Unpublished 280. Review of Jesus and the Christian

[Review of Jesus and the Christian, Sangre de Cristo Seminary Library. Unpublished]

JESUS AND THE CHRISTIAN by William Manson. Wm. B. Eerdmans Pub. Co., Grand Rapids, Mich., 236 pp. $5.95. Reviewed by Gordon H. Clark, Butler University, Indianapolis.

This scholarly work, posthumously published, is both encouraging and discouraging. Encouraging, because its many exegetical passages are detailed and illuminating. For example, the author gives a keen defense of the Reformed position on Romans VI against the Arminianism of Professor Dodd. Encouraging also because the main theme connects the man Jesus with the later Christian church, in opposition to the extreme liberals, like Bultmann, who know nothing of Jesus and explain Christianity by the uncontrolled imagination of the early Christians or by importations from pagan sources.

The book, however, is also discouraging because the other goes only half way. He still retains so much liberalism that his fine main argument is left without a solid foundation. Like Schleiermacher he bases theology on an analysis of experience; Jesus broke through the sacrosanct book and struck away what was obsolete; Daniel is spurious; the authors accepts the J, D, P, theory, denies the unity of Isaiah, and locates the Parousia “beyond any world events which can be imagined.”