Book Reviews

JASA Book Reviews for March 1974

Table of Contents

TONGUES OF MEN AND ANGELS: THE RELIGIOUS LANGUAGE OF PENTECOSTALISM, by William J. Samarin, The Macmillan Company, 1972, 277 pp. $7.95.
THE PSYCHOLOGY OF SPEAKING IN TONGUES by John P. Kildahl, Harper and Row, New York (1972) 110 pp. $4.95
NEW TESTAMENT TEACHING ON TONGUES by Merrill F. Unger, Kregel Publications, Grand Rapids, Michigan (1971) Paperback. 175 pp. $1.75
THE PENTECOSTALS: The Charismatic Movement in the Churches by Walter Hollenweger, translated by R. A. Wilson, Augsburg Publishing House, Minneapolis (1972) 572 pp. $10.00
A CHRISTIAN POLITICAL OPTION by Bob Goudzwaard, translated by Herman Praamsma. (Toronto: Wedge Publishing Foundation, 1972. pp. 66. $2.75, paper.)
WORSHIP AND POLITICS by Albert F. Gedraitis. (Toronto: Wedge Publishing Foundation, 1972. pp. 92. $2.75, paper.)
THE GREAT REVERSAL by David 0. Moberg, (New York: J. B. Lippincott Company, 1972)
BLACK JARGON IN WHITE AMERICA by David Claerbaut. Eerdmans, Grand Rapids, Michigan (1972), 89 pp. ($1.95 Paperback ISBN 0-8028-1458-1)
WHERE DO I GO TO BUY HAPPINESS? by Elizabeth Skoglund. Downers Grove, Illinois: InterVarsity Press, 1972, 157 pp., $3.95.
ROMANS: A LETTER TO NON-CONFORMISTS, by Robert Baylis, Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press, 1972, 70 pp., $1.25.
PERSONAL LIVING: An Introduction to Paul Tournier by Monroe Peaston. New York: Harper & Row, 1972.
THE CHRISTIAN PSYCHOLOGY OF PAUL  TOURNIER by Gary R. Collins, Baker Book House, Grand Rapids, Michigan (1973) 222 pages. $4.95.
ABORTION: The Personal Dilemma by R. F. R. Gardner, Win. B. Eerdmans, Grand Rapids, Michigan (1972). 288 pages. $5.95

TONGUES OF MEN AND ANGELS: THE RELIGIOUS LANGUAGE OF PENTECOSTALISM, by William J. Samarin, The Macmillan Company, 1972, 277 pp. $7.95.

According to a statement on the dust jacket, this book is "a controversial and sympathetic analysis of speaking in tongues." One could say that it is controversial because Samarin concludes that glossolalia is normal rather than supernatural, and is sympathetic.because he accepts it as a linguistic symbol of the sacred which functions importantly in the feeling dimension of religion.

Samarin's approach is sociolinguistic. He is interested in what it is that glossolalists are actually producing, and why they speak in tongues. His data were gathered by participating in meetings (in Canada, Holland, Italy, Jamaica, and the United States), conducting personal interviews, and distributing questionnaires. A large sample of glossolalic utterances was quite easily obtained because open meetings were taped, and many of his informants were willing to have their speech taped. Three appendices are provided which contain: (1) a description of the questionnaire used in studying glossolalia among Christians, (2) a public testimonial about the conversion of one of these Christians, and (3) samples of different types of glossolalic utterances.

Most explanations for why people speak in tongues have been psychological, e.g., altered states of consciousness, emotional release, and regression. After analyzing studies of that type, Samarin concludes that the evidence supporting such explanations is not impressive, and, in fact, is often contradictory. He suggests that one possible reason for considering glossolalia to be aberrant behavior is the rational tradition in the West which looks with disfavor on emotion and lack of decorum in religion.

A linguistic analysis of glossolalic speech demonstrates that it is not language. It is like language in many ways, but only because the speaker (perhaps unconsciously) wants it to be. Although there are no words, the rhythm and melody in the utterances make the strings of syllables which are put together more or less haphazardly seem to be words and even sentences. However, "no glossa, no matter how well constructed, is a specimen of human language, because it is neither internally organized nor systematically related to the world man perceives" (p. 128). Although claims of xenoglossia (speaking in a language unknown to the speaker) are rather common, Samarin has not been able to verify any of the reports. Either the stories have been greatly distorted, or the person reporting the incident was linguistically incompetent or unreliable.

According to the users of tongues, its major functions are in prayer and giving messages. Samarin found that the second generation Pentecostals tended to speak in tongues less than did adult converts. Most informants gave personal (e.g., some kind of breakdown in communication with God) rather than social reasons for the lessening use of glossolalic utterances.

Although glossolalia is identified with a religious community, its functions are not all religious. Samarin suggests a number of functions which would not ordinarily be recognized by the participants. Among psychological functions are: symbolizing a change in life style for the speaker, supplying proof of God's presence, and providing a pleasurable state of intense emotion. Among the social functions are: contributing to the spontaneity of meetings, validating leadership and authority, integrating individuals into the movement, and giving women a share in an institution traditionally dominated by men. Like ordinary language, glossolalia also functions to change the nature of the event, in this case making it more religious.

