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10-1975

The Cresset (Vol. XXXVIII, No. 10)

Valparaiso University

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This Full Issue is brought to you for free and open access by ValpoScholar. It has been accepted for inclusion in The Cresset (archived issues) by an authorized administrator of ValpoScholar. For more information, please contact a ValpoScholar staff member at [email protected]. OCTOBER 1975

A REVIEWOF LITERATURE. THE ARTS. AND PUBLIC AFFAIRS

THE CRESSET

O. p. KRETZMANN, MAY 7,1901 -SEPTEMBER 14,1975

''All the trumpets sounded for him on the other side" THE CRESSET October, 1975 Vol.mVIII,No.10

3 IN LUCE TUA A. G. Huegli SEPTEMBER SOUND OF TRUMPETS John Strietelmeier IN MEMORIAM India; New York City 8 JamesA.Nuechteriein THE IDEA OF A LUTHERAN UNIVERSITY 13 Stuart Silverman EIGHT POEMS IN THIS ORDER 14 LutherEngelbrecht THE STRUGGLE FOR BALANCE 16 WalterE. Keller "WHO DO YOU SAY THAT I AM?" 18 Edgar C. Reinke QUINTILIAN LIGHTED THE WAY 23 J. T. Ledbelier BRITE SPOT CAFE 24 JillBaumgaertner IF DREAMS WERE WORDS ... 26 A.J.Hovde ASSURED LONGEVITY 27 Walter Sorell TO BE MAN AND TO BE OF ONE'S TIME 29 BOOKS 36 0. P. Krefzmann SEHNSUCHT

ALBERT G. HUEGLI, Publisher KENNETH F. KORBY, Editor ARVID F. SPONBERG, Acting Editor /

Departmental Editors Richard H.W. Brauer, Visual Arts; Design Advisor Richard H. Luecke, The City \ Theodore Jungkuntz, Reh"^jou5 Books Reviews Joseph F. McCall, Recordings Jill Baumgaertner, Poetry Consultant Dorothy Czamanske, EditoriaIAssistant

Contributors Walter Sorell, Theater Albert Trost, Politics James A. Nuechterlein, Politics

Editorial Board Jack A. Hiller, Walter E. Keller, Carl H. Krekeler, Dale G. Lasky, Dolores Ruosch, John Strietelmeier, Sue Wienhorst

Business Managers Wilbur H. Hutchins, finance Ruth Pullmann, Circulation

IHt CRESSEl is published monthlv except julv and August by the Valparaiso University Press, Valparaiso. Indiana 46.t8J, as a forum tor scholarly wrilinK and informed opinion The views expressed herein are those oi the writers and do not rtr?- cessarily reflect the preponderance of opinion of Valparaiso University or within the editorial board Manuscripts should be addressed to the Editor and accompanied by return postage. Letters to the editor for publication are subject to editing for Above: Dr, O. P. Kretzmann as he led worship at the altar of the Chapel of the brevity Second ( lass postage paid at Valparaiso, Indiana Sub Resurrection at Valparaiso University. This issue of The Cresset appears during scription rates: one year - S3 00; two years - 55 SO; single the celebration of Valparaiso's fiftieth anniversary as a Lutheran university. copy — 35 cents Student rates, per year — 51 00, single copy —15 cents. Entire contents copyrighted 1975 by the Valparaiso Under Dr. Kretzmann's leadership, the university and The Cresset devoted them University Press, without whose written permission reproduc selves to the advancement of learning under the Cross. This issue pauses in trib tion in whole or in pan for anv purpose whatsoever is expressly ute to Dr, Kretzmann and then resumes the work which he began in its pages forbidden thirty-eight years ago. IN LUCE TUA

September Sound of Trumpets

He heard the sound of trumpets in one of his favorite months. For Dr. O. P. Kretzmann they played a September song. Falling leaves and melancholy fall reminded him of man's mortality. "Once more," he said, "we see the great paradox of life and time.. . . We die to sin to live to God.. .. Surely this is always and forever true: If we have not learned to die, we have not learned to live... It was appropriate, then, that on Holy Cross Day in September 1975 the founding editor of The Cresset and President Emeritus of Valparaiso Uni versity discovered for himself how his autumn contemplation of death was at last succeeded by immortal life. As the readers of The Cresset know, this man whom everyone called "O. P." with respect and affection, lived fully and vigorously. His three-fourths of a century spanned one of the most interesting and troubled periods of human history. In his writings and addresses he had the remarkable knack of taking all of life's complexities and boiling them down to the essentials. Part mystic, part prophet, part average man writ large, O. P. expressed the inchoate feel ings of the human heart. He brought together in poetic language the fears of men, their secret yearnings, and their unvoiced hopes. Dr. Kretzmann was, in the best sense of the word, a visionary. He held his convictions about God, the world, and man's place in the scheme of things. But he could visualize better than most what men and women might achieve. He set out for them the ideal and helped them exceed themselves in trying to achieve it. He was not simply a dreamer. The details of administration may have bored him. Yet he was able to persuade, cajole, and sometimes browbeat his co-workers into moving forward to a goal. As President of Valparaiso University, he launched a thousand ventures, not all of which succeeded. He had courage and a readiness to risk. His batting average for success was remarkably good, considering what few resources he had to work with. His restless spirit was never satisfied. Having pushed his colleagues up one hill, he hardly let them enjoy the view before prodding them toward mountains still to climb.

October, 1975 In his service to the Church, he left his mark on Lutheran ministerial educa tion and on theological thinking. Several generations of clergymen will re member him especially for his wise and witty publication called Campus Com mentary. And they did not hesitate to borrow heavily from his books and col umns, thus extending his influence far and wide. Dr. Kretzmann's broad range of interests brought him many contacts in high and low places of society. He could walk with kings and not lose the common touch. His sense of humor, his unpredictable and sometimes outrageous be havior, and his small-boy grin endeared him to almost any company. The legends about him are legion. People sympathized with his failings and short comings becauseof their own, and still they sensed in him a man committed to higher callings which he persuaded them to make a part of their lives also. If on occasionthey could not quite understand what he wassaying, they never theless felt lifted up because he had said it, and they felt more capable of being better than they were. In his later years. Dr. Kretzmann's facial features resembled those of Win ston Churchill. They were alike in other ways, too. Both had the gift of lan guage, commitment to a purpose, and stubbornness of will. Both also had the capability of inspiring others to great endeavors. In both men there was a som ber sense of the movement of time into history. O. P.'s brooding thoughts about September have a significance we should not miss. "Slowly but surely," he wrote, "we move from the hollow in which the leaf rests and the graves of the great to the high altitudes of faith." He was not an optimist who ignored the realities of sin, death, and the defeats of life. Neither washe a pessimist who had no expectations of the future. He saw him self and others as Christian pilgrims headed for eternity. "It is the essence of the pilgrim's life," he said, "to begin by looking toward the end." For all our labors, trials, and woes, we can by grace achieve the heavenly Kingdom. "The miracle is," he added, "that a human soul in face of death, loaded down with guilt which it can never make good, finds rest and immortality in an Eternal High Priest who loved the dying world even unto death." In this issue of The Cresset is reprinted the 1956 September column by Dr. Kretzmann. Over twenty years ago in another such column, he summed up his pilgrim thoughts for all of us who are still walking along the way: "And so I am content to move toward Him as He waits at the end of the years.. .. The trumpets are still there, and their sound is as kind as ever " Mayweeverhear themasperceptivelyas O. P. did! I|

A.G.HUEGLI, President

IN MEMORIAM

The Reverend Dr. Otto Paul Kretzmann, one of the founders of The Cresset and its editor from 1937 to 1968, died in the Lord on Sunday, September 14, 1975, at hishomein Valparaiso, Indiana, in hisseventy-fifth year. For many years. Dr. Kretzmann wrote "The Pilgrim" for us. His many read ers will remember him as a strange mixture of German Lutheran piety and big-town sophistication; of profound earnestness and playful humor; of other- worldliness and this-worldliness. We whowereprivileged to workclosely with

The Cresset him through the years of his greatness will always remember him as a figure bigger than life —restless, demanding, at times a Boanerges, more often the gentlest of all pastors. He loved greatly and was greatly loved. And he was the loneliest man I have ever known. Lonely because to him had been given a vision which even his eloquence could never wholly capture in words and which, even to the extent that it could be verbalized, seemed never to achieve any widespread acceptance. His vision was of the Church —the one, holy, catholic, and apostolic Church, the beloved community— cleansed and reunified and working in the world for the healing of the nations. And within that larger vision was the more focused vision of the' Christian University, the proud and devoted daughter of the Church, com mitted like her Mother to a ministry of reconciliation. He spoke often of that University, most often in terms of its concern for the relevance of the Chris tian faith to the temporal concerns of men. It was, to him, the place where the road from Athens and the road from Jerusalem converged, where high learn ing and high religion combined to point a redeemed humanity the way to ful fillment in this life and in the life of the world to come.

It was easier to admire him than to follow him, for this man who looked like an archbishop and talked like a poet —who seemed to have everything that anyone could want in the way of earthly success and recognition —was tor mented all his life by a sense of failure. Here was the vision and there was the reality and here was he, suspended between the two, unable to bring them to gether. But he never quit trying, not even when his tongue lost the power to form his words and his legs would no longer hold him up to speak them. He had to die when he did. He had given all there was in him to give. The legacy which he left us refutes any suggestion of failure. Scores of us, in the Church and in the Academy, accept with pride the appellation of "O. P.'s boy," and we will not let his vision die. But just at this moment there is this overpowering sense of loss and perhaps it would help to re-read those lines from John Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress which O. P. loved so much and from which he chose the magnificent line which appeared for years under his col umn heading:

After this it was noised abroad that Mr. Valiant-for-truth was tak en with a Summons by the same Post as the other, and had this for a Token that the Summons was true. That his Pitcher was broken at the Fountain. When he understood it, he called for his Friends, and told them of it. Then said he, I am going to my Fathers, and tho' with great difficulty I am got hither, yet now I do not repent me of all the Trouble I have been at to arrive where I am. My Sword I give to him that shall succeed me in my Pilgrimage, and my Cour age and Skill to him that can get it. My Marks and Scars I carry with me, to be a witness for me that I have fought his Battles who now will be my Rewarder. When the day that he must go hence was come, many accompanied him to the Riverside, into which as he went he said, Death, where is thy Stijig? And as he went down deeper he said, Grave, where is thy Victory? So he passed over, and all the Trumpets sounded for him on the other side.

JOHN STRIETELMEIER

October, 1975 produce, when government overpopulation, poverty, disease, offices are not allowed to func and illiteracy. How much incentive tion, when studentsare advised will exist, in one or five years, to to boycott schools, when duly retimi to democracy? Very little. elected legislators are called Because, as the man said, bread upon to resign, when open comes before liberty. And how many statements are made that the will trade certain bread for uncer India prime minister will not be tain freedom? 'recognized' and the Parlia Suppose, on the other hand, that The affairs of India confuse casual ment will not be allowed to the emergency does not work. After observers and perplex experts. This function, in spite of the clear a year, the trains run late again. Autimm, however, one fact seems verdict of the highest court Prices rise and black marketeers clear. As Luther Engelbrecht points of the land that I am legally creep from their biurows. The bu out in this issue, the religions, lan entitled to function as prime reaucracy balloons. Money slides in guages, castes and cultiu-es, the in minister, and when, finally, to pockets so that files move along creasing population, starvation, a call isgiven by a combination and law officers make themselves inflation, illiteracy, poverty and of five parties for countrywide scarce. Starvation, poverty, disease disease have given democracy there civil disobedience, and, over and illiteracy roll on like the Ganges a doubtful foothold. By June 26, and above all, the armed forces andthe populationsurges andswells. 1975, Indira Gandhi's doubts drove are publicly asked to disobey How much incentive will exist then her to imprison 10,000 political orders—is not the situation to retimi to democracy? Very little. opponents and to censor the news grave? [Emphasis added.] There will be strong sentiment, media. Now we read that efficient though, in favor of a new leader. trains, chastened bimeaucrats, ar Mrs. Gandhi does not say that Instead of resigning, as she could rested crooks and lower prices have these actions took place. She says have done in June, Mrs. Gandhi made it easy for Indian citizens to only that they were urged. Any resi may be removed like Salvador Al- accept the "state of emergency." dent of a western democracy will lende. As one Indian newspaperman (who find in these words descriptions of Resignation might have been a asked not to be named) told report ordinary political tactics. Yet Mrs. good thing. One of India's problems ers: "In this country the priorities Gandhi finds this situation grave may be Indira, who has reigned for are bread first and liberty second." and her solution for it is "disci ten years. No democracy should Of course, some ask "Who has pline."She uses this word repeatedly keep leaders in office for more than lost their freedom?" A few thousand in interviews but she has never de five or six years at a stretch. They politicians, comes the answer, a few fined it. Apparently she wants to lose touch with ordinary people— hundred newspaper editors. Democ instill in India the will to resist and with interesting extraordinary racy in India has never helped the "economic and administrative lax- people, too. Problems arrive on masses, only the privileged. The ness." Judging from her actions, to their desks in well-balanced phrases ordinary people of Calcutta, Patna, instill this spirit means to destroy on crisp paper in trim folders car Madras, or New Delhi have their the ability (if not the will) to re ried by well-balanced, crisp, trim say at the polls every few years, if sist her. Mrs. Gandhi has chosen assistants. The leader's syntax breaks they vote at all. After elections, life discipline inspired by fear. This down as "I" and "the country" be goeson as if there had been no party, choice represents a frightening come synonyms. Politicians should no parliament, no Indira Gandhi. gamble. be treated like carpets: if left in The serious problems endw*e. De She says that she will "not allow place too long, they get filthy. To mocracy solves nothing. Good economic progress to become a rea keep the dirt from spreading, they riddance. Let's try something else. son for perpetuatingtheemergency." must be beaten regularly. It is hard Mrs. Gandhi claims that she does Butsuppose that significant econom to clean house, though, if elections not share this attitude. But she is ic progress does result. Fear con have been suspended. bothered because serious problems centrates the faculties wonderfully. Mrs. Gandhi has gambled her persist and the people seem so un For a short time, people will bear country's future and when the wager disciplined. In a recent issue of all manner of burdens and perform is paid, what will India's people Saturday Review she described some prodigious feats under the threat of have? They will have the habit of of the conditions which caused her a lash. (To understand this, one has fear. For Mrs. Gandhi has said to to declare the state of emergency: only to recall experiences under a each citizen of India, "The situation drill sergeant, a football coach, or a is grave and therefore you may use When an organized attempt is foreign language teacher.) Suppose yoim mouth to eat but not to speak. made to exhort workers and that, during the emergency, India You may raise your hand to work farmers to withhold work and makes permanent inroads against but not to protest. You may use

