on every page of his acquaintance with first- hand sources, with the writings of Luther as well as with the research of modern scholars. Again we have splendid summaries of the writings o! Luther during this period, particularly of the book on the Enslaved Will, concerning which, by the way, the author says that in it Luther's polemic is seen at its best. There is a splendid parallel between the char- acter of Luther and that of Erasmus, and the judgments on Hutten and on Sickingen are well conceived and aptly phrased. Throughout the book, Luther stands forth as a man who cast himself with all the "Titanic activity" of which his genius was capable in the fray for the cause of the Gospel; a man utterly fearless and with never a doubt as to the truth- fulness of the doctrine he was defending. The reviewer has again found in Mackinnon's presentation that which he has never been able to gain from the pages of Koestlin, an actual speaking acquaintance with the Re- former, an effect produced only (although the reviewer is not speaking as a specialist) in certain chapters of Boehmer's Young Luther_ While Mackinnon time and again expresses his admiration of the "marvelous fecundity of thought," the "sheer moral and spiritual force which were welling forth from this dynamic spirit" (p. 45), his "smiting of the princely enemies of the Reformation with that terrible pen of his with the blast of God's wrath, before which all their armed omnipotence is only next door to death," yet he does not approve of Luther's treatment of the opponent. Especially does he object to the manner in which Luther interprets the work of his enemies as instigated by Satan. But let us pass to more important matters. This reviewer does not believe that Pro- fessor Mackinnon sufficiently appreciates the gap which separates the spiritualism of Carlstadt from the position of Luther; otherwise he would not represent as "only incidental" the excesses committed at Wittenberg (p. 96) . Similarly the objectives of the peasant uprising are stated with too great a reliance on those early documents, which indeed were very moderate in their demands. As a matter of fact, when the movement got out of the hands of its leaders, it became a bolshevist wave far more dangerous than similar uprisings had been in France and England. What Book Review. - ~iteratur. 237 the author says regarding the "brutal practises" of the peasant bands is therefore not quite to the point; the movement itself struck at the heart of constituted government, and Luther's admonition to the princes to sup- press this movement by force requires no apology. The vehemence of Luther's tracts is not to be construed as a proof that Luther had "clearly lost his head, if not his courage" (p. 205) . Mackinnon himself has pre- viously stated that two·thirds of the empire were ablaze with revolution (p.190). With identical conditions in Scotland in 1930, Professor Mackin- non would have to pray for such a. spirit as that of Martin Luther. Nor was Luther's attitude regarding government "medieval," as so often rep- resented in Mackinnon's pages; it wa.s the position of one who sincerely believed that government is a divine institution (Rom. 13).-A much better comprehension of a greatly disputed point do we find in Mackin- non's treatment of Luther's controversy with Erasmus, although the author has not caught the distinction which Luther makes between the sovereign majesty of God and the God of revelation, the key to most of the diffi- culties in Luther's book on the En8laved WiU. We expect from a non- Lutheran no sympathetic presentation of Luther's doctrine regarding the Lord's Supper (called consubstantiation, p.295 and elsewhere); we are pleased to note the acknowledgment of the "wonderful dialectic resource" in Luther's discussion of the subject (p. 312 f.); but Mackinnon certainly does not do justice to the exegetical question involved by deposing that it, "after all, admitted of two possible interpretations" (p. 327), and he shows the usual Reformed inability to gra.sp the heart of the controversy when he describes Luther at Marburg thus: "So fanatical and furious was he that he was ready to stake the whole reform movement on the acceptance of the notion that the communicant actually eats the body and drinks the blood of Christ under the semblance of a morsel of bread and sip