Full Text for CTM Book Review 6-3 (Text)

dJ u bet t. illl, ©einjiull SJlacf)fo1get ~get & e>iebetll. £ei~3ig. 1928. 41 e>eiten. ~teis: RM. 1.50. ;!Ier mcid)~tllg bDn Illug~liutg im ,8ufllmmenfjang ber mefotmlltion~gcfifJiifJte. mOtttag bon © Il n II bon e> dj u bet t. 9]1. ©einjius SJlncf)fo1get ~get & e>iebets. \JeW3ig. 1930. 36 e>.eiten. ~tei5: RM. 1.50. :Diefe beiben ~efte (©eft 2 unb 3, :;'Snf)tgnng 45 bet "e>cf;Jtif±en bes meteinll fUt ffiefotmationsgefdjidjte") btingen slnei morttage, bie ber ,t'~Htmeiftet bet ~t~ fotfdjung 'oet ffiefotmationsgefrf)id)te fl ~rof. Dr. ©ans bon e>cf;Juliett ge~a1te1t flat unb bie uns ljiet, 3um steil etlvas ettoeitcrt, im ~rucf batgelioten Inetben. ~Utrf) heibe ljat bet merfafiet llTlS wiebet, luie fd)on oft, 3U ~ant \Jet~ffidjtet. Untet bem .etften stite1 3eigt et, bali bie iifllidJe SIiuffaffung 3u einfad) ift: :Die e\Jan~ geHfdJe mefenntnislJilbung faUt in Die :;'S(1)tc 1529/30; bet 3lneite ffieidjstag bon e>~e~et btad)te bie IJlotlncnbigfeit mit fiell, ba~ man betennen mu~te. mlte bie1~ meljt bie aUen mefenntniffe 1angfam aus 3lnei mluqe1n ljetbotgelnacf;Jfen finb, beten dne bet ~lOgren3ung, bie anbere bet e>elbftbetgelniffetun\1 bient, fo nuef) ljier. :Det SIiutot fii!)tt bie mefenntniSliHbung in bet .reitcl)t bet ffieformation aUf 'illle1ancl)tljons morlefungen ubet ben ffiiimetbritf, 1519, 3Utucf, hie bamnlS aut ©etausgabe fetnet Loci fu~tten. meigegeben ift ein IJafjimUe bes illl,ntbutgtt 236 Book Review. - mteratur. Unionsborfd){ags, unb Dr.6d)uDett fd)Hefjt mit ben aud) jett unb aud) fUr uns becrd)tenswetten !!Bonen: 1I~J1tt awei Iilla~nungen miid)te id) fd)1iefjen. !!Bit De" finben uns nidjt me~r weit bon ben ~ulJiliien bon Iillatoutg unb 'nugsoutg; f otgen wit fUt dne witfHd)e .Renntniil il)ter @efd)id)te! Unb 3llJeitens. ?mit fte~en, wie ell id)eint, bor duet neuen SSefenntniSlJUbung bet nid)ttiimifd)en !!Bdt. 6ie ~at i~te eigenen grofjen @efcrl)ren. 611rgen wit, bafj bcrs .RcmftUcf unfetet gan3en tefotmatotifd)en SSefenntniSbHbung feinen ~lat nid)teinbUfjt. ,lJlicl)t um 3mmonien l)anbeU eil fidj', fd)tiebt 1524 Iillerand)tljon crn b.en lJlun3ius [am" .peggio; ,53utl)et fiim.pft um @tiibms; ts gel)t um ben Unterfdjieb bon @ottes @eted)tig~eit unb bet Iillenfcl)en @erecl)ttgteit.' lJlicl)t um ben .Rurtu~, fcrgen wir mit Iilldand)±ljon, um @tiibetes tiimpfen Ivit, um bas @rl1.e 53u±l)ets, um bie \}tage @efet obet @nabe unb bcrmtt um ben \}tieben beil @ewiffens." stier 3\!Jette :titer bietet in gebtiingtct .RUr3c ben Sjintetgtunb sum lRetdjstag bon llluQilbutg, ben (\Jang ber Stlingc, ber fd)1icbftdj Bum lRcid)stcrg fUl)rte unb bicfem lReicl)stag famt feinen metl)anMungen bas eigentiimUcl)e @e.priige gaD. - Illus Dr. 6djuoctt§ €Jd)tif±en miidjte man immet aitieten; bet lRcrum betbietet es jebo,d). sman {aife fid) nief)t burd) bie getinge €Jeiten3al){ biefer mU.d){ein beitten; fie bieten bie{ mCl)t, aIS if)te @tiibe an3ubeuten fd)eint. :t l) e o. Sj 0 ~ e t. Cromwell. By HUaire Belloo. With 8 double-tone illustrations and 12 maps. J. B. Lippincott Co" Philadelphia and London. 356 pages. Price, $4.00. The famous author of this book was born in 1870 of a French father and an English mother, and his life has been divided between France and England. He has been a prolific writer for years. In his historical biog- raphies he has moved mainly within the bounds of English history during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries in presenting such important figures as Wolsey, Cranmer, Charles the First, and James the Second, al- though he passes over to France in his Riahelieu and Napoleon. In this volume he does not aim at offering another life of Cromwell; for, he says, "there are dozens too many, the earlier batch a mass of slander, the later, a mass of panegyric - all of them a myth." His own declared object is "to seek