As noted above, Samarbi is concerned with why people speak in tongues. He has concluded that glossolalic behavior is not aberrant behavior, it is only anomalous. It is anomalous behavior because it departs from typical speech, riot because the tongues speakers are in any way abnormal. The production of tongues is not strange (it is easy to imitate), but the beliefs about this pseudolanguage are, and glossolalic behavior has been judged to be abnormal because of the belief by certain Christians that it comes from God. Belief is confused with behavior, resulting in the condemnation of both the speakers and the speech. Tongues can be viewed as part of the world-wide inventory of varieties of religious language, and constitutes a linguistic symbol of the sacred. Even though Samarin does not believe that glossolalia is a miracle, he can believe that it symbolizes the presence of God to the speaker.

Why then, do people speak in tongues?

People talk in tongues, because it is part of a movement that offers them the fulfillment of aspirations that
their previous religious experience created in them. They too want to believe in God passionately, to know the
delight of communion with him, and to see him at work in life. They see evidence of all this in members of the
charismatic movement. It is intellectually satisfying, and belief is nurtured by intimate personal relations. This is
is why they accept the beliefs and practices of the movement. They accept tongues, too, because everything else
is so attractive (pp. 235-236).

A review of this length can deal in only a general way with the data and conclusions of this study of glossolalia. In cannot deal adequately, for example, with Samarin's linguistic analysis of glossolalic speech and his comparison of it with language and other speech forms, to which he devotes over 75 pages. This study will certainly have to be considered in any future discussions of the nature and functions of glossolalia.

Reviewed by Claude E. Stipe, Department of Sociology and Anthropology, Marquette University, Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

THE PSYCHOLOGY OF SPEAKING IN TONGUES by John P. Kildahl, Harper and Row, New York (1972) 110 pp. $4.95
NEW TESTAMENT TEACHING ON TONGUES by Merrill F. Unger, Kregel Publications, Grand Rapids, Michigan (1971) Paperback. 175 pp. $1.75
THE PENTECOSTALS: The Charismatic Movement in the Churches by Walter Hollenweger, translated by R. A. Wilson, Augsburg Publishing House, Minneapolis (1972) 572 pp. $10.00

When Prudencio Damboriena estimates that there are 12 to 14 million Pentecostals in the world today and when Morton Kelsey claims that "some two or three million, and perhaps a great many more, Americans" would have the experience of tongue-speech in the 20th century alone, it is time that fresh attention be given to the phenomenon known as glossolalia. Books are appearing that look at tongue-speech from psychological, sociological and biblical perspectives.

The clinical nature of Kildahl's book is nowhere more apparent than in the very method of information gathering. For example, firsthand observation of glossolalists, the distribution of detailed questionnaires, correspondence with tongue speakers, and interviews with a number of linguists and anthropologists were methods employed by the researchers. Professor Kildahl met with a wide variety of church groups committed to the practice of glossolalia so that firsthand information could be obtained. Extensive use was made of tape recordings of actual samples of glossolalia. The researchers also carried on dialogue with non-speaking prayer groups that were otherwise similar in nature to the glossolalists.

Kildahl concludes that glossolalists are "neither more nor less emotionally disturbed than equally religious non-tongue-speakers" (p. 65). He does, however, notice among those who speak in tongues a dependence upon an authority figure and a desperate need for acceptance by a group or by God. Moreover, he says, once the gift is received there is a feeling of relaxation and euphoria.

It seems fair to say that in recent literature, the psychological dimension of glossolalia is receiving more attention than the biblical basis for the experience. It was Stuart D. Currie in the pages of Interpretation (XIX, July 1965, 275) who remarked with considerable insight: "Unless and until one has some fairly clear idea of what glossais lalein means in the New Testament, it would appear rash to use the expression to describe a contemporary phenomenon." Thus, Unger's book deals with a subject that is timely to say the least.

After a chapter entitled "Charismatic Revivalism in the Church Today," Unger proceeds in chapters 2 through 9 to deal with the references to tongue-speech in the book of Acts. Very scant attention is given to the problems related to the sources used by Luke in the Pentecost narrative. He concludes that glossolalia in the Acts was a sign in every instance (Acts 2:4; 10:46; 19:6) and in no case was it an apostolic gift (p. 74).

Chapters 10 through 14 deal with the Pauline position on tongues. Unger emphasizes the fact that Paul stressed the "temporary character of speaking in tongues" in comparison with the enduring nature of love." The question of the relationship (if any!) between the Corinthians, glossolalia and that of Pentecost is glossed over as is the larger question of ecstaticism at Corinth.

Unger concludes with Paul: "Tongues shall cease" (I Cor. 13:8). The author further suggests: "Experience that is not based solidly on the Word and that does not grow out of an accurate knowledge of the Word is as unstable as a house built on the sand" (p. 168).