of wine" (p. 319). That which was at stake in Marburg was not only the real presence, but the doctrine concerning the person of Christ. The fun- damental character of this doctrine as related to evangelical Christianity was set forth in a paper by Prof. Werner Elert (Erlangen), delivered at the Copenhagen Lutheran World Convention in the summer of 1929. (See Lutheran Ohurch Quarterly, October, 1929.) When such statements as this: "Just as soon as we permit any separation to take place between God and the man Christ, the central factor in the revelation of God is destroyed," and this: "An insistence upon the incarnation of God in Christ is an essential element in our doctrine of trinitarian God" (Professor Elert), are understood by Reformed theologians, they will see more in Luther's insistence on the bodily presence than "one of the relics of medi- eval belief which he carried into the Reformation" (p. 326). G. 2utlju-Sllllenbttrium. mon D. @ e 0 til mud) ttl alb. m e q et d) n ill bon ~ u t ~ e r ~ Ei d) r i f ten bon D. @ u ft a bRa ttl era u. gttleUe, burd). gefe~ene ~uflage. !Dl. 8;)einjiu!i !nad)folger ~ger & Eiieber§, ~ei113ig. 206 Eieiten 5%X8%. !preill: M.5.40. tla§ ift ttlieber dne Eid)rift be!i merein~ fUr !Reformation!igefd)td)te, ber nun im 47. ~a~rgang fte~t, 3U bem ttlir eine !Rei~e bon ~a~ren ge~ilrt ~aben unb bet bie ttlertboUften Ueineren Eid)riften aur @efd)td)te bet !Reformation tm ttleiteften Eiinne berilffentlid)t. Eio liegt un~ je~t eine befonber!i banlen!ittlerte @abe bor, 238 Book Review. - £tteratur. ein £ut~et':.Ralenbarium, ba!! ~eijit, eine \1enaue d)ronolo\1ifd)e ~n\1abe aller tuid): ti\1en ~rei\1niffe im £eben £ut~erlJ (einfd)liejilid) feiner 6d)riften), tuann fie ftatt: \1efunben ~aben ober erfd)ienen finb, nad) ~a~r, ill10nat unb %a\1. ill1an \1etuinnt ~ier \1ana ftatiftifd) einen ~lict in £ut~erlJ %ati\1feit, tuie er fonft unfer!! !ffiiffenll nir\1enbll bar\1eboten tuirb, unb aile ~n\1aben tuerben \1enau mit !nad)tueifen aull ben aU\1an\1lid)en 6d)riften bele\1t. Unter bie ~e~anblun\1 fallen ~riefe, ~ill: lJutationen, £eltiire, ~rebi\1ten, meifen, 6d)riften, %ifd)reben unb morlefun\1en. 6d)la\1en tuir ein lJaar beliebi\1e 6tellen aUf. Unter bem 16. ~u\1uft 1532 fte~t: "m. [meife] frii~ 5 U~r mit ill1eland)t~on unb ~u\1uftin 6d)urff nad) 6d)tueini; ...• £ut~er unb ill1eland)t~on atuifd)en 9 unb 10 U~r am 6terbela\1er bell .Rurfiirften ~o~ann." Unter bem 22. ~U\1uft 1532 fte~t: ,,~. [~rebt\1t] frii~ 9 U~r in ber 6d)lojilird)e iiber 1 ~eff. 4, 13 f." (6. 88.) ~ull bem ·ill1ai 1539 finben fid) a.~. fol\1enbe ~n\1aben: mom 3. ill1ai: ,,~n £ut~erlJ %ifd)e bie lJommerfd)en @Sefanbten. ,6. [6d)rtft]: mon ben .Ronailiill unb .Rird)en', bor eini\1en %a\1en erfd)ienen. ,~all 16 . .RalJitel 6t. ~o~annilJ', bor eini\1en %allen erfd)ienen." mom 9. ill1ai: "ill1eland)t~on bei £ut~er." mom 15. ill1ai: ,,£ut~er mit ill1eland)t~on bei bem .Rurfiirften au %ifd)." mom 22. ill1ai: "m. [meife] mit ~onall, ~ruci\1er, ill1elan: d)t~on nad) £etNi\1." ~lS fe~r tuertboller atueiter %eil tinbet fid) bann ein "mer: aeid)ni!! bon £ut~erll 6d)riften" nad) ber mei~enfollle ber ~a~re mit !nad)tueill i~rell iJunbortll in ben ie;t Ilebraud)lid)en ~ullllaben. ~tefer ~n~anll tuurbe feineraeit bon D. @S . .Ratuerau beforllt unb ift nad) feinem %obe bon D. D. ~lemen burd)llefe~en tuorben. ~eibe tuie aud) bet' belannte ~eraulllleber bell ~aulJtteilll, D. @S. ~ud)tualb, finb ~erborrallenbe £ut~erforfd)er. ~all meraeid)nill ber 6d)riften £ut~erlJ aa~lt 616 !nummern. ~!! muji eine mii~fame ~rbeit Iletuefen fein, ball allell aufammenauftellen. ~ll ift aber aud) feine iJralle, baji biefell ~ud) fold)en, bie mit £ut~erll 6d)rtften arbeiten - unb tueld)er lut~erifd)e %~eololl follte fid) ball nid)t, tuenillftenll in einem \1etuiffen Umfanlle, aur ~uf\1abe mad)en, tuenn er mit med)t ben lut~erifd)en !namen trallen tuill -, etn fe~r fd)a;enlltuertell !nad): fd)lallebud) ift. £. iJ. Mrs. Eddy. The Biography of a Virginal Mind. By Edwin Franden Dakin. 