reality; to discover what Cromwell was within; the nature of the man's motives, the quality of his actions as witnesses to the moral truth about himself." The result is an intensely interesting book. The author's style is terse and vivid. He has a fine sense of the dramatic, but his conclusions are based on deductions drawn from his speculations on personal motives and interests and arc not always convincing. In fact, this reviewer questions any man's ability, no matter how famous he may be, to read accurately the mind of another man, whether living or dead. True, to attempt that is the moclern biographical method; but it may be strongly questioned if our present-day biographies are the last word in their particular field. .At the same time there is no doubt that Hilaire Belloc has given us a valuable contribution in his Cromwell, that will help us understand better the man and his age. His summary of Crom- well's career is given in these words: "He was a man who could not but take on the task which his own immediate past, and the past of that society wherein he found himself the chief, imposed upon him. But it remained a task and a grievous one: ungrateful, distasteful, in moments abhorrent. Over and over again he would have relieved the pressure of it Book Review. - .lJiterntut. 237 from his own shoulders, - and death caught him too suddenly, still anx- iously conceiving yet another scheme whereby he might escape from car- rying a weight for which hc was unfitted." (P. 314.) Incidentally, in discussing the religious background of Cromwell, Belloc gives a fine pen picture of Calvin. The author's own religious views are no doubt reflected in the following paragraph, in which he describes Cal- vin's doctrine of the Fall and of justification: "The race of man was ac- cursed. It had fallen not from a supernatural to a natural statc (as Catholics did vainly pretend), but to a diabolic one and was native to hell. Such as might be excepted owed their strange good fortune to no act of their own, but solely to the merits of a divine Savior, which merits were, by a lawyer's fiction, 'imputed to the elect.''' Later he passes the follow- ing judgment without giving his reasons: "He [Calvin] was the greatest by far (and not only greater in scale, but greater in quality) of all the Reformers." W. G. POLAOK. ~etb'cutfdJung bet $llulinifdJen fSriefe Don ben etften ~lnfiiugett Iit~ l.3tdf)ct. 18eittligc iU i~ter Glefrl)icfJte mit neuen :te);ten, f~no1Jtifd)en :tabellen unb btei 18Hbtafeln. ©erausgegeben in Glcmcinfd)aft mit U't i t :;s ii 1 i cfJ e t, ® ill ~ .\J ii b t t e unb ffi i d) llt' b ~ e w a I b bon © a n s m 0 11 met, i')amoutg. 1934. IllfnbemifcI)e lSetiagsgeiellfcI)nft Illt1)enaion, lllotilDam. 240 lSeiten 6% X 9%. lllteis: RM.20. ®ir I)abcn biefen ncueften 18anb ill bet lSamm[ung ,,18il1el unD beutfd)e Shtltut" mit bcm gtiiBten ~nteteffe Durd)gefcl)cn. ~t fiil)!t in gang boqiigHd)er illiejfe bie bot etwa :;s(1)tesftift begollnenen Untetfud)ungen iUt Glefd)id)te ber bot1ut1)etifd)en mil1elbetbeutfcfJung fort, inbem et hie lllnulinifcI)en 18riefe be~ ~anbe1t. ~inegan3e ffiei1)e neuet :te);te witb ~iet l1orgefii1)tt. mon ben 240 IScHen bes 18anbes umfaffen 100 iogmannte f~n01JtiicI)e :tal1ellen iU ben fol~ gmben IStellen: ffiiim. 13, 11-14; 1 .ItOt. 5, 7. 8; 1 .ltor. 13 (wo im gan3en 66 Xe!:te angefii~rt werben); 1111)il. 2, 6-8; ©el1t. 12, 28-13, 8. lSeite 128-228 bieten eine lIS)eutfd)e i'toerfetung bet lllaulu§l1tiefe nad) bet Glot1)ner unb bet lSa130Utger ©anblcI)tift". :;Seber :t1)eolog, bet lid) filt Die beutlcI)e 18ibel in~ tereffiert, lllirb biefen 18anb mit :;Sntcrefle unb ~uten lelen. ISein IStubium witb un§ bie .\Jut1)et11ioel um i 0 bier Hel1er mad)en. '.p. ~. oR ret mall n. Religion and the Good Life. By William. Clayton Bower. The Abing- don Press. 