Theological Authority Research Articles

Theological Education and Mission

AbstractIn this article, veteran Tanzania missionary Fergus King reflects on the connection between mission and theological education. "Mission" is primarily God's mission, participation in which is constitutive of the church's very nature. In today's debate, "theological education" is pulled between a commitment to a more "holistic" approach (paideia) and a more academic approach (Wissenschaft), and while it needs both it also must take into account local context: location, culture, language and worldview. When context is taken into account, theological education cannot but be mission-oriented, since its goal becomes an education that aims at a faithful and relevant communication of the gospel to fellow Christians and non-Christians, both locally and universally. King concludes with some reflections on the nature of theological authority: ultimately authority resides in the entire church, past and present. Theological education, therefore, is aimed at all Christians, at whatever level they find themselves.

Ideas in God according to Saint Thomas Aquinas: Sources and Synthesis by Vivian Boland, O.P.

BOOK REVIEWS Ideas in God according to Saint Thomas Aquinas: Sources and Synthesis. By VIVIAN BOLAND, 0.P. Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1996. Pp. 353. $128.50 (cloth). ISBN 90-04-10392-9. In this remarkably wide-ranging book, Fr. Boland has presented scholars of medieval philosophy with a compact history of the doctrine of divine ideas in Western philosophy, as well as a study of the scope of that doctrine in the thought of St. Thomas Aquinas. To accomplish both of these tasks, Boland divides his presentation into two parts, the first comprising four chapters and the second three. In the first part of the book, he is successful in setting forth the major figures and their key, historically influential theses, though some of the analyses are more protracted than would be required simply in order to provide the background to Aquinas. The second part of the book addresses Aquinas's own theory and outlines its main features by analyzing texts from various periods of Aquinas's literary career. The book opens with an introduction laying out the conflicting interpretations of divine ideas given by Thomists in the twentieth century. Such notable scholars as Gilson and Sertillanges claim that Aquinas's account of the divine nature, especially that found in Summa contra Gentiles I, does not necessitate any doctrine of divine ideas and that Thomas's emphasis on divine simplicity militates somewhat against endorsing divine ideas. According to Thomists of this outlook, Aquinas simply held on to the theory of divine ideas, historically speaking, out of respect for the theological authority of St. Augustine and not out of any theoretical commitments of his own. On the other hand, such a leading authority as Geiger maintains that the doctrine of divine ideas is integral to Aquinas's theological thinking-indeed, so integral that Thomas needs to posit divine ideas in order to sustain the divine simplicity while simultaneously allowing for God's intimate awareness of each aspect of his creation. Boland's work, through its detailed examination of the sources for Thomas's doctrine of divine ideas and the texts that present that doctrine constitutes, in effect, a response in favor of Geiger's position and opposed to the minimalist approach to divine ideas characteristic of Gilson and Sertillanges. Each of the first four chapters focuses on a different group of prominent figures. The first treats of Plato and the tradition of Academic speculation leading to and including middle Platonism. Regarding Plato himself, Boland undertakes an analysis of the Timaeus with its characteristic doctrine of the 481 482 BOOK REVIEWS Demiurge. Although he acknowledges the problematic enterprise of interpreting the professedly mythic aspects of the doctrine, Boland nonetheless presents a fairly straightforward reading of the Timaeus: the Demiurge is not the supreme principle of the Platonic universe, though it is prior to soul and the physical universe, while the Forms are prior to the Demiurge and are certainly not the thoughts of a divine mind. Observing that this way of understanding the Platonic account of creation, though perhaps justified on textual grounds, leaves Plato subject to many of the criticisms later voiced by Aristotle, Boland adds that the Timaeus so understood is open as well to two philosophical developments: (1) identifying the Demiurge with the supreme principle of the universe and (2) placing the Forms within the mind of the supreme principle as its thoughts. These two developments cannot be precisely traced historically, but clearly the second can be seen already in the works of Antiochus of Ascalon, the middle Platonist of the first century B.C., whose thought was continued and amplified by such notable figures as Albinus. The first of the developments would seem to be found in Platonic tradition prior to Antiochus, but is clearly judged to be commonplace Platonic doctrine by Roman philosophers such as Cicero and Seneca in their summary renderings of Greek philosophical teachings. A final figure of importance in the transmission ~ of early- and middle-Platonic doctrine is Philo Judaeus whose discussion of a divinely spoken Word containing an intelligible world provided much stimulation for later Christian speculation. The second of the background chapters deals with Plotinus, Augustine, and Boethius. Plotinus is seen...