Those interested in the history of Pentecostalism will be grateful to R. A. Wilson who has translated from the German the 1969 encyclopedic Enthusiastisches Christentum which traces the history of the movement from its inception to the end of the last decade. In the first part (pp. 1-287) Hollenweger tackles the sticky problem of definition. The perplexing diversities within the ranks of Pentecostalism have long plagued scholars. The author rejects the older sociological definition of "sect" and proposes that "a person belongs to a sect if be has excluded himself from the fellowship of the saints, that is, if he asserts that in his own ecclesiastical organization, in his own theology, and in his own experiences of faith, God's will is infallibly 'incarnate"' (p. 504). Hollenweger, then, includes all groups who teach at least two postconversion crises in the life of the believer. The first is the baptism of the Holy Spirit and the second is usually-though not always-characterized by glossolalia.

This work will add greatly to an understanding on the part of main-stream Christians of their Pentecostal brothers. It could be the beginning of significant and meaningful dialogue that would hopefully end in mutual respect and understanding.

Reviewed by Watson E. Mills, Department of Religion. Averett College, Danville, Virginia.

A CHRISTIAN POLITICAL OPTION by Bob Goudzwaard, translated by Herman Praamsma. (Toronto: Wedge Publishing Foundation, 1972. pp. 66. $2.75, paper.)
WORSHIP AND POLITICS by Albert F. Gedraitis. (Toronto: Wedge Publishing Foundation, 1972. pp. 92. $2.75, paper.)

These two slim volumes are the first of the New Exodus Series begun by the publishers "to encourage the growth of a grass roots Christian social consciousness in Canada and the United States." Goudzwaard has been a professor of economics at the Free University of Amsterdam since 1971. Gedraitis is a research writer for the Christian Labour Association of Canada. They seek, in a nonscholarly fashion, to guide the political thinking of evangelical and perhaps other Christians.

The "political option" which Goudzwaard favors is the creation of an independent Christian political party. The bulk of his book, however, is an introduction to the nature of contemporary political problems. In addition to a Christian party, he proposes a far-reaching bureaucratic control of the organization and operation of business enterprise that is reminiscent of the Fascist "corporate state." His economic and political values, despite disclaimers, betray a strong Marxian or socialistic bias. Free enterprise is the root evil, causing the demonic problems of imperialism, militarism, racism, and exploitation of labor and consumers. Preoccupied with economic problems, he has little to say about the moral and spiritual roots of the world crisis.

Nowhere does he delineate the connection between this brand of politics and the Scriptures. Neither does Cedraitis. Though Goudzwaard shows a greater awareness than Gedraitis of the subtleties of politics, his economic analysis is rather thin and fails to take account of the arguments of such free enterprise economists as von Mises and Friedman.

Gedraitis, in a tour de force, sets out to enlist the Scriptures in the cause of political activism, even revolutionary strategy. He mischievously undertakes to demolish the standard Scriptural barriers to Christian utopian politics by turning them on their head. The kingpin of his argumentation is his interpretation of the New English Bible's unique rendering of I Corintbians 1:28, "He has chosen things low and contemptible, mere nothings, to overthrow the existing order." He insists that Paul was clearly instructing his churches to overthrow the Roman Empire as soon as conditions permitted. The separation of the two kingdoms must be ended so that the kingdom of earth (world) becomes the kingdom of God. Without such communal action, worship is meaningless and hypocritical.

Gedraitis makes no mention of the fact that his interpretation of verse 28 is not compatible with twelve other well known versions of the New Testament (KJV: "things which are not, to bring to nought things that are."). Nor is he evidently aware of such interpretations as Matthew Henry's: "It is common for the Jews to speak of the Gentiles under this character, as things that are not . . . The gospel is fitted to bring down the pride of both Jews and Gentiles."

In the hands of Gedraitis Romans 13:1, "Let every person be loyally subject to the governing (civil) authorities," (Amplified Version) becomes a duty to obey only just governments. The warning in Romans 13:2 against resisting authority becomes a warning against failing to "face.up to" these powers that are ordained of God. Whoever dissents from this interpretation "is bent on serving the evil spirit of Conservatism." "Abhor that which is evil . . . and overcome evil with good" (Romans 12) becomes a warrant for overcoming political evil by "communal action". "My kingdom is not of this world" becomes in effect "My kingdom is a model for altering the world by political strategies."

It should be helpful to identify some of the premises and presuppositions that appear to underly these works. In the first place, both books are permeated by an organismic conception of society. Social structures are viewed (in the tradition of Plato, Rousseau, Hegel and Marx) as entities over and above the human being of which they are composed. Society is hpyostasized, an abstraction becomes an actuality, a myth moves with power. Therefore, the arms of Christ must be outstretched not only to individual hearts but also to collectivities (which Gedraitis calls "creation") that have a life of their own, for sin resides in both (p. 26). The effect of this doctrine would seem to be that Christ is not the only mediator between man and God, and that Dostoyevski's Grand Inquisitor was right in condeming Christ for having resisted the third temptation in the wilderness.

