CONCORDIA THEOLOGICAL MONTHLY

Pleroma and Christology HAROLD A. MERKLINGER

The Relationship Between Dogmatics and Ethics in the Thought of Elert, Barth, and Troeltsch EDWARD H. SCHROEDER

A Checklist of Luther's Writings in English GEORGE S. ROBBERT

Homiletics Brief Studies Book Review

Vol XXXVI December 1965 No. 11 BOOK REVIEW

All books reviewed in this periodical may be procttred jfOm or through Concordia Pub­ lishing House, 3558 South Jefferson Avenue, St. Louis, Missouri 63118.

THEOLOGY AND PREACHING (Dogma­ uation; dogmatics with the understanding of tik und VerkUndigung). By Heinrich Ott; the whole. Parallel to Question 2, all preach­ translated by Harold Knight. Philadel­ ing must say three things: the proclamation phia : Westminster Press, 196 5. 156 pages of God's action, the disclosure of man's sit­ and index. Cloth. $4.50. uation, and the resulting obligation. Inci­ This German work of 1961 has as its dentally, the strong hold of the gratitude­ basic purpose to "define, and in part to ex­ motif on Reformed preaching is here un­ emplify, the method of dogmatic reflection," folded. The remainder of the volume, in that is, simultaneously to operate with pre­ the nature of its basic materials, is a useful vious dogmatic positions (in this case the developmcnt of the preaching of sin as rad­ first 11 questions of the Heidelberg Cate- ical and existential failure in man. True to chis!!!) ZL..'. ______-'_:t a conversation in it5 llmost random and which the affirmation of present believers discursive in its style. It will be interesting develops new points or view and stresses the to .w~":' ;::; •.'u ":'w .w:~.P.~w ... of the second chief insight of the human being himself. Ott part of the Heidelberg Cal(;chism, "Of Man's expresses his debt to Karl Barth, whom he Redemption," or the equivalent, in keeping succeeded at Basel, and Rudolf Bultmann; with his dictum: "Essentially the preacher Ott regards both as concerned about "the gains spiritual vitality only from his aware­ genuine summons of the real God to real ness of the forgiveness of his sins." (P. 42) human beings." Theology is there for the RICHARD R. CAEMMERER sake of the preaching. Contrary to Bultmann and Ernst Fuchs and with acknowledgment TOWARD A THEOLOGY OF HISTORY. to Martin Heidegger, Ott believes that the­ By J. V. Langmead Casserley. New York: ology should be existential encounter and Holt, Rinehart, and Winston, 1965. ix that "preaching is the heart and soul of and 238 pages. Cloth. $6.00. dogmatics" (the tendency of Barth). Ott The concept of revelation is Casserley's attempts to delineate how the kerygma is first concern in a book which claims only to reflected both in dogmatic work and preach­ point toward, not to be, a theology of his­ ing. The yardstick of the dogma should be: tory. "Revelation," he says in the opening can it be preached? Only the first question sentence of his book, "is the basic category of the Heidelberg Catechism provides direct of religious thought." Revelation to him resources for the kerygma in this volume includes both events and their power to call (a summary of atonement and providence); forth reporting and interpreting of their the next ten deal with the doctrine of sin. meaning. "The God who reveals himself in Ott takes occasion to stress, in connection the evcnts of history is at the same time the with Question 1, that all preaching must God who reveals himself in the prophetic discuss the "one self-same thing, the 'one interpretation of the historic events" (p. 7) . comfort in life and in death.''' Preaching Biblical typology is favored by him as a is concerned with the present pastoral sit- genuine historical method. The duty of the 806 BOOK REVIEW 807 historian, using typological historiography, faith of the banned and excommunicated he declares, is the correct ascertaining and Reformer at the Coburg. As second to Lu­ interpretation of the great persistent histor­ ther their author occupied a more humble ical themes. position. Casserley climbs far out on the limb when After Luther's death events thrust Me­ he declares Toynbee's A Study of History lanchthon into the front line of theological as "surely the best thing of its kind that has polemics. In the heat of battle he was appeared since Augustine's City of God." denounced as a collaborator with Rome by His theory of Biblical inspiration is inade­ some, as a secret Calvinist by others. The quate, although his approach to the Bible question arises: to what extent, if at all, are and Biblical criticism is generally helpful. such criticisms justified? A comparison of He repudiates the phrase faith alolze; how­ the earlier Loci with those of 1555, here ever, he does not define the nature of faith. made available to the English reader in an He endorses apostolic succession and couples excellent translation, will help him reach it with faith and the liturgy "as the means his own conclusion - one which many will in and through which the Christ persistently doubtless not share with him. reaffirms himself as always contemporary, ~.S Helpful in such a task are Manschreck's the manifestation in history of that which preface and Hans Engelland's introduction, transcend: oJl history" (p.213). He has panicularly the WHer's discussion of the ap­ help{ ul chapters on the epistemology and proach to tlleology in the older Meland,,;lOil the ontology of history. The work lacks an and in the young Melanchthon. As specific index, a bibliography, and reierences. questions in the interpretation of Melanch­ CARL S. MEYER thon Engelland names the relation of the acts of God and the acts of men, of justi­ MELANCHTHON ON CHRISTIAN DOC­ fication and sanctification, and of predes­ TRINE. Edited and translated by Clyde tination. 1. Manschreck. New York: Oxford Uni­ The Editorial Board of a Library of Prot­ versity Press, 1965. 356 pages. Cloth. estant Thought, of which John Dillenberger $7.00. is chairman, is to be commended for includ­ As one of the major leaders in the Lu­ ing this volume in its "collection of writings theran Reformation, Melanchthon in a sense intended to illumine and interpret the his­ had the misfortune of being second to tory of the Christian faith in its Protestant Luther, whose brilliant supporter he was expression," and the translator-editor is to for 28 years. Luther held the Loci communes be congratulated on a fine achievement. of his young friend, published in 1521 as LEWIS W. SPITZ Lutheranism's first dogmatics, in great es­ teem, exceeded in importance only by the THE ROMANCE OF BIBLE SCRIPTS Bible. In the Augsburg Confession Melanch­ AND SCHOLARS: CHAPTERS IN THE thon introduced Lutheranism to the Em­ HISTORY OF BIBLE TRANSMISSION peror and to the Diet of the Holy Roman AND TRANSLATION. By John H. P. Empire, in a thoroughly Biblical and, to use Reumann. Englewood Cliffs, N. J.: Pren­ a modern term, ecumenical document. But tice Hall, 1965. viii and 248 pages. ecumenicity was not in the ecclesiastical Cloth. $5.95. climate of that day, so Melanchthon pro­ The long history of Biblical translation duced the Apology. Both documents, the has been told many times. General surveys, Confession and the Apology, reRected the however, must often omit some of the in- 808 BOOK REVIEW