Transformative Christian Education: New Covenant, New Creation. An Essay in Constructive Theology

A TRANSFORMATIVE THEOLOGY of Christian education is defended against reconstructionist alternatives. Any authentic theology of education should be grounded in the ontic reality of the divine economy of salvation. Though important, noetic questions of theological epistemology, together with pragmatic issues of pedagogic strategy, are not to be taken as foundational. Certain traits of Lutheran theology lend superficial support to a reconstructionist theology, but only at the expense of introducing a crippling dualism between faith and creation. The Biblical picture of the completion of the new covenant and new creation through the work of the Holy Spirit lends strong support to a transformative theology.

Struggle is a Name for Hope: A Critical Feminist Interpretation for Liberation

The author attempts to find a way between defence of religion and the bible on the one hand and the exodus from religion and church on the other. In reclaiming the authority of wo/men as religious-theological subjects for interpreting biblical texts, the act of biblical interpretation emerges as a moment in the global struggle for liberation. This essay has four parts: Scripture as a site of struggle over theological authority; the bible as a site of struggle over religious meaning; wo/men's struggles as a site of biblical interpretation; and reclaiming a radical democratic feminist tradition.

Masked Popery and Pyrrhonian Uncertainty: The Early Scottish Covenanters on Arminianism

In Jacobean and Caroline Scotland there was little Arminianism to be found, whether in its Remonstrant (Dutch) or Laudian (English) versions. Nevertheless, the representation of this teaching by a few Scottish divines, its more strenuous advocacy in England, and reports of its spread in Europe unnerved those who would lead the covenanting movement after 1638.Arminianism represented a two‐pronged threat to the Calvinist covenanting vision. Its attempt at moderation in the theological strife of the time approximated a compromise with, if not a surrender to, popery. But Arminianism also suffered from an identification with the scepticism then fermenting in European philosophy. The decay of a providential worldview undercut the national self‐image of Scotland at the forefront of resurgent Reformed religion. The significance of free will threatened the individual’s assurance of election. The loss of certainty about theological authority, accepting the individual’s right to interpret the Bible and to express his views publicly, shattered the ideal of a religiously uniform society. Thus considered, the persistent interest in Arminianism provides a useful perspective on the mind of the covenanting movement.

The ideology of technology and the birth of the global economy

The fundamental presuppositions of both the market-led and the command-driven economies have common characteristics with the conceptual understanding of experimental science and applied science, respectively. In spite of the controversy between individualists and collectivists on the proper role of government (legislation or dictation) in fostering economic development, there has been a largely unrecognized but fundamental agreement on the “causes” of wealth creation. The polarized dispute about the market vs the command economy obscured a common belief in the moral justification of continual technological innovation. Both views entailed a belief in the moral value of technology in the service of civilization, primarily at the expense of the moral authority of theology. This belief had far-reaching implications for the uneven development of the global economy under imperial and multinational corporate control. It has created the sense of time of modernity and has radically transformed the culture of societies, the organization of industry, the objectives of commercial organizations, and their economic circumstances.

In the light of the splendor: Veritatis Splendor and moral theology.

In the last 25 years, Roman Catholic moral theology has debated issues ranging from the sources of moral theology to the role of ecclesiastical authority in moral theology. In 1993, Pope John Paul II issued his encyclical letter Veritatis Splendor, which addresses issues in fundamental moral theology. The encyclical must be understood against the background of ongoing debates since Pope Paul VI's 1968 encyclical on birth control (Humanae Vitae). It is not clear what the impact of Veritatis Splendor will be. However, it seems safe to say that it will be deployed in debates about issues such as birth control, artificial reproduction, sterilization, and abortion.

