Page 5755 – Christianity Today (2024)

But if from thence thou shalt seek the LORD thy God, thou shalt find him, if thou seek him with all thy heart and with all thy soul” (Deut. 4:29).

“Then shall ye call upon me, and ye shall go and pray unto me, and I will hearken unto you. And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart. And I will be found of you, saith the LORD; and I will turn away your captivity, and I will gather you from all the nations.…” (Jer. 29:12–14).

“Blessed is the man that heareth me, watching daily at my gates, waiting at the posts of my doors. For whoso findeth me findeth life, and shall obtain favour of the LORD” (Prov. 8:34, 35).

“Seek ye the LORD while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near” (Isa. 55:6).

Generation after generation, century after century, there have been people who sought the Lord with sincere, honest seeking, and who found him—without ever seeing him face to face in the land of the living. These people found that he was near them, that he never left them nor forsook them, that he listened to them when they called upon him. They came one by one, through the Lamb, his appointed way—and they came with the motive of wanting to follow him as soon as they could find him. Honest seeking turns into honest following when he is found. The “following” is not just a nebulous religious act, a mystical ceremony; it is an open, frank, honest belief that there is a Person to follow, and that the Person is God, a personal God who responds.

This kind of specific, assured following brings with it a spontaneous telling of others. “One of the two which heard John speak, and followed him, was Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother. He first findeth his own brother Simon, and saith unto him, We have found the Messiah, which is being interpreted, the Christ. And he brought him to Jesus” (John 1:40–42). Remember old Anna, who had waited and watched for the Messiah for many years, praying daily in the Temple; she recognized the One for whom she was watching, even though he was a tiny baby. “And she coming in that instant gave thanks likewise unto the Lord, and spake of him to all them that looked for redemption in Jerusalem” (Luke 2:38).

Those who are convinced that the Second Person of the Trinity, the Son of God, the long awaited Messiah, has indeed come, need no urging to tell others of this fact, so exciting and at the same time so deeply comforting. If people care about other people, the finding of that which has been sought, the “seeing” of what has been watched for, brings a burst of response, and then a rush of communication.

Come to the opposite of positive, sincere, honest seeking. “And they watched him, whether he would heal on the sabbath day, that they might accuse him” (Mark 3:2). The motive of these Pharisees, who were religious men, well trained and proud, was to find a flaw, so that they could “accuse him.” Verse six of this chapter shows how these men pounced on the “evidence” they felt they had found by their negative watching. “And the Pharisees went forth, and straightway took counsel with the Herodians against him, how they might destroy him.” “Now we have him” was their feverish reaction to the healing of the man with the withered hand.

Face to face with the Son of God, the Messiah, these men heard his voice in their ears, looked into his eyes, watched him gently restore a man’s withered hand, but they did not find him. One can be close enough to the living God, as they were, to feel his breath upon one’s face, to have one’s ears ring with his voice—and yet not find him. The finding is something that, God tells us, depends upon a deep sincerity, described as “seeking with all thine heart.”

What a frightening picture of “hard hearts” and their effect on the senses! How ineffectual is clear proof to those who are watching with only a desire to disprove. And how staggering a picture we are given when we realize that the Pharisees, the religious rulers, are not confined to one moment of history. Other religious men, too, have watched him, looking for new and brilliant ways of accusing him of not being who he says he is so they might destroy him.

We are told to be aware of the rapid passing of time, and of the increasing “signs of his coming,” and we are to watch with assurance that he will keep his promises to come back again and restore that which has been spoiled. We are to watch with loving faith, not suspicion. We are to watch with awe and admiration, not scorn and superiority. “Watch therefore: for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come.… Therefore be ye also ready: for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of man cometh” (Matt. 24:42–44).

“Blessed are those servants, whom the Lord when he cometh shall find watching: verily I say unto you, that he shall gird himself, and make them to sit down to meat, and will come forth and serve them” (Luke 12:37). If we read the previous verses we will see that those who do this kind of watching are “seeking first the kingdom of God.” They have provided themselves “with bags which wax not old, a treasure in the heavens that faileth not, where no thief approacheth, neither moth corrupteth” (v. 33). There is a key given to how to watch with the right motives: “for where your treasure is, there will your heart be also” (v. 34).

Jesus spoke sharply to the disciples about watching with him in the garden of Gethsemane. “What, could ye not watch with me one hour? Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation: the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak” (Matt. 26:40, 41). Added to the “key” of putting our treasure in heaven is the command to pray with our watching, in order to ward off temptations. “Watch and pray”: Jesus gives us this combination command to follow actively, not simply to read as devotional words. Watch for his coming, but watch also that Satan’s subtle temptations don’t twist and turn us aside. And the watching must be accompanied by close communication with our Heavenly Father.

If the disciples needed to watch and pray at that time, how much more do we need to watch and pray day by day now. Not only is there danger of temptations that we recognize as “evil,” but Pharisees with other names can also tempt us. Satan uses whatever would be most likely to succeed.

Let us then “be watchful, and strengthen the things which remain” (Rev. 3:2).

Under The Spreading Umbrella

Historically speaking, most new schools of theology have been created by liberals, or at best by the neo-orthodox. Neo-orthodoxy itself began as a new kind of theology, called “theology of crisis” (krisis, a Greek word meaning judgment, had to be left untranslated; otherwise neo-orthodoxy would have begun by sounding like old orthodoxy, which wouldn’t have been the least bit innovative). Other names and trends springing up with the neo-movement were dialectical theology, theology of orders (Creation orders, not military ones), and theology of the Word. Earlier, the liberals had generated a “theology of the social gospel,” but they could not match the neo-orthodox in productivity.

Existentialism was more fertile: it first produced I-thou theology and then Theologie der Existenz. Recent trends—which may involve cross-fertilization by neo-orthodox, liberals, and even some social climbers among evangelicals—include theologies of hope, revolution, the future, play, and the city. Black theology is harder to classify, and women’s theology has not yet risen to epistemological and ontological maturity.

In the midst of all this, what have evangelicals done? Sadly, all too little. Finally, at long last, a school is arising that we can call our own: umbrella theology. The umbrella concept (known to German theologians as der Schirm-begriff—cf. Heinrich v. Schlunk, Der Schirmbegriff in den P-Fragmenten, Heidelberg, 1973—and subdivided into Regen– and Sonnenschirmbegriffe, a subtlety not yet grasped by Anglo-Saxon theologians) is not found explicitly in Scripture. But theologians think it is adumbrated in the gourd-passages in Jonah 4. Others see the umbrella concept prefigured in the veil of Genesis 34. In any event, although it is not possible to locate it precisely, its revolutionary importance should allow us to overlook this difficulty.

The concept of the umbrella is particularly significant in Christian family theology, where it is seen as properly held by the man in the traditional family. Among the epoch-making developers of umbrella theology we may mention Gothard and Morgan; its chief opponents have been Nietzsche and Friedan. Some of the dignity that umbrella-theology gives to husbands is offset by the insistence of wives that, if they hold the umbrella, they also wear their galoshes. This seems foreign to the spirit of the umbrella, but the exegetical work supporting the conviction has not yet been done.

Perhaps umbrella theology seems like a small thing in comparison with theologies of revolution, hope, and the future, but it is at least a beginning. Evangelicals, unlike liberals, are traditionally forced to stay closer to Scripture, and this somewhat limits their creativity. In this light, umbrella theology must be seen as an encouraging departure.

Another Option

I was very much interested in the article by René de Visme Williamson on “The Theology of Liberation” (Aug. 8). As I read the article I found myself uttering hearty amens to everything the liberationists were saying until I came to the sections on “violence” and “secularization.” At that point I was forced to part company with them, and in doing so it occurred to me that I had found a major critique of Williamson’s article.… [He] implies that an emphasis on social and political liberation, the church as a “counter-culture” and the radical participation of a redeeming God in the agonies of the oppressed and exploited necessarily lead to “violence and secularization.” This is simply not the case. There are, in this country at least, a growing number of Christians who know Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour, who are committed body and soul to His Kingdom, who are deeply theistic, and who reject the use of violence as wholly unChristian, and yet who refuse to accept the homegrown American civil religion that baptizes the whole social structure and makes God the champion of the standing order. Such people, and I am one of them, share much with the South American liberationists without accepting their free approval of violence or their secularizing tendencies. To fail to distinguish between non-violent and biblical Christian radicals, and violent, secularized radicals is a sign of simplistic ignorance far beneath a magazine of your stature. It was the same mistake made by Luther, Calvin, and Zwingli who murdered hundreds of anabaptist pacifists.

The point is not merely academic—for there is another option besides being either a fire-bombing Marxist on one hand and a Bible-thumping law and order fundamentalist on the other. And that option is to be a disciple of Jesus Christ and live a life of radical love and unconditional commitment, a pilgrim life which witnesses to the sins of both men and culture not with bombs and guns, but with love and genuine community. I would suggest that Williamson read Menno Simons before rejecting liberation theology in toto.

Findley, Ohio

Looking Forward

I have been intending for some time to write you expressing my appreciation for the general quality of your magazine. Your inclusion of the Larry Christenson article, “Late to Bed, Early to Rise, Makes a Man Saintly …?” and Harold Kuhn on “The Liberal Charade” (Aug. 29) has motivated me to finally tell you how much I look forward to receiving each issue. The articles I agree with are always appreciated. The ones with which I take exception do not insult me. And your news section itself is worth the price of the magazine.

Lititz, Penna.

The Long Or The Short

“Painful Preaching” (Eutychus and His Kin, Aug. 29) was particularly clever. Let me add that we often are called on to preach to people with low boredom thresholds. Sometimes pains should be taken to shorten a message without reducing its content. A sermon that is clear, cogent, and concise will have more effect than its long and lazy cousin.

Bridgeport, Tex.

There’S More To Freud

Thank you for the fine article by Gary Collins in the August 29 issue (“The Pulpit and the Couch”). I am a product of the CPE movement. Collins is correct when he says “the CPE movement tends to borrow uncritically from humanistic secular psychology.” However, I did not find as he describes that “people in the CPE movement appear to have little tolerance for conservative theological positions.” I was told by a supervisor, “Share with us more of your theological position. We are all searching for solutions to the problems of people.”

A second observation is that I never cease to be amazed that conservative writers can dismiss Sigmund Freud in one sentence by quoting his famous “Religion is an illusion, a universal obsessional neurosis.” Freud’s basic understanding of man’s motivation is biblical. Man has the sex drive and is aggressive. That is Genesis 1:28. Let’s take what is good and leave the rest rather than total rejection.

Two omissions in the list of people involved in a psychological approach to biblical understanding of man are John A. Sanford and Cecil Osborne.

West County Assembly of God

Chesterfield, Mo.

Special Thanks

It is almost always a pleasure—and enlightening—to read Cheryl Forbes. Her brilliant article on “Substituted Love” as discussed in the work of Charles Williams, however, calls for special thanks. If, as Ms. Forbes comments, Williams has done a great deal in helping us to understand a little better the truths implicit in making and receiving offers of substitution—which, as she notes, depends, ultimately, on our Lord’s offer of himself for us—Cheryl Forbes has done a great deal in calling Charles Williams to our attention and helping us to understand him a little better. It is, in fact, hard to resist quoting him in regard to this essay—that if we do our job of adhering to the faith, “… it seems possible that we may humbly believe that at the right hour [the Holy Ghost] shall teach us ‘what we shall speak …’”!

Annapolis, Md.

Just the smallest note to say brava for Cheryl Forbes’s article on Williams. Very nicely done. She covers a lot of the waterfront, and that ain’t easy to do in one piece. I met his sister this summer in England with Clyde Kilby. Marvelous, very infirm old lady, almost entirely unaware of any interest in her brother’s stuff. She was touchingly grateful to learn that there are people who profit by it.

Associate Professor of English

Gordon College

Wenham, Mass.

Prominent Argument

Thank you very much for the (June 20) articles by Paul Jewett and Elisabeth Elliott on the ordination of women. I thought Dr. Jewett did an excellent work in his interpreting of the Scriptures regarding ordination.… Elisabeth Elliot is the biggest, most prominent argument against her thesis. She does all the things she says women should not do!

