Regional Synod of Canada - Reformed Church in America

Pioneer Christian Monthly

Date - Nov/68

Contributor - T. Hogerwaard

Title - What is New In Religion

Topic - Theology

INTRODUCTION

May I this time - in good Canadian style - start this paper with an anecdote? When I was a student, one day the topic of discussion in our class was in how far the training for a certain profession contributed to man's culture, to his ability to converse intelligently with those who had studied in other fields. One of the theological students told us that two of his nephews, studying dental surgery in the university of Utrecht, had expressed their contempt for theological studies. Not worth a thing with the exception of the study of philosophy which was one of the subjects a theologian-to-be had to take. That and that alone had the august approval of the gentlemen! After this total and devastating attack on theology it was very quiet in the class for some seconds, but the quietness was soon shattered by a roaring laughter. The Principal, after eyeing the speaker for some moments, let go with a blockbuster; four words only: "Rinse your mouth, please!" In Dutch, actually he used only three words: "Spoelt u even!". This was the cultured, high-level conversation which these drillers-and-fillers-to-be would carry on for no less than forty years after they had finished their studies! Some high-level intelligent conversation!

THE ENCHANTMENT OF THE "NEW"

Turning now to more serious matters, it is simply a fact that the study of philosophy and more so of theology (provided you have the right teachers and the right books) safeguards a man - among other things - against the suggestion that everything that is presented nowadays as brand-new is new indeed. You can discover that, apart from what God has given us in Christ, there is hardly anything "new" in the world. Most of the problems of philosophy and all the ideas and convictions based upon them, were known to the Greeks already. Every time anew Troeltsch's words are confirmed that through all the ages mankind has lived on only a few thoughts. The warriors may change, the battle remains the same. As Heinrich Heine once said (in another context) "Es ist die alte Geschichte und sie bleibt immer neu". (It is the same old story and it remains for ever new.) To the annihilation of the propaganda of that, which nowadays is presented as the newest of the new, Dr. Kenneth Hamilton, Winnipeg, applies himself in his latest book: "What is new in religion": a concise, lucid exposition of what is presented as "new" but is actually as old as the hills! Some time ago Mrs. Patricia Clark, writing in The Observer, the United Church of Canada Church-paper gushed about "that exciting new theology". These four words are enough for any expert to learn that the lady does not know a thing about any theology - old or new.

When I prepared myself upon the ministry in the UCOC 15 years ago (having 20 years of service behind me in other places of the world), I was told that one of the most important books to read was Dr. Chalmers' "See the Christ stand." In the preface of that book he too wrote about "blazing new trails", but when I studied the book I discovered that those "new trails" were actually very, very old paths which many heretics had trod centuries before our professor-trailblazer was born! Originality is an extremely rare and precious thing and no one should move too quickly that he has anything new or original to offer (1).

Moreover, our days and circumstances are not a very suitable climate for originality. Conformity is the word, acceptance by peers, be a guy like every other guy and do not stick out your neck! Our days are days of slogans, chosen for their incantation-value, not stimulants to thinking. On the contrary; tranquilizers, soporifics. Dr. Hamilton writes (page 30): "Judged by the phrase-test it is easy to describe contemporary man. Not long ago he was busy making friends and influencing people, being resolved to stay alive all his life. But then he went out on the boundary, encountered the absurd, chose authentic existence, recovered the depth-dimension, and recognized an ultimate concern. At the present moment he is willing the death of God, celebrating the secular city, and discovering that the medium is both the message and the massage. This is the man, whom Dietrich Bonhoeffer declared to have come of age, able at last to stand on his own feet without the prop of religion. The prevailing dogma among those who claim to stand in Bonhoeffer's line of forward-looking theology is that today's man, if he is capable of entertaining any faith at all, must be contemplating a religionless Christianity capable of being received by a completely secularized society. To doubt this dogma is rank heresy where catchword-orthodbxy reigns."