The Cresset your mind to leam by rote but not tion and related industries. Some order to increase the amount of to think." In other words, if you companies will fold. Workers will money it could borrow. Moreover, want bread, money, and peace, be be laid off. in stating the amount of anticipated come a coward. If New York City defaults, pen revenue, it sometimes failed to ad What Alexander Bickel has said sioners, workers and suppliers may just for delinquent taxes it knew it of the system of checks and balances not be paid. New York City borrows neverwould collect. (New York City inoiu* government applies to democ money to pay its bills. Pensions has a lenient delinquent tax law. A racy in general: "[It] is not an ar amount to 90 million dollars per building owner may fall as much as rangement whose justification is month. The monthly payroll totals three years behind in his taxes be efficiency, logic, or clarity. Its justi 400-500 millions. TTie controller's fore the City can take legal action fication is that it accommodates pow office processes 2,000bills a day and against him. By then a crooked er to freedom." Those who grow im disburses 15 to 25 millions each landlord may have skipped to Swit patient because democratic coun week. New York City's light and zerland.) When actual revenues fell tries seem imdisciplined and fail to power costs 220 million a year. De below "expected" revenues. New solve social problems efficiently fault might affect Consolidated York City went across the street, miss the point of democracy. Edison's ability to borrow money, so to speak, and took out a second Throwing people in jail without even if its bill receives top priority. loan to pay off the first. trial and prohibiting the free flow Earlier this year, it pulled back an of ideas will not advance one milli 80 million dollar bond issue at least Another procedure requires care meter India's struggle against over in part because of the New York City ful timing of entries in the City's population, starvation, poverty, crisis. ledgers to create the impression of a disease and illiteracy. That struggle If New York City defaults, it will full treasiuy. According to a recent requires temperance, justice, know- lay off workers. The workers will issue of the Wall Street Journal: edge and faith. These are impos seek unemployment compensation "Revenuesarecreditedwhenearned, sible without courage. _ ;^ps but the city may not be able to pay not necessarily when actually re them because it won't be able to bor ceived [and] expenses are recorded row the money. People who have no not when actually incurred butwhen money can't pay their bills. Renters they show up as bills paid. The re can't pay the rent and landlords and sult is that some theoretically full homeowners may not be able to tills may be—and in some cases make mortgage payments. They have been—empty." may default and increase the bur Should the federal government dens on the banks who have already do anything about this situation? loaned too much money to New President Ford and Arthur Bums York City. seem inclined to keep federal hands If New York City defaults. New off this problem. At the moment, New York City York State's credit may be impaired that inclination seems wise. The because the State has agreed to guar federal government should not antee some of the city's loans. If guarantee New York's loans. The What happens if New York City the State's credit suffers, it will have situation resembles a hurricane that cannot pay back the billions of dol to pay higher interest rates, or delay threatens to lay waste anything in lars it owes its bondholders? Nobody capital projects, or lay off workers. its path. The more people and in wants to predict what will happen So it goes. stitutions keep out of the way, the but many things could happen and New York City slid into this mess betterfor the community in general. none of them seem pleasant. Here for many reasons. A small contribu But the government should stand is a handy list of calamities you can tory factory was accounting proce ready to help people whose homes, keep in that plastic envelope with dure which exaggerated income and health, and income might disappear your mortgage payment book. delayed expenditure. Ordinary if New York City defaults. This •If New York City defaults, it could citizens should try some of these comes under the heading of disaster become more difficult for other cit tricks to see how Inng they can stay relief. Then, federal, state, and city ies to borrow money. If they can solvent. authorities should devise some borrow money, they may have to A city's credit lies in its power to means to prevent other cities from pay higher interest rates. If they tax property without limitation. sliding into bankruptcy. They might can't borrow money, they will delay When New York City borrowed begin by keeping out of the peo construction of sewers, sidewalks, money, it used as collateral its antic ple's hair mayors and councilmen roads and other capital projects. If ipated tax revenues. Sometimes who won't let accountants account. they can't build roads and buildings, the City exa^erated the amount That comes under the heading of there will be fewer jobs in construc of revenue it expected to collect in promoting the general welfare.—AFS

October, 1975 James A. Nuechterlein THE IDEA OF A LUTHERAN UNIVERSITY

James Nuechterlein, a regular contributor to The Cresset, is rapidly establishing his reputation as scholar, teacher, and social critic. His recent publication in Commentary, with the subsequent commis sion to prepare other materials, will certainly broaden the range of his readership. Mr. Nuechterlein was a student at Valparaiso University during the early years of my teaching career. 1 have watched his development with interest, compassion, and increasing admiration. His struggles with the faith, his intellectual conflict, and his thoughtful position in the subsequent years serve to equip him for commenting on Valparaiso University. For noting the fiftieth anniversary of Valparaiso University under Lutheran aegis, 1 wanted someone who knew the University well to reflect on it. I did not want someone with unthinking enthusiasm; nei ther did I want someone who, in bitterness and cynicism, had come to abandon the viability and neces sity of a Lutheran University. Finally, 1wanted someone in the academic world with thoughtful attach ment to and clear convictions about the University to talk about its duties and directions for the future. Mr. Nuechterlein's qualifications and his presence on the campus during the past academic year (after more than a decade away) made him the first and logical choice. The Cresset is pleased to present this article to the University as a gift of appreciation, and to its readers for their reflection. —KFK

I ment in which Valparaiso University celebrates, this fall, the 50th anniversary of its operation under Lu THE INSTITUTIONS OF AMERICAN SOCIETY theran auspices. Given as well the current state of incip exist in a state of permanent siege. Social structures as ient fragmentation in the Lutheran Church—Missouri varied and fundamental as the family and the chimch, Synod, which has always been the imiversity's chief prisons and public schools, corporations and govern constituency, it might seem that the occasion demands ment bureaucracies, find themselves under continuing not a celebration but a proclamation of humiliation and challenge to justify their purposes and goals, even their fasting. One need not be unduly pessimistic, however: very existence. This is not new: the anti-institutional whatever the general and particular handicaps under instinct has deep and pervasive roots in the American which it must currently operate, the university shows experience. Both oiu* radical individualism and our no signs of imminent collapse; on the contrary, it ap general liberalism tend to an attitude of suspicion, if pears to have weathered the various crises of recent not downright hostility, toward existing institutions. years in surprisingly healthy shape. Neither intellec Still, the general crisis of American society over the past tually, theologically, nor financially can one discern, at dozen years has added a particular note of m*gency to least from the outside, any real signs of insolvency. This the perpetual urge to institutional criticism; our recent essay assumes Valparaiso's continuing existence, and social disarray has made us all the more suspicious of addresses itself rather to the question of what precisely the institutions that have shaped us, all the more eager the university might see as its particular justification for to re-examine and remake—or, where necessary, discard that continued existence, its distinctive contribution to —the organizations that give structure and form to our the widerworld of American higher education. collective purposes. In no institutions are these conditions of crisis more acute than in our colleges and universities, particularly those under private control. Having endured assaults IN THE MOST OBVIOUS AND GENERAL SENSE, from radicals in the late Sixties concerning their pur of course, Valparaiso University must justify itself as an poses, values, and internal governance, these schools institution of higher learning. This is perhaps not quite now confront, in the current economic crisis, even more so self-evident a proposition as might at first appear. profound threats to their existence. Decreasing enroll There is a very great temptation for private colleges to ments, increasing costs, and the absence of taxpayer base much of their appeal for continued existence on subsidies make the siu-vival of even some of America's nostalgia, tradition, and assorted other non-educational most distinguished private colleges anything but certain. factors. This is particularly true for schools with reli It is, then, a decidedly unpromising general environ gious affiliations. Since, after all, not many private

8 The Cresset schools can pretend to the scholarly excellence of a dicative of concern for "the whole person") can, if em Harvard, Yale, Chicago, or Stanford, the appeal for phasized out of proportion to their real but limited students and for financial support can easily degenerate validity, again draw attention away from the univer into more or less explicit suggestions that old St. Athan- sity's primary academic focus. Valparaiso University asius will allow alumni vicariously to relive their post- does not exist for the purpose of running the equivalent adolescence by having their children retrace their edu of a post-secondary Christian day camp. A prudent and cational footsteps or, even better, that it will guarantee humane university will do all that it reasonably can to the continued moral purity and/or theological ortho see that its students' out-of-class existence is as pleasant, doxy of the younger generation. rich, and fulfilling as possible, but it should never act There is no point in being purist in this matter. As as if that part of its duty to its students is at the center will soon become clear, my own view of Valparaiso's of its purpose. The informed heart is doubtless of great future insists unswervingly on its character as a Luther er importance in the ultimate Christian scheme of things an Christian institution, and even nostalgia and tradi than the educated mind, but it is the latter which is the tion have their legitimate, if non-essential, places. I proper central concern of the university. have yet to meet an alumnus immune to the spell of nostalgic sentimentality evoked for us all by a return to IT WOULD BE UNWISE TO MINIMIZE THE alma mater; this is one of those universal laws of human obstacles to the attainment of educational excellence at behavior at which all undergraduates, in their turn, Valparaiso University. There is, in the first instance, sneer and to which they all, in their later turn, succumb. the nature of its primary constituency. The Lutheran It remains inescapable, however, that any university Church—Missouri Synod has within its ranks its fair worthy of the name must in the first instance justify its share—perhaps more than its fair share —of intelli existence in academic terms. It is all too easy for church- gent people; it has all too little, however, in the way of a related institutions to retreat to a cowardly and false genuine intellectual tradition. In my own days as a Val piety as an excuse for educational incompetence. Too paraiso undergraduate in the late Fifties, the atmosphere rapid and too frequent reversion to "Jesus talk" is the among the general student body could perhaps not fair sure sign of a Bible college, and it is not infrequently a ly be termed anti-intellectual, but it was most pervasive coverfor intellectual shoddiness as well. Educated Chris ly and massively non-intellectual. Things have likely tians ought never to be ashamed of candidly expressing improved considerably over the past 15 years, but judg their Christian commitment, but neither should they ing from my own random observations during a just- ever suppose that saving faith is a satisfactory educa concluded year on campus, Valparaiso's students are tional substitute for knowledge of organic chemistry, still not generally distinguished by their devotion to Victorian literature, or classical political theory. It is the life of the mind. Given the historical and sociologi demeaning and illegitimate for a university to expect cal conditions of their heritage, it would be astonishing support unless it can offer academic competence; unless, if their attitude were any different. indeed, it is continuously and urgently looking beyond There is no point in rhetorical bemoaning of that competence to at least some measure of academic ex situation, but there is every point in making a careful, cellence. ceaseless, and patient effort to modify it. No higher duty In the same way, the university should be cautious of devolves upon the university faculty than the painstak too heavy an emphasis in its appeals to the "Christian ing creation and nourishment of a genuine intellectual atmosphere" the campus offers to students. It is true, of passion on the Valparaiso campus. Again, there is no course, that instructors and administrators should and need to be unduly pessimistic on this subject: the his no doubt generally do treat undergraduates in ways torical and sociological conditions that created the exist reflective of their Christian calling, but it is difficult to ing situation are gradually changing, and there is no see that this will normally result in treatment signifi reason, therefore, why the situation itself must remain cantly different from that which young people might the same. expect on secular campuses: Valparaiso's students surely The matter of the role of the faculty raises significant are subject to the same academic and behavioral disci and perplexing questions concerning its primary schol pline found elsewhere. Christians have no reason for as arly duty. The universitycatalog indicates that the major suming that humanist educators are capable of any less emphasis in the selection of faculty is excellence in concern than they for the intellectual and personal wel teaching. Given Valparaiso's situation, that emphasis fare of their students. As for the way students relate to is almost surely correct. A publish-or-perish policy each other, here the argument for a special kind of at would be quite inappropriate for a school with Val mosphere is more impressive, at least in certain situa paraiso's purposes and general conditions of existence. tions, but again one must caution against claiming too The American university scene is already over-crowded much: the capacity for deep personal friendship and with institutions whose policy toward faculty recruit affection, or for a more general sense of community, is ment and advancement is based on illusions of academic not a quality peculiar to Christians. grandeur pretentious to the point of absurdity; what is In any case, such appeals (generally expressed as in worse, these minor league Harvards display in such

October, 1975 policies attitudes oblivious to the real needs, oppor then, some serviceable understanding of what it means tunities, and talents of most of their students and pro to be a Christian intellectual, with particular reference fessors. to the Lutheran tradition. Yet the issue of the proper relationship between teach What it means in the first place is a good deal of in ing and research is not so easily resolved. The fact re tellectual trouble. The orthodox believer committed to mains that, other things equal, the best teachers are the life of the mind finds himself caught up in a funda those who are also involved in scholarly reflection and mental intellectual tension. Faith and reason are not research. It is not necessary to the preservation of a vital ultimately irreconcilable, but they do exist on different intellectual atmosphere on campus that all instructors planes. The leap of faith finally required of the Chris be productive scholars; it is necessary to such an atmos tian is in a very real way antithetical to, almost a be phere, however, that active scholarship be going on and trayal of, the values frequently identified with the mod that it be accorded proper support and respect. Good em intellectual enterprise. The highest quality of mind teaching, in any case, does not exist in a scholarly vac to which the secular intellectual typically aspires is a uum: it is always related to mastery of a discipline. An kind of humane skepticism. The absolute commitment excellent teacher may or may not be a publishing schol implied in Christian faith is precisely that sort of cer ar, but he must be constantly involved in reading and tainty of which the modem thinker is most suspicious. reflecting on the latest developments in his field. Such It frequently seems that the final end of education, as reading and reflection will normally, though not al characteristically presented in contemporary humanism, ways, result in some visible form of scholarly activity. isthe intuition that nothing is finally and knowably true It is also valuable to provide students on any campus for certain. The Christian, on the other hand, while actual, functioning models of commitment to the life of willing to accept that the inquiring and skeptical mind scholarship. is the beginning of wisdom, cannot rest with agnosticism The policies of the university administration are as wisdom's end, which is why he prays, "Lord, I be critical in this context. Research activities should be lieve; help Thou mine unbelief." He asksquestions, in encouraged and supported. Teaching loads should not other words, expecting to find answers; he believes that be made so heavy that instructors lack the time or ener final and absolute values do exist. gy required for the intensive reading and reflection One must be very careful here. The Christian believes necessary to truly excellent teaching as well as to re that the world ultimately makes decipherable sense; search. Finally, scholarly activity must be rewarded. The this does not mean that his faith holds some sort of all- most-honored (and best-paid) members of the faculty comprehending key to life's mysteries, contradictions, should be those who combine outstanding success in and ambiguities. Christianity does not provide con teaching with fruitful scholarly activity. Without such venient answers to all or even most of life's intellectual, fK)licies and reward structures, Valparaiso will be to that moral, or aesthetic questions. It is precisely faith's gift extent less than a true university. of final grace and assurance that allows the believer to live with massive existential uncertainty in all those Ill proximate areas of behavior and knowledge which con THE GENERAL INTELLECTUAL AND SCHOL- stitute our ordinary arena of concern. The Christian is, arly matters discussed above are critical to the self- by definition, a believer; yet his faith paradoxically understanding of any university; concern for intellec frees him from the compulsive absolutisms of Eric Hof- tual curiosity and rigor and for academic excellence are fer's true believer. inherent in the very idea of higher education. Such mat There is an even more fundamental sense in which ters do not by themselves, however, provide foundation the Christian intellectual finds himself out of phase with for understanding or justification of Valparaiso Uni the secular intellectual temper. The literature of social versity's distinctive purposes and possibilities. The uni science concerning modernization —the process of versity has always understood itself as something other movement from traditional to contemporary forms of and more than a privately-run equivalent of Indiana society—designates religious belief as a pre-modem University—Valparaiso Campus. Its special qualities phenomenon. Thus modem man — autonomous, ra are not summed up by small classes, particular concern tionalistic, scientific—is by definition non-religious, for students, or a larger-than-usual share of school spir and orthodox faith is an anti-modem vestige. Only it. Valparaiso is not just a university, it is a Christian when the full implications of this perspective are fully university; more, it is a Lutheran Christian university. grasped can the degree of isolation of Christian belief Presumably, that designation involves more in the from the reigning intellectual mind-set be properly life of the university than its general ambience or than understood. The problem is not so much that the an the particular way in which students, faculty, and ad swers of faith are rejected; it is rather that faith's ques ministrators relate to one another. If it is to describe tions are not even seriously entertained. To be an ortho more than a pattern of piety, that description must be dox Christian in the modem world is to exist in an in shown to make a real difference to what we may call the tellectual backwater. intellectual style of Valparaiso University. We need. There is, of course, a "religious revival" currently