Associate Secretary

Foreign Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention

Atlanta, Ga.

John Bennett: At The Zoo And At Sea

Some poets spend fifty-one per cent of their time at public relations, courting influential older poets, editors, the media, and hoping to be discovered with a flourish of trumpets. Others, a rarer breed, quietly write their poems day after day, year after year, and spend little time trying to promote the worldly success of their imaginative offspring. In the latter group is John Bennett, now in his mid-fifties and professor of English at St. Norbert College in Wisconsin.

The other thing that sets Bennett apart is that he is an unabashed Christian (a communicant of the Episcopal Church) and that this basic commitment colors and gives form to his poetry. He is, I am convinced, one of the half dozen most powerful Christian poets now writing in America, though one hates to put him into a special category. Say, better, that he is a very fine poet who is also a man converted to the Christian faith in all aspects of his being.

I have known Bennett and his poetry for a long time. Twelve years ago, when he was teaching at Rockford College, I became acquainted with the poems he was writing, and set myself the task of needling him into sending them out to magazines and publishing houses. This was a major chore, since he preferred to write a new poem rather than to put an old one into an envelope and address it, but my persistence gradually bore fruit. The acceptances from magazines began coming in; eventually four books by him saw print. He is still not as well known as his ability merits, but his reputation has steadily risen, especially since—in competition with 300 other book manuscripts—he won the Devins Memorial Award with his volume of verse based on Melville’s Moby Dick.

Bennett grew up in New Hampshire, served in the Office of Strategic Services as liaison officer with the Free French Underground, received his A.B. from Oberlin and his Ph.D. (for a study of Melville) from Wisconsin. He is a big and burly man with a beard suggesting Papa Hemingway, and is fond of dogs, hunting, and well-targeted guns. In him the intellectual and the strenuous outdoor man are combined at top strength.

His first book, The Zoo Manuscript (Sydon Press, 1968), is a modern bestiary in which God’s creation is seen with delight and frequently with humor. The poet views himself as a kind of Adam, giving names to God’s creatures:

Old Adam, father, poet, priest, you stood

in human splendor once in Eden wood

And dreamed the holy names; your dreaming spoke the beasts alive with that first poetry.

So now, Old Father, stranger to an age

when poems are thin knives or bitter smoke,

stand softly at the center of my skull

and chant your early metaphors of love

and set their joy against the bent world’s rage.

After this invocation, Bennett describes his little daughter, Jennifer, in her innocent delight:

Caught up in joy and April and surprise,

sweet Jennifer becomes a magic where:

surrounded by small creatures of her Lord,

she brings the sun to glory in her hair,

and the blue Celtic distance lights her eyes.

The zoo that Jennifer explores with reverent gaiety reveals also the playfulness of God, His sense of humor, implied in the description of the fantastic hippopotamus: “Broader than boats, deeper than trout brooks are, / the hippo turns submersible at will, / or then bobs up like fatly muscled cork / that heaves his cloudy pond to overspill.”

The next volume, Griefs and Exultations (St. Norbert Press, 1970), is a miscellaneous collection of poems with a very high level of achievement. Bennett has a way of turning a passing experience into an eternal moment. In the poem, “On an Old Photograph of Young Men and Women at a Picnic,” he describes three courting couples caught in a photograph—

But I watch them within the photograph

and my heart moves back toward theirs

in their flaming changeless summer.

They are becoming what they have become:

pure actual occasions both doomed and immortal.

Thus three couples “at the edge of eden-meadow” live forever in their photograph and the poet’s response to it.

In “Episode Father and Small Son,” Bennett lovingly describes a childhood incident when he and his Irish father went for a walk, and the father picked up a grass-snake and showed it to him. The father’s gentle way with the snake is a kind of communication to the son—“He put the snake down softly on the grass; / it flowed into its anonymity, / and we walked homeward through the shining air, / our love emphatic as the snake was green.”

The book also contains an exceptionally moving elegy, written for his mother-in-law, Anne Jones, who died after a long illness. The poet mourns and rejoices at the same time—“Ah, Anne! Anne! Again in a turning year, / beyond clear windows, swift on April’s lawn, / your daughter’s children bruit the themes of joy. / Blessed by the year’s renewal and green leaves, / they race and tumble through the spheres of day, / singing the song your singing made for them.”

In many ways the most remarkable and powerful of Bennett’s books is his prize-winning The Struck Leviathan (University of Missouri Press, 1970), a series of meditations inspired by Melville’s Moby Dick. It has an enormous change of pace. We hear Bulkingmusing at the tiller during the midnight watch:

Sharks, whales, and men! all bearers of the Word:

and the Word endlessly falling through starlight and spindrift

or endlessly rising through waveshock and tiller

and the Word in the Beginning which is now the Infinite Now

and I myself, mortal, however It comes,

bearing the Word and affirming myself in the Word!

Dreaming my death, I become authentic Man.

Learning my death, I enter the dream of God.

Darker insights also move through the book, and reveal that though Bennet can find traces of Eden everywhere in the fallen world, he does not deny the existence of spiritual darkness. Here is Captain Ahab as he contemplates the great sea squid:

Deep down and dark where mudbones gird the world,

by arm and sucking arm and sucking arm,

a polyp blob creeps through the heavy depths

where Satan, homeless, might establish home.

I hope these few samples of Bennett’s work will give some idea of a remarkable sensibility and a very high order of poetic gift. He never imposes his Christian faith in a didactic way, but the faith comes through more powerfully in consequence. It is the pair of eyes through which the poet perceives everything from a dying relative to an old photograph to strange shapes moving in the depth of the sea. He writes with a baptized imagination. Such poetry is not fashionable at this moment in literary history, but it has great staying power.

To this point I have discussed mostly the poet’s themes and angle of vision, and have said little about his mastery of the poet’s craft. But the poems can speak for themselves. They are the achievements of a poet who works as carefully as any good sculptor applying chisel to marble. In a letter that Bennett once wrote, he said: “I deeply loathe the mass of so-called poetry which is really chopped-up prose (bad prose!) arrogantly hiding its inadequacies of thought, language, image and feeling under the barbaric yell ‘It’s my thing!’ Hogwash—and worse.”

Bennett has a versatile command of the tools of his trade. He can handle blank verse, free verse, a dazzling variety of stanza forms, intricate rhyme schemes. But technique is never an end in itself. He has something to say, growing out of the kind of awareness that can see in a little girl’s visit to the zoo a revelation of Eden and God’s loving creativity. He stands apart from most contemporary poets, even apart from those who are Christian but have little vision of what Eden might be like. The human spirit finds in his lines a new affirmation of a world that God created and will not forsake. It is a thoroughly sacramental vision of a universe in which the acts of nature “praise / a God who swims through all evolving worlds / as He creates them out of death and night. / The Paraclete sustains the otter dance / and all the dances in the spheres of light.”

CHAD WALSH¹Chad Walsh is professor of English and writer-in-residence, Beloit College.

From the very first, the Church testified that Jesus Christ belonged to the realm of divine reality as truly as he belonged to the human. But by confronting the world with the news that in the God-man Jesus Christ holy God and sinful man are reconciled, the Church found itself compelled to think through what it meant in saying this. Just who is this Christ, this one through whom man encounters God? If it was to present this Christ to a philosophical, critical, and unbelieving world, the Church had to uncover the deep meaning of its faith in him. And it had to find words to express this meaning.

The need to formulate a doctrine that would take full account of the person of Christ as at once human and divine was all the more pressing because some within the Church itself were confused. They were undervaluing either his divine or the human side, or both. The attempts of the Church to state with ever greater precision what it believed about Christ culminated in A.D. 451 in the council of Chalcedon.

This gathering of church leaders produced an elaborate statement, the Creed of Chaleedon. The creed is widely known, but it is couched in highly technical and metaphysical terms such as “hom*oousion,” “physis,” and “hypostasis.” Just what did Chalcedon achieve? Did it preserve the essential meaning of the Gospel, or did it lose it in a maze of philosophical abstractions? Did it merely focus attention upon the ultimate mystery of Christ’s person without trying to explain that mystery? Do its high-sounding phrases simply show that metaphysical terms are inadequate to express the doctrine of Christ? These questions may be funneled into a larger one: What is the significance of Chalcedon for us today?

For some, perhaps for many, Chalcedon says everything for all time. This is, according to H. E. W. Turner, the “classical theory,” the theory that the Creed of Chalcedon preserves “unsullied and undefiled” the whole of the Christian doctrine of Christ. W. H. Relton strongly criticizes those who would dismiss the “enormous labours and the acute thoughts of those many minds of the early church” who at Chalcedon sought to make explicit the Church’s faith in Christ. For him, Chalcedon is the grand climax of Christological thinking and the touchstone for all later statements.

At the opposite end of the scale are those who contend that Chalcedon says nothing for any time. The result of this radical view, much in favor today, is that “modern Christologies” tend to reduce Christ to something much less than what Chalcedon held him to be. They take their point of departure from below and never get beyond that. Bultmann took objection to the confession of the World Council of Churches that Christ is “God and Saviour.” The formula “Christ is God” is, he declared, false in every sense. Tillich was equally emphatic in saying that a Christology based on the term hom*oousion (“of the same essence” [with the Father]) is a “Christology of absurdities.”

Professor Maurice Wiles thinks that traditional Christology rests on a mistake. “It arose,” he contends, “because it was not unnaturally yet nonetheless mistakenly, felt that the full character of redemption in Christ could only be maintained if the person and act of the redeemer were understood to be divine in a direct and special sense.” In his view, Chalcedon gave Christ a status far from the thought and need of the apostolic church.

Between these two opposing positions—that Chalcedon says everything and says nothing—are more moderate views. For example, some say that Chalcedon did say something to its own time. It did try to put into contemporary language what the Church from the beginning thought about Christ, and for this the Fathers of the 451 creed are to be commended. But the mind of the fifth century differs so greatly from that of the twentieth that we are no longer able to build a meaningful Christology using Chalcedon’s outmoded terms.

Two attitudes follow from this understanding of the Chalcedonian formula. On the one hand are those who think that Chalcedon can say something to our time. Barth, for example, says that Chalcedon’s declaration of two natures in the one person of Christ does not explain his person but rather underlines its mystery. It was the best the church fathers could do, given the prevailing static view of the concept “person.” But now that the idea of person is understood dynamically, it is better, in Barth’s judgment, to substitute for the doctrine of two natures that of two states. This better describes the twofold movement of God to man and man to God, uniting in the God-man. Norman Pittenger contends that no Christology can be finally acceptable if it is not faithful to the “intentions and objectives” of the ancient symbols. Wolfhart Pannenberg states his unhappiness with the Chalcedonian formula “truly God, truly man” because he cannot see how two complete beings can be supposed to come together to form a single whole. He therefore opts for the idea of “selfconsciousness to replace that of person.” Karl Rahner thinks that we must view Chalcedon “as end and as beginning.”

But others assert that Chalcedon has nothing to say to the present time. In a totally secular age in which the distinction between the natural and the supernatural, the spiritual and the profane, no longer holds, there is no context for a Christology. The myth of transcendence has been outgrown. The God-concept is no longer a necessary metaphysical glue for holding the universe together. Therefore Christ can no longer be related to any transcendental, divine realm. God is in fact dead; all that remains is Christ as the “man for others” and the pattern of universal and revolutionary “love.” Christ must be understood as part of the only reality known to exist, the natural and the secular.

My own view of Chalcedon is that the ancient creed does have much to say to all time. Not everything, of course. Chalcedon does not gather into its definition all that the New Testament says about Christ. It worked from only a handful of biblical texts. We may even say that it failed to express adequately either the human reality of Christ or his cosmic significance.

At the same time, Chalcedon did seek to get down to basics. Neither the view that Christ merely demonstrated godlike deeds in the largest measure nor the view that he merely showed human qualities of the purest kind reaches what Christ really is. There is something else to consider, and Chalcedon did so.