TECHNOLOGY AND SPIRITUAL VALUES

Ours is a technological society and the clamour for improvements is great: yesterday's gadgets will not do for today. "Try the New Improved Electric Toothbrush with the exclusive feature of Balance Touch Power-Steering. You will never go back to old-style electric tooth brushing." Dr. Hamilton continues: "Yet the fact that newness in the realm of technology is the touchstone of excellence does not mean that newness, as such, is good in any other realm." "When any other goal comes into the picture, what is newest is far from being what is obviously best" (13). What is unique is not progressive. Paul is old, so is Plato. Does that mean that what is written nowadays is more worthwhile to study because it is newer? "In areas concerned with human beings, and living values, as opposed to areas concerned with manipulating things, newness is no obvious recommendation. If anything, it is exactly the opposite" (13). "When the bare fact of being new is stressed, there is room for a suspicion that other, more relevant characteristics are being soft pedaled, and that an attempt is being made to stampede the emotions into welcoming something before the judgment has had time to take a proper look at it. Earlier this century a university professor spoke about a new conception of academic freedom and the university as a place of unbiased research. The new which was "coming and becoming" could be seen only by eyes opened by a new courage. Said Martin Heidegger in 1933, summing up his argument:

"The new courage must be conditioned into steadfastness, for the struggle for the educational strongholds of the leaders will take long. It will be fought with the energies of the new state which the people's chancellor Adolf Hitler will bring to reality."

Evidently, there is no easier way of recommending submission to tyranny than by naming it "the new courage", fighting for the "new freedom". Heidegger's 'new vision', of course, was neither his nor new nor anything resembling a vision, but a classical example of the age-old story of intellect submitting to brute power. The story is always particularly depressing on account of the fact that knowledge - especially knowledge of the past - is our best protection against being misled: by the pseudo-new, either because they were unable to identify it or because they were unwilling. Heidegger did not stand alone in the Germany of 1933, where his enthusiasm for the New-Order was shared by the sophisticated and the simple alike. Remembering this should make us ponder, not only the emotional appeal of the word "new" but also the conditions contributing to spring the trap of emotion so as to surround the word with an aura of unbounded hope."

So, the theme of Dr. Hamilton's book is:

THE OLD AND THE NEW THEOLOGY, and, as every system of ethics or morals has an underlying philosophy or theology, or, starting from the opposite side: every system of theology or philosophy brings its own ethical system wit!, it, also: the new morality. It turns out that everything here is based upon the age-old ambivalent relationship between the Christian faith and "religion", even more than upon the contrast between the Christian faith and atheism. Moreover, as Dr. K. H. Miskoitte has made it so brilliantly clear: religion and atheism are accustomed to change places! (When the gods are silent). In our days we see a frightening apostasy from the Christian faith. Men, ordained to the ministry of the Word and the Sacraments give leadership and encouragement to this apostasy, for instance the bishops Robinson in England and Pike in the U.S.A., strongly assisted by men like Altizer, Harvey Cox, Paul van Buren and all the other Sanballats (Nehemiah 4 : 1-5). Now, when there is no longer faith in Christ, what will take its place? In an extremely valuable booklet, published in the twenties, Prof. Dr. Th. Spoerri (Goetter des Abendlandes) defended the thesis that first there is apostasy, followed by modern forms of paganism (religion) which take the place of faith in Christ, and then finally the cold sterile world of secularism dominates the scene. "Der Daemonisierung folght aber auf dem Fusse die Saekularisierung." (The demonizing of western culture is followed by secularization). However. it seems to me that the way is just' the opposite. First: people lose their Christian faith, become atheists, existentialists: despair, promoted to a way of life, but sooner or later "religion",will occupy the vacuum in the mind. An article in Time Magazine (September 27, 1968) illustrates that clearly. "One California physicist who flies . to Washington once a month eases his fear of a crash by carrying a special amulet: a copy of Time, a magazine he otherwise dislikes." "People seeking faith increasingly turn to mystical religions, such as Zen and Zoroastrianism.' "One Chicago dealer in magical objects reports that crystal balls are selling like popcorn for as much as twenty three dollars a piece." "Necromancy, the arts of communication with the dead, has undergone a rebirth, abetted by California's Episcopal bishop James Pike, who engaged in a seance at which he claims to have talked with his suicide son."