231 pages, 5% X 8. Price, $2.00. The author is the head of the Department of Practical Theology in the Divinity School of the University of Chicago. He endeavors to show the fundamental relation between religion and the good life. "In our present thought . . . we are only at the stage of analysis. . .. The conclusive answer to our problem must wait upon the application of research, par- ticularly experimentation, to the specific problems involved." By that time the author and his readers may be dead and buried. Here is his definition of personality: "Personality is a more or less stable organization of physico-chemical elements, impulses, habits, atti- tudes, ideas, and purposes, undergoing continuous change." Page 22 we read: "It is the ethioal quality of personality that constitutes character." On pages 24 and 25 he mentions two sets of criteria by which the character of persons is judged: "One of these is the conventional moral standard 238 Book Review. - £iteratur. held by the group of which the person is a member. . .• The other set of criteria by which the quality of one's character is judged consists of the ethical standards which the person himself holds and by which he seeks to regulate his own conduct." Page 31: "Is there, then, one may ask, no absolute standard of right and wrong by which one may regulate his con- duct 1 To this inquiry current ethics gives a negative answer, as current thought in other realms does to similar inquiries concerning absolute truth or absolute law. Absolutes of every sort have been swept away by the dynamic currents of an evolving world and an evolving culture." Yet we know and are exceedingly grateful for the fact that the Word of the Lord endureth forever, 1 Pet. 1, 25; and that 2 Tim. 3, 15-17 will remain true until the end of time. THEO. LAETSCH. The Open. Bible. A Gift of the Reforma,tion. (Tract 125.) By William Dallmann, D. D. Concordia Publishing House, St. Louis, Mo. 9 pages. Price, 5 cts.; 30 cta. per dozen; $2:.00 per hundred. The Pew Views the Pulpit. By Ewald Sc1vuettner. (Tract 124.) Concordia Publishing House, St. Louis, Mo. 15 pages. Price, 5 cts.; 42, cts. per dozen; $3.00 per hundred. Two tracts issued by our Publishing House for mass distribution. The first is a reprint of articles which appeared in the Lutheran Witnessj the second, an essay read at the 1934 meeting of the Western District by a mem- ber of a St. Louis congregation. Both should be spread widely. In brief, terse paragraphs Dr. Dallmann shows that God indeed opened the Bible to Christians in the Reformation, as before it had become a closed Book by the machinations of the Papacy; that therefore we should value it as a gift of God. - The essay shows in plain, simple language what the Chris- tian pew expects of the pulpit and what the pulpit must offer to the pew lest it become faithless and untrue to the purpose for which it has been established by the Lord. May God keep the occupants of our pews in that mind! Then we need not worry about the future of our Church. THEO. HOYER. The Motion-Picture Menace. By Prof. Theodore (haebner, D. D. Con- cordia, Publishing House. 28 pages, 3% X 5%. Price, 6 cts.; dozen, 60 cts.; 100, $4.00, and postage. We have here a reprint in pamphlet form of a series of articles pub- lished in the Lutheran Witness and now published for mass distribution. Congregations or societies should purchase and distribute this timely pamphlet among their own people and in public places, street·cars, etc. In the first chapter the author quotes a number of periodicals on the wickedness of the modern movie. In the second chapter he shows "What the Silver Screen Does to Our Children," while in the third he answers the question, "What should Be Our Attitude toward the Movies: 1. as Chris- tians, 2. as citizens 1" May God bless this little pamphlet! THEO. LAETSCH. Pro,cee