What Chalcedon sought to express is that in the one person of Jesus Christ two conditions overlap: Godhood and manhood. And in seeking to say that, Chalcedon is saying no more than what the New Testament says about Christ. Long before Chalcedon, Christians lived in the faith that Christ was, and must be, essentially related to God and man. Chalcedon did not depart from the Gospel, nor did it add to it. What was stated technically at Chalcedon in A.D. 451 was known implicitly at Corinth in A.D. 51.

The Church cannot merely repeat a string of words that carry with them the mystique of tradition and the mustiness of age. It always has the duty of communicating its Gospel in terms that its contemporaries find understandable and meaningful. But it is healthful and necessary for the Church to keep an eye on past formulations of doctrines in order to secure an anchorage in history. The great creeds of the Church arose out of a living awareness of God’s revelation in Christ. They are the Church’s confession of its discovery of, and faith in, God in Christ.

Despite the positive value of the ancient creed, the findings of Chalcedon are in a sense negative. Its statements may be likened to buoys on the river; they prevent the boatman from losing the necessary depth of water and becoming grounded on either bank. Chalcedon did not solve the ultimate Christological problem: how the two separate natures can be said to coincide in the one person of Christ. In a sense all subsequent views of Christ that profess to adhere to what the Bible says can be said to be attempts to solve this problem.

We can say more about Christ than Chalcedon says, but we dare not say less.

The Definition of Chalcedon

THEREFORE, FOLLOWING THE HOLY FATHERS, WE ALL WITH ONE ACCORD TEACH MEN TO ACKNOWLEDGE ONE AND THE SAME SON, OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST, AT ONCE COMPLETE IN GODHEAD AND COMPLETE IN MANHOOD, TRULY GOD AND TRULY MAN, CONSISTING ALSO OF A REASONABLE SOUL AND BODY; OF ONE SUBSTANCE WITH THE FATHER AS REGARDS HIS GODHEAD, AND AT THE SAME TIME OF ONE SUBSTANCE WITH US AS REGARDS HIS MANHOOD; LIKE US IN ALL RESPECTS, APART FROM SIN; AS REGARDS HIS GODHEAD, BEGOTTEN OF THE FATHER BEFORE THE AGES, BUT YET AS REGARDS HIS MANHOOD BEGOTTEN, FOR US MEN AND FOR OUR SALVATION, OF MARY THE VIRGIN, THE GOD-BEARER; ONE AND THE SAME CHRIST, SON, LORD, ONLY-BEGOTTEN, RECOGNIZED IN TWO NATURES, WITHOUT CONFUSION, WITHOUT CHANGE, WITHOUT DIVISION, WITHOUT SEPARATION; THE DISTINCTION OF NATURES BEING IN NO WAY ANNULLED BY THE UNION, BUT RATHER THE CHARACTERISTICS OF EACH NATURE BEING PRESERVED AND COMING TOGETHER TO FORM ONE PERSON AND SUBSISTENCE, NOT AS PARTED OR SEPARATED INTO TWO PERSONS, BUT ONE AND THE SAME SON AND ONLY-BEGOTTEN GOD THE WORD, LORD JESUS CHRIST; EVEN AS THE PROPHETS FROM EARLIEST TIMES SPOKE OF HIM, AND OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST HIMSELF TAUGHT US, AND THE CREED OF THE FATHERS HAS HANDED DOWN TO US.

Ascetics view it as the essence of sin; playboys think it is the heart of the good life. Pleasure: good or evil? Is Christianity for it or against it? The ancient Epicurean philosophers said, “Eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we die.” Pleasure is essence of good, pain the heart of evil. The utilitarian philosopher Jeremy Bentham translated this into a hedonistic formula: the good of any human action is determined by the quantity of the pleasure over pain it brings to the greatest number of people. An action is good if it maximizes pleasure and minimizes pain for most people. Intellectual pleasures are better than physical pleasures, Bentham argued. Cultured pleasures are preferable to uncultured ones. Because of this, he contended, it would be better to be an unhappy man than a happy pig. The right action, then, is the one that brings the highest quality of pleasure to the greatest number of persons.

Many other philosophers take exception to the idea of calculating the good of life by the pleasures it brings. The Prussian thinker Immanuel Kant contended that the good is not always the pleasurable thing to do. One is under the categorical (absolute, unconditional) imperative to do what is right whether it makes him happy or not. Duty should be done for duty’s sake and not for the sake of pleasure. A masoch*st receives pleasure from abusing his own body; a sad*st may take delight in tormenting children. But neither of these pleasures is right or good. The good life is not the life of pleasure but the life of duty.

Other philosophers ask: Does not even Kant obtain a deep sense of satisfaction from doing his duty? Is not this a kind or moral pleasure available only to those who do what is morally right?

Such questions led to the somewhat different discussion of what is called the summum bonum (Latin for “greatest good”). All philosophies of life, including the moralist’s, are in quest of the greatest good. Whether it is called pleasure, happiness, or satisfaction is not important. The fact of the matter is that there is a yearning in every human heart for a sense of fulfillment, for peace and joy.

As Aristotle pointed out, all persons act for an end or goal. This goal is their good, and their ultimate goal is their greatest good. No one acts simply for the evil he sees in something. Even suicide is deemed a “good” by the one who commits it; it is a solution, a way of resolving an intolerable predicament. Of course, not everything that a person thinks is the best for him really is. “There is a way which seems right to a man, but its end is the way to death” (Prov. 14:12).

If all persons naturally seek satisfaction, or happiness, or pleasure, then why does the Bible seem to warn against pleasure? Proverbs says, “He who loves pleasure will be a poor man” (21:17). Jesus warned about being “choked by the cares and riches and pleasures of life” (Luke 8:14). Paul admonished his readers not to be “slaves to various passions and pleasures” (Titus 3:3) and not be “lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God” (2 Tim 3:4). Loving pleasure, it would seem, is a taboo for the Christian.

But the Scriptures also speak of pleasure as good. God is said to be at work in every believer “both to will and to work for his good pleasure” (Phil 2:13). There are things in which God “takes pleasure” (Ps. 147:11). “In God’s presence there is fullness of joy, in his right hand are pleasures for evermore” (Ps. 16:11). We can add to this what the Bible says about “joy.” Jesus’ desire for his disciples was this: “That my joy be in you, and that your joy may be full” (John 15:11; cf. John 10:10). Paul prayed for the Roman Christians, “May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace” (15:13). John spoke of “complete” joy (1 John 1:4).

If the Bible both warns against pleasure and holds it out as a great and even eternal good, then there must be different kinds of pleasure. Apparently some pleasures are good and some are evil. The former should be enjoyed and the latter should be avoided. So far, so good. The danger is in the next step. Christians sometimes oversimplify and draw the conclusion that the good pleasures are the “spiritual” ones and the evil pleasures are the “physical” ones. This pious asceticism has been the source of much harm in the Christian Church.

In contrast to this Christian kill-joyism, the Bible teaches that physical pleasures are God-given. Often throughout the Old Testament, eating, drinking, and merriment are said to be from God. The Solomonic kingdom blessed by God is described as one where the people “ate and drank and were happy” (1 Kings 4:20). After the dedication of the temple the Israelites engaged in a week of feasting from which they were “sent … away to their homes, joyful and glad of heart for the goodness that the LORD had shown to David and to Solomon and to Israel his people” (2 Chron. 7:10). Solomon himself wrote, “I know that there is nothing better for them than to be happy and enjoy themselves as long as they live; also that it is God’s gift to man that everyone should eat and drink and take pleasure in all his toil” (Eccles. 3:12, 13).

God is not a celestial Scrooge who hates to see his children enjoy themselves. Rather, he is the kind of Father who is ready to say, “Let us eat and make merry; for this my son was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found” (Luke 15:24).

What the Bible teaches is that God is the author of every good thing in life. “Every good endowment and every perfect gift is from above …” (Jas. 1:17). Sexual pleasure, for instance, was created by God (Gen. 1:27) and is to be enjoyed as a gift from God to those whom he joins in loving marriage (Matt. 19:5).

Nothing is evil in itself

A point seldom fully appreciated by Christians is that everything in God’s creation is good. It is, in fact, “very good”; we have the Creator’s word for it (Gen. 1:31). The apostle said, “I know and am persuaded in the Lord Jesus that nothing is unclean in itself” (Rom. 14:14). Again, “Everything created by God is good …” (1 Tim 4:4). “To the pure all things are pure …” (Titus 1:15). The external world and all of the pleasures that are a part of it are not evils to be shunned; they are goods created by God for man’s enjoyment.

If everything in creation is good, then what is evil? Why are Christians told that those who are friends of the “world” are enemies of God? (James 4:4). Why are we exhorted, “Do not love the world or the things in the world. If any one loves the world, love for the Father is not in him (1 John 2:15)?

The answer is in the next verse. The “world” referred to here is not the external world. Rather it is the “world” of lust and pride within the human heart. “For all that is in the world,” continued John, “the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the pride of life, is not of the Father but is of the world” (v. 16). The evil world from which a Christian is to separate himself is not “out there” but within his own heart. “Not what goes into the mouth defiles a man, but what comes out of the mouth, this defiles a man” (Matt 15:11). And it is because of this that a man misuses the external world.

The key to true pleasure

Real pleasure is not found by separating certain external acts and spheres from others and labeling them good or evil. It is found only as one receives everything, the physical world included, as a gift from God. The enjoyments of life are all gifts of God to be received, not evils to be avoided. But one cannot be happy by clinging to the gift and neglecting the giver. Things are not an end in themselves; they are a means to the end. Satisfaction is found in God alone. As Jesus said, “A man’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions” (Luke 12:15).

One cannot truly enjoy the good things in life unless they are subordinated to God. “Seek first God’s Kingdom and his righteousness,” said Jesus, “and all these things shall be yours as well” (Matt. 6:33). Those who worship and serve the creature rather than the Creator cannot be blessed of God (Rom. 1:25). Solomon wrote, “Every man also to whom God has given wealth and possessions and power to enjoy them … this is the gift of God” (Eccles. 5:19). True pleasure is found not in things as such but in things as gifts from God. Without the recognition that temporal pleasures are from God and that eternal pleasure is found only in God, there is no true satisfaction.

The hedonist’s problem is that he seeks to find eternal happiness in a temporal world rather than through it and from God. He vainly attempts to fill an infinite capacity for satisfaction with finite things. As St. Augustine noted long ago, “The heart is restless until it finds its rest in God.”

Solomon’s great experiments

Perhaps no one has ever experimented more widely with the various means of satisfaction to be found in this world than did Solomon. He searched out everything under heaven for satisfaction.

Solomon said to himself, “Come now, I will make a test of pleasure; enjoy yourself” (Eccles. 2:1). First, he tried to find happiness in intellectual pursuits. He said to himself, “I have acquired great wisdom … and my mind has had great experience of wisdom and knowledge. And I applied my mind to know wisdom …” However, he continued. “I perceive that this also is but a striving after wind, for in much wisdom is much vexation, and he who increases knowledge increases sorrow” (1:16–18).

From wisdom Solomon turned to wit as a source of satisfaction. It too was vain. “I said of laughter, ‘It is mad,’ and of pleasure, ‘What use is it’ ” (2:2).

From the hollow sound of laughter, Solomon turned to the delights of drink. “I searched with my mind how to cheer my body with wine … and how to lay hold on folly, till I might see what was good for the sons of men to do under heaven during the few days of their life” (2:3). At the end he found only frustration, not satisfaction, in this alcoholic path of pleasure. For as he noted elsewhere, “wine is a mocker, strong drink raging; and whosoever is deceived thereby is not wise” (Prov. 20:1).

From the follies of over-indulgence in wine he turned to more constructive activities. “I made great works; I built houses and planted vineyards for myself; I made myself gardens and parks, and planted in them all kinds of fruit trees. I made myself pools …” (2:4–6). But the joy of building faded as soon as the projects were completed.

