Every Scribe Trained for the Kingdom*

NORMAN J. KANSFIELD

Brothers and sisters in C hrist, you mu st already have some idea of.how new to me is thi s business of giving formal lectures . But I have preached some, so you will please forgive me if I make the transition from sermon to lecture a little slowly. For this , my first address, please a ll ow me to have a text. You may immediately presume that the text about whi ch I would like to have us think would be that famous verse from the book of Ecclesiastes : Of making many books there is no end , and much study is a weariness of the fl esh. For me, at least , it has a lot going fo r it. It is, aft er all , an O ld Testament text and it does, of course, speak of books. But thi s is the last week of the quarter here, and the ful l truth of that verse has become so existentially clear to everyone involved in the process of ministerial training that there would be little that I could say in addition to what a ll of the students already feel. So, wonder of wonders, I am going to go all the way to the New Testament for a text, and I invite you to think with me for a brief while about the fifty-second verse of the thirteenth chapter of the Gospel according to St. Matthew: Therefore, every scribe who has been trained for the kingdom of heaven is like a householder who produces from his storeroom things new and things old. In the beginning-well maybe not quite at the beginning, but near the beginning­ there was a scribe. At least, very early in Israel's national experi ence the office of the scribe arose, and to be a scribe in those days meant to be able to write. And to be able to write meant that one held a very special place in the power structure of the nation, for in those days very few persons had such treasured skill s . Because of this, the office of the scribe became inseparably associated with the wisdom and insight of the culture. T he scribe was the person instructed in law, knowledgeable of national a nd social interaction, skilled in documenting the hi story of his people, a nd wise in the }Vays of God and of man. Throughout the course of Israel's hi story, the scribe grew in prestige and honor, as is indicated by Sirach writing in the second century before C hrist. On the other hand he who devotes himself to the study of the law of the Most High will seek out the wisdom of all the a ncients, and will be concerned with prophecies; and will preserve the discourse of notabl e men and will penetrate the subtleties of parables;

*An address delivered by the Rev. Norman J. Kansfield, November 14 , 1974 , on the occasion of his installation as li brarian of Beardslee Library, Western Theological Seminary, Holland, Michigan.

3 he will seek out the hidden meaning of proverbs and be at home with th e obscurities of pa rables . He will serve among great men a nd appear before rulers; he will trave l through the la nds of fo reign nations, fo r he tests the good and evil among me n. He will set hi s heart to ri se earl y to seek the Lord who made him, and will make supplication before the Most High; and will ope n hi s mouth in prayer and ma ke suppli cati on fo r hi s sin s . If the great Lord is willing, he will be fill ed with th e spirit of understa nding; he will pour forth words of wi sdom and give thanks to th e Lord in prayer. He will direct hi s counsel and knowledge a ri ght , and meditate on hi s secrets. He will reveal in struction in hi s teaching, and will glory in the law of the Lord's covenant. Ma ny will praise hi s understa nding, and it will never be blotted out ; hi s memory will not di sappear, and hi s name wi ll liv e through a ll generations. Nations wi ll declare hi s wi sdom and the congregation will proclaim hi s praise; if he liv es long, he will leave a name greater than a thou sand , a nd if he goes to rest, it is enough fo r him (Ecclesiasti cus 1.11 ). It is, then, over against thi s background and function that Jesus begins to spe ll out for hi s di sciples what a C hristi an theologian should look like . Our text begins with dia 101110-meaning "Therefore" or "For this reason." S uch a tiny little phrase is of utmost importance beca use it always links what follows with that which has already been said , and makes what has been said the ca usal force of what is going to follow . It is a favorite little trick in Pauline literature, a nd Matthew uses it here to good advantage. What has already been said is recogni zed as the reason for, the cause of, that which C hri st is now about to say about the role which he is spelling out for hi s di sciples. In the present case , we have to look a ll the way back to 13: 11 if indeed we are going to come to a thorough understa nding of how our Lord was spelling out the mini stry of the C hristi an scribe: T o you, he said, it has been given to know the secrets of the Kingdom of heaven, but to them (that is, the people) it has not been give n. This is then followed by a long seri es of parables about the kingdom and con­ c ludes with C hrist's question as to wheth er the di sciples had understood a ll that he was saying in these parables . To be give n the privilege of knowing the secrets is what it means to be discipled- to be trained , to be educated- for the kingdom of heave n. And our Lord would have us recogni ze that we are so to work at under­ standing that we finally , by the grace of God and the inspiration of the H oly Spirit, begin to surpass the wi sdom of the scribes trained for the reli gion of the kingdom of Israel. C hrist 's kingdom is set o·ver against that kingdom as hi s scribes will be set