Models of God: Theology for an Ecological, Nuclear Age. Sallie McFagueWomen-Church: Theology and Practice. Rosemary Radford RuetherHousehold of Freedom: Authority in Feminist Theology. Letty M. Russell

<i>Models of God: Theology for an Ecological, Nuclear Age</i>. Sallie McFague<i>Women-Church: Theology and Practice</i>. Rosemary Radford Ruether<i>Household of Freedom: Authority in Feminist Theology</i>. Letty M. Russell

Household of Freedom: Authority in Feminist Theology by Letty M. Russell Philadelphia, Westminster, 1987. 116 Pp. $8.95

Household of Freedom: Authority in Feminist Theology <i>by Letty M. Russell</i> Philadelphia, Westminster, 1987. 116 Pp. $8.95

Tradisie en gesag in die teologie

Tradition and authority in theologyThe problem of authority in theology is as old as the Bible itself. Authority comes into question especially when a new trend in theology diverges from the approved. One can claim authority for a 'new' theology by reinterpretation of an authoritative tradition; by miracle stories; by association of one's theological point of view with an authoritative person from the past; and by an appeal to the oldest stratum in the authoritative text or tradition. This article concentrates mainly on the Biblical era.

La mort de Dieu selon Hegel. L'interprétation d'Eberhard Jüngel

The Death of God according to Hegel. Eberhard Jungel's Interpretation. Jungel's interpretation is correct in stressing the link existing between the christological meaning of the word «God is dead», predominant in Hegel's Phenomenology and his Lectures at Berlin, and the diagnosis of culture elaborated by Faith and Knowledge. But this interpretation tends to neglect the cosmic and political dimension of this diagnosis. Furthermore, although he is correct in stressing the possibilities offered to theologians by Hegel's meditation on the death of Christ (to decipher the atheistic phenomenon as well as to reflect on the existence of God), Jungel does not perceive sufficiently, notwithstanding his reservations toward Hegel, the opposition between the hegelian introduction of negativity in divine essence and an authentic theology.

Struggle Till Daybreak: On the Nature of Authority in Theology

The age of authority is not over-not in theology, anyway, and probably not in any other area of life. Claims to the contrary, nevertheless, bear a measure of truth. In important respects we have become secularized. In some ways the dominance of the past over the present has been diminished. The acceptance of authoritative persons and institutions today is not as automatic as it might once have been. Freedom has become a major, perhaps the major, intellectual preoccupation of our time. Hence, the varied claims that we in the West now stand in a somewhat unique independence of traditional authorities may well be true. But even if true, these claims are also misleading, especially, as I shall argue here, in the case of theology. There is a sense in which even a secular theology -a theology responsible solely to canons of meaning and truth defensible in the community of modern knowledge2-both does and can stand under the authority of some past. And that authority may well be the Bible. If, for example, we take Christian theology, as we shall in this essay, the problem of authority, I believe, is not that the Bible has ceased to be, or has ceased to be able to be, authoritative for theology. The problem is that the nature of theological authority

Teología de la liberación: análisis de su método

The expression «Iiberation theology», means, if understood in a broad sense, a reflection over the Christian faith as a result of concern for justice and the compromise of liberation from misery and oppression. This general standpoint is susceptible to various interpretations and accentuations. Hence, the importance of a study of methodological character with the aim of pointing out the reach and the implications of the different attempts. With this general consideration as a background, the author centres his writing in the analysis of the method in the liberation theology in the way it is conceived and practised by Gustavo Gutierrez, Hugo Assmann, Juan Luis Segundo, Leonardo Boff. Jon Sobrino, etc. All of them understood the liberation theology as being a reflection over and parting from the liberation praxis. It is for this reason that the author begins his analysis by examining the notion of praxis which may be found in these authors and particularly, the place they give to the social sciences as «first word» which comes before the «second word» of theology. This permits, on the one hand, a demonstration of the relation between this movement and others which have preceded it -(namely the secularization theology)- and on the other, point out the position that the repercussion of the marxist interpretation of the historical future occupies in this liberation theology. As a result, a fundamental conclusion is reached: this liberation theology implies more than anything, hermeneutics of history which are considered as a process which has its axis in the poor man who is identified with the oppressed. These hermeneutics of history, in turn, start off in hermeutics of the Gospel, inspired in party, by an understanding of the «hermeneutics circle» inherited from Bultmann although it is actually transferred to a collective context The Christian message is interpreted parting fram the social praxis which has a social compromise with the poor man in the above mentioned sense, and with the struggles and efforts aimed at his liberation. The question here is a political re-reading of the Gospel which, in fact, as pointed out by the Instruction of the Ho/y Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith, leads to assertions which move away from the Christian faith. The author finally goes on to analyse critically the concept of science and the vision of the relations between theory and praxis which characterize this liberation theology, as well as some of its metaphysical-theological presuppositions especially the distinction and relations between different levels of liberation already established by Gustavo Gutierrez and his assertions about history's unity and about the centralness of the socio-political movement which are characteristics of the whole of this movement. Going back to the first perspectives, the studies ends with sorne indications of a positive character about the context in which will be carried out all reflection, which, on receiving the impulse of privileged concern for justice, aspires to be authentic theology.