10 The Cresset underway that might make some of the above comments versity remain identifiably Lutheran as well as gener seem extravagant. Yet most of the manifestations of ally Christian. Yet the arguments behind such an insist that revival are so irrational, so puerile, so mindless, ence consist in more than stubborn separatism or senti as to render an honest atheism positively attractive by mental attachment to a particular tradition. The point comparison. The fascination with the occult that lingers is simply whether or not we take seriously the distinc behind so much of the revival suggests its essential tive theological emphases of the Lutheran Confessions. theological bankruptcy; never has religion better de If we do, if we mean what we have said, for example, served the Marxist's contemptuous dismissal of it as a concerning the critical importance to the Christian failure of nerve. Rennie Davis was far more plausible proclamation of the proper distinction between Law and attractive as a misguided revolutionary than she is and Gospel, then we have no choice but to continue as a cultic adherent of a post-pubescent Indian guru. prophetically and evangelically to keep that historic Similarly, the ecstacies of the "Jesus people" frequently Lutheran voice alive and strong within the Christian seem as forced and evanescent as were the radical com community. mitments espoused by many of these same young people We know all too well these days the terrible dangers a few years previously. of pride and arrogance involved in a self-conscious con In any case, there is no sign that the revival, what cern for doctrinal purity, yet awareness of those dangers ever one thinks of it, has had any significant effect on the must not issue in a flight from confessional orthodoxy. general assumptions of most intellectuals, and it is with It might, in fact, be the present historical burden of the ideas of the intellectual elite that we are presently Lutheranism to show that concern for doctrine need not concerned. Most people, of course, are not intellectuals, result in fundamentalism or sectarianism. The Law/ and there is considerable evidence to suggest that in the Gospel hermeneutical tradition can at once preserve field of religion, as in so much else, America's intellec the Church from a narrow Biblicism and also provide tuals are substantially out of touch with the attitudes and the theological resources necessary to avoid the doc values of their fellow citizens. Nonetheless, the values trinal evasions and sentimentalities still pervasive in of the academic world are necessarily determined by general Protestantism—and increasingly so in Roman intellectuals, and for most intellectuals the death of god Catholicism as well. Valparaiso University could well is an operating assumption. become a citadel of the theological rigor and serious ness the American church continues to require in keep THE ISOLATION OF THE CHRISTIAN THINK- ing the apostolic faith alive and vital. er from the mainstream of modem intellectual con It is true, of course, that these theological considera cern is, it would seem, far more profound than most tions are not of immediate application to much of the Christians find it comfortable to contemplate. Such an daily intellectual life of the university. There is, we all isolation, when fully confronted, creates strong tempta know, no Lutheran physics or chemistry, and it is a lit tions and tendencies to one of two despairing forms of tle late in the intellectual day to propose some sort of response. One is a kind of willed obscurantism: too in modem Lutheran reconstruction of the medieval syn tense a reaction against secular rationalism can produce thesis. As we have already noted, piety is no substitute a definition of faith that measures its depth by its ability forscholarship.Yetweneed not leap from such common to accept logical, empirical, or scientific absurdities. places to a denial of all relevance of our faith to our The neo-fundamentalism now so dynamic a force in intellectual concerns. If Lutheran Christianity can pro Protestant Christianity (including the Lutheran Church vide no intellectual blueprint to understanding of par —Missouri Synod) gives continuing testimony to the ticular disciplines, it can perhaps offer more shafts of force of that temptation. The other—and for the intel illumination to various fields of the humanities and so lectual perhaps more common —tendency is to a grad cial sciencesthan we have normally supposed. ual and debilitating accommodationism, an incre To give just one example from my own particular mental sacrifice of doctrine and sense of transcendence area of interest: American history and politics. It does to the point where Christianity loses its capacity to of not seem to me at all fanciful to suggest that insights fend (or embarrass) by denying its particularity and by from Lutheran theology can provide useful perspec minimizing its distance from secular preoccupations. tives for understanding and evaluation of the American The history of mainstream American denominational- experience. The Lutheran-oriented scholar will be in ism is a continuing case study in that temptation. In a particularly good position, for example, to analyze and evitably, the orthodox Christian is, in the perspective criticize the neo-Calvinist notion of the covenant na of modem thought, an intellectual sectarian; we Chris tion which has, in both religious and secular forms, in tians are a peculiar people, and no amount of accommo formed so much of American self-understanding. He dation, short of denial of the apostolic faith, can change will particularly appreciate the subtle dangers of the that fact. image of America as a religious society—an image that In light of the Christian intellectual's marginal situ has recurringly led Americans to the delusion that we ation, it might seem perverse to insist on yet another are somehow more than a nation like other nations. In degree of particularity, to propose that Valparaiso Uni terms of contemporary understanding, the Lutheran

October, 1975 11 scholar is well-positioned to comprehend (and reject) ment to tradition nor a resigned capitulation to the versions of the national purpose ranging from that of dominant values of the general culture. The dangers of Billy Graham to that of William Sloane Coffin, He parochialism are real enough, but a wholesale repudia should be acutely sensitive to the implications for the tion of one's heritage is simply a flight from identity, American mind of the national myths of primal inno an escapist inversion of the parochial impulse. The cence or ofeternal rebirth. challenge to Valparaiso University is to maintain an What provides perhaps the most radical perspective unapologetic and unembarrassed affirmation of its of all can only be briefly suggested: the whole Lutheran tradition without in the process sacrificing its intellec understanding of man and society goes so against the tual openness and seriousness of academic purpose. If American grain as to make the Lutheran an intellectual it can manage that, it can reasonably expect to command alien in his own land. The almost-limitless implications for its special vision of things the respect, if not neces of that insight can be profoundly useful to the Amer sarily the assent, of the intellectual community. ican Lutheran scholar in understanding his own, his The preservation by the university of its authentic church body's, and his nation's development. Surely, identity will require conscious commitment and action; Lutheran perspectives can offer similar suggestive no it is not at all unprecedented for an institution to lose tions in other fields of study. its sense of itself in a fit of absent-mindedness. The Looked at another way, the denial of any relationship university catalog (1974-75) states that "Valparaiso Uni between our religious faith—which is, after all, the versity appoints its Faculty without regard to race, sex, primary standpoint from which we claim to compre creed, color, or national origin." (emphasis added) If hend the meaning of existence—and the way in which that statement is seriously meant (which seems doubt we think about the world makes neither intellectual nor ful), then the university is already well on the way to theological sense. No one seriously disputes that Cath sacrificingits identity; if it is not meant, then it should olic writers, historians, and philosophers have distinc not appear in print. tive (though infinitely various) ways of doing their This is not at all to suggest that it would be desirable intellectual work; it seems oddly self-debasing to sup for Valparaiso to turn itself into a tight little Lutheran pose that the same should not be true for Lutherans. island. Aside from the practical impossibilities (there Ideas, including theological ideas, do have conse are not enough willing Lutheran students or fully quali quences; or they do, that is, if they are taken seriously. fied Lutheran professors available), such a policy would almost certainly be damaging to the university's intel

IV lectual life. Genuine diversity of viewpoint is necessary to intellectual challenge and stimulation; if any group THE PARADIGMATIC COURSE OF THE AMER- of academics live among and speak to only like-minded ican church-related college has been towards a gradual people, intellectual flabbiness and doctrinaire rigidity secularization. This has reflected both the general evo will inevitably result. At the same time, however, the lution of the wider societyand the incremental adoption university should do all that it can to ensure a predomi by American churches of the intellectual perspectives nant Lutheran Christian voice among students and of the civil culture. Presumably, Valparaiso University faculty alike. hopes to avoid the general fate, and it hopes to do so There need be, finally, no hint of intellectual defen- without a retreat into theological or intellectual solip siveness involved in the university's commitment to its sism. Such an effort will require a serious and disci particular tradition. Christians are perhaps too prone plinedconfrontation with the problem of Lutheran iden to a tone of apology (or, what amounts to the same thing, tity in America. strident condemnation) in their conversation with the The American Lutheran tradition has always been general academic community. Yet our own distinctive caught in the tension between accommodation and iso intellectual resources are not inconsiderable. There are lation. Valparaiso University, if it is true to the best many roads to faith, and that of the mind is by no means in its heritage, will not.attempt to escape or transcend closed or narrow. More than a few of us are persuaded that generally fruitful tension. The 19th century immi that the Christian conception of man and his destiny is grants who were ourdirect forebears contended for their finally more serious and more profound than anything faith in struggles sometimes absurd, sometimes heroic: secular humanism has to offer in its place; we have come their weaknesses but also their strengths issued from an to understand that more of life's terror, ambiguity, and insistence on integrity of belief; and at their best, they grace is comprehended in the mystery of faith than in fought stubbornly for the truth while firmly resisting any alternative formula. the temptation to separatism. Those of us so persuaded should leam to say so, and The university can leam from that tradition. If it to say so in such a way as to make the hidden God acces does so, it will locate itself fully in but not entirely of sible to an unbelieving and even uncomprehending the wider American academic world. It is worth em world. For Valparaiso University—as for all Christian phasizing that in institutions as in individuals, a ma institutions and people—that constitutes the highest turesense of identity involves neither a desperate attach conceivable challenge, duty, andopportunity. ||

12 The Cresset EIGHT POEMS WRITTEN IN THIS ORDER

1. Novel Poem

He sat down at the table. Many years later he was buried. 2. Time Poem "Hee, bee, bee," said the clock. It went back and forth back and forth setting him up for the kill.

3. Slave Poem It was a reciprocating.clock. Almost long ago, W. Davies wrote: "What is this life, if full of care, We have no time to stand and stare." An Answer Page was lost in the galleys, slave to chance. 4. Stochastic Poem Random jottings are at most random. 5. Stone Poem A good poem surfaces now and then. Sometimes, like Dr. Johnson, I like to kick the thick stones, which naturally react as Newton said they would: passive resistance to massive existence; one of the three laws, loaded for bear. Not that I refute Berkeley, or care to; just testing the world for oneness. 6. House-building Poem BRICK BRICK BRICK THUD BRICK BRICK RED THUD RED BRICK THUD STUD JOIST PLANK SAW THUD NAIL THUD NAIL THUD SAW NAIL THUD PIPE THUD SAW NAIL SAW NAIL SAW PLANK 7. Wedge Poem BRICKBRICKBRICKBRICKBRICK Birds know best, but won't sing. Chickenfeed doesn't interest them. Chicken shit bugs them. They fly on wave-fronts to the edge of circles— grass leaf bark thicket branch seed bole aphid packed in the wedge they've cut out of the clump. They know best, but won't talk of it. 8. BirdPoem Their hollow bones lightening the load, pipe tunes out only when they're dead.

STUART SiLVERMAN

^"House-BuildingPoem" is reprinted withpermissionfrom Green's Magazine, Winter, 1974.

October, 1975 13 LETTER FROM yiRROAl) / INDIA - LUTHER ENCELBRECHT

THE STRUGGLE FOR BALANCE

But recall the former days when, after you were enlightened, yuu endured a hard strug gle with sufferings,sometimes being publicly exposed to abuse and affliction, and some times being partners with those sotreated. HEBREWS 10*32 33

INDIA REMAINS A FASCI- just don't tune in.) People in India WHEN ONE THINKS OF POI^ nating, bewildering land whatever and the U.S. often cast their vote itics, one must also think of the side of her face you may be looking without conviction or knowledge of church these days. We've had overt at: political, economic, cultural, the candidates, platforms, or the political activities here in our In or religious. needs of their country. But they can dian church since the time when cast their vote, and they have a politics in the Lutheran Church— The news media in the West have choice as to candidates and parties. Missouri Synod were more covert. been indulging in some rather hys This treasure we share. Indian church politics are related terical reporting about India in re to caste, language groups, geograph cent days; proclaiming the death of Our present state of "emergency" ical areas, and extended families, democracyin the world's mostpopu was triggered by a court decision de and we have not seen people wear lous democracy. In a land with con priving our Prime Minister of her ing doctrinal masks here. I cannot siderable illiteracy and with inade seat in the legislative assembly and recall a single significant doctrinal quate communications media, with therefore of her right to be a minis controversyamongmy Indian breth out any single lingua franca that ter. She stood convicted of "corrupt" ren in the India Evangelical Lu everyone can understand, with fam political practices—namely using theran Church (lELC) since we came ilies and small groups following a a government official in her elec to India. Struggling to survive and largely patriarchal system of author tion campaign. (The official's resig grow, surrounded by people of ity, it is no doubt a bit difficult for a nation had not cleared proper chan other faiths and by older, larger genuine democracy to function. nels.) Moral relativism in politics church bodies, our people have had However, for the past twenty years can yield tragedy for persons and little energy for doctrinal contro we have seen it working at least with nations, as we know, but after the versies. in the range of our experience; and opposition's exhaustive search for One of our leading national it's hardly worse than America with "dirt," one could conclude that Mrs. churchmen has been widely quoted its political illiteracy and, despite Gandhi is one of the cleanest major as having said, "If the Bible said the media, inadequate communica politicians around! We hear rumors that Jonah swallowed the whale, tion on vital issues. (Perhaps people about some of the darker aspects of I'd believe it," or words to that ef the emergency, but with censored fect. The expression of our people's Luther Engelbrecht received the media we're not likely to learn how faith, in common with most Protes STM degree from Concordia Semi much truth they contain. Time and tant Christians in India in the way nary, St. Louis, in 1954. He has done Newsweek have disappeared and the of pietistic fundamentalism, may be graduate work at Valparaiso Uni government runs TV and radio. On simply a suitable response to the versity, Washington University, the local level life goes on, and the situation in which they find them UCLA, the University of California, emergency has had positive sides: selves. Here, the situation has out Berkeley, and the University of the apparent control of the rampant weighed the excellent "Lutheran" Chicago. For the past twenty years inflation that caused much hardship. training which our pastors have re he has been a missionary in India. Although the obituary columns ceived at Concordia Seminary, Na- He does some teaching at the Lu note the passing of democracy in gercoil. India's "Lutheranism" theran College in Ambur but works India, the report, like those of God tends, as far as I can see, to be ex primarily among Muslims training and Sam Clemens, is "greatly ex pressed more in traditional prac pastors. aggerated." tices: the basic Lutheran version of

14 The Cresset the liturgy with monthly Commun souriSynodin thepasthas recognized has been President of the lELC for ion, the German chorales (beauti the different situations in which her the past two years. He maintains his fully sung in the isometric fashion sister churches outside America independence and the autonomy of favored by the Pietists at the time live and witness, and has been open the lELC, consistently trying to do when Lutherans first began work in to different approaches to those what is appropriate for India and India 270 years ago), and clerical situations. his church. He is one of the modem domination. These practices attract The number of main-line denomi generation of jet-set churchmen and more emphasis than the proper dis national missionaries in India is has meetings scheduled this year tinction between Law and Gospel, rapidly decreasing, and some of which will take him to all six of the the Royal Priesthood of All Be the institutional apparatus set up for continents. As the Executive Secre lievers(includingwomen), an aware missionary needs is being either tary of the United Evangelical Lu ness of the breadth of the Christian transformed or dismantled. For theran Churches in India (a loose "vocation," a deep knowledge of the instance, one of the changing insti federation of the many Lutheran Confessions, and othermore"sophis tutions is the Kodaikanal School, churches here) he is India's "Mr. ticated" aspects which we usually nestled 7,000 feet up in the hills of Lutheran." He is active in local identify with Lutheranism. (The South India. Founded in 1901 for ecumenical activities in the Madras three solas we share with virtually the education of "mishkids" and areaas well as in the Lutheran World all Protestants in India.) The appro until last year operated by most of Federation. His ministry as lELC priateness of identifying a church the mission societies in the South, president illustrates all the chal body as "Lutheran" in the Asian thisschool hasnow become an auton lenges to a church in India. He must context must also be questioned, I omous international school featur retain all the paraphernalia of a feel. There is simply little room to ing the International Baccalaureate large Western church, inherited consider the name "Lutheran" on as one of the choices available to its largely unexamined by our small its own merits with regard to its sig students. This is a challenging, ex Indian church. His task includes nificance and suitability for a con amination-oriented program which planning, reporting, and evaluat tinent in which for many the name attempts to combine the best aspects ing; much of that work is connected Christ means little and for most the of North American and European with subsidies from abroad and is name Luther means nothing at all. education and which enables those required by the supporting sister. For most (but not all) of our Asian who take it to fit into universities He fosters an outward look in a Lutherans, it seems their identity is almost anywhere in the world. More church which tends to look inward very much tied up with that name, than a half dozen nations are repre even in the midst of an unevangel- and they don't want to change it or sented on the staff. The 275 students ized land. He fights regional, caste, lose it. This desire is perhaps related in twelve grades come from more and linguistic forces which divide to tradition; security; being part than a dozen countries, with North' the church; he copes with the puz of a larger, stronger family; and the America and India predominating. zlement and insecurity over what's like. This sort of school with a strong going on in the Missouri Synod. He In the lELC we have some polari Christian orientation challenges removes communications blocks, zation along the lines of that in the youth to serve in a complex world. prods an inefficient church bureau Missouri Synod. What this will lead The transition from being an ancil cracy, and combats persistent care to I don't know. As was indicated lary missionary institution to being lessness in handling the church's above, the general doctrinal stance part of God's mission itself, has funds. God has given the lELC of the lELC is very conservative; brought problems. However, this is great opportunities and talented, some of the Indian church's prac one of the more exciting educa dedicated people to respond to them. tices, especially in relationships tional ventures in the church today, But minor internal problems and with other Lutherans as well as with and we pray for it during these dif the inertia of the system bog down other Christians in general, might ficult early years of its new life. even their best efforts. We mission not find much favor with the "con The whole lELC felt honored re aries are often caught up in the same servatives" in America (e.g., mar cently when its President, the Rev. thing. We tend to stress leadership riages tend to follow caste rather Mr. G.Thomas Edward, was awarded programs in a church where dis- than denominational lines, with the the degree of Doctor of Divinity cipleship is lacking. We strive to be wife usually joining the husband's honoris causa by Concordia Semi made in the image of a powerful church, often without benefit of nary, Springfield, Illinois. The institutionalized church .reflecting instruction and confirmation). Many degree was conferred at a special a theology of glory rather than in of our people are wary of institu convocation at Concordia Seminary, the image of Christ with a theology tional or formal relationships with Nagercoil. Dr. Edward, a busy par of the cross. And we've got the Mis non-Lutheran Christians, but that ish pastor with two self-supporting souri Synod in India when what we seems to be based often on non- congregations in Madras (a metro need is Christ in India! Kyrie, doctrinal considerations. The Mis polis approaching Chicago in size). eleisonl

