Journal: Bibliotheca Sacra
Volume: BSAC 121:484 (Oct 1964)
Article: Book Reviews
Author: Anonymous

BSac 121:484 (Oct 64) p. 360

Book Reviews

The Case For Calvinism. By Cornelius Van Til. Philadelphia: Presbyterian and Reformed Publishing Company, 1964. 153 pp. $3.75.

This defense of Calvinism by the distinguished Professor of Apologetics of Westminster Theological Seminary was prompted by dissatisfaction with The Case for Orthodoxy by Edward John Carnell, published by Westminster Press in 1959, along with two other “Case” studies of liberal and new reformation theology by DeWolf and Hordern.

Van Til’s approach is guided by the objective of proving first that William Hordern, representing the new reformation theology, and L. Harold DeWolf, representing liberalism, basically operate on the same premises, namely, that both argue from the “freedom-nature scheme of post-Kantian thought” which is really a descendent of the “form-matter scheme of Aristotle” (p. 58). Their position, accordingly, is essentially a non-Christian point of view.

Having disposed of Hordern and DeWolf on a high level of philosophical-theological debate, Van Til proceeds to demonstrate that while Carnell’s motives are good, he is building a house upon sand in that he assumes the Boston-personalist philosophy of freedom, as delineated by Brightman, which is in part a development of post-Kantian, hence Aristotelian thinking. While better in his content of faith, Carnell’s method according to Van Til is questionable, and perhaps less self-consistent than that of Hordern and DeWolf.

Van Til offers Calvinism as providing a more intelligent basis for faith for the modern intellectual. Calvin according to Van Til is far superior to Kant from which Hordern, DeWolf, and Carnell borrow. The basic Calvinistic authentication of “the Christian story” is twofold: (1) the “self-authenticating Christ” (pp. 132-42), and (2) the nature of revelation as defined by Calvin (pp. 142-45). Although Van Til admits even Calvinism does not solve all intellectual problems, his study closes with the forceful conclusion: “No one has shown how learning by experience is possible by any other method than that which presupposes man and his universe to be what Christ in his Word says it is” (p. 149). Orthodoxy in contrast to the new theology rests upon the premise of the authority

BSac 121:484 (Oct 64) p. 361

of the Scriptures rather than the supposed authority of experience, and on the Calvinistic concept of divine revelation in which the Scriptures are determinative, rather than the criterion of experience.

J. F. Walvoord

Aspects Of Christian Social Ethics. By Carl F. H. Henry. Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1964. 190 pp. $3.95.

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