teresting sidelights of history that make the THE WORLD UPSIDE DOWN OR story come alive. Reumann's volume selects RIGHT SIDE UP? By Paul G. Bretscher. certain figures in the long history to de­ St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, scribe by a sort of case study approach the 1965. 130 pages. Cloth. $2.50. "why, what, and how" of translation. The "Imagine how awkward it would be to motivation for translation is discussed via walk, if suddenly down were up and up the history of the Greek translation of the were down!" Bretscher's intriguing approach Old Testament. The second century after to a study of the Beatitudes quickly becomes Christ serves as an example of textual prob­ much more than clever. He points out that lems for the translator; Reumann discusses the human eye actually does see everything the work of Jochanan ben Zacchai, Akiba, upside down; it is the optic nerve and the Aquila, Tatian, and Marcion. brain that straighten it all out for us. When The chapter on Luther is used as a case people were fitted with glasses which in­ study to discuss the method of Biblical verted the image of what was seen before translation. One should add the note on the lens of the eye got in its turn, all the page 82 that the insertion of aUein, "alone," world appeared inverted. "In time we could after "faith" in Rom. 3:28 was not original adjust that the upside-down way in which with Luther as a translator. A number of we see things is right, and everything else medieval versions had already done the wrong." And that - he makes clear - is same. the kind of thing that has happened to men. The rema_ ",ters discus by- The only one ever on earth wbo understood ways in translation. Origen, Jerome, and the situation and who could really see things Johann Jakob Wettstein represent the early right side up was Jesus Christ. And when church and post-Reformation scholars. One He spoke the Beatitudes He gave a clear of the most interesting chapters in the book picture of what the world should really look gives the history of Charles Thompson's like to us if we are seeing it right side up. translation of the Septuagint into English in What is the recommendation - for the early 19th-century Philadelphia. After a dentist twice a year? for the oculist at least chapter on Tischendorf, the discoverer of every two years? The time could well be Codex Sinaiticus, Reumann describes the now for this checkup on Christian eyesight. procedures of the interesting group of peo­ Most of us have been operating with a kind ple who translated The Twentieth Century of bifocal approach to living. We look at New Testament and the work of Ronald the world through the top of our glasses, Knox. A concluding chapter summarizes and and shift to a different kind of lens when makes comments on current translation proj­ we read the Word of God. Bretscher helps ects. the reader see straight and recognize life's The material on Luther, Tischendorf, and real ups and downs. More than that - the some of the early translators is well known Gospel he gives is not only clear example and rather easily available. Some of this and definition; it is corrective. material might well have been omitted. The GEORGE W. HOYER chapters on lesser known individuals make available in easily readable style interesting ARCHAEOLOGY IN BIBLICAL RE­ and important material. Reumann writes SEARCH. By Walter Williams. New well. This volume would make a good ad­ York: Abingdon Press, 1965. Cloth. 244 dition both to the pastor's and the parish pages. $4.75. library. It deserves to be widely read. It is a commonplace that "archaeology" EDGAR KRENTZ was a prime factor in effecting the revolu- BOOK REVIEW 809