It is therefore not surprising that these authors readily place much faith in mass communal political action, governmental bureaucracies, even world government. The organismic presupposition may also help explain their affinity for the World Council of Churches and the 1967 Confession of the United Presbyterian Church. Since the kingdom of God is to be realized on earth through human action, Christ at His second coming will need only to complete the process. Except for this reference to the second coming, no attention is given to Scriptural prophecies yet to be fulfilled. A neo-social gospel is being offered by evangelicals on stronger worldly grounds than scriptural grounds. It may be received rather favorably in view of a certain attractiveness which the organismic theory has had in an age where many have worshipped at the shrine of "The Great Society" (or the electoral majority, or paternalistic government). The hypostasized. collectivity of The People shines for many "as an angel of light"

Apropos of hypostasis, two scholarly treatments deserve mention here: Eric Voegelin's Order and History and his shorter work A New Science of Politics, and Thomas Molnar's Utopia: The Perennial Heresy. They analyze the historical forms of the heresy called the "immanentization of the eschaton", and the fusion of the two kingdoms of God and the world.

Secondly, the authors apparently presuppose a natural goodness in man, or would minimize the differences between Christians and non-Christians. The gospel is said to speak to all men, the natural inference being that all have ears and all hear the saving Word of God (contr. I Cor. 2:14). At another point Gedraitis asserts that Christians sin as much as non-Christians (contr. I John 3:6). Their social critique is presented in terms that would have a greater appeal to nonevangelicals.

Thirdly, cultural relativism comes through strongly. We deal here with the vital matter of the authority of the Holy Scriptures. The authors deny that the Bible speaks for itself through the Holy Spirit, and insist on applying two extraneous tests to unlocking its message: (1) a personal commitment to their concept of social justice, and (2) cultural history. The former enables the authors to justify importing a political and economic ideology resembling socialism. By means of the latter Paul is made out to be a clever politician, and the supernatural power of the living God is reduced to a kind of naturalism. The Old Testament loses power, and the Bible becomes a fractured history book, losing its inerrancy.

Ironically, the Sisyphusian efforts in these volumes to unite worship and politics may only succeed in driving them further apart. For if the human heart is as separated from "societal structurations" (sic) as these writers believe, worship of the living God would be replaced with worship of the State, and individual men would be regarded as expendables on its behalf. Such is the warning from Arthur Koestler in Darkness at Noon. Consistently, Worship and Politics is silent on worship.

This reviewer stays with the prescription for political health given in II Chronicles 7:14.

THE GREAT REVERSAL by David 0. Moberg, (New York: J. B. Lippincott Company, 1972)

Those familiar with Moberg's previous writings will find this latest book to be consistent with his major theme: any emphasis on evangelism or social concern to the exclusion of the other represents a false dichotomy. In fact, they should exist in a reciprocal relationship which is to be maintained.

Beginning with a historical approach, Moberg picks up where Timothy Smith and others who have traced the early union of evangelism and social concern in American history left off. It was the Great Reversal, that shift away from concern for social issues which occurred among evangelicals in the early decades of this century, which led to the polarization of these two trends. Moberg sketches the causes of the Great Reversal all too briefly but provides us, nevertheless, with a clear understanding of the reasons. It was an ingrown concern on the part of the church for its needs and parishioners which shifted the vision.

And what was the direction of this shift? Essentially, it was away from society and toward the individual. Referring to the credo of the early evangelists, Moberg is critical of the interpretation "that social reform begins with the individual". The result has been that evangelicals have left themselves open to well deserved criticism. Surveying the data, Moberg finds some justification for the claims that religious commitment may produce prejudice and a lack of social compassion. He is hopeful, however, that evidence suggesting a correlation between Christian commitment and active social concern may reverse the trend.

Before such hope may be realized, it is necessary to recognize the complexity of the problem. Moberg provides help in this regard by suggesting some basic propositions about evangelism and by isolating some factors which divide churches on the issues. Even when dealt with on the church level, however, personal motives remain complex. Good intentions notwithstanding, welfare has been used as a means of evangelism and vice versa. The result has produced a distorted perspective on the problem.

All too often, what is overlooked is the social sin in society. Reluctant to label social problems as "sins", we don't recognize the real nature of the social world. What is needed, then, is a revolutionary position in which the body of Christians seek the restructuring of society. Since change is inevitable, it is necessary that it be guided by Christian purposes and objectives.

Pointing to some recent trends, Moberg is hopeful that the Great Reversal is being reversed. Nevertheless, progress will not be made unless some basic steps aretaken. For one thing, the church must lead in determining what is right behavior for the Christian. Also, it must shift from the negative positions it held in the past to more positive ones. Rather than seeing faith as a source of personal gratification, one's religion must be seen as a basis for dealing with social wrongs.

While introducing the topic to the layman, Moberg also provides the scholar with the tools to pick up the continuing task. The thoroughness of his scholarship has now been established as a Moberg trademark. Coupled with a careful and responsible approach to the materials, the work provides a useful basis for future study.