When the projects paled, Solomon turned to wealth. “I had also great possessions of herds and flocks, more than any one who had been before me in Jerusalem. I also gathered for myself silver and gold and the treasure of kings and provinces” (2:7, 8). But with all his wealth he found no happiness. Later he observed, “He who loves money will not be satisfied with money; nor he who loves wealth, with gain; this also is vanity” (5:10).

From silver, Solomon turned to sex. Women were high on Solomon’s pleasure list. “I got singers, both men and women, and many concubines, man’s delight” (2:8). But a thousand wives and concubines (1 Kings 11:3) could not satisfy Solomon. In fact, they led him astray. “For when Solomon was old his wives turned away his heart after other gods” (1 Kings 11:4).

But sensual satisfaction did not truly satisfy. So the sage sought worldly recognition, “So I became great,” he wrote, “and surpassed all who were before me in Jerusalem” (2:9). The Queen of Sheba had heard of Solomon’s fame and came from the end of the earth to declare, “The half was not told me.” But here too there was no permanent happiness.

From fleeting fame Solomon’s heart turned to worldly pleasure. “Whatever my eyes desired I did not keep from them; I kept my heart from no pleasure …” (2:10). But in all of this he saw that “all was vanity and striving after wind, and there was nothing to be gained under the sun” (2:11).

The sum of the whole matter

When Solomon comes to “the end of the matter,” when “all has been heard,” he ends with God, apart from whom there is no lasting satisfaction. God gives us our goal: “I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ” (Phil. 3:14). Christ alone is the eternally satisfying bread and water of life. He alone could say, “I come that they may have life, and have it abundantly” (John 10:10). The physical pleasures of sound and sight and smell and taste and touch, the spiritual pleasures, the mental pleasures—all are good gifts of God, who “richly furnishes us with everything to enjoy” (1 Tim. 6:17). And each is given to be enjoyed not ultimately in itself or for its own sake but as a gift from God, who alone is to be enjoyed in himself and for his own sake.

Christian eyes have turned often to Africa in recent years. The growth of the Church on the African continent is one reason. Another is the much discussed search for theological identity there. A third is the great material need in many African countries. Institutional Christianity will focus its interest on Africa later this year when the World Council of Churches holds its fifth General Assembly in Nairobi.

To briefCHRISTIANITY TODAYreaders on opportunities and problems in Africa today, the Editors recently interviewed Dr. Byang H. Kato, general secretary of the Association of Evangelicals of Africa and Madagascar. Dr. Kato is a citizen of Nigeria. He attended schools of the Sudan Interior Mission, went on to London Bible College (England), and earned the Th.D. in the United States from Dallas Seminary. Before assuming his present post he served as general secretary of the 1,400 churches associated with the Sudan Interior Mission in Nigeria.

Here is the edited distillation of the interview with Dr. Kato:

Question. Dr. Kato, is it true that, as some experts have predicted, Africa will be a Christian continent by the year 2,000?

Answer. Christian growth in Africa has been phenomenal. In many areas the Christian population is doubling every four or five years. In my home town in central Nigeria there was not a single Christian seventy-five years ago. Even when I was a boy a very insignificant percentage called themselves Christians. Today you will find about 65 per cent of the townspeople attending places of worship each week. But sometimes the growth figures are exaggerated, and other aspects and dangers are not taken into consideration.

Q. What do you mean?

A. I mean, for example, that there is a lot of nominal Christianity in Africa along with the real thing.

Q. The statisticians get a little carried away?

A. Well, you just have to understand that in Africa many people put up their hands and want to become Christians and are automatically counted as Christians. If you go to the market place and preach and then ask how many want to receive Jesus, many listeners would put up their hands. It doesn’t mean much in the heart, but it is indicative of the desire.

Q. And what are the dangers to which you refer?

A. Look at the independent church movements. Admittedly there are probably some born again Christians in their midst who have got the teaching, but many of them don’t know the meaning of the new birth and the doctrine that leads on to conversion.

Q. How about Christian accommodation to African religions?

A. There is an emphasis on cultural revolution. Today it is a live issue. Many Christians do not think it wrong to take on many of the pagan practices, like dancing to the pagan gods, and offering libations to ancestors. You also have some liberal theology coming into the continent through some intellectuals who have been trained in liberal schools in North America and Europe. So there are forces at work that cause us concern. We need to work really hard so that the quality of true Christianity may be seen.

Q. What are the theological issues in Africa?

A. I would say the primary thing in Africa today is a search for identity. The African has been exploited and oppressed over the years, and he is asking to be recognized. He wants to assert himself as a first-class human being, but unfortunately in the effort to assert people are going beyond what the Bible teaches. Even Christians are comprising in order to assert their identity in Africa. One thing that is gaining ground is black theology. It originated in the United States and now has gained prominence in Africa.

Q. How do you conceive black theology?

A. My understanding is this: They say that white theology has exploited the black man. White people came to us about a God who is up there and about a life to come. Many black people do not differentiate truly born again whites and the pagan whites. The white man says, “Don’t be concerned about what happens in this world. Such things as money, cars, and good food are of this world. Just enjoy poverty because it is a virtue and someday God will give you wealth.” When the white man told the black man that, the black man said, “Okay, I accept that theology” and began looking up to heaven and to the future, and while he was doing this the white man took hold of all that belongs to this life. Black theology wants to turn the tables. It calls for black economy, black power, and so on. It thus ideologically aligns itself with the Black Muslim movement, which is gaining some prominence among intellectuals in Africa.

Q. What is your response?

A. We must sympathize with some of these yearnings. It is true that many whites have abused Christianity and cheated the black man. Even in slave trade some white American slave dealers would quote Scripture to support this evil practice. We are now reaping what we have sown. The Bible and God remain true even though people are unfaithful. The vertical relationship must have priority even though the horizontal relationship was abused. While black theology raises the right questions, it lacks the terms of reference. It is not a black Christ or black God we need, but the same eternal God of the Bible speaking to the black man in his need. Christians should put to practice what they learn in the Bible.

Q. Is African theology the same as black theology.

A. It is not quite the same. It does not emphasize blackness as such. It argues that Africa has been Christianized, so now it is time to Africanize Christianity. African traditional religions are being revived on the theory that the worship they represent is of God, and only the means of worship is different. The gods being worshiped are even said to have been instituted by God. The idea is to pick out some elements of African religions and include them in Christianity. Syncretism is a real danger. My position is that I do see the point of expressing biblical Christianity in the context of every people. Biblical Christianity should be expressed in Africa in such a way that the African can feel at home in the Church of Jesus Christ. But we must realize that “forever, O Lord, your word is settled in heaven” (Ps. 119:89).

Q. How strong is Christianity in Africa right now?

A. There are said to be about 91 million Christians in Africa. That is out of a total population of about 350 million.

Q. To what extent are evangelicals a part of the Christian surge in Africa?

A. They are in the forefront. The organization of which I am a part has as its main purpose to establish the evangelicals’ identity and have fellowship and have them presented as a voice of Bible-believing Christians in Africa. This organization, the Association of Evangelicals in Africa and Madagascar (AEAM), is the outgrowth of the biblical message taking hold. The fundamental-evangelical missions opened an office in 1966 for fellowship. As they gathered African churchmen in meetings, the demand grew for a permanent fellowship, and now we have it. We seek to defend and propagate the faith. We promote sound biblical teaching. That’s why we have two commissions, one on theology and the other on Christian education.

Q. Would you regard the AEAM as competitive with the World Council of Churches?

A. It’s certainly different from that, but it runs as a parallel organization to the WCC presence in Africa, which is manifested in the All Africa Conference of Churches (AACC).

Q. Are the concerns different in the two organizations?

A. Well, the primary objectives are different. While we appreciate the emphasis on social concern and political liberation today, we of the AEAM do not view that as our primary occupation. Rather, our emphasis is on evangelism and church development basically in the spiritual realm.

Q. How many evangelicals do you represent?

A. Put it this way: there is an evangelical cooperation in about twenty-seven out of the forty-seven countries in Africa. Our direct membership is about three million, but in the total evangelical constituency, there should be about ten million.

Q. Could you elaborate a bit on the AEAM purpose?

A. Well, as you know, we contend that the content of biblical theology remains the same wherever it goes; the change is made only in the expression of that content, translating it into the context of the people so that they can understand. This differs sharply with the presuppositions of regional theologies like the theology of liberation, which has its roots in Latin America but is being advocated for Africa. Its advocates see the fundamental problem of man as being class struggle, so they align with Marxism. AEAM does not only defend the faith, but through our Christian education we promote the teaching of that faith.

Q. How has the theology of liberation affected the African scene?

A. Some of our people in Africa such as Canon Burgess Carr, general secretary of the AACC, have reflected it. It may be behind his thinking when he advocates a theology of violence. He said at the AACC conference in 1974 at Lusaka, Zambia, that “in accepting the violence of the Cross, God, in Jesus Christ, sanctified violence into a redemptive instrument for bringing into being a fuller human life.” He called for the church to support the so-called liberation movements. He says he looks forward to the time when the church in Africa will be recognized as a major liberation movement. To me that is a violent distortion of the purpose of the death of Jesus Christ. He died to strike a final blow to sin, which is the source of violence.

Q. How do African evangelicals feel about the fact that the WCC has channeled money into the liberation movements?

A. You should be aware that even some people in the ecumenical movement would tell you that this money is being given not to buy guns but to buy food and medicine for refugees. And from the evangelical point of view, we are of course concerned for the needs of people who have been displaced for political reasons or whatever. Unfortunately, there is no clear evidence that the money is not used for arms. The primary concern of the liberation movements is not relief but war of liberation through use of force.

Now regarding political liberation, I feel that Christians as individuals should be involved in their nations as citizens because we are citizens of both heaven and our respective countries. We should perform the duty we are called upon to do. I think individual conscience should be a guide to Christians’ response to the powers that be in their different countries. But for the Church, I don’t think it is the responsibility of the Church as such to be in the forefront of political liberation. And the main reason is that the Church has the primary task of bringing about reconciliation in the world, reconciliation first of all between man and God, and secondly between man and man. Both the oppressed and the oppressor are in need of the Gospel of reconciliation, the Gospel of peace. If the Church identifies itself with one sector or the other, then it is jeopardizing its right to conciliate the two parties, both of whom need the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. And so I am not in favor of an ecumenical movement giving money to liberation movements unless there is sufficient evidence that the money given will be used for peaceful purposes. I would encourage the Organization of African Unity, the United Nations, the respective countries, and other secular movements to do what they can in this area. Justice must be done. As Christians, our primarily responsibility is the moral aspect, and of course we should preach justice and help through peaceful means. To clarify my position, I am also opposed to the Church as such aligning with an oppressive regime. In doing so, it forfeits its right to speak to the oppressed. But I don’t think that this is the number-one responsibility of the Church.

Q. You were an observer at the Lusaka conference, where there were demands for a moratorium on missionaries. What are the ideas behind that?

A. The main argument is that all missionaries and all resources, financial and otherwise, that are invested and used in the Third World should be suspended for four or five years. This is supposed to give the churches time to discover themselves. And after five years if the Third World churches feel they now need the money and the workers from the West, they will say so. Perhaps the best-known proponent of the moratorium argument is the Reverend John Gatu of the Presbyterian Church of East Africa. He is its general secretary, and currently also the chairman of the Central Committee of the AACC.

Q. How do you feel about moratorium?

A. I really sympathize with the basic motive behind it. From what they have told us, it is a desire for the selfhood of the Church. They want Christians in Africa to be self-reliant, and I agree with that. I think Christians should learn to depend on what they can do and what the Lord is able to do through them, rather than be begging help from others outside. I think it is good stewardship. However, I feel also that the call for withdrawing resources and personnel is not necessary and unscriptural.

Q. Why?

A. It is unnecessary because I feel that while it is true that foreign aid could cripple initiative, it does not necessarily do so. Our situation in Nigeria has shown this. Today we have in one church denomination, ECWA, the church of the SIM, between 1,200 and 1,500 pastors and evangelists, and almost all of these are paid by the local churches in Nigeria. We also have a missionary society. We support about 120 families who are working in Nigeria and beyond, including the countries of Niger, Dahomey, and Chad. We have undertaken many other projects, too, and we have not had to call for missions to stop supplying resources before we could assume this initiative.

