BOOK NOTES

 

Coming in 1970

1970 will bring us the twelfth volume of Restoration Review, but it will be the eighteenth year of our journalistic efforts, since this journal bore another name for the first six years. It will be only the fifth year that we have announced a specific theme and issued the journal in the form of a book at the end of the year. Some of our readers order the book form of the journal as well as the monthly issues, for it serves well as a permanent record of our efforts. This leaves them free to pass their monthly issues along to their friends.

The theme for 1970 will be The New Creation, which will be an interpretation of “Behold, I make all things new.” We plan to study what it means to be a new creature in a new institution. Paul assures us that “If any man be in Christ he is a new creation.” The character of this new state shall be part of our concern.

The Lord willing, this shall carry us through ten issues and 200 pages, at the end of which we shall publish a hard cover volume entitled T he New Creation, with introduction and table of contents.

It is not too late to join those who are collecting the bound volumes. Each of these may be ordered for 3.00: Things That Matter Most (1966), Resources of Power (1967), The Quest of God (1968), and Renewal through Recovery (1969). The last volume will be ready in a few weeks.

Making Ethical Decisions by Howard Clark Kee continues to be a popular seller. The chapter on “But Who Wants to be Good?” is especially provocative. It is only 1.00.

Those who wish to have in their library the bound volumes of Mission Messenger, edited by Carl Ketcherside, have the advantage of being able to purchase several of them at one time, and pay for them on our Credit Plan of only 5.00 a month, with no additional charge. They are 3.00 each, and we can send Covenants of God (1959-60), Deep Roots (1966), Apples of Gold (1967) and God’s Community (1968).

We still have a few copies of the controversial Voices of Concern, edited by Robert Meyers, which is a collection of essays of critical studies in Church of Christism. 3.50

For 2.50 we can send you Elton Trueblood’s The Common Ventures of Life. It gives a Christian view of marriage, birth, work, and death. And for the same price you may receive Alternative to Futility, also by Trueblood, which is an answer to modern man’s spiritual sickness. The alternative to futility is the redemptive fellowship, which he identifies as the “beloved community” at work for God, a creative society in miniature. It is especially appropriate for people who have become imprisoned in congregationalism. For 3.00 we can send The Life We Prize, which we believe is Trueblood’s best book. Here he discusses the demand for meaning, responsibility, freedom, respect for persons, integrity, etc. It is a very edifying volume. You can purchase all three of these at a saving. 7.00

You may buy all 17 volumes of Barclay’s Daily Study Bible, covering all of the New Testament, and beautifully bound in hardcover for only 47.50. Using our Credit Plan this is only 5.00 a month. This set is highly recommended as a most informative and enlightening treatment.

Some New Books

Studies in Proverbs by Herman Wilson is the latest in the “Living Word Series” published by Sweet Co. in Austin. Herman Wilson is an English professor at Pepperdine College, and he has done well in drawing rich treasures from a well-known but neglected book of the Old Testament. The chapters on The Inner Man, Glimpses of God, Man and his Money, Adultery, Humor, and the Ideal Wife and Mother will convince the reader that Proverbs is as modern and relevant as hamburgers and newspapers. 1.00

For the Freedom: the Biography of John Nelson Armstrong by L. C. Sears is an important piece of work in that it tells of the ordeal of a man who sought to be free and at the same time a leader within the Church of Christ college movement. It is a book that deserves an extensive review. We can only say here that it is an unusual biography because Armstrong was an unusual man. His association with James A. Harding and David Lipscomb adds value to the book. It is also significant in that it gives much information about the development of our colleges. It may not settle the question as to whether we should have ever gone into the college business, but it will certainly underscore the trauma of it all. One thing sure: J. N. Armstrong emerges from it all a prince among men. Those of us who missed knowing him can be grateful for this well-written biography by an English professor at Harding College, whose first president was J. N. Armstrong. It is a handsome, substantial book, and the price of 5.95 is not too much.

The Quiet Revolution by James D. Smart is a study of the radical impact of Jesus on men in his time. It argues that Jesus was a revolutionary with a disturbing mission and a radical message, but all of which led to a quiet revolution. The author sees Jesus as one who caused men to question their present existence and who shattered their complacency about the religious and social order. His mission was to break open the frozen patterns of men’s lives and set them moving toward a very different future. This book is especially appropriate in our own revolutionary age, for it shows the power of a quiet revolution that all Christians should support. 2.95 in paperback.

Bible and Gospel by Archibald M. Hunter, who is professor of New Testament at Aberdeen in Scotland, is a kind of introduction to the Bible, along with a study of Jesus and the Gospels, including his evaluation of Bultmann’s demythologization of the New Testament. It is a highly readable and informative volume, pointing up what more of us need to hear: what the Bible should mean to us. 2.25 in paperback.

The Jerusalem Bible may be what you are looking for, for it is rich in explanatory notes at the bottom of the pages all the way through the scriptures, including the Apocrypha, based upon latest scholarship. And the introductions to each book are superb. Too, the whole Bible is placed in outline form, with proper headings, making it easy for you to follow the thought. The inclusion of the Apocrypha adds to the book’s value, for these are books every Christian should study for their historical value. The price of this one-volume library, beautifully bound in buckram, has recently gone up, but we have them at the old price of 16.95. And we’ll let you pay for it at 5.00 a month with no carrying charges.