553 pages (including an exhaustive index), 6%X9%. Cloth with gilt lettering. One illustration (Mrs. Eddy at the height of her career). Charles Scribner's Sons, New York. Price, $5.00. Order from Concordia Publishing House, St. Louis, Mo. This is perhaps the best biography of the founder of Christian Science (written from the viewpoint of a non-theologian) on the book market to-day. It is not an attack on Christian Science or its founder, though the author's dissection of her personality is so utterly remorseless that bookshops offer- ing the volume for sale have everywhere been threatened with boycott by Christian Scientists. No wonder I Though the biographer treats the hys- terical, dyspeptic, petulant, selfish, and intolerant woman, whom Christian Scientists revere as an incarnation of the "Mother-God," with courtesy, fairness, and with no little admiration for her very pugnacious self- assertion, his analysis of her character, motives, aims, frauds, deceits, etc., is so thorough that not even a trace of a halo is left around the gray hair of this consummate religious adventuress. The influence of Mark Twain, whom the author often quotes and sometimes corrects, is clearly percep- tible, though his cutting sarcasm is lacking. The whole biography is well documented, and the writer always and carefully keeps on the safe ground Book Review. - ~iteratur. 239 'Of stubborn facts; yet his work has the fascinating qualities of a first- 'Class romance. It is brilliantly written, full of instructive details, now published for the first time, and illustrative of the highest art of modern biography·writing. The result of the author's painstaking effort and mas· terful treatment of the material is a biography which deserves general recognition. We suggest that pastors induce their town libraries to pro- ~efer", 5. 246. ilie ~~e alll ~~e liegt unb bletbt aUf bem natUtlid)en ®ebiet, bem 5d)ol>fungllgebiet. Unb ebenfo bede~rt ift, roenn ber !8erfaffer biefell Rallttelll, Dr.~. !8orlifd) (bermutltd) ein ~rat), ben 5tabtl>fatter ~aug auftim: menb aitiert: .!illir tonnen nid)t anberll aU bie fllnftlid)e ~ml>flingnillber~Utung in bielen tyliUen all! etlaubt augeben, unb aroar ~anbelt ell fid) um tyliUe, roo feine ober faum eine l>erfonlid)e 5d)ulb borliegt, fonbern 5d)ulb bell anbern ober 5d)ulb ber ~Ugemein~eit." (5. 204.) ilod) ift in anbern Ral>iteln, a. 18. in bem Uber '1I~~e unb Rinber", in ~nle~nung an Xlut~er rtd)tiger geurteUt. ila fagt !l\rofeffor ~lt~aul!: lI~ll gibt aud) ~eute nod) d)riftlid)e tyrauen, bie fo benten [rote Xlut~er] i unb eine tyrau, beren ~eq erbebt ift bon ber tyred)~eit bell ,!illir mad)en !eine .!Hnber' roirb immer roieber in ben ®eift jlie~en, ber aull Xlut~erll !illorten fllrtd)t. II Unb bann aittert ~lt~aull einen belannten 18erliner tyrauen: arat, !l\rof. Dr. !l\aul5trabmann, ber folgenbell offentltd) gefd)tieben ~at: lIiler !illunfd) ber !D1utter, Xleben au geben, aud) mit Ol>fern, fte~t Uber aUer liratlid)en !illet!!~eit. ilall XlebenllglUd, fei ell aud) fUr fUraere ~a~re, fann babon ab~lingen. il i e ty r e u b e am R i n b e fann mit bem !illiUen aur @:r~altung bie ®efunb: ~ett aud) ber Sd)road)en, bie Xlebenllbauer, ftetgern ... , iler gefunbe, tief rour: aelnbe Xlebenllbrang bell !illeibell fU~lt fe~r roo~l, roeld)er ~rat ball llHd)tige geraten ~at. .aule~t bleibt ball Rinb, bie tyrud)tbarfeit, ber Segen!" (S. 109.) Xl. ty. Census of Religious Bodies. 1926. Lutherans - Statistics, History, Doctrine, and Organization. Consolidated Report. 148 pages, 5% X 9. Price for packing and postage, 20 cts. Order from Concordia Pub- lishing House, St. Louis, Mo. This report, published by the Bureau of the Census, is a very valuable collation of material pertaining to the various Lutheran bodies of the United States. The tabulation was made with great care, and the items on the history, doctrine, and organization of the various bodies were sub- mitted to representative men of the respective bodies for verification. The report on the Missouri Synod comprises eight pages, and the reports on other Lutheran bodies are proportionately long and reliable. K. Please Take Notice. Kindly consult the address label on this paper to ascertain whether your subscription has expired or will soon expire. "March 30" on the label means that your subsciption has ex- pired. Please pay your agent or the Publisher promptly in order to avoid interruption of service. It takes about two weeks before the address label can show change of address or acknowledgment of remittance. When paying your subscription, please mention name of pub- lication desired and exact name and address (both old and new, if change of address is requested). CONCORDIA PUBLISHING HOUSE, St. Louis, Mo.