This work is a welcome extension of Inasmuch, a well known earlier work of the author. In pointing to the past, we are reminded that the definitive study of the Great Reversal is still to be written. Perhaps that is because the reversal is still in process. Looking to the future, Moberg assures us that the corner has been turned but that serious and concerted effort is needed. With this book, Moberg shows again his leadership in the field.

BLACK JARGON IN WHITE AMERICA by David Claerbaut. Eerdmans, Grand Rapids, Michigan (1972), 89 pp. ($1.95 Paperback ISBN 0-8028-1458-1)

In the "Preface" the author, David Claerbaut, states his central purpose as being ". . . to demonstrate that effective verbal communication is fundamental to any success in race relations." Immediately following this purpose statement, he pronounces a crucial characteristic of the process of communication: ". . . this communication must be truly two-way." (The "two-way"  characteristic of the communication process is so described in Oral Communication: Message and Response by L. A. Samover and J. Mills, second edition (Dubuque, Iowa: Wm. C. Brown Company Publishers, 1972), pp. 3-4.) Thus in this process "white people must come to learn and appreciate" what the author ambiguously calls "the jargon of black America." I fear that this ambiguous classification may aid in perpetuating stereotyped thinking by certain "educated" and "uneducated" white supremists. Probably if the author had used the synonym "language" as he did on the first page of the "Preface" and bad included the quaifications of the first page of chapter three, my fear of this possibly infectious appellation might be relieved.

The four untitled chapters, the appending "Dictionary of Black jargon" and "Bibliography" are rather abbreviated: ten pages of "Jargon" and one and one half pages of "Bibliography."

Claerbaut, in chapter one, describes honestly and unmonotonously his initial interest in "black culture" as a student teacher "in a virtually all-black urban school." (p. 15)

In chapter two the author continues relating his discovery of "layer after layer" of his "liberal veneer" manifested, for example in making unintentional "subconscious judgments"and in being"unable to appreciate" the "students' cultural differences." (p.28) He also parenthetically gives some general information about the uniqueness of the structure and function of "the black family throughout history' (p. 29), "the black society [being] . . . physically oriented," the children's " awareness of death," "soul food .. the black church," "black styles and approaches," and finally concerning "the major areas of cultural expression" (pp. 32-35)

Chapter three on "black vocabulary" is undoubtedly the most meticulously documented chapter of the entire 
book. Perhaps this is as it should be according to the specific and practical purpose of this abbreviated book 
which may even be described as a reference-or hand-book. At the end of this chapter the author is most stream of books on counseling written by women now wise in his observations and appeals to teachers in particular, but they can be extended to other professionals in general; here for example are two essential observations: 

(1) Teachers who do not carefully consider "the language they use with Negro students . . .can become offensive." (p. 45) 
(2) Although "verbal rapport" is not a panacea for the elimination of "racial disharmony," it is nevertheless "a vital step" [emphasis mine]. (p. 45)

Chapter four discusses the historical and current motivations for the origin and perpetuation of what the author calls "black jargon." As in chapter three, the author again deduces and appeals from his evidence, that "learning black jargon can, as we have seen, bring great cultural interest, and most of all, improved communication . . . between the races [which] is so desperately needed . . ." (p. 55) 

Following chapter four, the author appends "A Dictionary of Black jargon" from A to Z on thirty pages. This glossary, as can be imagined, is rather limited and some of the entries are already out-of-date due to the dynamism and mutability of the language (as the author observes on pages 46 and 56). The "Dictionary" nevertheless does "present the interested  reader with an adequate example . . . with which to
  work." (p. 56)

Claerbaut concludes his book with a short bibliography of sixteen references with the date of the latest
  one being 1970. As a reviewer I therefore recommend other later references that can add to the information
  and insight of the person to whom the author refers as "the interested reader":

Dillard, J. L. Black English: Its History and Usage in United States. New York: Random House, 1972.

Johnson, K. R. and H. D. Simons, "Black Children and Reading: What Teachers Need to Know," Kappan, 1,111 (January 1972), 288-290. This entire issue focuses on "The Imperatives of Ethnic Education," and this article in particular pleads "for teachers willing to study and respect black culture and black dialect."

Mitchell, Henry J. "Black English," Black Preaching, H. H. Mitchell. New York: J. B. Lippincott Company, 1970, 148-161.

Seymour, Dorothy Z. "Black Children, Black Speech," Commonweal (November 1971), 175-178. The author discovered that "It is hard for most teachers and middle-class Negro parents to accept the idea that Black English is not just 'sloppy talk' but a dialect with a form and structure . . . ."

Taylor, Orlando L. "Some Sociolinguistic Concepts of Black Language," Today's Speech, 19 (Spring 1971), 19-26. Following a concise review of the major points of his paper, Dr. Taylor clainis that they "suggest a reevaluation of how the field of speech can meet the linguistic and educational needs of black children; [and] they imply a number of revisions for the field, including university training, philosophy, research, curriculum. . . ."

