t 1 - Continuing LEiHRE UND WEHRE MAGAZIN FUER Ev.-LUTH. HOMILETlK THEOLOGICAL QUARTERLY-THEOLOGICAL MONTHLY vol.xm Dece b T , 1942 0.12 CONTENTS Pace Youth Leadership. P. E. Kretzmann _. _____ .. __ ._ .. _. ________ ... ____ .. _ .................. .... 882 Verbal Inspiration-a Stumbllng-Block to the Jews and Fooli b- ness to the Greeks. Th. Enr,,1 e _ ... _ .. _ ............ . _ ... __ .. _ ................. 888 Outlines on Old Testament Texts (Synolitcnl Conference) ......... _ 926 List of Text~ or hI' Church r .. _ ... _ .... ___ .. _ ....... _ ........ _ ...... __ ... _. 940 T Il'ologic I 0 rver. - Kirchlich.Zeitge~chichtliches _ .... __ .. _ ...... _ .. 941 001-- '\ iew. - Literatur ._ .......... __ .. _ .. _ ......... _ ................. ........ _._ .... _ ... 954 edlger muss nlc:bi alleln wei- ft. el" d)e. ~c:hr.fe unter- '. wi ..:.. .:ch to: C !lrlsten .DlIen RIn • n dem aucb daneben den Vcel- feo wehf'en. da .. Ide die Schafe nicht aogreifeo uod mit falBcher Lehre ver- fuehren und Irrtum elnfuehren. Es 1st keln Ding. das die Leute m cl>". bel der K1rche bebaelt dezm dij, gute Predlgt. - Apologie. Art. 14 11 the tru'DP t I an \D) tiD sowld. wh • • llJ)4I'e llJma-d. to the j:,;,tt.' ,? - 1 ern'. 14:8 blL.hed for the . S 110 oW'i, Ohio, and Other 'S USE, St. Louis, 954 Book Review - £itetatUt Book Review - i!iter4iur All books reviewed in this periodical may be procured from or tIIrougb Con- cordia Publishing House, 3558 S. Jefferson Ave., St. Louis, Mo. Simple Studies in First and Second Corinthians. Simple Studies in First and Second Thessalonians, First and Second Timothy, Titus, anll Philemon. Simple Studies in the Epistles of James, First and Second Peter, First, Second, and Third John, and Jude. By William L. Pettinghill. Fundamental Truth. Publishers, Find- lay, Ohio. Each book, 5lj4X8lh. Each: 35 cents. The writer of these "simple studies" is e~ident1y a Fundamentalist and a believer in the vicarious atonement and the justification of sinners through the imputation of Christ's merits. He also has the ability to present important truths in the fonn of simple and comprehensive outlines. His discussion, for example, of Jesus of Nazareth as the Christ of God in the third book is a masterpiece, as is his analysis of 1 Pet. 3: 9, and many other passages. Nevertheless the effect of his presentation is spoiled, in many cases, by his use of Scofield's Bible, with its rampant chiliasm. In the passages which are based upon Scofield some very weird ideas are presented, to say the least, as when the thought of Paul's declaring himself to be born before due time is regarded as an illustration, or instance before the time, of the future national conversion of Israel. The dispensationalism of the author appears also in his reference to the Great Tribulation period preceding the Judgment. If the pastor who desires some simple material on the books concerned will be cautious with regard to such passages, he may derive much value from the study of these books. But this caution must be exercised. P. E. KRETzMANN Conscience. Lectures Delivered at the River Forest Summer School, 1941. By E. W. A. Koehler, D. D. 39 pages. Stiff paper cover. Concordia Publishing House, St. Louis, Mo. 15 cents. We have here a scholarly and pretty exhaustive treatment of a most important subject. It presents the Scripture teaching on the nature, functions, and treatment of the conscience. Besides, Dr. Koehler is well versed in psychology and knows how to present these matters in popular language.-It is a most important matter. "Conscience is a wonderful gift of God and a powerful help in our work. . . . A live conscience does more in getting our people to observe in their lives what we have taught them than we may ever hope to do by personal influence. . . . In all our teaching, admonition, and comforting let us enlist the services of this co-worker; let us not merely instruct the intellect, but aim to reach the heart and the conscience of our people." (P. 8.) Again: "Only when it is directed and controlled by the Word of God does conscience serve its God-intended purpose." (P.28.) Once more: "A guilty con- science is the worst thing a man can suffer in this life. . . . There is Book Review. - mtetatut 955 nothing in the wide world that can restore peace to a troubled soul except the assurance of God's grace and forgiveness." (P. 36 f.) Our readers will recognize these statements, for our pamphlet is a reprint of an article which appeared in the May 1942 issue of our MONTHLY. They know the value of this treatise and will be glad to tell their friends that it is now within easier reach. TH. ENGELDER I Still Believe in God. By Jacob