RELIGION

Press, Volume LXXXVI, Issue 26129, 3 June 1950, Page 3

RELIGION

(Reviewed by L.G.W.) Reformed Dogmatics. By Heinrich Heppe. George Allen and Unwin, Ltd. 721 pp. The name of Heinrich Heppe is not known to many English amateurs of theology. This large book was first published in 1861, and has been translated by Dr. G. Thomson, of the University of Edinburgh. It has a foreword by Karl Barth, who records that the work helped him to understand the special direction in which dogmatic science proceeded in the early Reformed Church. By reformed theology is understood Calvinistic dogmatics as distinguished from the Lutheran. Heppe’s work is an encyclopedia of Calvinistic theology in its development from the “Institutes” of the Genevan reformer. Heppe aimed to give an account of Reformed orthodoxy from its written sources, and the result is a work of impressive learning. There are 28 chapters, the first dealing with the distinction between natural and revealed theology. The rest set out in turn the usual subjects of systematic theology culminating in a chapter on the glorification of God—the purpose of all things. The translation is written in a clear if dry style, and will probably be of interest to professional theologians rather than to the general reader. The author’s bibliography appears at the end of the book. The “Dogmatics” is not translated from Heppe’s original writings, but is a version revised and edited by Ernst Bizer, who has written a critical preface. St. Benedict. By T. F. Lindsay. Published by Burns Oates. 194 pp.

Every well-informed man must feel deep respect for the memory of St. Benedict, for his spiritual children have been great servants of religion, learning and civilisation. Mr Lindsay’s book is a useful work for the general reader. He traces the career □f the saint from Nursia to Monte Cassino—the latter place not being unknown to all the world for other than spiritual reasons. The Holy Rule of St. Benedict is his great legacy to the Catholic Church. It is based on Holy Scripture, in the writings of Cassian. an the lives of the Desert Fathers and in the books known as Verba Seniorum. Mr Lindsay discusses at length the question of the people for whom the book was written. He admits that ;here is some considerable debate with, regard to this question, but tends to Dom Chapman's view that the work was written with the definite purpose of providing a single “Rule” for all Western monasteries. The last chapter af the book under review contains an account of St. Benedict's mission and a summary of the Papal Encyclical published by Pope Pius XII to mark the fourteenth centenary of the saint's death.

A Pictorial Gospel. By Eliot Hodgkin. Published by Victor Gollancz. 212 PPThis beautifully printed book is illustrated by pictures from the Old Masters from the thirteenth to the seventeenth centuries. There are more than a hundred of these illustrations, well reproduced in black and white. The origin of each picture is indicated and the dates of the lives of the artists. On the opposite pages are printed extracts from the gospel, showing the source of the painters’ inspiration. POETRY News of the World. By George Barker. Faber. 64 pp. George Barker has published an earlier collection of verse. EROS IN DOGMA (1944), and a long poem “Calamiterror.” He writes with vigour, making use of the startling opening line, the unexpected word, even the pun, the sudden cry from the heart, the incongruous image—another modern “metaphysical.’’ His themes ring the changes on pessimism and despair and “the everywhere of grief." The world is filled with “the serried battalions of lies and organisations of hate.” In our misery we turn only from “caterwauling war” to the “long lingering of disillusion” which peace has brought. And in the poem ‘‘The Five Faces of Pity” he adds the final crushing comment that Love fills the universe with victories more appalling Than avalanche, volcano or all war. The verse is of a high quality, but lit is all very gloomy reading—a further contribution to the literature I of low spirits from which we suffer so much. Leaves from a Sandan Notebook. By Rewi Alley. Chosen and edited by H. Winston Rhodes. Caxton Press. 64 pp. Those who enjoyed the poetry of Rewi Alley in GUNG HO will welcome this new selection of his verse and prose. His name is practically a household word in New Zealand, and everyone knows of his work in the Chinese Industrial Co-operatives and the Sandan Bailie School where 260 Chinese boys are cared for and educated—not to mention the six he has himself adopted. But, admirable as all this may be. it does not make Rewi Alley a good poet. His poetry is sentimental, prosaic, full of political message. The prose pieces in his new volume consist of factual descriptions of his school, jottings from his diary. I accounts of air-raids during the war, and extracts from letters about his aims and achievements in China. Rewi Alley confidently believes that I we are at the end of an era, and that we shall shortly live to see a new and better age begin: And Io? the Northern mountains changed rapidly from black to purple Then to a glorious red; even the white of half-melted snows Changed to red also, to a vivid red; and the whole heaven Was lit with hope, lit with the promise of glorious dawn. Everyman’s Library has added two volumes which replace earlier volumes of Tennyson’s POEMS. Whereas the earlier volumes included none of Tennyson’s work published later than ! 1869, this limit having been set by • copyright considerations, the new editions range over the whole of Tennyson’s work. They will be valued as useful additions to a popular library, extending as they do the availability of the work of one who will have a place among the poets while the English language lasts.

A favourite story from “Franklin Roosevelt: Boy of the Four Freedoms” (Bobbs-Merrill’s “Childhood of Famous Americans” series) concerns F. D. R.’s visit to President Cleveland at the White House. Cleveland told the boy of the tremendous difficulties of his office. “Franklin.” he said. “I hope you never become President.”