Reviewed by Abraham Davis, Jr., Professor of Speech, Houghton College, Houghton, N.Y. 14744.

Women counselors are having their day in the publishing field. This book is one of a continuing stream coming from the presses. The author of this book, Elizabeth Skoglund, is a counselor with the Glendale Family Service and has a private practice in Burbank. She has been greatly influenced in her views on counseling by William Glasser's Reality Therapy. The  foreword is written by an associate from the Institute of Reality Therapy.

Subtitled "Insights of a Christian Counselor," this book is a retelling of a series of personal encounters between Elizabeth Skoglund and young people she  has counseled.  The author tells of her attempts to help youth who are frustrated by life to become what they are capable of becoming.

Skoglund stresses man's unity. She illustrates it by an interesting story about a Chicano who was converted but backslid due to his failure to comprehend the implications of this unity. She thinks insight into causes is not essential in helping someone through his problem.

In Joan Fassler's fascinating book, The Boy With  a Problem, the reader is led to see that sometimes the greatest problem little boys can have is no one to listen to them. Skoglund skillfully shows that sometimes  big boys (and girls) have the same problem, She recounts the stories of youth who have no one to listen and consequently often have hangups which lead to trouble.

Skoglund comes across as a warm, dedicated, concerned counselor. She is the kind of person most people would like to have around if they ever need a listener. She counsels young people in class, in her office, at her home, and over the telephone in the middle of the night.

At first blush, it seems that Skoglund has greater faith in psychotherapy than is warranted. However, as the narrative progresses, it become apparent that she is quite aware of therapy's shortcomings and of the care needed in choosing a therapist. She believes that intuition is needed for choosing the "right" therapist.

The book is a series of interpersonal relationships in the counseling setting with some astute observations about the whole process. Among the more pungent comments are the following:

Self acceptance and self-esteem are not anti-Christian.

There is no virtue in thinking you are ugly when yon are not . . . stupid when you are intelligent.

Somehow, if he (Jesus) were once again walking on this earth, I doubt that he would be majoring in debates over sideburns, beards and pantsuits. Or long hair and skirt lengths.

Young people sometimes slip into an idealism whichis misguided and contradictory . . . Their desire for peace in Vietnam was phony if here in their school they were unable to show consideration for another human being.

This book is short in length but long on insight. It is quite captivating, has much human interest, is not technical and is therefore easily understood. It is worth reading for all Christians and highly recommended.

Reviewed by Richard Ruble, Professor of Psychology and Biblical Studies, John Brown University, Si&)am Springs, Arkansas.

ROMANS: A LETTER TO NON-CONFORMISTS, by Robert Baylis, Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press, 1972, 70 pp., $1.25.

One of the latest Bible study guides to come from a press distinguished for its excellent aids to biblical study is Baylis' title on Romans. Using a different format and aiming at a broader audience than its other publications, InterVarsity Press has charted a new, perhaps experimental, course with this volume.

In his brief introduction the author lays out well the pressures upon Christians to become phony pretenders and a mockery of their profession. "It is patently true that the most vehement disclaimers of the Christian gospel are those who at one time had a kind of faith." Confrontation with the real issues of Christianity in Romans and commitment to the truths encountered there, the author contends, brings one well along the path of rejecting superficiality of all kinds.

The text is a sort of self-teaching study guide. Omitting chapters 9-11, Romans is divided into 23 segments and grouped in three sections (chapters 1-5, 6-8, and 12-15:13) conveniently making three nineweek quarters, allowing for weekly sessions of less than an hour. Whether chapters 9-11 "can be left out without destroying the continuity of the major part of the letter" may be a question for those of the Reformed tradition. Why nearly 50 verses at the end of the epistle are ignored without explanation may raise questions about biblical portions that may be jettisoned at will for the sake of economy.

For each of the segments, which consist of two pages opening flat, 18 to 20 verses of the RSV Romans text appears in unnumbered paragraph form on the left and a series of 4 to 6 inductively oriented questions appear on the right, with ample space to jot down responses. The answers to some of the questions will not be as apparent to readers as they were to Baylis, but the approach does stimulate personal investigation. A list of 23 questions (one for each lesson) at the end of the study is provided for further reflection and later discussion on the main issue raised in the passage. Each of the three major sections is followed by a balf-dozen questions which may be used for review purposes. To make sure that students have grappled with the main message of the book as a whole the author has concluded his guide with 10 comprehensive "Key Questions in Romans. " Finally, a unique feature of the guide is a three and a half page glossary of nearly 50 terms and names found in Romans. Greek and Latin roots are noted and some lengthy explanations are included, many of which are excerpted from the New Bible Dictionary.

Author Robert Baylis, a successful high school English teacher in Orinda, California, and a former IVCF staff worker, has given a great deal of his life to creative Bible study and is interested in the educational ramifications of teaching the "Bible as Literature." Owner and oparator of the Logos Bookstore in nearby Berkeley, Baylis has kept in touch with the person hungering for spiritual reality-be be high school or college youth or middle-aged adult.

