CONCORDIA THEOLOGICAL MONTHL Y VOL. XXXI NOVEMBER 1960 Editorial Comment Declaring God's Glory Through Welfare Work. WILLIAM A. BUEGE Studies in Discipleship. MARTIN H. FRANZMANN BRIEF STUDIES HOMILETTCS THEOLOGICAL OBSERVER BOOK REVIEW EDITORIAL COMMITTEE VICTOR BARTLING, PAUL M. BRETSCHER ALFRED O. FUERBRINGER, GEORGE W. HOYER ARTHUR CARL PIEPKORN, WALTER R. ROEHRS LEWIS W. SPITZ, GILBERT A. THIELE AtiJ1'BSS all communications to the Edit01'ial Committee in ca1'e of Walt" R. Roeh1's, 801 De Mun Ave., SI. Louis 5, Mo. NO.ll 660 661 670 690 702 711 715 TRANSCENDENTALISM IN NEW ENGLAND: A HISTORY. By Octavius Brooks Frothingham. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1959. xxix + 386 pages. Paper. $1.75. THE TRANSCENDENTALIST MINISTERS: CHURCH REFORM IN THE NEW ENGLAND RENAISSANCE. By William R. Hutchison. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1959. xvii + 240 pages. Cloth .450. Unitarianism IQ Boston was [he conrext the Transcendemalist movement arose in. Perry Miller has called it a "religious demonstration"; Hutchison has documented this judgment with a prize-winning dissertation. The reissue of Frothingham's study, first published in 1876, underscores the importance of the movement in American history. Goddard's Studies in 1908, the more general study by Kern in the work edited by H. H. Clark, Transitions in American Literary History, in 1953, and Perry Miller's anthology of Tmnscendentalism, published in 1950, are three additional works which the student of this movement must note among a great number of other titles. Frothingham goes back to the beginnings of the movement in Germany; he traces it into France, England, and New England. There Emerson, Alcott, Margaret Fuller, Theodore Parker, George Ripley, and others furthered it. The miracles question involved, among others, Ripley and Emerson; the confessional question, Theodore Parker. These questions are discussed particularly by Hutchinson, who is concerned about the theological rather than the literary aspects of the movement. l BOOK REVIEW All books reviewed in this periodical may be procured from or through Concordia Publishing House, 3558 South Jefferson Avenue, St. LOftis 18, Missouri. It may not be too provincial to point out in this journal that the Transcendentalist movement both in New England and in Germany is far removed from the Lutheran confessional movement, which was contemporary with it and which was represented by the leaders of the early Missouri Synod. CARL S. MEYER RAMUS: METHOD, AND THE DECAY OF DIALOGUE. By Walter J Oog. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 195R vi" + 408 p g e ~ . Cloth. $10. Peter Ramus (1515-72), a French Protestant, whose influence was greater in Germany, Holland, England, and Puritan New England than in France, is largely responsible for putting "method" into a prominent position in the history of thought. Rudolph Agricola pointed the way for men like Johann Sturm, Philip Melanchthon, and Peter Ramus. The Philippo-Ramists, the "Mixts," were greatly concerned about systems; the Puritans about plain style. Although there is no unified dialectic in Ramism, there is an emphasis on rhetoric and the classification of thought which men like William Ames, PhiJip Melanchthon, and their respective followers found useful. St. Louis University's Ong has presented a valuable study for anyone interested in the history of ideas in the 16th century aod the influence of these ideas on subsequent centuries. His footnotes cover 53 pages; his bibliography a mere 14, only because he published a Ramus and Talon inventory simultaneously with the present work. The work is readable, objective, incisive. CARL S. MEYER 715 716 BOOK REVIEW THE PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS IN THE DEMOCRATIC CREED: AN ANALYSIS OF POLITICAL ETHICS. By Ursula M. von Eckhardt. New York: Frederick A. Praeger, 1959. xvi + 414 pages. Cloth. $4.50. The title of Miss von Eckhardt's work will sound unpromising to the theologian; even a political scientist might wonder about the subtitle. But the survey of the 18th century, the clear presentation of Jefferson's political theories, and the comprehensive analysis of leading political thinkers in England and America who wrote on the relationship between government and the