4 over against those scribes. T he scribe prepared fo r the kingdom of heaven is not ti ed to things old- that was, after all , a preoccupation of the scribes in the time of C hri st. O ne of the things which most bothered them about him was that he was constantly saying new things about God and they wondered where he had found hi s authority. What was hi s doc ume ntation ? From what source did he obtain this kind of in­ formation? But the scribes who will fo ll ow him , these scribes will not be so preoccupied with th ings old but will also be able to bring to a ll whom they meet things new: fresh , clear understandings of God. How dare we, he would ask us, how dare we be li eve in a God so sma ll that we could begin to suspect, as the Jewish scribes tended to think, that everything about him had already been di scovered? Or that hi s word, hi s o wn self-revelation, had been perfectly perceived? How dare we commit ourselves to a God who would confine him self to what was already understood ? C hrist says that every scribe trained for the kingdom is one who pledges himself from the very outset to develop the new. You and I are charged with the responsibility of seeing theology as a research science. We are expected , as we go about the process of continuously learning theology , to expand the borders of what is already known of God in C hrist. Our task here , at Western Seminary , is so to prepare persons to work with the gospel of our Lord Jesus C hrist that , as they live out their liv es in the fabric of C hrist's parishes across this nation and around the world, they wil l bring to each day and each ne w situation a fresh word about God , a clearer understanding of hi s kingdom, and a mi ghti er conviction of hi s power to handle a ny event that comes their way. C hri st would have us understand that our determination to develop the new ought to occur only in relationship with the old. Part of the communion of the saints links us with saints who are now dead but who spoke in their time and in their place with the vital freshness which we now seek for our time and our place. T hat, dear friends, is the major function of a library. L ib rari es are those treasure stores of the best that previous ages and the elder statesmen of our craft have left to us. O ur library here, while it is not among the largest in theological schools, is , I a m pleased to say (and I fee l I can say this since I have had so little so far to do with it) a superbly chosen lib rary. It makes available for us here, as we go about our search for a new understanding of God, the broadest of resources, from a nc ient authors-saints who walked with C hrist-down to the present , to men who are helping us today to under­ stand our God and our calling before him. C hrist would have us promise to develop the new only in such a wa y that it can always be turned into action-that it always eve ntuates in practice. When you and I, brothers and sisters in C hrist, find our new word creating conflict between ourselves and some person who cannot or will not understand that new word the way we understand it , then we are to take our new word and continue to wrestle with it until that word can genuinely minister to that person with whom we find ourselv es in con­ fli ct or that new word has no vi ability for us. T he image of the householder and hi s storehou se is inte nded to show us that we bring forth things new or things old not simply to show them off but to use them for the welfare of those we are called to serve.