October, 1975 15 u a

ifi u

£ INI

JESUS DOES NOT ASK IDLE QUESTIONS. HIS S questions lead directly to the heart of the matter. "Who e do men say that 1 am?" The disciples offer Jesus the re sult of their public opinion poll. "Some say John the Baptist, others say Elijah, still others Jeremiah, or one of the prophets." Then came the really penetrating question, "But who do you say I am?" There is no way now of hiding behind the varieties of public opinion, no way of taking refuge in the detached objectivity of the sociological survey, no way of evading the direct ness of that question: Who do you say that 1 am? Peter, characteristically outspoken, characteristically blunt, almost blurts it out: "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God." You, Jesus, are the Messiah, prom ised of old by God through the prophets. You, Jesus, reveal God as the heavenly Father. You, Jesus, incarnate the God who cares for His people. You, Jesus, display the God of om fathers now unconquerably alive and 'WHO DO YOU SAY THAT I AM?' redemptively creating a future and a hope for His own. You are the Christ, the Son of the living God. WALTER E. KELLER Blessed are you Simon Bar-Jona, blessed are you. What was missing in the survey of public opinion, you have spoken. No flash of religious insight, this confes Now when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philip- sion, no lucky shot in the dark. Simon is blessed, because pi, he asked his disciples, "Who do men say that the Son his confession of Jesus owes its utterance to no source of man is?" And they said, "Some say John the Baptist, in the entire world ofhuman flesh and blood. It is a rev others say Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the proph elation from on high, given by the God and Father of ets." He said to them, "But who do you say that I am?" our Lord Jesus Christ. No one can confess that Jesus is Simon Peter replied, "You are the Christ, the Son of the Lord, but by the Holy Spiritof God. living God." And Jesus answered him, "Blessed are you, Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jona. Jesus, who calls Simon Bar-Jona! For flesh and blood has not revealed this him blessed, calls him Peter, calls him the Rock. "And to you, but my Father who is in heaven. And 1 tell you, on such bedrock," says our Lord, "I will build my you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, Church, and neither the powers of death nor the gates and the powers of death shall not prevail against it. I will of hell shall prevail against it." And to that solemn prom give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever ise Jesus adds yet another: "I will give unto you the Keys you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever of the Kingdom of He/|ven." you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven." Matthew 16:13-19 THE TEXT FROM HOLY SCRIPTURE, MAT- thew 16, instructs us in three important principles. First, Jesus Christ speaks as sovereign Lord when he says: I will build my Church. The Church does not be Walter E. Keller, Associate Professor of Theology, is long to us: she belongs to Christ. The Church is not to chairman of the Department of Theology at Valparaiso be a harlot, a kept woman for any man's pleasure. She University. is rather the exclusive bride of Christ. The Church, in

16 The Cresset with and under a sometimes bewildering variety of in Christ and Him crucified was the sole foundation for stitutional forms, is the Body of Christ, and He is the His Church. Headof the Body. And third, the principle from our text is that to the Second, Our Lord Jesus Christ, when He builds His Christ-confessing, apostolic Chm*ch Jesus gives the Church, builds it upon the solid bedrock of a Christ- Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven, the authority to for confessing Peter, who stands here as chief among the give sins and to retain them. The Church has no other Christ-confessing apostles. Upon the foundation of His authority than that which the Author has committed to apostles and His prophets oiu* Lord builds His Church, her: to confess Christ, to preach Christ, to awaken faith while He Himselfremains the Chief-Comerstone. in Christ, to absolve in His name, to administer the The understanding of this saying of Jesus has been a Sacraments, and in His name to retain the sins of the sore point in the history of the Chimch. There are those impenitent. All other authority that the Chiurch exer denominations in Christendom who hold that the apos cises is a purely human arrangement, and dare never be tolic foundation of the Chiu*ch lies in a succession of placed in the way of her authority of the Keys. But with persons holding the same apostolic and episcopal office that divine authority we may be His servants, boldly as Peter and his fellow apostles. And there are those and courageously and joyfully—whatever the cost. denominations in Christendom who hold that the apos That Church, built by Christ upon the foundation of tolic foundation of the Church lies in the continuity of Christ with the authority of Christ, will not be over the same apostolic confession and preaching of Christ come even by hell and will conquer even death. that was first done by Peter and his fellow apostles. The issue wasjoined in the Reformation, and our day is the THERE ARE THOSE WHO THINK OF OUR happy witness to attempts on the ecumenical level to present synodical strife as a conflict between the rights enter sympathetically into discussions aimed at resolv ofSynodand the rights of the congregation, or asa strug ing some of these difficult and important differences. gle between the right of the bishop to ordain and the But for us who are heirs of the Reformation some things right of the congregation to ordain. That is not accurate. ought to be quite clear. When Jesus announced that he The more basic question is the question-of the Gospel would build his Chimch upon the Christ-confessing of Christ. Congregations and Church structures are apostles, he most certainly did not give blanket endorse created and given in order to preserve and promote the ment to everything that Peter said or advised or com ministry of the Gospel. Long ago our Reformation manded. Inthesame way,eversince thatday, the Chmrch fathers taught us that when bishops are unwilling or has never given blanket endorsement to everything refuse to ordain pastors, then congregations must or that bishops or synodical officials have said or com dain them, so that the Gospel be preached and the Scc- manded or advised. The Gospel of Matthew reports raments administered; for they are the keys by which that immediately after the event of oiu* text Peter tried Christ builds His Church upon the Christ-confession to prevent Jesus from taking his joimiey to the Cross. apostolic foundation. That's in the Lutheran Confes And that merited Jesus' harshest rebuke: "Get thee be sions, which are so much invoked and so little read. hind me, Satan! You are a hindrance to me." That Peter There are those who would censure us for disobedi was no foundation for Christ's Church, only the Peter ence to the authority which God has placed over us, who confessed Jesus as the Christ, the Son of the Living and thereby seek to invalidate or at least discredit what God, and now also as Christ the Crucified. Whatever we are doing here. But we are in good company. Once or whoever would hinder that is of Satan. There was the apostles were strictly charged by lawful civil and another time when Peter was rebuked. By his actions S)mcgogal authority not to preach and teach in the name he implied thatthe Gospel was not enough for member of Jesus. That's in the Bible, Acts 5. And this time Peter ship in the Church, and therefore for salvation. By his rose to genuine apostolic heights: We must obey God action he implied that circumcision was necessary in rather than men. They were flogged and again forbid addition to that free Gospel of Christ. And again he den to speak, but they rejoiced that they were accounted suffered censure, this time by St. Paul. Thereby God led worthy to suffer dishonor for the name of Jesus. Upon His apostles to see more clearly yet that the Gospel of that rock Christ will build His Church.

October, 1975 17 EDGAR C. REINKE OF ALL THE SPANISH PRO- marred only by keen grief over the vincials who became the teachers untimely deaths of his young wife of the Roman metropolis during the (she was not yet nineteen years old) Silver Age of Latin Literature, Mar and, later, of each of his two sons, cus Fabius Quintilianus was doubt the one at the age of five, the other less the ideal schoolmaster. Quin at nine. Around 90 A.D. Quintilian tilian, as he has come to be known retired from his legal and teaching to us, was bom between 35 and 40 professions. Thereupon, with powers Quintilian A.D. at Calagurris, a town in north unimpaired, he devoted some five eastern Spain on the upper waters years to tutoring the two grand- of the historic Ebro River. During nephews and heirs of Domitian and Lighted his youth Quintilian studied rheto at the same time to composing his ric at Rome under Domitius Afer, one surviving work, the Institutio but upon the demise of this famous oratoria, a twelve-book educational The Way orator in the year 58 he seems to treatise on public speaking meant have made his way back to the Span to be useful to '^bonae mentis iu- ish peninsula, there to engage in the venes," or "young men of ability." practice of law as well as to teach Quintilian's death seems to have the art of public speaking. Ten years occurredsometimebetween theyears later, however, he was induced by 96 and 100, afterhehadbeenawarded Galba, then governor of Hispania the ornamenta consularia. Tarraconensis but soon to become Ever since the appearance of the Editor Kenneth F. Korby had plan Nero's brief imperial successor, to Institutes, which admirers prodded ned to print "Quintilian Lighted the return with him from Spain to the its reluctant author into writing, Way" in last January's issue of The Roman capital. Then, following the this masterpiece has been appraised Cresset, That plan proved imprac accession of Vespasian in the year as a landmark in Roman educational tical and The Cresset released the 69, Quintilian was appointed by theory and practice. Despite the fact article to the Classical Bulletin this kindly emperor to a state pro that Quintilian is separated from us after author Edgar Reinke read it at fessorship of speech, the first of its in time by nearly two millenia and a conference ofclassical scholars. We kind, which included a salary paid that his publication is in the main are delighted, at last, to bring this out of the imperial treasury. technical and of chief interest to the article to our readers. —AFS This official appointment, a sig professionalspeechmaker,the wealth nificant milestone in the history of of opinion and advice expressed Edgar C. Reinke is Professor Roman education, singled out Quin therein is so timeless in its appeal Emeritus of Classical Languages at tilian as the head of his profession. that the writer still would seem to Valparaiso University, where he has Fromthe veryoutsetstudents flocked be speaking to us today. It is his served a generation of students as to him, not merely from Rome, but educational psychology that we a source of light and delight. He also from the municipal towns and should like to touch upon as we re graduated Phi Beta Kappa from the the most distant provinces of Italy. view in brief the practical theory University of Chicago and took the Among the multitude eager to re and influence through the centuries Ph.D. there in 1934. Since then he ceive instruction under his tutelage of Rome's foremost educator. has actively promoted the study of was the Younger Pliny. In addition classical languages as, among many to his teaching, moreover, Quintilian THE ROMAN SCHOOL SYS- positions, President of the Indiana continued to conduct cases at court, tem, which was private, comprised Classical Conference, trustee of the his brilliant triumphs at the bar three progressive stages of instruc Vergilian Society of America, and evoking Martial's encomiastic epi tion. There was the elementary Head of Foreign Languages at Val gram in which Quintilian is ad school, attended by boys and girls, paraisofrom 1963-1971. He has con- dressed as Rome's peerless profes in which the three R's were learned. tributednumerousarticles to learned sor and lawyer: "Quintiliane, vagae In the secondary school, which periodicals, including this one which moderator summe iuventae,! Gloria girls did not attend, the boy would appeared in a slightly differentform Romanae, Quintiliane, togae . . . study grammar, literature, history, in the Classical Bulletin for March, ("Quintilian, illustrious trainer of and certain other academic subjects. 1975. Outside the academy, he dis errant youth. Quintilian, glory of The rhetorical school or college next tinguished himself as a cryptog the Roman toga..."). gave him training in public speak rapher during World War Two Quintilian's successful career ing, philosophy, and law. And if and he continues to astound his (during which he served under the he was quite ambitious and gifted, friends with his knowledge of that three Flavians, Vespasian and his the Roman student might then take classicgame, baseball. two sons Titus and Domitian) was a graduate course in one or more of

18 The Cresset these same subjects at a famous edu insure learning without engender would probably censure today's cational center in Greece, at Athens ing an early dislikeofstudy. research scholar who refuses to teach or Rhodes, for example. Upon the introductory courses to college conclusion of his graduate work he TO DRIVE YOUNG CHIL- freshmen, allegedly because they would be ready to launch his career. dren, Quintilian warns, would be do not warrant descent from his With the rise of the Roman Em folly, since the teacher would there ivory tower. pire and its vast bureaucracy bright by be creating for cultural and in In this vein, the Roman pedagogue sons of both elite Roman families tellectual pursuits an antipathy continued to posit his theories of and provincial Italian families were which, once aroused, would likely auricula, methods, and values finding many opportunities in the persist long after the years of child until he had come to the end of the public service. Vespasian himself, hood. Here one is reminded, some university course; and even after who had risen to the very top from what humorously, of the naive par the graduate was happily embarked the obscurity of a farm near the ent who severely castigated the over- upon his occupational career, Quin municipal town of Reate in the Sab- ambitious teacher of his seven-year- tilian with his boundless energy ine country northeast of Rome, had old for giving him a "D" in arith and enthusiasm was ever ready to been reared by his grandmother. metic: "He wanted to become an offer further, helpful advice. For Besides the openings in the civil engineer,"the fathershoutedangrily, him education is a lifelong process: service, careers were available also "and now you have ruined his whole "Studendum vero semper et ubique" in the legal and military professions. career." True, a genius like John ("But we must study always and But to he successful in any of these Stuart Mill, as his avowed benefac everywhere"). It is no coincidence, occupations a thorough training in tor Quintilian would allow, might therefore, that his published work, the art of speaking and writing was commence Greek at the age of three though entitled The Education of virtually indispensable. Quintilian and Latin a little later; but in the an Orator, includes the whole reper too went through this training, as case of typical children, learning at tory of human culture, both Greek did Tacitus, Lucan, the Younger a tender age must remain a diver and Latin, as far as it was organized Seneca, and the aforementioned sion and not become a chore. An in his day. Never an opponent of Pliny. To epitomize the supreme intriguing question may now be method, Quintilian nevertheless importance of public speaking in asked: What would be Quintilian's lays his strongest emphasis on sub the Roman world, the Australian reaction to the nationally televised stance, on a solid basis of prepar scholar Smail cites this poignant program "Sesame Street," which is atory studies. inscription on the tombstone of a said to have had phenomenal suc Of course he had his detractors. youthful orator: "What hopes I cess in educating the pre-school Though unnamed, these were ap might have afforded if destiny had children of America? parently professors of public speak permitted me to live, for the Muse In order that the child may not ing who, in offering young men had granted me, and that when I already in his first years insist on short cuts to the bar, ridiculed Quin wasstillachild,thegift of eloquence." wantingwhathe wants when he wants tilian's foundation ofcultural studies In the Institutes Quintilian takes it, Quintilian advises against that as a sheer waste of time and an im us through his entire curriculum soft nurture mistakenly called kind pediment to progress. The detrac in great detail, neglecting almost ness, which has its inception in the tors of liberal education dated as far none of the questions that have been cradle and ultimately weakens all back as Cicero's day, and the un hotly debated by educators of our the fibres of both mind and body. schooled Marius, Sulla's mortal foe, own times. As he directly or indirect "If our infants crawl on purple," might be cited as a prime illustra ly comes to grips with nearly all of he asks in protest, "what will they tion of the self-made man. Especial them, he evinces amazing soundness not demand when they have reached ly obnoxious to the practical educa of judgment and depth of insight their 'teens'?" The infancy of the tors was the study of Greek. But into human nature. To cite a single mind being as precious as the in Quintilian recommended that the example, we observe that Quintilian fancy of the body, the first elements Greek language, because of its great initially hints even at the possibili of learning, theauthorinsists, should aesthetic beauty, be studied before ties of the kindergarten: the stan be taught by the most accomplished the Latin. So hostile, however, were dard age for entering school was teacher, who in turn should not the opponents of everything Greek seven; but Quintilian urges that no decline to impart the fundamentals that one unenlightened Roman sen part of a child's life be without in as beneath his notice: "Maxima ator is said by Cicero to have regu struction, however slight at the be debetur puero reverentia" ("You larly returned to his home from the ginning. To create an early interest owe the greatest reverence to the Forum via a circuitous route, in in learning, Quintilian suggests young"). It was for this reason, Quin Orderto avoid taking the Via Graeca. giving the tot ivory models of the tilian points out, that Philip of Again Quintilian would make alphabetto play with. He considered Macedon secured Aristotle as tutor allowance for the exceptional gen such amusement a subtle device to of the young Alexander. Quintilian ius, at the same time stressing that