rights and duties of man make this work of more than average interest for the theoiogian and the political K ; e n t i ~ l . The subtitle is a challenge; the title a SUCCIllCL thread that is woven into the strand of the political and social fiber of this nation. Political scientists and theologians alike will gain by the reading of this erudite, clear chapter in the history of an idea. CARL S. MEYER THE HISTORY OF EUROPEAN LIBERALISM. By Guido de Ruggiero. Translated by R. G. Collingwood. Boston: Beacon Press, 1959. xi + 476 pages. Paper. $2.45. The beauties of the author's style, it must be supposed, are reflected in the translator's smoothness, which makes de Ruggiero's account of liberalism in Europe in the 18th and 19th centuries read like an originaL The author is thoroughly at home in the political thought of the times. He treats English, German, French, and Italian liberalismthe last, despite its acknowledged modest nature, in greatest detaiL Prominent in his treatment is the question of religious liberty and with that the question of church-state relations. The work was first published in English in 1927. Its value as one of the most important treatments of the topic has increased over the years. CARL S. MEYER FROM HISTORY TO SOCIOLOGY: THE TRANSITION IN GERMAN HISTORICAL THOUGHT. By Carlo Antoni. Translated by Hayden V. White. Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1959. xxviii + 249 pages. Cloth. $4.50. Antoni is director of the department of philosophy at the University of Rome. In six essays he discusses the transition in German historiography from historicism to sociology; he interprets this trend as a decline and a transformation from the philosophicai to the empirical. Wilhelm Dilthey, Ernst Troeltsch, Friedrich Meinecke, Max Weber, Johann Huizinga, and Heinrich Wolmin are the subjects of the six essays. The translator's introduction, "On History and Historicisms," adds a seventh equally significant chapter BeneJetto Croce in me foreword of this volume says (p. iii): "I limit myself to recommending this exceedingly enlightening book by Antoni only to those who are seriously interested in the problems of philosophy, particularly to those who are interested in the problem of historical methodology." CARL S. MEYER THE FOURTEENTH CENTURY, 1307 TO 1399. By May McKisack. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1959. xix + 598 pages. Cloth. 35s. In 16 well-rounded chapters Miss McKisack, professor of History at Westfield College in the University of London, recounts and interprets the events in England from the beginning of the reign of the second Edward to the end of the reign of the second Richard. The 14th century in England is the century of the Battle of Bannockburn (1314), the beginning of the Hundred Years War (1337), the Black Death (l349), the Good Parliament (1376), and the Peasants' Revolt (l3 81 ) . It is the Edington, flourished. century in which Edward III, Wykeham, and John of Gaunt In this century John \1(! yelif BOOK REVIEW 717 taught and wrote. Chapter X on "The Church, the Pope, and the King" and Chapter XVI on "Learning, Lollardy, and Literature" are among the best in the book. The narrative is straightforward and clear; the synthesis is excellently done, as can be seen notably from the chapter on "Rural Society." The whole volume, number 5 in Sir George Clark's Oxford History of England, is first-rate in a first-rate series. CARL S. MEYER ASIA LOOKS AT WESTERN CHRISTIANITY. By Thomas Ohm. New York: Herder and Herder, 1959. xvii + 251 pages. Cloth. $4.75. If those a e right who assert tha the destiny of mankind will be decided in rhe East, including rhe fate of ChristianiLY, W stern churchmen must ponder carefully how rhe church looks to Asian eyes. The present Roman Catholic compilation of representative viewpoints was originally published in 1948 under the title Asiens Kritik am abendlandischen Christentttm. The lag in translation accounts for the fact that some of Ohm's judgments are definitely dated. Less defensible is the kind of slip represented by his reference to "the Lausanne Conference of the World Council of Churches (1927)," twenty-one years before ..A-111sterdam and the birth of the World Council of Churches. But such peccadilloes do not seriously detract from this useful