Journal: Central Bible Quarterly
Volume: CENQ 08:1 (Spring 1965)
Article: Book Reviews
Author: Anonymous

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CenQ 8:1 (Spring 1965) p. 67

Book Reviews

INTERPRETING THE BIBLE A Review of the book by A. Berkeley Mickelsen (Wm. B. Eerdmans Publ. Co., 1963)

By Dr. Warren Vanhetloo

The purpose of this book is (1) to show that a student must have a proper method of interpretation, (2) to discuss the many elements of such interpretations, and (3) to guide the reader into a correct understanding of the Scriptures. The author received a sabbatical leave from Wheaton College in order to do research and prepare the manuscript for this book. It offers a good contribution to the field, but will not in the judgment of this writer achieve a place of recognition among the leading books dealing with Bible interpretation. The book fulfills the above-stated purpose presented by the author in his preface, but hardly meets the advertising claims of the publisher.

One can commend the apologetic portion of the book where the author defends evangelical hermeneutics against the neo-orthodox procedures prevalent today. The work of the author in the chapter dealing with Greek syntax is especially useful. The chapter on devotion and conduct deals with an important distinction between interpretation and application.

On the opposite side of the ledger, the type is small and difficult to read, the book is “padded,” and the material frequently wanders. The author has become enamored of TWNT, and burdens the reader with extensive quotations. The author includes many of his own interpretations, far beyond illustrating the principles he might be discussing. The author claims an ecumenical purpose (“hermeneutics is a potent unifying force in the Christian church”). He even discusses baptism at length without giving any hint as to his own position regarding baptism.

CenQ 8:1 (Spring 1965) p. 68

This textbook for hermeneutics attempts to cover the basis for hermeneutics, general hermeneutics, and special hermeneutics in nearly four hundred pages. Had the author published about 150 pages of this, it would be a much better book. As a sample, in a section stressing that the preacher ought to be clearly understood, the author asserts, “Where application is incisive, the sermon preparation and delivery possess both the note of revelational historicity and a recapitulative applicability.”(p. 366)!

Of the many non-evangelical names one sees in the footnotes throughout the book, that of Paul Tillich appears on page 347, and the author declares that Tillich was right in the quotation which is cited. Then on page 349 the author devotes a paragraph to opposition of Christians who consider that there are opponents guilty of grave doctrinal dereliction.

The theological basis of the author is perhaps revealed in h...

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