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The Church In the World
By E. G. Homrighausen

BEING A CHRISTIAN IN A WASTEFUL SOCIETY

Much has been written about being a Christian in a Marxian order, but little has been written about being a Christian in an affluent society. Heretofore, the satisfaction of human needs has been limited by scarcity. In a controlled society they are satisfied only as the economy and its political controllers will permit. In a free technological society with high production, these wants are not only encouraged but stimulated. In fact, it is regarded as unsocial and contrary to the spirit of a growing economy to curtail consumption.

Vance Packard's, The Waste Makers, is a book that will shock anyone who reads it. Some will be angered by it. This is the third of his books to analyze the American situation and character. His first was The Hidden Persuaders, and his second, The Status Seekers. The third is written about "the systematic efforts being made to encourage citizens to be more careless and extravagant with their nation's resources, and what these efforts imply."

Aside from the main thesis of the book, namely, that American industry is voluptuously wasting our nation's resources by promoting consumption of its products, the book has some pertinent issues to raise about the effect of this process upon the character of the American people. Consumption is now becoming a way of life. High-pressure means are being used to persuade people to buy and buy what they do not really need. People are encouraged to throw things away, to have two homes, to buy something because it is painted a different color, or has a different scent or flavor. Whole families are encouraged to go into debt. The average family is only three months from bankruptcy. Products are made which are not supposed to last for long.

All of this is a deliberate promotion of the philosophy of hedonism and self-indulgence. Packard writes that "the people of the United

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States have been thrust into making a more abrupt transformation in their system of values since World War II than in just about any comparable period in the nation's history." He continues that "new pressures are causing ever more people to find their main satisfaction in their consumptive role rather than in their productive role. And these pressures are bringing forward such traits as pleasure-mindedness, self-indulgence, materialism, and passivity as conspicuous elements of the American character."

The effects have been most devastating upon youth. Self-indulgence and the principle of pleasure without discipline have caused youth to lose their high sense of purpose. Packard maintains that "the juvenile delinquent in the United States is a bi-product of our self-indulgent age."

While the Christian approves the use of all God's resources for the living of a life that is free from crippling want, he cannot condone the wasteful consumption of the earth's resources. Nor can he stand by when a deliberate philosophy is being promoted which makes of indulgent "consumptionism" the chief end of man.

Packard's book is a must for all who would understand the shift in values which has been taking place in American society. But no amount of analysis will be able to provide a theology of stewardship regarding the responsible use of the earth's God-given resources and the place of the consumption of things in a theology of the Christian life. Interestingly enough, the twentieth chapter of this book, which describes the changing American character, starts with a quotation from Paul's Letter to the Philippians, "whose God is their belly."

MUST WE REDEFINE CHURCH MEMBERSHIP?

The current discussion about the quality of Christianity to be found in the Churches is related to the ambivalent conception of the Church which is prevalent in popular Protestantism. And this uncertainty is reflected in the way Church membership is regarded by many ministers and their governing and teaching bodies. Two conceptions of the Church, prominent in recent years, conflict. The result is the lack of a clear strategy of procedure in educating and nurturing persons in Church membership for our time.

Since the Protestant Reformation, the difference between Church

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and sect has been emphasized. The Church has been defined as an inclusive institution which maintains a close relationship with state and society. It enjoys a privileged social position. It is " established" and receives prestige and even financial grants from the state. It embraces all people, including their children, in its membership. Children are baptized and their religious education is made a part of general education. It is customary in such a peoples' Church for everyone to be married and buried according to the rites of the Church. It is a peoples' Church; indeed, it is the religious division of society.

The sect on the other hand is in but not of the world. It claims that no one is Christian by right of birth or heritage. Membership in the fellowship is gained by free decision. The sect protests against the established Church as an institution which tends to change Christianity into a cultural religion and sacrifices its radical purity for popular success and prestige. The sect refuses the support of civil government and claims freedom as a gift from God and not a concession of the state. The sect is exclusive. It is militantly independent. People who belong to it believe they are separated from the world and bound together by exclusive faith.

