Journal: Bibliotheca Sacra
Volume: BSAC 123:490 (Apr 1966)
Article: Book Notices
Author: Anonymous

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BSac 123:490 (Apr 66) p. 185

Book Notices

The Foundations Of New Testament Christology. By Reginald H. Fuller. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1965. 268 pp. $5.95.

It is not an easy task to amass, to say nothing of summarizing, the developments of the past two decades in the various critical schools of interpretation of the New Testament. This the author (professor of New Testament at Seabury-Western Theological Seminary in Evanston) has done in an attempt to trace the evolution of the doctrine of Christ through Judaism, Hellenism, Jesus’ own self-interpretation, the kerygma, and later doctrinal developments. His conclusions, however, are much less definite than his analyses, but he is certain that we “cannot simply go on repeating either the New Testament kerygma (which is couched in terms of obsolete mythologies) or the orthodox formulae (which are couched in terms of an obsolete metaphysic)” (P. 250). What we can

BSac 123:490 (Apr 66) p. 186

preach is not clear; indeed one wonders why preach at all if the Scriptures and the Savior are emasculated as this book makes them.

C. C. Ryrie

Christ’s Church. By Bela Vassady. Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1965. 173 pp. $1.95.

This book is nothing more than a collection of ecumenical platitudes by one who has long been associated with the WCC and who is now teaching this sort of theological nothingness to students at the Lancaster Theological Seminary. His thesis is that a united church must be catholic, evangelical, and reformed which sounds good until one realizes how completely the author empties these words of any content. He tries to point beyond forms to Christ, which is also very good, but his pointers lack objective authority. If one wants to be schooled in the ecumenical jargon of the day, this book will be an excellent teacher. Think for instance, of how useful it would be to know a sentence like this: “The life span of the reforming Church consists of countless redemptive ‘nows’ as it dispenses both His judgment and His mercy” (p. 163).

C. C. Ryrie

All In Each Place. J. I. Packer, editor. Abingdon, England: The Marcham Manor Press, 1965. 237 pp.

This collection of ten essays by evangelical Anglicans attempts to point out problems in the proposed Anglican-Methodist merger of churches, and advocates union on evangelical principles following the Church of South India example of mutual recognition of ministries. Although the book speaks mainly to problems in Great Britain, the book will have interest for readers in other countries because of contemporary ecumenical pressures. Problems of doctrine, ordination, national churc...

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