compendium of Asian thought, lit up as it is with occasional prophetic insights such as (p. 89): "Classical thought found adequate appreciation only after the victory of Christianity, the philosophy of Aristotle, in fact, only through St. Thomas Aquinas. Similarly the intellectual work of thinkers like Shankara may only find proper respect and understanding in the future. This also applies to pagan creeds." Clericalism, organizationalism, rationalism, verbalism, and activism in Western Chris-tianity are all targets of the Asian critique, but the severest condemnation is reserved for our lack of ethical power and moral performance. A Japanese Roman Catholic friend complained to Ohm, "Perhaps Christians demand too little from themselves." Especially those who believe that their salvation comes entirely as a free gift of God's grace will therefore penitently pray for the power to demand much more from themselves in witnessing Christ to the world by a consistent life as much as by a fluent lip. WILLIAM ]. DANKER THE GREi1T SIOUX UPRISING. By C. M. Oehler. New York: Oxford University Press, 1959. xvi + 272 pages. Cloth. $5.00. In Mankato, Minn., there stands a tablet recording the facr that on that spot 38 Sioux Indians were hanged for their part in the Sioux Uprising of 1862. In 1876 came Custer's defeat. By 1890 the Indian Wars were at an end. Oehler has told the events of these 28 years in detail, soberly, with good documentation, and in a readable fashion. Stories of the Great Sioux Uprising belong to the lore of many Lutheran families of Southern Minnesota. CARL S. MEYER FROM THE GRACCHI TO NERO. By Howard Hayes Scullard . Frederick A. Praeger, 1959. Paper. $l.75. New York: 450 pages. Despite the binding, this is a new and fresh work, based on the most recent research, and frankly opposed to many of the interpretations of Roman history common in the 18th and 19th centuries. Scullard, well-known for his works on Roman politics, teaches ancient history in the University of London. In 1951 he wrote his History of the Roman W01-ld, 753 to 146 B. C. In the present volume he carries Rome's story down to A. D. 68. It is essentially a political (and military) history. Roman culture receives an adequate nod, 718 BOOK REVIEW but it is only a nod. Christianity, like the other aspects of the cultural world of the time, is briefly but fairly portrayed. The footnotes (pp. 381-434) are extremely valuable! We recommend the book to anyone who would rethink his views concerning the political world into which Christ came. W. W. OETTING CREATIVE IMAGINATION IN PREACHING. By Webb B. Garrison. New York: Abingdon Press, 1960. 161 pages. Cloth. $3.00. The author, president of McKendree College in Lebanon, Ill., is well known for his The Preacher and His Audience (1954). The volume attacks the question of the preparation of sermons prior to the point of organintinn anci expression, at the leve of gathering the initial material. One of the 15 chapters deals specifically with the Bible as source, although many other sections indicate Biblical presuppositions or contexts. Interesting corollaries of culture and mood are interwoven with the discussion. The style is intensely personal and is at the opposite pole to textbook treatment. RICHARD R. CAEMMERER THE URBAN FRONTIER: THE RISE OF WESTERN CITIES, 1790-1830. By Raymond C. Wade. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1959. 360 pages. Cloth. $6.00. St. Louis, Cincinnati, Louisville, Lexington, and Pittsburgh grew from small towns to major cities in the period between 1790 and 1830. During this period they had to meet economic and social problems, such as transportation, commerce, protection, and education. These five cities did not follovl the same pattern during this period, although there are some definite similarities in their transformation. Wade has given an excellent sketch of the development of these cities. His thesis that there was an urban frontier, equally as significant as the rural frontier, i5 well substantiated. Only in his treatment of religion and the churches is he disappointing -at least to one interested in church history. CARL S. MEYER BUILD MY CHURCH. By Melvin 1. Hodges. Chicago: Moody Press, 1957. 128 pages. Paper. 