Theology Today - Vol 20, No. 4 - January 1964 - EDITORIAL

467 - From One Generation to Another

From One Generation to Another
By James F. Armstrong

Anniversaries provide us with socially acceptable opportunities for the public display of self-appraisal and renewal of purpose. These activities, when pursued within the bounds of delicacy, are not without their benefits. Therefore, as THEOLOGY TODAY completes its twentieth year of publication, we hazard a brief assessment of the journal in retrospect and in prospect. In the Critic's Corner of this issue we have brought together comments by several distinguished theologians and churchmen, comments that seek to evaluate the journal's strengths and weaknesses and to point it toward new horizons. The contributors include John A. Mackay, President Emeritus of Princeton Theological Seminary and the first editor of THEOLOGY TODAY; F. W. Dillistone of Oriel College, Oxford, and Nels F. S. Ferre of Andover-Newton Theological Seminary, both among the original group of founders; Howard Hageman, Minister of the North Reformed Church in Newark, New Jersey, and a leading contributor to studies of the church's liturgy; John R. Bodo, formerly Minister of the First Presbyterian Church in Princeton and now Professor of Practical Theology at San Francisco Theological Seminary; Gabriel Vahanian, author of The Death of God and a member of the Department of Religion in Syracuse University; and George S. Hendry, Professor of Systematic Theology at Princeton Theological Seminary and an Associate Editor of THEOLOGY TODAY. Perhaps somewhere in these critiques the reader will find articulated his own sentiments about the journal; if not, the editor will welcome additional comments and suggestions.

In the lead editorial, "Time for a Critical Theology," Hugh T. Kerr takes us immediately into the problem of theological perspectives for the next decade. He suggests that the theology of the future should be critical and permissive rather than structured and dogmatic, embodying the intention "not so much to make judgments between right and wrong theology but to evaluate critically what as a matter of fact passes for theology at whatever level of life and thought."

468 - From One Generation to Another

The articles in this anniversary issue are associated primarily with the proper role of theology and of theologians in the years that lie ahead. It would be gratuitous to observe that the authors' views cannot easily be molded into a consensus; and the differences manifest here are but a sample of the diverging and conflicting opinions now at large in the church. In times like these the chaos may appear overwhelming, and hope for any semblance of order seems to grow dim. But as we look to the next generation of theological activity, it may not be inappropriate to apply to our own task the confident words of P. A. M. Dirac concerning the state of physical theory: "The present stage . . . is merely a stepping stone toward the better stages we shall have in the future. One can be quite sure that there will be better stages simply because of the difficulties that occur . . . today."

"Protestant Theology's Predicament," by Otto A. Piper. Thesis: "What is demanded of Protestant theology is not that it should abandon belief in a supermundane God and a heavenly world for which man is destined, but rather that by adopting a new methodology it should show for what reason and in what respect the life which we live and the world which surrounds us have ultimate significance. The way to this goal can hardly be found in psychologizing, historicizing, or demythologizing the Christian message."

Since his retirement from the Helen H. P. Manson Professorship of New Testament Literature and Exegesis in Princeton Theological Seminary, Otto A. Piper has been supervising an extensive bibliographic project which, when complete, will provide an index to all works related to the New Testament from 1800 to 1960. A bibliography of his own publications, through 1961, appears in the Festschrift, Current Issues in New Testament Interpretation (Harper).

"Thursday's Child: The Theologian Today and Tomorrow," by William Hamilton. Thesis: "Faith is the way the Christian affirms the past and appropriates the meaning of certain past events deemed to be significant. Hope is the way of declaring one's future to be open and assured, while love is the way of standing before your neighbor in the present moment. The theologian of today and tomorrow is a man without faith, without hope, with only the present and therefore only love to guide him."

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William Hamilton currently is the William Newton Clarke Professor of Christian Theology and Ethics in the Colgate-Rochester Divinity School. In recent years he has contributed to THEOLOGY TODAY articles on theology and television and on the writings of Dietrich Bonhoeffer. In 1961 his latest book, The New Essence of Christianity, was published by Association Press.