Most of our Protestant denominations today are mixed; they try to be both a Church and a sect. The sect is trying to be an inclusive Church, and the Church is trying to be a sect. All of this goes back to the Constantinian period when the state sponsored and protected the Church. For a millenium and more the Chris-Lion Church had an "inside track" in the making of law, public morality, education, art, and government. Christianity was a part of civilization. The western world had the form of a Christian society. To be sure, there were reforming groups, radical sectarian cells, protesting against a "worldly" Church which seemed to have lost the simplicity and the purity of New Testament religion.

And while the Reformers broke the monopoly of the Church they still accepted the privileges of government establishment.

Since the Reformation, however, the established Churches have lost their prestige and have become denominations. They find themselves in a secular world with little to support them in the society which may still hand out to them a financial subsidy. They are deeply concerned about raising the standards for baptism and membership. Their cultural status is problematical.

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The sects have grown in size and status; and they have become denominations. Their people are no longer discriminated against. They are concerned about their responsibility to society and the communol dimensions of personal religion. So the nature and meaning of Church membership for both old Church and new sect have become common concerns in a new social situation.

The Churches can no longer assume that they possess the social influence they once had. Nor can they equate Church membership with individual conversion. But this does not mean that they should bemoan their loss of cultural status, nor cease to uphold the eternal values which still reside in western civilization. The sects should not isolate themselves from the world, nor emphasize only individual salvation, nor take Christian culture for granted.

The fact of the matter is that Protestant Christianity faces a new situation. The old patterns of Church and sect must be transcended by a new conception of the Church and the qualifications for membership in it. The strong emphases of both Church and sect must be integrated into a new theology of the Church. The social privileges of the Church are on the way out; the isolation of the sect is past. Their day is finished! The Christian community must develop its distinctive nature. The boundaries between Church and world must be redefined. This means a re-definition of what it means to be a member of the Christian community today.

Perhaps we are at a place in history somewhat similar to that which existed before Constantine. It has been said that we have far more in common today with the early Christians than with the Reformers, who still lived in a day when the Church enjoyed the favored but dubious status of a peoples' Church, and the full impact of radical sectarianism, nurtured on the Scriptures, had not been felt. if this be so, then it ill befits the Protestant leadership of our time to continue its faithless critique of the state of the Church in the world and move forward to a new concept of Church and Churchmanship!

SPACE-AGE SUNDAY

The title of this article is that of a recent book written by Hiley H. Ward (Macmillan), religious editor of the Detroit Free Press.

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It suggests in a challenging way one of the puzzling problems of the Christian Church today: How shall the Christian faith relate one of its oldest structures, namely, Sunday, to the dimensions of thought and life which the space age has opened to us? The book closes with the following sentences: "A segmentation of days does not make sense amid the unifying forces, such as Communism and revived religious like Mohammedanism, that compete with Christianity to engulf Space-Age man. Is it possible that Sunday is not the bulwark in the Space Age that we like to think it is? Could it be possible that Sunday is an obstacle to faith?"

As a newspaper reporter, Mr. Ward is in an advantageous position to deal with the contemporary controversy over Sunday laws. One should not be fooled into thinking that Mr. Ward has written a journalistic book; on the contrary, he combines scholarly research into the history of Sunday with a lively reportorial discussion of its modern observance.

The use of Sunday is changing rapidly in the United States. Sunday laws in old colonial states like Pennsylvania, Maryland, New Jersey, and Massachusetts, to mention only a few, are being tested in the courts. And the issue has gone all the way to the Supreme Court of the United States where the constitutionality of such laws is even now being debated. The advocates of a free Sunday, as well as Jews and Seventh Day Adventists, claim that they arc being discriminated against, that the arm of the law is being used to enforce religious regulations, and that the first amendment, which states that Congress shall make no law respecting the establishment of religion or the prohibiting of the free exercise thereof, is being violated. The Supreme Court has never been forced to consider the question of the constitutionality of the so-called Sunday blue laws. The development of a pluralistic religious tradition makes it increasingly impossible to impose the structures of a majority upon minorities.

Mr. Ward provides the reader with a great deal of information about the history of Sunday and the enactment of state laws to keep it from being secularized. Few realize that Protestants, Roman Catholics, and labor unions were instrumental in writing and enforcing Sunday laws. Mr. Ward writes informingly about the origin of Sunday, holy days, and Jesus' attitude towards the Sabbath. He reminds us that the early Church engaged in daily worship and

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breaking of bread, and that even the establishment of the legal Sunday did not abolish daily devotions.