5 I would li ke to tell you a story because it puts some issues in stark reli ef a nd shows some facets of our view of the mini stry which we might otherwise overlook. T hi s event stands as the culmination ofa process that had been slowly evolving since the Reformati on, so, natura ll y, I have to make a long story out of it . During the Reformation, because Renaissance humanism had given such hi gh priorit y to careful and classical study and because it was demanded by the develop­ me nt ofa theology for the churc h being reformed, the use of books by the theologian/ pastor became a way of life. As Pierce Bu tl er, in hi s INTRODUCTION TO LI BRA RY SC IEN CE, said: When the Reformation substituted truth for authority as the standard of orthodoxy the piety of the ecclesiasti c was still measured by hi s assiduity in reading. But thi s was of a new sort: where hi s predecessor had been required to devote long daily hours to the perusal ofa calendared breviary, the Protestant minister was duty-bound to a li felong self- directed explor­ ation of serious literature. His work-room became a book-Ii nee! study in stead of a sacri sty. 1 As the li fe and death issues of the Reformation were slowly settled; as the Protestant tradition gained political and social acceptance; and perhaps especiall y as major positions were hammered out by powerful ecclesiastical assembli es such as A ugsburg, Dorclt , a nd Westminster, the need for each pastor to search out theological truth for himself seemed less imperative. As that happened, each pastor's need for books decreased sharply. He could go to a standa rd work and know that he was getting good orthodox stuff. But this process recreated the same kind of closed theological system against which the Reformers had originall y ri sen up. The church reformed stopped reforming. T he authority of Augsburg or Westminster or Dordt took the place of the authority of Rome. T hi s led, as it always does, to reflective, intro­ spective theology. C orrect as these assemblies were, by the very process of their settling old, rankling theological arguments they reduced the need for each pastor to carry on hi s own research in to the self- revelation of God. When good, sha rp theologi­ cal minds are not engaged in theological research they are a ltogether too quickly e ngaged in theological nit-picking. T hat, in turn, often produces argument a nd schism and a kind of personal coldness that you and I have learned to caricature with the word "Dominie. " It was this condition which gave ri se to the concerns of men like George White­ field and the Wesleys a nd which produced the Great Awakening here in the United States and the revival of the spirit of revival throughout the western C hri stian world. In the theological correctness, the cold, accurate correctness of th e late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries, men cried out for spirit-for heart, for warmth, for concern-and theological accuracy, for a while, was forced to take a back seat. In the minds of the men who led this religious revolt, the pastor was not so much a teacher of an orthodox religion as he was a masterful mover of men: the person who could persuade men and women that they needed the salvation that Chri st had always offered. Books and learning fai led to play much a role in thi s process. In part this was true because books and bookishness were somehow ide ntified with that older

6 " domini e" im age. And in part it was true simply because there was so littl e time fo r books when a ll the world stood on the brink of Hell -so little time to do more theological research before one hit the streets with the gospel already unde rstood. T hat old image of Whitefield and Wesley on horseback with a book may have to be reevalu ated. It may be not so much a sign or measure of their dedication to study as it is a wit ness to the amount of time that they were reall y wilhng to put into theological research. It was these two traditions that clashed head-o n- the dominie on the one side a nd the evangeli st on the other- in the story that I am fin a ll y getting a round to telling you. In 1841 the General Synod of the Reformed Protesta nt Dutch C hurc h met in the city of A lbany, New York. At that session the delegates were confronted for the first time in the hi story of our denominatior. by radical stude nt activism. Led by seniors James A. H. Cornell (a name that is not unfami li ar to us here) and Samue l M. Wood­ bridge, at least 27 out of the 30 students in the Middle a nd Senior classes of New Brunswick T heological Seminary had signed a letter of complaint directed through the Board of Supe rintendents to the General Synod. The object of the students' concern was Professor Philip Mill edoler- well , more specificall y, the method of instruction used by the Reverend Professor. Mi ll e­ doler held the chair of what we would now call Systematic T heology, but hi s method of teaching bore no relationship to anyt hing common in that field today. Rat her, it reflected the classical methods of Europe in the seventee nth century. He lectured each class session , working hi s way through the textbook-Christianae Theo/ogia e Medulla (The Marrow of C hri stia n T heology), a Latin outline of Reformed theology by Johannis Marckius (John Marek) , first issued in Leyden in 1695 . Stude nt s were not permitted to interrupt the lecture with questi ons. A ny question which arose in th e course of each day's lecture had to be written out, ha nded in , and would then be dealt with at the begin.ning of the next class session. Students were expected to memorize the entire text (322 pages in the P hiladelphia editi on of 1825) a nd a nswer any question which Professor Milledoler put to them " in the la nguage of the a uthor. " T hi s meant not only that students were to write out those answers in Lati n, but to c hoose the very words that the a uthor had used to put across hi s point. Milledoler was committed to a n authoritaria n handing-over of knowledge. He saw hi s function in training pastors as best fulfilled when he transferred to each of them the theology of the Fathers so that they in turn could dispense this receiv ed truth to their congregations. It is not difficult to imagine how suc h a course would have irritated a n active mind. As a matter of fact, we have in o ur lib ra ry , James A . H. C ornell's copy ofMarck's M edulla and written across the top of two pages (one about a third of the way through the book a nd the other near the book's conclu si on) is the phrase: " Many a re the afflictions. Many are the afflictions." T hat must have been hi s total reaction to the process. As the furor of the situation increased, Milledoler described hi s convi ctions thi s way: If the recitations from the text book had been simply accompanied, as they (that is the student s) represent, with isolated notes and remarks