Transfiguration: Poetic Metaphor and Theological Reflection

Previous articleNext article No AccessTransfiguration: Poetic Metaphor and Theological ReflectionFrank Burch BrownFrank Burch Brown Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUS Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by The Journal of Religion Volume 62, Number 1Jan., 1982 Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/486911 Views: 10Total views on this site Citations: 4Citations are reported from Crossref Copyright 1982 The University of ChicagoPDF download Crossref reports the following articles citing this article:Przemyslaw Jablónski, Jan van der Lans, Chris Hermans Metaphor Theories and Religious Language Understanding, Metaphor and Symbol 13, no.44 (Dec 1998): 287–292.https://doi.org/10.1207/s15327868ms1304_4Przemysław Jabłoński, Jan van der Lans, Chris Hermans Children's Interpretation of Biblical Narratives, Archive for the Psychology of Religion 22, no.11 (Nov 2018): 28–47.https://doi.org/10.1163/157361297X00045CATHLEEN CRIDER, LEONARD CIRILLO Systems of Interpretation and the Function of Metaphor, Journal for the Theory of Social Behaviour 21, no.22 (Jun 1991): 171–195.https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-5914.1991.tb00519.x Delwin Brown Struggle Till Daybreak: On the Nature of Authority in Theology, The Journal of Religion 65, no.11 (Oct 2015): 15–32.https://doi.org/10.1086/487178

La teología del verbo en la `summa contra gentiles´

The present work is written against the background of S. Thomas's different answers to the question concerning the individual character an the personality of the Word of God. The differences appear above all in the major theological works of S. Thomas (the Commentary on the Sentences, the De Veritate, the Summa Contra Gentiles, the De Potentia, and the Summa Theologica). These writings mark various stages in the evolution of the Common Doctor in his Theology of the Word. The work studies one of these writings, the Summa Contra Gentiles, which presupposes a highly advanced investigation into the trinitarian theology of S. Thomas. It consists of two parts, in the first of which the argumentation of the Holy Doctor is followed step by step, while the bearing of his statements is explained by means of studies on the intellectual act and the nature of the mental word or intentio intellecta. It is here that S. Thomas arrives for the first time at the idea that the intellectual act, in which the mental word is produced, is a kind of generation. The generation in question is in man a mental generation, that of a mental word, and in God a real generation, in which the Word produced, —i.e. engendered,— is of the same nature as God himself, and therefore truly God. The boldness of S. Thomas has caused his integrated theology of the Word, especially in the relatively concise formulation of the Summa Contra Gentiles, IV, to be criticized as non-theological, i.e. as rationalist or lacking in theological authority. In the second part of the work these objections are answered on the basis of the words of S. Thomas himself. This enables the author, incidentally, to defend the role and value of a theological elaboration, constructed by the reason enlightened by faith, and having as its object the first of the Christian mysteries, namely the Most Holy Trinity. The analogy of the mental word as an aid to speaking of the personal Word of God appears, in particular, as an apt analogy which clarifies the revealed mystery and assists the reason in forming a judgment regarding its intrinsic credibility.

