23. res. & psychical research

7/30/2019 23. Res. & Psychical Research

1/3

BOOK REVIEWS 397

his reflections is to have the; mind stimulated and the soul stirred.It probably will hold greatest value for ministers who will be stimu

lated to reflect at greater depth on the life in Christ and to developmany of these; themes into sermons for their congregations.Hyran E. Barefoot

A Gospel Without Myth? By David Cairns. London: SCM Press,Ltd., 1960. 323 pages. $5.00.

The subtitle to this volume is "Bultmann's Challenge to thePreacher." The author (Professor of Practical Theology, Christ'sCollege, Aberdeen, Scotland) is no Bultmann disciple! The aim of thisbook is to evaluate Bultmann's theology in the particular area of itschallenge to the preacher. Does Bultmann leave any "gospel" for the

preacher to preach?The author divides his book into two parts and suggests that

many readers will profit from beginning with Part . To this review-er, however, that is an unsound suggestion. The relevance of Part Ifor understanding Bultmann's starting point is too important foromission.

Part I contains three chapters dealing with: The Inter-related-ness of Preaching, Theology, and Philosophy; Heidegger, Cradle orCockoo?; Heidegger with the New Look? This is important to Cairns'approach since Bultmann's claim to present a "myth free" gospel andtheology rests upon his belief that Heidegger has provided him withthe non-mythological and adequate concepts which can govern boththeology and preaching. Cairns devotes three chapters to a refutationof this belief; he finds the Heideggerian basis inadequate for anapproach to the Gospels.

In Part H Cairns relates the demythologizing project to the taskof the preacher. Suggestive chapter titles are: Mythical Thinking andthe Preacher; The Existential Interpretation; Myth and Miracle; TheFlight from History; Will This Preach? A concluding chapter treatsof the continuing problem of the mythical and the relationship of themythical to the existential; Bultmann's antithesis between cosmologi-cai and existential judgments; the idea of paradoxprofound orbogus.

One of the most clarifying areas of the book is Cairns' presentation of some of the sermons of Bultmann and H. W. Bartsch and hisanalysis of their own use of preaching a demythologized gospel. Heapproaches the border of accusing them of dishonesty in preachingso much more of the gospel than they accept! This has impressedmany "listeners" to "Bultmannian" preachers. Some of them can dosuch splendid preaching with so little to preach; they put to shamethose of us who do suchi little preaching with the "whole gospel" asour Bible. Ray Summers


2/3

398 REVIEW AND EXPOSITOR

"Senior Scholar of Trinity College, Cambridge." The work wasoriginally printed in England in 1959; this is an American printing.

The better known Austin Farrer of Trinity College, Oxford, has provided a stimulating and "pace-setting" introduction.

"Enigma" is defined by N. Webster as "an obscure saying,""anything inexplicable," "that which hides its meaning under obscure1

or ambiguous allusions." Professor Perry would accept any of thesein using the term "The Easter Enigma." It must be made clear in thebeginning that he accepts the resurrection of Jesus, i.e., he believesin the resurrection of Jesus as something which happened to Jesus.He will have no part of the popular Bultmann idea that Easter represents only something which happened to the disciples.

To make clear Perry's faith in the resurrection of Jesus as anevent observe "Jesus died on the Cross, but was raised from the deadby his Father. In his new state he was no longer clothed by the oldmaterial body of his incarnate life, but by some kind of spiritual bodysuch as St. Paul attempts (sic!) to describe for us" (p. 194).

Two major problems (or questions) stand out in Perry's mind inthe enigma of Easter: One, the "empty tomb," i.e., what happened tothe physical body of Jesus? Two, the "appearance" of Jesus, i.e., howdid he make known to them the reality of his victory over deathsince with physical eyes they could not "see" his new spiritual body?

Relative to the first of these questions, i.e., the "empty tomb,"Professor Perry falls back on the often used idea that God performeda miracle of disposal and withdrew the physical body of Jesus into"nothingness." In this way the body would not be present to handicap the faith of the disciples that Jesus had been raised.

Relative to the second question, i.e., the "appearances" of Jesus,Professor Perry goes back to another often used theory, i.e., the"telepathic theory of the Resurrection appearances." His view is thatJesus started with the disciples where they were. They believed inthe Jewish idea of resurrection of the; body, not the Greek idea of the

immortality of the soul. Only against this background could theyunderstand his survival of death. Jesus therefore "communicated"with his disciples in some way (called "telepathy") causing theirminds to project an "apparition" of his body as they had known it.This convinced them that it was really he who was teaching themand that he had conquered the powers of death.

Perry recognizes the objections to his interpretation and battleswith them. Really, the only thing "new" in his approach is his application of modern parapsychology to an old theory. Much of hisapplication of parapsychology, however, and his exploration of appara-

tions and spiritism appears to be completely irrelevant. A literalinterpretation of the appearances is much easier to believe!

R S


3/3

^ s

Copyright and Use:

As an ATLAS user, you may print, download, or send articles for individual useaccording to fair use as defined by U.S. and international copyright law and asotherwise authorized under your respective ATLAS subscriber agreement.

No content may be copied or emailed to multiple sites or publicly posted without thecopyright holder(s)' express written permission. Any use, decompiling,reproduction, or distribution of this journal in excess of fair use provisions may be aviolation of copyright law.

This journal is made available to you through the ATLAS collection with permission

from the copyright holder(s). The copyright holder for an entire issue of a journal

typically is the journal owner, who also may own the copyright in each article. However,

for certain articles, the author of the article may maintain the copyright in the article.

Please contact the copyright holder(s) to request permission to use an article or specific

work for any use not covered by the fair use provisions of the copyright laws or covered

by your respective ATLAS subscriber agreement. For information regarding the

copyright holder(s), please refer to the copyright information in the journal, if available,

or contact ATLA to request contact information for the copyright holder(s).

About ATLAS:

The ATLA Serials (ATLAS) collection contains electronic versions of previously

published religion and theology journals reproduced with permission. The ATLAS

collection is owned and managed by the American Theological Library Association

(ATLA) and received initial funding from Lilly Endowment Inc.

The design and final form of this electronic document is the property of the American

Theological Library Association.

23. res. & psychical research

Documents