"Expressly For Our Time"

Howie, Carl G. (Pastor, Calvary Presbyterian Church, San Francisco, California)

Interpretation, 1959, 13, 273-285

Allen Johnson

Rt. 1, Box 119-B

Dunmore, West Virginia 24934

Theology of the Minor Prophets

Dr. Tom McDaniel

Fall, 1994

The express purpose of Carl Howie's work is to let the prophet Amos speak to our contemporary scene. According to the author, Amos' theology is incisive in penetrating to the core of who God is in relationship to human community, what God requires from this community as true worship, and the implications of either faithfulness or infidelity in human response.

Certainly Amos never conceived a systematic theology. Encountering the heart of the living God, Amos prophesied within the paradigm of his time, significantly the foundational concept of suzerainty covenant in which "Yahweh would be the God of Israel, and Israel would be the people of God" (p. 274). Yahweh's initiating covenant hesed is to be met by Israel's responsive covenant hesed of "loyal love." The fiery blast of Amos' prophesying is in defense of this covenant that the powers-that -be in Israel so deftly twist and pervert to serve their own self-seeking purpose.

Carl Howie compartmentalizes his treatise of the theology of Amos into six sections which individually and cumulatively lead the reader to reflect upon the comparisons and implications of our own contemporary milieu. First, Howie argues that Amos was a proponent of practical monotheism (even though only later, in Second Isaiah, is this given clear enunciation). The God of Amos was no national deity limited by competitive claims of neighboring gods. Yahweh was God over all nature (4:6-12), all nations (9:7), and all history.

Second, God revealed Himself through the medium of the event and its inspired interpreters, the prophets. The time of Amos was an era of religious resurgence, prosperity, and peace. Was not this proof that Yahweh was pleased? Yet the inspired insight of Amos penetrated through this masquerade into the manipulative, treacherous hearts of the citizenry to speak God's displeasure and judgment. May we of our time be likewise perceptive to the false interpretations that plague the church of our present age, particularly in the cults of material prosperity and national manifest destiny.

Third, Amos connected true worship to high ethical standards of justice, mercy, and righteousness in day to day living. Cultic ritualistic worship must be congruent to the ethical demands of Yahweh. Howie writes, "Amos will ever have the world in his debt for the recovery of the undeniable truth that worship has meaning only as it relates to the guiding loyalty of life itself ... worship must be identification with the character and purpose of him whom we worship" (p. 280).

Fourth, Amos expanded the theology of election beyond national boundaries. "Election by God is never alone to privilege, it is always to responsibility" (p. 281). God's purpose for Israel was to be a vehicle for His revelation of love and election to all other nations. Israel perverted this calling to self-serving arrogance.

Fifth, Howie points to Amos' understanding of sin as not "so much an act as a perversion of motive and intent" (p. 282). In this Amos prefigures Jesus who taught that out of the heart issues goodness or evil (cf. Matt. 12:34, 35).

Finally, the sixth point in Howie's overview of Amos' theology is the necessity to seek God for meaning and purpose in life. "Seek ye me, and ye shall live (5:4)" (p. 283). Loyal obedience to God is the ground of life.

In summation Carl Howie leads the reader to a concise, cogent overview of Amos' theology in a way that positions the reader to analogy with our contemporary scene. Blessed with the immeasurably greater Light that is Jesus Christ, we the church need to heed with utmost sobriety Amos' warnings that maintaining our covenant does not depend upon religious cult but rather on faithful loyalty to the God who desires that justice flow like a mighty water.