October, 1975 19 a few self—trained speakers with the student has no aptitude, that he parentis who is here speaking, and "little Latin and less Greek" may may develop an interest in them. Quintilian concludes his remarks on excel by reason of their unusual To Quintilian, however, talent is a this (to him) disagreeable subject by talent and so have too many imita decided requisite and, in the case observing that of all forms of polite tors resembling them in deficiency of the prospective public speaker, ness of which he has ever heard, of preparation but not approaching a strong voice, a robust constitution, such tumultuous, even thunderous them in natural ability. What would unfaltering courage, and a graceful rounds of applause are the most Quintilian think of the present- stance are also necessary. Should impolite. Ipse dixit\ day practice of requiring pupils in these assets be totally lacking, their Bits of advice to teachers are of the seventh and eighth grades, be want would render fruitless the ben fered throughout the Institutes. fore they have learned to spell some efits of study and toil. And their Here are several culled at random: of the most common words or recog value would be diminished without Be simple in your teaching, patient nize the eight parts of speech, to the teacher's skill and encourage of labor, adamant in exacting work write so-called research papers on ment and the student's constant assigned, though not fond of giving so formidable a subject as the origin practice in reading, writing, and assignments of unreasonable length. of Mediterranean civilization? "Fes- speaking based on the best models. Do not wander from your subject tina lente!" "Hasten slowly!" Today this practice would imply a without good cause. You may occa continuing course in English speech sionally indulge in witticism but not WE SHOULD BE GUILTY OF and composition of a similarly high at the expense of the subject at hand. a serious omission were we to over standard from the student's fresh Do not pretend to an omniscience look what this wisementor repeated man through his senior year in col capable of supplying answers to all ly postulated as the first and fore lege. This high standard. String- questions. Do not harbor vices your most essential of liberal education, fellow Barr says in commenting on self nor tolerate them in others. namely the development of a sound the historical significance of the Each day try to say something that character, as determined by the ex approaching Bicentennial, can rare your class will particularly wish to perience of the human race. Cer ly be achieved without the simul retain, for the living voice is more tainly Quintilian, like Plato in the taneous study of Greek or Latin. Of effective than the written word, First Book of the Republic, would all the lessons which the modem, above all in the case of a teacher reject as insidious the doctrine of democratic school has learned from whom well-educated students will situational ethics and the new moral Greece and Rome, the art of speak respect and admire. With astonish ity presently propagated in some ing and writing, he would maintain, ing rapidity we strive to please and circles of our national scene. To has been learned least effectively. imitate those for whom we have a illustrate the inevitable tragic con Though Quintilian's attitude to liking. When you finally retire from sequences resulting from the adop ward his students was marked by the duties of your profession, with tion and practice of this doctrine he kindness and good will, some of draw with dignity and in time. probably would say that he need their habits, it must be confessed, merely point to certain acts that annoyed him exceedingly. He found THE CLASSICAL CURRICU- have all too recently occurred in the quite irritating their habit of loudly lum adopted by Quintilian, as he highest places of our country. He applauding one another's speeches. himself states, is the Greek enkuk- himself constantly exhorts the teach In his judgment, boys should not lios paideia, the all-around educa er to inculcate in his students such indulge in such indiscriminate ap tion whereby Isocrates at his rhe Platonic virtues as justice, honesty, plauseatall,while youngmenshould torical school in classical Athens fortitude, and the control ofthe emo keep it strictly under control. The produced orators and statesmen tions, in fine humanitas and the reason for their wild bravos is trans dedicated to the welfare of their humane life, by means of study and parent: Manus manum lavat. (Latin country and its citizens. This same interpretation of literary master proverb: "One hand washes the education, designated first by Cicero pieces rich in moral content, as well other.") When the shouting of "so- as artes liberales, was developed as through his own exemplary con phos" became prolonged and threat brilliantly by Rome's master orator duct. ened to continue unabated, having in the three books of his De oratore. Concomitant with Quintilian's broken out already in the middle of His successor and admirer, Quin lofty concept of the educated man a speech that by all standards of tilian, in turn founded a type of is his deep, sympathetic understand good taste might fairly be described school that spread to all parts of the ing of students. This classroom as horrendous, the Roman school Roman Empire and lasted almost teacher realized well that not every master would finally lose patience until its fall. In this discipline estab boy could profit from the schooling and quietly remind his charges that lished by Quintilian, the majority that was being offered. In a classical for commendation they should of the early Latin Fathers were edu essay the late T. S. Eliot advocated turn, not to themselves, but to him. cated, including St. Augustine and the study of some subjects for which Surely it is the magister in loco Ausonius of Bordeaux and Sidonius

20 The Cresset of Lyons (fourth and fifth centuries, nomen Quintilianus Redivivus, tracts is even theDe copia of original respectively). or "Quintilian Reborn." thinker Desiderius Erasmus. The influence of Quintilian next The auricular mixture of the extended to England and northern THIS RENAISSANCE EDUCA- sacred with the profane, which at Europe, where it was quite strong tion, comprised of studies in Greek first served the purpose of training in the fifteenth and sixteenth cen andLatin and permeated with Chris priests and monks to read theologi turies. Here the Humanist scholar tian concepts, provided a way of cal and philosophical Latin and lay Juan Luis Vives of Spain, one of the life for more than three hundred men to become civil and legal ad most admired members of the court years to countless students in Eu ministrators, was revived in the sixth of Henry VIII, fostered the major rope and America. Many of those centiuy by Cassiodorus at his Vivar educational doctrines and programs educated in the liberal arts became ium, a religious community in south of the Renaissance and diuring his leadersin government, in the several Italy. Isidore of Seville later used lifetime was saluted as "another professions, and in business and this same approach, which was fol Quintilian." At the University of trade. Now the aim was to develop lowed again, still later, by the Vener Leipzig, Germany, the Professor of the vir bonus vivendi peritus ("good able Bede at Jarrow and Alcuin at Eloquence seems to have occupied man skilled in living") who pos York. From there it was transferred his chair as Professor Quintiliani. sessed a sound character, a disci to the palace school of Charlemagne In 1526, in the Statutes of the Uni plined mind, and a spirit of service on the Eiu'opean continent. Several versity of Wittenberg (prepared by dedicated to his fellowman: Aliis centuries afterward at Paris and Philipp Melanchthon), abstruse inserviendo consumorl ("I am con other medieval universities, the medieval Scholasticism was removed sumed in serving others!") Because artes liberales (under the further from the university's curriculum of prevailing circumstances, classi influence of the fifth-century alle and replaced by the enkuklios pai- cal education in private schools gorical poem of Martianus Capella deia, the term Melanchthon bor and colleges was then controlled on the marriage of Eloquence and rowed from Quintilian. Twelve by the churches, both Roman and Philology attended by seven brides years later, in 1538, when Johannes Protestant. Until about 1850 a re maids personifying the arts) became Sturm as headmaster opened the quirement for the bachelor's degree the trivium and quadrivium that first Gymnasium at Strassburg, the at Oxford was membership in the led to the bachelor's and master's strange but effective sponsalia final Church of England. And in the Uni degrees. "Thus," exclaims William ly blossomed into the wedded union ted States, Harvard College and McDonald of Ohio State University, of Christian Humanism. Also in the King's College (subsequently Colum "the classical concept of the whole sixteenth century the Jesuits pub bia University) were founded on ness and self-sufficiency of man was lished a Ratio studiorum, "curricu Biblical Humanism. joined with theJudaic concept of the lum," and as early as 1542 founded "The old order changeth, yield absolute sovereignty of God." Two theirfirst classical school in Messina, ing place to new!" By 1914, at the unsuccessful attempts were made, Sicily. John Calvin also adopted a outbreak of World War I, the situa for opposite reasons McDonald Christian classical curriculum at tion had changed. Quintilian's repu points out, to break off the desig Geneva, Switzerland, and in the tation had in fact declined several nated sponsalia, "betrothal"—the second half of the 1500s classical decades before. What is more, the first in the fourth century by the schools came into existence at Eton churches not only lost control of Roman Emperor Julian the Apos andWinchesterin AnglicanEngland. education but had begun to turn tate, the second in the twelfth cen The two secular pillars of Re away from their classical curricu tury by Pope PeterDamian. naissance education were Cicero lum which was regarded by dis and Quintilian. Cicero, who was not cerning observers as the one re Diuing the Renaissance, Italian a professional teacher, contributed maining bond of European unity. Humanists foimd congenial kinship his studia politiora, liberal arts, as Hilaire Belloc perceived what was with Quintilian, perhaps, as George humanitas humanitatis causa, art happening: "Europe is the faith and Kennedy feels, because "they saw in for art's sake. In its influence on edu the faith is Europe, and the decline him a counterpart of themselves, a cational practice during the Renais of the faith is the decline of Europe." literate enthusiast who looked back sance theInstitutio oratoria of Quin In 1921 (when the office of President at all of classical letters as a source tilian (whom a contemporary of of the United States was not merely of education and inspiration." Pe Ignatius calls "our Quintilian") is respected but even revered). Presi trarch praised Quintilian for the the most important treatise of its dent Calvin Coolidge published in "original doctrines propoimded" kind. As William Woodward has the Classical Journal an excellent in the Institutes; Lorenzo Valla ex stated, "Every humanist tract upon full-length article on the "Value of travagantly compared Quintilian to education or upon oratory is largely the Classics," which he had pre Cicero; and Vittorino da Feltre a reproduction of Quintilian." In sented before the American Classi seems to have been given the cog cluded by Woodward among such cal League. This writer knows of no-

October, 1975 21 similar address or article by any of Karl Weintraub of Chicago has late in the Silver Age [New York, 7555); the succeeding Presidents of this ly argued in print, be an egalitarian Fitz Gerald, William H. "Quintil- country. aristocrat? For Quintilian, the stu Clearly "the times are out of joint." ian's Portrait of the TeocAer," Clas dent is not required to reach the sical Folia 25 (7565), 238-45; Gwynn, Socrates declared that his wealth top nor to excel others; the sole re Aubrey. Roman Education from Ci consisted not in the number of his quirement for success is the faithful cero to Quintilian. {New York, 1926 material possessions, but in the few use of the gifts with which he has Kennedy, George. Quintilian. {New ness of his wants. In contrast, the been endowed. York, (7565); Laing, Gordon J. two-century-old Industrial Revolu The number of young men and "Quintilian the Schoolmaster," tion, with its ever-increasing empha women choosing a classical educa sis on manufactured products, has Classical Journal 15 (7575-20), 521; tion will likely continue to fluctuate Small, William M. Quintilian on fostered in Western man an inherent according to the shifting whims of Education. {Oxford, 7555). For the avarice, cupiditas habendi. Such a educationists. That there will always best English translation of Quintil- man finds himself controlled by a be an enclave of such students is managerial class whose principle is ian's Institutes, Dr. Reinke recom certain. Not so certain is whether mends the Loeb Classical Library, efficiency and a technological class our society will permit these per whose principle is material progress. an ongoing series of translations of ceptive young men and women to the classical writers, with Greek and Having lorn himself loose from his pursue the education of their choice. cultural roots, the uneasy and un Latin texts with translation on pages Yet, as C. P. Snow has stressed, it is facing the original. —AFS sure American is enveloped in a the duty of a free democracy to in malodorous environment that he sist upon and guarantee the avail himself has polluted. Life for him is ability of the broadly humanizing no longer the coherent experience study of Greek and Latin: "Homo that once gave his existence a mean sum; humani nil a me alienum puto." ing which inspired confidence. He ("I am a man; I hold that what affects his consequently lost respect for another man affects me.") truth as a guide for conduct. The THE In the history of Classical Human CRESSET material security guaranteed him ism, Greek arete has not always con by at least one economic pressure noted the same kind of excellence. group has made him not happy and For example, the Homeric hero, REPRIM'S contented, but restless and increas Achilles, achieved arete, virtue, ingly demanding. Deriving no gen when he excelled as "speaker of AVAILABLE NOW ... uine satisfaction and pleasure from words and doer of deeds." Later the ON ABORTION work, he still refuses to believe, at Greek moralist Theognic com Six articles reprinted from The a time of dwindling material re plained in one of his poems that Cresset, representing moral, theo sources, that life can never be easy. the nouveaux riches were degrading logical, and legal aspects of the These negative results are produced arete to the level of the money abortion controversy. by a machine age that continuously maker. Plato's idea of justice is per All in one 24-page reprint. stimulates man's seemingly insati haps Greek Humanism's loftiest able pecuniary appetite. It is not Single copy: ea.SSC ideal. But our youth may be correct In multiples of 10: ea. 30C strange, therefore, that the Carnegie in their exhortation of love as a con In multiples of 100: ea. 250 Commission on Higher Education cept of arete worthy of adoption and Postage paid if payment recently concluded that education practice, particularly in our troub accompanies the order. in the United States is floundering lous times. To be sure, this love because it is unable to define its should not be interpreted as eroti AVAILABLE SOON ... goals. cism nor even the noble philia of Orestes and Pylades but rather, as Poetry of Nil desperandum\ Classical Hu McDonald thoughtfully suggests, J.T.LEDBETTER manism has never been nor can it as love sublimated to an ineffable with ever be a Christian monopoly, nor Christian agape. If illustrations by can it be a monopoly of the elite. GERALD F. BROMMER It must be accessible to all who are convinced of the merits of its hard core subjects and able to benefit Reprints may be ordered from: from its proposition that the proper Readers who desire further infor The Cresset, Reprints, study of mankind is man —what he mation about Quintilian are directed Valparaiso University, should be and what he should pur to the following sources: Duff, J. Valparaiso, Indiana 46383 sue. Should the complete man, as Wight. A Literary History of Rome

The Cresset BRITE SPOT CAFE

The sign read "EAT" the man across the aisle shoveling and in soft April rain I pulled it in while his mother (presumably) across the gravelled white-rock road— gave him what-for with each mouthful- "Use other door" "1 say no muttonchops. Moustache ok, but and there wasn't butone door... them chops point to yournose, Roger...." while inside the old timers laughed and words trailing off and pointed at my fumbling... to a table next to mine: inside and to a quiet table "Dewey's is the best... there's and the waitress: a new man there who lays 'em out so natiural, you wouldn't believe it "Bring me a cheeseburger and coffee. and they's reasonable: $74.00 gets your "Want the cottage cheese?" casket, wreath of forget-me-nots and ad "No, just the cheeseburger and coffee. in theAdvocate ... and thatnew man "Doncha want the cottage cheese... ?" lays 'em outso natural " "No, just..." and "How*bout them French Fries... ?" finally my cheesebui^er: small, rounded, Shestood awhile cheese inmelted— as I studied the tablecloth then sidled over to the window I and gave my order look in vain for onion, pickle, lettuce... "... and he don't want the cottage and the hovering waitress, noticing my cheese—" hesitation— "Now you wantchercottage cheese?" and such a hush then! silence, again, in the Brite Spot Cafe the ram-rod backed farmers turned on their as chrome stools turn, stools to gape my way— farmers look, and conversations hang suspended in beatific I flushed hot and studied the mysteries silence— of my menu that showed the map of Iowa "Yes" I say- saying"You are here, Dubuque is ..." and Iowa resumes its humanistic and centerofthe Universe finally to look up at eating faces,all engrossed as heresies and dreams alike are laid to rest— in their cottage cheese— looking very natural....

J. T. LEDBETTER

October, 1975 23 JILL BAUMCAERTNER

ifi If Dreams Were Words ...

MY HOUSE. So here is Walter Mitty, whose illusions are uni By Nikki Giovanni. New York: Wiiiiam Morrow and Company, versal and, Anne Sexton seems to be saying, in Inc., 1972.69 pages. $1.95. stinctive. In fact, in another section of "Hurry Up THE DEATH NOTEBOOKS. Please It's Time" the "pocketa-pocketa" of Mitty's By Anne Sexton. Boston: Houghton Miffiin Company, 1974. wild daydreams loses only a syllable in an infant's I 98 pages. $2.95. first utterances. WOMAN READING IN BATH. My daughter's first word was utta, meaning button. By Anne Szumigaiski. Garden City, New York: Doubieday and Company, Inc., 1974. SB pages. $2.50. Before there are words do you dream? in utero do you dream? THE SHADY AFTERNOON DISSOLVES Who taught you to suck? into mellow wanderings, a green lull, a saunter If dreams are instinctive, then illusions begin as into dream. And the day becomes illusory, nostal far back as birth and,^ perhaps, even before that gic, hopeful. Routine, whether agitated or mea first awakening slap. Wordsworth? Perhaps, but sured, may clutch us tomorrow, but now we have a the difference is that for Anne Sexton the dream few pliable hours to shape fancifully into pipe- ends at death, a gentle cessation. holders or primitive pots or intricate and super fluous Southern white gloves or, perhaps, even There's power in the Lord, baby, and he's gonna turn off the moon. well-wrought urns. The dream—a memory for some, an aspiration He's gonna nail you up in a closet for others, a pure and simple escape for most — and there'll be no more Atlantic, this dream is life is death W Anne Sexton. That no more dreams, no more seeds. life is really death is certainly not an original idea. One's comprehension of life's real "buttons" is Sexton does, however, avoid the traditional and alwaystinted by dream. Anne Sexton suggests that predictable melodramatic rage and the maudlin one's comprehension of the final reality, death, is whine which so often accompany the realization. in like manner never complete, for we are at best Instead, she displays a childlike curiosity and a children and at worst indifferent (a lilting, shrug challenge to "worship the question itself." She ging chorus of "la-dee-dah's"). We are bored and examines the equation closely and discovers that numb; in fact that is the state we long for. We if it is valid, then life-sustaining necessities become grope for "December and its Novocain." We have at once death-encouraging. One of these necessi been caged and frightened since birth. ties is dream. When mother left the room Middle class lady, and left me in the big black You make me smile. and sent away my kitty You dig a hole to be fried in the camps And come out with a sunburn. and took away my blanket If someone hands you a glass of water to wash the meoutof it You start constructing a sailboat, 1lay in the soiled cold and prayed. if someone hands you a wrapper, It was a little jail in which You take it to the book-binder. 1was never slapped with kisses. Pocketa-pocketa. 1was the engine that couldn't. Cold wigs blewon the trees outside and car lights flew like roosters Jill Baumgaertner, whose work has appeared pre on the ceiling. viously, is poetry consultant for The Cresset. Cradle, you are a grave place.