The Welsh Evangelical Community and ‘Finney's Revival’

The early decades of the nineteenth century saw the emergence in American Calvinist churches of a new brand of religious revivalism. Energetic evangelicals successfully challenged the authority of a Calvinist theology which had seemed to emphasise the exclusiveness of the elect, and man's helplessness and inability to act in securing his own conversion. These evangelicals adopted a revivalism which, in contrast, reminded man of his responsibility and power, and which experimented with means to win converts that conservative evangelicals thought an affront to the operations of the Holy Spirit. The ‘new measures’, as they were called, included more direct preaching, often by revivalists who itinerated solely to stir churches and win converts, the ‘protracting’ of services over several days or weeks, and the ‘anxious seat’—the use of a special pew at the front of the congregation where those concerned for their spiritual state could go to be exhorted and prayed for, and where a public commitment might be expected. These measures—and the ‘New Divinity’ which gave them theological justification—became increasingly widespread during the 1820s and 1830s, the climax of the ‘Second Great Awakening’. In large part the impetus for change had come from the rapidly-growing Methodists, Arminian in theology and determined exponents of a high-pressure revivalism; but within the Calvinist churches the single most influential agent of change was the ‘high priest’ of revivalism, Charles Grandison Finney.

Bonhoeffer: Exile and Martyr by Eberhard Bethge

BOOK REVIEWS 465 Thomas of the Summa. It was Thomas's discovery of the historical and doctrinal phenomenon of semi-Pelagianism, sometime after 1259, which accounts for this shift; it is precisely this shift which H. Bouillard made an object of study thirty years ago. Nowhere is this break more dramatically signalled than in Thomas's explanation of the axiom facienti quod in se est in the Summa (I-II, 109, 6 ad Q). Yet Carlson insists that Thomas " adds relatively little of substance " and that " the overall development is one of continuity " (p. 115) . The third defect is bibliographical. Neither the older (e.g. Bouillard) nor the more recent pertinent studies (e.g., Seckler, Schillebeeckx, Pesch, McSorley, Pfiirtner) figure in Carlson's account in any important way; in fact, he is completely ignorant of the latter. Errors such as those noted here cannot fail to affect Carlson's assessment of pre-Nominalist medieval justification-theology. He characterizes it as " rationalistic " rather than " mystical " (p. 77) and " static " rather than "dynamic" (p. 69). He insists on a thoroughly homogeneous line of development from the Fathers to the Nominalist theologians, yet, as I noted above, he misses a crucial tum in Thomas Aquinas which distinguishes his account of justification from both his predecessors and his successors. The text is replete with typographical errors, which, although merely bothersome in English, can be baffling or even seriously misleading in Latin. In summary and with regret, this reviewer is forced to judge this book to be a highly unreliable guide to its subject. It is outdated in its polemical tone toward the whole of Catholic justification-doctrine; both the historical heads and the ecumenical hearts of Catholic and Lutherans have gone beyond such tactics to discover a fundamental agreement in these matters. Dominican House of Studies Washington, D. C. LARZ PEARSON, O.P. Bonhoeffer: Exile and Martyr. By EBERHARD BETHGE. Edited and with an Essay by John W. de Gruchy. New York: The Seabury Press, 1976. 191 pages. $7.95. Those who are familiar with Eberhard Bethge's definitive biography of Dietrich Bonhoefl'er might well question whether another book by him could contain anything significantly new or different that would make its reading worthwhile. I want to assure you that this work, written approximately six years after the biography, provides fresh perspectives on issues in Bonhoeffer studies that recommend it even to the most knowledgeable scholars. It does not compete with but complements the biography by 466 BOOK REVIEWS focusing attention on several of the more central and debated elements in Bonhoeffer's life and thought. Bonhoeffer: Exile and Martyr consists primarily of seven lectures delivered by Bethge in South Africa in the autumn of 1973. The subjects dealt with are the following: credible ministry, a church of integrity, true ecumenism, the dilemma of exile, Christian political involvement, authentic theology, and modern martyrdom. Beyond this the book contains a valuable Introduction by Bethge on " The Response to Bonhoeffer," an exploratory essay by editor John W. deGruchy entitled " Bonhoeffer in South Africa," and an Appendix by Bethge on "A Confessing Church in South Africa? Conclusions from a Visit." Lest one wrongly conclude that the book is about Bonhoeffer and South Africa, I wish to point out that only the last two essays mentioned are addressed to that question. The bulk of the book is essentially Bethge's exposition and interpretation of Bonhoeffer 's life and thought per se-which, of course, is not without meaning for the struggle going on today in South Africa. What are some of the interesting insights which Bethge shares with us in this latest publication? First, he points out that today Bonhoeffer is more appreciated by the church in East Germany, which has lost its privileges, than by the church in West Germany, which still enjoys certain legal supports from the state. Reading between the lines, one has the distinct impression that Bethge is disappointed, perhaps even bitter, over the relative neglect of Bonhoeffer in West Germany, not only by church officialdom but even by many theologians. This neglect is undoubtedly due to an inability to accept his role in the conspiracy against Hitler, an action which calls in...

