Synodical Conference Convention Proceedings St. Louis, Missouri — 1958, Page 18

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18 Proceedings of the Forty-fifth Convention

when our young servants are ready to enter them. My old min-
ister used to tell the story of one of his seminary classmates
who was impatient with his work but eager to enter the min-
istry. “Ich muss wirken! Ich muss wirken! (I must be accom-
plishing something),” he would say. Prof. William Sweet, formerly
of the University of Chicago, had a similar story about a fellow
student in the Methodist seminary he attended. Every time an
examination loomed this man would suggest that it be turned into
a good old-fashioned prayer meeting with testimonials instead
of test questions, In both cases the utilitarian urge was getting
the better of the contemplative mode of life. On the other side
I would quote Lord Elton, chief executive officer of the Rhodes
Scholarship trust: “I regard as the great pride of Oxford its abil-
ity to present an entirely ‘useless’ training in that it does not
concentrate on technical know-how.”

Let us then in churches, in schools (on the grade, preparatory,
and college levels) in seminaries, and in daily living cherish the
study of the Word of God for its own sake. Let us never regret
the long years spent in the study of cultural subjects that lead
to the enlargement of the mind. I include here the languages,
especially those in which the Bible was originally written, the
sheaths in which the sword of the Spirit is kept, as Luther so
happily put it. Languages are the indispensable tools for exegesis,
for determining the actual meanings of Scripture. Without them
the Dead Sea Scrolls would have remained insoluble riddles.
Still it isn’t always true that those who know the most Greek
or Hebrew are the greatest theologians. Augustine knew no
Hebrew and very little Greek; Aquinas knew neither language;
yet both are rated tops as theologians. Yes, there are other equally
important disciplines: history, which presents the drama of man’s
strivings and failures; literature, which reveals his creative in-
stincts and the range of his thoughts; philosophy, which provides
forms and concepts even for theology; and art, for which there
is no other argument than the one Emerson put into the mouth
of the Rhodora:

Tell them, dear, that if eyes were made for seeing,
Then Beauty is its own excuse for being.

All this does not mean that there should not be excellent
courses — taught for their own sake, by the way—in adminis-
tration, publicity, counseling, homiletics, and other practical sub-
jects. Christ’s own course for his disciples in these branches is
recorded in Matthew 10. A recent article by Allan Nevins in the
Saturday Review can be quoted profitably in this connection. Com-~
paring journalism with university teaching he writes:

The tradition of journalism is a lesson in devotion to public in-

terest. Its responsible servants are continuously interested in the

betterment of politics, the vindication of social justice, and the
elevation of community life. No comparable tradition exists in
our universities, But universities should be more than citadels

of science, philosophy, literature and the arts; they should be

citadels with sally ports for attacks. And sometimes we univer-

sity men, I fear, think too much of our note-padded cells, too
little of the breastworks to be manned and armed.

Surely it is better to produce a good homiletician than a tenth-
rate Hebraist. The word of Christ applies here. The one we ought