THE CHRISTIAN FAITH AND RELIGION

Thus we may expect an upsurge of "religion" and that's indeed what we see all around us. Religion seems to be on good terms with the Christian faith, but when the chips are down, the greatest and deepest hatred against God's revelation in Christ is engendered by "religion" (2). William Stringfellow, in one of his books, states bluntly: "In America, religion has nothing to do with God, but only with religion." Dr. Hamilton writes (30): "The congregations who filled the comfortable commodious buildings - many of them reflecting the most admired contemporary taste - evidently considered a proper regard of religion to be the crowning glory of the American way of life, the conclusive evidence that their cultural existence was worthy of approval by God and men." In his latest book (Couples) John Updike adds his own devastating judgment upon American religion by presenting the two most notorious adulterers as very religious people: Piet Hanema, a Congregationalist and a regular Church-goer and Foxy Whitman, a "devout" Anglican! It 's of a chilling significance that the end of the book gives a description of the fact that the Congregationalist Church burns down! In Romans 1 : 18-23 we learn how the apostle Paul sees the connection between religion and sin. In all probability the men of Sodom and Gomorrah too were very religious in their fashion!

NEW THEOLOGY SIMPLY ANOTHER FORM OF (NON-CHRISTIAN) "RELIGION"

With this key in our hands, it is not difficult at all to see what this ,exciting" new theology is all about. (33) "From a Christian point of view, God-forgetfulness is a less permanent danger than the worship of false gods." "The human mind," said Calvin, "is a productive factory of idols"; and there is no reason to think that it has ceased to be so in the twentieth century or that henceforth Western man has only two live options: I Christianity and unbelief."

Paul van Buren: (55) "Actually Van Buren's prescription for a secular Gospel is remarkably like previous attempts in the nineteenth century to construct a revised Christianity on ethical foundations."

Haxvey Cox: (97) Cox is interested in what the Bible says only, when it can be made to justify the style of life evident in contemporary secular society." (99) "The secular city, Cox tells us, is a "viable concretization of the ancient symbol of the Kingdom of God". (Cox's book page 98). "This identification of the secular city with the Kingdom of God looks like a phantastic joke, yet Cox takes it with the utmost seriousness." "Outside the secular city there is no salvation for modern man," says Cox (3). Assyrians and Babylonians, Greeks and Romans would have fully agreed with him. Augustine saw the city of men and the city of God as a contrast, an absolute one!

Critique: (102) "That is why the Biblical message is, from first to last, a message of the need for repentance and the call to faith. Without doubt, the gospel according to Cox is, from first to last, a gospel of good works."

This is a sampling of the "new religion", (the rest is not much different) a warming up of old heresies, of the everlasting endeavour to construct a religion that is acceptable to unconverted man: the factories, where idols are made, are working overtime with ministers, priests, bishops and Professors of theology toiling like slaves (what they actually are!). But they do not realize in whose service they are "laboring so hard for old Massa". Certainly not in Christ's!

MODERN ETHICS NEW MORALITY

it is downright baffling and utterly ununderstandable that so many ministers, not to speak of thousands and thousands of "laymen" have been so impressed by the new morality, as presented by bishop Robinson and especially Fletcher. "Situation ethics" simply hang in the air, or better: they are founded upon premises that remain hidden! (116) "Fletcher's concern is for people's corporate well being. His work is first to preserve the State and the second to direct its power in the interest of justice." Indeed, but those who have read Hegel know only too well that he spoke that same language! And who, of the older ones among us, does not vividly remember Hitler's slogan: "Geme, nnutz geht vor Eigennutz?" (The interest of the community overrules the interests of the individual). The smoking furnaces of Belsen and Dachau illustrated very clearly the practical consequences and results of this conviction; this is "the new morality", 1 4 situation ethics" for you! Very "exciting" indeed! (117) "Fletcher adopts the relativistic, pragmatic and utilitarian approach to ethics, characteristic of modern non-Christian ethical systems." "It appears that, like the secularist Christians, Fletcher wants religion and wants it secular." (118) "The situationists, all the same, may be fighting the battle on the wrong front; or, to change the metaphor, they may be treating a disease by a drug that induces a far more deadly disease in the patient." "For Christians love is an absolute. That we should love one another is the 'new commandment'." ,(John 15 : 12) of the Lord of Christians, and thus an absolute command. But what the situationists overlook is that the Christian calling to stand in the obedience of love is not an ethical standard, for it is grounded in faith in the God Who is love and in the Son through Whom the Father's love was declared to the world." (Blacks by T.H.)

