THE HUMANNESS OF JOHN CALVIN, by Richard Stauffer. Translated from the French by George Shriver. Nashville. Tenn. Abingdon Press. 96pp. $1.95. Reviewed by Rev. John T. Holwerda of Hudsonville, Michigan.
In this short treatise, Dr. Richard Stauffer, a Swiss pastor, comes to the defence of John Calvin as a person. It is a book much needed to combat the false portrayal of the reformer as a cold. heartless, unsmiling, intolerant fanatic.
In a introductory chapter the writer gives a sampling from the writings of both Catholic and Protestant critics who have done so much to perpetuate the evil legends about Calvin. Bolsec charged him with being “arrogant, presumptuous, ambitious, cruel, evil, vindictive. and above all, ignorant.” J. M. Auden accused him of “cowardice, deceit, egocentrism and despotism.” Andre Favre-Dorsaz represented Calvin as “an acid, negative person, embittered and unfeeling, one who did not know how to pray and really did not understand the spirit of Jesus Christ.” Alfred Franklin described him as “this great black phantom, a glacial person, sombre, unfeeling . nothing in him speaks to the heart.” These samplings lead Stauffer to ask the question, “Was Calvin really anti-human or inhuman as they would lead us to believe?”
The author’s answer is a ringing “No.” By drawing freely from the enormous correspondence carried on by the reformer, he makes the real Calvin stand up and stand out as a man endowed with a full and rich humanness. He does not appear as wearing an angel’s halo, but neither as having the horns of a demon. He is genuinely human with failings to be sure, but human with sanctified feelings of sympathy and compassion, with a heart warmed by grace, and a devotion fired by the knowledge that he was not his own, but called to he a burnt sacrifice for the Lord and His people.
Stauffer shows Calvin to have been a devoted family man, a genuine friend in need and deed, and a pastor with a burning heart concerned for the whole person. His warm devotion to his wife Idelette was tenderly expressed and constantly shown. He knew how to win friends and maintain close personal relationships despite the trials of life and the wear of time. Much of his time and warm Jove was extended to those persecuted for the faith. Refugees found open-armed hospitality in his heart and at his hearth . He anguished in grief with those who suffered losses. He was ever ready to do the work of a deacon in ending employment. providing food, and procuring wood for exiles that came to Geneva. More than once he played the part of Cupid in behalf of his fellow workers. Always he gave himself with love to the flock seeking to make a new kind of man in Geneva—the reformation man.
The author was well qualified to write this work. He is a member of the group of Calvin experts engaged in editing the extensive series of Supplements now being added to the Calvin Opera. Since 1964 he has taught at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes (Sorbonne), and has established himself as a true Calvin scholar. Dr. John T. Mc Neill, professor emeritus of Union Theological Seminary, in an excellent foreword, attests to his scholarship.
Reading this volume will certainly whet the all petite for more of the real Calvin as he reveals himself in his thousands of letters. The better one becomes acquainted with the real Calvin, the stronger becomes one’s respect for him, not only because of his outstanding talents and theology, but also because of his humanness.
THE BIG UMBRELLA AND OTHER ESSAYS AND ADDRESSES ON CHRISTIAN COUNSELING by Jay E. Adams. Presbyterian and Reformed Publishing Company, Nutley, N.J. 1972. 265 pp., $3.75, paper. Reviewed by Rev. Jerome Julien, pastor of the Faith Christian Reformed Church of Grand Rapids, Michigan.
The Westminster Confession states that the Bible is our only rule for faith and practice. Adams believes this wholeheartedly and in these lectures and essays given under various circumstances he makes this abundantly clear. Taking his stand on the Bible he develops what he calls nouthetic counseling of which an earlier volume, Competent to Counsel is more definitive and which is very different—and refreshingly so—from the current schools of counseling.
Since these are essays and lectures they are generally unrelated, sometimes even overlapping. This does not deter from the book’s value since it is popular in style.
All of the chapters could be cited as helpful. The one Oil evangelism and counseling has something to say in the present emphasis on evangelism. “Group Therapy—or Slander?” and “You Are Your Brother’s Keeper,” though obviously different in emphasis, have some solid practical material. The chapter “Parental Sex Education” has some valuable advice in these days when communication between parent and offspring is very weak:. Every teacher, Sunday School, catechism, as well as the school teacher ought to read “The Christian School Teacher and His Disciples.”
Don’t be afraid of this book on counseling. It is popularly written so that it is not to be reserved for the scholar. Christians of every level of life and every walk—Christians, be they men or women, will benefit from this delightful book.