Yet, even Mr. Ward is not clear as to what constitutes a sound theology of Sunday. He gives us four case-studies to illustrate what has happened in Toronto, Canada; Saddle River, New Jersey; Little Rock, Arkansas; and New York City, as they encountered legal battles over the Sunday issue.

Mr. Ward, like most Christians today, is caught in a dilemma. On the one hand, he feels that Christians are involved in the social order and are, therefore, responsible for maintaining a Sunday by some sort of law. Some such day is a social necessity. On the other hand, he does not wish the Church to interfere too much in the affairs of the State. Nor does he want to make an apologetic for the Sunday as a day to "pay homage to God," or preserve it for the family's moral and spiritual benefit. He does not wish Sunday laws to squelch religious minorities like the Jews and the Adventists. Nor does he want to use the argument of labor unions who want Sunday to be kept so as to protect workers from exploitation.

Ward's solution is that the Church should be more interested in a more vital Christian faith than in a legal holy day. A key sentence in his conclusion states that "a person living under grace through the power of the Holy Spirit forms his own limits." This is certainly the ideal solution. The Christian and the Church needs no legal support to keep all days as holy, and the Lords Day as especially significant. But it still leaves us with the concrete responsibility of the Christian in the social order in which he is involved. What is the nature and witness of the Christian Sunday to all days of the week in a society that is becoming increasingly secular every day of the week? Is the insistence of the Church upon maintaining a legal structure to guarantee worship on one day of the week a limitation that makes it increasingly difficult for the Christian witness to become a part of every day of the week? And what is true of Sunday may be true of many old structures associated with the Church in the Space Age.

DR. FOSDICK WRITES TO "TED BROWN

This is the thirty-sixth book that Dr. Fosdick has written. The publishers tell us that the 10,000-volume first printing was sold out

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even before its official date of publication! This fact is not only an indication of the popularity of one who is widely regarded as the greatest American preacher of the generation now coming to a close, but it is also a recognition of the positive message that readers have learned to expect from the ministry of Dr. Fosdick.

Dear Mr. Brown (Harpers) is a series of letters written by Dr. Fosdick to a person perplexed about religion. Brown is a fictional character; and yet he is a composite of the persons, both men and women, with whom Dr. Fosdick has counseled and corresponded during his long years of pastoral ministry. "Mr. Brown" "comes from a religious home; he is seriously trying to work out an intelligent philosophy of life; he is sensitive to spiritual values; and he seeks a vocation where he can make the most of his best for the sake of others." Contemporary beatniks might call him a "square." But to this particular and worth-while kind of person these letters are addressed. In short, these chapters are a kind of Christian apologetics aimed at the person who is still tenuously related to the Christian Church, but who wonders about the goodness of God, the credibility of the Christian faith, the relation of science to the Bible, the world's evil, and a dozen other perplexing problems.

Dr. Fosdick's approach to each of these vexing issues is always positive and pastoral. He accepts Ted Brown's honesty and integrity. He starts where Brown lives and thinks. He admits that he, too, is involved in the problems posed. After the initial agreement with Ted Brown and an admission of his perplexity, Dr. Fosdick calls attention to some factors which Ted ought to take into more serious consideration. For instance, before Ted gives up his religion because the idea of a good God is simply indigestible intellectually in the face of the staggering mystery of this vast universe, Dr. Fosdick points to the existence of goodness in this world. Is the good life the chance product of a merely physical cosmos or is it the revelation of the Eternal? And to Ted Brown, who wishes to go on living the good life as a non-theistic humanist, Dr. Fosdick writes that the good life is not simple or easy; on the contrary, it involves struggle against temptation, self-discipline, courage, recovery from moral failure, and supporting worth-while causes. Ted is urged to go on and come through to a faith that will alike create and sustain the goodness of which he dreams.

Fosdick writes about other pressing modern questions: Is Chris-

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tian faith credulity? What about supernaturalism? How explain the world's evil? What about the Trinity? What to do about the curse of conformity? What about the other great religions? How distinguish good and bad religion? Always the subject is handled through a clear exposition of its real nature, a re-interpretation of the Church's archaic doctrinal statements, a step-by-step construction of arguments taken from many sources, and a final urge or encouragement which bids Ted make up his own mind.