tion in Old Testament studies. No longer Frend. Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1965. can the Old Testament be read in cultural xiv and 625 pages. Cloth. £4 12s. 6d. and historical isolation, as was once done For two generations E. G. Hardy's classic in that Hegelian, idealistic, evolutionary pat­ Christianity and the Roman Government has tern popularized as "Wellhausenism." Today served as a guide for students of the prim­ the Bible speaks more clearly in the context itive church in the Roman Empire. Since of its ancient Near Eastern world. its latest revision in 1906, however, much It is no simple matter, however, to de­ new material has come to light and new scribe this "archaeology" in its kaleidoscopic perspectives in the historical study of the variety of specializations. We are, therefore, period have opened up. Frend of Cambridge, in real debt to Williams for trying to fill whose credentials as a competent historian a long-felt need for a single volume describ­ have already been well established by his ing the nature, scope, and major discoveries book The Donatist Church (1952), here of the vast array of disciplines dealing with offers a solid contribution to early Christian the ancient Near Eastern world and bearing studies. on Biblical studies. The author sees the conflict between He outlines the aims and history of this church and empire as part of a triangular infant "science" and then turns to its meth­ struggle between the Jews, Christians, and ods, from the initial survey and choice of the pagan worle' r r, . irian site, through excavation and on to the pres­ martyrdom are traced back to the Maccabean ervation, display, and p1.lblication of the revolution against Hellenism in the second artifacts discovered. Included is much of the century before Christ, and the continuation lore and "oral tradition" of field archaeolo- of the Maccabean spirit can be traced in gists. the theology of the Western church. Latin The latter half of the book is devoted to eschatology and pneumatology, he points out, the results of archaeological discovery and have also been influenced by the survival of their use in the illumination of the Scrip­ apocalyptic in the West. In contrast to Ter­ tures. It rapidly surveys the use historians, tullian's suspicion of, and the West's hos­ Assyriologists, text critics, Hittitologists, lin­ tility toward, the state and culture, Frend guists, and others make of this knowledge. places the more optimistic Logos theology It is neither surprising nor any great fault of the East, where the ideal of the ascetic in such an encyclopedic survey that clarity and Christian Gnostic superseded the place and cohesiveness occasionally break down of the martyr. "It is perhaps fortunate for under the bulk of detail and condensation. the church that Clement (of Alexandria) The publisher should be faulted because and T ertullian never met. If they had . . . some of the otherwise useful photographs the schism between East and West might are blurred. Valuable bibliographies lead have occurred in the third and not the the reader further into the subject. (Surely eleventh century" (p. 360). Thus the author it is only oversight that omitted G. Ernest sees in the two attitudes toward martyrdom Wright's superb Biblical Archaeology.) one cause for the East-West schism. In the This is a useful book. It should enjoy East, after Constantine, the church adopted wide use in college and seminary classrooms an accommodationist view of the state. The as well as congregational libraries. emperor was considered to be divine reason, CARL GRAESSER, JR. God's vicegerent upon earth. In the West MARTYRDOM AND PERSECUTION IN the church continued to be suspicious of the THE EARLY CHURCH. By W. H. C. state as a potential instrument of Satan, or 8lO BOOK REVIEW at least as an inferior institution. Just as plications for service to the world in each the martyrs in effect judged the Empire, so of these areas. The daily work of the layman the church in the West retained the pre­ is not seen as having any intrinsic connec­ rogative to judge society and government. tion with the work of the church. This two-city theory was best articulated by Despite the limitations that he sees in the Augustine. local parish, Ernsberger accords it a central Frend's analysis of the early persecutions place in the renewal of the church. He does is supported by massive documentation. He not agree with those who feel that para­ has thoughtfully placed the 3,000-plus foot­ parochial forms such as lay academies are notes at the end of the chapters. The 32-page the only hope of the church. He himself bibliography has been judiciously selective proposes renewal basically through "concern and is especially helpful in the listing of groups." Preaching is accorded its proper recent articles. In this work Frend has con­ place but it is not given central position. tributed toward a better understanding of Concern groups can be organized on a neigh­ the underlying causes of the division of the borhood or zone basis and on an occupa­ church - causes which can be traced to the tional basis. The groups should use the ultimate legacy of the persecutions. "case study" method whereby actual situa­ CARL VOLZ tions provide the beginning point. Thus the "world w»'tes tI- ~enda." ~'lristi9 tder­ EDUCATION FOR RENEWAL. By David standing and principles are then brought to J. Ernsberger. Philade1pJ:>iQ: \'V...... fTlinster l..car 0= ~~:; s.irll:~::n. Press, 1965. 