A. Dell. The Wartburg Press, Colum- bus, Ohio. 256 pages, 73f4x5. $2.00. Professor Dell of Capital University offers this book to the Chris- tian minister for people who ask questions regarding matters of theo- logical teaching and practical ethics. He wishes to help especially our college youth to integrate their thinking and living with the proposition that Christian faith is satisfying and desirable, a faith for such a time as this. He is careful enough to guard against an overestimate of Chris- tian apologetics. He asks his readers to consider that "all that philo- sophical reasoning and speculation can do for us, the most we can hope to get out of philosophical arguments (like those in this book) is a suggestion of probability." Because certain things are true as we see them, it is reasonable to suppose that truth lies in a certain direction. That is no proof. It is like the reasoning of the astronomers before the planet Pluto was dis- covered. Because other planets acted in a certain way, they argued that there must be a hitherto unseen planet moving in a certain orbit in the heavens. But the reasoning did not show anyone that planet. It just argued the probability of its being there. Eventually a telescope discovered it. Then they knew it was there. Even so I cannot show you God with arguments of probability, and that is as far as philosophy can go. Eventually I hope that we shall see Him and know, even as also we are known. It is only because God has revealed Himself to us that we can have that assurance which is the essence of Christian faith. The book abounds in cogent reasoning, within the limits set for himself by the author, in apt illustration and eloquent appeal. The author analyzes some of the difficult passages in the Sermon on the Mount. He points out that Jesus is not here giving new laws or offering a code, but proclaims the emancipation of the Christian from the shackles of the law. Jesus said, "Whosoever shall compel thee to go a mile, go with him twain." The Romans had a law according to which they could impress a native of any conquered province to go with them one mile to show them the road. Jesus says, "Go with them two miles." That means, ''Take the whole action out of the sphere of grudging obedience and put it into the sphere of willing, happy service of others." That is the spirit of the New Covenant religion, not its letter. The minute you try to make rigid law of it, you make it ridiculous. Again, Dr. Dell speaks of the righteousness of God and the eternal lot of the godless. He asks: What else can God do with sin? Given a creature who has been endowed with an undying soul and who at the same time is granted the liberty of choosing to rebel against God, what else can God do with him if he does choose to rebel but to give him over to his own choice? Choosing to rebel against God, he chooses to rebel against light, against truth, against goodness, against love, against virtue, against gentleness, 956 Book Review. - 53iteratut against kindness, against sanity, against peace, against everything high and noble and right. He chooses darkness and lies and vileness and hate and viciousness and brutality and cruelty and insanity and strife. When an immortal soul chooses those things for his eternal home and its eternal furnishings, he chooses hell. Concerning the social Gospel which seeks to reform society from without and does not begin with the individual: This method of approach to the kingdom of God resembles an attempt to move an automobile by pushing it. You are combating the inertia of dead weight. And in trying to move society into the kingdom of God by external pressure you are combating sin, which is worse than a dead weight; for it actively resists pressure. But put a motor in your car, and it will move of its own power in the direction you want it to go. We cannot put a motor into society, for it has no collective motor. It has a large number of individual motors (or motivators) - human hearts. There is were the incentive,. the driving power of the good life must be developed. Faith in God is that driving power. Farther on we meet with this reference to millennial hopes: "I do not believe in any Utopia, and I do not believe in any millennial king- dom. Sin is here and will last as long as the race lasts." We have a question mark here and there. "Saintly souls like Kagawa" does not properly describe the Japanese mystic if "saint" is used in the Christian sense. The changed attitude of science toward the "laws" of the universe should have found a place in Chapter 11 and elsewhere. The illustration of God's omnipresence derived from the physical state of reverie, when your mind "can