“I Know My Course”: Hamlet's Confidence

At the outset, Hamlet remarks on the futility of attempting to guess at his state of mind by appeal to the notatio, or standard behavioral model, favored by the science of physiognomy. Although the possibility of knowing other minds is provided for by Renaissance theory of natural law and by certain tenets of Neoplatonism, Hamlet's initial skepticism is in full accord with the weight of received opinion—e.g., with folk wisdom, orthodox theological authority, and traditional reservations about friendship and selfknowledge. The deceptiveness of notatio, moreover, is illustrated in the play by the hubris of Polonius' art of espionage and by the bitter testimony of Claudius to his success as a dissembler. In practice, however, both Claudius and Hamlet rely with no less confidence than Polonius on the possibility of reading the inner by the outer man. Though Hamlet is sustained in this confidence by a hopeful theory of histrionic performance, a scholar's habits of observation, a flair for satirical portraiture, and even a few trivial successes, the treachery of notatio is ominously revealed, along with the Polonian arrogance of relying on it, in his encounter with Gertrude, and especially in his conception of how the “Mousetrap” can be sprung.

THE BIBLE, THE WORLD, AND THE TRINITY

THE Bible is our ultimate source of information about how both synagogue and church began, but it is also constantly used as an ultimate theological authority. The traditional argument of both Jews and Christians for ascribing this authority to it is that it is the Word of God. If not actually dictated by God, it is so completely inspired by him that it is without error in matters of faith and morals. That is one view, and it is astonishing how it still persists in liturgical and ecclesiastical usages. But there is another attitude: that the Bible describes the activity of God, as interpreted by men who with their whole heart believed in him. But the men who wrote it were men of widely different understanding, and of widely different time and environment. The literature they composed covers more than a thousand years of history. If Christians adopt the first, the traditional, view, then they have to face a certain number of very difficult facts. They have to justify it in the face of the fact that these seven words The Bible is the Word of have been responsible for more evil and cruelty than any other seven words in the history of the Christian church. In the whole battle for humanizing the law which raged over Europe, both Catholic and Protestant, from the seventeenth century to the nineteenth, the churches, Catholic, Anglican, Lutheran, Calvinist, all opposed reform again and again on these same grounds the Bible is the Word of God, and you cannot tamper with it. This was the authority for burning witches, for maintaining slavery, for enforcing capital punishment for innumerable offences. In the argument today over apartheid the same words are heard. The Bible ordains that the sons of Ham shall be kept in subjection, and the Bible is the Word of God. But it is not only the Old Testament which is involved. We have to keep a belief in hell, because the parables of the Gospels constantly terminate with a division of men into sheep and goats. We have to defend, as Christians, a demonstrably false picture of Judaism in its Pharisaic form, because of the words which are ascribed to Jesus in the Gospels. We have to accept that Jesus behaves in a way which, to contemporary moral standards, not merely denies that he is incarnate but makes him a figure unworthy of our admiration. Without regard to any distinction between the innocent and the guilty, he damns whole classes such as the Pharisees or the rich; he damns whole cities. Because Woe unto thee Chorazin, woe unto thee Bethsaida (Matt. 11:21) was the Word of doubly so, because it is both a word of Jesus and in the Bible whole cities were destroyed in the crusade against the Albigenses in the south of France in the thirteenth century. Every man, woman, and child was killed on the orders of the churchmen who led the crusade. Kill all, they cried. God will know his own.