Q. Why do you say a moratorium is unbiblical?

A. Because of the universal nature of the Church. It is the Church of our Lord Jesus Christ, and it is the Lord of the harvest who has the final say in sending people into his field. If it pleases the Lord to send Americans to work in Nigeria, or to send Indians to work in England, we just say “Praise the Lord!” and advise those workers not to have a superior attitude but just to see themselves as servants of God who are working together with the nationals to uplift the cause of Christ. Since the Church is one, we should not say, “No more personnel from this side.” In fact, we have missionaries from Kenya who are working in the United States today, two or three families. The churches in Africa sent them with the support of some mission organizations that come from North America.

Q. What are they doing?

A. They are involved in evangelism and helping people to understand the way of salvation. One family is working in the New Jersey area, mainly among black Americans. I think this give-and-take approach should be encouraged, and therefore I see no scriptural basis for moratorium. But I appreciate the motive behind it, and I think we should work hard to encourage self-reliance in our churches. Unfortunately, a superior attitude does perhaps come through in some missionaries. The call for moratorium also serves notice that we Africans have come of age; we want people to realize that we want colleagues, not masters.

Q. How do you look upon the forthcoming Fifth Assembly of the WCC in Nairobi?

A. It certainly is going to have a great impact, along with the second World Festival of Black African Arts and Cultures, which is going to take place in November and December in Lagos, Nigeria. When the WCC meets, I think there will be much emphasis on Africanizing Christianity. The cultural revival will be a vital issue. This involves bringing in some worthwhile elements, but it also runs the risk of a syncretistic Christianity. This would include dialogue with people of other faiths, and this is a major issue in ecumenism today. I wish that the idea of this dialogue was just to understand what others are saying. But many are seeking dialogue on an equal-to-equal basis: I have something to contribute, the pagan has something to contribute, and so we come and meet to contribute to each other. This stifles evangelism, because under this arrangement we would be offending the person from the other faith if we were to say that Jesus Christ is unique and that ours is the only way of salvation. The call for the uniqueness of Christianity must be played down because you want to give respect to other religions that are operative in Africa. And then there is the whole issue of unity.

Q. What do you mean?

A. You know, the theme for the WCC assembly is, “Jesus Christ Liberates and Unites.” They are going to push for the unity of Christianity in each country, and I think they will probably try to give impetus to governments that would choose to deal with Christians, all Christians, as one entity.

Q. Do you feel that the leaders of the conciliar movement are promoting this development?

A. Some are beginning to suggest that each country have a ministry of religious affairs, and that all churches unite and be treated as one by this ministry.

Q. What do you think about such a thing?

A. I would be for this approach if the unity were to be based on the Word of God. That is why I am working for the AEAM. I feel there are some divisions that are unnecessary within the body of Christ. But the most unfortunate thing is that the call for unity in ecumenical circles overlooks doctrinal differences. Their slogan is, “Where doctrine divides, services unite.” The feeling is, Let’s forget about theology but get on to practical service where we can work together.

I think this is disastrous. Biblical theology must have the prominence. If I come upon someone who is not born again and I will say, “Well, I mustn’t talk about the uniqueness of Christ but just talk from the fact that we are both Africans and that we are both black and let’s work together on this,” then I am not being fair to him because I am neglecting his basic need, which is new life in Christ. He may die without Christ, and I will be accountable before God.

A year ago the vast majority in the dissident “moderate” movement in the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod (LCMS) said they would stay in the Synod “till death do us part,” recalled President Sam Roth of Evangelical Lutherans in Mission (ELIM). But last month some 2,500 ELIM members met at a hotel at Chicago’s O’Hare airport and voted unanimously to approve divorce.

The ELIM resolution stated flatly that the moderate movement “cannot afford to maintain a political battle.” It pledged support both to those who decide to leave the conservative-controlled 2.8-million-member LCMS and to those who decide to stay, whether in or out of ELIM and “in spite of the eviction notice served on ELIM” at the LCMS convention in Anaheim, California, in July (see August 8 issue, page 31).

After a “fruitless and frustrating” struggle, said Roth, the opponents of recent LCMS theological and procedural actions “have turned the corner.” Around the corner may be short-term organizational proliferation, confusion, and overlap. Eventually, however, Roth and others hope institutional unity will result for most of the nine million U. S. Lutherans.

The assembly urged those seeking a new alignment to form “clusters of congregations” for mutual support. Plans call for a meeting of representatives of these groups to meet in February to map future steps.

Delegates endorsed as a “promising alternative” a proposed “interim church body,” the Lutheran Church in Mission (LCM), which was formed as a standby organization earlier this year. ELIM executive C. Thomas Spitz, who heads LCM, announced that the organization will seek congregational memberships this fall arid will try to hold its first meeting of member churches in January. Whether the LCM becomes a separate denomination or a transitional holding body (pending merger, say, with another Lutheran denomination) remains to be seen.

At the Anaheim convention eight of the forty LCMS district presidents announced that for conscience reasons they could not abide by a resolution aimed at curbing Seminex, the rebel seminary backed by ELIM. The resolution forbade district presidents—on pain of discipline, including possible ouster from office—to ordain or place uncertified graduates of Seminex. In a statement at the ELIM meeting, the eight offered their “leadership in developing alternative forms of fellowship consistent with our Lutheran principles … if [our mission and ministry] cannot be achieved within the fellowship of the Synod.”

Six of the eight offered in a press conference few specifics or timetables for a proposed “parallel structure” to be created “within the Synod.” They declared that division is not their choice. It will come “when the harsh, arbitrary, and oppressive decisions of Anaheim” are implemented, they asserted. Action against one president would be “the handwriting on the wall” for the others, said President Harold Hecht of the non-geographic English District, a bastion of ELIM support. They made it clear that proceedings instituted against one would be construed as action against all. Roth estimated that 15 per cent of the 6,000 LCMS congregations will bolt if the disciplinary measures are carried out. As matters now stand, many of ELIM’s members are in churches still loyal to the denomination.

In the month after the Anaheim convention there were three ordinations or installations in violation of LCMS rules, and others were scheduled. (Several other planned ordinations or installations were postponed amid controversy by congregations in response to direct requests from LCMS president J. A. O. Preus.)

All eight districts, which together have about one-fifth of the LCMS membership, will hold special conventions or convocations this fall.

The Anaheim convention labeled ELIM’s activities as schismatic and instructed that they be ended. The ELIM delegates, however, unanimously recommitted themselves to those same activities and added a few others for good measure. The assembly:

• Declared full “pulpit and altar fellowship” with all Lutherans (the LCMS does not have such fellowship with the three-million-member Lutheran Church in America nor with other groups it disagrees with theologically).

• Pledged $860,000 of the projected $1.3 million cost of Seminex for the coming school year, up $300,000.

• Established a task force to develop alternative programs for the education of church workers.

• Told congregations they have a right to call and ordain as ministers “whomever they determine to be qualified”—including Seminex graduates. (Next year’s graduating class includes a woman who intends to seek ordination; the LCMS does not permit the ordination of women.)

• Reaffirmed that the Bible and the Lutheran Confessions are the only standards of faith and practice for Lutherans (a muted rejection of recent decisions requiring adherence to certain views of Scripture as a test of faith).

RENOVATING HEAVEN AND BRIGHTENING HELL

A church in southern England recently unearthed an ancient bill for repairs to its wall paintings, according to a Reuters news service story. The itemization:

“[For] renovating heaven and adjusting the stars; washing servant of the high priest and putting carmine on his cheeks; and brightening up the flames of hell, putting on new tail on the devil and doing odd jobs for the damned, and correcting the Ten Commandments.”

All for $23.

Post-Anaheim Problems

“Post-Anaheim casualties begin to mount,” blared a headline in Missouri in Perspective, a publication of the dissident ELIM movement in the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod (see preceding story). The tabloid contained stories of turmoil in several churches in the after-math of the recent LCMS convention, from the ouster of pastors to schism and heresy hunts.

Showdowns are expected on some campuses this fall. President Harvey Stegemoeller, 46, of Concordia College in St. Paul, Minnesota, reaffirmed his pro-ELIM views in a letter to pastors and hinted he may resign now that the majority of his board members are pro-Preus conservatives.

Another casualty is the already strained LCMS treasury. Some churches now are withholding contributions from the LCMS in protest against the recent convention actions and are sending the money to ELIM instead.

Still another casualty is the Lutheran unity cause. President Robert J. Marshall of the Lutheran Church in America and President David Preus of the American Lutheran Church both chided the LCMS in speeches at the Anaheim convention. They suggested that too much emphasis was being placed on the doctrine of Scripture at the expense of Christian life and work, and they indicated that the main concerns of the LCMS do not coincide with the ones of their denominations.

Jacob Preus insists that the heart of the LCMS problem is theological and that inerrancy of Scripture must be upheld if the LCMS is to be preserved from liberalism. The eight district presidents (preceding story) have differing views of Scripture. Emil Jaech affirms that “the whole Bible is the word of God, even in the areas we don’t understand.” Harold Hecht believes that “God is inerrant,” but that “when it comes to the printed page, there are problems.”

Gutenberg Rediscovered

German librarians have confirmed that a book discovered in a pastor’s attic in 1958 is the first half of a two-volume Bible printed by Johann Gutenberg. The six-inch-thick leather-bound volume of 317 pages is the forty-eighth original Gutenberg Bible to be authenticated. It was first found when a former pastor of the Immenhausen church was moving out of a home, but appraisers who were consulted at the time failed to establish its importance.

Friedrich-Karl Baas, a school teacher who moved to the community in 1962 and later became a church officer, found the book on a church office shelf. He studied it carefully and found clues leading him to believe it was an original Gutenberg. One was an inscription at the end of the book of Ezra referring to a sermon preached in the church in 1523. It was not until this summer that he got experts to look at it. The fifteenth-century printer, who made his own paper and movable type, is thought to have produced no more than 200 Bibles between 1452 and 1456.

The well-preserved Immenhausen copy is thought to be worth over $1.25 million. However, the congregation in the medieval village of 6,600 people does not plan to sell it. It will be loaned temporarily to the Gutenberg Museum in Mainz. After proper facilities are provided at the Morhardsche Library in Kassel, it will be on permanent loan there.

Objectionable Clause

A reconciliation meeting between Christian and non-Christian Nishis from the state of Arunachal Pradesh in northeast India broke down because of an anti-Christian clause in a proposed agreement. The 500 Christians at the meeting refused to sign because of an addition committing them to renounce Christianity. The meeting ended in an uproar, many were hurt, and the Christians fled once more into the jungles where they’ve been taking refuge from increasing persecution.

At a recent meeting of the North-East India Christian Council an appeal was issued calling for a government inquiry into repressive acts against the Christian minorities in Arunachal. In another action the council dismissed an allegation that foreign missionaries were conspiring to form a Christian state in eastern India.

ROGER DAY

Religion In Transit

A federal appeals judge and the Tennesee Supreme Court both ruled unconstitutional a 1973 Tennessee law requiring textbooks to present the biblical account of creation on an equal footing with evolutionary theories.

Jesuit priest John J. McLaughlin, 48, who served as a speech writer for former President Richard Nixon, was married in a civil ceremony in Washington, D. C., to divorcee Anne Dore. McLaughlin was absolved of his religious vows by Pope Paul, say friends, and the couple will be wed in a Catholic ceremony after the bride’s previous marriage “is annulled.”

Franciscan priest John J. Tirella, 55, received a suspended five-year prison sentence for helping seven major narcotics dealers escape from a federal jail in New York City last year. Tirella, a volunteer chaplain who delivered styrofoam impressions of jail keys to others, at first insisted to a grand jury that he was innocent, then in July pleaded guilty.

Episcopal bishop Robert P. Varley of Nebraska, 53, says he will resign. His announcement came two months after an Omaha World-Herald interview in which he described his recovery from alcoholism and drug addiction during a six-week stay in a Minnesota treatment center. He acknowledged that disagreements about his handling of finances and his leadership style have persisted among the sixty-five parishes and missions of his 18,000-member diocese.