39 cents. Missionaries who have read Hodges' earlier pamphlet on The Indigenous Church will be glad to note that the field secretary for Latin America of the Assemblies of God foreign missions department has reworked this material for national pastors and Bible school students. It will be useful in the training of evangelists and unsalaried min-isters as well. WILLIAM J. DANKER DIP TUGEND UND L1STERKAT_IJ.LOGE 1M NEUEN TESTAMENT UND lHRE TRADITIONSGESCHICHTE UNTER BESONDERER BER()CKSICHTIGUNG DER QUMRAN-TEXTE. By Siegfried Wibbing. Berlin: Verlag Alfred Topelmann, 1959. xvi + 127 pages. Paper. DM 20.-. In this monograph the author takes up the problem of relating New Testament moral and ethical lists or catalogs (d. Gal. 5: 16 ff. and Eph. 5: 3 ff.) to contemporary literature. The author relies heavily on Anton Vogtle's comprehensive work (Miinster, 1936) for data in Stoic circles and late Jewish literatun:, including Philo and the pseudepigrapha. The second major portion of his work takes up the evidence from Qumran. Here abstractions are proportionately greater than in the Old Testament, but the Hebrew mind, which recognizes no essential difference between abstract and concrete, is apparent in the scrolls. Contrary to Hellenistic thought, which emphasizes the attainment of inner harmony, the Qumran documents affirm obedience to God. Homiletical aims shape the BOOK REVIEW 719 asyndetic catalog form, whose material content is prompted by Qumran's dualism and eschatology. In his third section Wibbing discusses the New Testament lists. Formally the New Testament catalogs reflect no specific dependence on Stoic lists. Materially the high incidence of abstractions reflects the trend in intertestamental Jewish literature. As at Qumran, we find a kind of dualistic structure in Paul's catalogs, which are similarly eschatologically conditioned. The great difference between Paul and Qumran, however, lies in the relation between demand and deed. Paul roots the Christian's behavior pattern in his new existence as a redeemed child of God. The desirable moral act is a sign of the XUtv1) % ' d a L ~ . This study adds further support to a growing conviction among New Testament schol a r ~ that the headwaters of Paulme thought are not all gath red at Athens. FREDERICK W. DANKER JERUSALEM UND ROM 1M ZEIT ALTER JESU CHRISTI. By Ethelbert Stauffer. Bern: Francke Verlag, 1957. 164 pages. Paper. Swiss Fr. 2.80. JESUS: GESTALT UND GESCHICHTE. By Ethelbert Stauffer. Bern: Francke Verlag, 1957. 172 pages. Paper. Swiss Fr. 2.80. DIE BOTSCHAFT jESU: DAMALS UND HE UTE. By Ethelbert Stauffer. Bern: Francke Verlag, 1959. 215 pages. Paper. Swiss Fr. 3.80. Even a time machine would have difficulty competing with these three volumes in recapturing the spiritual atmosphere and political and social climate of the first century of our era. A coin, a brief inscription, a few lines from Statius or Vitgil-all that otherwise carries the odor of learned fungisomehow leaps into life under this scholar's wand. In jerusalem und Rom Stauffer utilizes with telling effect pagan and Jewish sources to clarify the theological issues in the Gospels and the conflict of Jesus Kyrios with the synagog in a land claimed by Kyrios Caesar. In jesus: Gestalt und Geschichte he endeavors, through the liberal use of documentation dealing with the circumstances, situations, and phenomena that play a role in the history of Jesus, to pierce the veil of theological tendentiousness that interpenetrates the Gospel accounts. With such assistance Stauffer claims that one can gain possession of objective controls to distinguish between truth and creative composition in the Gospels. He demonstrates the technique by subjecting to careful scrutiny the validity of D. Strauss's five classical objections to the historicity of the census recorded in Luke 2. In addition to indirect sources, Stauffer draws on Jewish texts which directly refer to Jeslls, on the principle that when two lines of tradition -especially when they are independent of each other -agree on specific points, there is a strong possibility that they accurately reflect a historical situation. Thus he examines the historicity of Jesus' use of Ps. 22: 2 in the light of Talmudic references to Ps. 22 in association with Esther, and concludes that these references clearly reveal anti-Jesus polemic. Die