"Christian Theology and the Challenge of Its Parodies," by Roland Mushat Frye. Thesis: "By denying the realm of nature as fundamentalism did, and by denying the realm of the supernatural as the demythologizers and others do, we find that the seamless coat of Christ is ripped apart. Only by holding steadily and honestly to the Gospel of the Incarnation, with its inseparable juncture of nature and grace, reason and revelation, life here and hereafter, can the church truly be the church as God's mission in a divided world."

Roland M. Frye holds the position of Research Professor at the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, D. C. His publications include God, Man, and Satan (Princeton, 1960) and Perspective on Man (Westminster, 1961). The latter volume represents the L. P. Stone Lectures that he delivered at Princeton Theological Seminary in 1959.

"Judgment on Jezebel, or a Woman Wronged," by Stanley B. Frost. Thesis: "There is in the Bible, it would seem, a double standard of judgment, and the view is tacitly inculcated that when actions benefit Israel they are right, but when they militate against her they are wrong. Clearly, then, a woman like Jezebel who was opposed to Israel has no chance of a fair trial in any biblical court. Jehu accused her to his own advantage of 'harlotries and sorceries' when he stirred up revolt against her son, and the world has uncritically accepted this assessment of her ever since. The time is long overdue that she should be given a fresh trial."

Educated in London and Marburg, Stanley B. Frost is Dean of the Faculty of Graduate Study and Research, and Professor of Old Testament Language and Literature, in McGill University, Montreal, Quebec. His earlier works included Old Testament Apocalyptic and Beginning of the Prophets, and a volume titled Patriarchs and Prophets is soon to be published by the McGill University Press.

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"Theology as Translation," by James M. Robinson. Thesis: "Not only do translation and interpretation belong together; they in turn share with language a basic scope. For language itself is the bringing to expression, the exposition, of an understanding. Language is already the beginning of the hermeneutical process. Thus one catches sight of the basic interrelatedness of the problem of the word of God and that of theological hermeneutic. In the broader sense, hermeneutic embraces the movement from the original speaking of God's word, to which the Bible refers, through its address to me in such a way that it speaks to me. Hence hermeneutic, far from being a minor sub-division in one department of theology, has come to be recognized as the overarching category that unites the various theological disciplines and makes them a whole. It is in this sense that theology and translation are one in hermeneutic."

Currently Professor of New Testament Literature in the Southern California School of Theology at Claremont, James M. Robinson is particularly well known for his A New Quest of the Historical Jesus. Other major works include Mark's Understanding of History and The Later Heidegger and Theology, the latter edited in conjunction with John B. Cobb, Jr.

"The Emerging Ecumenical Complex," by Robert McAfee Brown. Thesis: "The hopeful thing that is happening today is that whenever a denominationalist honestly surveys his own past history and that of other denominations, he discovers that the things that bind them all together are much more central and important than the things that keep them apart. But the new fact, perhaps the great new fact of our era (which William Temple did not foresee in his), is the fact that henceforth Christian ecumenical concern will be inclusive of Roman Catholicism as well as Protestantism and Eastern Orthodoxy."

Formerly of Union Theological Seminary in New York and now Professor of Religion in the Special Program in Humanities at Stanford University, Robert M. Brown has been closely associated with the contemporary ecumenical movement, particularly in its contacts with Roman Catholicism, recently attending the Vatican Council as a Protestant observer. His many publications include The Significance of the Church, The Spirit of Protestantism, An American Dia-

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logue (with Gustave Weigel, S.J.), and The Challenge to Reunion (with David H. Scott).

Also in this issue we present an Index to articles, authors, and reviews that have appeared in the first twenty volumes of THEOLOGY TODAY. For the compilation of the Index we are greatly indebted to Daniel L. Migliore, Instructor in New Testament at Princeton Theological Seminary. In the proper hands, an index is far more than a convenience; it is a synopsis of interests, trends, and preoccupations that have manifested themselves-and often quickly disappeared-over a period of years. The exploitation of this possibility, however, we confidently leave to the sociologist of religious thought.

What, then, are we to say to the "next generation" of theologians and to all of God's people? Perhaps the appropriate word is spoken by James I. McCord's devotional article, with which the issue begins. In "The Lord's Song in a Strange Land" we are reminded that however dark the times may be, and however obscure the pathway ahead, in a fundamental sense we should move with courage and hope because in God's world we are yet at home. And this is the context for a new look at the doctrine of providence.