Journal: Westminster Theological Journal
Volume: WTJ 30:1 (Nov 1967)
Article: Reviews Of Books
Author: Anonymous

---

WTJ 30:1 (Nov 67) p. 59

Reviews Of Books

G. C. Berkouwer: Studies in Dogmatics. The Work of Christ. Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company. 1965. 358. $7.50.

Apology is due to both the author and publishers of The Work of Christ for the belated appearance of this review. For the delay the reviewer is responsible. My regret is accentuated by the consideration that no volume I have read from the pen of G. C. Berkouwer has given more pleasure and stimulus than this one and perhaps no other as much. Breadth of erudition and fervent devotion are the characteristics that stand out in Berkouwer’s writings. In these respects the present volume excels. It is with massive knowledge of the whole history of debate and in the context of up-to-date discussion that Berkouwer sets forth the various facets of his topic.

The work of Christ can never be properly conceived apart from correct views of his person. This we are reminded of early in this study (cf. p. 11). But we are likewise reminded that we cannot arrive at a “correct conception of Christ’s work merely by drawing logical conclusions from a theory concerning his person” (ibid.). So our author warns us at the outset that we must “hear the testimony of Scripture and thus be safeguarded from the deceitfulness of the human heart” (ibid.), a canon constantly exemplified throughout the ensuing chapters.

In this reviewer’s judgment one of the most commendable and, in our present situation, most necessary features of Berkouwer’s study is the emphasis upon the historical. In dealing with liberal idealism, on the one hand, and Bultmann’s demythologizing, on the other, by appeal to the historic progression of Christ’s suffering to the glory and light of the resurrection and with incisive frankness he says: “Whoever tries to find salvation outside of history is only groping in the darkness of the cross. God’s activity is one in the midst of history, and is just as historic as man’s guilt and lost condition. Idealism denies man’s guilt and searches for a therapy which can never heal the damage because it bypasses this historical reality. But Bultmann’s representation of God’s activity in the cross also simply minimizes the significance of this history. An enormous amount of idealism continues to dominate the entire field, just as, moreover, natural scientific determinism dominates to a large extent the teachings of

WTJ 30:1 (Nov 67) p. 60

‘demythologizing’. The question in all this is not simply a matter of some scientific problems, but we see the battle focusing around the crucial matter of finding God where he let himself be found” (p. 51).

Another example appears in the di...

visitor : : uid: ()