The Spirit of Protestantism by Robert McAfee Brown (review)

BOOK REVIEWS 175 the majority of theologians do view it, as a rational proof of God's Existence . And when viewed as a proof of faith by faith, it might well be an occasion of the gift of faith, but also an occasion for ridiculing the faith. St. Stepkm'a Priory, Dovi?JI', Maaa. JOSEPH c. TAYLOR, O.P. The Spirit of Protestantism. By RoBERT McAFEE BROWN. New York: Oxford University Press, 1961. Pp. 254 with indices. $4.50. In the Foreword the author prepares us for what is to come and answers the questions which such a title naturally suggests. Whose Protestantism? That of the age in which the salve of the conscience of the apostate friar and the avaricious prince become the confessions of Augsburg and Westminster ; that of earlier ages in the ideas of the Donatus, Pelagius, Acacius, Photius, Leo the !saurian, John Wyklif; that of our times, the religion of such varied ministers of a varied Gospel as Paul Blanshard, James Pike, Adam Clayton Powell, Norman Peale, Billy Graham, Bromley Oxnam, Dean Inge? He addresses liis book to perplexed Protestants, wishful pagans, Concerned Roman Catholics, inquiring college students and beleaguered Protestant ministers. He chooses as Protestantism the " shared convictions " of those inside the Protestant churches and, in the last analysis, what he himself believes. He ambitiously covers the whole of his field in three parts: past, present and future. In Part One he disposes of what he considers false images of Protestantism: that it is protest against something, that it is diluted Catholicism, that it is " believing certain things," that it is " the right of private judgement "; he then proposes that Protestantism was not a revolt, nor an economic, political movement but a religious revival of the full Gospel of the early church; he bravely sketches the denominations by genera, by theological attitude, and by ecumenical family; and then in ten pages expounds the spirit as " constant renewal·at the hand of God." ·The Second Part is a systematized presentation of the ideas and practices, which he thinks a good Protestant should hold on grace, faith, authority of Scripture , Sovereignty of God, Priesthood of Believers, worship and Sacraments. The Third Part entitled Ongoing Protestant Concerns deals with the relation of Protestantism to Roman Catholicism, to the doctrine of authority, to culture, to the world and with tensions within Protestanism. Twenty seven pages of notes which are simultaneously a rich and varied bibliography, and two indices complete the work. 176 BOOK REVIEWS This is a work of consummate art. Working with deceptive ease and honesty; ingenuous, ready to blame as well as praise; erudite, but never pedantic; didactic, but never prosy; fluent, urbane, but never glib; he has produced an image of Protestantism with a skill that the best among Protestant apologetes might wish he could match. To say as much is only fair, but to continue is difficult because a reviewer must have a point of departure. The Protestant insider and the Catholic outsider cannot reasonably evaluate Rev. Brown's Protestantism in the same way. And if the outsider is already disposed to be critical of Protestantism , then Rev. Brown's version will be subject to censure too. This outsider admires the skill with which the fundamental and insuperable barriers between Protestant and Catholic unity are detected and expounded, namely the notions of the Church and of authority, but he is disappointed and irritated at the many ambiguities, equivocations, gratuitous assertions, some of which are due to Protestantism, some of which are due to the author. For if the reviewer cannot abstract from his dogmatic commitments, neither does Rev. Brown, for all his sincerity, rise above his heritage. A great part of the charm of this book, and the favorable impression that it makes is due to the chaste, eirenic style. There is no innuendo, no emotion-loaded adjectives. Rev. Brown is not of the school of Luther, Foxe, or Blanshard; all is sweet reason. It is sad therefore to note one lapse. In the spirit no doubt of Protestantism, Rev. Brown consistently refuses to admit that the mother and head of all the churches should be called Catholic. For him Catholic means the full Gospel...