Botschaft jesu: Damals und Hettte points up the radical, revolutionary character of Jesus' proclamation. Stauffer restores the original luster of many of our Lord's sayings by polishing them with the help of Jewish views on similar subjects. The positive note in Jesus' statement of the Golden Rule, he observes, is not new. Homer's Calypso long before expressed a similar sentiment (ad. 5:188-91; see also Isocrates, Nicocles, 62), but on Jesus' lips it is creative, dynamic, programmat!c, and in sharp contrast with Hillel's passive, negative legalism. The reader who keeps in mind that Stauffer's Tannaitic documentation comes from the postapostolic period and that Jewish polemic may confirm a Christian tradition 720 BOOK REVIEW without guaranteeing its origin in the history of Jesus, will reap great dividends from these volumes. The wealth of documentation in the form of footnotes at the end of each volume permits the more curious reader ro check on the author's conclusions, while the arrangement of the contents permits the nonspecialist to read without pedantic intrusions. Except in the footnotes, all the ancient texts are given in translation. FREDERICK W. DANKER THE EPISTLES OF PAUL TO THE CO· LOSSIANS AND PHILEMON: AN INTRODUCTION AND COMMENTARY. By Herbert M. Carson. Grand Rapids, Mich.: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1960. 112 pages. Clo h. $2.00. This commentary, like its predecessors in this series, is designed for lay Bible stu ent, and offers a judicious selection of imerpretive tradition. Sunday school teachers especiall y should be edified by it. FREDERICK W. DANKER EINHEIT ORNE VEREINIGUNG. By Leo A. Zander. Translated from the Russian by Reinhard Slenczka. Stuttgart: Evangelisches Verlagswerk, 1959. 321 pages. Cloth. DM 18.50. Zander, a Russian Orthodox, studied at Leningrad and Heidelberg, taught at the Universities of Perm (1918) and Vladivostok (till 1922), and in 1925 joined the faculty of the Russian Orthodox Institute in Paris. He has been active in the ecumenical movement for more than 30 years. His learning and experience are reflected in the present volume. Zander is fully aware of the theological and practical boulders that lie in the path of church union, particularly also of those created by the uncompromising position of his own church. Conscious of these difficulties, he does not propose a plan of union. His purpose is not to solve the problems confronting the churches in their efforts to unite, bur to systematize and to formulate them. He modestly aims to render a service to ecumenical thinking, not to govern it. In suggesting unity without union the author is not in step with many members of his group, but he is sure to find many in agreement with him who know how to differentiate between the church of the creeds and the church as it appears in its outward denominational organizations. Edmund Schlink, who wrote the preface, regards this book as the most comprehensive and lively discussion of the ecumenical movement from the Orthodox point of view, which has so far been published. With this favorable evaluation many readers will agree. Readers who prefer their theology in English can turn to the edition published in 1952 hy Victor Gollancz in London, Vi.ri!)l1 and .1 ctiotl , the Problems of E ~ ; J m e a i s m . 1. W. SPITZ MANUAL OF DOGMATIC THEOLOGY. By A. Tanquerey. Translated by J. Byrnes. New York: D e s c l t ~ e Company, 1959. 2 vols., xix + 436; xv + 462 pages. Cloth. $9.75 the set. The present Manual is a translation of Tanquerey's well-known Breviof' synopsis the· ologiae dogmaticae, which has gone through no less than eight editions and for years has been used as a textbook in Roman Catholic dogmatics classes. The book is a model in clarity and system in presenting Roman Catholic dogmatics. One wishes that theo· logians of other denominations would more often speak with such brevity and precision. The method of the manual is simple: the presentation of the question under discussion; the thesis; proof from Scripture, tradition, or reason; the consideration of various problems and aberrations. The theology of the book is conservative, derived mainly from Aquinas and the Church Councils. The manual may be recommended as one of the best introductions to Roman theology. ROBERT D. PRE US