THE CHRISTIAN REVOLUTIONARY, BY DALE W. BROWN. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 255 Jefferson Ave., S. E., Grand Rapids, Mich. 49502; 1971; 147 pages. Paperback, $2.45. Reviewed by Rev. Fred Van Houton, pastor of the Ninth Street Christian Reformed Church of Holland, Mich.
For some readers this book is better than its title may indicate. The word “revolutionary” is overworked today, and frequently bears an unfavorable connotation. The author defines his terms well, and this is a virtue. He is Moderator of the Church of the Brethren and Professor of Christian Theology at Bethany Seminary in Oakbrook, Illinois.
In the way of defining this tenn, the author states that it means returning to the roots, although it has come to imply a sudden change. Politically, the word connotes violence frequently, but its operation does not necessarily require that. As far as Biblical and theological revolution is concerned, Brown asserts that when Biblical promises come alive for us to the extent that we really believe and act as if they will be fulfilled, then there will be a revolution. The church, he states, is called to fight rearguard action against the destruction of its roots, and at the same time send forth avant-garde forces for innovative and revolutionary enterprises.
Another key word in the book: is “radical.” By that Dr. Brown means that which is related to the root, that which is original, fundamental, and inherent. In this sense it means getting at the heart of things and challenging the stall,s quo. However, he declares that the word can also mean a departure from the usual and a deviation from the traditional. These two rather contrasting definitions can be combined, Brown says, by realizing that a tradition can deviate from its roots. Thus a recovery of revelation may be radical and revolutionary.
Some fine things are said by the author as he takes a mediating position between appreciating the past. as far as the church is concerned, and striking out more vigorously to the future in the way of influencing society. However, the reader discerns that the author thinks very highly of the social gospel, rather than the Gospel for society. In a chapter on “Radicalism and the New Left” the impression is given that these protestors have much reason for their action, and that the major fault lies with the established order. For him the identification of Christianity is with social justice, racial equality, and world peace (p. 83). How familiar this sounds to our ears!
In this same vein, the professor blesses the movement away from “revivalist individualism” to concern for poverty, vice, crime, and labor-strife in the cities. The marks of the kingdom are championed as “love, justice, freedom, service, growth, solidarity, and the worth of each individual personality” (p. 86). All this, of course, reveals a strong “diesseitig” emphasis, which may not be so bad if only the “jenseitig” is given some place. This Brown fails to do.
The book fails considerably in what it does not say. Nothing is mentioned about man’s basic need to be “born of the Spirit and washed in the blood.” In writing about theology the author makes no case for the authority of Scripture and the cardinal doctrines of historic Christianity. “Behold I make all things new” (Rev, 21:5), has no eschatological flavor, but speaks rather of a social duty for our time. The claim of being a Christian Maoist is no more contradictory than that of being a Christian capitalist! (p. 18). In writing a little about Scripture, the professor asserts clearly that Deutero-Isaiah is a later prophet, and that the Book of Daniel was written by one of the Hasidim in the days of the Maccabees (p. 114).
If only such an author could realize the resident power in the Word of God and call for its true preaching in every situation today! This Brown fails to do. The book has value for its analysis of the current situation in our society, and of the various exponents of the new theology. However, it fails to direct men to the Biblical solution of our ills, and to Jesus Christ who “came that they may have life, and may have it abundantly” (John 10:10).
THE GROUND OF CERTAINTY by Donald Bloesch. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 255 Jefferson Ave., S. E., Grand Rapids, Mich. 49502. 212 pages; Paperback $3.25. Reviewed by Rev. Herman Hoekstra, pastor of Baldwin Street Christian Reformed Church, Jenison, Michigan.
The subtitle of this book is “Toward an Evangelical Theology of Revelation.” The title is derived from the fourth chapter in which the author discusses the term “certainty.” The reviewer believes the subtitle to be more descriptive of the book than the title. Such is the case because the author thinks that it is “necessary to restate the relationship between theology and philosophy from a biblical perspective” and directs his criticism “not at philosophy but at a theology that has turned away from its own criterion. Even an evangelical theology is constantly tempted to bind rather than herald the truth. The theologian should be an ambassador of the truth, but too often he seeks to be its master” (p. 7).
Dr. Bloesch is acquainted with philosophical thought—ancient and modern. While appreciative of the contribution philosophers have made, he argues that one cannot synthesize faith and philosophy. He states, “Theology has need of philosophy, but not as a foundation nor as a superstructure. Theology also should not regard philosophy as a partner in marriage nor even as a handmaid (if this connotes any kind of independent role)” (p. 62). “Theology is a special science, but it is also the queen of the sciences and therefore supplies the ontological ground as well as the spiritual motivation for all other sciences” (p. 65). Bloesch maintains the objective nature of revelation and that it alone is the ground of certainty. Reason and philosophy cannot give certainty and the church must not compromise its message in any way. He states, “The Church must not try to accommodate its Gospel to the contemporary mind or even to its youth (for this is the surest way to lose them); rather it should boldly confront them with the challenge of the Gospel” (p. 76).