wander millions of miles out into space and yet be entirely where you are," is not con- vincing. But the Christian pastor can be depended upon to make his own evaluation of this as of any other essay in the field of Christian evidences and will derive from it much good for his dealing with individual Y01.mg people and for his addresses to young people's societies. TH. GRAEBNER The Hymnal. Authorized by the General Synod of the Evangelical and Reformed Church. Published for the Church by Eden Publishing House, St. Louis, Mo. 653 pages. $1.30. This is the new official hymnbook of the Evangelical and Reformed Church produced by a committee composed of Joaquin P. Meyer, Chair- man, W.Sherman Kerschner, Secretary, Richard G.Appel, Edward But- kofsky, Armin Haenssler, Erwin R. Koch, Mrs. Theodore Mayer, and Henry 1. Stahr. This committee had been appointed in 1935 as soon as the merger of the Evangelical Synod and the Reformed Church in the United States had proceeded so far as to assure a permanent union. The committee's aims "throughout has been to help worshipers find God in a large way through adequate means of worship, to voice faith in Jesus Christ as the source of unlimited redemptive power, and to empha- size the moral values of the Christian Church as the bulwark of a righteous society." The arrangement of the book is as follows: 1. Orders of Worship (Morning Service, Evening Service, a brief Order of Worship, the Ten Commandments, the Lord's Prayer, the Apostles' Creed, the Beatitudes). 2. The Hymns (481 in number). 3. Responses and Canticles. 4. The Book Review. - 53itctutur 957 Church Year (the Introits and Texts for Epistles and Gospels, etc.). 5. Responsive Prayers - Litanies. 6. Responsive Readings. 7. Indexes. The hymns are classified as follows: 1. Adoration and Praise. 2. Times of Worship. 3. God the Father. 4. Our Lord Jesus Christ. 5. The Holy Spirit. 6. The Holy Trinity. 7. The Word of God. 8. The Christian Life. 9. The Church of Christ. 10. The Kingdom of God on Earth. 11. Eternal Life. 12. Seasons and Special Services. 13. Youth and Schools. 14. Children. 15. Miscellaneous Hymns. The Order of the Morning Service in a general way follows the Lutheran Common Service: Processional Hymn. Invocation and Opening Sentence. Confession of Sin. Assurance of Pardon. Introit and Collect for the Day. The Gloria in Excelsis. The Lessons. The Apostles' Creed. The General Prayer. Anthem. Almouncements, Offering. Hyrnn. Sermon. Hymn or Doxology. Benediction. The Order of the Evening Service is a very barren order and bears no resemblance to the traditional Order of Vespers. Although in the section entitled "Responses and Canticles" responses for the Order of Holy Communion are given, no specific order for the celebration of the Lord's Supper is indicated. In the Canticle section the traditional canticles and chants for Matins and Vespers are offered, but the traditional orders are not given. However, a Christmas Service is offered, in which is suggested the use of the Magnificat, the Benedictus, the Gloria in Excelsis, the Nunc Dimittis, and the Te Deum Laudamus. As to the hymns and their arrangement: The method followed is more in harmony (as was to be expected) with that of other Reformed hymnals than with that which we are accustomed to in Lutheran hymn- books. While certain concessions are made in favor of the traditional Church Year arrangement, it can be totally disregarded by a pastor without otherwise affecting the practical use of the Hymnal in the service. While the typography and the page arrangement are good, it does detract from the book's practicability that the first line of each hymn is not used as a heading. Instead, the heading of the division or subdivision under which a hymn is classified is given altogether too much prominence. If our checkup is exact, there are 133 tunes in this Hymnal which The Lutheran Hymnal has and approximately 170 hymns, although among the translated hymns the translations are not always the same. Besides a number of hymns of comparatively recent origin, there are nineteen new texts which have never before appeared in any official hymnbook, and fifteen tunes and two descants were especially composed for this book. Viewed from the standpoint of the church group for which this Hymnal was prepared, it is no doubt the best collection textually and musically in its history in America. The fact that both these bodies (the Evangelical Synod and the Reformed Church in the United States) have a German background leads one to hope that an effort would be made to save many of the great German chorales for their English- speaking members. Nor is one disappointed, although there are