Catherine Barry

Comptes rendus / Reviews of books: Le mal. Approche psychanalytique du récit yahviste des origines, tome 2 Eugen Drewermann Traduit de l'allemand par Jean-Pierre Bagot Paris, Desclée de Brouwer, 1996. 674 p

individual pericopes, Van Seters is one of the few scholars to propose a new coherent system to explain the origin of the Torah. But one wonders about his tendency to date all J texts from that late a period. This leads him to conclude that J invented much of what he wrote. For the plagues, he writes: &dquo;He invented the series of divine judgments&dquo; and of scholars who think differently he writes that they do so because of &dquo;the strong prejudice concerning the Yahwist’s early dating&dquo; (p. 95). That late date has consequences for the historical value of the events. He says that even to try to discover the date and the circumstances of an Egyptian sojourn is &dquo;a waste of time&dquo; (p. 34) and, referring to the exodus of Egypt, he writes: &dquo;The imaginative reconstruction of events is entirely the work of the Yahwist&dquo; (p. 127).

Actes de l'apôtre Philippe François Bovon, Bertrand Bouvier et Frédéric Amsler Coll. «Apocryphes», 8 Turnhout, Belgique, Brepols, 1996. 320 p

Adele Reinhartz (McMaster University) sees three &dquo;tales&dquo; in the Gospel of John: the historical tale (told by the narrative text), the ecclesiological tale (the &dquo;subtale&dquo; which &dquo;moves beneath the surface&dquo; of the text) and the cosmological tale (the &dquo;meta-tale&dquo; which &dquo;provides the overarching temporal, geographical, theological, and narrative framework for the other two tales&dquo; [p. 5]). The originality of Reinhartz’ work is in her argument that the cosmological tale is a hermeneutical key that sheds new light on our understanding of the paroimia (cryptic discourse or riddle) of the shepherd and sheep found in John 10:1-5. Using a reader-response approach, Reinhartz shows that interpretations which focus only on the historical or ecclesiological level fail to explain adequately all the elements of the paroimia. The cosmological tale provides the framework for understanding its elements and enables us to see, for example, the thief/robber as Satan, the door as Jesus’ birth/death and the gatekeeper as the Baptist. The study concludes with a 30-page appendix examining the &dquo;tantalizing suspicion&dquo; that in the paroimia we have &dquo;a hint concerning the descent of Jesus into the netherworld&dquo; (p. 105). This is a well written and cleverly argued book which will especially interest Johannine scholars.

Le mal, tome 1 Eugen Drewermann Traduit de l'allemand par Jean-Pierre Bagot Paris, Desclée de Brouwer, 1995. 480 p

Depuis la nuit des temps, I’humain n’a cess6 de s’interroger sur le sens de son existence et le contr6le qu’il peut exercer sur elle. Les t6moignages de la litt6rature, ancienne ou contemporaine, tout comme les vestiges mis a jour par les d6couvertes arch6ologiques qu’on pense, par exemple, aux fresques pr6historiques des grottes de Lascau attestent ses doutes et ses incertitudes a cet 6gard. Tourment6 par sa soif

Comptes rendus / Reviews of books: La pensée de Qohélet. Études exégétique et intertextuelle Jean-Jacques Lavoie Coll. «Héritage et projet», 49 Montréal, Fides, 1992. 300 p

Space does not permit me to deal further with the many issues this book raises. Many years ago H. Richard Niebuhr in his classic, Christ and Culture, confronted many of the same issues. He concluded that Christians themselves have never agreed on these issues. The same words that they have used to confess their faith through the centuries have not meant the same thing. That this is so is perhaps the only consideration that saves this book from being an outrageous account of the events and personalities that the author has so thoroughly researched.

Les Uniates Jean-Claude Roberti Coll. «Bref» Paris, Cerf; Montréal, Fides, 1992. 129 p

ous controversy. One important issue was the changing relationship with the mother church and the accommodation to the demands of a new age and a rising democratic spirit. Party strife was most intense between the &dquo;highs&dquo; and &dquo;lows,&dquo; although the precise meaning of those labels was often unclear and dependent upon local circumstances. Lewis handled the &dquo;ritualistic&dquo; controversies in the dio-

Histoire des chrétiens Claude Prudhomme Coll. «Parcours» Paris, Centurion; Montréal, Éditions Paulines, 1992. 167 p

Dans son ouvrage Claude Prudhomme brosse une fresque critique de la chr6tient6. Pour ce faire, il precede a 1’analyse minutieuse de 20 6v6nements decisifs pour la compr6hension de I’histoire des chr6tiens, evenements qu’il qualifie dans son avant-propos de -rep6res(p. 7) permettant de circonscrire cette histoire indissociable des transformations sociales qui allaient conduire a la modernite. Chacun des reperes selectionnes donne lieu a un bref chapitre decrivant le contexte g6ographique et culturel qui 1’entoure ainsi que ses consequences directes dans 1’evolution du christianisme, et partant, de la societe occidentale. Depuis 1’assembl6e de j6rusalem tenue en 49 jusqu’au concile de Vatican tt, les événementscl6s sont regroup6s par quatre, ce qui d6limite cinq grandes «sequences». La premiere couvre les cinq premiers siecles et decrit 1’ancrage du christianisme dans 1’empire romain. Les cinq siecles suivants retracent la progression du christianisme en Europe, depuis la conversion de Clovis roi des Francs que l’on situe