Because I do not want to make this article too long, I will not write much about Bonhoeffer, who is grossly misunderstood and misinterpreted by the men of the new religion and the new morality, who wrongly claim him as their forerunner. He is not! Bonhoeffer was a convinced believer who died for his faith in Christ (4). His beautiful book "Christology" is enough proof to show how far he was removed from the modern baal priests who claim to serve the God of Israel, but are in the service of Baal. One quotation from Dr. Hamilton's book may suffice: (73) "One of the developments of modern life that gave him (Bonhoeffer) no pleasure at all was the popularity of psychiatry, and the prevalence of the notion that Christianity had much the same aim and purpose as psychiatric treatment, namely: to help us achieve inner strength and the peace of mind that goes with an integrated personality. Such an outlook, he considered, was sending us straight back to the old mistake of trying to make a need-satisfying religion out of the Christian faith." Perhaps later I can present a paper about Bonhoeffer.

RELIGION AND THE CHRISTIAN FAITH

Students of S. Kierkegaard are familiar with the fact that he discerns four spheres in which a man can live. First there is the esthetic sphere, where one lives for oneself only, one's pleasure, hedonism as it is so widely propagated and practised in our days; secondly the ethical sphere, where a man recognizes a high standard of moral conduct and tries to live by it, being of opinion that he is able to do that all by himself without the help which religion can provide, the Greek idea of autarkeia, self-sufficiency. This man shapes his own life (anyway he thinks he does). The third stage is that of Religiosity A, as Kierkegaard calls it, in which a person is religious, very much aware of the fact that he is dependent upon powers and forces unseen, but God's strength in Christ does not enter into the picture at all. And finally there is stage four: Religiosity B, where a person has become a child of God in Jesus Christ, being saved by grace through faith. A person can move from stage 1 to stage 2 and then on to stage 3 without outside help, but one cannot enter stage 4 (Christian faith) without a direct act f God Himself. However, when a man is a Christian, he prays, he goes to Church, he sings hymns, he keeps the Christian feasts, in short he partakes regularly in what might be called "religious" acts". There is nothing against that, matter of fact it cannot be avoided. There is nothing against being dressed in the robe of religion, as long as this robe is not mistaken for (or identified with) the living body underneath the robe! It is against that fatal identification, against the assertion that the robe is the body, that Karl Barth and others have fought so hard all their lives! For this is the notorious "natural theology" of which Dr. 0. Noordmans wrote that it is the cause that people go to hell; if it were not for this natural theology they would repent, turn to God and be saved.

FEAR HIM, YE SAINTS...

The American general Omar Bradley relates in his book about the Second World War, how, during the battle of the Bulge the men of an American machine-gunnest thought that their last hour had struck when some huge German tigertanks zeroed in on them. But suddenly they saw the German soldiers run from their tanks for cover! What had happened? Some American dive bombers had spotted those thanks and came down screaming, releasing their bombs and rockets. The American machine gunners shouted and danced for joy!

Many ministers, I have learned, both in Europe and in this part of the world feel as those American soldiers did, threatened and cowed by the terrible onslaught of the , new" religion and the "new" morality. But this fear is totally unfounded. "The Lord reigns, let the earth rejoice!" Indeed, the attack is real enough but also to our assistance dive bombers are in action, with the golden Triangle (5) clearly visible on their wings! They have already annihilated those impressive looking enemy tanks! Dr. Kenneth Hamilton is one of the wing commanders of this dive bombing squadron of the militia Christi; so are D. T. F. Torrance, Dr. J. K. S. Reid, Rev. Morrison in Scotland and Dr. K. H. Miskotte and Dr. A. E. Loen in Holland and a few more. In Dothan the prophet's servant saw only the enemies, the prophet saw the enemies just as well as his servant did, but then he also saw God's legions of angels, sent for his. protection. It is a matter of seeing what there is to see!

Fear Him, ye saints and you will then have nothing else to fear!

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