Books on Religion

292 UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO QUARTERLY Of the others, James Gillis, author of The Cape Breton Giant and James MacRae, the sweet singer of Glengarry, it need only be said· that they are as memorable as the other Jameses. Mr. Deacon's de· lightful commentary is; in a sense, an example of sustained irony, but it is irony without scorn and without any intention merely to ridicule. Bad poetry as good as this appears to him to be a positive achievement and in its nalve way a revelation of humble lives. (Ryerson, vi, 210 pp.) $3.) 3. Books on Religion W. S. MCCULLOUGH Christian Doctrine (London, Lutterworth Press [Ryerson], 379 pp., $6) by Professor J. M. Shaw of Queen's Theological College, Kingston, is described as "a one-volume outline of Christian belief." The author's views, which are coloured by his background of Scottish Presbyterianism, are substantially the same as those of another United Church theologian, John Dow, who wrote This is Our Faith in 1943. Shaw gives a lucid exposition of the main doctrines of the reformed churches, and displays caution in dealing with Barthianism and its ramifications. He betrays, however, no desire to depart from familiar pathways, and while he does lip-service to biblical criticism, he holds that ''the Pauline and Johannine writings ... have a deeper interpretation of the meaning of Jesus' life and work than that given by the earlier Apostles." Almost a quarter of the book is given over to "The Christian Doctrine of Redemption"; this long argument is an interesting contrast to what is said so simply on the same subject by Jesus in the Synoptic. Gospels. Another theologian, Professor A. Cochrane of the Presbyterian Seminary, Dubuque, Iowa, gives a translation of Otto Weber's summary of Karl Barth's Church Dogmatics (Philadelphia, Westrrrinster Press [Ryerson], 253 pp., $6). The latter is an eight-volume wor-k of 4,507 pages, and as many .consider it to be of greaLsignificance, an English summary of it may serve a useful purpose. Barth is not lacking in self·confidence; he feels equipped to discuss the nature .and purposes of God exhaustively, but much of what he says seems singularly irrelevant to the practical work of the Church. A United Church clergyman, George· W. Morrison, who spent thirteen years on a rural parish in Ontario, has had some short essays edited posthumously by W. H. Cranston, under the title Country Parson (Ryerson, xii, 140 pp., $3). The subjects pertain mostly to a minister's duties in the countryside. The book has few literary merits, but it is written with sincerity and contains much I I·1 LETTERS IN CANADA, 1953 293 homely wisdom from a rural parson who was peculiarly successful. The Bible in Canada by E. C. Woodley (Dent viii, 320 pp., $2.25) is an outline of the history of various groups in Canada interested in promoting the circulation of the Bible. In connection with his sketch of the formation of the Blitish and Foreign Bible Society in London, England, in 1804, the author notes that the first foreign version of the Bible printed under the auspices of the new Society was the Gospel of St. John in the Mohawk language. In the nineteenth century various organizations sprang up in Canada to further Bible study and circulation; these co-operated, as auxiliaries, with the Society in England , and they also received help from the American Bible Society (founded 1816 ). One of the strongest of these Canadian groups was established in 1828; its name, in 1839, became "The Upper Canada Bible Society." It was not until 1904 that the fourteen Canadian auxiliaries of the parent Society united to form "The Canadian Bible Society"; in 1930 the name was changed to "The British and Foreign Bible Society in Canada and Newfoundland." "And Newfoundland" was dropped in 1949. Indulgences: The Ordinary Power of Prelates Inferior to the Pope to Grant Indulgences (University of Ottawa Press, xiv, 199 pp.) by the Rev. J. E. Campbell would appear to be an authoritative discussion of its subject; it is fortified with copious footnotes and seven pages of bibliography. By an indulgence is meant a "remission before God of the temporal punishment...