24 The Cresset Furthermore, the moment of death transforms us poems by an imagistic series of dried and raspy all into infants once again: "Mama, they say, as fall foliage. Even though the title poem is "Woman their intestines/ leak out." Reading in Bath," the sections of the volume are And so, in this slim volume of poems, death and "Crabseeds," "Ribgrass," and "Nettles," and these birth and dream become a strange trinity. This is are strewn with flower and weed imagery. But no Sexton's religion and one is unavoidably thrown clear pattern emerges. back against Hemingway whose words open the Anne Szumigalski is at her best when writing book: "Look, you con man, make a living out of quasi-narrative poems, if only because at least your death." This cry is echoed in most of her there is a storyline to follow, some comprehensible poems, especially byJonah in "Making a Living," images and a chronological sequence to hook on where Death gulps him down, and inside Death's to. "A Celebration" is one of these poems, although real presence Jonah is purged as he feasts on his there is something quite shocking and slightly own past. For Anne Sexton, however, there is no repulsive about the subject. resurrection. In this volume she suffers a type of death; more than a recurring theme, death be Our grandmother had gout comes, paradoxically, the life force. And so one (1 think it was that) is tempted, in the context of her recent suicide, there were chalk deposits on her knuckles to search for the negative motive. It is present, that stuck right through the skin frequently in conjunction with rebirth imagery. she used to amuse us children by drawing five simultaneous lines Cold slicing the window pane on the blackboard with the back of her hand like a razor blade it must have been painful. for God, it seems has turned his backside to us, The grandmother dies and the "limey spikes" giving us the dark negative, keep growing. the death wing, until such time By September they poked out at the surface as a flower breaks down the front door a wide circle of little chalky stubs and we cry "Father! Mother!" 1think they might have leafed out amongst the and plan their wedding. short grass but autumn is a poor time for sprouting This marriage of Earth and God, the profane and when All Souls' came we lighted the spiritual, seems always to point to the grave. eighty of them for holy candles The search for a joyous resolution beyond Anne they burned brightly for a while Sexton's morbid fascination is futile. God has, for and then they wrinkled and browned her, "tipped his hat/ and walked/ out of the room, and flickered out. ending the argument." So on October 4,1974 Anne Sexton breathed in her car and fell out of dream. The effect is like rubbing tough, water-wrinkled The Death Notebooks is her suicide note. hands over a rough, stiff towel on a very cold back porch ... or like the giant Orkin billboards pictur ANNE SZUMIGALSKI'S DREAMS ARE ing a roach sixty feet long. Dali-esque portraits,surrealistic attempts to paint Szumigalski's poems seem slightly insane, per theimagination,sometimes a grotesquearch across haps because of her futile attempt to organize the a page, but every so often a flower stem sliced to poems within the volume. No coherent pattern or thepithofanemotion. Shewrites ofthe devouring theme emerges among the poems she includes in appetite of possessive love, the tickle and tease of each of the three sections. Individually her poems the game, the helpless seriousness of abandonment, are interesting—even good sometimes. Imagisti- the sting and lilt of it all. Love relationships are callyher poems are exciting.But they are random not simple, she realizes, and love can become a and disheveled. Interestingly, in "Crabseeds" flower closing in on itself—the bud which folds Szumigalski writes: intoa hardseed, or the fruit which driesand splits "and shells out from sharp capsule/ Its small Bring me a cold plate brown stones." And set it under the tree The problem with Anne Szumigalski's poetry 1want to arrange the crabseeds is that the imagery seems to takeover completely. So as to resemble One cannot slide gently into this poetry; one must Some kind of disorder. grab a handful of it and hang on. It will not be tamed.Apparently shehasattempted to unify these Thatshe has done.

October, 1,975 25 One searches for a unity in which to wrap all the on their backs glaring at us. A bared soul does not disparate shards of these poets' experiences. This necessarily produce pathos: it can become trite impulsein certainlynotmerewhimsy, for the poets and embarrassing when it is accompanied by coy themselves indirectly suggest it to us. If Donne ness. Two or three of the poems in this collection can link compasses and lovers and if Crashaw can are uncomfortable experiences because of this pre connect womb and tomb, certainly they see a unity tense. But many more are delightful touches of py which the ordinary man does not. Perhaps poets whimsy. She writes of loving a one-eyed cat and of must be slightly psychotic in order to write good being a mother and of over-feeding her guppies poetry because the very nature of metaphor is to and of wanting to be a bridesmaid "floating/ down yoke the superficially dissimilar in such a way that that holy aisle leading/ some dear friend to heav similarities become apparent. Otherwise, the en." There are dreams of weddings, but there are 0 shattered um not only loses form and beauty, but also deeper longings, both for solitude and against ^3 also meaning. That is why Anne Szumigalski must the isolation which categorization brings. How of ^ "jk control her crabseeds. The rarest floweris nothing ten we would like to step out of our roles and into but a weed if it comes up between well-planted the I-Thou. rows of green onions. and sometimes on rainy nights you see Nikki Giovanni is not a virtuoso in the key- an old white woman who maybe you'd really pounding, intricately woven sense Anne Sexton is, care about but reading her is sometimes fun and often sur except that you're a young Black woman prising. My House contains little of the black whose job it is to kill maim or seriously nationalistic anger of her previous poetry or the make her question subjectivism of Gemini, her autobiography which the validity of her existence often breaks into absurdities. In that volume she and you look at her kind of funny colored eyes discards Shakespeare and Dostoevsky and refers and you think to Faulkner as "just a Southerner who had no use if she weren't such an aggressive bitch she ful skills." But in My House she divorces herself would see from ideology —and one finally can like her poems that if you weren't such a Black one rather than fight her politics. Her art is unique in there would be a relationship.... its simplicity and directness. These are not diffi cult poems; they are for the most part appealing because of the person we sense creating them. Nikki Giovanni is profoundly human in these Thereis somethingchildlike about Nikki Giovanni poems—not black human or white human, but here—but something simultaneously quite firm. woman and poet, and her audience widens. The problems which do arise with this type of So back to silver bracelets, wooden chipped poetry have to do with that hair-thin line which boats, black molten hair... the dream, these poets, lies between simplicity and the simplistic. When the self are bom and die and become a deeper the poems do not succeed, the brief art style cannot dream. That's the poetry of the um—and its resur hide their failures. Then the poems just lie there rection. n

ASSURED LONGEVITY

The world is not likely to end More likely we shall yet stumble As a scorched potato, skin seared Through another handful of centuries. Of life with only the blackened rock Cripplingourselves and the land. Reminding some alien visitor, say Achieving our cmelties. We shall yet A thousand years hence, that men lived Gut the moon as we have gutted earth. On this earth. It is not so likely. We shall yet claim our destiny.

A. J. HOVDE

26 The Cresset LETTER FROM ARROAl)/ ZURICH - WALTER SORELL

TO BE MAN AND TO BE OF ONE'S TIME

THEATRE IS, UNDOUBTED- highly successful, they could open rhyme or reason in the context of ly, a medium of great immediacy some new vistas of old themes or lonesco's nontext. (Moreover, even and, from the days of Schiller to create a better visualization of the the best actor can hardly ever re Brecht, a moral institution or a plat past. Otherwise, one had to be con create a clown and be as believable form on which the dramatist, direc tent with a repetition of the familiar as any real clown in the circus.) tor and actor engage the audience in or with a meretricious originality. Peter Zadek's King Lear, pre a discussion of vital timely ques Is it right to deprive Brecht's sented by the Schauspielhaus Bo- tions. Could it be symptomatic of Threepenny Opera of its biting so chum, tried to out-Lear all Lear om* puzzled and pained period that cial satire and comment on the cor productions by blending Grand- during West Berlin's Theatre Festi ruption of man which Brecht cer Guignol, tragedy, farce, and revue. val this past spring (May 27 to June tainly intended? Does the under Peter Zadek is no Peter Brook, and 13) not one play was shown by what lining of its musical entertainment his Lear deserved the bravoes it could be considered the avant-garde values come closer to John Gay's received for his daring as well as the of 1975? The jury of ten German original which strove to lampoon boos for the phoniness of its effects. drama critics eschewed the issue of the arrogance of the opera singers His is a dangerous approach to stag contemporaneity and compromised of his time more than to chastise ing Shakespeare, or any classic for by choosing the best or most inno Sir Robert Walpole's corrupt gov that matter, selling counterfeit con vative staging of a play, regardless ernment? Probably this play is no cepts with a circus barker's voice, of its timeliness. Thus, Brecht's longer what it was for us in 1928 (not mimicking the new for the mere sake Baal and The Threepenny Opera in our post-Watergate age) and all of newness. Through the centuries or the first lonesco. The Bald So that remains victorious onstage is Shakespeare has endured more than prano, were the most contempor Kiut Weill's music. any other playwright. No vandaliz aneous plays, trailed by Lorca, Gor Beckett's Waiting for Godot re ing mind or pernicious storm has ky, Ibsen, Moliere and Shakespeare. tains its frightening mystery, pre ever felled this tree. However intriguing the various senting man's seemingly futile at productions may have been—and tempt to hold on to his desperate HAROLD PINTER IS VERY they certainly were—the plays' beliefin somethingbeyondhis grasp. much of our time. He captures its lack of immediacy or the familiarity Butlonesco'sBc/d Soprano seems to seedy sounds, the chilling chitchat of their themes raises several ques have paled quite a bit. Has the gib of our subliminal state. His charac tions. The essence of all theatrical berish non-communicativeness, as ters are never quite here and no performances may still be the per the couples Smith and Martin exem longer there where nothing is what formance itself. But is not the quin plify, become the lingo of our daily it seems to be. As in lonesco's Bald tessence of the drama its message on expression? Have we accepted or Soprano, his four male characters stage addressing the audience, reach adjusted to the routine of not being live in the world of their inner ing for and attacking our state of able to come close to our fellowman monologues. Pinter can make non- mind and soul? There have been with our treacherous words? Bald communicativeness come alive as quite a few new plays on the various Soprano no longer seems to be the no one else and, in his new play German stages during the last sea daring antiplay, breaking the record No Man's Land, produced by The son, but most of the elite directors for absurdity. DirectorAlfred Kirch- National Theatre at the Old Vic, could prove their craft and the flight ner of the Staatstheater Stuttgart Peter Hall directing, he succeeds of their imagination much better in was not sure of the play's effective in presenting the glacial atmosphere the staging of known rather than nessand added a few clown numbers, of human lostness with a rare poetic unknown plays. Where they were funny in themselves but without any power.

October, 1975 27 One is never quite sure what hap Robert Patrick. I have seen nothing ward its destruction. (It is not at all pens in this play, what motivates the else of his so far, but this play—in remote from the unknown forces two protagonists: John Gielgud's spite of its unnecessary length — that rule Beckett's plays of the un Spooner is an intellectual, a poet of convinced me. Like Pinter's, it is a fathomablesicknesstowhich ourown sorts, who has fallen on hard times, play of nonaction, even though the time has succumbed.) The Citizens but whose prose can sing, and sing playbill says"The action of the play Theatre Glasgow acts with such it does in muted despair behind a takes place in a bar on the Lower theatrical abandonment that one strange haughtiness turning all situ East Side of New York on a rainy cannot help being deeply impressed ations into nonsituations; his coun February afternoon in 1974." Six by their performance. (By the way, terpart is Ralph Richardson's Hirst, young people enter and leave and this group, in its contest of new who is the unhappy, but successful enter the bar and soliloquize about plays in 1974, awarded Robert Pa alcoholic man of letters who picked their crushed hopes ten years after trick's Kennedy's Children the first Spooner up on Hampstead Heath the great promise of a young Presi prize.) to bring him to his luxurious home dent whose destiny may have saved which is run by two typical Pinter him from destroying his own legend. toughs who create an ambiance of The hopes and lives of those young STRINDBERG'S DREAM PLA Y hidden menace. The two chief char sters were destroyed. If it was not is a very religious play which he acters manage to live in their no Vietnam, then it was the routine characterized as "A Buddhistic and man's land of fantasy which flows yam that life begins to spin so beau ur-Christian drama." It is a most gently back and forth like a river tifully and so delicately only to tear complex play, Strindberg's Faust, that can't make up its mind about apart at one point: Cmshed minds, in which he whose suffering had al which direction to take. There are broken hearts of which the bars are ways escaped into blind fury and many pauses and no action whatso full all over the world. Patrick's hatred suddenly feels compassion ever, but the words come and go, bar creates a tiny mosaic whose for the poor creature called man. broken grooves of memory in which macrocosmic connotations the spec He asks Indra's daughter to come both men are caught; verbal sounds tator can sense. Do plays have to down to earth, she who said in a which, con sordino, reach us and have action nowadays when there most Christian way: "I have always then suddenly lead into beautiful is so much of it outside the theatre suffered your suffering." But when cascades of images, ecstatic out and too much of it in our own per she faces the endless string of suf bursts of poetry, which escape into sonal lives? fering she cries out: "Oh, what a a moment of silence again or into pity I feel for man!" the trivia of a routine remark or IN FORMER DAYS, PARTIC- In the beginning, Indra does not routine question, neither asking for ularly with the Renaissance drama despair or give up. "Yes, life is dif nor expecting an answer. tists, there was always plenty of ficult, but love can conquer any This new Pinter play is a huge action on stage. John Webster's thing!" she believes. Is she a child canvas on which some may see noth Duchess of Malfi is a baroque re of the Indian gods or a Christian ing but blotches of color, lines, and venge play, a fashionable type in saint who can utter such a thought? dashes of no consequence, other early 17th century London. Action At the end she sees no way out. people a still life of abstract images, abounds: court intrigues, pure and Man's calamity is simply that "he is puzzling as much as life, threatening incestuous love, madness and mur here."And in leaving earth she goes and cajoling. Totally without events, der. The Citizens Theatre Company the way of a saint. Death is the only it seemed quite eventful to me. It Glasgow—a wonderfully trained liberation. Once more Strindberg made me think of clouds whose ensemble which I saw in Zurich's evokes the image of futility by hav strange formations reflect the serene" Schauspielhaus during the June ing his many characters re-appear or traumatic stories of the wind Festival —had the symbolically and throw into the flames the Sym which suddenly sweeps through the silent figure of Death take a major bols of their senseless striving and sky as if from nowhere, blowing with part in the plot, heightening the lost hopes: a scarf, roses, diamants, fury and then losing momentum. inevitability of a torturous, cruel, legal records, etc. In a metaphysical And in the chance formation of such and bloody end of it all. The al sense Indra leaves this place of suf clouds we can perceive a beauty legory gains dramatic krength in fering in a victorious mood. Music which is not there to be understood Philip Prowse's staging. A kind of is heard, the flowers indicate their but to make us wonder. I left this choreography occurs between the understanding. The symbolic castle Pinter play in an elated mood with sumptuous sets and the actors whose of a dreaming reality bursts into out knowing why. movements and mimicry are fully flames in which Indra disappears. integrated with the verbal excesses It is a play of many mysteries and IN A DIFFERENT WAY I WON- of the play. Webster's excessive, the one reality: life. There are a dered and felt quite positive after tragic world, based on inexplicable, great number of realistic scenes in a having seen Kennedy's Children by brutally irrational laws, rushes to surrealistic setting. Can any stage