There is much in this wise and helpful book which will steady many a bewildered and confused Ted Brown of our time. Yet there is a growing number of Browns, whether Teds or Bobs or Janes, who may find Dr. Fosdick's references to Jesus as idealist, and church membership as a moral imperative, and Christianity as a reasonable and ethical option a little unsatisfying. They might welcome a Gospel that is a more realistic and existential, one that arrests them with a more direct claim of the Gospel upon their lives. Must we not take the divine initiative in judgement and mercy more seriously?

CHRIST AND OTHER RELIGIONS-A GROWING ISSUE

The swift movement of recent events is bringing about closer relationship between Christianity and other religions. The popular mind often asks, "What's the difference among religions anyway? They're all interested in the same things and concerned about the same goal of life." Travel has thrown people of the various religions together with the result that some Christians are beard to say, "Why try to change the religion of other people; after all, one religion is as good as another. Perhaps Hinduism is best for India." The study of comparative religions has given many students an appreciation for all religions. In the process of learning about the world's faiths, some tend to put Christianity in the global pantheon. The study of religion as a social phenomenon has grown considerably in recent years. In some instances, the result has been to interpret all religions as social forces. And any argument for the uniqueness or the exclusive possession of the truth on the part of Christianity tends to be viewed with criticism in our age of relativity.

But perhaps the greatest impact has come from the new national-

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ism. Often infused with a religio-cultural heritage it has branded Christianity as an alien religion whose authority is questioned because it is so closely associated with the power of a western colonial government. In some quarters, Christianity is termed a western religion. Then, too, influential figures like Arnold Toynbee are presenting in popular form the attractive thesis that the future religion of mankind will be syncretistic.

In short, if Christianity is to meet this situation, it must become clear on the nature of its claim to uniqueness, universalism and exclusiveness. That the problem is being tackled could be proved in many ways. The International Missionary Council, as early as the Jerusalem Conference in 1928, discussed the issue. The forthcoming Assembly of the World Council of Churches in New Delhi India, will certainly deal with the reason why Jesus Christ is the light of the world.

Theologians have proposed that there are fundamentally three positions that can be taken regarding the relation of Christianity to other religions: universalist or syncretistic; imperialist or exclusive; and confessional or testimonial. The first and the second positions are rather simple; the one believes that all religions are fundamentally the same, although varied in expression; the second believes that all religions except Christianity are false and must be judged and displaced as man-made evasions of the divine-human encounter. The third witnesses to a Gospel that is unique, universal and ultimate, but it does so only with genuine repentance for the sins of the Christian Church, its unwarranted identification with western cultural forms, its attitude of superiority and even of contempt and hostility towards other religions, and its interpretation of the Gospel's finality in terms of arrogant imperialism in one form or another.

Many theological issues remain to be considered in the encounter of Christianity with other religions. However, it is becoming increasingly clear that the relationship between them will never be resolved through theological arguments, institutional forms, or even moral principles. This method would not only be fruitless but it would change the nature of the Gospel itself by making it into a set of intellectual propositions, institutional forms, or moral principles. It would make becoming a Christian a matter of joining a -religious organization. Even the question as to whether there is a point of

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contact between Christianity and other religions is an academic issue. Christians must recognize the sincerity and function of the great ethnic religions as an indication that God has not left himself without witness, even though some religions seem to be man-made methods aimed to manipulate unwilling or hostile divine forces. And the only religion that may be properly termed a praeparatio evangelica is Judaism, the tree from which flowered the fulfilled Gospel.

Perhaps it would be best if Christians did not regard the Gospel as a "religion" at all, but rather as the judgment and grace of the living God in Jesus Christ. As such it judges and redeems all religions, even the Christian "religion" which so often tends to make itself unique and superior. Jesus Christ came not to abolish but to fulfill. He came to do away with all man-made religion, even the kind that perverts the Church into a "religion." Perhaps it would be well in this encounter with other religions for Christians to think of proclaiming Jesus Christ, who in his biblical incarnation wishes to bear witness of himself. The time is past-if it ever was -when the Gospel may be defended in a fool-proof way by Christianity against other religions. Jesus Christ is his own apologist when witnessed to by repentant, humble, Christ-men who meet believers in other religions in the same spirit of service and love with which their Lord came to reconcile the world unto God.