This book will be of greater interest to those acquainted with philosophy and theology; but it can be read with profit by others. While tile author has a high view of the importance of revelation, one is left with questions concerning his view of Scripture. He speaks of “biblical myth or saga,” He says, “There can be no permanent setting aside of the biblical imagery or myth, since the truth of revelation is incarnated in the myth” (page 173). Bloesch further states, “Some of the biblical myths or sagas are more ostensibly centered in history than are others” (p. 161). Of creation he writes, “The story of creation is a good example of how the biblical writers give new meaning to pagan myth” (p. 162). One is inclined to believe that the historicity of some accounts are not essential but what is intended to be taught is important. Bloesch says, “even revelational myth must be replaced by truth in the moment of revelation” (p. 173). All of this seems to indicate that the author has been influenced by modern thought concerning Scripture. But the essential thesis of the book that theology must be independent of philosophy and be based solely on revelation is still valid. The criticism one may have is directed toward that which is not fully developed in the book because it was not germane to the purpose of the author.
JERUSALEM, a study in Urban Geography, particularly of the ancient city of Jerusalem, by I. W. J. Hopkins. Published by Baker Book House, Grand Rapids, Michigan. 1970, 151 pages. Paperback. Price $2.95. Reviewed by Rev. Frank De Jong, San Jose, California.
In his introduction, the author of this book declares that he is making an attempt “to examine the city from the angle of the geographer.” He does this in eight chapters, moving in considerable detail from the general Regional Setting of this famous city, through details regarding its Site, Climate, Water Supply, Economy, and a careful consideration of its sacred history, to the present situation of its population, both within and without its city limits. Numerous maps, charts and diagrams make plain what has been said regarding various sites and important buildings both ancient and modern.
The book can serve as a help for Bible students who desire a more detailed study of Jerusalem and certainly can be all excellent guide for those who have the privilege of visiting this citadel of sacred history. The author is to be congratulated with this detailed account and for his same approach to the very difficult question regarding the claims about certain locations of important places and events recorded in the Bible.
In this short treatise, Dr. Richard Stauffer, a Swiss pastor, comes to the defence of John Calvin as a person. It is a book much needed to combat the false portrayal of the reformer as a cold. heartless, unsmiling, intolerant fanatic.
In a introductory chapter the writer gives a sampling from the writings of both Catholic and Protestant critics who have done so much to perpetuate the evil legends about Calvin. Bolsec charged him with being “arrogant, presumptuous, ambitious, cruel, evil, vindictive. and above all, ignorant.” J. M. Auden accused him of “cowardice, deceit, egocentrism and despotism.” Andre Favre-Dorsaz represented Calvin as “an acid, negative person, embittered and unfeeling, one who did not know how to pray and really did not understand the spirit of Jesus Christ.” Alfred Franklin described him as “this great black phantom, a glacial person, sombre, unfeeling . nothing in him speaks to the heart.” These samplings lead Stauffer to ask the question, “Was Calvin really anti-human or inhuman as they would lead us to believe?”
The author’s answer is a ringing “No.” By drawing freely from the enormous correspondence carried on by the reformer, he makes the real Calvin stand up and stand out as a man endowed with a full and rich humanness. He does not appear as wearing an angel’s halo, but neither as having the horns of a demon. He is genuinely human with failings to be sure, but human with sanctified feelings of sympathy and compassion, with a heart warmed by grace, and a devotion fired by the knowledge that he was not his own, but called to he a burnt sacrifice for the Lord and His people.
Stauffer shows Calvin to have been a devoted family man, a genuine friend in need and deed, and a pastor with a burning heart concerned for the whole person. His warm devotion to his wife Idelette was tenderly expressed and constantly shown. He knew how to win friends and maintain close personal relationships despite the trials of life and the wear of time. Much of his time and warm Jove was extended to those persecuted for the faith. Refugees found open-armed hospitality in his heart and at his hearth . He anguished in grief with those who suffered losses. He was ever ready to do the work of a deacon in ending employment. providing food, and procuring wood for exiles that came to Geneva. More than once he played the part of Cupid in behalf of his fellow workers. Always he gave himself with love to the flock seeking to make a new kind of man in Geneva—the reformation man.
