A Seminary in Crisis. The Inside Story of the Preus Fact Finding Committee. By Paul A. Zimmerman (Concordia, $49.99). In 1970 Jacob Preus, President of the Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod, appointed a fact finding committee to investigate the theological position of faculty members at Concordia Seminary, St. Louis. The end of this sorry tale was the suspension of seminary President John H. Tietjen, the exiling of 45 of 50 faculty members, the founding of Seminex (originally: Concordia Seminary in Exile), all in 1974, and its eventual deployment of Seminex faculty to three ELCA seminaries in 1983. Zimmerman, now in his upper 80s is one of the two surviving members of that fact finding committee. Pages 155-196 reprint the report of that committee and pages 199-444 reprint the subsequent Preus report to the Synod. The rest is a self-serving description of the process, a defense of the committee, and a broadside against the so-called faculty majority. The issues, then and now, seem trivial, sectarian, and against a widespread ecumenical consensus: biblical inerrancy, verbal inspiration, the authorship of biblical books, a rigid stance against evolution, and a complaint that Concordia students prayed together with other Lutheran seminarians in the Association of Lutheran Seminarians. The author finds no fault in the procedures of the fundamentalist faction that took over and still controls the Missouri Synod, but he does admit that Robert Preus, Jacob’s brother, and Ralph Bohlmann, also a Concordia faculty member and the author of A Statement of Scriptural and Confessional Principles, a document criticizing the faculty majority’s stance, met a “few times” with him in a St. Louis hotel “to help Paul ask the right questions of [their fellow] faculty members who were reluctant to answer questions forthrightly during the investigation.” RWK

Ezekiel 1-20. By Horace D. Hummel. (Concordia, $42.99). H., who once advocated the historical critical method, but utterly renounced it when he rejoined the Concordia faculty after the Preus house-cleaning, has published here the first of a two volume commentary on Ezekiel. His “Lutheran” approach to this Old Testament prophet accents themes such as Christology, the dynamics of Law and Gospel, and God’s means of grace…his word and Sacraments, and he interprets Christ as the divine speaker throughout the book. He scorns most commentators since C. F. Keil, except for Moshe Greenberg (whose reported death has not yet taken place!) and Daniel Block. He thanks a student for compiling a bibliography, but admits that many of these works were too popular or too “far out” to merit refutation. This apparently includes such well known and highly respected scholars as Nancy Bowen, Katheryn Pfisterer Darr, Ellen Davis, Julie Galambush, Paul Joyce, Jon Levenson, Margaret Odell, Karl-Friedrich Pohlmann, Karen Schöplin—and the author of this review. The bibliography does find room for Martin Chemnitz and Francis Pieper! H. does display his well known expertise in biblical Hebrew throughout the commentary. RWK

Earth & World. Classic Sermons on Saving the Planet. Edited by David Rhoads (Continuum, $24.95 paper). These thirty-six recent sermons on ecology are introduced by R., who notes that the degradation of nature is not a problem with a short-term solution. The ecological crisis is a spiritual crisis since it results in part from our alienation from nature. R.’s involvement in the struggle to save the planet has led LSTC to designate itself as a “green zone,” with efforts to be earth friendly in all aspects of the seminary’s life. He has directed a web site, Web of Creation (http://www.webofcreation.org), which provides resources for faith communities around issues of ecology. This in turn has generated the Green Congregation Program. Many denominations, faith traditions, and ethnic communities are represented in this collection. Other resources to celebrate Earth Sunday can be found at http://www.nccecojustice.org. The Earth Ministry Web site also has many resources for worship (http://www.earthministry.org). Developing a sustainable life on earth in the face of ecological challenges is the “great work” of our time. RWK

The One Who is to Come. By Joseph A. Fitzmyer, S. J. (Eerdmans, $18). F., who enjoys immense prestige among biblical scholars, traces the emergence of messianism to the second century BCE. Passages associated with the messiah in the Old Testament are concerned only with actual historical kingship. Some of these passages may present a picture of the “ideal king,” but that is not yet a picture of “the messiah.” In Judaism the expectation of a Jewish messiah was not of one form (there is talk of a kingly and a priestly figure, a Messiah of Aaron and a Messiah of Israel). Jewish belief focuses on the future of a messiah still to come. The Christian messiah is known as the one who fulfilled the role of Deutero-Isaiah’s suffering servant of God, who has not only died for humanity, but was raised by God to give humanity hope of sharing a blissful afterlife with him. The Christian messiah differs radically from the awaited Jewish messiah, without whom, however, he would not be known as “Jesus Christ the Son of God.” Pastors who want to know the truth about a central concept in Christianity absolutely must read this book. RWK

