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EVANGELICAL REVIEW of THEOLOGY Are Reprinted with Permission from the Following Journals: ‘The Bible in the WCC’, Calvin Theological Journal, Vol

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EVANGELICAL REVIEW of THEOLOGY Are Reprinted with Permission from the Following Journals: ‘The Bible in the WCC’, Calvin Theological Journal, Vol EVANGELICAL REVIEW OF THEOLOGY VOLUME 2 Volume 2 • Number 2 • October 1978 p. 160a Acknowledgements The articles in this issue of the EVANGELICAL REVIEW OF THEOLOGY are reprinted with permission from the following journals: ‘The Bible in the WCC’, Calvin Theological Journal, Vol. 12, No. 2. ‘Controversy at Culture Gap’, Eternity, Vol. 27, No. 5. ‘East African Revival’, Churchman, Vol. 1, 1978. ‘Survey of Recent Literature on Islam’, International Review of Mission, LXVII, No. 265. ‘Who are the Poor’ and ‘Responses’, Theological Forum of the Reformed Ecumenical Synod, No. 1, Feb. 1978. ‘The Great Commission of Matthew 28: 18–20’, Reformed Theological Review, Vol. 35, No. 3. ‘A Glimpse of Christian Community Life in China’, Tenth, Jan. 1977. ‘TEE: Service or Subversion?’, Extension Seminary Quarterly Bulletin, No. 4. ‘TEE in Zaire: Mission or Movement?’, Ministerial Formation, No. 2. ‘Theology for the People’ and ‘Para-Education: Isolation or Integration?’ are printed with the permission of the authors. p. 161 Editorial For an increasing number of Christians the message of the Bible is no longer self-evident. The cultural gap between the ancient world and our secular technological world continues to grow. From the standpoint of a Christian caught in poverty, social injustice and political oppression, commentaries on the Bible written by scholars living in an academic atmosphere of middle and upper class society often seem flat and barely relevant. They fail to deal with what Hans-Georg Gadamer calls the central problem of hermeneutics, the problem of application. While we have good reasons to seriously question the new hermeneutic of Bultmann and his successors in their use of the dialectical method and the existentialism that rejects the concept of propositional revelation, the new hermeneutic does seek to uncover the hidden and unexamined presuppositions with which all of us come to the Scriptures. Reflection on our pre-understandings can be a purifying and creative activity for those within the circle of faith of the believing community and in a humble dependence upon the Holy Spirit. This number of the Evangelical Review of Theology calls our attention to several issues for which sound hermeneutical methods are needed: the authority of the Bible in the midst of the contemporary ecumenical debate, the exegesis of key passages of Scripture using the hermencutical principle of distancing and fusing of our horizons and the analysis of the spiritual resources of African and Asian churches living under social and political pressure. The awareness of the culture gap and the conditioning influences on our pro-understanding of the Gospel is reflected in the articles that deal with poverty, the relationship of evangelism to the needs of the total human community and in our understanding of the task of training Christians. Comments of readers from the first two issues of ERT have been very encouraging. We trust you find this third issue equally challenging. But we need your help in suggesting articles and reviews, especially those originating from Asia, Africa and Latin America. Bruce J. Nicholls General Editor The Bible in the World Council of Churches by PAUL G. SCHROTENBOER FEW TOPICs have greater importance for the World Council of Churches than the use of the Bible in its deliberations and pronouncements. And few topics have generated more discussion during the thirty years of the Council’s history. Both from within the Council and from without there has been criticism and praise of its views on and its use, misuse, or lack of use of the Bible. 2 Several papers have been written of recent time on how the World Council of Churches uses and views the Bible, both from ecumenical insiders, such as James Barr,1 Hans Ruedi Weber,2 and Ellen Flesseman van Leer,3 as well as from evangelicals critical of the Council, such as Roger Beckwith4 and Michael Sadgrove.5 Little, to our knowledge, has been written on this subject in North America, and nothing, as yet, after the Fifth Assembly of the WCC in Nairobi. It is hoped that this paper will attract wider attention to what is a crucial issue, not just for the WCC, the most comprehensive ecumenical organization in the world of churches today, but for all other ecumenical organizations as well. We may expect that in the next years the WCC will continue its study of the Bible in its own programs and in its churches, p. 163 especially in its portfolio on Biblical Studies. Until now this study has been done with little or no input from evangelicals, except those who are members of churches which belong to the Council. Only