The author was well qualified to write this work. He is a member of the group of Calvin experts engaged in editing the extensive series of Supplements now being added to the Calvin Opera. Since 1964 he has taught at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes (Sorbonne), and has established himself as a true Calvin scholar. Dr. John T. Mc Neill, professor emeritus of Union Theological Seminary, in an excellent foreword, attests to his scholarship.
Reading this volume will certainly whet the all petite for more of the real Calvin as he reveals himself in his thousands of letters. The better one becomes acquainted with the real Calvin, the stronger becomes one’s respect for him, not only because of his outstanding talents and theology, but also because of his humanness.
THE BIG UMBRELLA AND OTHER ESSAYS AND ADDRESSES ON CHRISTIAN COUNSELING by Jay E. Adams. Presbyterian and Reformed Publishing Company, Nutley, N.J. 1972. 265 pp., $3.75, paper. Reviewed by Rev. Jerome Julien, pastor of the Faith Christian Reformed Church of Grand Rapids, Michigan.
The Westminster Confession states that the Bible is our only rule for faith and practice. Adams believes this wholeheartedly and in these lectures and essays given under various circumstances he makes this abundantly clear. Taking his stand on the Bible he develops what he calls nouthetic counseling of which an earlier volume, Competent to Counsel is more definitive and which is very different—and refreshingly so—from the current schools of counseling.
Since these are essays and lectures they are generally unrelated, sometimes even overlapping. This does not deter from the book’s value since it is popular in style.
All of the chapters could be cited as helpful. The one Oil evangelism and counseling has something to say in the present emphasis on evangelism. “Group Therapy—or Slander?” and “You Are Your Brother’s Keeper,” though obviously different in emphasis, have some solid practical material. The chapter “Parental Sex Education” has some valuable advice in these days when communication between parent and offspring is very weak:. Every teacher, Sunday School, catechism, as well as the school teacher ought to read “The Christian School Teacher and His Disciples.”
Don’t be afraid of this book on counseling. It is popularly written so that it is not to be reserved for the scholar. Christians of every level of life and every walk—Christians, be they men or women, will benefit from this delightful book.
THE CHRISTIAN REVOLUTIONARY, BY DALE W. BROWN. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 255 Jefferson Ave., S. E., Grand Rapids, Mich. 49502; 1971; 147 pages. Paperback, $2.45. Reviewed by Rev. Fred Van Houton, pastor of the Ninth Street Christian Reformed Church of Holland, Mich.
For some readers this book is better than its title may indicate. The word “revolutionary” is overworked today, and frequently bears an unfavorable connotation. The author defines his terms well, and this is a virtue. He is Moderator of the Church of the Brethren and Professor of Christian Theology at Bethany Seminary in Oakbrook, Illinois.
In the way of defining this tenn, the author states that it means returning to the roots, although it has come to imply a sudden change. Politically, the word connotes violence frequently, but its operation does not necessarily require that. As far as Biblical and theological revolution is concerned, Brown asserts that when Biblical promises come alive for us to the extent that we really believe and act as if they will be fulfilled, then there will be a revolution. The church, he states, is called to fight rearguard action against the destruction of its roots, and at the same time send forth avant-garde forces for innovative and revolutionary enterprises.
Another key word in the book: is “radical.” By that Dr. Brown means that which is related to the root, that which is original, fundamental, and inherent. In this sense it means getting at the heart of things and challenging the stall,s quo. However, he declares that the word can also mean a departure from the usual and a deviation from the traditional. These two rather contrasting definitions can be combined, Brown says, by realizing that a tradition can deviate from its roots. Thus a recovery of revelation may be radical and revolutionary.
Some fine things are said by the author as he takes a mediating position between appreciating the past. as far as the church is concerned, and striking out more vigorously to the future in the way of influencing society. However, the reader discerns that the author thinks very highly of the social gospel, rather than the Gospel for society. In a chapter on “Radicalism and the New Left” the impression is given that these protestors have much reason for their action, and that the major fault lies with the established order. For him the identification of Christianity is with social justice, racial equality, and world peace (p. 83). How familiar this sounds to our ears!
In this same vein, the professor blesses the movement away from “revivalist individualism” to concern for poverty, vice, crime, and labor-strife in the cities. The marks of the kingdom are championed as “love, justice, freedom, service, growth, solidarity, and the worth of each individual personality” (p. 86). All this, of course, reveals a strong “diesseitig” emphasis, which may not be so bad if only the “jenseitig” is given some place. This Brown fails to do.
