Willlam Hendriksen: NEW TESTAMENT COMMENTARY; EXPOSITION OF GALATIANS, 260 p. Baker Book House, 1968. Price $6.95. Once again our bookshelves are enriched by a fine commentary by Dr. Hendriksen, well-known both within and outside of the Reformed community as an excellent Bible scholar. This volume follows the pattern adopted by him in his earlier commentaries. The reader is carefully and thoroughly introduced to the epistle, as the author deals with such crucial issues for our understanding as why was it written? to whom was it addressed? when and from where was it penned? and what is its theme and outline? On all of these questions there has been much discussion and dispute among scholars. Dr. Hendriksen deals with the matters involved in a painstaking, scholarly and eminently objective manner. At all times he seeks to do full justice to the many arguments presented for the various positions which have been advocated. Yet as an effective teacher he does not hesitate to choose his own position and defend it clearly. Each section of the epistle is preceded by a careful translation which often throws new and clear light on the passage for the reader. Thereupon follows a verse by verse commentary which is supplemented by a summary. In this way the reader can follow the argumentation of Paul’s epistle easily—a feature which is especially valuable when dealing with material such as we find in Galatians. Philological, grammatical and other details which can be assessed only by those who have some acquaintance with Greek are placed in accompanying footnotes. Thus while this necessary material receives ample treatment, it does not interfere with or obstruct the reading of the explanation itself. This, it seems to us, is a unique advantage, serving well both the believer who seeks to understand more fully the message of God in this epistle and the specialist who can and should wrestle with the problems involved in the text as we have it before us. The outstanding characteristic of this commentary is its readability. As a wise and thorough teacher of God’s Word the author knows how to present his material effectively. No one need lose his way in a maze of argumentation. In the introduction, for example, nearly all that has been said for both the “north Galatian” and the “south Galatian” theories to ascertain to which group of congregations Paul sent this letter is set forth unambiguously. Nor does the author feel compelled to choose his positions simply because these have been commonly accepted among evangelicals. Thus he may surprise many when he advocates that Galatians is likely Paul’s first epistle, written from Corinth shortly before First and Second Thessalonians. The aim of this commentary, however, is not simply to instruct as an end in itself; the challenge which Paul’s message contains for walking in the truth, living in all things by God’s grace in Christ Jesus, and experiencing thc true freedom for which Christ has set us free is consistently held before us. And the central theme which the author defines as “the Gospel of Justification by Faith apart from law-works defended against its detractors” is certainly most relevant for the church today. We hear altogether too much about what we should do for God and our fellow-men without having such an emphasis rooted in the gospel of what God has done for man. Hence much Christian preaching tends towards a moralism which detracts from the glory of God’s salvation in Christ, obscures the true urgency of proclamation, and will produce when persisted in a humanistic religion which while paying lip-service to the gospel in very fact denies and contradicts it. Also the epistle to the Galatians needs to be known, preached and wholeheartedly believed. A fine means to tills end is this commentary for which the author deserves genuine thanks. PETER Y. DE JONG Joseph Conrad Wold: GOD’S IMPATIENCE IN LIBERIA, 227 pp. Eerdmans Publ. Co., 1968, price $2.95. Charles Bennett: TINDER IN TABASCO, 213 pp. Eerdmans Pub!. Co., 1968. price $2.95. R. Pierce Beaver: ALL LOVES EXCELLING, 227 pp. Eerdmans Publ. Co., 1968, price $2.95. Here are three books on the Christian mission enterprise which deserve the careful attention of all who are involved in this great work. The first two are publications in the “Church Growth Series” and the last constitutes the first contribution to a new series by the Eerdmans company entitled “Christian World Mission Books.” Wold is a Lutheran missionary who writes knowingly not only about Liberia, that fascinating nation in Africa which has been independent for more than a century, but especially about the trials and triumphs of spreading the gospel there. He defends the position that in the present cultural crisis which characterizes the land in which he works the fields are white unto harvest. However, churches have been to slow to recognize what is taking place and therefore too unwilling to acknowledge that here God can and will work through “people’s movements” to bring large numbers to Christ. Although embracing Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord is always an individual decision this takes place within a