174 pages. Cloth. $4.50. Most valuable is a brief bibliography for Presbyterian pastor·author Ernsberger pub- beginning a "curriculum of concern" in the lished A Philosophy of Adult Christian Ed­ areas of lay ministry, family life and the ucation in 1958. In the present volume he role of women, the problem of leisure, the explicitly describes the ways in which a helping professions, Christian political re­ parish can turn outward in its God-given sponsibility, commerce and industry, and mission to the world. Ernsberger contends agriculture. that a congregation's program of adult Chris­ Any congregation or pastor concerned tian education in a congregation may provide about the introversion of the church and for study of the church's mission to the aware of its need to turn outward to the world, but that what it actually and orga­ world will find a way to begin with this nizationally practices may be a glaring refu­ volume. ROBERT CONRAD tation of what is taught. The pattern of adult Christian education often serves only HEADING FOR THE CENTER OF THE to reinforce the institutional interests and UNIVERSE. By Chuck Sauer. St. Louis: statistical aggrandizement of the church. Concordia Publishing House, 1965. Pa­ Clergy and laity alike hold that "the primary per. 95 pages. $1.00. locus for the ministry of the laity is not out That mystical, covert, almost unreachable in the world of the common life, but within world of today's "teen-ager" is one of the the institutional framework of the church as greatest challenges to the teacher, the cur­ an auxiliary ministry to the ministry of the riculum constructor, the writer, and the clergy" (p. 29). As a result leadership train­ parish pastor. ing and stewardship and mission education One of the best recent attempts at speak­ are all directed to the service of the laity ing to this individual, caught in an arena within the institutional church with no im- of competing forces that is neither child- BOOK REVIEW 811 hood nor adulthood, is Walther League staff supernal knowledge and VISIon. The selec­ man Sauer's Heading for the Center of the tions which Mourant has chosen support his Universe. Written in pithy, vivid short-story case, namely that Augustine begins with style, it pulls you along with the guilt­ revelation, with scriptural authority, with ridden musings of an adolescent boy as he divine illumination, and then moves to the struggles with his relationship to his girl, always-dubious area of sense perception. his parents, his church. The various subsections also have brief One wishes the dots were filled in (p. 69) introductions which enhance their value. where the pastor finally breaks through to The selections are not newly translated but the lad. For knowing what to say and how are chosen from various works and thus to say it is just the trick we all are trying tend to be uneven in terms of clarity and to learn. flow. But the interspersed, italicized theological Because the Christian church again today commentaries between the vignettes from is facing the basic question of the relation Jim's hectic Sunday do provide some help­ between faith and reason, this volume serves ful clues for the adult reader to understand an excellent purpose for those who would the teen-age Jims and Karens around us­ think through this basic question historically and maybe ways to reach them. and intelligently. HERBERT T. MAYER We hope that the teen-agers' reading of Sauer's excellent little volume will also get LITURGY AND CHRISTIAN UNITY. By through to them. Romey P. Marshall and Michael J. Taylor. Buy it. Buy a bunch of them. Put them Englewood Cliffs, N. J.: Prentice-Hall, in the kids' hands. Ask them what they 1965. 