The book fails considerably in what it does not say. Nothing is mentioned about man’s basic need to be “born of the Spirit and washed in the blood.” In writing about theology the author makes no case for the authority of Scripture and the cardinal doctrines of historic Christianity. “Behold I make all things new” (Rev, 21:5), has no eschatological flavor, but speaks rather of a social duty for our time. The claim of being a Christian Maoist is no more contradictory than that of being a Christian capitalist! (p. 18). In writing a little about Scripture, the professor asserts clearly that Deutero-Isaiah is a later prophet, and that the Book of Daniel was written by one of the Hasidim in the days of the Maccabees (p. 114).
If only such an author could realize the resident power in the Word of God and call for its true preaching in every situation today! This Brown fails to do. The book has value for its analysis of the current situation in our society, and of the various exponents of the new theology. However, it fails to direct men to the Biblical solution of our ills, and to Jesus Christ who “came that they may have life, and may have it abundantly” (John 10:10).
THE GROUND OF CERTAINTY by Donald Bloesch. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 255 Jefferson Ave., S. E., Grand Rapids, Mich. 49502. 212 pages; Paperback $3.25. Reviewed by Rev. Herman Hoekstra, pastor of Baldwin Street Christian Reformed Church, Jenison, Michigan.
The subtitle of this book is “Toward an Evangelical Theology of Revelation.” The title is derived from the fourth chapter in which the author discusses the term “certainty.” The reviewer believes the subtitle to be more descriptive of the book than the title. Such is the case because the author thinks that it is “necessary to restate the relationship between theology and philosophy from a biblical perspective” and directs his criticism “not at philosophy but at a theology that has turned away from its own criterion. Even an evangelical theology is constantly tempted to bind rather than herald the truth. The theologian should be an ambassador of the truth, but too often he seeks to be its master” (p. 7).
Dr. Bloesch is acquainted with philosophical thought—ancient and modern. While appreciative of the contribution philosophers have made, he argues that one cannot synthesize faith and philosophy. He states, “Theology has need of philosophy, but not as a foundation nor as a superstructure. Theology also should not regard philosophy as a partner in marriage nor even as a handmaid (if this connotes any kind of independent role)” (p. 62). “Theology is a special science, but it is also the queen of the sciences and therefore supplies the ontological ground as well as the spiritual motivation for all other sciences” (p. 65). Bloesch maintains the objective nature of revelation and that it alone is the ground of certainty. Reason and philosophy cannot give certainty and the church must not compromise its message in any way. He states, “The Church must not try to accommodate its Gospel to the contemporary mind or even to its youth (for this is the surest way to lose them); rather it should boldly confront them with the challenge of the Gospel” (p. 76).
This book will be of greater interest to those acquainted with philosophy and theology; but it can be read with profit by others. While tile author has a high view of the importance of revelation, one is left with questions concerning his view of Scripture. He speaks of “biblical myth or saga,” He says, “There can be no permanent setting aside of the biblical imagery or myth, since the truth of revelation is incarnated in the myth” (page 173). Bloesch further states, “Some of the biblical myths or sagas are more ostensibly centered in history than are others” (p. 161). Of creation he writes, “The story of creation is a good example of how the biblical writers give new meaning to pagan myth” (p. 162). One is inclined to believe that the historicity of some accounts are not essential but what is intended to be taught is important. Bloesch says, “even revelational myth must be replaced by truth in the moment of revelation” (p. 173). All of this seems to indicate that the author has been influenced by modern thought concerning Scripture. But the essential thesis of the book that theology must be independent of philosophy and be based solely on revelation is still valid. The criticism one may have is directed toward that which is not fully developed in the book because it was not germane to the purpose of the author.
JERUSALEM, a study in Urban Geography, particularly of the ancient city of Jerusalem, by I. W. J. Hopkins. Published by Baker Book House, Grand Rapids, Michigan. 1970, 151 pages. Paperback. Price $2.95. Reviewed by Rev. Frank De Jong, San Jose, California.
In his introduction, the author of this book declares that he is making an attempt “to examine the city from the angle of the geographer.” He does this in eight chapters, moving in considerable detail from the general Regional Setting of this famous city, through details regarding its Site, Climate, Water Supply, Economy, and a careful consideration of its sacred history, to the present situation of its population, both within and without its city limits. Numerous maps, charts and diagrams make plain what has been said regarding various sites and important buildings both ancient and modern.
The book can serve as a help for Bible students who desire a more detailed study of Jerusalem and certainly can be all excellent guide for those who have the privilege of visiting this citadel of sacred history. The author is to be congratulated with this detailed account and for his same approach to the very difficult question regarding the claims about certain locations of important places and events recorded in the Bible.