De Ordine. Tom. I De Institutione. Tom. II De Institutione—De Materia et Forma by Emmanuel Doronzo, O. M. I.

BOOK REVIEWS 568 De Ordine. Tom. I De lnatitutione. Pp. 1014 with indexes. $19.00. Tom. IT De lnatitutione-De Materia et Forma. Pp. 9U with indexes. $19.00. By EMMANUEL DoaoNzo, 0. M. I. Bruce: Milwaukee, 1957 & 1959. The valuable dogmatic tracts of Fr. Doronzo are brought closer to completion with the appearance of the first two volumes of the treatise on Holy Orders. The dogmatic treatment of this sacrament is particularly welcomed, since this fundamental aspect tends to become submerged in the more prevalent moral, canonical and ascetical aspects of the priesthood. For one or another reason the orders other than the priesthood and the nature of the ·episcopacy itself are quickly passed over in the theology classroom and even by many textbooks. The author remains faithful to the general division of matter as set down in the works of St. Thomas and to the thomistic scientific method which he is convinced is the most apt instrument of systematic theology. It is indeed strange that this could have been missed by anyone familiar with the author's previously published tomes. However, Fr. Doronzo has properly and forcefully defended his procedure against certain criticisms in his Introduction (I, pp. 80-82) . The institution of the sacrament of Holy Orders extends through three articles of Volume I and four articles of Volume IT. One final article in the second comprises the entire exposition of the· matter and form of this sacrament. The presentation of non-Catholic opinions and theology is most helpful, and the explanation of Scriptural texts and the testimony of sources very satisfying to the student of these matters. As in previous volumes several important indexes are included. Volume m, the next to appear, will cover the extrinsic causes: the effects, properties, minister, subject, ceremonies of the Sacrament. The author treats the famous controversial statements of St. Jerome, but does not regard them as a denial of the divine origin of the episcopacy (IT, pp. 72 sq.). Moreover, he subscribes to the more common opinion of an immediate divine origin, as sufficiently found also in Tradition. His stricture on the position of a mediate institution ends with the significant words: " The aforesaid explanation of a few moderns seems to proceed from a certain hasty inclination, quite befitting modem morals, for new and facile ways of approaching the solution of certain historical difficulties, which the progress of positive science brings with it, and for reviewing and reforming, from the bottom up as they say, certain acquired and peaceful positions of the older theology. Such reason for acting does not seem to offer the us':lal signs of traditional and authentic theology " (p. 114). In the thorny and complicated area of the relationship of the episcopacy 564 BOOK REVIEWS to the priesthood Fr. Doronzo, after a ~00 page examination, concludes that the episcopacy as distinct from the priesthood is more probably not a sacrament at all but rather pertains to the sacrament of Orders as its extension and so can be truly if not homogeneously termed sacramental (pp. ~~8, 308) . He traced the historical development of theological thought on this point down to current writers. Analyzing the texts of St. Thomas and refuting the interpretations of certain recent Thomists, he satisfactorily exposes and defends the traditional thomist teaching on the episcopacy that with reference to the eucharistic body, it is undistinguished from the power of the priesthood, but with reference to the mystical body is a certain higher ministry or power of another and non-sacramental kind. He deplores in the thomist school the somewhat undue development of an ambiguous sacramentality regarding the episcopacy, since St. Thomas founded his whole system on the nature of the episcopacy and its relationship to the priesthood on the distinction of a sacramental and a non-sacramental order (pp. 175-176, 179-180, ~97). Moreover he holds that this position has not been substantially affected by the Constitution " Sacramentum Ordinis " of Pius XII (pp. ~38 sq.) . On the other hand, accepting the documents of history and tradition he admittedly departs from the teaching of St. Thomas and holds as more probable that the subdiaconate and the minor orders are of :merely ecclesiastical institution and in...