28 The Cresset director, any actor do full justice to such a play? I cannot say. I only know that the famed French director Roger Blin did not master it. Some BOOKS of the scenes and some of the actors recreated this strange blending of realism and the unreal, touching upon the poetry of that mystery ALIVE IN THE SPIRIT. a series of homilies on texts from the post-Pentecost history of the church. which we know as life. Martin Franzmann. St. Louis: Concordia, 1973.79 pp. Paper. $1.95. Franzmann intends that we should come alive to the experiences of the THE INTERNATIONAL MU- PRAY FOR JOY. first Christians and in those expe sic Festival in Luzem has made it riences recognize the continuing its business to feature one great Martin Franzmann. St. Louis: Concordia, action of the Holy Spirit in our own. 1970. 79 pp. $2.95. dramatic production, too. This year The form is not new; the manner it commissioned a play by the Czech is not unconventional. Those who dramatist Pavel Kohout. Being un think that reliving requires restyl- der the iron domination of Com ing will be disappointed. Reading munism in his native land, Kohout's several of these homilies in one sit task was not an easy one. Wanting ting can, in fact, produce monotony, to be produced in the Western cap Martin Franzmann reads the Bible so regular are the rhythms and so italistic world and not wanting to be with care. He does not use Scripture predictable the course of each. The beheaded at home, he faced the most to score points or to make life suc joy of these informal meditations is difficult choice: his theme. He es cessful. The Bible for him is not a in the words. Franzmann rejoices caped today's reality and drama magical apparatus or a talisman. It in the words of St. Paul and his joy tized a story written in 1907 by Leo is first and finally a book. especially enlivens his language: nid N. Andrejev: a revolutionary Butnot"just" a book. "all of us garden-variety baptized theme in an old-fashioned setting. Mass productionof printed matter, men,""thewordsofthe Law bounced Well, no one would be able to blame close-outs and discoimts of remain like hailstones off our too, too solid him. A pre-Bolshevik Russian An ders, discardable editions—it is flesh,""this army of God's gray mice drejev depicted a sincere revolu hard today to retain the sense of nibbling away so busily at the great tionary who is trapped by the police wonder before a real book. A real mountain of the world," "easy Chris in a bordello of all places. The irony book is not a record of a life; it is tian indolence which conceals its of the Kitsch: to escape police tor that life. The person of the writer sloth with the wrappings of piety." ture, he is shot by one of the whores. does not exist separated from his This is lively language, not just Have we never heard before of the words. The inspiration which en suited to a subject but fully realizing purity at heart of those whose life livens the writing is not separable a truth. forces them to sell the shell of their from the person. St. Paul is not The reviewer dares to speak of a souls in the name of love? Has he known through his words; his words man's preaching. He dare not vio convinced her of his revolutionary are St. Paul. The Holy Spirit does late the privacy of his praying. "Pub ideas? We don't know. But we real not use St. Paul; the saint and the licationofone'sprayers," Franzmann ize that she has taken his suffering Spirit are the revelation of God. confesses,"comes dangerously close upon herself. How wonderful is this One who loves literature will un to praying at street comers to be touch of holiness in a whore, a little derstand this. The person for whom seen by men." He intends, though, saint, a silent martyr. language is merely a tool and syn to encourage the practice of constant Did Kihout want to discredit the tax a code will continue to stand prayer in all circumstances and sets corrupt and whoring society of for superior to his reading. Franzmann examples which are the equals in merly bourgeois Russia? Did he came to his theological studies hav quality, invention, and meaning of want to extol the greatness of the ing begun as a teacher of literature. his hymn texts {vide The Worship revolution, or the sincerity of a man He reads the Bible as a book which Supplement). who cannot help fighting for the fu- speaks in the language of real per Pray for Joy includes: "Thanks tiu*e liberation of the common man? sons the realities of God. He pre for Harsh Medicine," "On a Rainy The playwright's words were as sumes that the writers mean what Day," "In an Art Gallery," "To Re phony as the story, the story as emp they say and that words are chosen spect Language," "For the Police," ty as the dramatic situations and out of rhetorical, aesthetic, existen "For the Slob," "For Grace to Grow the entire production. Kohout called tial, and divine necessities. Old Gratefully," "Over a Glass of his play Roulette. Unfortunately This is to recommend a collection Wine." The table prayer, "Grace for this unique occasion, Pavel Ko of devotional writings by this de Before Meat," is the jewel of the hout lost playing Roulette. H voted reader. Alive in the Spirit is collection.

October, 1975 29 Of the two books, Pray for Joy a map thereby cutting himself off posed the analytic world of the may be the more important and in from the garden in which all areas rationalist but who could do little fluential. The fortunate reader, of experience are open to one an more than violently fragment this though, need not distinguish but other and capable of nurturing one repressive image of reality in order have both for himself. Franzmann another as well. to obliterate all lines between things. knows what verbal inspiration is Because he believes that literary In contrast to the perspective of all about. He must be heard today. structures reflect cultural ones, Ver the realistic novel, the vision em non examines imaginative works bodiedintheworksofmenlike Franz forsymptomsofthis cultural malaise. Kafka, Wallace Stevens, and Theo He uses literature as a barometer of dore Roethke as well as in literary W. F. EIFRIG a predicament afflicting the Westem movements like symbolism and sur world as a whole. For him, the artist realism is organic and holistic. Ver seems to be more sensitive to all of non associates this vision with the the pressures this culture brings to imageof the garden, in whichoppo- bear upon its members or at least sites are united without their dif more capable of exposing these pres ferences being denied. For Vemon, sures and expressing their conse this world serves as a total altema- THE GARDEN AND THE MAP: SCHIZO quencesfor our lives. Yet,Vemon is tive to the dualistic stmctures of PHRENIA IN TWENTIETH-CENTURY aware that the artist is, like every classical Westem thought. More to LITERATURE AND CULTURE. one else, subject to these pressures the point, perhaps, this vision pro himself. As a result, he pays special vides Vemon with the perspective By John Vernon. Urbana: The University of attention to the work of two men — in terms of which he can pass judg Illinois Press, 1973.220 pp. $8.95. Burroughs and Roethke—for whom ment upon the stmctures of thought the term "madness" is not simply embraced by the West and can find metaphorical since both have been them "insane," not merely because described clinically in this way as they differ from those of non-West- well. As he does so, Vemon builds em cultures but also because they his case against Westem culture as force us inexorably down the path a whole by arming that its path that Burroughs hastaken ahead ofus. IN THE GARDEN AND THE ological features are exhibited in Mr. Vemon is scarcely the first to Map, John Vemon explores the the realistic and naturalistic novels make use of the map as an emblem of forms of thought reflected in West- of our time and that this sickness is modem consciousness. John Donne em literature, forms which he be countered by the healthy or perhaps did much the same thing when—in lieves exhibit the fundamentally even therapeutic vision of life em "Hymne to God My God, in My schizophrenic character of our bodied in the work of modem poets Sicknesse"—he spoke of his physi thought, especially in the literature working in a symbolic idiom. cians as "cosmographers" and of of this century. Using the methods In Vemon's eyes, the realistic himself as their "Mapp" lying flat of psychology and phenomenology novel ultimately accepts the view of upon the bed. No less important, taken from R. D. Laing, Edmund reality current in Westem thought Donne also recognized the distor Husserl, Normal O. Brown, and and therefore serves as an example tion impJiicit in the flattened per others, Veraon explores the modem of the sort of "map consciousness" spective of his physicians, for he sensibility displayed in the novels afflicting our culture. Here, one not saw that West and East were not and the poetry of our time. Like only sees the division between sub simply opposites but also poles that organicists since the time of Cole ject and object but also encounters met in the spherical realm of the ridge, Verjion abhors the sort of the assumption that the "real" has globe as well as in the universe of dualism he sees at work in Westem to do only with the "objective" di faith, where "death doth touch the thought separating subject and ob mensions of experience capable of Resurrection." Thus, Donne con ject, mind and body, fantasy and being treated by the abstractions of trasted the map consciousness of the reality. Indeed, he finds our culture reason. In such novels, then, one modem with the global conscious and the mind that succumbs to it to attempts to explore experience as ness of faith, but, unlike Vemon, be "mad," for—in the name of san an observer for whom life can be Donne managed to encompass the ity and reason—it denies and, in spread out, as it were, like a map modem perspective within the tra effect, also destroys the primordial upon a table, where it can be viewed ditional, religious one. unity of being perceived by primi with detachment. Thus, Vemon sees Somewhat more recently, the tive and non-Westem man as well as evidence of inner division in the image of the map has haunted the by very young children. Thus, West- work of Barth, Pyncheon, Sartre, imagination of a twentieth-century em man fragments experience and, Borges, Robbe-Grillet, and espe poet, Allen Tate, who contrasts the in doing so, seals off areas of it as on cially Burroughs, who himself op empty abstractions of the map with

30 The Cresset the more organic world of concrete of the primitive, thereby placing THE YOM KIPPUR WAR: ISRAEL AND experience. For Tate, the hard and map and garden over against one THE JEWISH PEOPLE. fast lines of the map separate things another in a dualism as strict, as Edited by Moshe Davis. New York: Arno from one another and, in doing so, spiurious, and as dangerous as the Press, 1974.381>f.xvm pp. $9.00. drain experience of its concrete, ones he set out to combat in the first physical reality: "Black borders place. hold the Area in a cracked dish. .. In describing the map as a cracked dish incapable of contain SUE WIENHORST ing a fluid reality, Tate "explains" why a man like Burroughs felt im ON OCTOBER 6, 1973 THE pelled to blast through those lines world awakened to the news of the and destroy them and why he did so outbreak of the fourth major war in only to be confronted by an imdif- the Middle East in a quarter of a ferentiated being that was night GOOD GRIEF. centiuy. Like the war in June of marish and deathlike. Unless some 1967 the hostilities captured the sense of place replaces the empty By Granger Westberg. Philadelphia: Fortress headlines for several weeks. But space of mathematical abstraction, Press, 1971.51 pp. Paper, $1.25. differing from the earlier one, the one can destroy the divisions with events were followed by a more out necessarily being able to return knowledgeable public, one which to the simple acceptance of things had leamed since 1967, at least, that that marked his childhood. Instead, LOSS IS SOMETHING WE the Middle East is a critical area he will perceive reality as a dream all experience in one form or an for the future peace of the world. whether it be Burrough's night other—loss by death, by estrange Nonetheless, even those familiar marish moment of chaos or Tate's ment, by divorce; loss of parents, with the Near East expected a repeat more idyllic vision in which expe children, spouse, old friends; loss of ofthe swift Israeli victoryof the 1967 rience "now mapless" becomes "a job; loss of youth; loss of familiar war. When the fighting was pro dream."2 In the first, there is a loss surroimdings—and each loss is longed for two and then three weeks, of self associated with death, in the cause for grief. it became clear that the situation in other a loss of the world in which This sensitively written little book the area was more serious. The oil reality becomes dreamlike and un by a Lutheran pastor will be most embargo launched simultaneously real. In neither do we have an aware helpful for persons seeking to under by the Arab countries soon sent ness of self within a world that is stand their own experience of grief, shudders through the economies of "other" without also being alien. and in particular for those who want the European countries, as well as Unlike Tate, Vemon never sug to help their grieving friends and the United States. Even as the final gests that a return to the garden is need to understand their grief and cease-fire was arranged during the associated with faith. He not only how to care for them. The author following months, it was evident that ignores the religious uses to which describes ten stages of "normal" the effects of this war were not over, this image has been put but also re grieving, but hastens to add that and that if it was not a direct cause fuses to point up the mythic dimen not everybody will go through all of inflation and recession felt on a sions of any serious attempt to speak these stages, or in the same order. world-wide scale, it had decidedly of a return to childhood, individual As a counselor, Westberg under exacerbated a condition already or racial. For him, the garden is stands the psychology of grief. As a well along. merely psychological, a vision that pastor, he brings the insights of faith Various technical assessments of is pre-critical if not also pre-ration- significantly to bear, without being the effects of the war of October, al. Yet, in treating the garden and overwhelming. As he calmly, and 1973 have appeared in articles and even childhood so, Vemon himself with assurances and illustration, books,but interestingly, to my knowl falls prey to the very oppositions he gives names and shapes to the feel edge, not as many as came forth in deplores, for—unlike Donne—he ings we all have in times of loss, the aftermath of the epic war of 1967. sees no way of encompassing and re readers will find themselves encour No doubt one reason for this lesser deeming the world of the modem. aged, both in accepting and growing treatment is that the 1973 war was Thus, he identifies the modem per with their own grief, and in their an exhausting one, not only for the spective with that of the West itself attempts to care for those who are contenders, all of whom lost prodi and can only oppose it to the world mouming. gious amounts in military capital, but also for people in various parts of the world who had become in 1. Allen Tate, "The Trout Map," Poems creasingly tired of the war of attri (Denver: Alan Swallow, 1961), p. 118. 2. /6i

October, 1975 31 is a collection of essays gathered This essay provides perhaps the part of the forces of degeneration around one perspective on the con most challenging ground for a the which are much larger and face us flict, that of its effect upon Jews ological dialogue about Israel, one on a global scale. One author notes outside as well as within Israel, and which the book indicates is in danger that awareness of these larger factors on non-Jews insofar as their reac of collapsing but must of necessity paralyzed some influential Ameri tions and attitudes are of interest continue. cans from reacting one way or an to Jews concerned about the State of Another type of essay is a kind of other to the specific conflict of 1973 Israel. "reporting in" presentation, much (pp. 82-83). Nonetheless, one thing It was very near the beginning of like year-end sessions of American can be said with certainty. The steps Yom Kippur that the war broke out. TV commentators. In a style rem to achieve an acceptable settlement One writer in this volume records iniscent of the latter, the writers in the area need to be encouraged, thatJews in Israel were at synagogue, describe the reactions of Jewish and for if the Middle East is a story of participatingin the traditional Musaf non-Jewish communities to the war. lost opportunities, as the Secretary prayers. From the perspective found Countries covered range from Can of State has summarily remarked, in this book the war was "a period of ada and the USA to Latin and South then there is only one alternative to anguish ... a moment which will America, Great Britain, Western a further conflict in the area, which endure in Jewish consciousness" and Eastern Europe, the USSR, would magnify disaster on a world (p. 347). From the perspective of the and even South Africa. Of special scale, and that is to see that the mo opposite side it came to be known as interest is the way Jewish students mentum toward peace is continued. the Ramadan War, and was referred outside of Israel responded, con to in a speech by the Crown Prince, ditioned often by their surroundings the Amir of Kuwait, as "that signifi in the Diaspora. Some, such as in cant turning point in our modern the USA, mobilized themselves history" (October 31, 1974, Kuwait effectively; others, such as in Latin WALTER E. PAST Monthly Bulletin). From both sides America, were more reluctant to act there has been the subsequent search overtly (p. 141). American Jewish for legitimation, for stating the students reflected something of the grounds, and making —and, if pos change of climate among post-Viet- sible, forcing—the case upon the nam youth generally. While in 1967 great publics who stand outside the American Jewish students by the immediate conflict but are nonethe hundreds boarded planes and vol ESSAYS AND REPORTS OF THE LUTHER less involved in it. unteered for service in Israel, this AN HISTORICAL CONFERENCE, 1972 This is an intelligent, high-quality time they collected funds like their collection by people with generally parents (p. 176). In Great Britain Published in 1974 by the Lutheran Histori outstanding credentials. It does not the New Left has left an impact upon cal Conference as Volume V of its Essays and reflect a homogeneous viewpoint. Jewish youth, who still have to ad Reports. In general, the sympathy is with just to charges of Israel's identifica Israel. But there are criticisms and tion with imperialism against the perspectives from Jewish thinkers Third World (p. 175). On the whole, of differing backgrounds. The essays the cumulative effect of this broad are devoted to a two-sided problem reporting is the great sense of iden THIS SMALL PAPERBACK —the meaning of the Yom Kippur tity with Israel felt by Jews across volume contains essays, responses, War for the identity of world Jewry. the world in the face of the October the presidential address, and min There is individual reflection by war. utes of the sixth biennial meeting of some thinkers, ranging from the Onlyincidentallyarethe responses the Lutheran Historical Conference more forthright affirmation of the of Christians to the war discussed, held at Wartburg Theological Semi Israeli state by the president of He although other studies of this factor nary, Dubuque, Iowa, in the Fall of brew Union College in Cincinnati, have appeared. Nonetheless, this 1972. The Lutheran Historical Con Alfred Gottschalk, to an essay by book is a conscience-provoking one ference is an organization of Lu Norman Lamm of Yeshiva Univer for Christians. It makes a strong theran historians, archivists, and sity, which questions the messianic case for the right of Israel to exist librarians, whose concern it is to theologizing frequently accompany and be recognized, even if it leaves preserve and research the historical ing consideration of modem Israel. largely untreated the problem of resources of American Lutheranism. A perceptive essay, Lamm's shows how this can be achieved in the It is apparent that we live in an an awareness of the uncanny way framework of a just settlement for era of heightened celebration of secular messianism in Israel has Palestinians. Unfortunately, it also events from our past. And the Lu sometimes convergetj with Chris does little to clarify the way the theran Historical Conference joined tian and biblicistic fundamentalism. Arab-Israeli conflict has become the party in 1972.That year marked