The idea of a selfcontained, easily transportable study guide is a good one; the value of using a single good standard Bible text is apparent. Though the leader will want to be familiar with the passage ahead of time, the studies do not require advance preparation by group members-a fact that should evoke wide appeal! The flexibility of the study manual is its strength. This reviewer recommends it for broad usage. If one really grasps the message of the book of Romans he will begin "to step out of line with the present age and to begin to be a real nonconformist-a person transformed in mind-set and life-style and conformed to the image of God's Son."

PERSONAL LIVING: An Introduction to Paul Tournier by Monroe Peaston. New York: Harper & Row, 1972.

Peaston, a theologian at McGill's Montreal Diocesan Theological College, offers a platter of Tournier hors doeuvres in this 107 page book. Sampling from more than 15 works, he says, "I have tried here to expound the salient ideas which are to be found in Dr. Tournier's books and to relate these to his life and practice." His intent is "to encourage the reader to undertake his own exploration," and not to produce a definitive or even a critical review. We must presume that he succeeded in capturing the essence of his subject's life and thought, for Tournier himself wrote the foreword and says sometime a man "feels himself understood, a totally intuitive feeling, primitive and direct. This is precisely what I felt when Professor Peaston came to see me in Geneva. I had at the onset the certitude of being understood . . . because of (a) link of mutual faith which is the first condition of understanding." 

Two chapters present the man, Tournier. The first concerns his orphaned childhood which led him into 
medicine: "Yet within his mind, even at this early age, a resolve was taking shape: He would defeat that 
monster, death, that had taken his mother from him," (p. 3). The second chapter tells of Tournier's spiritual 
awakening. The son of a Calvinistic minister, Tournier was committed to Christianity with only his intellect. 
In 1932, at age 34, the young physician was introduced to the Oxford movement, a revival then sweeping Christian" Europe. The movement stressed the need for a personal rebirth in Christ, a warm Christian experience, daily meditation for guidance and group confession of sin. 

Tournier has made these tenets the discipline of his own life and his professional practice. He expects his
patients to follow these principles, too. First, he can lead a person to rebirth: "Beyond his skills and outward 
understanding, (the Christian therapist) may bring about a personal encounter between his patient and the living Christ,"' (pp 24-25), although purely psy chological treatment may be required before such an encounter is possible. Fearless confession is needed for the healing of the total person: "'A bad conscience can . . . strangle a person's life. . . . It can be the root of psychosomatic affections. It is like a stopper which can be pulled out by confession so that life begins at once to flow again."' (p 56). Meditation also becomes a therapeutic method: "Meditation en larges the field of consciousness and reveals the hidden undercurrents of the mind in a way that is very similar to psychoanalyisis," (p 79). Finally, Tournier's personal style is described as warm, open, intuitive; his writing is ancedotal rather than systematic: "'I have not the mind of a professor,"' he told Peaston.

Seven chapters summarize the main ideas of Tour nier's writings. The chief of these is his view of his 
profession, the "medicine of the person." For Tournier, medicine includes whatever will promote healing, be it 
a physical treatment, a psychological technique or a spiritual exhortation. Atomistic medical specialization 
is rejected: "'Man . . . is a unity: body, mind, and spirit. . . . To treat a man is to treat him, therefore, in his entirety,"' (p 19). A Doctor's Casebook in the Light of the Bible (originally Bible et Medecine, 1951) gives the most detailed picture of Tournier's biblical  thinking, but The Meaning of Persons (1957), his best known book in this country, reflects an expanded and more integrative version. Peaston's other chapters, based upon particular books, deal with lonelinesss, fear, guilt, the reborn person in a disintegrating world, and ways to find goals and a sense of belongingness. 

Tournier's psychology is basically Freudian; neoFreudian, perhaps, for the conceptual parallels to 
Adler, Allport and especially C. G. Jung are striking. The words, ". . . the medicine man is also the priest; he 
is the savior of the body as well as of the soul . . ." could have come from any page of Peaston's book but, 
in fact, came from Jung's Modern Man in Search of a Soul (1933, p 240). Hypocratic temperament types
are a part of Tournier's view of man, though they are  not prominent in Peaston's review. In many ways Tournier's views could be criticized as being the same  old (psychiatric) eclecticism with a Christian coating," in the words of Jay Adams' Competent to Counsel (1970). I read Peaston's book at the same time as parts of Adams', and found myself amazed that two men, both evangelical Christians who heal and counsel on biblical bases, could sound so different. Surely we see God's image, man, in a mirror very darkly.

Tournier's psychology may not be new and will be unacceptable to many. His insistence that man be treated as a whole will refresh and encourage those who are intellectually oppressed at modern medicine's tendency to look no farther into man than his molecules. There is probably a need for a good primer to Tournier: I note that in the five "Psychology and the articles carried in the December 1972 issue of the Journal ASA Tournier's works were not cited once. Peaston's book should fill the gap.

