January 1973 · Vol. 2 No. 1 · p. 30
Book Review
Is Revolution Change?
ed. Brian Griffiths. London, UK: InterVarsity, 1972. 111 pages.
With the gap between “haves” and “have-nots” ever widening, not only on the individual level but also between nations, it appears that the only fuel which can drive the engine of needed change is that of violent revolution. The five essays contained in this volume, however, point out that “a violent and total revolution is no panacea for society’s problems” (p. 7). Contributors are Brian Griffiths (faculty member of the London School of Economics), Frederick Catherwood (a businessman), Rene Padilla (Associate General Secretary for Latin America of the International Fellowship of Evangelical Students), Samuel Escobar (General Secretary, IVCF of Canada) and Alan Kreider (faculty member of Goshen College).
Escobar, writing from a background of Latin American university work in “The Social Impact of the Gospel,” raises a three-point theology of involvement grounded in the incarnation (identifying with need), the cross (aspect of service) and resurrection (concept of hope). Kreider’s emphasis is on the need for the church “to be revolutionary as Christ was revolutionary,” (p. 69) to be the sacrificial society, and not to side with either violence or with status quoists. These brief essays cogently point up the need for biblical evaluation of the church’s role within a violence-torn society.
