Journal: Bibliotheca Sacra
Volume: BSAC 123:491 (Jul 1966)
Article: Periodical Reviews
Author: Anonymous

BSac 123:491 (Jul 66) p. 261

Periodical Reviews

Calvin Theological Journal, Vol. 1, No. 1, April, 1966.

Published by the Faculty of Calvin Theological Seminary in Grand Rapids, Michigan, this semi-annual periodical gives a new theological voice to the Christian Reformed Church. As such it stands in the tradition of The Calvin Forum, published from 1935 to 1956. The ties between the two publications are developed in the “apologia” for the Journal, “Why We Speak,” by John H. Kromminga.

The periodical aims to be “scholarly” and “to serve the community of Reformed theological scholarship” (p. 6). Largely supplied by the Calvin Seminary faculty members, “the articles will reflect, by and large, the kind of intellectual activity which is going on in the seminary” (p. 9). It also aims to be theologically conservative and Reformed. In this connection Kromminga writes, “…We take it as axiomatic that there is that which abides; that God is not dead, but speaking and acting in our day; and that his will has had an inspired, authoritative, and perpetually relevant expression in the sacred Scriptures” (p. 9).

Pleasing in design, the Journal, in addition to a few articles each issue, will include a section of shorter notes entitled “Scholia,” a department of book reviews, and a listing of books received.

“The Study Of Religion,” Robert Michaelsen, The Journal Of Higher Education, XXXVII (April, 1966), 181.

In the light of the increasing elimination of any reference to God or the Bible from the activities of American public schools by Supreme Court decision, the very appearance of an article with this title in an educational journal is a bit shocking. The content of the article is even more shocking, for it details what the author several times terms “a quiet revolution…in American universities.” This revolution is the ballooning student interest in the study of religion and the development of courses, whole departments and even schools of religion in universities, state-supported as well as private, to meet this demand.

The author himself is a participant in this “quiet revolution,” for he is chairman of the Department of Religious Studies at the University of California at Santa Barbara, a department launched in 1964. Pioneers in this movement were Iowa and North Carolina,

BSac 123:491 (Jul 66) p. 262

the first state universities to develop curricular programs in religion. Close to a dozen more have launched or are planning such departments. This very article is based upon an address by the author at the Consultative Conference on Religious Studies in State Universities held last November at Sout...