THE SECULAR MEANING OF THE GOSPEL

by Paul M. Van Buren ‧ RELEASE DATE: Aug. 1, 1963

Just as astrology has been ""reduced"" to astronomy, and alchemy ""reduced"" to chemistry, (that is, in almost every field of human learning the metaphysical and cosmological aspect has disappeared and the subject matter limited to the human, the historical and the empirical), so theology cannot escape this tendency if it is to be a serious mode of contemporary thought. This is the author's understanding as he rigorously searches out the secular meaning of the Gospel so that modern man will see that it is relevant to him in his admittedly secular way of life. He does this by an analysis of the language of the Gospel in relation to the language of certain kinds of human experience, a method which seems to result in a reduction of the Christian faith to its historical and ethical dimensions, yet which by the same method establishes Easter firmly in the center of the picture, a factor without which the meaning of the Gospel could never be found in the areas of the historical and the ethical. Dr. Paul Van Buren, of the Episcopal Theological Seminary of the South West, has written a book which it will take a scholar to understand and appreciate.

Pub Date: Aug. 1, 1963

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Macmillan

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 1963

Categories: NONFICTION