United Church of Canada cleric Floyd Honey, 59, resigned after serving seven years as general secretary of the Canadian Council of Churches. A money crunch and staff cutbacks were blamed. Honey has over the years attracted the ire of many in the Council’s eleven member-denominations for his outspokenness and involvement in controversial political and social issues. This, say critics, is the reaon for the lack of support for the Council.

The first national meeting of Integrity, an organization of Episcopal hom*osexuals, was held at the Episcopal Church Center in Chicago. Spokesmen say the group, formed less than a year ago, has twenty-two local and regional chapters with 373 members. Speakers included clergyman Robert Herrick, a staff member with the National Gay Task Force in Washington, D. C., and Norman Pittenger, a former Episcopal seminary teacher now at Cambridge, England. “For the gay person it is best to be gay,” asserted Pittenger.

A task force to mobilize Protestant women “in defense of life” was announced by Ruth Bell Graham, wife of Evangelist Billy Graham, and two other women, Baptist Judy Fink, and Missouri Synod Lutheran Jean Garton. They were among twenty-five Protestants who met near Mrs. Graham’s North Carolina home to devise strategy to counter the nation’s pro-abortion forces and climate. Also on hand: surgeon C. Everett Koop, a United Presbyterian; Southern Baptist minister Bob Holbrook of Baptists for Life; and evangelical theologian Harold O. J. Brown, acting chairman of the recently formed anti-abortion Christian Action Council.

The ordination of women as deacons, priests, and bishops was called for in a resolution at the annual convention of the 3,500-member National Assembly of Women Religious, attended by 780 Catholic nuns. There was even talk about a woman pope someday.

Current regulations of the Federal Communications Commission exempts broadcasting stations with fewer than five employees from fair-employment reporting requirements. The FCC would like to change that to “fifteen or fewer,” a proposal denounced as “racist and sexist” by communications head Everett C. Parker of the United Church of Christ. Claiming the change would allow 78 per cent of all licensees to practice discrimination, he vows to lead a fight against it.

Some 300 delegates at last month’s eighteenth annual meeting of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference in Anniston, Alabama, honored the memory of SCLC founder Martin Luther King, Jr., and passed a number of resolutions dealing mostly with improving the lot of the poor. There were calls to “get it back together again,” but the SCLC has been all but crippled by lagging finances and an exodus of key leaders.

Southern Baptist students on more than 300 campuses are cooperating with the American Bible Society in distributing Bibles to the estimated 227,000 internationals studying in America. So far, 51,000 have been given Bibles in their own languages, say officials.

Child Evangelism Fellowship will move its 100-person staff and headquarters from Grand Rapids, Michigan, to Warrenton, Missouri, where it has purchased for about $2 million a Catholic seminary on a 660-acre tract. Plans call for the facility to be used for training hundreds of adult leaders each year.

No takers. Thus Trinity Parish in New York City took off the market ten commercial properties in lower Manhattan it offered for sale late last year for $14.6 million. The properties were assessed at $7.8 million.

The proposed merger between two seminaries of the United Methodist Church—United Seminary in Dayton, Ohio, and Methodist Theological School in Delaware, Ohio—has been called off. Reasons: high moving costs, the minimal savings to be achieved under joint operation, and ruffled feelings. The plan was to close United, a former Evangelical United Brethren school, but former EUB members in the UMC pointed out that their seminary in Naperville, Illinois, had already been merged with the UMC’s Garrett seminary in Evanston. This time, they reasoned, the former UMC school in Delaware should be closed, and United should be allowed to continue.

Some 3,000 persons are expected to attend the evangelical-oriented Continental Congress on the Family in October in St. Louis, say organizers.

Church-state separationists are fighting the state of Pennsylvania’s latest effort to provide aid to private schools, a $31 million program providing “loaned” textbooks, other instructional materials, counseling, and speech and hearing therapy. The package, together with the free bus transportation provided parochial students, amounts to about $95 annually per pupil, says a state official. Public school districts get about $480 per pupil from the state, he adds.

The 1.2-million-member Knights of Columbus will pick up the tab for worldwide coverage via satellites of three major papal events annually (Christmas midnight mass, Good Friday activities, and an Easter sermon). The four satellites of the Intelsat system will be used at a cost of about $25,000 for each of the three ninety-minute live telecasts. Networks and stations must negotiate with Italian television, which operates a Vatican TV pool, for the right to pick up satellite feeds.

Attorney Reynell Andreychuck of Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, was elected the first woman president of the Young Men’s Christian Association of Canada.

World Scene

The village leaders of Oberammergau, Germany, have decided to use a different script for the next performances (in 1980) of the celebrated eight-hour Passion Play. Written in 1750, the replacement—unlike the current text—blames the death of Jesus on Lucifier and makes little mention of the Jews. The switch came after pressure by Jews and Catholic leaders who alleged that the play contains anti-semitic references.

Jehovah’s Witnesses and the Seventh-day Adventists won separate Greek court cases that accorded them status as “well-known” religious groups, a category enjoying a greater degree of religious freedom than otherwise under the constitution. One court established the legality of Witnesses’ marriages and baptisms. Another granted Adventist clergy exemption from military service. Some 16,000 Witnesses met recently in Athens for an annual conference.

The Christian Council of Lesotho, a kingdom of two million population surrounded by South Africa, appealed to the nation’s political leaders to govern responsibly. Political troubles have caused “the slaughter of many of its citizens, heavy property losses, the flight of hundreds of people into exile, and produced a reign of fear.” The Council includes the Lesotho Evangelical, Catholic, Anglican, Methodist, Assemblies of God, and African Methodist Episcopal churches.

The 100-student Belgium Bible Institute, the largest of the ten Bible schools operated by Greater Europe Mission, has purchased for nearly $1 million a Jesuit seminary in a Brussels suburb. The new facility can house 500 students, say spokesmen.

More than half of Sydney’s high school students have experimented with “the occult and Satanism,” according to a study commissioned by Anglican archbishop Marcus Loane. A number of students in other major Australian cities likewise were involved in “witchcraft and Black Masses,” said the commission.

Recently elected to the Hungarian parliament were a number of churchmen, including Bishop Tibor Bartha of the Reformed Church and Bishop D. Zoltán Kaldy of the Evangelical Lutheran Church, according to Hungarian church press sources.

A seventy-five-day strike at the Christian Medical College and Hospital in Vellore, India, is over but the costs are still being counted: about $300,000 so far. The strike, marked by violence and involving 600 of 2,400 workers, occurred after several employees were fired for accepting bribes and falsifying admission records. The state and national governments took opposite sides in the dispute.

DEATHS

CORNELIUS P. HAGGARD, 63, in his thirty-sixth year as president of 1,200-student Azusa Pacific College, a Wesleyan-Holiness school, and a noted evangelical leader associated with the Evangelical Methodist Church; in Arcadia, California, following neural surgery.

E. LANI HANCHETT, 55, Episcopal bishop of Hawaii; in Honolulu, of cancer.

CLEMENT D. ROCKEY, 85, retired Methodist bishop who served in India, Burma, and Pakistan; in Eugene, Oregon.

Jesus Christ liberates and unites.” This theme will be brought to Nairobi, Kenya, when the World Council of Churches gathers there in November for its fifth General Assembly. The theme will be studied in six sections: (1) Confessing Christ Today, (2) Unity of the Church, (3) Search for Community (i.e., among persons of different religions, cultures, and so on), (4) Education for Liberation and Community, (5) Structures of Injustice and the Fight for Liberation, (6) Human Development (problems of technology and the quality of life).

This will be the first General Assembly with no section on mission and evangelization. There will be, however, a new section on dialogue with other religions—instead?

One might think that proclaiming the Gospel would now come under Section I, “Confessing Christ Today.” The collection of preparatory materials for this section describes the burning problems and different situations of confessing Christ today, but the situation of straight witness is not among them.

This packet of materials may show the main theological motives now steering the WCC. The basic principle is the idea that God is to be found at work in the world, in the “context” of the Church today. He is to be found, for example in other religions and in the political movements of our time, inasmuch as they aim at the “humanization” of man. The task of the Church is to discover and support Him in these “signs of the time.” The Church can recognize the voice of God in what men most long for.

This idea, popular in the WCC during the last decade, is supplemented by the more recent concept of “experience.” In dialogue with other religions, “experience” will be more useful than rigid doctrinal statements.

To these basic principles the two assembly theme words correspond: liberation, almost everywhere used in the political sense, and unity, of late used with the much wider meaning of the “vision” of unity of mankind.

The preparatory material shows, though, some elements of refreshing variation from typical ecumenical themes. An example is a remarkable report on a conference of orthodox theologians in Bucharest in 1974. These elements could serve as opportunities for some necessary corrections of ecumenical steering. So could the articles of the Lausanne Covenant, which has been accepted by the WCC to be used as conference study material at Nairobi.

Senior church leaders in Germany today harbor grave doubts whether after Nairobi it will be possible to keep ecumenical unity on a truly biblical basis. That these fears are not unfounded is shown by a 500-page documentary volume edited by W. Künneth and P. Beyerhaus. This new book ought to be translated into English immediately.

Nairobi may, of course, like Uppsala, provide by itself a critique of the WCC course. Nairobi will be different from Bangkok. It will be a plenary assembly of the WCC legislative body, which controls and directs the executive. Members of the assembly are not participants, as in Bangkok, but delegates and representatives of their churches. Their individual experiences at Nairobi will be secondary to their commission to represent the creed and confession of their denominations. They are not there as private persons, and the WCC is not a church.

Lending a hand to correct the WCC course will require clearsightedness and readiness to fight for the truth. To my mind these three major changes, among others, are needed:

1. The time has come to put the edge of sharp theological analysis to the religious poetry produced at Geneva and related places. What kind of liberation? What sort of unit? Precisely what experience?

Experience is a good word. Pietists will feel especially at home with it, as pietism began with the demand to combine doctrinal orthodoxy with personal experience and piety. Experience was to follow doctrine and was identified by it. Not every kind of religious experience would be acceptable—otherwise we would have to admit not only the experience of other religions but also the experience of the demonic as valid.

It is nonsense if those who drew up the preparatory materials for Section I think that some Christians hold to doctrine without experience and others hang to experience without doctrine. Doctrine must authorize experience, and experience must realize and give evidence to doctrine. Otherwise the road is open to all sorts of religious subjectivism. The Section I materials themselves show this well enough when they propose that the messenger is more important than the message. Think of what kind of unity this will produce!

Whoever refuses to allow his religious experience to be analyzed for the purpose of seeing whether it accords with Scripture comes under suspicion that he is out to push an unbiblical concept of his own.

2. The authority of Scripture must come to prevail again. Although mentioned in the WCC creed, it has had little prominence in recent years. Every concept has to be proved by the Bible. Liberation, for example, is a good term with biblical content if we understand it to mean release of the suppressed as shown in Isaiah 58, but not if it means violent self-emancipation as a Christian commission. Unity, too, is a proper Christian concept meaning the unity of those who have become disciples of Christ (as seen in John 17); but it is unbiblical if it means the “unity” of mankind without conversion and discipleship to Christ.

New concepts, new ways of expression, are always welcome, as long as they are authorized by the Bible. Under the authority of Scripture we will be delivered from that perilous slogan which sends us to seek God in any religious experience or political movement.

3. We need to come back to our primary theme: God. We have had enough of horizontal theology that interprets every biblical concept in a this-worldly way. For example, according to the Section I material, the death of the guerrillero is similar in character to the sacrifice of Christ’s flesh and blood and has to be remembered at the Eucharist. No! Make theology go back to its true and proper content: God, and God in Christ. Theology’s task is to inculcate the Great Commandment: to love God, and to love your neighbor. All attempts to reduce it to its second half alone must cease. Let us do away with the secret or openly admitted assumption that the theme of God must rest for a while in a time of social crises like ours.