7 drawn chi efl y from other sources, what difference would that make to th e young men-truth is truth whether it be old or what is call ed new; a nd I honestly confess that I see very little in modern works passing for origin al that may not be found better expressed and with more uncti on in older works. 2 In such concern we ought not to think that Mill edoler was alone. For thi rty years later no less a th eologian than C harl es Hodge could express alm ost the same senti­ me nts in hi s remarks at the celebration of the Semi-Centennial of hi s inauguration as Professor of Theology at Princeton when he said : Again , Dr. Alexand er and Miller were not specul ativ e men. T hey were not giv en to new methods or new theories. They were content with the fa ith once delivered to the saints. I am not afraid to say that a new idea never origin ated in this seminary. 3 When one reads Mi lledole r's journal, one is struck with hi s alm ost paranoid con­ cern that all of the world was out to get not only him a nd his office, but was now deter­ mined to do away with the faith of the fathers as well. He saw the ministry as an office, that of protector a nd purveyor of true doctrine, and he was sure that the semin ary st ude nt s were betraying that office. As one li stens to th e students one is struck with their im patience. T hey had no concern for a ma n whose career they were virtually destroying; a man who had served the church for more than forty years. They were insiste nt upon relevancy. Again a nd aga in they ask how the data from Marck's Medulla could ever be applied to the national and church situations a nd frustrations of their day. Here were men deepl y and piously moved by the ex peri ence of revival whi ch had swept Rutgers Coll ege in 1837- 1838. Impressed with the mi ssion needs of the church, these stu­ dents wanted new a nswers which only greater academic freedom could offer. To them, in the pressing need of their present moment, there was no time to waste on dry Latin answers to qu estions no one any longer asked. T hey saw the ministry as a function , the force to move men to C hrist, and they saw Professor Mi ll edoler and hi s educa­ tional method as frustrating that function. T he Synod heard the complaint of the students and granted the point that memorizing a Latin textbook was probably not the best method of instruction. The stude nt s went on from thi s experience to become good-in a couple of in stances, outstanding-churchmen. James A . H . Cornell in hi s lifetime rai sed more than $600,000 for New Brunswick Seminary and has the chair of Historical Theology in this school named in hi s honor. Woodbridge and Knox, two other students intimately invo lv ed in this whole scheme, later became faculty members themselv es at Ne w Brunswick. Cornelius Elting C ri spell , another participant, became the first Professor of Theology here. And Gardner Jones-the student who complained most about th e Latin-Gardner Jones moved to Indiana and quietly became a Roman Catholic (so he could do everything in Latin). Three other students became teachers in academies and the rest faithfu l parish pastors. And Professor Milledoler? Well , the man was so shattered to think that the General Synod would give sanction to so great a threat-would li sten to student s and then in struct their professor in the methods to be used in theological education-that