a number conspicuous by their absence, e. g., "Come, Holy Ghost, God and Lord," and "Our Father, Thou in Heaven Above." Eight of Paul Gerhardt's 958 Book Review. - 2itetcttut hymns are included and four of Martin Luther's. But these hymns of Luther, Gerhardt, and others sometimes find themselves in strange company in the book. There are two hymns by Harry Emerson Fosdick and others by J. G. Whittier, W. M. Vories, O. S.Davis, Lawrence Hous- man, etc., which because of their false teachings of pacifism and mil- lennialism ought not to have been placed side by side with the classical hymns of Christendom that are soundly Scriptural. On the musical side the Hymnal has much merit, even though there are quite a number of tunes that are not strictly hymn tunes. The Com- mittee had the expert assistance of Dr. Clarence Dickinson and Dr. Helen Dickinson, both of Union Theological Seminary, in their task. Among the interesting tunes included we find the Finnish tune "Nyland"; the Hungarian tune "Magyar"; the Welsh tune "Meirionydd"; the German tune "Narenza" (set to Wesley's "Commit Thou All Thy Griefs"); the French tune "Rendez a Dieu," by Louis Bourgeois; the Welsh tune "Llangloffan," and others. Th.e committee in several instances placed the German original beside the English translation, as in "Silent Night" and "Now Thank We All Our God," and the Latin text with "Oh, Come, All Y e Faithful." All texts have their tunes, and in a number of instances certain tunes are given as often as four times. W. G. POLACK For Christ and Country. By Dr. Walter A. Maier. Concordia Publish- ing House, St. Louis, Mo. 392 pages, 512 X7%. $1.50. Concordia Publishing House presents in the above volume the messages of the ninth Lutheran Hour. In vigorous language Dr. Maier urges throughout his addresses the need of repentance on the part of our nation and the necessity that Christians prove themselves by word and deed the salt of the earth, the light of the world. The author avoids the mistake so frequently made in our day of promising victory to a nation as the result of sincere acceptance of Christ. While Christ has given to His Church Universal the promise that the gates of hell shall not overthrow it, He has not given an unqualified promise of temporal and material blessings to His Christians. As Dr. Maier puts it, "Pray persistently, with trust which can never be defeated, because 'with God nothing shall be impossible!' By the omnipotence of Heaven, if it be His will and for our individual and collective best, He can change our sorrows, stop this war, and give the world a true and righteous peace, with all oppression defeated." May we all heed this urgent ad- monition to pray for the spiritual and material welfare of our beloved country. And may God in His undeserved grace continue to build His Church even in these troubled times and grant again to the war- stricken world a just and lasting peace. TH. LAETscH The King of Glory. A Children's Christmas Service. By A. C. Mueller. Concordia Publishing House, St. Louis, Mo. 15 pages, 6X9. Single copies 5 cents; dozen 50 cents; 100 $3.50. This simple Christmas service for children is built up in the usual manner, the basis being the Order of Vespers, and the customary Book Review. - 2itetatut 959 alternation between songs, chants, questions and answers, and recita- tions being observed. The service should carry a special appeal, since it presupposes little or nothing by way of special preparation or training and yet tells the story in a very appealing manner. P. E. KRETzMANN The Unobstructed Universe. By Stewart Edward White. E. P. Dutton and Company, New York. 320 pages. $2.50. The Road I Know. By Stewart Edward White. E. P. Dutton and Com- pany, Inc., Publishers, New York. 243 pages. $2.50. The jacket in which the first of these titles reached us from the publisher shows a background of night sky with a section of the Milky Way. Our impression, accordingly, was that of a study of the universe as now known to science, and since we had read with great delight Mr. White's earlier books on the North Woods, the Sierras, and other aspects of nature, we sat down with happy anticipations to the reading of this volume and of its sequel, The Road I Know. Never has this re- viewer been more keenly disappointed in a book. The Unobstructed Unive1'se is a record of experiences in the field of spiritism, of which Mr. White has become an addict. He believes that in the messages from the departed he is able to offer America "a blueprint for the redesigning of life - national and personal." The book need not detain us long. Mr. White's wife died in 1939, and the psychic matters which absorbed their interest