Theology Today - Vol 17, No. 1 - April 1960 - BOOK REVIEW - In Hist Service: The Servant Lord and His Servant People

128 - In Hist Service: The Servant Lord and His Servant People

In Hist Service: The Servant Lord and His Servant People
By Lewis S. Mudge
176 pp. Philadelphia, Westminster Press, 1959. $3.00.

Readers of THEOLOGY TODAY will presumably recall the General Council of the World Presbyterian Alliance which met last summer in Brazil, The theme of that conference provides the sub-title of this book, and the Theological Secretary of the Alliance is its author, who here gives his personal reflections on the theme. He has sufficiently freed the material from the official institutional apparatus to make it viable for a more general audience. But he has preserved the structure of the more official reports in order to make his chapters useful to study groups in Presbyterian churches. His chapters, after an introductory analysis of the theme itself, deal successively with the service of theology, the Christian, the Church, and the State.

Because of the genesis of the book, this review will be in part an appraisal of typical conference procedures. That is, the deficiencies of the book are symptomatic of deficiencies in the conventional preparations for a world assembly and in the role of a theological secretary. Let me specify some of these conventional features.

(1) The theme must be Biblical. And it must be belabored incessantly before, at, and after the assembly. It must be related, sometimes by nothing short of hocus-pocus, to the whole spate of problems -with which it is now the fashion to be obsessed. It becomes a verbalized talisman, without power to challenge the neat agendas which have been arrived at without reference to the Bible. The inevitable result is a treatment of the Biblical message which is hasty, marginal, forced, and over-worked.

(2) Any conference theme is expected to elicit trenchant, timely pronouncements on concerns ranging from atoms to Zulus. The moment the theme is chosen and secretaries and commissions are assigned to its study, winds of gale force begin to gather, blowing all

129 - In Hist Service: The Servant Lord and His Servant People

minds in the direction of producing statements which will exude confidence (therefore a megaphonic distortion), which will be capable of world-wide applicability (therefore a grandiose inflation), which will exert compelling constraint (therefore a histrionic self-importance), and which will be intelligible to a vaguely defined but polyglot audience (therefore overgeneralized and oversimplified),

(3) A conference program must be sub-divided into sections, and this sub-division cuts through theme, personnel, and pronouncements alike. Pronouncements must do justice to the problems of every section without being too technical or too controversial. A conference with articulate specialists in every section may succeed in producing a composite set of findings, which will pass muster among laymen and professionals. But no single conferee, not even the secretary, can cover the whole orbit of discussion. Yet, in the nature of things, each conference rather expects its leader to do just that. And lie can't. His brain was shaped by God, and not by the curricula of schools and assemblies. His thoughts are not readily assigned to sections one through five.

All of this may seem to be a digression, but not so. In my judgment, Mr. Mudge's book exemplifies these deformities in conference expectation and organization. Where lie is farthest from the pressures I have mentioned, there he is at his best. There both style and substance thrive on his freedom. I have in mind chapter 3: "The Service of the Christian." Here we encounter a deeply probing and thoroughly humbling analysis of our own egos. He encourages-almost I could say, he forces-every reader to ask of himself the right biographical question. In the sharp contrast which is drawn between the apostle's self-image and our own, we find excellent Biblical exegesis and lucid forthright pronouncements which are relevant to our condition. Every Christian should receive here a stronger sense of his own call and destiny.

In other chapters as well there is substantial fulfillment of some of the basic objectives. The essays on the Church and the State Would furnish the mood, the stimulus, the context, for fruitful discussions by a study group. In style, there is an ecumenical freshness and candor which would ventilate the more stuffy church parlors. But the book as a whole attempts too much; as a result the real accomplishments seem less impressive than they should.

Paul S. Minear
Yale Divinity School
New Haven, Connecticut