186 pages. Cloth. $4.95. thought of it. Ask them if Jim's problems Marshall is a Methodist minister, founder are like theirs. of the Methodist liturgical society known as DONALD 1. DEFFNER the Order (originally Society) of St. Luke, which is not to be confused with the inter­ INTRODUCTION TO THE PHILOSOPHY disciplinary and interdenominational associ­ OF SAINT AUGUSTINE. By John A. ation of theologians and medical men inter­ Mourant. ix and 366 pages. University ested in Christian healing. Taylor is a Park, Pa.: The Pennsylvania State Uni­ Jesuit theologian whose doctoral dissertation, versity Press, 1965. Cloth. $7.50. published as The Protestant Liturgical Re­ Mourant has prepared an anthology of vival (Westminster, Md.: The Newman Augustine's writings on philosophy. He Press, 1963), was on the new directions groups the selections under the following in worship within the non-Roman-Catholic heads: Faith and Understanding; The Exis­ denominations. Subsequently he received tence of God; The Augustinian Psychology; a Lilly Foundation fellowship for further The Problem of Knowledge; The Created liturgical-ecumenical investigations in Eu­ Universe, and Moral Philosophy. In an ex­ rope. This combination implies that their cellent introduction which deals principally joint effort will touch specifically Lutheran with Augustine's concept of the relationship concerns only tangentially. Still the two between faith and reason, Mourant disagrees more or less parallel series of six chapters with the interpretation of Gilson, who had each provide a laudable and worthwhile sur­ argued that Augustine's thought proceeded vey of the ideal of each type of worship, from external observation to internal con­ their respective theological essence, the his­ templation and finally to the achievement of torical development, the movements toward 812 BOOK REVIEW renewal, and the relation of liturgy to inter­ in the Near East, North Africans, including denominational unity. Both authors write as Christians, hated the corrupt rule of Chris­ individuals, not as delegated representatives tian Byzantium and tended to look upon of their respective traditions. Their presen­ the Muslims as liberators. tations are generally sober and critical; only Americans have always had trouble un­ here and there can one dismiss their state­ derstanding why Algerians so violently op­ ments as over-generous or over-optimistic. posed incorporation on a basis of full equal­ The bibliographies are excellent. ity into the Republic of France, a proposition ARTHUR CARL PIEPKORN roughly comparable to the statehood which Hawaii so eagerly sought. Cooley explains BAAL, CHRIST, AND MOHAMMED. By that an Algerian Moslem could become a John K. Cooley. New York: Holt, Rine­ French citizen only by agreeing to pass out hart, and Winston, 1965. xiv and 369 from under Koranic law, the shariah. pages. Cloth. $8.95. Nearly always Christianity came to the Why was Islam, and with it Arabic cul­ Maghreb accompanied by blaring trumpets, ture, able to establish a solid base and later flying banners, and marching men. This was a successful society which has survived on overwhelmingly true after the Crusades, the southern shore of the Mediterranean when Spain and Portugal and later France where Christianity has not? What chance and Ita 1.". """':bed across the ~e<>" between might Christm1l1lY HaVe for a relUll1: the lands. For an answer in depth to the question The renewed colonialism of the 1 tlth cen­ of North Africa's white-hot anticolonialism tury led to nationalistic revolts. The Berbers Cooley, knowledgeable North Africa cor­ hesitated between Muslim Arabs and Chris­ respondent of The Christian Science Monitor, tian Europeans on occasion, but French in­ reaches back to the times when ancient transigence and colonialistic contempt for Phoenicia planted its colonies every 30 miles the indigenous population ruined what op­ on the North African littoral. Baal and portunities remained. Tanit were imposed as foreign deities on simple Berber animists. The invasion of Cardinal Lavigerie, founder of the famed Roman gods accompanied the fall of Car­ White Fathers missionary order, as well as thage. Tanit became Juno. Like the Berbers Charles de Foucauld, a modern soldier monk, themselves the Christians were at first un­ are given full credit for missionary heroism derdogs oppressed by prefects who ruled in but are written off as fervent supporters of the name of Rome's pantheon. Regrettably, French imperialism. under Constantine the church became an Cooley gives a detailed report on the arm of the Roman state and in Berber eyes missions of other Christians as well in his tended to become identified with Roman fact-filled, almost encyclopedic volume. oppressors. It is apparent that Muslim Arabs suc­ Cooley goes on to describe the fatal pa­ ceeded to a greater degree than Christian ralysis of missionary advance in North Af­ Europeans in identifying themselves with the rica caused by Christianity's tragic identifi­ ancient indigenous peoples of the Maghreb. cation with secular power. Hard after the Though Cooley does not say so, his objective Arian Vandals came the Byzantine con­ report leads one to conclude that Europeans querors. It was Byzantine, not Roman, po­ have worn out their own welcome and that litical power that Islam encountered in its of all white-skinned people. triumphant thrust across North Africa. As WILLIAM J. DANKER