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Concordia Theological Monthly CONCORDIA THEOLOGICAL MONTHLY The Will of God in the Life of a Christian EUGENE F. KLUG The Word of God in the Theology of Lutheran Orthodoxy ROBERT D. PREUS Homiletics Theological Observer Book Review VOL.xxxm August 1962 No.8 BOOK REVIEW All books reviewed in this periodical may be procured from 01' through C011cordia Pub­ lishing House, 3558 South Jefferson Avenue, St. Louis 18, Missouri. EVEN UNTO DEATH: THE HEROIC reading material for the smdent who is being WITNESS OF THE SIXTEENTH-CEN­ introduced to the history of the West. Cor­ TURY ANABAPTISTS. By John Chris­ nell's attempt to provide interestingly written tian Wenger. Richmond, Va.: John Knox monographs by authorities on given periods Press, 1961. 127 pages. Cloth. $2.50. has scored again. Heirs of the Roman Em· Wenger provides a good introduction to pire is excellent for the transition from Rome some 16th-century leaders of the "Left Wing to the Middle Ages no less than for its really Reformation" and their teachings. He has adequate treatment of the religion factors. examined the letters, tracts, books, court WALTER W . OETTING testimonies, and confessional writings of these "witnesses." Their attimdes toward the A HISTORY OF THE EARLY CHURCH. Bible, their doctrine of the church and the By Hans Lietzmann. Translated by Ber­ sacraments, and their ethics are given special tram Lee Woolf. Cleveland: The World attention. The Complete Writings of Menno Publishing Company, 1961. Four volumes Simons are cited most frequently. There is in two. 1182 pages. Paper. $4.50 the set. only one reference to the volume edited by Lietzmann's standard four-volume smdy, G. H. Williams for the Library of Christian here reprinted, is a treatment that ranks with Classics. However, the frequent incorpora­ those of Harnack, Seeberg, and Duchesne tion of source materials by Wenger must be on the history of early Christian life and noted especially. The work lacks an index. thought. Admittedly it is a product of the CARL S. MEYER last generation, and much research has gone on since its first publication. Present-day HEIRS OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. By readers may therefore question some of his Richard E. Sullivan. Ithaca: Cornell Uni­ dogmatic assertions about primitive Christian versity Press, 1960. ix and 178 pages. developments and his understanding of cer­ Paper. $1.75. tain elements in the Nicene era. Neverthe­ Michigan State University's Sullivan de­ less, this smdy is easily equal to any other scribes the heirs of the Roman Empire as survey of the period available, and students Byzantium, Islam, and Western Frankish and pastors alike will find it a bargain. Europe. This idea certainly furnishes a pro­ WALTER W . OETTING vocative viewpoint for the period from A. D. 400 to 900. When all three areas of the GNOSTICISM. By Robert M. Grant. New old Roman Empire are treated equally, 678 York: Harper & Brothers, 1961. 254 in the East plays as important a role as 732 pages. Cloth. $4.00. in the West in stopping Islam. This broader Since the discoveries at Nag-Hammadi in view is one of the most important contri­ Egypt in 1945 early Gnosticism is being butions of our generation to the smdy of restudied just as late Judaism is being re­ Western civilization. evaluated as a result of the finds around the The present smdy is intended as basic Dead Sea. This makes it necessary for the 502 BOOK REVIEW 503 student to remain in contact with the very sophical level. History, he says, partakes of latest materials being translated from the the nature of science; a preoccupation with Coptic rather than rely on older treatments a philosophy of history does not vitiate the of the subject. It is this concern in part that nature of history as a science. Gianbattista produced this "source book of heretical Vico (d. 1744) to him occupies a decisive writings from the early Christian period" by place "in any true account of the philosophies the University of Chicago's Grant. It in­ of history." In his presentation D'Arcy must cludes the fragments that we have from early perforce discuss the question of Providence Christian writers, such as Irenaeus, Hip­ - he does so in one chapter - and of the polytus, and Tertullian, and also recent finds, Incarnation. "Three ideas," he says, "the such as the Apocryphon of John and the eschatalogical, the other-worldly and the Gospel of Truth. Some of the Hermetic providential . must enter into any Chris­ writings and the criticisms of Plotinus and tian theory" (p. 188). There are many by­ Porphyry are also included. paths into which the author wanders, e, g., Grant has noted that there are Oriental, his discussion of Teilhard de Chardin. In his Greek, Christian, and Jewish elements in theology he seems to approach modern Prot­ Gnosticism. He does not accept either the estantism rather closely at times; he likes early Christian view that Gnosticism was the dimensions of Paul Tillich's thought. merely a "Christian hereoy" or the view of D'Arcy's contribution will be counted as one Harnack that it is merely the "acute Hel­ of the more significant presentations among lenization" of Christianity. He feels that an a spate of attempts to set forth a "Christian offbeat apocalyptic Judaism which had lost philosophy" of history. CARL S. MEYER its confidence in Jahweh as a result of the destruction of Jerusalem certainly played an VARIETIES OF PROTESTANTISM. By important role. John B. Cobb, Jr. Philadelphia: The Since Gnosticism played such a significant Westminster Press [1960}. 