Reviewed by Mack Goldsmith, Department of Psychology, California State College, Stanislaus, California.

THE CHRISTIAN PSYCHOLOGY OF PAUL  TOURNIER by Gary R. Collins, Baker Book House, Grand Rapids, Michigan (1973) 222 pages. $4.95.

In addition to being a member of the Executive Council of the ASA, Gary Collins is Professor and Chairman of the Division of Pastoral Psychology at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School at Deerfield, Illinois. Recently he spent a 6-month sabbatical in Switzerland, studying the works of Paul Tournier (see journal ASA 25, June (1973) ) and entering into personal conversations and interviews with this distinguished Christian psychologist who celebrated his 75th birth in 1973. This book is one of the products of that unique and in depth experience of the personality and work of Tournier.

In eight chapters Dr. Collins discusses Tournier his life and work, and his psychology, theology, methodology, practical wisdom and integration of psychology and religion. The book concludes with a Bibliography of selected works of Tournier from 1941's The Healing of Persons to a chapter on "My Religious Vocation as a Physician" written in 1972.

Here is an admirable introduction to the thought and goals of Dr. Paul Tournier. a medical man who  believes that medicine involves not just a person's bio chemistry but "the whole man," a man who would apply a consistent Christian approach to life not only to the individual but to society, who "understands the dissatisfactions of the hippies," but "wants to join those who are building  up the society instead of tearing it down."

Each of the points made in the book are well documented with references to Tournier's many writings. Although Dr. Collins portrays a warm and sympathetic picture of Tournier and his thought, he does not hesitate to indicate on occasion weaknesses and incompletenesses in that thought, nor areas where he would not be in total agreement with Tournier. The book should encourage the reader to explore Tournier for himself.

ABORTION: The Personal Dilemma by R. F. R. Gardner, Win. B. Eerdmans, Grand Rapids, Michigan (1972). 288 pages. $5.95

The issues surrounding abortion (see, for example, June and September 1973 issues of Journal ASA) bring together in a complex and challenging way scientific and Christian descriptions of life. This book by the Consultant Obstetrician and Gynaecologist at Sunderland Hospitals in England, and also an ordained Christian minister, is a masterpiece that is essential reading for anyone concerned about arriving at informed and Christian responses to the problems of abortion. The author writes with a depth of historical, professional, personal and above all Christian involvement that cannot fail to leave the reader with a far better intellectual, theological and emotional understanding. Thirtyone chapters are divided into four principal sections: I. The Abortion Scene Before and After Liberalizing Legislation. Il. The Ethical Question: Is Abortion Ever justified? III. The Medical and Social Question: Is Abortion justified in This Case? IN'. Epilogue on the Christian as patient and confidant. The book concludes with a Reading List, and indices of subjects, authors and Scripture. (As an aside, I believe it is important to point out the failure of many American Christian book publishers to include an index. I hope that more and more will realize that an index is an essential supplement to a thoughtful piece of writing.)

Although Dr. Gardner is convinced that abortion is justified in some cases and under some conditions, be is strongly convinced that it is not a solution for all or even one which is applicable to the majority of women applying for abortion today. He lists a quotation from a letter to The Times (London) by Professor John Stallworthy of Oxford, who also wrote a foreword for this book, "Every induced abortion whether legal or criminal, is an expression of failure of one form or another-failed contraceptive technique, irresponsibility by one or both partners, ignorance, betrayal of trust or denial of human dignity." This quotation heads

Chapter 28, "The Better Way: Prevention of ExtraMarital Conception."

The book is so rich with detail, factual information, actual case histories, and personal involvement and experience that it defies review in any brief space. Theologically minded Christians will quickly seek out Chapter 13 on "The Spiritual Status of the Fetus." Dr. Gardner states as his own personal conviction that "while the fetus is to be cherished increasingly as it develops, we should regard its first breath at birth as the moment when God gives it not only life, but the offer of Life," and he is quick to point out, "that we may deny to the fetus the attribute of a soul, or the full status of life, does not in the least denigrate its worth." He cites three pieces of evidence that make it for him "impossible to believe that the soul is present in the early embryo-that is if 'soul' is to have any real content": (1) As conflicting with the hypothesis that the soul is infused at conception, is the actuality of identical twins who become differentiated from a common cell mass only after conception, and indeed often even only after implantation. (2) Half of all conceptions end in spontaneous miscarriage, usually quite early. If all of these miscarried fetuses possessed souls, heaven will be peopled by a majority who have never even reached "the stage of being organized into fetal human shape." Although this is not an impogsibility, it does not appear to be consistent with "the doctrine of Man." (3) "Human eggs have now been successfully fertilized outside the body, and have gone on to divide at least up to the sixteen-cell stage. . . . When the experiment is over and the material is tipped down the sluice, is a soul being destroyed? To think so requires in my judgment a trivialization of the meaning of the soul."

Whether or not one agrees with all of Dr. Gardner's conclusions, his book is must reading at least for every reader of this review.

Review by Richard H. Bube, Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Stanford University, Stanford, Calitornia.