LITERATURE AND THE GOSPEL by Merle Meeter. Published by Presbyterian and Reformed Publishing Co., Box 185, Nutley, NJ 07110. 168 pages, paperback, $3.50. Reviewed by Peter De Jong.
The Problem of Christian Education
Many of us are familiar with the problem of first getting and then continuing to maintain a Christian School for the train ing of our children in our faith. That demands a great deal of effort on the part of parents and Christian communities. Although in our circles this has become an old tradition, in many other Christian circles in which the public schools have long had general support parents are becoming so disillusioned with the public institutions that they are beginning to seek similar Christian education for their children.
Even bigger and just as important as the problem of getting and maintaining such schools is another problem much less commonly recognized. That is the problem of having the education in such schools at least attempt to give a genuinely Christian direction to all that is taught and done. A really Christian school demands more than Christian teachers and the addition of Bible courses to the usual public school curriculum . If Christian teachers, however sincere they may be in their personal faith, in the classroom simply pass along virtually the same secularly oriented course material which they themselves learned in some graduate school, the result is something considerably short of real Christian education . Christ our Savior is also Lord of our lives and He claims every area of those lives. That claim really commits every Christian to a spiritual warfare which involves, as the Apostle Paul picturesquely expressed it, “casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ” (2 Cor. 10:5).
How to try to realize this aim in each field in which he or she is teaching is the enormous problem of especially the conscientious Christian teacher, in which he or she often gets very little help. (It ought to be recognized as the problem of boards and parents too.) What makes the book mentioned at the beginning of this article especially interesting is the fact that it is an ambitious effort to deal with this problem in the teaching of Literature.
An Effort in Christian Interpretation
Merle Meeter taught English for some years at Dordt College and is currently teaching in this field at Christian Heritage College at El Cajon (a suburb of San Diego), California, where he also edits their Christian Heritage Courier magazine. In the thirty chapters of the book under discussion he introduces with a variety of Bible references what he sees as the “Norms” (standards or rules) that should guide the Christian’s study and activity in the field of Literature. After first introducing each norm with Biblical references he proceeds, by citing examples of a variety of common writers, to show how he believes that a Christian should evaluate this literature.
Meeter is reacting to and is especially critical of “uncritically” accepting “the definitions and norms of literature formulated by a professedly agnostic and autonomous, God-excluding and self-gratifying world” (p. 92). “The Christian writer may not cleverly camouflage his foundation—the Rock who is Christ, the Chief Cornerstone—in order to speak ‘with the enticinp words of man’s wisdom.’ Rather his artistic presentation of truth, his fashioned proclamation of the Biblical Christian interpretation of reality (which is unified . . .), is to be evidently ‘in the demonstration of the Spirit and of power’ (1 Cor. 2:4–5), so that the faith—‘once for all delivered to the saints’—may be established and propagated without emasculating accommodationism, not in the self-serving wisdom of ungodly men, but in the Power and Wisdom of God, namely, the Lord Jesus Christ” (p. 74). He has no illusion about the response that such Christian labors as he suggests may expect. “Christian writers . . . can expect the persecution of harsh criticism and the sharp intolerance of those who are marching down the broad and populous way under the garish standard of the world. The God–revering author will be called ‘naive,’ ‘simplistic,’ ‘evangelical,’ ‘arrogant.’ ‘Bibliolatrous,’ ‘anti -intellectual,’ ‘pietistic,’ ‘fanatic’; for the wisdom of God is foolishness to the world, and the Truth of God is despicable and dreadful to the unrighteous because they hate Him who accuses them of sin, yet who stands ready to pardon, offering blood–washed robes of righteousness to justify sinners all who confess their need and fear the Lord” (p. 87).
A Sample
As a sample of Meeter‘s literary criticism we may consider his treatment of Graham Greene “English novelist, nominally Roman Catholic, who portrays moral humanism under a facade of piety and Christianly religious terminology.” “A carefully written example of Graham Greene’s . . . glorification of the disobedient sinner rather than the God who demands obedience, is his novel The Heart of the Matter.” This book Henry Zylstra has called “A Tragedy of Pity” and of it he said (in Testament of Vision, p. 110, 111) “In the universe of this novel, the ordinary man, when the religious issues of life are operative in him, takes on the proportions of heroism. Scobie pities those he encounters, and fee ls responsible for their happiness. His weakest point is this virtue of pity, and evil seizes on him at precisely this point. Pity is his tragic frailty. So, far from no getting into trouble, consequently, the usually considerate, cautious, and justly dealing Scobie. . . . has abused his office by withholding evidence from his superiors bas cooperated with a diamond-smuggling Syrian and thus aided the enemy in time ol war, has committed adultery, been an accomplice in murder, used the holy Sacrament unworthily, and done the deed of spiritual despair which is suicide. Such is the enormous breach that pity has blasted through his integrity.” It seems to Meeter , however, that in this evaluation “Dr. Zylstra comes too near to accepting Greene’! ingeniously naturalistic justification for his protagonist. . . .” “Observe with what craft Greene defends his principal (and his principle) despite, and even through, his crimes. We are induced to feel that if God does not pardon this beleaguered, well-intentioned, and pitiful man because Scobie’s own goodness and compassion make him deserving of it, then God is a Tyrant ruled by Theology (such as the blood atonement of Christ on Golgotha), rather than a Divine and Tolerant Humanist in the classical liberal–arts tradition of emancipating and self–redeeming virtue. But obedience to the laws of God for Christ’s sake is not a real factor in the anthropocentric universe of Graham Greene. Here, from the novel, is the portrait of the noble and self–justifying man, who is, of course, unconcerned with the obedience of Christ. “The Heart of the Matter is indeed a Tragedy of Pity, for the pretense of pity is employed with eminent sophistication to escape the justice of God. But apart from the Way, Jesus Christ, tragedy (eternal separation from God in t he anguish of hell) is as inescapable as it is ultimate and endless” (pp. 80–83).