WHAT ABOUT THEOLOGICAL EDUCATION IN AFRICA, ASIA AND LATIN AMERICA?

The answer to the question in our title is in Yorke Allen's 640-page book, A Seminary Survey (Harpers, New York). It is worth every penny of its ten-dollar price because it is the first survey and evaluation of theological schools and major seminaries located in six areas (Africa, Middle East, South Africa, Southeast Asia, East Asia, and Latin America) which are training men to serve as ordained ministers and priests in the Protestant, Roman Catholic, and Orthodox Churches. While similar studies have been made of these certain areas of the younger Churches by C. W. Ranson, Stanley Smith, Stephen Neil, William Fenn, and others, this is the first time that such a comprehensive survey has been made of the his-

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tories, faculties, student bodies, support, and local church situations of the 581 seminaries in the continents studied.

The three-year study was made on the basis of an appeal to Mr. John D. Rockefeller to consider the creation of a fund to improve the education of the ministry in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. Mr. Allen, a member of Mr. Rockefeller's staff and a former investment counsel, became interested in assembling all the data he could on the subject. What "he began as a professional duty, he continued as a personal enthusiasm, writes Dr. Ranson in the Fore word. The first draft was submitted in 1957 to the executives of eight mission boards in the United States. They agreed to contributing two million dollars to the International Missionary Council Fund for Theological Education during 1958-62. The following year, the Selantic Fund, established by Mr. Rockefeller, contributed an additional two million dollars to the I. M. C. Fund. In the making of the plans for the improvement of theological education in the younger Churches, Mr. Allen's book has been an influential factor.

Here is a wealth of information and statistics on the number of missionaries from all nations now at work in various fields (38,058 in 1958), on the world Christian population (Protestant, Orthodox, and Roman Catholic), on the total financial support now given for all "mission" purposes abroad, on the increases and decreases of missionaries in recent years (300 percent increase from 1925-58 to Africa, 160 percent to Southeast Asia, but a decrease to the Middle East), on the books that have been translated or are in the process of translation, and on the various agencies associated with the missionary enterprise. And, there are three chapters on the theological education of the Roman Catholic Church, which includes a good discussion on the relation of a theological school to a university.

What are some of Mr. Allen's conclusions? There are too many small seminaries with inadequate and overworked faculties. Few of these seminaries are of first-rate quality. Their equipment is for the most part shamefully primitive. Library facilities and textbooks are woefully lacking. All too often, students at these seminaries are of different grades, many of them do not have college or university degrees, and two and sometimes three types of curricula are offered to accommodate the different preparations of the students. All of

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this is understandable in the light of the circumstances in which these seminaries find themselves.

Why is this state of affairs possible and what can be done about it? Mr. Allen states that many Church bodies give lip service to theological education, but they do not adequately support the institutions which train Christian ministers. Eight large denominations in the United States budgeted less than 2 percent of their mission funds for theological education. Six large denominations in Britain spend only 1percent on it. Very few missionary personnel (2 percent) are assigned to theological education. Indeed, the Churches spend more on secular education and social service than on the training of their leaders. More concern is put into winning converts by missionaries than into fitting nationals in the Churches to do the job. All too often, mission boards try to maintain unpromising fields, than to pioneer in new fields. Missionaries have been slow to equip nationals to take over indigenous Church leadership. And of course, the same desire to preserve existing institutions besets the younger Churches as is found in the older Churches. The younger Churches, too, have people in them who do not see the need for a high grade of Church leadership.

If the younger Churches are to be strengthened to make an impact upon their cultures, it will be necessary to make theological education a priority. Mr. Allen proposes that large funds be put at the disposal of 20 theological schools, located in key spots in Latin America, Asia, and Africa. Africa should be a major concern. Instead of having nationals come to America for study, he proposes an exchange of faculty personnel. He asks for the expenditure of one million dollars on the publication of a library of texts. And, he wants a distribution of the major theological journals.

This is a monumental book which will not only point up the importance of theological education but give direction and impetus to its rising development in the world-wide work of the Church. While all due credit must be given to what has been done and is being done by faithful servants of the Church in this task, with limited resources, it is good to know that they join in welcoming the promise of improvement in the crucial task of educating the Church's ministry.