social context. Too often western missionaries have ignored this factor with the result that church growth also among the Liberian tribes has languished and at times even reversed itself. Thus he urges anthropology as “a tool for church growth.” What he writes should appeal strongly to Reformed churches and missionaries who, at least in theory, have held to the covenantal structure of life and to God’s saving grace in Christ Jesus as restoring man’s life in its totality. Too many churches and missionaries Jack the flexibility needed to adjust to new cultural patterns by surrendering “especially our deeply favorite nonessentials” without compromising the gospel message. He also writes knowingly about political, cultural and ecclesiastical distortions when speaking about motives for missions. Much of the book is a sound defense for the indigenous pattern and ideal which we praise eagerly with om lips but all too often undercut in our mission practice. Tabasco is a small and rather obscure province in the burgeoning country of Mexico. It has, however a relatively large evangelical population. Here Christ’s church was planted fairly early, spread for a season, and thereafter endured decades of retreat, pessimism and open persecution. Late in the 1930s a new era dawned. For some two decades Evangelical Christianity spread like wildfire, only to enter once again a period of non-expansion during the last eight or ten years. An inquiry into what makes the church grow and what causes it to stagnate becomes much more sharply focused, when restricted to a specific area and situation. This volume, penned with a sharp eye for detail, does much more than rehearse mission history in Tabasco; it probes, analyzes, evaluates and challenges. In summary, the author affirms, Above all else, the history of the Evangelical Church in Tabasco demonstrates the power and potential of the individual believer however humble and unlettered, when the Holy Spirit is allowed freedom. to work in his life. It demonstrates, too, the contagious quality of the Gospel message when it is communicated on a person-to-person, family-to-family basis, within a familiar context of language and mores . . . The Church in Tabasco now has the resources and experience to win a majority of the rural Tabascan population to Jesus Christ. That this has already been done in many communities indicates that it probably could be done in most, with or without outside help. Sizeable portions of urban Tabasco could also be won, though here outside help would be more valuable. Only the vision is now lacking . . . The third book comes from the pen of the well-known mission authority, R. Pierce Beaver. It introduces a series of paperbacks intended not only “to make available knowledge about the mission” to many readers and especially those interested in “cultural interchange and international relations” but also “to be tools for teachers and students . . . laymen and pastors in the churches.” One of the roost significant features of the American foreign mission movement which spearheaded much of the church’s expansion during the nineteenth centuries was the role played by women. Beginning in a small way on October 9, 1800, church women increasingly contributed to this work not only financially and by sending out single women to other lands but also in shaping mission policy through their “boards.” Much attention is given to initial male opposition to these efforts in the churches and to the inescapable tensions which developed, until in this century such women’s boards were amalgamated with official church boards which had been quite exclusively under male control. Especially the “low costs” of carrying on this work invited unfavorable comparisons. By their persistence church women shaped for themselves a large place in the work and contributed immensely to the spread of the gospel. Attention is given to their programs among women and children, their interest in education and literature, and to their development of the World Day of Prayer as an occasion for keeping this central task of Christ’s church before the churches everywhere. Especially since the amalgamation of women’s and men’s boards, a period of comparative stagnation has set in. A new view of missions seems to have become current throughout the churches. Fewer missionaries are sent out; less emphasis seems to be placed on gospel proclamation; institutional work has proliferated. The author inquires whether these and other changes sustain some connection to the administrative changes occasioned by the merging of the boards. This intriguing story is told in an intriguing and instructive way. Not only the broad outlines of the movement but also many details have been included. In those churches where women still are allowed to do little more than “collect for missions,” we might well ask whether in the light of Biblical teaching we are doing justice to the gifts and talents which the Savior has given to them for the extension of his work. Everyone seriously interested in the issues involved in obeying the missionary mandate of our Savior does well to read carefully these books. PETER Y. DE