We can trace a revival of theology in the Reformed Churches in the last quarter of a century. The new theological interest merits being called a revival of theology, for there has been a fresh and more thorough attention given to certain realities, either ignored or treated with scant notice for a considerable time previously.

First among such realities now receiving more of the attention which their relevance and authority deserve, is the Bible, the record of the Word of God. There is an invigorating and convincing quality about theology which is Biblical throughout, being based on the witness of the Scriptures as a whole. The valuable results of careful Biblical scholarship had had an adverse effect on theology in so far as theologians had completely separated the Old Testament from the New in their treatment of Biblical doctrine, or in expanding Christian doctrine, had spoken of the theological teaching of the Synoptic Gospels, the Pauline Epistles, the Johannine writings, and so on, as if there were no such thing as one common New Testament witness. It is being seen anew that the Holy Scriptures contain a complete history of God's saving action. The presence of the complete Bible open at the heart of the Church, recalls each succeeding Christian generation to that one history of God's saving action, to which the Church is the living witness. The New Testament is one, for its Lord is one, and Christian theology must stand four-square on the foundation of its whole teaching.

Every modern estimate of the religious situation in our country has laid stress on the drift from religion which is increasingly apparent and ever more serious in its effects. Not only is there widespread indifference to the claims of Christianity, but the separation between those within the Churches and those outside grows more decisive and complete. In habit and outlook, in conduct and ways of life, the contrast between Christian and non-Christian standards becomes more and more clearly marked.

Every diagnosis of this situation and every prescription for its remedy raises the question of words and their use. Even if we do not agree that the drift from religion is due to outworn theological terminology or to meaningless pulpit jargon alone, we must recognise that misunderstanding and indifference are often increased by the strangeness of the Christian vocabulary in the ears of the modern man. “ We feel bound to make some attempt to translate certain theological statements of the Eternal Gospel into language such as present-day hearers might themselves employ to express spiritual needs of which they are acutely conscious.” In making this statement the authors of Towards the Conversion of England, (p. 24) quote from the Archbishops' Report on Training for the Ministry, (para. 107): “Full attention should be given to training ordinands in the power of translating the technical language of theology into terms understood by ordinary people.”

FOR a considerable time the services of most missionaries of the larger British Societies have been engaged in institutional and administrative work, and comparatively few of them have had wide experience as evangelists among simple people. The work of direct contact with non-Christians has either been left to indigenous evangelists who tend not to be able to stand far enough back from their work to give a reasoned account of it, or to the missionaries of small pioneer Societies, a majority of whom, though admirable and successful evangelists, lack deep theological knowledge, and are not able to establish a rationale of the work which they themselves have been carrying out. The situation is very different with continental Societies. It has been known for some time that a number of very able and theologically well-trained Dutch and German missionaries have been serving as evangelists among some of the most primitive peoples in the world, and that their results have been such as to raise many important questions of method, which are of interest to all those concerned with the Christian missionary enterprise. Unfortunately, almost all their works have been written in Dutch or German, and are therefore much less widely accessible in the Christian world than could be desired.

The book under review is a very good specimen of the type of missionary study produced by these continental scholars.