32 The Cresset the centennial of the founding of the pelling factors behind many of the YOU AND COMMUNICATION IN THE Danish Lutheran Church in the Uni controversies over theology and the CHURCH: SKILLS AND TECHNIQUES. ted States; the centennial of the Lutheran Confessions. Even the death of Wilhelm Loehe, a German liturgical renascence urged by Wil clergyman who sent church workers, helm Loehe was an ethnic expres Editedand compiled by B. F. Jackson. Waco, Texas: Word Books, 1974. Cloth. S5.9S. money, and immigrants to America; sion, a strong German statement of a and the centennial of the creation of confessional, churchly sensitivity. the Synodical Conference, a con And we are reminded that the con fessional or conservative group of troversies within some of the immi German-American based Lutherans. grant American Lutheran churches These Essays and Reports, there were not only struggles between fore, center on the basic theme of internal contending parties and THIS IS A SIMPLE BOOK, nineteenth-century American Lu personalities. They were evidence a practical book. For the many pas theran confessionalism and the of the battle against assimilation and tors and parishioners who have not transplanting in the new world of lossof identity that waswaged by the yet faced the problem of communi a few old-world churches. newer nineteenth-century immi cation in our day, and for whom Not everything in this volume is grants. Jackson's earlier three-volume se worth reading. Among the best es Although there are similar valu ries, Communications for Church says are Enok Mortensen's work on able insights from other areas of men, is either too formidable or too the beginning of Danish Lutheran- church history which can be gleaned expensive, the present volume can ism, Joseph L. Anderson's on at from these essays, this little volume begin a period of fruitful reflection tempts at Lutheran unity, and Roy is difficult to use. It received either and wrestling. A. Suelflow's on confessionalism in no editing or atrocious editing. It is also an involving book. To the early Synodical Conference. The There is no organizing principle read it thoughtfully (exceptfor those two strongest papers are Kenneth F. behind the sequence of articles; moments when it is too frothy to be Korby's "Wilhelm Loehe and Litur they are not organized by topic; taken thoughtfully) is to be carried gical Renewal," and James L.Schaafs and there are grating insertions of along and to be forced into reflect "Wilhelm Loehe and the Ohio Syn extraneous material between the ing on the sense and nonsense we od." In addition there is included important pieces. If essays are worth commit in our attempts to communi an interesting essay on a different collecting and printing, they deserve cate. And that kind of involvement, subject: "Historiography and Lu goodediting —rational organization. one hopes, cannot but help to in theran Biography" by Eugene L. Most of these essays, however, crease our effectiveness as communi Fevold. are worth printing and they appear cators. Of course these pieces, researched nowhere else. A short introduction But it is an uneven book. Drawn and written by church historians, to biographical data on the authors, from half a dozen writers, the book are aimed at the scholarly world. therefore, would strengthen the alternately rewards and frustrates. They reveal an academic Lutheran volume. Since this work identifies It rewards when Jackson moves the self-consciousness, the assertion of some important issues in the Amer discussion of communications into which is a common phenomenon ican Lutheran past, it would be val the realm of ethics. But it frustrates, among many Lutheran church his uable to identify active historians because Jackson is out of his element torians. Since life in America inevit engaged in the discovery. there. ably erodes theological distinctive- We need histories much like those It rewards when David Berlo ad ness, these essayists remind their found in this volume. They are ad dresses a group of honors students readers that the past —always threat mittedly parochial; but good "local with an appeal to fight hard but ening escape of our memories —is history" is necessary as a foundation gently in the marketplace of ideas, valuable to recover and understand. for "national history." If Lutheran "because I have no choice as a hu The single most important conclu church historians can avoid a be man being but to influence other sion resulting from this collection of setting filiopietism and defensive human beings, in error, success essays is that nineteenth-century narrowness, a touch of which is no fully." But it frustrates when Clyde American Lutheranism was shaped ticeable in this collection, they can Reid can urge "more touch" as the by European tradition and immi contribute to a better understanding solution to group process problems grant groups confronting a new of the development of religion in in the church, without even acknowl environment. The picture that America. edging the churchly context of for emerges is highlighted by schism giveness and reconciliation in the and intersynodical strife which cross of Jesus as the dynamic that leaves a fractured denominational makes a group's life churchly. structure. Personalities and ethnic It rewards when Steve Jackson and bickering were the dominant pro DEAN KOHLHOFF Wilford Bane write about the prac-

October, 1975 33 tical business of producing tapes and MODELS OF RELIGIOUS BROADCASTING. National Radio Pulpiteers to be slides. But it frustrates when Clyde frankly admirable persons and Reid proclaims his boredom at preachers, whose zeal for the Gos preaching and dismisses the sermon ByJ. Harold Ellens. Grand Rapids, Michigan: pel and whose personal integrity as being out of touch with the "new William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, he finds praiseworthy. But he levies man" (and, presumably, woman) of 1974. Paper, $3.45. some strongly negative criticism today —yet includes good preach against the pulpit model itself. For ing among his proposed criteria for the pulpit model, says Ellens, hearks graduation from a seminary, with back to the role of the Old Testa out really suggesting what might ment prophet, with his thundering make preaching good. and authoritative word of a tran scendentandabsentGod. Theproph For sheer reward, however, the ELLENS SEEKS TO MAKE A et, and the radio preacher after him, final section on "Written Communi contribution to the religious broad speak for and about God, "rather cation," by Theodore Peterson, is casting of American churches by than enacting God's character and ninety pages of practical advice for analyzing past and present pro presence. Preaching subconsciously the good old-fashioned written word. gramming and by offering critical implies an inaccurate image of God's Peterson's chapters discuss every evaluations of that programming character." By contrast, Ellens in thing from audience analysis to the from the viewpoints of both com sists, the Good News of the New Tes organization and writing and criti munications expertise and theologi tament says "that God is of such a cal editing of an article —all in cal competence. As such, the book character that he has visited and is straightforward and, what is more, offers a good deal more than its mod visiting men as a friend." Ellens exemplary prose. est appearance and price would thus dismisses pulpit broadcasts as Nevertheless, the book's title indicate. an improper remnant from Old Tes gives a promise which the work fails The approach is deceptively sim tament times, inappropriate for a to keep. You and Communication in ple. After a brief sketch of early servant church's witness to a God in the Church promises an emphasis developments in broadcasting, El carnateas friend and brotherin Jesus. which is lacking. For, apart from a lens examines religious program To be sure, Ellens' criticism is one consistent choice of examples from ming in terms of four models —the more indication that preaching has the life of the church, Jackson and pulpit model, the spectacle model, fallen on hard times. And whether colleagues have not really helped the teaching model, and the leaven the reason is, as some have claimed, the reader to reflect on communica model. Under these headings, Ellens that a "new Man" is upon us, or that tions skills and techniques in a way describes the various denomination the New Testament's witness to the that drives the reader to a considera al broadcasts and offers critical eval incarnation demands an end to tion ofthe central task of the church's uations of their appropriateness and prophetic oratory, such words about communicationswork, the engender their effectiveness. the problems of preaching cannot ing and nurturing of trust in the simplybe dismissed. Though uncom promise of God's Word of Gospel. Ellens' models are aptly chosen, fortable, they reflect the distressing In fact, "Word of God," "Gospel," and his descriptions of the programs truth that preachers are heard as and "Trust" are notable by their ab are carefully done, based usually proclaimers who have been merely sence from the index; one finds in on the denominations' own archives, authoritarian and not Author-ita- stead, "Trustworthiness, of a minis personal interviews with the princi tive, who have been proclaimers of ter." pals, and careful research of experts their own words and not, as Oswald (such as Lutheran Television Pro Hoffman put it, of "the word spoken In spite of those reservations. ductions' Martin J. Neeb, Jr., whose as Christ's Word without equivoca You and Communication in the dissertation, "An Historical Study of tion." That criticism, then, is a call Church is a potentially useful book American Non-Commercial AM to repentance ind return. for beginning the work of under Broadcast Stations Owned and Oper But the criticism of Ellens may al standing some basic features of com ated by Religious Groups, 1920- so be a symptom of our age's rejec munication. It offers the results of 1926," is a frequently-cited source). tion of authority as such. Man —(or current expertise in a direct and Examples of the pulpit model are woman) come-of-age does not like jargon-free manner, along with use Fulton Sheen, Walter Maier and Os the lack of freedom and independ ful suggestions for practical applica wald Hoffmann of "The Lutheran ence which the acknowledgment of tion. But the Christian communica Hour," "The Back to God Hour," divine authority entails. Rejection tor will have to tie up those skills the broadcasts of Father Charles seems more mature than repentance! and techniques with the skills and Coughlin, Bob Shuler, and the "Na The mass media simply write large techniques of the Church and her tional Radio Pulpit." Ellens finds what each one scribbles in his tiny theology. Sheen, Maier, Hoffmann, and the way against the heavens.

S4 The Cresset A further word needs to be said tacle becomes a manipulative ex conditioned to look upon ourselves against Ellens' criterion here. For, ploitation of human anxiety and primarily as consumers, and every in dismissing the role of the Old gullibility." But even the Old Testa thing else is made to appear as a Testament prophet on the grounds ment prophets have been critical of commodity that can be bartered and that it gives a mistaken and passe those errors. The servant-form of consumed." view of God, Ellens seems to dismiss Jesus (Phil. 2) was, after all, at least Radio and television are not neu the Old Testament as such from the partially colored by the Servant- tral media. They teach the values of Word of God that counts in the Songs of the Second Isaiah! what is salable; and in a mass medium Christian Church. This apparent The final chapter, "The Failed what sells is a least-common-de reincarnation of the heresy of Mar- Promise," is devoted to the "con nominator program which delivers cion is a recurring theme in Ellens' scientious objector," Everett Parker, the largest audience to the advertiser book; in a later section he writes, who, after a brilliant career as the for the lowest cost. That is the gospel "Such a view is an erroneous Old producer of some of the best reli proclaimed on network television Testament one." Now, however gious programming of the 1950s and and on hundreds of local radio sta much one needs to stress the new 1960s, has since 1968 refused to pro tions. And it is an "other gospel" ness of the New Testament and the duce any more religious programs which fallsunderSt. Paul's anathema. oldness of the Old Testament, one "because of the treatment which the The pulpits will still be mounted, simply cannot equate Old Testament industry gives to religious program and the spectacles will still be staged. and error. Our Lord himself in ming" by relegating it to God's But, until religious broadcasters — sisted that he had come to fulfill, Ghetto on Sunday mornings. Parker and local viewing and listening not to abolish, the law and the proph wants (and Ellens agrees with him) Christians, in league with other peo ets. a strike by religious broadcasters ple of good will and similar hu Perhaps Ellens could be helped to against the networks until religious mane concerns —can "influence the make some distinctions between programming has the chance to be shape and quality of all the commer authentic Christian preaching and carried on prime time, and until the cial programming that goes on in inauthentic tin-drum oratory. And content of non-religious programs prime and near-prime time," the perhaps then he could see that the in prime time begins to reflect "re struggle will go on. redeeming feature in "The Lutheran sponsible broadcasting without cen But distinctions must still be made Hour" is not Oswald Hoffmann's sorship and commercial morality in programming. We Christians have zeal and integrity, but the Lord without prudish coercion." That is a stake in programming which en whose Word he proclaims! an idealistic stance, but also an ad hances, and does not degrade, hu Ellens' analyses and criticisms of mirable one. It is also unlikely to man values and integrity (a stake we the spectacle-model programs, like change network offerings, mainly share with all our fellow-citizens). those of Rex Humbard, Oral Rob because of the power of the dollar But we also feel a happy restlessness erts, and Billy Graham, are apt and and the realities of our secularized until we have, by all means avail fair. Sympathetic to their zeal and and pluralistic society. It is also able, borne witness to the hope that impressed by their canny use of the questionable strategy when Ameri is ours—that distinctively Chris medium, Ellens resists the tempta can Christianity is still shot through tian witnessofwhichHermanGockel, tion to dismiss the healers as trick with moralisms and the narrow vi the former director of Lutheran sters or the well-choreographed sion of those who condemn nudity Television Productions, said: spectacles of Humbard and Graham and simultaneously encourage vio as show-business hokum. Instead, he lence. But the thought is intriguing: That is the skandalon, the chooses to engage in theological imagine Lutheran Television Pro stumbling stone, in our ap criticism, grounded in his aversion ductions withholding "This is the proach on "This is the Life." to what he calls "Old Testament Life," "The Fisher Family," and . .. Somebody is going to have supematuralism rather than New "Patterns for Living," to say nothing to say something that is dif Testament incarnation." of "Christmas Is" and "Easter Is," ferent, distinctive. Somebody But he proves too much, as he from further distribution until the is going to have to mention once more dismisses the Old Testa networks make some commitments Christ and his grace. ment to the realm of the fundamen about future time allocations! tally erroneous. True, the spectacle- What we need to see, Ellens in That means, of course, that we producers proclaim a God who is sists, is that there is an "intense com have a double-pronged approach "so transcendent that he must explo petition betweenthe forces pursuing toward the mass media. The law and sively invade his world and our lives the spirits of men." The values the promises, a Confessor called it in order to function in them." And, drummed into us, both by the ad in 1530. true, "it is only human to prefer vertising and by the programs, are being impressed to being loved." pleasure-oriented, materialistic, And, likewise true, "the Sinai spec and consumer-oriented. "We are DAVID G. TRUEMPER

35 October, 1975 The/®/ Pilgrim "AU the trumpets sounded for him on the other side"

—Pii.grim's Pr(k;rfss

By O. P. KRETZMANN

Sehnsucht credulity and inhumanity of men.... This is then the real object of one "Sehnsucht".. .to see the white gar One of the curious tilings about life after noon is the ments even now.. .to see more surely that the world slow emergence of certain patterns of behavior for the (and men) that have rolled into darkness will roll out passing hours and days... One of my own is an inevi of it again.. .just as my momentary world did this table hour of wakefulness about four o'clock each morning.... morning... .No matter at what hour, late or early, the I have found "Sehnsucht" elsewhere too.. .in the previous day has ended I find my spirit lifting itself haunting, falling cadence with which Handel clothes into consciousness at the same hour night after night... . the words of the prophet "A Man of Sorrows and ac There may be a little more sleep later but for about an quainted with Grief" It shows that nothing, not hour 1 find myself under the blessing of solitude and even a diamond-bedecked contralto, can rob the des quiet and reflection. . .all of which should be an essen cending notes of pain and the sequence of sorrow. .. tial part of life after noon.. .. the reflection of "Sehnsucht", a joy and a grief, per It is a good time to be awake, especially in mid sonal and universal, but not without end... .Or I have summer. . .. The sky is turning gray and the spreading found it in a few moments in a church in Wisconsin as elm beyond my window stands clear before the cold dusk falls and the last sun comes through the windows. accuracy of eyes that are not yet tired by the confusion ... It is Saturday night and I hear the organist enter, of the day.... The first birds, two mourning doves, a laboriously climb the stair and begin the trumpet tones martin and a robin, tentatively announce tlie britlging of "Wake, awake, for Night is flying".... Suddenly of the gap between night and day. ... Now and then here was in the little church all the Sehnsucht for the there is a mysterious flock in the elm which wells into end of the vesper twilight of Christendom and the com a discordant chorus to greet the age-old miracle of ing of the last dawn.... day. ... There is something ritualistic about the whole And so these moments of "Sehnsucht" are good for performance, a part of creation obediently and joyously all of us.... They are the soft, clear answers to the welcoming the sun, dancing before the Lord, dipping questions of the night, so long now and so bitter, and wings as the seraphin are said to do the problems of the day, so great now and so filled with And this is the hour when 1 have most often ex terror.... A stranger may live without them, but not a perienced what I can only describe as "Sehnsucht" pilgrim.... There is always before him the last answer, Mr. C. S. Lewis in his autobiography also mentions the purple and gold of the City and the sound of it.. .. This strange fusion of joy and sorrow and long Domestlay in the air.. .the dual treasure of the receding ing. . .of belonging and not belonging.. .this (literally) hour of darkness and the slow rising dawn of the day desire to see perfection and wholeness.. .It is a wi,sh without night. . .the light into which we have not yet to see and hear, not to be.. . "Sehnsucht"—the desire quite come.... to see. . .It is long now since the Mount of Transfigur I lie quietly as the sky beyond my window turns from ation and the Mount of Olives but they still hold gray to blue and the inevitable bruises of the soul seem what I want to see so many years later at dawn in a to heal, the night flies, and my own little acquaintance little Indiana town.... In them is all of life, all its with grief assumes Its true perspective against the anxiety and joy, its night and day, its questions and majesty of all the years in which He has caused this answers Suddenly I remember Ralph Hodgson's glory to happen For a moment I am secluded into "Song of Honor" which tells a part of it: peace.. .the shadow, a hint, a fraction of what is still to "I heard it all, I heard the whole come.... For suddenly, I know, with a warm content Harmonious hymn of being roll ment, that there will surely be a day when I shall Up through the chapel of my soul bridge for the last time this chasm, narrow but deep, And at the altar die. .. between the solemnity of the night and the glory of the To die—but only to live again in a greater way... .At day.. .and there will be an angel beyond the window... this hour, I remember, a few men found a tomb empty visible only to God and to me.. .and a voice, far beyond and returned to face, finally and triumphantly, the in the stammering of earth, telling me to come home....

36 Reprinted from 77ie Cresset. September 1956. The Cresset