recently6 has there been any conversation between the WCC and evangelicals on the use of the Bible. It would be presumptuous to think that this paper will make a great contribution to a dialogue between evangelical associations of Christians and the WCC. Nevertheless there is real need for such dialogue and we do cherish the more modest hope that in giving attention now to this subject we will spurt evangelicals to speak out in the ecumenical forum. I. THE MARCHING ORDERS The Bible has had a significant place in the World Council of Churches since it was established in 1948. Although the words, ‘according to the Scriptures’ were not added to the Basis until 1961, the intention of the founding churches was not to neglect the Bible, but to find in it the foundation for the ecumenical movement. The original basis of the WCC was, largely for convenience sake and to avoid controversy, simply taken over verbatim from the Faith and Order movement which joined with the Life and Works movement to form the WCC. It was thought best in those early days of uncertainty, as David P. Gaines expressed it, to ‘leave well enough alone’, and not propose a new untried basis.7 It was at New Delhi (1961) that the then General Secretary, Dr. William Visser ’t Hooft, made the claim that the Bible is the voice that gives the WCC its marching orders. In accordance therewith, the New Delhi documents speak repeatedly of the ‘Biblical understanding’ of such subjects as reconciliation and service. As Dr. Flesseman van Leer has stated, ‘People spoke without hesitation about the Biblical message and the concept 1 ‘The Authority of the Bible—A Study Outline’, The Ecumenical Review, 21 (1969), pp. 135–49. 2 ‘The Bible in Today’s Ecumenical Movement’, The Ecumenical Review, 23 (1971), pp. 335–46. 3 ‘Biblical Interpretation in the World Council of Churches’, Study Encounter, Vol. VIII, No. 2 (1972). 4 ‘The Use of the Bible in the World Council of Churches’, The Churchman: A Quarterly Journal of Anglican Theology, 89 (1975), pp. 213–24. 5 ‘The Bible from New Delhi to Nairobi’. Mimeograph. 6 In 1971 a consultation between the World Council of Churches and the Reformed Ecumenical Synod in the Hague, the Netherlands, touched on the issue of the Bible. In September, 1976, there was a three-day meeting in Montreux, Switzerland, arranged by the World Council and endorsed by the World Evangelical Fellowship on the use of the Bible in Salvation Today. The author attended both events. 7 The Worm Council of Churches (Peterborough, New Hampshire: Richard R. Smith Co., 1964), p. 882. 3 p. 164 of the Bible’.8 It was at New Delhi that the Basis was expanded to include the trinitarian reference and the words ‘according to the Scriptures’. In Louvain, a mere ten years later, the Faith and Order report on ‘The Authority of the Bible’ flatly stated ‘we are not to regard the Bible primarily as a standard to which we must conform in all the questions arising in our life’.9 While this does not indicate an about face altogether, obviously deep changes occurred in ten years’ time. It will be necessary to trace the course of events that brought about this basic change. How the WCC in its early years looked at the Bible may be construed from a statement by Dr. John A. Mackay at the Second Assembly at Evanston, 1954, namely, that the theology of the report on the theme, ‘Christ the Hope of the World’, should be ‘Biblically founded’ and ‘ecumenically unifying’.10 This was undoubtedly the hope of many leaders of the ecumenical movement in that era. However, the question soon loomed large whether these two criteria could be met, and, if they should prove to be in conflict, which one would give way to the other. After the Evanston Assembly a survey was taken which showed that ‘the divided church heard only dimly the Word of God through the Bible’.11 The Bible conveyed to equally devout and conscientious students different meanings. There were literalists, neo- orthodox, and theological liberals. Later (in 1961) the Orthodox churches with their inflexible views on the teaching of the early Church joined the Council.12 Thus both among the common members as well as among theologians and churches there appeared deep- going divergences on the meaning of the Bible. Rather than bringing people and churches together, the Bible seemed to be driving a wedge between them. p. 165 The result was an increasing uncertainty as to the authority and meaning of the Bible, especially when the churches attempted to apply the Bible to the problems of modern life. Here, especially in the application of Biblical ideas, a modern life crisis developed. The crisis was best expressed in the Louvain report: The automatic acceptance of the Bible as basis and standard has in many places been severely shaken of late. Many Christians find the Bible alien to them and to their daily life; they find it increasingly difficult to hear God addressing them directly in the words of the Bible.
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