The WCC’s reintroduction of religious experience signifies no improvement. Experience not clearly distinquished might be only this-worldly religiosity, the Kingdom of Man extended into religion. Nothing less than the reality and authority of God himself according to the Bible must become again the number-one theme of the World Council of Churches.

News editor Edward E. Plowman co-authored Washington: Christians in the Corridors of Power, together with James Hefley. Believe it or not, God is at work in Washington. There are true believers in government and there is a dynamic witness in the world’s most powerful city. We need more Christians in government and more evangelism among Washington’s unconverted, plus prayer by God’s people everywhere for a nation in crisis. The publisher is Tyndale House; price $3.95.

Our lead editorial deals with the World Council’s Nairobi Assembly. My friend Donald McGavran in the July Church Growth Bulletin (can be secured at 3033 Scott Blvd., Santa Clara, CA 95050) has packed in it information about Nairobi that every Christian should read. A year’s subscription (6 issues) costs only $2.00.

The Jesus movement has vanished from news media attention, but its spirit lives on. Last month on Paul Mast’s potato farm near Morgantown, Pennsylvania, an estimated 30,000 gathered for Jesus ’75. It was the largest crowd for such an event since Campus Crusade’s Explo ’72 drew 85,000 to Dallas.

The three-day event was punctuated by rain, turning the main program area into a sea of mud at times, but the downpour failed to dampen enthusiasm.

Tents, trailers, and camper vehicles of every description ringed the meeting area on three sides. Four huge circussized tents flanked the outdoor platform. Two tents, each with a capacity of several thousand, were used for teaching seminars. Another tent housed a busy book and record shop (some 300 copies of Strong’s Concordance were snapped up, and books by Francis Schaeffer moved briskly) plus display booths rented by Christian colleges, mission agencies, and other groups. A supermarket of sorts operated in the other tent. Tank trucks brought in 5,000 gallons of drinking water every hour or so.

Major program attention was given to Bible teaching. There were series of seminars on family life, evangelism, and Christian living. In between, a bevy of musicians kept the program moving. They included Chuck Girard (formerly of the Love Song), Ted Sandquist, Phil Keaggy, and the Andrae Crouch group.

The trend today is for more teaching content and less music, commented one of the leaders.

Among the speakers: Evangelist Tom Skinner; Lutheran pastor Larry Christenson, a specialist on the family; youth evangelists Larry Tomczak (a Catholic) and C. J. Mahaney, a dynamic 21-year-old who was clearly the favorite of many young people; Loren Cunningham, head of Youth With a Mission; Philadelphia pastor John Poole; and Bible teachers Ern Baxter and Malcolm Smith. All but Skinner are charismatics.

The majority of persons attending Jesus ’75 appeared to be in their twenties. There was also a noticeable presence of family groups. Most were associated with established churches. They brought their Bibles and took notes at the teaching sessions. They were friendly but not bubbly or exuberant as they may have been at such gatherings three or four years ago.

The Jesus people have grown up, said an observer.

Jesus ’75 was the third Jesus festival sponsored by the Jesus Ministries of Ephrata, Pennsylvania. It is headed by Mennonite Harold M. Zimmerman, 48, a concrete contractor; United Presbyterian John Musser, 48, a construction foreman; and Mennonite Tom Hess, 36, a fruit packer. All are charismatics. They first became involved in the festivals when a band of Lancaster County Jesus people appealed for help with Jesus ’73. Two festivals will be held next year, one in Orlando, Florida, the other in Mercer, Pennsylvania, with the assistance of local committees.

Under the watchful direction of the three, the festivals have brought in enough money through registration fees and commissions to enable purchase of additional equipment and facilities (the group owns the necessary scores of portable toilets, for example) for use next time and to donate funds to youth mission work. An office secretary is the only paid worker.

Despite the heavy saturation of charismatic leaders and speakers, appeal was kept universal: no public displays of tongues, prophecies, or healing lines. Indeed, several speakers suggested that a need exists in charismatic circles for more reliance on faith and less on healing.

Jesus ’75 was centered on the theme of unity in Christ, a theme for which illustrations abounded. On one afternoon, about 2,000 Catholic charismatic participants attended a special mass conducted in one of the big tents by Franciscan priest Edward Dillon of Washington, D. C.

Cunningham challenged young people in his seminars to get involved in short-term massive outreach, whether overseas or in North America. Under his guidance Youth With a Mission (YWAM) has become one of the nation’s largest mission agencies, fielding thousands of young people worldwide for short-term missionary service. It has permanent bases in fifty nations. Cunningham plans to launch a cross-country bicentennial Christian witness campaign in January. Teams will converge on key East Coast cities in mid-summer—with an assist from a jumbo-jet planeload of overseas young people—and then proceed to the Olympics in Montreal for outreach work (YWAM helped to coordinate the efforts of 2,000 evangelistic workers at the Olympics in Munich in 1972).

As for the Jesus movement, it’s still going on, says Zimmerman, but it’s mostly in the churches now.

Episcopal Revolt

The bishops of the Episcopal Church have a revolt on their hands. At a meeting this month in Portland, Maine, they will discuss what to do about it.

Five more women were to be ordained to the priesthood on September 7 at the Church of St. Stephen and the Incarnation in Washington, D. C.—against the advice of their own bishops and the wishes of the full House of Bishops. Resigned bishop George W. Barrett, 67, was to perform the ordination.

Earlier, the Washington church called Mrs. Alison Cheek as a part-time priest—the first woman to be employed as an Episcopal priest in America. Mrs. Cheek and ten other women were ordained by several retired or resigned bishops more than a year ago in a service in Philadelphia. The ordinations were subsequently ruled invalid by the House of Bishops, but the women have been celebrating Communion (a priestly act) at a number of churches.

In Oberlin, Ohio, Rector L. Peter Beebe is in hot water with Bishop John H. Burt. Beebe was found guilty by a church court of disobeying Burt in permitting two women to celebrate Communion in December, but he allowed them to do it again just forty-eight hours after the verdict was announced. For that Burt restricted Beebe’s ministry to his own parish and decreed that no one can officiate at church services or be added to the church staff without the bishop’s permission. The church’s ruling body had asked Beebe to call one of the women as a staff priest. Beebe says that as a matter of justice he will continue to permit women to celebrate Communion in defiance of Burt’s orders.

The rector of St. Stephen’s church in Washington is William A. Wendt, who was found guilty by a church court of disobeying Bishop William F. Creighton in allowing Mrs. Cheek to consecrate the Communion elements. He was told by the court not to let it happen again. He may be in deeper trouble as a result of the latest developments.

Creighton said he made it plain to Wendt and Barrett that the scheduled ordinations did not have his permission.

Barrett resigned as bishop of Rochester, New York, in 1970 to avoid scandal to the church resulting from the break-up of his marriage and subsequent remarriage, according to news sources. He now serves as executive director of Planned Parenthood in Santa Barbara, California. In conscience, said he in a letter to his fellow bishops, “I cannot refuse to act in this instance.”

The House of Bishops wants a moratorium on such ordinations until next year’s triennial convention of the denomination, when there will be another opportunity to act on the issue.

St. Patrick’S: Jesus At The Core

Four years ago, St. Patrick’s Catholic Church, a landmark just across the street from the state capitol in Providence, Rhode Island, was dying. Though 6,000 were on its parish roster, only a few hundred came to Sunday masses. Smith Hill, the parish neighborhood, was headed down hill; illicit drug traffic and aging, poorly maintained, multi-family houses were signs of the decline. Construction of an interstate highway physically divided the parish, destroyed much housing, and uprooted many parishioners. The church, in financial trouble, had to close its cherished parish school.

In the spring of 1971, two new priests were sent to St. Patrick’s. Father John Randall recalls that “many parishioners were convinced … that Father [Raymond] Kelly and I had really come to bury the parish.”

Today the mammoth St. Patrick’s church stands locked and unused, closed because building inspectors found it unsafe. But the church lives. The school is open. Most of the thirty staff members volunteer their services, receiving only $7.50 a week for personal expenses. The school auditorium and a classroom are now sanctuary and chapel, adorned with banners and children’s paintings. Worship attendance has tripled. The neighborhood still has its problems, but there are signs of improvemept, partly because of an active Christian social witness in the community.

Four years ago, Bob Fitzgerald, father of nine, was traveling around New England selling restaurant equipment. Now, with help from his family and others, he runs the Earthen Vessel, a busy used clothing and appliance shop. Fitzgerald charges what he thinks his customers can afford—nothing or a nominal sum. A banner on a front wall points up the biblical inspiration for the name: “This treasure we possess in earthen vessels” (2 Cor. 4:7).

The changes in St. Patrick’s and in individuals like Fitzgerald are related. Under Fathers Kelly and Randall, who had been active in a charismatic prayer group, St. Patrick’s has become a charismatic parish. Although not all of St. Patrick’s members would identify themselves as part of the so-called Catholic charismatic renewal movement, there is no vocal opposition to it. Besides the usual daily and Sunday masses, St. Patrick’s worship schedule includes three charismatic-oriented prayer meetings a week. The main Sunday mass is decidedly charismatic.

The charismatics reopened the parish school “with Jesus as the core curriculum,” as one parishioner put it. The 175 students in kindergarten through eighth grade are not subject to the uniforms and rigid discipline that have long characterized parochial schools. Their teachers come half an hour early each day for charismatic-style prayer together, and there are daily individual and group prayer sessions geared to different age levels. Parents are expected to complement the religious education the school provides.

Without central planning or constant exhortation, many charismatic families are moving into the low-income, residually Irish parish neighborhood, often from more affluent sections of the Providence area.

The parish includes about a dozen large communal “households.” For example, besides Robert and Helen Hawkinson and their two children, the household they head includes Gina, 30, who works in the diocesan media center; Ray, 27, who teaches French in a public school; David, 22, who teaches math and science at the parish school; and Terri, 18, who just finished high school. Although she has been away visiting relatives in California for several months, Evelyn, 27, a secretary, is still considered part of the household. A room in the three-story Victorian house is kept for her.

Both 45, the Hawkinsons are parish volunteers. He handles church finances; she works with Our Daily Bread, the food co-op. Only Gina and Ray receive regular salaries, which they pool to care for household expenses.

Parish activities have an ecumenical dimension. With the neighborhood Presbyterian and Baptist congregations, St. Patrick’s helps support and staff the Butterfly Shop, which sells handicrafts, and the Shepherd’s Staff, a family counseling center, as well as the co-op. An estimated one-third of the 600 to 700 people who attend Friday prayer meetings are non-Catholic.

Right after he got back from the international Catholic charismatic conference in Rome (see June 6 issue, page 45), Randall led a retreat for some Methodists and Presbyterians. Ten years ago, he said, he would have felt “schizophrenic” about that. Now he feels “at home.”

In many ways, the worship, Bible study, community action, and parish education at St. Patrick’s are not unusual or notably Pentecostal in style. Observers, however, are impressed by the wide range of the activities, the number of full-time volunteers, and the enthusiasm and informality with which parishioners work and worship. Outsiders come away speaking of the ease with which Christian principles are articulated and connected with all that goes on.

St. Patrick’s is not without problems. Discussion at an informal Saturday-morning Bible study suggested continuing problems in parent-child relations. As in many congregations, there are varying degrees of commitment, with many content merely to attend Sunday worship. But over all, the problems are those associated with life, not a dying church.

Critics of the Catholic charismatic movement accuse it of taking ecumenism too seriously, of deviating from traditional Catholic dogma. But St. Patrick’s seems firmly committed to mainstream, post-Vatican II Catholicism, including some very Catholic practices and beliefs with which many Protestants would be uncomfortable at best. Mainline Catholics on the other hand might have raised their eyebrows at a recent Friday prayer meeting where Randall used Peter as a figure for institutional Catholicism and Paul for charismatic Catholicism. “Peter and Paul,” he proclaimed, “stand together.”

