469 - New Hopes-Old Realities

New Hopes-Old Realities
By James F. Armstrong

SIGMUND MOWINCKEL, discussing the New Year's festival in Israel, tells us that in this event "the future of the whole people . . . was created anew; fate was reversed; all things became new; a 'year of favor' was at hand." Needless to say, this sense of expectation rarely was fulfilled, and the new hopes were quickly overcome by the old realities of conflict and inertia. Nevertheless, since ancient times faith in the New Year's promise has diminished but a little, and the season has continued to be the focal point for restored confidence and high resolve. Great plans still are fashioned, and greater determination is summoned for sharing in their execution. It is appropriate, therefore, with the advent of the year 1963 that we should look afresh at the church, in this critical period of her life, to discern the vision and resolve with which she may meet the old and stubborn realities that have dulled her witness and dissipated her strength.

How does the historic institutional church relate itself to those outsiders who, by all observable standards, are carrying on the ministry of reconciliation? In the lead editorial, "Pointers for a Perplexed Pastor," John R. Bodo takes up this ever-present question. What can be done with those men "who cannot be 'reached' by the church but who go ahead on their own (or so it seems) to do far more than the ordinary share of redemptive work in the world"? Avoiding the shoddy answer that dismisses such goodness as a variant of pride, the author suggests an approach that may take far more seriously the mysterious providence of God. A member of the Editorial Council of THEOLOGY TODAY and a frequent contributor to theological journals, John R. Bodo is Professor of Practical Theology at San Francisco Theological Seminary. Prior to assuming that position, he served as minister of the First Presbyterian Church in Princeton, New Jersey.

The devotional piece for the current issue is taken from David Head's latest book on prayer, Shout for Joy, published by Macmillan in 1962. His two earlier books on the same subject are entitled He Sent Leanness and Stammerer's Tongue.

Jesus' surpassing faith in Israel is nowhere more evident than in his desire to transform the nation rather than to replace it. Much

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of the present-day criticism of the church springs from a similar attitude. Far from taking an essentially cynical view of the church's raison d'être, men with vision still are seeking new forms for her continued life and growth. In "Less Noise in Solemn Assemblies," Charles W. Hobart outlines some new patterns by which the historic institution may be rejuvenated. Noting certain factors of congregational size, heterogeneity, and educational-level that characterize most non-liturgical churches and vitiate their effectiveness, he suggests ways by which the laity may be given a more responsible role in the life of the congregation, to the end that the lost sense of community may in some measure be restored.

Born in South China of American Baptist missionary parents, Charles W. Hobart was educated at the University of Redlands, the University of Southern California, and Indiana University. He currently holds the position of Assistant Professor of Sociology in the University of Alberta, Canada.

Amidst the plethora of contemporary studies of the church and its ministry, pointing toward both justification and renewal, it is helpful to have the insights of the Orthodox tradition. Writing under the title "Spirit, Church, and Ministry," Nikos A. Nissiotis presents the necessity for a consistent trinitarian theology in discussions of ecclesiology, and denies emphatically that "the Holy Trinity is a sterile philosophical speculation, incomprehensible to modern man." Not only for its own contribution to ecclesiology, but also in view of the new ecumenical dialogue with this great and ancient segment of the catholic church, the present article merits careful attention from us all.

A Greek Orthodox layman with a thorough education in theology, Nikos A. Nissiotis is the Associate Director of the Ecumenical Institute in Bossey, Switzerland. He holds a doctorate from the University of Athens, where he did his work on Søren Kierkegaard, and he has studied under Emil Brunner and Karl Barth. At the New Delhi Assembly of the World Council of Churches he delivered an address on Orthodoxy.

With loud voice Christian men and women still proclaim that "Jesus shall reign where'er the sun does his successive journeys run." As an academic question, it also has been asked just where else Jesus

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may be proclaimed as Lord. Now that the space age is upon us, however, this question has lost Some of its academic quality. In "The Space Age and Christology," Charles K. Robinson calls us to examine the implications for Christian theology and life of the possible discovery of "men" elsewhere in the universe. What if these men have had a revelation comparable to Jesus' incarnation? What if they have not? Hypothetical though the situation may be, perhaps it represents a frontier which the church cannot ignore.

A graduate of the Perkins School of Theology and the Graduate School of Duke University, Charles K. Robinson is a minister in the North Texas Conference of the Methodist church. He taught for three years in the Department of Religion at Wesleyan University, Connecticut, and in 1961 became Assistant Professor of Philosophical Theology at the Duke University Divinity School.

For the most part, the Hebrew-Christian tradition has asserted an intimate association between church and state. One of the marks of the post-Christian-or post-Constantinian-world, however, has been the rise of religious pluralism and the removal of particular religious institutions from positions of special political privilege. In "Religious Pluralism: A Jewish View," Arthur Gilbert seeks to interpret the contemporary responsibility of the church (generically understood), taking seriously the fact that "the state must remain secular" while at the same time realizing that "all men and nations must serve God and are under his judgment." Both for its forceful presentation of a Jewish perspective on this difficult problem, and for the burden it lays upon the Christian conscience, the article will be found rewarding.

Rabbi Arthur Gilbert is a member of the Church-State Committee of the Central Conference of American Rabbis, and is Staff Consultant to the National Conference of Christians and Jews' project on Religious Freedom and Public Affairs. He is author of the book, Your Neighbor Celebrates, and a contributor to the Sheed and Ward publication, American Catholics-A Protestant-Jewish Viewpoint.

The year 1962 saw the publication of the long-awaited English translation of the final volume in Emil Brunner's Dogmatics. Entitled The Christian Doctrine of the Church, Faith, and the Con-

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summation, and translated by David Cairns and T. H. L. Parker, it was released by the Westminster Press. The two earlier volumes in the trilogy were, of course, The Christian Doctrine of God and The Christian Doctrine of Creation and Redemption. In addition to Brunner's own third volume, there also was published in 1962 Charles W. Kegley's The Theology of Emil Brunner, issued by Macmillan as Volume III in the Library of Living Theology. In this number of THEOLOGY TODAY George S. Hendry, Charles Hodge Professor of Systematic Theology at Princeton Seminary, presents an extended review of the new books by Brunner and Kegley, under the title "An Appraisal of Brunner's Theology." In addition, a former student's tribute to the great Swiss theologian is found in the brief article, "Emil Brunner-Teacher Unsurpassed." The student, J. Robert Nelson, formerly was Dean of Vanderbilt University Divinity School and currently is Professor of Theology in the Graduate School of Theology at Oberlin College.