Revelation and Response in the Old Testament by Cuthbert A. Simpson (review)

BOOK REVIEWS nomena. His book can also serve as an excellent introduction to the subject of mysticism, which is still a terrifying one for many readers. JAMES M. EGAN, 0. P. Sparkill, N.Y. Revelation and Response in the Old Testament. By CUTHBERT A. SIMPsoN. New York: Columbia University Press, 1947. Pp. 205, with index. $2.50 The author proposes (1) to trace the development of the religion of Israel from its beginnings and to show how the divine revelation-to which this development was the response-was mediated through historical event; (2) to show how the gradual unfolding of Israel's monotheism had as its concomitant a growing awareness of the essential unity of life; (8) to show how the creative minority in Israel were gradually brought to the realization that the community of which they were a part had a supranational significance. He carries his argument only to the exile, but considers it to be the foundation for any succeeding history of revelation in Israel. This study comprises seven chapters. The first, entitled " Primitive Jahvism," assumes that Israel's religion began as a form of animism con-' cerned with maintaining good relations with the good and bad spirits which .filled the desert spaces. Jahveh, as god of the volcano of Sinai and god of the thunderstorm, was of the second category. Here the autho;r assumes (" we must ") that Israel passed from a natural response of self-regarding fear to the response of self-surrendering acceptance , a transition of crucial import in the development of Jahvism. Coming through to the other side of fear, Israel found" at the heart of the destructive forces of nature that which enriched and ennobled life." (p. 6) Reflecting upon this repeated experience, Israel came to believe that it had been chosen by Jahveh to be his people. The author attempts to trace the development of this faith in these pages. To the obvious objection that such an explanation is inadequate, pernicious and nothing but emotionalism, the author proceeds to clarify his terms. It is equally absurd, he states, to suggest that man can reason his way to a real awareness of God. The Wholly Other is beyond that. Hence the primitive experience of Israel, though partial, is valid. Can it be said to be a " response to revelation? " By revelation he means " that divine activity which has as its purpose the freeing of man from those interior tendencies which, if yielded to, will drive him to inevitable frustration ... it is much more than a simple disclosure of objective truth by God . . . it involves also an empowering of the will to conform itself to the truth BOOK REVIEWS which has thus been made known; and this in such a way as not to destroy the freedom which it is the purpose of revelation to bring to fruition, or to weaken the personality which it is intended to mature." (p. 10) It follows that God teaches the fact of " human conditionedness with a strange and terrible respect for man's freedom." (p. 12) Compelling though this inner compulsion may be (especially in the case of the prophets), it is always man's responsibility whether he accepts or rejects it. Israel accepted, or responded to this revelation, and in so doing, developed its theology. In the fulness of time, when civilization had developed to a point where the salvation of mankind from the frustration of self-centered power called for the creation of a people aware of the transcendence and centrality of God, Israel was singled out from among all the nations to act as the agent of redemption. It took Israel a long time to realize that Jahveh was a God not only of nature but of history. (p. 17) Recognizing God as the god of war (and on their side) was an experience which, while it lasted, unified life in a momentary emotional monotheism. Primitive Jahvism therefore contained in itself the germ of the later reasoned ethical montheism. (p. 20) More than a momentary unification of life, or emotional surrender of self, was required. All life had to be related to Jahveh. The slow recognition of this demand and the painful endeavor to...