TOM DORRIS

PREPARED

Retired Foursquare pastor Melville S. Taylor had often said that when it came time for him to die he wanted the Lord to take him while he was preaching. Last month he was guest preacher at Baseview Assembly of God church in Emerado, North Dakota. He said when he started to preach that he hadn’t realized until then what the Lord wanted him to talk about, commented Steven Robbins, Baseview’s pastor. “Then he talked about eternal life. He stated in his message that he loved his family, but that if the Lord chose to take him home he was prepared to go right now.”

A moment later, said Robbins, the 71-year-old Taylor collapsed and fell from the podium, apparently having suffered a heart attack. Attempts to revive him failed.

Taylor’s long-standing wish had been honored.

Getting Higher

Contrary to popular belief, illicit drug use among the young is increasing, according to some new university and government studies. Especially involved are young people in their early twenties, with marijuana (used regularly by 21 per cent) and alcohol (58 per cent) the most commonly used substances. Government studies show that heroin users have more than doubled, from 315,000 in 1969 to 724,000, and narcotics-related deaths are up 35 per cent in the same period.

Presidential Choice

William P. Thompson, stated clerk of the United Presbyterian Church, is the choice of the National Council of Churches nominating committee to be the next NCC president, according to Religious News Service. If the Council’s governing board accepts the nomination at its triennial meeting in October, the result will be two members of the same communion, both of them laypersons, in top NCC positions. The General Secretary, Claire Randall, is also a United Presbyterian and not ordained to the ministry. Thompson was a Kansas lawyer before becoming his denomination’s chief executive.

Gypsy In Jail

Gypsies are among those who have been involved in the revival-like movement that has spread throughout Romania in the past few years. One of them is Evangelist loan Samu, 31, a fiery preacher. Samu was arrested last Christmas for preaching without permission and for distributing unauthorized Christian literature, according to sources. His prison sentence of nearly four years was reduced on appeal recently to two years. One of the side penalties was loss of income for his family (his wife gave birth to their sixth child in May).

Samu, like many of the Christian Gypsies, gave up his nomadic ways and settled down after his conversion. He became a postal worker, devoting his spare time to evangelism. Prior to his latest arrest he had been fined stiffly several times for ignoring government restrictions on his preaching.

Détente With The Church?

Five Baptist women have been released from prison in the Soviet Union after serving only eight months of their sentences, according to Keston News Service, which is headed by authoritative researcher Michael Bordeaux of suburban London. The five were among seven arrested in Latvia last fall when Soviet authorities discovered one of the secret printing presses operated by the dissident Baptist movement in the U. S. S. R. (see December 20, 1974, issue, page 26, and April 25 issue, page 44).

Upon their release (reportedly in connection with International Women’s Year), the women wrote an open letter thanking Christians everywhere for their prayers and asking them to keep on remembering the two men arrested with them along with Georgi Vins, leader of the Baptist reform movement who is in a labor camp in Siberia.

Curiously, the Kiev church of which Vins is an elected officer has been registered unconditionally by the authorities, enabling it to function freely without the usual restrictions placed on unauthorized groups. According to the believers in Kiev, says Keston, this is the first instance of its kind in the Soviet Union. The 500 members, who have been meeting in the woods, now have a church building, and they were renovating it at last word.

Veteran Soviet watchers are wondering if the move is window dressing or if it represents a thaw in church-state relations. Earlier, the entire membership of the Pentecostal congregation in Chernogorsk (eighty-six members arid their families) issued appeals to President Ford. They asked his help in obtaining permission to emigrate from their homeland. Commented Keston: “They no longer wish to live in a country where there is no freedom of religion.”

Hardiness In Haiti

Baptist clergyman Claude Noel of Portau-Prince, Haiti, is the new—and first—general secretary of the Council of Evangelical Churches of Haiti (CECH). Noel was appointed to his post at the recent CECH annual meeting. Another Baptist pastor, Orius Paultre, who is also a physician, succeeded him as president. They plan to emphasize evangelism and community development. (Haiti reputedly has had the lowest per capita income of any western hemisphere nation; the needs are urgent on many fronts, from agricultural development and technical training to education, medical care, and safe drinking water.)

Formed in 1972, the CECH has eighteen member denominations and missions representing about 80 per cent of the 400,000-plus Protestants (the West Indies Mission and Unevangelized Fields Mission each have about 100,000 baptized members). Its member churches are among the fastest growing in the world. The remaining 20 per cent is composed of two denominations in the World Council of Churches (Anglicans and Methodists) and independent missions and churches.

CECH programs have included a national congress on evangelism, a series of church-growth workshops, and Theological Education by Extension (TEE) offerings.

Assemblies Of God: Record Growth

While many other American denominations were experiencing declines, the Assemblies of God grew a record 10.6 per cent in the last two years, according to reports released at last month’s thirty-sixth General Council, the AOG’s biennial convention. In the United States, AOG membership is now 758,348 in over 9,000 congregations. With 1,128 missionaries serving in ninety-five countries, the overseas constituency now exceeds four million.

The 12,000 delegates and guests were joined in Denver by thousands of other visitors at an outdoor rally to launch AOG participation in the nation’s bicentennial. General Superintendent Thomas F. Zimmerman read a proclamation.

In addition to housekeeping actions, the delegates adopted a statement critical of sex education in public schools. They asked that such courses be voluntary rather than compulsory, that moral dimensions be added to teaching materials, and that parents and churches work to remove objectionable materials.

Brotherly Brethren

Canadians don’t always see eye-to-eye with Americans on important issues, but a strong sense of unity prevailed at last month’s triennial joint meeting of the Canadian and U. S. conferences of Mennonite Brethren churches. Held in Winnipeg, Canada, the denomination’s fifty-third general convention brought together 527 delegates. They represented 258 churches with 15,870 members and 18,663 in Canada.

Culminating efforts begun nearly thirty years ago, the body agreed to make Brethren Biblical Seminary of Fresno, California, the official seminary of both conferences. It was formerly under U. S. conference jurisdiction. Agreement was also reached on cooperative publishing plans.

A revised confession of faith, hammered out over fifteen years, was adopted as a “descriptive” (rather than “prescriptive”) statement of what Mennonite Brethren believe. A sample: “We believe it is not God’s will that Christians take up arms in military service.”

The denomination’s guiding board in spiritual matters presented a paper strengthening a 1972 anti-abortion resolution. “Deliberate abortion is sin,” said the board, insisting that state laws cannot serve as an “adequate basis for moral judgment for the believer.”

The delegates approved a resolution expressing “deep concern” over the Arab-Israeli situation and saying that endorsem*nt of either side easily leads to identification with militarism. Church members were urged to pray for the salvation of Arabs and Jews.

Approval was given for some new mission ventures: financial and personnel aid to non-Mennonite Brethren evangelical groups (like the Muria Synod Church of Indonesia) and personnel assistance to non-Mennonite Brethren groups not generally considered evangelical (some independent African churches). That neither program would involve establishing churches for the denomination did not appear to be a major concern.

A missions budget of $2.4 million was accepted for the coming year; it will rise 10 per cent annually over the coming triennium.

Most of the world’s 100,000 Mennonite Brethren believers live outside North America. These include perhaps as many as 20,000 in the Soviet Union.

DORA DUECK

The Disciples: Accommodating Cocu

Continued support of its ecumenical ties, especially with the Consultation on Church Union (COCU), was evident at the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) biennial assembly in San Antonio last month.

After a half-hour debate, the top legislative body of the 1.3-million-member denomination said it was willing to recognize the baptism and membership credentials of persons coming to it from other COCU churches. While the declaration is not binding on Disciples congregations, it was considered significant because for much of their history Disciples have insisted on believer’s baptism. Many of the local churches (some think at least a third of them) will not accept a person from another denomination if he has not been immersed as a believer.

Paul Crow, Jr., president of the Disciples Council on Christian Unity and a former general secretary of COCU, hailed the vote as “the most important step toward church union” since the 1832 merger in which the denomination was born. The action was taken at COCU’s request; the Disciples are the fourth COCU participant to comply.

Proponents of the action denied that it watered down the church’s historic position on baptism. Rather, they argued, it affirmed the Disciples’ traditional stance on Christian unity.

Delegates to the assembly devoted some attention to the Lord’s Supper during a Sunday-evening program that included a “mariachi mass” led by Roman Catholic auxiliary bishop P. F. Flores of San Antonio. Mexican musicians and ballet dancers took part. The communion elements were served only to the Catholic clerics who led the service. The convention newspaper reported, however, that some delegates had taken communion earlier in the day at a Roman Catholic parish where a visiting Disciples minister preached.

Various convention programs featured an ecumenical who’s who. Speakers included Eugene Carson Blake, retired World Council of Churches general secretary; Claire Randall, National Council of Churches general secretary; Jorge Lara-Braud, executive director of the NCC faith and order commission; and Burgess Carr, executive head of the All Africa Conference of Churches and the leading advocate of missionary moratorium.

Resolutions adopted included one that supports the NCC’s endorsem*nt of the boycott of California and Arizona table grapes and iceberg lettuce and of Gallo wines. Also adopted was a resolution opposing “any attempt to legislate a specific religious opinion or belief concerning abortion upon Americans.” The assembly voted down a resolution that would have condemned the 1973 abortion rulings of the U. S. Supreme Court. Approved was a statement putting the Disciples on record against “hard core p*rnography in all forms.”

In a “state of the church” address, Kenneth L. Teegarden, general minister and president, expressed concern about the “downward slide” in membership. The latest yearbook reported 1,317,044 members, a loss of 18,414 from two years earlier. Teegarden said the church should be challenged to show a 5 per cent annual growth for the next four years to correct the loss. Another denominational executive, Enoch W. Henry, Jr., told an evangelism meeting: “If current membership trends continue, the Christian Church would be extinct by the year 2000.”

Elected as moderator was James A. Moak, the Disciples’ general minister for Kentucky since 1967.

Cautious Concurrence

Cautious concessions to the influence of governmental agencies on Christian education were made last month at the biennial convention of the 390,000-member Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod (WELS), held at Watertown, Wisconsin.

Under pressure from the U. S. Department of Labor to pay its school teachers equally, the synod passed a resolution that concurred “in the application of the principle of equal pay for equal work.” The vote came only after a committee proposing a new salary schedule assured delegates that “it did not concede that the U. S. Department of Labor had jurisdiction in determining or regulating the salaries paid by religious bodies to their called ministry.” About fifteen of the 275 day schools operated by WELS churches are subsidized by the synod. Technically, the new salary schedule applies only to the fifteen, but those run by the self-supporting congregations are expected to follow the guidelines.

Alleged violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act occurred most frequently in the area of housing allowances. Male teachers generally were provided such an allowance, but women were not. Under the new schedule, housing is to be provided for all teachers “according to family needs without regard to sex.”

Even more cautious was the synod’s action on the question of accreditation for its Northwestern College, located at Watertown. After two hours of debate the delegates authorized the school to explore the possibility of seeking regional accreditation unless the school determines that the accrediting body’s requirements in any way “conflict with the Synod’s scriptural principles, or philosophy of education, or if the college finds any conflict with its purpose or program.” College president Carleton Toppe admitted sharing some of the fears of delegates but asked for a “first step” in order to try to comply with the University of Wisconsin system’s requirement that all unaccredited colleges in the state must start the process by September, 1976. At that time the university system plans to stop accepting undergraduate transfer credits from schools not seeking accreditation.

Subsidies for the synod’s four academies, its two colleges, and its seminary were included in the record budget of $16.1 million adopted without dissent for the next biennium. All seven of the institutions are maintained for the exclusive purpose of educating the denomination’s future pastors and teachers.

The budget for the next two years also anticipates the establishment of forty new congregations, including several on the East Coast. Among the thirty-four congregations admitted to membership at the convention were five from the now dissolved Federation of Authentic Lutheranism, a holding body made up primarily of former members of the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod (LCMS). The WELS Commission on Interchurch Relations expressed the hope that the conservative force within the LCMS “might yet win its confessional battle” with moderates, but the WELS panel maintained that the Missouri group is still guilty of “unionism” because of its relations with the Lutheran Council and with the more liberal American Lutheran Church.

Oscar J. Naumann of Milwaukee, synod president since 1953, was named to a twelfth term.