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Theological Table-Talk
By Hugh T. Kerr

A GOOD LOOK AT THE WORLD

The universe of the infinitely great and the infinitely small has always stirred man's imagination and wonder. What the scientist sees through his telescope has taken on added fascination in these days of orbiting satellites and the possibility of space travel. Atomic fission, the electron microscope, virus research-these at the other end of the scale have probed deeply into the smallest of the small. But how are the two related, and how can we get a picture of what we cannot see with the eye?

An utterly fascinating little picture book prepared for children (and their parents) dealing with this subject has just appeared. It is called Cosmic View: The Universe in 40 Jumps, and it has been painstakingly prepared by Kees Boeke, a Dutch schoolteacher (John Day Co., New York, 1957, 48 pages, $3.25). The author's device for picturing the very big and the very little in the universe around us is so simple that one wonders why it hasn't been done before.

The first picture is of a little girl sitting on a chair in the school where Mr. Boeke teaches. Then we move away ten times the distance in each of the following pictures so that the effect is like a rocket ship going up into space. By the tenth picture our planet Earth is about the size of a pin head. By the twenty-sixth picture the smallest white dots on a black background suggest the multitude not of stars but of whole galaxies. Then the process is reversed, and we begin again with the little girl and go in the other direction. "We see a mosquito on other hand and a grain of salt. In the subsequent pictures, only thirteen of these as compared to twenty-six in the first expedition, we narrow down until the nucleus of the sodium atom is reached. Arthur Compton, who writes an Introduction to the little book, suggests that we can go no farther in either direction. "There is reason to question," he says, "whether we shall ever be able

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to draw what would be the next pictures, twenty-seven or minus fourteen."

The descriptions of what is taking place at each stage are scientifically authentic though not always at the level of simplicity. The author is obviously interested in more than his pictures, however, for he believes that with all our knowledge of the world around us "we are in danger of collecting a large number of images without realizing that they all join together in one great whole." Beyond this, moreover, he concludes his book with an exhortation, based perhaps upon the centrality of the little girl in her chair who may be taken to represent mankind at the center of this astonishing universe. "Learning to live together," he observes, "in mutual respect and with the definite aim to further the happiness of all, without privilege for any, is a clear duty for mankind, and it is imperative that education shall be brought onto this plane."

CHURCH INTEGRATION IN CLEVELAND

Is any progress being made at the local level toward racially integrated Churches? Or is eleven o'clock Sunday morning still the most segregated hour of the week? The Social Welfare Department of the Cleveland, Ohio, Church Federation has made a survey of the situation in its own area, and on the whole its report is encouraging (see How Racially Inclusive Are Cleveland Area Churches?, edited by H. Robert Gemmer, 19 pages, copies available at 1900 East 18th Street, Cleveland 15, Ohio).

Of 219 Churches which participated in the Cleveland survey, 115 or 52.5% are racially inclusive in some sense. Many of these Churches indicate that this represents a fairly recent change of policy. A majority of these Churches are using two races in positions of leadership, and there are at least four Churches with pastors from what is a minority group in that Church. A large suburban Church, seeking a new minister, voted four to one to choose the person best qualified-without regard to race. Neither location nor Church budget (economic bracket) seems to have much to do with inclusiveness. In fact, there are four times as many inclusive Churches as segregated Churches with budgets over $75,000.

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While some of these items require careful analysis, the Cleveland area according to this report seems slowly but surely moving toward greater racial inclusiveness. But the report quotes Martin Luther King of Montgomery, Alabama: "We have come a long, long way, but we have a long, long way to go."

One of the interesting sidelights of the Cleveland survey is that Church integration is tied up with real estate segregation. Many Churches are located in areas where only one race predominates, and, regardless of the willingness to be inclusive, they simply do not have an inclusive local community to draw upon. Further than that, however, there seems to be a greater assent toward Church inclusiveness. than toward community inclusiveness. The Lakewood Baptist Church in Cleveland, for example, conducted its own survey among both adults and Sunday School young people. When asked if their Church should be open to all without regard for race, 134 answered "Yes" and only 5 said "No." When asked if they would urge their neighbors to accept a Negro family that moved into their community, 99 said "Yes" and 27 said "No." And the figure fell even more when they were asked if they would work for a "Covenant of open occupancy" (an agreement to have no racial restrictions on renting or buying of real estate);84 answered "Yes" and 35 said "No."