JONG James Atkinson: THE GREAT LIGHT, LUTHER AND THE REFORMATION, 287 pp. (vol. IV in “The Advance of Christianity through the Centuries”) Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1968. No time in the history of Christ’s church has been more decisive in shaping the situation which confronts Christianity as it exists today than the Reformation of the sixteenth century. All the issues which are being discussed today, be it in other forms and with other terms, again loom large. Because the reformers called men to face themselves and the totality of their lives in the light of God’s revealed will, not only theological but also ecclesiastical, political, social, economic and cultural questions were repeatedly raised. And on these a dizzying variety of answers were proffered. Christendom could never be the same again after passing through this ferment. Thus all individualists, subjectivists and existentialists to the contrary, today’s church and world cannot be understood in any reliable sense without taking cognizance of Reformation history. Dr. Atkinson does not deal with all the changes compelled by the Reformation. His focus is on what this has done to “the advance of Christianity,” not simply as a movement but as that movement which adheres to and proclaims in word and deed the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. Thus his concern is with Luther, Zwingli, Calvin and some of the leaders of the reformatory movement in Great Britain. The key to his approach may best be provided by citing two passages from the beginning of the book: The Reformation has a significance that is permanent, for in that century the Reformers everywhere in Europe challenged a faithless, secularized Church with the authority of the original Gospel, a challenge that is relevant in all times and in all places to both Protestant and Catholic alike (p. 7). The Reformation is Luther and Luther is the Reformation. Therefore the acid test of any work on this period is whether the author understands, and has the capacity to lay bare, the fundamental concerns of Luther. If this prior task be executed in workmanlike fashion, the reader is at once set on a vantage point from which he may judge and assess all the men and movements of this period (p. 11). These passages explain why Atkinson regards the refusal of the Papacy to do justice to Luther’s evangelical concerns as disastrous. It was not so much Luther and those who followed him as the Romish hierarchy which destroyed the unity of Christ’s church. But he counsels us to remember that God’s judgments are unsearchable and His ways inscrutable, lest we forget that the task of reformation is unfinished. Seeing Catholic penitence and perplexity with respect to its overwhelming problems and Protestant ossification and division as occasions for similar penitence and perplexity, he opines . . . Perhaps God is leading all His people through a painful renewal into a unity of truth greater than we have ever known (p. 8). This stance helps to explain why the writer, while uncompromisingly devoted to the cause of the Christian faith, presents such an illuminating, interesting and balanced account of what went on in those turbulent years. Here is no mere rehearsal of facts and dates and figures which crowded tl1e ever-changing scenes of the sixteenth century. Instead we have a central focus—that of a revival of evangelical theology and life in many lands. The tests to which it was put, the triumphs which it recorded, and the failings and failures which marred its course are recorded. While rejoicing time and again in what was achieved by God’s grace through the Reformation, Atkinson recognizes it as a judgment upon a Christendom which contained within it too much irreverence, irresponsibility and irreligion. And the hoped-for answer was not conclusively given by the Protestant movement, according to the author, who ends his volume on a minor key by concluding . . . It was the intention of Cranmer and of all the English reformers that the Anglican settlement should be a provisional stage in the creation of new, truly ecumenical Catholicism, purged of its accretions and impurities, and purified by the perpetual, critical activity of evangelical theology. Catholicism and Protestantism fell asunder because Christendom could not receive as a single living communion the divine disturbance we call the Reformation, and could not meet as a single living communion the challenge of holding them together in one Church (p. 261). The book is eminently readable and worth reading. With some judgments the reader will likely take issue. The first and fourth parts of the book seem to this reviewer better than the second and third, perhaps occasioned by the greater interest in and emphasis on them by the author himself. Some serious typographical errors mar its pages (e.g. 1584 for 1564 on p. 162; “The Eternal Means” for “The External Means” on p. 183). None of these strictures, however, detract from its value in providing an excellent insight into the real issues of the Reformation. And in our day such insight is as needful for the Christian believer as bread. PETER Y. DE JONG