NORMAN VINCENT PEALE, MINISTER TO MILLIONS

There is little doubt that many of the ""millions"" to whom Dr. Peale has ministered in the past ten years or so, whether by live preaching, television, or the printed word, will be glad to read this biography of him by Arthur Gordon. It bears witness to the success of the gospel he has been proclaiming all this time, the power of positive thinking. As the author says more than once, here is Mr. Positive Thinking himself. It is an Horatio Alger type of book, in which the reader knows that the hero is bound to rise from the very beginning, and overcome every obstacle in his stride. The most serious threat to his spectacular ministry is what the author calls ""The Rage of the Intellectuals"" who took (and take) Dr. Peale to task for subverting the true Christian Gospel with his emphasis on happiness and success, and the oft-repeated technique by which he seems to imply that God can be brought into line by the successful manipulator. He was (and is) charged with being the high priest of the peace-of-mind cult. This disturbed him greatly, so that he wrote out his resignation from his Church in order to pursue his wider ministry without the risk of bringing the Church into disrepute. But a message from his dying father, who sensed his disturbance, stopped that self-indulgent foolishness. ""Tell Norman I said they (his critics) were just a bunch of jackasses, and pay them no heed, just put his trust in Jesus Christ, and never quit."" So he has not quit, and his friends and followers will applaud his decision when they read about it. But the ""jackasses"" will without doubt bray all the louder.