THEOLOGY AND SOCIAL WITNESS IN JAPAN

In 1959 Japanese Christians will celebrate one hundred years of Protestant missions in their country. In the past century Christianity has not only been introduced into Japan but has been firmly planted in such a way as to bring forth a distinctively Japanese Christian Movement. Yet the Christian population in Japan is still a very small fraction. Including Roman Catholics, Eastern Orthodox, and all Protestant groups, there are no more than 500,000 Christians, or less than half of one per cent of the total population! Insignificant though this figure may be numerically, the influence of the Christian population on social reform is everywhere conceded to be substantial.

An interesting and informative sketch of the history of Christianity in Japan has been prepared by Masao Takenaka, Professor

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of Christian Ethics at the School of Theology, Doshisha University, under the title, Reconciliation and Renewal in Japan (published jointly by the Student Volunteer Movement and Friendship Press, New York, 95 pages, $1.00).

One of the basic issues in Japanese Christian history has been the relation of theology to social witness. According to Professor Takenaka, "A strong influence in early Protestantism in Japan was a religious moralism that characterized much late nineteenth and early twentieth century Protestantism in America and was brought by the missionaries to Japan. It was a humanistic Puritanism, an ethic that had lost its theological foundation and reference. Personal discipline and morality were greatly stressed as of central importance in the Christian life." This emphasis was most congenial for educated Japanese and seemed to fit in easily with the samurai-Confucian background of many intellectuals who adopted the Christian faith. While the missionaries often accented the theological motivation of Christianity, the Japanese were in the first instance apparently more interested in the impact of the faith upon such social questions as education, temperance, and prison reform. This social concern, from the Japanese point of view, was, and has continued to be, the major contribution of Toyohiko Kagawa.

About twenty-five years ago, however, Japanese Christians, particularly the Church leaders, professors, and the intellectuals among the laity, became intensely interested in the crisis or neo-orthodox theology associated with Karl Barth. This theological shift, according to the author, was a needed corrective for the watered-down social liberalism of previous generations. But it also, perhaps unintentionally, undercut the social passion which for so long had characterized the Christian witness. "The leaders of the crisis theology severely criticized the easy harmony of Christ and culture and the optimism often expressed by the Social Christianity group. . . . All their energies were preoccupied with the Word of God in the life of the Church, and a dualistic conception of the relation of God and the world precluded any real understanding of the Word of God in the midst of the world." This leads Professor Takenaka to observe that "the more the level of theological thinking advanced, the less social vitality tended to be expressed."

In the concluding chapter of this historical survey, some indication of future needs is listed. Nothing is said of the direction of the-

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ology, but the author's own concern is clearly for a dialectic between the earlier social Gospel and the later crisis theology. Whatever relation between theology and social witness is achieved, however, there must be in the future "a far wider dissemination" of Christianity among the farmers and industrial workers who have been largely by-passed. The "Western trademark" which many Japanese identify with Christianity must be overcome and supplanted by indigenous development of Church life, architecture, religious art, and hymns. And the Japanese tendency to look to "outstanding persons" must give way to a deeper sense of the Church as the corporate body of Christ in which the responsible role of the layman is taken seriously.

BAPTIST HISTORY AND THEOLOGY

In the contemporary revival of interest in so-called "left-wing" Reformation movements, it was perhaps inevitable that sooner or later the Baptists, who belong in this category, would seek an organ to examine and express their distinctive heritage and contribution. This would be particularly appropriate in America where, as Will Herberg has demonstrated in his book Protestant-Catholic-Jew (1955), "third generation" Americans tend to revert to their initial religious traditions in the quest for self-understanding and integrity. A group of Baptists of the American Baptist Convention, as distinct from the Southern Baptist Convention, under the editorship of George D. Younger, have established and inaugurated a new Baptist theological quarterly. It is called Foundations, with a sub-title, "A Baptist Journal of History and Theology" (address: American Baptist Historical Society, 1100 South Goodman Street, Rochester20, New York).

