Journal: Bibliotheca Sacra
Volume: BSAC 125:500 (Oct 1968)
Article: Periodical Reviews
Author: Anonymous

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BSac 125:500 (Oct 68) p. 365

Periodical Reviews

“Resurrection As Hope,” Jurgen Moltmann, Harvard Theological Review, April, 1968, pp. 129-47.

“For many Christians as well as for non-Christians,” the author states in his introductory remarks, “talk about the resurrection of Christ and hope for the resurrection of the dead has become clouded” (p. 129). After eighteen and a half pages discussing “Resurrection as Hope,” Moltmann has not dispelled the clouds.

The resurrection of Jesus Christ is considered to be “historically unverifiable.” And yet Moltmann agrees with Dibelius “that ‘something’ happened between the dead Jesus and the disciples which generated the faith of the disciples” (p.136). He admits that there is “a historically ascertainable framework of the Easter event”; but he insists that “we cannot verify the event itself” (p. 136). His hesitation almost makes you despair of ever finding a real hope.

Moltmann insists that the “Christian tradition of the resurrection hope” finds itself in the frustrating position of giving “superfluous answers” to questions no one is asking. He insists that theology must “descend from the lofty realm of traditional dogmatic answers to the foothills of present-day critical inquiry” (p. 129). This makes it plain that Moltmann considers theology a relative field of study which must conform itself to the interests and inquiries of the day. Little wonder that his hope of resurrection lacks clarity and buoyancy.

“What Is The Moral Crisis Of Our Time?” Will Herberg, The Intercollegiate Review, January-March, 1968, pp. 63-69.

That our generation faces a moral crisis is recognized on all sides. The elusive question is what that moral crisis is. The author insists the answer is not in the acceleration or in the proliferation of violations of accepted moral standards. He admits violations of standards have increased and proliferated, although that is hard to prove statistically. But this is not our basic problem. Rather it is the unprecedented rejection of any moral standards. The crisis of our time is not that our society is increasingly immoral, but amoral.

Distinguishing cause and effect here is difficult, but the author presents as one of the signs of our crisis the “have fun” compulsion which characterizes our culture. He says: “If our time has retained from times past some sense of binding obligation in the conduct of life, it is just this obligation to ‘have fun.’ If we have a morality at all, it is a ‘fun-morality’: to ‘have a good time’ is, with many of our modern-minded people, as stern an obligation as serving God was to an old-time Calvinist” (p. 64).

This “emerging e...

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