Book Reviews -- By: Anonymous

Journal: Bibliotheca Sacra
Volume: BSAC 111:442 (Apr 1954)
Article: Book Reviews
Author: Anonymous


Book Reviews

Systematic Theology. By Lewis Sperry Chafer. Dallas Seminary Press. Distributed by Van Kampen Press. 8 volumes. $33.95.

The occasion of the fourth printing of the eight-volume work in Systematic Theology by Lewis Sperry Chafer is a precedent-shattering record in contemporary theological literature. It is most unusual for any systematic theology in our day to attract much interest. The fact that an eight-volume work has had such public demand and such widespread attention is most significant.

Reasons for its popularity are not difficult to find. Systematic Theology presents in wider scope than ever before attempted the whole realm of Biblical theology from the conservative and premillennial standpoint. The great Biblical truths found not only in conservative theology as a whole but also presented by the great Bible teachers of our generation are here systematized and presented in a way that invites reading and study. The work is Biblical rather than philosophical and written for the most part in language understandable by the layman as well as the scholar. Thorough outlining and comprehensive indices make the eight-volumes a working tool for all students of the Scriptures. For many pastors it constitutes a part of the important nucleus of their libraries. Systematic Theology remains a monument to the life-long studies of its author and an outstanding contribution to contemporary theological literature.

J. F. Walvoord

The Protestant Credo. Edited by Vergilius Ferm. Philosophical Library, New York. 241 pp. $5.00.

The frequently repeated statement that the old religious liberalism is dead and is being supplanted by neo-orthodoxy is given a thorough rebuttal in this volume. Written by ten outstanding liberal theologians and philosophers, whose doctrinal position characterized the liberalism of twenty-five years ago, the symposium of the ten authors answers the question of what a modern liberal believes. Typical of the viewpoint of the book is the statement by Morton Scott Enslin in his article, “The Credo of an Unregenerate Liberal,” as follows: “At this time when so many funeral sermons are being preached over the late and not too widely lamented liberalism which has finally died because of its lack of affirmative belief, it may be properly asked if the preachers are

not a bit premature in their committal services. Is the corpse really as dead as it is confidently asserted? To many of us, the answer is a definite and decided No” (p. 74).

The claim of the editor that the volume “states the Protestant faith in its essentials” is hardly borne out by the con...

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