8 "on principle" he resigned his office and retired to N e w York C ity where ele ve n years later he qu ietly passed from the incongruities of th is life into the certainties of that beyond. In thi s interaction between these theological students and their professor we can see quite c learly that there are two temptations wit h wh ich C hristian scholarship is always faced. In good old Professor M illedoler we can see the be li ef that any today is so continuous with all past time that no new answers are necessary. A ll that is needed is correctly to apply that which "The Fathers" developed in answer to the questions of their day. T he present day has nothing new to offer and from it we need fear nothing new. F rom this position it is an easy step to begin to believe that si nce no new answers are necessary none is permissible. In the activities of the students, from our present vantage, we can recognize the belief that the present time is so different , so radicall y separated from a ll past time and from any previous experience of manki nd, that the church is always call ed to answer each day's problems de novo-from scratch. T he past and its answers can have no relevance for the present. It is to keep us fro m either of these extremes-to help us to be able always to hold within ourselves t he old a nd the new so that as scribes of the Ki ngdom we may always be able to bring forth fro m our treasure things new and things old -that our theological library stands wi thi n thi s school. For whil e it is true that students are no longer expected to memorize Latin texts, it is not true t hat we have become a ny more adept or successful at resolving issues wit hin t he church than we re the participa nt s of the Battle of Albany, 184 1. O ne has onl y to su rvey our recent deno minati onal history in order to unearth more confro ntations than we care to admit. T ime after time we have thrown up the ecclesiastical barricades and fo ught each other a ll of the way to General Synod-usuall y to have the case there adjudicated in such a fas hi on that one side went home rejoicing in their vindication whil e the other side sat weeping in the ashes of their defeat. T he proposed merger with the Presbyte ri a n C hurc h in the United States was certainly such an issue. T he ordinati on of wome n gives every indicati on of being determined in this fas hio n. We will need a ll of the mercy a graciou s God can offer if we a ll ow ourselves to deal with the ari sing C ha ri smati c/Pentecostal influence by this ecclesiasti cal method. We, then, continue to respond in the fas hi on of 184 1. We have learned to handl e neithe r our heritage nor our freedom. We have not yet become scribes capabl e of bringing fo rth fro m our store-our single store, our pe rsonal self-things new and things old . A rchibald MacLeish has said : T he existence of a library is an assertion-a proposition nail ed like L uther's to the door of time . It asserts that the reason why the " things" compose a mystery is that they seem to mean: that they fa ll , when gathered together, into a kind of relationship, a kind of whole ness, as though a ll these different and di ssimilar reports, these bits a nd pi eces of experi e nce, manu scripts in bottles, messages from long before , from deep within, from mil es beyond, belonged together and mi ght, if understood together, spell out the meaning whic h the mystery implies.4

9 The li brary then, is the place where it is most permissible for scribes, trained for the kingdom of heaven, so to explore the word of God a nd the experie nce of hi s people th at the old and the new can begin to be put into use together, beginning with the O ld a nd New Testaments-a lesson that all too many of us have difficulty learn­ ing. So things fami li ar a nd things forgotten, things li beral and things conservative, things pious and experi e ntia l, and things scholarly and criti cal can all be he ld together and used together and fas hi oned increasingly into the fab ri c of God's tomorrow. We cannot hope to mini ster to anyone older than we until we have learned to listen to C harl es Hodge a nd Jonathan Edwards and John Calvin and St. Augustine­ not just know about them but genuinely to li sten to them. We cannot hope to minister to anyone differe nt from ourselves until we have heard with benefit Paul T ill ich and Julius Wellhausen and Desideriu s Erasmu s and St. Jerome. When we have learned to hold in our own C hristian person God's old blessings to the fa ithful and God's new call today, then the promise of Leviticus 26 wi ll come true for us. God's grace will be ours through those to whom we li sten in such abundance that we need never fear running out of things ne w- new in sights into God, new a pproaches to each day's problems, GRACE UPON GRACE. O ur C hristian experi e nce will be so rich that we will still have some of our old treasure left when God overwhelms us with a new bounty to explored.

FOOTNOTES

' Pierce Butler, Introduction to Library Science (C hicago: University of Chicago Press, 1964) , p. 80. 2 Philip Milledoler, " Journal, 184 1" (manu script in the archives of the New York Hi storical Society Library), p. xiii . 3 Charles Hodge, " Jubilee Address" qu oted in A. A. Hodge, Th e Life of Charles Hodge, D.D., LL.D., Prof essor in th e Th eological Seminary, Princeton, N . J . (New York: C. Scribner's Sons, 1880), p. 52 1. 4 Archibald Mac Leish, " The Premi se of Meaning," Wils on Library Bulletin, 47 , no . 5 (Janu ary, 1973), p. 425.

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