BOOK NOTES

 

Due to a special purchase from the publisher we can send you the entire 18-volume set of Barclay’s Daily Bible Study (Revised Edition), soft cover, for only 87.50 postpaid. This makes an ideal gift for someone who loves to study the Scriptures.

Barclay intended to extend his Daily Bible Study into the Old Testament, but due to his untimely death this is being done by other British scholars who follow the same format and non-technical approach. Several volumes are now ready and are available at 6.95 each, postpaid: Genesis (2 vols.), Exodus, Leviticus, Psalms, 1&2 Samuel. If you want to get into the Old Testament this is an excellent way.

If you read the responses from various journals to The Stone-Campbell Movement, published in this issue, we believe you will decide to read the book and decide for yourself. 21.95 postpaid.

My friend David Reagan is a great student of the book of Revelation. I asked him to name the best study of the book. He did and we are handling it. We will send you Merrill C. Tenney’s Interpreting Revelation for 8.95 postpaid. Also helpful is Robert Clouse’ The Meaning of the Millennium, which presents four different views by those who hold them, and their responses to each other. 6.50 postpaid.

A new book that sets forth a practical, do-it-yourself way of managing anxiety, Get Rid of Anxiety and Stress by Toby Rice Drews, is 5.50 postpaid. If you are among the 20 million Americans who suffer from anxiety attacks or phobias or paranoid thoughts, or if you have to have tranquilizers, this book may well change your life.

Have you thought of your Christian faith as risky? Bruce Larson, who is always provocative, calls for “a new way for God’s people” in Risky Christianity. 5.50 postpaid.

J. Vernon McGee, the famed radio Bible teacher, is a great story teller, and you will delight in his treatments of Esther: the Romance of Providence and Ruth: the Romance of Redemption. Preachers will find resourceful sermon material; all will find inspiration. And they are inexpensive at 4.50 for Esther and 5.50 for Ruth, postpaid.

If you are interested in American church history, we suggest A Documentary History of Religion in America by Edwin S. Gaustad, which takes you onto the back roads of the churches in America. 16.95 pp.

Responses from the Papers to The Stone-Campbell Movement

We suggest a careful reading of the introductions and the introductory chapter in which the author’s “bias” is made clear. This determines his approach, interpretation, and evaluation of the movement. It is not by accident that the title The Stone-Campbell Movement was selected and the word restoration avoided. He views the movement as a reformation and not a restoration movement . . . Nevertheless the author’s statements of the reasons for divisions in the movement should be given careful study and evaluation. The reader cannot escape his love, sorrow, and concern for a movement fragmented, and at times convulsed with contention and strife, and his great desire and labors for reconciliation and unity. Read it! -Enos E. Dowling in Christian Standard (Christian Church)

It is extremely readable and copiously documented. Although the personal bias and prejudice of the author stick out boldly near the end of the book, there are a number of interesting things that I have not found in other such works. --- Dudley Ross Spears in Guardian of Truth (Church of Christ, “conservative”)

This book is different in many ways from the rest of the histories of the movement. The main difference is that it is not written from a sectarian standpoint. It does not condemn any of the “parties” mentioned. Brother Garrett simply states how and why the divisions took place. He brings out the fact that our pioneers were willing to disagree without dividing. ---Larry Miles in Word and Work (Church of Christ, premillennial)

Despite these objections (such as “The advocacy of an open pulpit and open membership as articulated by Peter Ainslie and others of the Disciples”), we recommend The Stone-Campbell Movement to all who can read discriminatingly. It can be refreshing, stimulating, and challenging to all such. Although this writer has long been more or less familiar with the history of the Movement, such are the book’s engaging qualities and the extent of its coverage, that we found it quite absorbing. --- Fred O. Blakely in Banner of Truth (Christian Church)

Leroy Garrett’s new book, The Stone-Campbell Movement, reveals certain natural biases. But for his conscious effort to produce a “fair” book dealing with a diverse and fractured Restoration Movement, Dr. Garrett should receive high marks. Disciples will take issue with some assessments of their branch of the movement, but will appreciate Dr. Garrett’s insight into the earlier years, and welcome more information about the life and thought of Churches of Christ and “independents” in a time when communication among the three segments is diminishing. Dr. Garrett, who edits Restoration Review, is a man of loving spirit and open mind. His own life says it even better than his written words. --- James L. Merrell, editor, The Disciple (Disciples of Christ)

Another effort to discredit the Restoration Movement and to challenge the distinctive nature of the New Testament church in the twentieth century has appeared in the brotherhood. Leroy Garrett, an elder of the church living in Denton, Texas, has written a book entitled The Stone-Campbell Movement, published by College Press of Joplin, Missouri. The book purports to be an anecdotal history of the movement started by Barton W. Stone and Alexander Campbell. It is however in reality a propaganda piece advocating open fellowship with denominational groups. As a professionally trained historian and the author of history books I found the scholarship of Dr. Garrett’s book less than impressive. --- Frederick L. Coulter in Gospel Advocate (Church of Christ)

Leroy Garrett has produced one of the finest histories of our restoration movement that has been written: The Stone-Campbell Movement: An Anecdotal History of Three Churches (College Press, 1981). Here is a clear, readable book that really opens up our eyes to understand the great scriptural principles at work among these grand pioneers of recovery in the 19th century. --- Grayson Ensign in Recovery (Christian Church)

Leroy Garrett has crammed a lot of stimulating information in the 729 pages, as well as insightful comments along the way. He describes the dynamic of the Bishop-Editor in the Movement, showing how an aura of authority seemed to flow from them and enable them to exert incredible influence (pp. 320, 410). You’ll discover also what Garrett labels “the Achilles’ heel” of the Movement, and it might surprise you! (p. 307). He also traces the development of the “renewal churches” in the Movement today through such men as Ernest Beam, J. D. Murch, Claude Witty, and W. Carl Ketcherside --- but with editorial shyness never mentions himself! Dr. Garrett’s extensive research and knowledge of the Movement shows itself in his final chapter when he delineated the publications, statistics, editors, agencies, and structures in the three churches today. --- Michael Hall in Ensign (Church of Christ)

Garrett sees Disciple history as the work of good and sincere people who have failed in their purpose through flaws of pride and blindness. But their failures do not arouse in him anger or bitterness. Instead, he writes with affection for these people, and also with hope that their history may yet be made to work for good. . . On balance this excellent study stands out as a major contribution to the understanding of Disciple history. --- Richard Pope in Discipliana (Disciples of Christ Historical Society)

The work strikes me as one of the most objective histories of the movement thus far written. Although other good histories have been produced, one senses while reading them the author’s particular bias. Garrett’s difficulty with many readers has been that he was not biased enough. Most of us want to find justification in history for our own peculiar positions, and we are uncomfortable when the historian reveals how “all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. I must praise the way in which Brother Garrett has captured the essential qualities of the movement and presented the story with fascination and affection. --- Tom Langford in Gospel Tidings (Church of Christ, non-Sunday School)

If you will send 21.95 for a copy of The Stone-Campbell Movement, we will pay postage and handling and put it in the mail to you the same day. The reviewers, pro and con, seem to be agreed that the book is readable and interesting, which is something for a history book. Why not order your copy at once. Over 2300 copies sold the first year!