IN SEARCH OF RELEVANCY

To the Editors of the CRIMSON:

With all due respect for the scholastic sensibilities of Dr. Amos Wilder, the William Belden Noble lecturer for 1956, his first two lectures seemed to me to be little more than a piling up, one on top of the other, of authors, theologians, illustrations and analogies.... He avoided the question of basic tensions and compatibilities between theology and modern literature by his tendency to give a chronicle, albeit concrete, of contemporary activities.... His only venturing statements were that first, the literary world in becoming more realistic is getting closer to faith in God, but he failed to show how. Secondly, he said the bold iconoclasm of modern literature is arousing the Church from its dogmatic slumbers, and he failed to state exactly what the nature of this change of heart and where it is leading. To begin with, he dealt glibly with such ideas as dogma and faith, and then to make matters more confusing, he made value judgments of dogma and faith without saying so and without thoughtful awareness of doing so...

...The whole tone of the first two lectures seemed to me to be cast in the wrong mold. Instead of describing the common struggles for meaning and direction which the theologian and artist are now sharing, instead of clearly showing these struggles in their relation to the older problems of both men, Dr. Wilder described only the conversation which these similar struggles are producing. He failed to get to the heart of the affair. It greatly disturbs me as a Protestant because I fear it is indicative of a whole tone in theological circles to be superficial when nearly everybody in the Church is questioning and searching, and at the same time wishing her leaders would say something powerful and relevant. Robert A. Thayer '56.