Appreciation
The author is to be congratulated for his effort to deal so extensively with a subject that urgently calls for more attention than it usually gets. In the November OUTLOOK (pp. 6–8 “Educational Double–Mindedness”) I quoted the charge of a recent graduate that our college education is generally betraying its expressed aim to prepare students for Christian living, presenting instead a disinterested, academic, (really secularized) introduction to the various specialized fields of study. This book is to be welcomed as a conscious effort in the field of Literature to counteract that kind of pressure and movement toward betraying our Christian commitment.
How successful is the author in his effort to achieve what he sets out to do? The organization of the book into 30 discussions of various “norms,” “unity, variety, simplicity, rhythm, vitality, newness,” etc., is threateningly philosophical. The actual discussion is more interesting and concrete than the chapter titles might suggest. Also the introductory part of each chapter, attempting to give a Biblical definition and description of each norm, tends to pack a tremendous amount of doctrinal detail in a few paragraphs. The book might be more readable for many, if the author had not tried to say so much in so few words. The style is, in this respect, somewhat “preachy.” But the author is ‘preaching in an area in which far too little preaching bas been done, and in which real Christian confession and activity is badly needed. Many a Christian English teacher, groping for suggestions as to how to evaluate in Christian perspective, much of the mass of literature with which he has to deal, will fine Meeter’s work helpful and stimulating. We may not necessarily agree with each detail of his reaction, but let’s make good use of his effort to do something that urgently needs to be done. And many who are not teachers, if they will take the time to read his book, will find it interesting and profitable. It is not enough to deplore in general terms the secularization of our society. We have to go on in various ways, by the grace of God, to try to set it right. This is a welcome effort to do that in the big field of Literature.
THE SPIRIT OF CHRIST by Mariano Di Gangi. Baker Book House, Grand Rapids, Michigan, 1975, 111 pp; $4.95. Re· viewed by Rev. Paul E. Bakker, pastor of Second Byron Center Christian Reformed Church, Byron Center, Michigan.
The author, a graduate of Westminster Theological Seminary and recipient of the D.D. from Gordon Divinity School, is Director of the Bible and Medical Missionary Fellowship in Agincourt, Ontario, Canada.
In his preface the author indicates something of his purpose when he records with approval the following quotation from Abraham Kuyper‘s The Work of the Holy Spirit: “The Church has never sufficiently confessed the influence of the Holy Spirit exerted upon the work of Christ. The general impression is that the work of the Holy Spirit begins when the work of the Mediator on earth is finished . . . . Yet the Scripture teaches us again and again that Christ performed His mediatorial work controlled and impelled by the Holy Spirit.” The author shows in ten brief chapters that from His conception by the Holy Spirit to His resurrection and glorification by the power of the Spirit Jesus was always dependent upon and qualified and empowered by the Holy Spirit.
The author further seeks to show that the same Spirit who filled Jesus Christ and qualified Him for His work likewise creates the new life in the Christian and qualifies him for his spiritual service and will raise him at last from the dead. Throughout the book he draws a parallel between what the Spirit did in the life of Christ and what He does in the life of the believer. For example, “The Spirit who wrought the miraculous conception of Jesus in the womb of the Virgin Mary brings about our spiritual regeneration. He dispenses with human paternity and acts in sovereign grace to create new persons.”
The author contends that the Spirit and His gifts are given to advance the cause of the gospel message. They are not given for mere personal enjoyment, much less for ego inflation, but for service and witness. After showing that Jesus was filled with the Holy Spirit at the time of His baptism, he asserts that it is God‘s will that we should experience a similar fullness of the Spirit. He indicates, however, that he does not understand this to mean something “synonymous with excitement, ecstasy, a ‘spiritual high,’ emotional upheaval, and a trip to the edge of irrationality,” but rather fullness of the Spirit prompts us to speak of our Lord and serve in His name. Fullness of the Spirit is synonymous with surrender to the lordship of Jesus Christ.
De Gangi emphasizes that the Holy Spirit always seeks to glorify Christ. “The Holy Spirit is intensely Christocentric. He does not call attention to Himself. He does not encourage preoccupation with our own religious feelings nor stimulate excursions into the exotic in search of a ‘spiritual high.’” When Peter at Pentecost is filled with the Holy Spirit the first thing he does is to expound Scripture and exalt the Savior . He does not concentrate on relating his personal experience but puts the focus on Jesus Christ.
The author’s emphasis upon the importance of Scripture and its relation to the work of the Holy Spirit is clear. He points out that the Spirit whom Christ sends from heaven is the Spirit of truth. “What truth? The truth that is God’s written Word and the truth who is God’s incarnate Son. We look for no new revelations now that the Biblical record is complete but only seeks further illumination from Him who is the Spirit of truth.” Again, “To be led by the Spirit is to appreciate and accept the message of God’s Word.” He further indicates that we cannot hope to meet God and experience a personal relationship to the Jiving Lord apart from t he written record and its statements of truth concerning Christ. “It is only as the Holy Spirit shows us the incarnate Word in the written Word that we may know Him, enter into His fellow ship, and have everlasting life.”
This book is more practical than it is profound. I found it to be interesting and easy to read. In a clear and simple way it shows the importance of the Holy Spirit in the life and work of Jesus Christ, and likewise His importance in the life and work of the Christian. The approach of the author very sane and Biblical.