The new review continues but enlarges the scope of the old Baptist historical periodical, The Chronicle. In the initial editorial which appears in the January,1958, issue, it is observed that, "The time is ripe for American Baptists to publish a journal of history and theology. . . . We live in a time when Baptists, like the other great bodies of Christians in the world, are asking themselves what is their peculiar witness to bear before the world." The new journal proposes to discuss not only Baptist history but theological issues

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which lie behind Baptist and other denominational traditions. There is a definite ecumenical note in the whole project.

Articles in the first issue illustrate the variety of problems to be considered. Daniel D. Williams tells of his impressions in surveying Baptist theological schools. Winthrop S. Hudson reviews the "associational" principle of Baptists, V. E. Devadutt reports on the Baptist participation in the North India plan of Church union, Lynn Leavenworth writes of theological issues confronting Baptists today, Carl F. H. Henry reminisces about his own Baptist convictions, Edwin S. Gaustad discusses Roger Williams, Hillyer H. Straton and Gene E. Bartlett provide expository and homiletical insights, and there is a complete book review section.

THEOLOGY TODAY welcomes this new journal and wishes it well. We reflect, not too self-conciously, we hope, that this is one more addition to the increasing list of theological quarterlies that have appeared since our own venture just fourteen years ago. We do not claim credit for this, and we are happy to see that others agree with us that "the time is ripe" for such theological conversation. More important, however, is the impact of such discussions upon the growing tension between neo-confessionalism. and the ecumenical process. This tension, as we have repeatedly observed, may result either in a backward step which attempts to re-establish particular traditions or in a forward movement which seeks to serve the tradition by serving the whole Church of Christ. This represents one of the most agonizing and complicated issues of our day as we try to relate tradition and theology to existing Church structures and the new day dawning.

CALVIN AND CHANNING

The Liberal Arts Press (153 West 72nd Street, New York) has begun a series of paperbacks that promises to make available some unusual reprints and anthologies. The general editor is Oskar Piest, and the series is in two parts. The first is called "The Library of Liberal Arts," and it includes Aeschylus, Aristotle, Dante, Fichte, Kant, Plato, Whitman, and a score of other authors. One of the volumes is on Calvin, entitled On the Christian Faith (95 cents).

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It has been prepared by John T. McNeill who writes an excellent Introduction, a sort of minute biography digested from his big book, The History and Character of Calvinism (1954). The selections are taken from the Institutes, the Commentaries, and the Tracts. It is a very useful and well conceived Calvin miscellany. Professor McNeill notes, and this book illustrates his point, that Calvin's "writings are perhaps more closely studied in our century than ever before."

The second group of titles is listed in "The American Heritage Series," and it deals specifically with Americana, including John Adams, John C. Calhoun, Alexander Hamilton, Thomas Jefferson, and Thomas Paine. One of the items in this series is an anthology of William Ellery Channing, called Unitarian Christianity and Other Essays (80 cents). Channing was the spokesman for American Unitarianism in its formative years. He was an urbane, prolific preacher and writer of essays, and his collected works went through twenty-two editions within ten years of his death in1842. In this selection there are two lengthy diatribes against Calvin, or at least what was generally taken to be Calvin's position after the Puritans and Jonathan Edwards had had their say. One is the famous sermon, preached in1819, "Unitarian Christianity," and the other is the essay on "The Moral Argument against Calvinism." Channing's revolt against the rigidity of a Calvinism gone to seed still reads with persuasive force, and it is little wonder that the next great religious movement in America was Transcendentalism.

But Channing's Calvin is scarcely recognizable in the previously mentioned Calvin volume. The basis for the Unitarian debate seems today a strawman stood up to be knocked down. But it is also useful to have this reminder of a theological discussion which in certain respects is by no means a dead issue. Channing's broadminded, sweetly reasonable approach and his uncanny ability to cut to the quick of the religious-as distinct from the theological-question make him required reading for all apologists and defenders of the faith.