Book Notices -- By: Anonymous

Journal: Bibliotheca Sacra
Volume: BSAC 127:508 (Oct 1970)
Article: Book Notices
Author: Anonymous


Book Notices

Our Controversial Bible. By Claus Westerman, Translated and edited by Darold H. Beekman. Minneapolis: Augsburg Publishing House, 1969. 136 pp. $3.95.

The title of this book can be misleading since it is not an attempt to make the Bible controversial, but to make it meaningful. In many ways the author accomplished his purpose well. There are pertinent insights into the meaning of many passages of Scripture. Creation, miracles, parables are all shown to speak significantly to needs of today.

There is a problem, though. The author does not accept the Bible as the Word of God. It is the truth-bearing traditions of men as they have recorded their experiences. He accepts the documentary hypothesis (p. 33), rejects the creation narratives as historical (p. 55), and rejects fulfilled prophecy in its usual understanding by conservatives (p. 99). Thus the controversial Bible becomes a meaning-bearing message but cannot be taken as truth.

H. P. Hook

On Religion: Addresses In Response To Its Cultured Critics. By Friedrich Schleiermacher. Translated with introduction and notes by Terance N. Tice Richmond: John Knox Press: 1969. 383 pp. $11.95.

“Schleiermacher seems to belong more to our century than to his own,” says the translator of this classic volume of addresses by the “Father of Modern Liberalism” (p. 6). This readable new translation will be welcomed by those theological students and scholars who have been caught up in the revival of Schleiermacher studies that has been going on for the past decade or so. The volume contains an introduction, critical notes, and an extensive index.

F. D. Lindsey

Why Jesus? By F. J. Huegel. Minneapolis: Bethany Fellowship, Inc., 1970. 90 pp. $1.00.

The introduction prepares readers to expect chapters magnifying Christ’s deity. Rare use of references and no documentation enhances homiletic flow, climaxing in a final chapter devoted to an evangelistic appeal for sinners to trust Christ. It would seem the great purpose of this book is to be a gospel tract.

Two chapters raise questions. One, on the temptation, implies that at this point Jesus was not God, though He was always otherwise. A chapter on The Sermon on the Mount teaches sinless perfection, and the absence of a sin nature in Christians.

R. D. Congdon

My Lord Speaks. By Stephen Benko. Valley Forge, Pennsylvania: Judson Press, 1970. 128 pp. $2.50.

Genuine Greek exposition with positive exegetical quality including independent study makes this a valua...

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