War, Peace, and God. Rethinking the Just-War Tradition. By Gary M. Simpson (Fortress, $10.99). S., a professor at Luther Seminary, traces the historical background of and the present challenges to the “Just-War” tradition, giving special attention to this tradition within Lutheranism. S. also studies why Roman Catholics have reconsidered just-war tradition in light of pacifism’s twofold conviction that in principle war is always wrong and in practice just peace-making is always the Christian default thing to do. Luther held that political authority is publicly accountable to God for just peace-making. The last chapter looks at four contemporary global challenges; conscience-shocking situations crying out for humanitarian intervention and resultant conflict with national sovereignty; whether war is the right category to deal with global terrorism; the question of whether the United States ought to be an empire; and patriotism in a time of war and in an era of global citizenship. All this is urgent business in view of present world circumstances and God’s preferential future for earthly peace. RWK

Israelite Religions. An Archaeological and Biblical Survey. By Richard S. Hess (Baker Academic, $34.99). After a broad-ranging survey of the biblical and extrabiblical evidence for the religion of ancient Israel and its background, H. comes to three conclusions about Israel in the time of the Divided Monarchy: 1. Ancient Israel was home to a variety of religious beliefs and practices that developed from earlier West Semitic beliefs and practices attested in Bronze Age archives and cult centers. 2. The religion of ancient Israel emerges as a distinct set of practices and beliefs (the Exodus from Egypt and the Sinai covenant are given particular mention). 3. There was gradual evolution and change in Israel as the people became increasingly devoted to Yahweh alone. The situation in Judah is contrasted with the more syncretistic nature of religion in North Israel. Forty-four figures are discussed in the text, and there are 55 pages of bibliography! As Mark S. Smith notes in a promotional paragraph, “The field now has a general treatment of Israelite religion produced by a scholar with a strong faith in the Bible’s veracity. Even if readers do not share Hess’s strong trust in either the Bible’s historical claims or his high dating for many biblical texts and traditions, this volume nonetheless presents a good listing of research.” RWK

Isaiah. Interpreted by Early Christian and Medieval Commentators. By Robert Louis Wilken (Eerdmans, $45). Although the Christian interpretation of Isaiah began already in the New Testament, it was only as Christians lived with the book and pondered its words and images that a fuller significance for Christians was discovered. The famous “Holy, Holy, Holy” of Isa 6:3 found its way into the Eastern Trisagion and the Western Sanctus. The burning coal of Isa. 6:6 was interpreted as the bread of the Eucharist by Syriac-speaking Christians. Christian thinkers also delighted to find in Isaiah a stockpile of invectives to deploy in their polemics against the Jews. In compiling this commentary, W. draws on commentaries by Eusebius of Caesarea, Jerome, Cyril of Alexandria, and Theodoret of Cyrus in Syria, but he also cites sermons and other theological writings from a host of other Christian leaders. These writers used the Greek, Latin, or Syriac versions of Isaiah, and W. begins each section of the commentary with a modern translation of the LXX. This is followed by his discussion of central themes of the chapter and then a lengthy passage from one of the above-named commentaries and excerpts from the other writings. In commenting on Isa 1:3, “The ox knows its owner, and the donkey its master’s manger,” Augustine wrote: “Don’t be ashamed of being the Lord’s donkey….Let the Lord sit on us and take us wherever he wants…With him seated on us we are not weighed down, but raised up.” And on the swords into plowshares passage, Athanasius wrote: “When the barbarians hear the teaching of Christ, they immediately turn from war to farming, and instead of arming their hands with swords they stretch them out in prayer.” A wonderful resource. RWK

Biblical Exegesis. A Beginner’s Handbook. By John H. Hayes and Carl L. Holladay (Westminster John Knox, $24.95). This popular college and seminary textbook now appears in a third edition. The authors have added a new and welcome chapter “Exegesis with a Special Focus: Cultural, Economic, Ethnic, Gender, and Sexual Perspectives.” They have also added an appendix “Using Electronic Technologies in Exegesis.” Other chapters have also been thoroughly revised. RWK