continue through communications, so Mr. White believes, between husband a.Tld wife. First, it was only a feeling of her Presence, and she as yet had nothing to say. Then, through a medium, the way was opened, and on the basis of the communications thus received, the book was written. And what are these revelations from the other world? They are in part the usual trifles reported from spiritistic seances, as when Betty (the wife) asked her husband to tell a mutual friend that there is a red box in the house wherein she may keep her furs; references to a watch which he kept on his night table and which "ticked too loud." Mainly, how- ever, the book is intended to prove that "there is only one universe"- and the way between the living and the dead is unobstructed. The book differs from other records of spirit messages in using the verbiage of modern science. You can get into touch with the universe if you "step up your frequency." The communication with the other world is possible when the medium's "magnetic field" is opened. The characters discuss the fourth dimension. Much of the book consists of dialogues discoursing on the "Beta" body, "pluralistic monism," metaphysical ideas from Leibnitz, and consciousness. "Consciousness is in evolution. There- fore it is in various degrees. Each degree has its frequency. That fre- quency is a-well, I'll have to call it a sort of magnetic energy. It is a vibratory emanation of the vital force; the thing that is; the individual rate." This should suffice. The reviewer gave up in chapter 26, where Betty "handles space." The continuation volume we have not read. The Road Mr. White knows is The Road to Endor, so powerfully pictured by Rudyard Kipling in the period of spiritistic obsession after World War I. TH. GRAEBNER 960 Book Review. - ~itetatUt The Dictionary of Philosophy. Edited by Dagobert D. Runes. Philo- sophical Library, Inc., 15 East 40th St., New York, N. Y. 342 pages, 6¥4x9¥4. Price, $6.00. The fact that this very appealing Dictionary of Philosophy appears in a second edition so shortly after its publication proves that there is a great demand among our intelligentsia for a work of this kind. Quot- ing Samuel Johnson, the editor humbly remarks in his Preface: "Dic- tionaries are like watches; the best cannot be expected to go quite true, but the worst is better than none." But to the reviewer it seems as if the editor and his able assistants had produced a most useful piece of work, the popularity of which is well deserved not only because it offers so great a wealth of biographical material, explains philosophical terms and formulas briefly and accurately, and gives fine summaries of practically all modern and ancient Oriental and Occidental philosophical systems, but chiefly because it does all this in so interesting a manner that the student is hardly aware of studying matters philosophical, and so simply that the layman of average intelligence and education can derive real benefit from practically all items discussed. Relatively only a small part of the book demands more detailed information for its full understanding than is given here. The material offered, often at considerable length, embraces all major schools and theories of philos- ophy, philosophy of law, religious philosophy, logic, epistemology, ethics, metaphysics, Chinese, Jewish, and Hindu philosophy. Indeed, an in- valuable book for all students of human cultural development! The editor expresses the hope that tithe present volume will serve as reliably as the chronometer of today in the time-pattern of the philosophic world." It does so in most cases. Still, as the chronometer of today needs watching, so also some of the paragraphs in this book. In the article treating the Reformation, for example, it is said: "Man's con- science, his reason, and the Scriptures together became his [Luther's] only norm and authority." This juxtaposition of conscience, reason, and Scripture is not fair to Luther's theological principle reparding the real authority in religion. The great Reformer proclaimed the sola Scriptum so emphatically that there can be no doubt as to the place which he assigned to the Bible as the only source and norm of faith and life for the Christian believer. He followed conscience and reason only as these were "bound by clear passages of God's Word." The writer of the article later admits this when he says: "At first the Scriptures were taken as conscience permitted; then conscience became bound by the Scriptures." J. THEODORE MUELLER R30KS RECEIVED From Fleming H. Revell Company, New York, London, and Edinburgh: Case Work in Prea.ching. By Ezra Rhoades, D. D. 159 pages, 5%X7Ih. $1.25.