271 pages. role in the development of Christian dogma Cloth. $4.50. and since many of these documents were Cobb is assistant professor of systematic being circulated at the same time that the theology at Southern California School of New Testament was being written, an appre­ Theology. His work is not arranged in ciation of these materials is important for chronological order, nor does it discuss the the student of church history. history of denominations. In chs. II-V he Two graduates of Concordia Seminary, takes up "Reformation Protestantism" (Lu­ St. Louis, W. R. Schoedel and W. W. Isen­ theranism and Calvinism), "Churchly Prot berg, translated some of the materials. estantism" (which he divides into "Authori­ WALTER W. OETTING tarian" and "Liturgical") , "Individualistic Protestantism" (Biblicism and Experiential­ THE MEANING AND MATTER OF HIS­ ism), and "Liberal Protestantism" (Mysti­ TORY: A CHRISTIAN VIEW. By M. C. cism, the "Quest for the Abundant Life," D'Arcy. New York: Farrar, Straus and and the social gospel). He then discusses Cudahy, 1959. 309 pages. Cloth. $5.50. popular and postscientific Protestantism, the After an investigation of the nature of his- scandal of eschatology - to adopt his own torical knowledge, D'Arcy discusses the terminology - and the ecumenical move­ growth of a philosophy of history and con­ ment. Helpful bibliographies are appended eludes that Christianity can contribute to a to each chapter. The author gives an over­ better understanding of history at the philo- view of the doctrines and beliefs under each 504 BOOK REVIEW of the catagories he delimits. He is quite occupied, he believes, with explanation and objective in his presentations. The work is giving pleasure to his readers, while he seeks a helpful presentation of the various systems to inform and to inspire them to action. The of thought among Protestants and within recurrent patterns or regularities give mean­ Protestant denominations. ing to the approach to history as investigation CARL S. MEYER of the culture of the past, for culture may be defined as "regularities in the behaviour, in­ AN INTRODUCTORY BIBLIOGRAPHY ternal and external, of the members of a so­ FOR THE STUDY OF SCRIPTURE. By ciety, excluding those regularities which are George S. Glanzman and Joseph A. Fitz­ clearly hereditary in origin." The patterned myer. Westminster, Md.: The Newman or repetitive element in history is culture. Press, 1961. Paper. xix and 135 pages. Civilizations are the larger, more complex $1.50. cultures. Bagby distinguishes nine major This is a fine annotated bibliography of civilizations and an undetermined number of basic resources for the study of Sacred Scrip­ secondary civilizations. Comparative study of tures. Designed for the beginning student, it these civilizations is needed, involving an ex­ is of course not comprehensive. Each entry amination both of their consistent differences is briefly characterized. Aside from asterisk­ as well as of their consistent similarities. It ing works by Roman Catholic authors, no is a stimulating and well-reasoned plea that denominational bias could be discerned. Bagby makes. But he rules out God. Very few genuinely basic tools were CARL S. MEYER omitted. Those that came to my attention were R. Morgenthaler, Statistik des neutesta­ THE SOCIAL CREED OF THE METHOD­ mentlichen Wortschatzes (add on p. 52) , IST CHURCH: A LIVING DOCUMENT. Daremberg-Saglio's large French dictionary New York: Abingdon Press, c. 1961. 176 of classical antiquities, Rostovtzeff's Social pages. Paper. $1.50. and Economic History of the Roman World The 1908 Social Creed of the Methodist (add on p. 101), and my colleague Frederick Episcopal Church, taken over almost wholly Danker's Multipurpose Tools for Bible Study by the Federal Council of Churches upon its (add to p. 125). For the price this is an ex- organization that same year, provided Amer­ tremely useful work. EDGAR KRENTZ ican Protestantism with "its first ringing CULTURE AND HISTORY: PROLEGOM­ declaration on social concerns" (p. 23). ENA TO THE COMPARATIVE STUDY With few exceptions it has since become part OF CIVILIZATIONS. By Philip Bagby. of the structure of our national economic Berkeley: University of California Press, life either through legislation or through 1959.
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